Author: Sid

On the day when Tencent QQ Show was “taken down”, like many 80s and 90s netizens who first touched the Internet in their student years, I shed “tears for the times”. Of course, even though Tencent later denied the shutdown and said not to cry, only the function was collapsed, I still felt the heavy blow of time. Then I picked up my phone and car keys and went back to the reality of middle-aged people, continuing to run press conferences and work hard for a living.

The “Light Orange Era”? When I received this media communication invitation letter, except for questions, there was no wave in my heart. After all, in China, too many new car brands have come and gone in the past few years, eager to communicate with media teachers to convey their brand vision and dreams to investors and users, and everyone suffocates together. Maybe this is another one of them. Moreover, so far, the only company registration information that can be found on the Internet is a record in Tencent’s Enterprise Check.

“At present, our exhibition car at the Guangzhou Auto Show has already achieved all functions, including driving, algorithms, and car machines, and the test drive can be opened after the Guangzhou Auto Show. The product’s functional design and definition have been done, and it can basically be launched and delivered in the second half of next year. It can be synchronized.”

At the communication meeting, the founding team of Light Orange Era said the above words. Maybe I was too hasty… Facing this “preheat period shortest” and low-key car company I have ever encountered, I have many curiosities and doubts in my heart.

Who is Light Orange Era?

When contacting a brand new new energy brand, we naturally first pay attention to the founding team. The core team members who attended the Light Orange Era communication meeting that day, except for Ning Han, the former PR director of Infiniti, who serves as the marketing director of Light Orange Era, are almost all new faces in the auto industry.

Founder Bian Biao graduated from Tsinghua University and then went to the UK to study science. Later, he worked in the financial industry and led the creation of an all-in-one financial services platform, and he has also invested in many startup companies.

CEO Mou Lu was previously in charge of Tencent’s game products and is considered to have witnessed the explosion of China’s gaming industry over the past 10 years. Later, as the CEO of Xiao Ma Li Xing, he participated deeply in the ecological products of front-end intelligent networked software.

Chief scientist Tong Xiaoyu, as the former deputy dean of China Unicom Research Institute, has a deep understanding of the value of intelligent cars empowering industrial Internet.In the field of research and development and manufacturing of entire vehicles, the team and members were not revealed in detail during the communication meeting. However, it is understood that many of them come from first-tier vehicle companies, with over 20 years of experience in entire vehicle development, successfully launching multiple vehicle models and strictly controlling costs through powerful supply chain integration capabilities.

Actually, from the background of the core founding team members, it can be seen that Light Green Age is a highly “integrated” company. This kind of integration DNA flows in the blood of this team. As founder Bian Biao said, they hope to create a travel and mobile life experience that makes users feel at ease and happy, and this experience must be affordable for young people.

So, unlike the emerging new forces that often emphasize “self-development”, “high-end luxury”, and “celestial level”, Light Green Age is more likely to focus on second- and third-tier, and even sinking markets, making their products more “affable”.

Similarly, this also explains why the brand did not emphasize the development and manufacturing of entire vehicles when speaking publicly, because for Light Green Age, quickly producing a relatively mature car through contract manufacturing under controllable costs is not the key to the whole story. They care more about expanding and reaching more user scenarios and fresher user experiences through establishing such a product and ecosystem platform, and even forming a closed ecosystem of value expansion, derivation, and comprehensive services.

What kind of car will Light Green Age make?

Of course, everything is based on the car. For Light Green Age’s first product, we can also roughly outline a profile based on the information revealed by CEO Mou Lu.

Firstly, it is a modular design. The car from Light Green Age will be equipped with an intelligent central armrest box, which is an interface for future smart hardware, including some vehicle data and future intelligent hardware in different scenarios inside and outside the car and at home. The combination is not only on the surface, but actually on data and functional services.The second aspect is entertainment. Judging from Mou Lu’s work experience at Tencent, it is not difficult to imagine that there will be many games and entertainment elements in the cars of the future Light Orange era, which can make Z-generation users willing to participate deeply and interact. Even a game-controller-style steering wheel (perhaps one can imagine it) might appear in their cars, which would be more suitable for game-playing than Tesla’s steering wheel.

Another aspect is personalization. The Light Orange era plans to truly meet the “personalization” needs of young users through an app. We can imagine that in the future, the exterior covers, interiors, and even the DIY system of Light Orange era cars may all partially meet personalized customization needs.

In addition, there are some technical highlights of the products. Even though the entire car is assembled and manufactured through an OEM model, the Light Orange era’s technology R&D team has also conducted in-depth R&D with supplier partners on core technology. For example, the Light Orange era has achieved the unique super fast-charge technology that enables 8 minutes of charging for 200 kilometers of driving on the same level with other cars, and also realized the improvement of winter endurance through innovative technology.

Up to now, although the actual car has not been seen yet, it seems that the vision of the Light Orange era has been outlined. If the new forces or new players before are like a glass of single malt whisky, then the Light Orange era is like a refreshing cocktail. In this continuous tide of car manufacturing, they are definitely an innovative force.

However, even players who have already taken the “ship ticket” or “ticket” are also “internal competition”. Does the Light Orange era, as a new entrant, really have a chance?

In my opinion, from the market’s point of view, the answer is definitely yes, but they still face some hurdles that must be crossed, such as the stability and reliability of the OEM model, the balance between new technology and strict cost control, the cruel financing and listing environment, and the construction of the marketing system of entire vehicles, etc.

But overall, the tide of car manufacturing always moves forward in waves. We do not know if the Light Orange era can become the “most powerful wave” yet.

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.