automobile – Spress https://en.spress.net Spress is a general newspaper in English which is updated 24 hours a day. Wed, 23 Jun 2021 18:25:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 191965906 Li Shufu made a desperate move. Behind the debut of Extreme Krypton, which is the peak, is the tearing of the entire Geely Automobile. https://en.spress.net/li-shufu-made-a-desperate-move-behind-the-debut-of-extreme-krypton-which-is-the-peak-is-the-tearing-of-the-entire-geely-automobile/ Wed, 23 Jun 2021 18:25:07 +0000 https://en.spress.net/li-shufu-made-a-desperate-move-behind-the-debut-of-extreme-krypton-which-is-the-peak-is-the-tearing-of-the-entire-geely-automobile/ Hello everyone, I am Liu Honghong from the Future Investment Research School. The update frequency has been reduced recently, mainly because the Shanghai Auto Show 2021 is about to come, so there is a lot of work that needs to be prepared in advance, and I don’t expect to make any money when I write this number. I will share with you the industry after work. For some of the insights and lack of energy, please forgive me. There have been many new cars on the market recently, and I believe many of you have also paid attention to the newly launched Ultra Krypton cars. I can’t help but say that 266,000 can get a 712km endurance car, which is still very powerful. In terms of channels, it is basically learning the way of Weilai: Although on the surface it seems that Geely has created a new Krypton brand on the basis of Lynk & Co in order to enter the pure electric market, but the status of Krypton is really unusual within Geely. And this unusual status was obtained at the expense of Lynk & Co, the most successful of its own brands… Before the establishment of Jikrypton, Geely’s layout in the field of pure electricity was actually very complete: Maple Leaf Automobile focuses on pure electricity at a price of 50,000 to 150,000 Geely Emgrand EV and Emgrand GSe focus on pure electricity at a price range of 100,000 to 150,000, positioning the compact class The pure electric brand Geometry car focuses on pure electric at a price of 150,000 to 200,000 yuan, and is positioned as a compact (actually Emgrand’s shell replacement series) Independent brand Lynk & Co focuses on the 150,000-250,000-priced fuel vehicle market, and plans to launch Lynk & Co’s Zero model, as well as the large SUV Volvo XC90 shell changer EX11. The luxury brand Volvo focuses on the price range of 250,000-900,000. The price of the compact pure electric SUV XC40 RECHARGE is set at 300,000 to 400,000. The subsequent two-wheel drive model is expected to be in the range of 200,000 to 250,000. The original Volvo’s high terminal brand Polestar, the price range of Polestar 2 launched is basically 250,000 to 400,000 In addition, Smart, which locates mini-cars, will also be purely electrified with the help of Geely In fact, you can find that Geely has almost all products from mini cars to large SUVs in China, and I learned that in the original plan of Lynk & Co, there are also pure electric large MPVs. Such a complete product line, if only the domestic market is considered, it can be said that even the BBA in the joint venture is not as rich as Geely’s product line. With the dual flagship models of ZERO+EX11, Lynk & Co’s brand power has been greatly improved again. (Nissan, PSA, Honda, Toyota, there are no XC90 models in China) ――This is Geely’s nearly perfect electrification strategic arrangement before the emergence of the extremely krypton car. Geely Auto was born after Li Shufu stepped down as chairman of Geely Group and An Conghui took over; An Conghui’s original CEO position was taken over by Geely Vice President Gan Jiayue. After a series of personnel changes, Li Shufu was appointed as chairman of Jikrypton Company, and An Conghui was appointed as CEO. Some media commented this way: Like Xiaomi Motors, “Ultra Krypton” is also the top project. Since then, the focus of the group’s resources is self-evident. Very Krypton is likely to be positioned as an arrow brand that drives the entire group’s electric strategy. The emergence of Jikrypton is not as simple as a new pure electric brand, because with An Conghui’s appointment as the CEO of Jikrypton, there are also the three-electric department and the intelligent driving electrical architecture software development department. This leads to a situation: For other Geely brands, such as Volvo, Lotus, Polestar, and Smart, it is necessary to pay development fees to Pole Krypton to obtain technologies such as three-electric power and intelligent driving electrical architecture software. ――This is equivalent to changing Li Shufu’s money from one pocket to another. In fact, many big car companies have the phenomenon of going around inside, after all, this is conducive to amortization of costs, but the most special thing about extremely krypton is that due to the sudden nature of extremely krypton independence, As a result, in addition to taking away the Zero model from Lynk & Co and renamed it to Extreme Krypton 001, the Jikrypton brand also took away almost all pure electric models and related plans. This is nothing at all. After all, there is nothing wrong with having an exclusive pure electric brand. The only regret is that the ace of Zero, which originally belonged to Lynk & Co, was taken away from the opportunity in the new energy market. (The very Krypton 001 shape is the split headlight shape of Lynk & Co. It is the case that it is too late to change the shell after changing the standard) It would be a good thing to say that the pure electric model plan taken away can help Gekr to become a new energy brand with a rich product line of models. After all, people’s recognition of Lynk & Co is 150,000 to 250,000, and if Gekr Achieving 200-300,000 brand recognition is a complete success. But this does not seem to be the case. Because of the SEA vast architecture used by Jikrypton, it can be known from various previous news that although Volvo, Polarstar, Smart, and Lotus all use the SEA vast architecture platform, they are all similar to Jikrypton’s own Product has nothing to do. This also means, Although extremely arrogant took away Geely’s three-electric department and the intelligent driving electrical architecture software development department, most of the research and development resources of this huge team have been invested in Volvo, Polestar, Smart, and Lotus models. On the other hand, even Smart needs to develop a SEA sub-platform with different bandwidths due to size issues. This is almost fatal for the Ultra Krypton car, which currently has only one Ultra Krypton 001 model. After all, what you need to build a car now is to come up with the best products in the shortest time. Looking back at the ups and downs of new car-building forces over the years 2017-2021, We will find that the lesson that the product cannot keep up with the time point is still vivid. The most typical is the Xiaopeng G3. The 19 models were launched too late, resulting in 20 models with a battery life of 500km, but the price is almost the same as that of the 19 models with only 351km. This even triggered a group of G3 car owners to pull banners to defend their rights. This almost caused a fatal blow to the newborn Xiaopeng at the time, and the founder He Xiaopeng had to write an apology: ―The delay of Xiaopeng’s 19 models has caused such a big problem, and there are currently known products from Volvo, Polestar, Smart, and Lotus that need to be developed. This means that the R&D resources left to the very krypton brand itself have become very small. The extremely krypton official once said that one model will be launched every year in the next few years. (The live broadcast said at least two new cars per year, referring to SEA-based models) After the 001 model, the only known follow-up is the small electric vehicle BC1E, which is positioned for urban commuting, and the EF1E, which has already appeared on the road to determine the position of the C Family Crossover model. Like the ZERO code-named DC1E (now pole krypton 001), it comes from the SEA platform. This means that 2021 will be extremely krypton 001, and the models of 2022 and 2023 have been locked, which are the aforementioned small electric vehicle BC1E and large pure electric MPVEF1E respectively. It is good to have a planned model in the future, but the problem is that the two subsequent models are not the ones that are in volume. (The size is either too big or too small) This also means that if you look at the official one-year product and the currently exposed products, the extremely krypton has gone at the wrong rhythm since its birth-if the first 001 can still be used, then the follow-up The product characteristics of the small SUV and large MPV are destined to be almost difficult to move. This is absolutely abnormal from the normal product planning of a car company. After all, when friends and merchants are working on the mainstream market of 150,000 to 300,000 (there are Xpeng P5 and Mustang Mach-E in the near future), but very krypton lacks a mass model similar to Tesla model 3. Known product planning, this model has a high probability of not having it in the next two years. ―― A new brand with Li Shufu as the chairman and An Conghui as the CEO, and let Geely invest in its all-electric products ALL IN, is in an embarrassing situation where its own family is developing 2 products and developing at least 5 products externally. , This makes people wonder: Does Geely really want to build the Jikrypton brand? Someone can’t help but raise the question “Do you want to make money from selling cars or to make research and development expenses?” If it is only a little difficult for extremely krypton research and development resources, what is worse is that Lynk & Co, which has been taken away from all the pure electric model plans, seems to have no future. We must know that Geely behind Lynk & Co is actually facing a faint crisis. ――Now the price of Geely brand is getting lower and lower. The pricing of Xingrui and Xingyue L has caused Geely’s brand to be weaker than Great Wall Changan. The only hope of raising the brand lies in Geely’s own Lynk & Co. For Lynk & Co, although the 01-05 models are the base, there is a problem in that they are all concentrated in the compact market, while the upcoming EX11 is a product that is positioned as a large SUV. Lynk & Co’s product line is now a group of compact + a shell-changing Volvo XC90. This group of compact products uses the CMA platform. A fact is The potential of the CMA platform applied to pure electric vehicles has reached its limit on Polestar 2. ――In order to gain space for the battery on a non-native pure electric platform as much as possible, the front floor of Polestar 2 is actually inclined downwards. Putting your feet up when you are not driving will make your ankles uncomfortable. At this level, the battery life cannot catch up with the Tesla model 3. So Lynk & Co really needs the SEA platform. If Ultra Krypton is not dismantled, then, on another timeline, Lynk & Co’s product line will look like this: Fuel oil 01-05 Compact cars and SUVs EX11 medium and large SUV Pure electric ZERO medium and large cross High-end pure electric business MPV Small SUV This means that when Lynk & Co has a 01-05 base plate, With the dual flagship models of ZERO+EX11, Lynk & Co’s brand power has been greatly improved again, and After increasing the sales of base models, plus ZERO itself has a high probability of becoming an explosive model, at that time, a Lynk & Co brand whose price steadily exceeds that of ordinary joint ventures, and there may be a stable sales volume of 30,000 to 40,000 , Lynk & Co will usher in its own brand new development opportunities. The 01-05 cars can also be followed by a pure electric version to complete the brand upgrade. This also means that the Geely brand has also been promoted. But now all these possibilities are gone. Originally for Lynk & Co to upgrade its products, the purely electrified ZERO was classified as Extreme Krypton. However, when Extreme Krypton has been developing multiple models of different brands at the same time, it means that even Lynk & Co will re-plan the models based on the SEA platform in the future. It is also difficult to quickly come up with new products within 2-3 years. In the words of a person in the industry, that is that the brawny Lynk & Co suddenly limped and was torn apart into two incomplete individuals. Extreme Krypton does not have enough products, and Lynk & Co does not have pure electricity, although I don’t know how far the two brands can go after the separation. But I sincerely hope that the most successful Lynk & Co and the newly born Jikrypton among the independent brands will continue to tell the story of Chinese cars. After all, we’ve heard stories like this since we were young: “The three brothers picked up a chopstick and broke it all at once. Then they took a bundle of chopsticks, and it was different. Everyone kept folding chopsticks. So, three Brothers understand, chopsticks are like this, and people and people are even more like this. Together, the strength is greater.” (Finish) Postscript: From an investment perspective, the split Ultra Krypton is expected to be weak in subsequent models and it is difficult to boost Geely’s stock price. I hope everyone will pay attention to the risks. Click on the star to bookmark me I don’t understand finance from the media Finance from the media does not know me about cars I knew you were “watching”

]]> 27128 Xiaopeng Automobile is on fire again! The head of the car once said, “I want to beat Tesla to nowhere” https://en.spress.net/xiaopeng-automobile-is-on-fire-again-the-head-of-the-car-once-said-i-want-to-beat-tesla-to-nowhere/ Fri, 16 Apr 2021 18:23:06 +0000 https://en.spress.net/xiaopeng-automobile-is-on-fire-again-the-head-of-the-car-once-said-i-want-to-beat-tesla-to-nowhere/ On April 14, Xiaopeng Automobile had another spontaneous combustion accident. A Xiaopeng G3 in Guangzhou spontaneously ignited in the charging pile.

But also on the same day, Xiaopeng Motors released its third new model, the Xiaopeng P5, which is the world’s first mass-produced smart car equipped with lidar.

Earlier, when Xiaopeng Motors announced that it would install lidar on models produced in 2021, Musk had been stubborn. He Xiaopeng responded strongly, saying that Tesla would be unable to find any other people in autopilot.”

He Xiaopeng, one of the heads of the “new car-making forces” in China, is familiar to many people. He has personally created the well-known product UC; he gained more than 10 billion fortune at the age of 37; he was on the 40-year-old stall. , Left from Ali and invested more than 10 billion again to build a new kingdom-Xiaopeng Automobile in Guangzhou Chengzhong Village.

In this issue of “100 Business People”, let us learn about the career of He Xiaopeng, an excellent product manager and young entrepreneur who cross-border entrepreneurship.

He Xiaopeng who wants to beat Tesla to the east

1. “Internet Product People”

He Xiaopeng, a “straight man in science”, has a rare “quagma” in his choice of life.

In 1999, after graduating from South China University of Technology with a major in computer science, He Xiaopeng from an ordinary background began to apply for a job. “Life is the moment when I jumped out of the car,” He Xiaopeng said when he recalled the day when he chose AsiaInfo for the first time looking for a job. When he arrived at AsiaInfo, He Xiaopeng began to work hard to make money, from the development department, operation and maintenance, testing, to customer service, pre-sales and after-sales. There, He Xiaopeng began to lay his genes as an “Internet product man”.

Later, not satisfied with the salary of a few thousand yuan a month, I wanted to change to HP, but failed. In 2004, it was the eve of the Internet entrepreneurship boom. It was a post-PC era, and the Internet fire has become a prairie fire. Also in this year, He Xiaopeng chose a promising and early field, mobile browsers.

Immediately, together with Liang Jie, an alumnus of South China University of Technology, he founded UC Youshi, an early mobile Internet enterprise in China, and many of my friends must have used its UC browser.

Obviously He Xiaopeng founded UC with foresight. Before the mobile Internet broke out, he took the lead in occupying a place, especially shortly after the launch of the UC browser, which was regarded as a high-quality traffic portal by the outside world. The highest M&A price of 4.35 billion US dollars was sold to Alibaba. He Xiaopeng’s wealth ideals were realized at a lightning speed, and he also became an “Aliman.”

2. After wealth and freedom, cross the border into the automobile kingdom

As early as 2013, He Xiaopeng had the idea of ​​making a car. He is the one who has had a soup in the mobile Internet era, so this also extends his entrepreneurial logic: now is the era of feature phones to smart phones, will functional cars be transferred to smart cars in the future?

On June 13, 2014, Tesla CEO Musk announced that the company adopts an open source model and opens all patents to the outside world, which means that more companies can join in making cars. So He Xiaopeng suggested to make a car inside Ali, but he did not proceed as expected.

He Xiaopeng couldn’t restrain himself anymore. In the same year, he and Li Xueling and other dozens of Internet people, as well as many venture capital institutions invested in the establishment of Xiaopeng Motors.

At first, He Xiaopeng joined the new force of car building as an investor. At this node, a man named Xia Heng appeared, and he was one of the important roles in He Xiaopeng’s next life.

Xia Heng was originally the head of the control section of the GAC New Energy Center. He has rich experience in automobile manufacturing. He soon received investment from He Xiaopeng after forming the team. Xia Heng is now the co-founder of Xiaopeng Motors.

It wasn’t until 2017 that another important man, GGV Jiyuan Capital Fu Jixun, appeared. A phone call touched He Xiaopeng and made him change his mind.

In August 2017, He Xiaopeng resigned from the position of President of Alibaba’s entertainment and mobile business group and took up a full-time job at Xiaopeng Motors.

On the same day, He Xiaopeng posted a circle of friends: “Starting a business is a cycle, bittersweet, sweet and salty, and returning home is still a teenager.”

Third, touch Tesla, plagiarize or catch up?

Among many car companies, Xiaopeng Motors can be regarded as a new force that has an absolute intersection with Tesla. Not only is the brand and product positioning very similar, even the main model Xiaopeng P7 almost completely overlaps the price of Tesla Model 3.

We can often see He Xiaopeng and Musk talking on social media. Most of the content is that Musk questioned that Xiaopeng Motors copied the source code of Tesla’s self-driving software. He Xiaopeng responded with “I want to fight Tesla. Can’t find the East”.

What I have to say is that Xiaopeng Motors does have many executives who have worked for Tesla.

On January 3, 2019, Cao Guangzhi, an engineer of Tesla’s autonomous driving system, resigned and joined Xiaopeng Motors. Gu Junli, who previously served as the vice president of research and development of Xiaopeng Auto’s autonomous driving, is the former technical leader of Tesla Machine Learning. We don’t know whether this high degree of coincidence of personnel is normal talent exchange or other hidden reasons.

Aside from the technical dispute, Xiaopeng Motors has also been criticized for its quality issues.

Automobile blogger Wang Tonggen commented on Xiaopeng’s definition of autonomous driving after experiencing Xiaopeng’s car. “Xiaopeng’s ability to recognize surrounding vehicles can only be described as miserable. I hope that fans of autonomous driving will be able to hand over it. Do a little more homework before controlling the throttle and brakes, and understand what an unreliable function is entrusted with your wealth and life.”

In addition, at the end of January this year, Xiaopeng G3 recalled 13,399 products due to a defect in the inverter, which may cause the model to fail to start or lose power. This recall is the largest among the new forces, compared to the small one. The cumulative sales volume of Peng G3 11,691 in 2020 is even higher, and the product quality is really worrying.

In the coming next decade, competition in the new energy vehicle market will be even more brutal. Can He Xiaopeng achieve his second goal of “doing a different thing”? Can Xiaopeng Motors truly become Tesla’s “biggest enemy” in the future, or even surpass it? let us wait and see!

There are no shortcuts to business, and capital is the most ruthless. If you like this video, please like and follow us. See you next time!

Reference materials:

  1. Interface News, “He Xiaopeng: Where is Xiaopeng”

  2. Lieyun.com, “How does He Xiaopeng recognize the upgrade for a successful second entrepreneurship? 》

  3. Titanium Media, “He Xiaopeng “The Stunner in the World””

Article transferred from: Business Junior

]]> 3209 Learning to drive with hydrogen https://en.spress.net/learning-to-drive-with-hydrogen/ Fri, 16 Apr 2021 06:40:57 +0000 https://en.spress.net/?p=2316 Driving school cars traditionally have diesel engines. A company from Saarbrücken uses a hydrogen drive for its driving lessons. The technology can also be tricky for schoolchildren.

From Peter Sauer, SR It is a bit reminiscent of a sauna infusion when driving instructor Rouven Klein from Saarbrücken parks his new driving school car. Instead of exhaust fumes, a lot of steam rises and a little water drips. Together with Sven Schmitt, Klein has a real rarity at the start of their driving school voovoo drive: a driving school car that is powered not by diesel or gasoline, but by hydrogen. “We work very closely with the manufacturers of hydrogen vehicles. As far as we know, we are probably the first driving school in the world to have retrofitted such a vehicle,” says Klein. There are no really reliable figures yet. The Federal Association of German Driving School Companies is not yet aware of any hydrogen driving school cars. But they support the advance from Saarbrücken. The driving school completely dispenses with internal combustion engines and instead relies exclusively on bio natural gas, electric drive – and hydrogen. “This sustainable approach is very important to us, and someone has to start with it,” says Schmitt.

Conversion turns out to be difficult

Fuel cell vehicles are still rare. For around 60,000 euros, voovoo drive bought one of the few available models – one Toyota Mirai. Indispensable for every driving school car: the pedals on the passenger side so that the teacher can intervene in an emergency. In the case of combustion engines, a linkage usually connects the pedals. It is installed in the middle between the driver and passenger compartment. The problem: One of the three hydrogen tanks is right there. In this case, some pioneering work was necessary. After a long search, they found a company in Germany that took on the complicated installation of the pedals, explains Klein: “Fortunately, the company has agreed to carry out this exciting experiment – and it worked. We now have one operated with a cable Driving school car. ”

Fast acceleration

Driving school cars traditionally have a diesel engine. It is robust, long-lasting and also suits the students very well when it comes to coupling at the beginning. But a change is also taking place in driving schools. Because for the target group – mainly teenagers – the topic of sustainability is of enormous importance, as the “Fridays for Future” movement has shown. An emission-free hydrogen drive is well received by young people like Adrian Bredebusch. Bredebusch has also driven a diesel on the practice area. As one of the first learner drivers, he is now learning with the new hydrogen vehicle. Bredebusch describes the driving experience as “pleasant gliding”. But there are also pitfalls, because in contrast to internal combustion engines, which only develop their full power with increasing speed, fuel cells have full power from the start. “It accelerates really fast, and you also have no audio feedback on how fast you are driving. You have to keep looking at the speedometer,” says the learner driver. Like hybrids and e-vehicles, the hydrogen car also has an automatic transmission. This is pleasant for novice drivers and probably also the form that will prevail in the medium term. The legislature has now also recognized this. For a long time the test was only possible with a classic gear shift. “Fortunately, since April 1st there has also been the option of more or less combining or adding this switching training”, explains driving instructor Schmitt. This means that the students can now take their exams with automatic vehicles without any restrictions.

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