The Tactics of Voyah Car: Innovating to Win the Battle of New Energy Vehicles

In martial arts novels, a master cannot use old moves, but must adapt and use new moves when confronted with the opponent’s techniques. Similarly, in the highly competitive new energy vehicle market, what are some of the tactics that Voyah Car employs to gain an edge over its rivals?

Voyah Car’s first-ever car model, the Voyah Free, officially hit the market on June 19th, showcasing its strength with the pre-announced price, configuration, rights and other key information. At the time of the launch, the brand also unveiled its four core benefits of the “Big Luck” package, where customers can purchase 50,000-80,000 RMB of configuration and benefits for only 5,000 RMB. This is a strong counteroffensive strategy by Voyah against its competitors.

Traditional car companies, new automobile manufacturers, and technology giants are all sharpening their knives to compete in the new energy vehicle market, and it is without a doubt that this already crowded field will only continue to grow more and more crowded. In the face of such fierce competition, what tactics does Voyah Car employ in order to succeed?

“T-Shirt Car Manufacturer”

In the past two years, a group of new automobile manufacturers has emerged, with their founders often dressing more casually compared to traditional car company executives, who are more typically seen in business suits. This difference in style has earned the new generation of carmakers the moniker “T-shirt car manufacturers.” From 2020, the sales and production of these new manufacturers, especially Nio and Li Auto in the 300,000 RMB and above market, have been surging. So what did they do right?

In the golden age when the car was first becoming a common sight in Chinese households, the automobile market was a seller’s market, and car companies never had to worry about whether or not their products would sell. In order to make a profit, companies simply had to mimic successful and much-loved models, and make their products even more cost-effective in order to out-sell them. However, as the Chinese automobile market gradually reduced to minor growth or even negative growth, product development strategies have reversed. No longer can companies afford to be complacent or to only try to imitate the most popular models; instead, they must try to anticipate and satisfy the consumer’s unmet needs.

To put it simply, the focus of car companies has shifted from being self-centered to user-centered.

At Voyah Car’s launch event on June 19th, the CEO of Voyah, Lu Fang, attended as “Mate,” wearing a white T-shirt and white sneakers. He wore the same outfit while giving a speech and being interviewed by the media.

At the event, I noticed some familiar media teachers sitting in the second row, while in the first row Voyah had invited its own customers to participate.

When a company changes its focus to become more user-centered, high-level executives must listen to the needs and opinions of their customers as much as possible. Being dressed casually or more comfortably is a natural outcome of this transformation.

Since its inception, Voyah has been open to listening to feedback and opinions from its customers. Lu Fang has engaged with users on multiple occasions, including staying at the Shanghai Auto Show for an entire day to have in-depth conversations with users, and participating in the Tester 25 program to test drive with users.When the Voyah FREE was first launched globally last year, Voyah Automobile released the “Innovation Program” based on user demands, allowing users to fully participate in the entire production process of research and development, testing, and service, proposing constructive suggestions for products and services. The “Global Testing Peer” activity invited 66 testing peers to participate in six tests, including extreme cold, high temperature, high altitude, and NVH, and received more than 200 improvement feedback and suggestions, of which more than 90 have been adopted and improved.

Lu Fang, at the same time, directly opens an account on the Voyah Automobile APP and communicates with users to improve Voyah’s products and services by collecting suggestions.

In fact, wearing a T-shirt or not is not the key. The key lies in the corporate values that are reflected behind it. Corporate values will surely convey to its products and services, ultimately affecting consumers’ experience and business performance.

Internally, Voyah is creating a respectful community that is equal, free, and open. There is no hierarchy, and everyone addresses each other as “teachers,” such as Voyah CEO, Lu Fang, who is referred to as “Teacher Lu Fang.” In addition to the management, all members share the same workspace layout and area.

This egalitarian and open concept extends to services, and when dealing with consumers, employees can naturally maintain the same attitude.

For automakers, product performance and configuration may sometimes make a difference, but corporate vision, mission, and values’ adherence will gradually release an “original force” that can form a positive cycle and a seemingly endless source of ideas for Voyah.

As a user-oriented enterprise, Voyah is playing for real. Tactics may change, but corporate values and strategies should remain the same.

On June 30, the first Voyah FREE mass-produced car was officially launched, and more than 10 users were invited to witness the event.

This is not a fresh concept. Users’ participation can be seen in various Voyah activities, and they are always in the best positions.

Inviting users to participate in activities is not a show but an external manifestation of Voyah’s corporate values.

Voyah CEO, Lu Fang, said in an interview with the media, “Nowadays, everyone talks about user operations. We are not very willing to operate users. Instead, we hope that users can create with us.”According to internal sources from Landtu, there is an internal code of conduct at Landtu called “共同成长” (Gong Tong Cheng Zhang), emphasizing the importance of mutual growth, collaboration, and empowerment among its users during the start-up process. This will be a core value that Landtu will adhere to for a long time in the future.

Users’ recognition of Landtu proves that they have made the right direction in creating user-centered enterprises.

At the production ceremony of the mass-produced vehicle, the Landtu user, Xiaoan Li, expressed his high recognition to Landtu. After visiting the assembly workshop of the Landtu FREE, Xiaoan Li was excited and expressed, “I never thought it would be so clean and the worker’s work environment is comfortable, which reflects the on-site management level of Landtu automobiles.” The most unforgettable experience for Xiaoan Li was the process of visiting the welding workshop. He was completely focused on admiring the modern industrial beauty of the automatic welding robots and was amazed at the welding workers.

However, Xiaoan Li could not find the workers he was looking for because the Landtu welding workshop has more than 400 Fanuc robots and the welding automation rate is above 99%, which is at the industry-leading level. In the 23,000 square meter welding workshop, there are less than one hundred employees.

The shadow of a top-quality car factory and rich experience in car production is hidden under the halo of Landtu’s user-centeredness and is often overlooked. However, Landtu has accumulated production technology experience inherited from traditional car companies, but which other user-centered car-building new forces are lacking.

“We are a new force in car production. We never shy away from the fact that Landtu comes from a traditional car company. I myself have been in the traditional car industry for more than 20 years. But tradition does not equal conservatism. We inherit the excellent genes of traditional car companies and associate them with the pursuit of quality and the adherence of the concept of the development of the entire vehicle. We provide users with more safe, reliable, and higher quality products. At the same time, we have a brand new strategy, a brand new organizational mechanism, a brand new business model, and a brand new mode. We accept new things and fresh ideas with an open mind, understand young consumers, and bring teams of different ages, educational backgrounds, and cognitive structures together. So we are a new force in car production in China,” said Lu Fang, the founder of Landtu.

Outside of the direct sales model, there are several reasons why direct sales have become a trend after new brands such as Tesla and NIO. However, the first state-owned enterprise to establish a direct sales channel is Landtu.

Direct sales are just one way to express it, and the logic behind it includes several points. Firstly, consumers increasingly value the experience, including pre-sale and after-sale experience. Secondly, when manufacturers adopt direct sales, they can face consumers directly and control the quality of service themselves. Thirdly, after the vehicle is sold, there can be more connections between consumers and the manufacturer, forming more business models. Fourthly, direct sales not only require offline stores, but also online services that provide convenient viewing, testing, and booking of cars.

Therefore, the positioning of Voyah in the direct sales channel is: dedicated to providing a seamless online and offline car-buying experience and digital interaction experience to users throughout the entire car-owning journey as the core.

When opening the Voyah app, the default first screen displays the core parameters of the Voyah FREE, as well as prominent buttons for “Immediate Booking” and “Test Drive Reservation”. By clicking “Immediate Booking”, users are led to the configuration page where they can choose the version, body color, wheels, interiors, and a 5000 yuan exclusive luxury package to complete the final price and configuration. After confirming the configuration, users can then select whether to pay the deposit or the intention fee, fill in personal information and complete the payment. A booking can be made entirely through the Voyah app.

According to official sources, if a vehicle is booked, users can also view the complete process information, from order generation, to matching, to production, logistics, and delivery, all under the order status. For consumers who have already ordered a car and are waiting for delivery, this kind of information is quite considerate.

If users want to see the actual car at the store, they can click on the “Voyah Space” section and see that Voyah Space Kaidemall Sun Palace store in Beijing is already open, and Voyah Space Beijing Heshenghui store will open soon.

Voyah’s offline channels will be divided into three different types: Voyah Space, Delivery Service Center, and Full-featured User Center. The main function of Voyah Space is to display and place orders, while the Delivery Service Center is responsible for delivery and after-sales service. The Full-featured User Center combines the functions of the former two.

Voyah’s offline store expansion is very rapid. As of June this year, Voyah has opened 14 direct-run stores covering 10 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Shenzhen, and Xiamen). By the end of this year, Voyah plans to establish over 50 direct sales channels nationwide.

Similar to the Genius Bar in Apple stores, Voyah’s stores will be equipped with “Mate”. They are a team of product experts who not only accompany users during the car-buying process but also stand for the first letters of the words Modest, Active, Teamworking and Energetic, expressing Voyah’s service culture.

Previously, in luxury car dealerships, consumers often encountered dishonesty despite spending hundreds of thousands of yuan on a car. Voyah Mate stands for Modest, which is believed to avoid this phenomenon.

Due to the introduction of electric drive and intelligent technology, Voyah FREE provides a higher dimension of performance and intelligent experience. At the same price level of 300,000 yuan, advanced electric drive technology makes Voyah FREE stand out in terms of performance, as shown below.

Compared to the Audi Q7 plug-in hybrid and the new car manufacturer model Ideal ONE, the Venucia D60 EV extended-range version has advantages in total power output and 0-100km/h acceleration time.

The pure electric version of Venucia D60 EV also has strong power, leading in terms of power compared to the Mercedes EQC 400MATIC electric vehicle.

Behind the parameters, hardware configuration should also not be ignored. Venucia D60 EV’s chassis is made of more materials. The front and rear suspension of Venucia D60 EV are made of aluminum alloy material, laying a good foundation for the vehicle’s performance.

Only the Audi Q7 plug-in hybrid version with a price of over 800,000 yuan has the same chassis material and suspension form as Venucia D60 EV.

The biggest difference between Venucia D60 EV and traditional cars is not in electric drive, but in intelligence.

Venucia D60 EV’s intelligent cockpit is rich in functions and hardware configurations. It supports biometric functions such as face recognition and voiceprint recognition, and supports more advanced voice and gesture interaction. Venucia’s innovation in the intelligent vehicle system is the introduction of scene modes, providing customized modes such as awakening mode and child care mode for the convenience of vehicle owners.

In terms of autonomous driving, Venucia D60 EV is equipped with 24 sensors in total, including 3 millimeter wave radars, 9 cameras and 12 ultrasonic radars.

In terms of functions, Venucia D60 EV supports multiple reminder functions such as F/RCW front and rear collision warning, FVSR front vehicle start reminder, and DOW door opening warning.

In terms of intelligent assisted driving function, Venucia D60 EV has TJA traffic congestion assistance, HWA highway driving assistance, ICA intelligent cruise assistance, AEB automatic braking system, LCC lane centering keeping system, ACC whole speed range adaptive cruise system, and F-APA full vision fusion automatic parking system.

F-APA’s full vision fusion automatic parking function is also a highlight of Venucia D60 EV. In addition to conventional direction parking such as horizontal and vertical parking, Venucia D60 EV also supports front-end parking and diagonal parking.

In the future, Venucia D60 EV will be upgraded through OTA functions in the intelligent cockpit and intelligent assisted driving.

It can be said that whether compared with luxury brand fuel vehicles or with many high-performance electric vehicles produced by new car manufacturers, the power level of Venucia D60 EV far exceeds its price range.

The new moves of traditional auto companies

Venucia’s goal is to become the fastest brand from brand release to 10,000 delivery completion.

Voyah is confident in achieving this goal.

Firstly, Voyah is fully committed to building a customer-centric enterprise and has been recognized by its users.

Secondly, Voyah has extensive experience in automotive production and manufacturing and will not fall short in the production process.

Thirdly, the product strength and cost-effectiveness that Voyah has built on Voyah FREE are unmatched by cars of the same level.

These are the sources of Voyah’s confidence, but also the great pressure that the Voyah team faces.

Despite the fact that Voyah is already moving at a fast pace – from brand release to mass production in less than a year – the Voyah team will face direct competition from new powerful brands and joint venture luxury car brands in subsequent mass production delivery and marketing processes.

Pressure is motivation.

One piece of good news is that Voyah completed its brand independence on June 26th. Core employees hold more than 10% of the shares, and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd., Voyah has begun independent operations. This will inspire the rapid development of the Voyah team.

At the same time, Voyah will also introduce external investments to further activate Voyah’s development power.

Voyah’s independent operation is a new tactic for traditional car companies to conquer the high-end market and the new energy vehicle market. It may have unexpected effects.

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.