Jiyue Slashes Prices by RMB 30,000: Why the Proactive Strike?

If you are planning to buy a car that supports urban navigation-assisted driving on Chinese roads, what is the minimum amount you need to spend?

According to official pricing, the latest answer to this question is: RMB 219,900.

In fact, on November 30, Jiyue announced new model prices and promotional policies: the price of all Jiyue 01 models was directly reduced by RMB 30,000, lowering the entry threshold for the Jiyue 01 to RMB 219,900. Moreover, with this policy, users who place a reservation deposit for the Jiyue 01 can receive a free subscription to ROBO Drive Max for 12 months.

Through this adjustment in pricing and benefits, the Jiyue 01 has effectively lowered the barrier to experiencing advanced intelligent driving to a new extreme.

For Jiyue, this adjustment in price and benefits is not only a proactive move in the face of fierce industry competition but also a firm step in its effort to practice its philosophy of "technology equity" and "making advanced intelligence accessible to everyone."

A Direct Price Cut of RMB 30,000: Jiyue 01's Ambition and Sincerity

From an industry perspective, Jiyue’s recent adjustment to pricing and benefits for the Jiyue 01 was a bold move.

The Jiyue 01 launched on October 27 this year. At launch, the Jiyue 01 Max was priced at RMB 249,900, and the Jiyue 01 Max Performance at RMB 339,900, with reservation deposits unlocking benefits worth up to RMB 70,000. This pricing and benefit structure already demonstrated Jiyue’s determination as a latecomer brand to compete with industry giants.

However, just one month after launch, Jiyue decided to go further by implementing a completely new pricing and benefits policy, catching the entire industry off guard.

After all, automobiles are high-value consumer goods, and their pricing strategies typically prioritize stability. This serves two purposes: maintaining the brand’s positioning and considering the feelings of existing owners as well as the psychological expectations of potential buyers. Even when automakers have a desire to lower prices to boost sales, they usually do so through various benefit incentives or model updates rather than directly cutting official prices in the short term.

In this light, Jiyue’s price cut strategy was indeed unconventional.

Specifically, under the new pricing and benefits policy, the entire Jiyue 01 lineup (including the Jiyue 01 Max and Jiyue 01 Max Performance) saw a direct price reduction of RMB 30,000. Furthermore, the optional long-range ternary lithium battery pack (100 kWh) was simultaneously reduced by RMB 10,000.

This means that after the adjustment, the starting price for the Jiyue 01 Max is RMB 219,900, the Jiyue 01 Max Long Range version is priced at RMB 254,900, and the Jiyue 01 Max Performance is priced at RMB 309,900. Additionally, trade-in users can receive a further discount of RMB 5,000 on top of the price reduction.

Regarding purchase benefits, in addition to the direct price reduction, users purchasing the Jiyue 01 Max will enjoy substantial benefit waivers, including:

A RMB 1,000 discount on the Comfort Package, originally priced at RMB 15,000 (which includes front seat ventilation and massage, Nappa leather seats, real aluminum trim, suede-like headliner, ROBO SOUND audio system, driver’s seat headrest speakers, onboard fragrance generator, and three replacement fragrance cores);

A RMB 2,000 upgrade for the 21-inch sport wheel package, originally priced at RMB 10,000;

A RMB 2,000 upgrade for the Starry Purple or Starlight Orange paint options, originally priced at RMB 10,000;

A limited-time buyout discount of RMB 30,000 for the ROBO Drive Max advanced autonomous driving system.

The official also stated that all newly purchased Jiyue 01 models are eligible for lifetime vehicle and battery/electric motor/electronic control system warranties, as well as lifetime free roadside assistance. Additionally, the limited-time free subscription period for ROBO Drive Max advanced autonomous driving has been extended from six months to 12 months.

Furthermore, Jiyue 01 users who locked their orders within 2023 can upgrade to the U-shaped steering wheel for free, and those who take delivery within the year will receive a UWB key free of charge.

Whether through price adjustments or enhanced benefits, these moves clearly demonstrate Jiyue’s aggressive stance in market competition as an emerging automotive brand. From another perspective, this adjustment also reflects the brand’s sincere pricing strategy aimed at potential consumers.

Of course, with this price and benefit adjustment, there is another highly anticipated question: What about existing users who have already taken delivery of their vehicles or locked in their orders?

Jiyue’s response was equally straightforward: for existing owners who have already taken delivery of their vehicles, Jiyue will provide a cash compensation equal to the price difference of RMB 30,000 based on the latest model's selling price. This approach stands out as notably generous and consumer-friendly within the automotive industry.

Regarding this series of adjustments, Jiyue CEO Xia Yiping stated that the decision was based on feedback received from users and the market after the launch of the Jiyue 01. Considering the value of promoting "technology equity" for both users and the automotive industry, Jiyue established a special task force to carefully analyze the situation and iterate quickly, ultimately formulating a new pricing scheme and benefit package for its models.

Moreover, Xia Yiping told us that the new pricing strategy is backed by complex considerations involving the organization, brand, and marketing system. It was a very cautious decision, and there will be no further price cuts for the Jiyue 01.

When the Auto Industry Meets 'Smart Value'

With the recent adjustment to prices and benefits for the Jiyue 01, Xia Yiping stated that "cost-effectiveness" is a thing of the past, while "intelligence-value ratio" is the current focus; rather than aiming to be far ahead, Jiyue prefers to make advanced intelligence accessible and affordable for everyone.

Among these, he mentioned a refreshing new term: "smart value ratio."

Indeed, as the automotive industry fully embraces electrification and intelligence, the differentiation of vehicles in terms of electrification is diminishing. Intelligence has become the key driver for product differentiation and enhancing user experience value.

In other words, at this stage of industry development, how to allow users to experience better intelligent features through a lower entry threshold is a critical issue every automaker must address during its transformation. From this perspective, the introduction of the new concept of "intelligence-price ratio" is timely and carries significant industry benchmarking meaning.

Under the new pricing and benefits system, the Jiyue 01 indeed possesses a highly competitive "intelligence-price ratio."

It is important to clarify a key point: The premise for the Jiyue 01 having an "intelligence-price ratio" is that it already boasts a powerful "body," namely its mechanical quality and safety system based on Geely's SEA architecture. Examples include a drag coefficient as low as 0.249, a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 3.8 seconds, and CDC real-time damping adjustable shock absorbers.

These factors provide the Jiyue 01 with excellent driving quality and lay a solid foundation for its intelligent experience.

From the perspective of intelligence, the first area where the Jiyue 01 demonstrates its "intelligence-price ratio" is its smart cockpit experience.

Looking solely at hardware, the Jiyue 01 comes standard across all trims with the latest generation Gaotongxiaolong 8295 chip, which currently offers the highest computing power among cockpit chips. Additionally, the Jiyue 01 is equipped with a 35.6-inch 6K ultra-clear integrated screen, the largest, narrowest-bezel, non-segmented, and non-spliced large screen currently available. Thanks to the computing power boost from the Snapdragon 8295, its smoothness rivals that of smartphones.

Based on this hardware, the Jiyue 01 delivers a unique SIMO smart cockpit experience. For instance, its intelligent AI partner was the first to achieve full localization of voice AI algorithms, achieving recognition speeds as fast as 500ms and enabling offline interaction in areas without network coverage, such as mountains and tunnels. According to statistics from Jiyue, the user penetration rate for SIMO voice commands is as high as 98.9%, with a task success rate of 98%.

According to Jiyue, the SIMO system in the Jiyue 01 will fully integrate with the Wenxinyiyan AI large model to deliver an enhanced user experience. Additionally, powered by Baidu’s AI capabilities, the Baidu Maps and Xiaodu services—both rebuilt for the first time based on a large language model—are set to be comprehensively integrated into SIMO. A single voice command can now access more than 1,000 map functions and connect with over 1,500 ecosystem brands from Xiaodu, making vehicle-home intercontrol possible.

In other words, with the support of Baidu’s Wenxinyiyan, the Jiyue 01 is bringing large models into the car, unlocking new possibilities for intelligent features.

Beyond the smart cockpit, however, the Jiyue 01’s performance in advanced autonomous driving remains its strongest pillar in terms of "smart value."

Leveraging Baidu Apollo’s full suite of high-end autonomous driving capabilities and safety systems, the Jiyue 01 has achieved domestic mass production of its BEV+Transformer "pure vision" advanced driver assistance system, making it one of the few global brands with pure vision mass-production capability.

With a starting price of RMB 21.99 wan and a free 12-month ROBO Drive Max trial package, the Jiyue 01 has unprecedentedly lowered the threshold for experiencing advanced autonomous driving, surpassing competitors such as the XPENG G6 and Zhiji LS6.

According to Jiyue, among current Jiyue 01 users, the utilization rate of the PPA feature exceeds 58.5% of total mileage, while the penetration rate for automatic parking reaches 96.7%.

Meanwhile, Jiyue stated that ROBO Drive Max will open city-level advanced autonomous driving to all users in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou this year. Its core Point-to-Point Pilot Assist (PPA) feature already covers 90% of the nation’s expressways and elevated roads.

By January next year, the Jiyue 01 will receive an OTA update introducing OCC (Occupancy Network) technology, significantly enhancing its "pure vision" advanced autonomous driving capabilities in identifying irregular obstacles and generalizing across diverse scenarios. Furthermore, PPA will gradually expand to cover more than 200 cities nationwide throughout next year.

It is worth noting that achieving these capabilities relies heavily on a substantial increase in user base and the resulting data-driven effects. This highlights the advantage of Jiyue’s chosen "pure vision" approach. From this perspective, the price cut for the Jiyue 01 aims to scale up users, thereby fostering a positive cycle: expanding the user base leads to data accumulation, which drives technological evolution and ultimately enhances user experience.

The market is too competitive; proactive aggression is a good thing

From the overall perspective of market competition, the recent price and benefit adjustments for the Jiyue 01 objectively reflect a fundamental reality: the automotive industry is currently extremely competitive.

Indeed, looking at the situation in 2023, the entire automotive industry faced immense competitive pressure amid the transition between new and traditional energy sources, as well as the electrification and intelligent transformation. Price wars have evolved from potential threats at the beginning of the year into a normalized necessity for the entire auto market, with major automakers seeking survival space through subsidies, discounts, and other measures in this brutal competitive landscape.

Against this backdrop, Jiyue 01’s decision to directly lower prices by RMB 30,000 is undoubtedly a proactive move to align with market trends and face competitive pressures head-on. In fact, Jiyue told us that these price and benefit adjustments have placed significant cost pressure on the company, given that the Jiyue 01’s configuration is already maximized in both mechanical quality and intelligent features.

So, why does Jiyue 01 dare to take this step?

A decisive factor is that Jiyue’s development is backed by substantial strength. As the strategic partner for the Jiyue Robotics project, Geely Holding Group and Baidu Group provide robust financial support. Beyond capital, Geely’s deep automotive manufacturing expertise and Baidu’s extensive layout in AI and intelligent technologies ensure Jiyue can deliver a better user experience.

During the dialogue session, Jiyue CEO Xia Yiping confirmed that this adjustment to pricing and benefits received strong support from both Geely Holding and Baidu.

In other words, Jiyue 01’s ability to offer higher "smart value" this time stems from the inherent advantage of leveraging established backing.

Beyond strong financial backing, Jiyue’s decision to adjust prices and benefits through direct price cuts also reflects its deep internet heritage as a new automaker. This background drives simpler, more direct, and efficient corporate operations, while enhancing sensitivity to user perception and experience.

However, 42HOW Auto believes that Jiyue 01’s recent price and benefit adjustments represent a significant strike by Jiyue toward making automotive intelligence accessible and equitable across the industry.

After all, in this wave of automotive technological revolution, although vehicle intelligence—represented by smart driving and smart cockpits—has advanced rapidly on the technical front, high initial costs have kept relatively advanced features like urban navigation-assisted driving and large models largely confined to vehicles in the RMB 300,000 price segment. While there is a trend of these features trickling down, the threshold remains high, keeping them out of reach for most ordinary users.

From this perspective, Jiyue 01’s price cut and benefits adjustment serve to leverage its advantages to promote 'technological equity' in automotive intelligence for everyday users, effectively driving the competition for advanced intelligent features into the mass market.

It is foreseeable that the Chinese automotive market will become increasingly competitive over the next two to three years. To secure a foothold, automakers must take proactive steps, similar to Jiyue, by enhancing user-perceivable value—though this intense competition ultimately benefits consumers through improved intelligent driving experiences.

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