Not long ago, according to the data released by the Passenger Transport Association, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger cars reached 202,000 in March, an increase of 10 1. 1.3% compared with February, and an increase of 26 1.3% compared with the whole market, showing a good trend of independent growth. It can even be said that it was almost single-handedly, which turned the tide.
On the eve of Shanghai International Auto Show, Tucki P5, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Krypton 00 1 arrived one after another, which proved that the determination of both new forces and traditional car companies to step into this electrified "blue ocean" and try to get a slice of it has become stronger and stronger.
For the strong, the present is undoubtedly the best time; For the weak, this moment may be the worst. As for the way to go, how to survive and how to go up, it is entirely left to many participants to choose.
This time, Freeman Shen and his Weimar car decided to face the difficulties. On the evening of April 16, Beijing time, the latter stood in the spotlight in the center of the press conference stage, behind which was Weimar W6, the "protagonist" who had just driven out according to the designated route and parked in the parking space, with no driver's control at all.
Its mission
20 19 12, Freeman Shen once said in an exclusive interview: "Our goal is to become the first profitable new force in the world." A month later, he once again made a public bet with Wang Xing, the founder of Meituan, on a social platform, saying that Weimar would definitely become the top three new forces in building cars.
But looking back on the comprehensive performance of several car companies for a long time in the past, there is always a feeling that Weimar seems to have encountered certain difficulties and challenges. No matter from the annual sales volume, financing performance, listing process, user feedback and other dimensions, it has begun to "lag behind" Weilai, Tucki and Ideal. Obviously, this situation is not what this new force wants to see.
Therefore, the official listing of Weimar W6 at present has largely undertaken the mission of solving the "crux" it is experiencing at present. In fact, as early as the beginning of this year 1 month, this model was officially off the assembly line at Weimar Huanggang factory. The biggest highlight at the product level is not only the sense of design, quality and luxury in the interior and appearance of EX5 and EX6 models, but also the intelligence level.
According to official data, W6 was developed by Weimar and Baidu Apollo platform. New designs have been adopted in electronic and electrical architecture, gateway, domain controller, voice interaction and scene experience. The whole vehicle is equipped with 24 sensors, including 5 77GHz millimeter-wave radars, 7 cameras and 12 ultrasonic radar.
At the same time, you can imagine such a scene: the user only needs to park the vehicle at the gate of the parking lot, and the vehicle will automatically enter the parking lot in an unmanned state, find a parking space and park it. It is also convenient to drive out of the parking lot. As long as the mobile phone is remotely controlled with one button, the vehicle will still automatically drive out of the parking lot and safely stop in front of the user. The above scenes also appeared in the live promotional film of the conference.
In addition, Weimar W6 also adopts a brand-new electronic and electrical architecture. The hardware level is equipped with the first 7-nanometer process automotive-grade Qualcomm 8 155 chip, 5G baseband and Weimar's self-developed autopilot controller, which can achieve stronger OTA upgrade capability.
In addition, according to Freeman Shen, "Weimar W6 has realized the unmanned driving capability in the high-frequency parking scene with the help of the million-level cloud computing capability of Baidu Apollo platform. In the future, Weimar will cooperate with Baidu Apollo to extend more scenes, including advanced assisted driving under open roads. It is expected that 202 1 will meet users through OTA. "
At the end of the conference, someone finally welcomed the subsidized price of Weimar W6. Among them, the NEDC 520 km endurance version ranges from169,800 yuan to 209, ranging from 800 yuan; The price of NEDC 620 cruise version ranges from 239,800 yuan to 259,800 yuan. Freeman Shen also assured all users that Weimar does not produce "futures" and the first batch of products can be delivered as early as the end of April.
Feel pressure
In all fairness, the biggest and deepest experience of attending the whole conference is that Weimar did not make any fatal mistakes. From corporate vision to user stories, from star booths to product launches, it can be said that this is a car enterprise conference in the standard sense.
However, in the eyes of many people, there is a lack of excitement like NIO Day in Weilai and "1024" Engineer Day in Tucki, and there is also a lack of the feeling of being a new force that is constantly innovating or even uncontrollable. Excessive stability may also become Weimar's current problem.
On April 3rd, Beijing time, about 10 days ago, the 50th owner of Weimar EX5 was officially born. As of March this year, this model has won the single-model sales champion of the new car-making forces for 17 months in a row, becoming the first model in the new car-making forces to sell more than 50,000 vehicles.
In this regard, Freeman Shen publicly stated: "The trust of users is the source of Weimar's insistence on popularizing science and technology. Next, Weimar Automobile will adhere to its initial intention, continue to mass-produce forward-looking technology, and provide products and services with safe, reliable, stable quality, excellent experience and reasonable cost. " As everyone knows, such good news was completely covered up by the news that the first100000 new car of Weilai rolled off the assembly line.
In fact, it seems unfortunate that Weimar met a milestone, but it hit the latter, which is now in full swing. However, what is reflected behind this is the relative weakness of its brand discourse power level. As for the final selling price of W6 announced at this conference, to be honest, it is also considered as "conscience" only from the product strength level, but compared with the unexpected pricing of Ford Mustang Mach-E and Krypton 00 1 mentioned at the beginning of the article, it still lacks the "determination" to completely counterattack.
However, such a choice may still have its own considerations and standards. As early as June 5438+10, in a small-scale interview after the off-line ceremony of Weimar W6, Freeman Shen gave the answer on how to define a brand-new year: "I define it myself, 202 1 will be the year for Weimar to speed up its strategy, and Weimar will speed up its running in products, intelligence, channels and technology." To be sure, I can still feel his confidence from it.
On the way out of the conference, I also wrote a paragraph in my circle of friends: "Weimar W6 has really come, and the product strength has definitely improved a lot compared with before. But in the increasingly competitive track at the moment, because of the existence of many variables, everything is hard to say. "
In short, in the face of the status quo, Freeman Shen and his Weimar car have no pressure, which must be a lie to perfunctory outsiders. Then, how to use the arrival of W6 to turn pressure into motivation and solve many problems is the time to really test the foundation. After all, "excellent or out" is the banner that the previous person once set up. ...