On April 20th, WM EX5 officially announced its prices, which includes three different driving ranges and six different models. The price ranges from 166,500 yuan to 298,800 yuan. Taking Beijing as an example, after subsidies, the price range is from 99,000 yuan to 216,300 yuan.
A sentence to describe this price is that it exceeds everyone’s psychological expectation and is shocking.
When WM released their brand at the end of last year, they announced that their first product would fall within the 200,000 yuan price range, which was already surprising. Today, the answer has finally been revealed and the price is indeed lower than expected. The price of the version intended for commuting has broken through 100,000 yuan. It’s worth noting that this is a compact electric SUV with a wheelbase of 2703.
Take a look at the specifications:
According to the information obtained during the last visit to the WM factory, WM’s batteries come from four suppliers including CATL, however, even though they have provided a configuration table this time, they still have not specified the battery capacity.
Based on the general market standards currently available, the battery capacity required for WM’s driving range is estimated to be between 45-75 kWh, and the cost of the battery is between 50,000 to 100,000 yuan.
The mysterious attitude towards the battery capacity leaves me doubtful about its pricing strategy.The appearance of the EX5 is of a passable level, and the overall body lines are smooth but neither sharp nor elegant. Of course, if national car standards are used as requirements, it would be considered quite appropriate. The front face retains traditional automotive elements while introducing a closed grille representing new energy vehicles.
The relatively big highlight is the 12.8-inch suspended rotatable large screen inside the car, which, combined with the digital instrument panel and control panel, forms a three-screen integrated intelligent interaction experience.
In the previously released preview, WM repeatedly stated its intention to make electric vehicles that are affordable and enjoyable to use for consumers. This price point is likely what’s meant by “affordability”, while the solution for “enjoyable use” is WM’s Living Engine, an industry-first fully-vehicle-integrated intelligent engine. This engine acts as the soul of the car, connecting all software and hardware components into a cohesive whole, providing users with multidimensional intelligent interactive experiences, and through continuous learning, ultimately becoming more omniscient than even the user him-/herself.
This intelligent engine includes three parts: LivingID (WM ID), which is the vehicle owner’s identity; once connected, the car will automatically recognize and match key setting information. LivingFlow is a data system used to coordinate various car functions and includes learning capabilities. Finally, Living Mate serves as the virtual IP, setting different “characters” and interacting with consumers according to different application scenarios.
In WM’s future vision, cars are envisioned as companions to vehicle owners, providing seamless intelligent interactive experiences. The main functions introduced during today’s press conference include: full-ecosystem voice interaction, growing dynamic desktop, full-dimension intelligent face recognition, emotionally engaging car exterior interaction, interactive car window projection, multi-sensory spatial expansion, and integrated car-home interconnection…
This series of introductions seems too conceptual, making it difficult to understand some of them, such as emotional interaction with the environment outside the car, which is difficult to understand. However, overall, WM Motors has made great efforts to explore the relationship between people and cars, and has tried its best to expand the scope of intelligent interaction. What is more innovative is that this Living Engine also has learning functions and is related to smart home, which is an expansion of the automotive ecology.
On the sales front, WM Motors has proposed the concept of “smart travel partner”, which means that in addition to direct sales, it will also continue the traditional dealer agency model, which is a more balanced and prudent strategy.
WM Motors’ first direct experience center will open before September, located in Beijing. Next are cities like Shanghai, Chengdu, etc.
As a new car company founded by traditional automobile people and Internet people, the tone of WM Motors since the brand release has always been “stable with innovation”, emphasizing intelligent manufacturing while emphasizing the masses, and also emphasizing youth and individuality. From the overall brand visual expression, activity tone display, etc., it is very clear following young consumers, at least post-90s. The surprise at the end of the press conference was Shen Hui’s Douyin short video.
At today’s press conference, Shen Hui made the opening speech and repeatedly emphasized that WM Motors wants to be a popularizer of the intelligent automobile industry, from the rise of a great country to the future of smart and intelligent travel, conveying a message that WM Motors sees the market competition situation very clearly. Compared with being a creator, it is better to be a popularizer – the latter is more likely to exist, survive, and make money.
However, the pricing of EX5 still needs to be carefully interpreted in order to make money.
In any case, the price is exciting, but the conclusion of Shen Hui’s speech is even more exciting. He said that in this turbulent era, the most enjoyable life is to run with a group of like-minded partners on the road to ideals, step by step, vigorously and vigorously, and promote the popularity of intelligent electric vehicles to achieve the world championship dream of intelligent travel for us Chinese.
Finally, an interesting fact is that the WM Motors’ EX5 launch attracted many Tesla fans, and several Tesla prospective owners placed orders at the beginning of pre-sales in the evening.EX5 is expected to start delivering in the second half of the year. As mentioned by Lu Bin, a strict quality assurance system will be implemented to ensure that vehicle delivery can be achieved in the second half of the year.
Here are some on-site photos:
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.