文 | Jiang Xiaohua
Last Friday, Geely Automobile unveiled its new model, the Boyue L, at its Ningbo Beilun headquarters. As a result, Geely’s 4.0 product line based on the CMA architecture and Thunder Power has extended to the A-level SUV market.
Several key data of this new car are very impressive. As a 3-speed DHT hybrid power product, it has a fuel consumption as low as 4.2L and a comprehensive range of up to 1300 kilometers on a full tank.
Equipped with L2 level automatic driving assistance system, the car is perfected in its ability of auxiliary driving centered on high-speed expressway.
The seven-layer intelligent safety identification circle, among which the vehicle body torsion stiffness is up to a staggering 32000Nm/°.
Of course, the intelligent cockpit, led by the 8155 chip, is also naturally not absent. There is also a centimeter-level map provided by the proprietary satellite system.
In addition to the size of 467019001705, the original surround emotional light screen, and the first launch of Geely Galaxy OS Air version, 13.2-inch central control vertical screen, and 540-degree transparent chassis body, etc., the Boyue L has evolved with about half of Geely’s “Star” product lineup, making it a super-standard 2-equipped car.
So much so that when the car appreciation conference was over and the price was not yet released, many media enthusiasts congratulated Geely CEO, Gui Shengyue without hesitation: the Boyue L will undoubtedly sell well.
The reason is simple, since this car is named Boyue L, its reasonable price range and the product’s combat power must have huge advantages in the subdivided market.
Gui Shengyue defined the car as an intelligent SUV innovator. If Geely Boyue, which debuted in Ningbo Beilun in March 2016, was the first Chinese brand SUV to break away from the logic of pure cost-effectiveness and directly contend with the surging joint venture models with its technology and innovation, it should be called a disruptor. Today’s Boyue L is yet again a surprise challenger to itself.
Compared with this exciting product, in this era of “innovation” in the automotive industry, where dazzling products come and go and different styles lead the way, the brand attitude of strategic determination that can be read from the launch of Geely Boyue L makes me more confident about the future of Chinese automobile manufacturing.
In Gui Shengyue’s view, only by maintaining strategic determination and achieving coordination of knowledge and action can there be true technological innovation in products.
There is no company that has been providing high-quality products in the long term that does not achieve innovation through long-term investment and continuous improvement of core technologies and characteristic technologies.
In the turbulent revolution of the automotive industry, opportunities are everywhere, but so are dangers. Many companies, especially some mature ones, will encounter a serious sense of loss at this stage due to the push of the times.
The impulsive consumer market can lead many companies to mistake temporary, short-sighted, and even incorrect practices as the truth of the new era market.
For example, excessive homogenization of products or brands that lack core technology stacking; bottom-line internal matching with unimportant configurations related to travel; and pleasing behaviors that are too easy but have low marginal effects under the pretext of user favorites, etc.
To the point where Wang Yunqing, who has always been furious, angrily pronounced, “There isn’t a single good Internet celebrity car.”
There may be some false positives, but certainly not many. Teacher Wang is not criticizing a certain car, but the heart behind car-making.
In this era of “when one side sings, the other takes the stage”, it is not easy to maintain composure. Confidence and ability are needed.
The sentence I often hear traditional enterprise friends indignantly say is: “What the hell are they doing? Our technology is much stronger than theirs. They just know how to brag.”
When I hear this sentence, I can’t help but worry about this company. This attitude usually leads to a company with core advantages opening the door to a large number of deceptive tactics. The market has already slapped many such cases in the face, and the cost may be so high that a good company falls into multiple predicaments of the market and culture.
Geely’s strategic composure was exercised on the thorny road of Geely’s pursuit of a birth certificate by all means; it was exercised in the longest battle of Geely’s acquisition of Volvo; and it was exercised in the most critical moment of integrating all acquired and cooperative technologies into a self-leading technological system in the most reasonable and sustainable way.
Without such composure and without adhering to the logic of integrating knowledge and action (mass production of all known knowledge), whether it’s the younger generation’s groundbreaking innovation or the older generation’s subversion, it’s impossible to talk about.
I fully support Geely’s naming of the new car FX11 as Boyue L this time. This may sound strange. However, if you look at the whole restless market, you will find that many companies will not abandon this brand-new model with the latest technology of the company being an upgraded product of their own product series in the mid-to-high-priced car segment.
Many companies’ practices are at least to promote a brand new product or come up with a creative name to launch a new product series; even go as far as to create a new brand.
It’s a great pleasure for me that Geely named it Boyue L. Boyue is Geely’s first real-standing SUV and represents the new Geely brand of the 3.0 era. Geely positions it as one of the cornerstones of the brand together with Emgrand, pursuing two car models that can be sold long and well.
Sustained sales have always been an intractable problem for Chinese car brands. After more than 20 years of industry development, there have been countless smash hits, most of which have been drowned out in the years. So the pursuit of sustained sales by Boyue was what we were looking forward to at the time. This is a sign of whether a company’s brand can ultimately stand up.
In the past two years, the shining of Geely’s 4.0 high-end products, represented by China Star, has made us worry that Geely will be like many other companies and let Boyue lie in the 3.0 era, selling at low prices and finally exiting the stage.
The arrival of Boyue L completely dispels this worry. Less than a year after Geely’s 2025 strategy was released, it has put pure 4.0 coverage on Boyue. This highly innovative car model has once again opened up intergenerational advantages with the market.
Geely will not go bankrupt if Boyue and Emgrand continue to sell well. China Star is also the same. When it shines brightly, it must stand up without falling. Geely will definitely get better if it does these core things for a long time. On the contrary, those confusing car names and brand names that are popular now will not be anything after a few years.
Of course, strategic focus is not about ignoring change and clinging to old ways. The importance of the word “strategy” is self-evident.
Geely’s integration of global resources over the past decade has brought it a higher and wider perspective. For example, among Chinese and global mainstream car companies, Geely is the most resolute and profound in understanding and implementing the most advanced architecture for car manufacturing.
Not only CMA, but also the architectural culture determines that Geely’s transformation to electrification and intelligence is all architecture-oriented.
Ganjia Yue believes that the fulcrum of Geely’s strategic focus is three plus one dimension. The first three dimensions are mechanical capability, energy friendliness, and user friendliness, and the last dimension is intelligence. Intelligent technology connects mechanical capability, energy level, and user interaction and promotes each other, jointly innovating.
This is the interpretation of Geely’s automotive industry innovation and a strategic fulcrum for Geely’s self-innovation.
Therefore, we will see that in these dimensions, Geely’s latest technology covers the entire product line. Boyue L has already clearly demonstrated this point. Some people think that Geely’s current technical capabilities can be classified into high, medium, and low product lines using technology to replace generations. Indeed, from the perspective of short-term market, it is possible, but Geely’s innovative strategy does not support this approach.As a pillar industry, the automotive industry has never lagged behind any other industry in terms of the vision and quality of its practitioners. In the era of industry innovation and upgrading, panic, speculation, reckless gambling, and ruin are all scenery along the way. However, for an industry of this scale, strategic innovation and steadfastness are the fundamental factors that will ultimately lead outstanding enterprises to success. A firm strategy based on its own strengths and a clear path that does not shirk from difficulties is the way to win in the face of any chaos.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.