Author: Jiaxing Li
When it comes to the hottest topics in the automobile industry lately, the future development direction of major car companies must be talked about. Chinese electric car maker NIO’s 2025 battery swap plan, and Great Wall Motors’ 2025 strategy are just two examples of many car manufacturers that have released a series of “blueprints” concerning technology directions and future development. It appears that “overdrafting the future” and “displaying ambition” have become a clever maneuver for carmakers to show their advantages over each other. Recently, LI Auto also geared up the horn of the 2.0 era.
“Forfeiting the future” is absolutely an “extreme” thing for the current intelligent automobile industry, because you never know which Internet carmaker will be the next “dark horse” that “strikes” into the car circle, like Huawei. As the popularity of software-defined cars has skyrocketed, we have also been guessing which “sunsetting car companies” that cannot keep up with the pace of intelligence will be “kicked out” of the automobile manufacturing industry by software suppliers.
At this moment, LI Auto raised its voice and, in a recent “largest-scale product launch ever,” introduced a series of “amazing” future goals. To sum up, the targets are: “Launch eight models before the end of 2025 and sell 800,000 vehicles annually,” and “Exceed Tesla in the field of intelligence within three years.”
Seeing such a summary, many people, including myself, are both happy and worried. From an intuitive perspective, LI Auto has planned well for its bright future and strives to achieve the goals. However, from a rational analysis perspective, such data and targets are extremely difficult for LI Auto to achieve now. But LI Auto denied this rational analysis at the 2.0 era product launch with the following four words:
Independent Research and Development
On the eve of the launch, LI Auto held the T03 Comfort Edition offline ceremony at its Jinhua factory, which signaled that LI Auto had officially bid farewell to the “OEM era” after acquiring the wholly-owned Fuzhou Xinfuda production plant, and gained the ability and qualification to produce new energy vehicles independently. The T03 and C11 will also be transferred to LI Auto’s Jinhua plant for production. The “independent production era” is undoubtedly an important prerequisite for LI Auto to enter the 2.0 era.
It’s worth noting that since its establishment, LI Auto has aimed for “independent production and development.” Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that “independent production” is an important prerequisite for LI Auto to enter the 2.0 era. Without this important step, LI Auto cannot embark on its “bright future.”### Willing to “sacrifice” to have the capital for “sprinting”
In the “1.0 era” of the first half of this year, a total of 21,744 units were delivered, with the main model T03 ranking third in the new forces in terms of June insurance, and from such data, its target of selling 800,000 units in 2025 seems somewhat “far-fetched”. This gap will be filled by the comprehensive “acceleration” brought by the 2.0 era to LI.
LI Motors is expected to launch 8 models by the end of 2025, with wheelbases ranging from 2.6 meters to 3.1 meters, expanding the product lineup and coverage, which will boost overall sales with more vehicle models. This operation carries huge risks and requires strong confidence and determination in the company’s future development planning. Therefore, this move has become a reason that many leading enterprises in the new car-making forces are afraid of, and the willingness to “sacrifice in order to sprint” is also LI’s advantage.
Accelerating the expansion of a sufficiently large product system can indeed support more sales, but the new forces in the domestic market that are really selling must have their own unique advantages at a certain level. For LI, as a company that has developed from the IT industry to the automotive industry, its brand has established an intelligent driving team since its inception, which can indeed help its technology. However, whether it is a traditional car company or a new car-making force, user experience is always the direct factor that affects sales.For car companies, good product reputation can definitely boost the overall sales in the market. Therefore, Lynk & Co has chosen to improve user reputation by “adding more features without increasing the price”. Zhu Jiangming said: “Through user feedback on the C11 product, we have added a lot of features without increasing the price, including double-layer glass for the front windows, privacy glass for the rear, ventilated seats for the front, and we are also considering adding a heated steering wheel for free if the progress allows.”
C11 will be equipped with two Lingxun 01 chips developed by Lynk & Co, combined with a set of ADAS intelligent driving solutions, which can achieve all intelligent driving functions from L2 to L3, including autonomous navigation. It can be seen that the C11, which will be launched in October this year, shoulders the heavy responsibility of increasing the brand image of Lynk & Co and creating a “user-oriented enterprise”.
In the leading future product planning, the intelligent driving function including the laser radar, millimeter wave, and visual three-in-one will be equipped for the model mass-produced at the end of 2023, and the L4 level solution will be achieved. Lynk & Co hopes to achieve various L4 level functions, including urban roads, highways, and automatic parking by 2024.
But in the field of intelligent driving, achieving L4 level intelligent driving in the future is a common goal for everyone, and the one who first makes research and development achievements and has the best user experience is the most popular. For now, this “leader” is still Tesla. Therefore, Zhu Jiangming directly shouted at the press conference: to surpass Tesla in the field of intelligence within three years.
Making intelligent electric cars and benchmarking Tesla has become a common occurrence in the industry. At present, it is definitely not easy to surpass Tesla, even for the “top new force” such as WmAuto. Zhu Jiangming said: “It is based on reason to surpass Tesla. Currently, there is not a single company in the United States, except for China, that is excellent in AI in terms of application. China is more open and inclusive, has more data and more demands, so I believe that the Chinese team will definitely win in the field of intelligent driving in the future.”It seems that Zhu Jiangming’s “Beyond Tesla” is more of an analysis of the current situation and industry development, rather than saying that Leapmotor surpasses Tesla, it is better to say that domestic intelligent driving technology surpasses Tesla.
However, looking at the lessons of other car companies, where to place the “soul” is also a matter of success or failure. The neighboring automaker JiHoo can save itself with the help of Huawei, while many automakers have been eliminated by the market due to the backwardness of intelligent driving technology, and SAIC is unwilling to “fall” into someone else’s puppet.
Leapmotor hopes to hold its “soul” with a “Lingxian” chip and a algorithm team of over 100 people at the current stage. But as Zhu Jiangming said, domestic intelligent driving technology has unique advantages. Therefore, in the fierce impact of internet car-making and intelligent driving technology suppliers, it is worth waiting to see how Leapmotor breaks through with its “soul”.
Conclusion:
In this press conference, Leapmotor has focused on the topic of full-stack self-research. About future planning, Leapmotor can be said to take a chance. It must be said that self-production and self-research bring obvious advantages to Leapmotor, and the full control of hardware and software will bring cost and technical advantages in the future. Leapmotor’s future is not bright, but looking at its product line and development plan, under the premise of smooth development, allowing users to intuitively see the cost-effectiveness of Leapmotor products through self-production and self-research is an important means for it to occupy the market. The arrival of C11 can also lay a certain foundation for its brand power. But for those seemingly “exaggerated” goals, Leapmotor still needs to use its own technology to “cut through thorns and thistles” on this “long and difficult” new car-making road.
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.