Weekly Index
Weekly News
Mercedes-Benz EQC Officially Rolled Off the Production Line in German Factory
On May 7th, local time, Mercedes-Benz EQC officially rolled off the production line in the Bremen factory in Germany. Mercedes-Benz C-Class and GLC models are also produced in this factory. The overseas starting price is 71,000 euros (about 540,000 yuan).
Although the overseas version of Mercedes-Benz EQC has been put into production, due to battery production capacity limitations, the original delivery plan scheduled for the middle of this year had to be postponed to the end of this year.
As for the domestic version of EQC which many people are looking forward to, it will be produced by Beijing Benz at the end of this year, and the first batch of vehicles is expected to be delivered around the end of the year.
Quick Comment: Mercedes-Benz EQC, as the first pure electric vehicle model of Mercedes-Benz, has been highly anticipated. It is also the first pure electric SUV model from BBA to enter the Chinese market, but the tri-motor data of EQC is not prominent enough. The all-steel body and large battery pack make its curb weight reach 2425 kg (2485 kg for the domestic version). As a mid-size pure electric SUV, its weight is almost the same as that of Nio ES8 and Tesla Model X. Therefore, even though EQC has a battery capacity of 80 kWh, its NEDC range is only 408 / 415 km.
Now the question is, currently the most direct competitor of EQC in the domestic market seems to be only the Nio ES6. If you don’t consider the price factor, which one would you choose?
150,000th BMW i3 Rolled Off the Production Line
On May 5th, local time, BMW announced that the 150,000th i3 has rolled off the production line at its Leipzig factory. Since its birth in 2013, with the continuous update of battery capacity, the sales of BMW i3 has also maintained steady growth.
# Sales Figures of BMW i3 in Recent Years
- 2013: Approximately 1000 units (estimated)
- 2014: 16,052 units
- 2015: 24,057 units
- 2016: 25,528 units
- 2017: 31,482 units
- 2018: 36,829 units
In addition, the latest data shows that BMW i3’s sales increased by 16.2% in the first quarter of 2019, with a total of 9,227 units sold.
Quick Comment: Although the cumulative production of 150,000 units is not noteworthy in the BMW series, BMW i3 is still very successful in this niche market. Although the driving range has never been a strength of BMW i3, it has achieved good sales in both Europe and the United States with its compact body, unique exterior and interior design.
Volkswagen ID.3 Opens Pre-orders in Europe
On May 8th local time, Volkswagen ID.3 opened pre-orders. It is an electric vehicle based on the brand-new Volkswagen MEB pure electric platform.
Its WLTP range is 330 km, 420 km, and 550 km respectively, with corresponding battery capacities of 45 kWh, 58 kWh, and 77 kWh.
The motor power is 150 kW, and the maximum speed is 180 km/h. It has two slow charging specifications of 7.2 kW and 11 kW, and the fast charging power can reach 125 kW.
The starting price in Europe is about 30,000 euros, and the mass-produced version is expected to debut in September this year.
Quick Comment: The battery planning of Volkswagen ID.3 is somewhat similar to that of Model 3. Based on its current WLTP driving range, this car is still very competitive, and ID.3 also supports fast charging of up to 125 kW. In addition, Volkswagen claims that ID.3 received more than 10,000 pre-orders within 24 hours after opening pre-orders, which shows that ID.3 is still very popular.
General Motors’ Self-Driving Technology Company Cruise Receives Another $1.15 Billion InvestmentOn May 7th, Cruise, the autonomous driving technology company owned by General Motors, announced that it had received a 1.15 billion dollar investment. This round of investment comes from investors including the SoftBank Vision Fund and Honda, one of GM’s partners. Following this investment round, Cruise is valued at 19 billion dollars.
Dan Ammann, CEO of Cruise, said in a statement, “Developing and deploying autonomous vehicles on a large scale is the engineering challenge of our generation. As we pursue this mission, we have significant resources to draw upon, which is a key competitive advantage.”
Quick Comment: Since the Cruise team was acquired by GM for 1 billion dollars in 2016, the team has grown from over 40 people to over 1,000 people, and their valuation has risen to 19 billion dollars. At the beginning of this year, Cruise was consistently ranked second in the autonomous driving field based on data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, with a lower rate of human intervention than other companies.
First Patent Sketch of Dyson’s Electric Car Revealed
On May 8th, the patent sketch of Dyson’s first car model was revealed. According to the current information, the car will have an all-aluminum body, a length of over 5 meters, a height of 1.65 meters, and an exaggerated wheelbase of 3.3 meters.
The patent application did not mention any powertrain information, but it is likely to use solid-state batteries. In 2015, Dyson acquired U.S. company Sakti3, a major player in the solid-state battery industry.
Furthermore, Dyson registered a trademark specifically for its electric motor for vehicles, called “Digital Motor”, last year.
It is reported that Dyson’s car factory located in Singapore began production in December last year and is expected to be completed in 2020. The first pure electric car model, revealed in this patent sketch, is expected to be officially launched in 2021.## Weekly Survey
Regarding the configuration of the IDEAL ONE, it has been a hot topic in the group discussion. People generally hope to add more features. Based on the common configuration requirements mentioned by group members, we conducted a small survey on “Which configurations would you like to add to the IDEAL ONE?”.
Currently, 759 votes have been received, including 133 intending customers who have put down a deposit.
Regardless of the voting results, the number of voters and views has skyrocketed after the topic was posted. This shows that many intending customers have ideas about the IDEAL ONE’s configuration, but the configurations of the IDEAL ONE have basically been finalized and adjustments will not be made based on users’ ideas. We can only hope that the IDEAL ONE will adjust its configuration according to the needs of customers when it updates its model next year.
Please scan the QR code below for specific voting results:
The top three choices are head-up display, sensing trunk, and footrest for the second row seats. I think it’s very reasonable to choose head-up display and footrest, but I’m really puzzled that 61% of intending customers want to add a sensing trunk.
To be honest, the experience of using a sensing trunk is mediocre, not only because of its limited usage scenarios, but usually the recognition rate is not high. Overall, it feels a bit mediocre.
However, since so many people have chosen it, I began to doubt myself. Is it because my car is not good enough? Or is it because my feet are not good enough? Or maybe many people have not actually experienced the sensing trunk?
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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.