Author: Zhang Ruichen
Editor: Wu Xianzhi
On the evening of December 5th, IM Auto, a subsidiary of SAIC, announced that it would launch a new model, IM L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version, priced from 3.388 million yuan. It has already been available for reservation on the IM official website and may become one of the strongest competitors to the NIO ET5.
With the recent release of the L7 SP performance version and the L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version, the IM L7 family now has three main series: rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, and performance, making it a complete lineup of driving modes.
The newly released IM L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version inherits a lot of the configuration from its big brother, the L7 Pro, which costs around 400,000 yuan. In addition, the official also stated that customers who pre-order the L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version can enjoy free upgrades to a four-wheel steering system, a Brembo integrated four-piston brake caliper, and 19-inch aerodynamic wheels for free when selecting Nappa seats.
Moreover, the Nappa leather seat combination also enjoys a discount, being reduced from 21,800 yuan to 1,888 yuan.
As a newly added model to the IM L7 series, the Elite rear-wheel drive version has not undergone any exterior adjustments, with dimensions remaining 5098/1960/1485mm in length, width, and height, respectively, and a wheelbase of 3100mm. The styling still retains the original design, with a family-style enclosed grille, “∑” shaped headlights on both sides, frameless doors, hidden door handles, and a streamlined coupe with a wind resistance coefficient of only 0.21Cd.
The brand new IM L7 Elite adopts a rear-wheel drive layout, equipped with a 90kWh high-capacity battery, and has a CLTC pure electric cruising range of up to 675km. Compared to the CLTC pure electric cruising range of 615km of the big brothers L7 Pro and Dynamic versions, the Elite version has an additional 50km.
However, due to the single-motor driving method, the maximum power is 250kW, the maximum torque is 475N·m, the total power of the electric motor is 340Ps, and the 0-100km/h acceleration time is 5.9 seconds, equipped with CDC electronically controlled intelligent damping suspension, and mixed tires with a width of 245mm at the front and 275mm at the rear.The configuration of the Smartisan L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version is basically the same as that of the “big brother” Smartisan L7 Pro, but the configuration has not been cut due to the change to the rear-wheel drive version.
The Smartisan L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version is also equipped with two large smart scene screens that can be lifted (26.3 inches + 12.3 inches), plus a 12.8-inch AMOLED 2K super control center, built-in IM OS multi-screen borderless intelligent interactive car system, IM AD evolvable driving assistance system (basic package), and other intelligent configurations.
The entire series also comes standard with 180+ net odor level cockpit, a 1120W intelligent sound field composed of 22 speakers, etc.
Moreover, even the most expensive intelligent hardware is retained, equipped with NVIDIA Xavier’s intelligent auxiliary driving chip, 11 high-definition cameras, 12 ultrasonic radar and 5 millimeter wave radar, to assist Smartisan L7 in completing L2 level driving assistance.
As a new force brand that has emerged, although Smartisan has the support of SAIC, Alibaba, and others, it is still difficult to win public recognition by directly positioning its products as high-end luxury cars costing four to five hundred thousand yuan.
The reason for launching the lower-priced Smartisan L7 Elite rear-wheel drive version is to solve the problem of low market recognition and poor sales by extending the richness of the product.
According to information released by the China Passenger Car Association, the sales volume of Smartisan L7 was only 960 units in October of this year, a decrease from 1019 units in September.
Although it is currently the era of new energy vehicles, and the penetration rate is also continuously increasing, Smartisan L7 is still in a difficult situation. Companies such as BYD, Aiways, and Geometry have achieved good sales results, but despite having been on the market for a considerable period, Smartisan L7’s sales volume is still struggling.
Poor sales are not only due to product selectivity and low market recognition, but also related to production capacity and sales channels.
Recently, the Tesla Zhaoqing incident has caused a stir, and Smartisan’s CEO Liu Tao personally demonstrated the handling and performance of Smartisan L7 in a live broadcast to prove its capabilities.
However, this demonstration has drawn criticism from netizens due to the violation of traffic regulations, including speeding, running red lights, changing lanes without signaling, and illegally parking on highways. The intention was to promote their new product, but it backfired and damaged the reputation of the company in the eyes of consumers.
In response, Liu Tao, the CEO of IM, publicly apologized for the incident involving the demonstration of their self-driving car violating traffic laws, stating: “We have accepted the punishment. As professionals in the intelligent electric vehicle industry, we should prioritize compliance with traffic regulations and learn from this experience in the future.”
Conclusion
The release of the IM L7 Elite rear-wheel drive edition has brought it into the competition with other luxury cars above 300,000 RMB. The L7 Elite has a better chassis tuning, suspension, and comfort, and features a unique four-wheel steering system and an excellent appearance and intelligence.
However, compared to the NIO ET5, which has a more powerful motor thanks to its dual-motor four-wheel drive system, the IM L7 Elite rear-wheel drive edition uses a single motor. In addition, IM still has much to learn in terms of branding, after-sales service, and network expansion. Moreover, NIO has a battery-swapping system that IM cannot emulate.
Nevertheless, in the price range of around 300,000 RMB, it may be one of NIO ET5’s major competitors.
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.