news

On August 6, the Xiangjie S9 jointly launched by Hongmeng Zhixing and BAIC was officially released, positioned as the first executive luxury flagship sedan. As the third "jie" of Huawei's "jie" brand, Xiangjie S9 not only complements Hongmeng Zhixing's territory in the field of executive luxury flagship sedans, but also fills the gap in Beijing's automotive industry. In recent years, BAIC Group has "incubated" a high-end smart new energy vehicle brand - Polar Fox, and Ideal Auto's green smart manufacturing base and Xiaomi Auto projects have been successively established in Beijing. BAIC Blue Valley has also joined hands with CATL and Xiaomi Auto to build a joint venture to build a battery cell factory. With the release of Xiangjie S9, Beijing's car-making territory has further expanded "upward", accelerating the release of new quality productivity.

The third "realm" is online

Following the "Wenjie" and "Zhijie", Hongmeng Intelligent Driving has entered the third "jie" and filled the gap in the field of executive luxury flagship sedans.

It is understood that as the first luxury flagship sedan of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, the entire series of Xiangjie S9 is equipped with Huawei's 800V giant whale battery of 100 kWh as standard, and the MAX version has a pure electric range of 816 kilometers under CLTC conditions. At the same time, the model is equipped with the exclusive Tuling platform for D-class sedans, front and rear spring-reducing integrated structure, and standard 5-speed adaptive air suspension. The braking distance from 100 to 0 is only 32.77 meters, and the moose test score is 81.4 kilometers per hour. In addition, Xiangjie S9 also launched the first motion sickness relief mode and the first mass-produced sedan rear zero-gravity seat.

Yu Chengdong, Huawei's executive director, CEO of the Device BG, and chairman of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, compared the efficiency of the interior space to the "room efficiency" of a house, and said that the Enjoy S9 is "bigger than a Mercedes-Benz". As the first executive luxury flagship sedan of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving, the Enjoy S9 will directly compete with models such as the Mercedes-Benz S and BMW 7 Series.

Although the Xiangjie S9 targets luxury executive flagship models of luxury brands such as BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi), its pricing still continues the "low-to-high" strategy of the previous Xiangjie M9. It is understood that the recommended price of the Xiangjie S9 Max version is 399,800 yuan, and the recommended price of the Ultra version is 449,800 yuan, while the administrative luxury flagship sedans of luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW are priced at more than 700,000 yuan. Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that on the one hand, the Xiangjie S9 has increased its intelligence and configuration to enhance the consumer experience; on the other hand, it competes with other luxury brands through competitive prices to seize more market share.

Previously, Hongmeng Zhixing has verified its order conversion ability in the luxury car market through Wenjie M9. Data shows that in the first half of this year, Hongmeng Zhixing occupied 36.5% of the market share in the luxury market above 500,000 yuan with Wenjie M9. Yu Chengdong said that Xiangjie S9 is Hongmeng Zhixing's first luxury flagship sedan, and together with Wenjie M9, it forms the "double 9" flagship. This means that after the listing of Xiangjie S9, it will form a "combination punch" with Wenjie M9 to jointly compete for the luxury market share.

Beijing's car manufacturing "strikes new heights"

In fact, the Xiangjie S9 not only fills the gap in the high-end market of Hongmeng Zhixing, but also becomes the first executive luxury flagship sedan in Beijing's automobile industry. According to statistics, the penetration rate of domestic brands in China's executive luxury car market was only 8.3% last year, which means that only 8 out of every 100 executive luxury cars are domestically produced.

It is worth mentioning that before the launch of Xiangjie S9, the transformation and upgrading of Beijing's automobile industry continued to accelerate. In the era of traditional fuel vehicles, Beijing has successively landed many well-known traditional automobile manufacturers such as BAIC, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz in the field of automobile manufacturing. Data shows that in 2016, the production of passenger cars in Beijing was nearly 1.6 million, of which Beijing Hyundai contributed nearly 60% of the production.

After the rise of the new energy vehicle industry, Beijing quickly turned around in the layout of the automobile manufacturing industry. In 2018, BAIC New Energy began to prepare for the construction of Beijing's high-end intelligent ecological factory; in 2019, Mercedes-Benz new energy vehicles were landed in Shunyi District, Beijing as a key project. Not only that, Beijing has also quickly introduced new brands to increase the manufacturing of new energy vehicles. On November 27, 2021, the Management Committee of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone") signed a contract with Xiaomi Technology, officially announcing that the Xiaomi Automobile project will be settled in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. According to the Xiaomi Automobile project plan, the factory will be built in two phases. The first phase covers an area of ​​nearly 720,000 square meters, will start construction in April 2022, and will be completed in June 2023; the second phase is scheduled to start construction this year and be completed next year. In addition, Beijing has also introduced a new force in car manufacturing-Lixiang Auto. On October 16, 2021, Lixiang Auto's Beijing Green Intelligent Manufacturing Base officially started construction in Shunyi District, Beijing, transforming Beijing Hyundai's first factory to build a pure electric passenger car intelligent manufacturing factory. At present, Beijing has many passenger car manufacturers, including Beijing Hyundai, Beijing Benz, Xiaomi Auto, Beijing Auto, Foton, and Ideal.

At present, China's automobile industry is achieving "overtaking on curves" through electrification and intelligence, and high-end automobile manufacturing has become one of the keys. To this end, Beijing has also regarded the "upward" development of automobile manufacturing as the key to transformation. Previously, BAIC Group launched a high-end automobile brand - Polar Fox. At present, the Polar Fox brand has launched a number of models including Koala, Alpha S Forest Edition PRO, Alpha T Forest Edition PRO, Alpha S Forest Edition, Alpha S HI Advance Edition, Alpha T5, etc. This year, Polar Fox will launch the Alpha S5 again, and the model lineup will be expanded again. Dai Kangwei, general manager of BAIC New Energy, said: "The Alpha S5 drives like a BMW and sits like a Mercedes-Benz."

It is understood that this year, BAIC Group's R&D investment will reach 13.21 billion yuan, with a R&D team of more than 8,000 people, and the cumulative R&D investment will exceed 100 billion yuan by 2030. In addition, when the Xiangjie S9 was released, Zhang Jianyong, chairman of BAIC Group, said: "BAIC has 20 years of experience in high-end luxury car manufacturing with more than 5 million units." Behind this is the long-term and in-depth cooperation between BAIC Group and Mercedes-Benz. Previously, Beijing Benz announced that its cumulative production exceeded the 5 million mark and officially entered the "double 5 million" stage of vehicle and engine production.

During the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference this year, the new economy, represented by new quality productivity and digital economy, became the key words for the whole society to focus on high-quality development. Strategic emerging industries and future industries are the main battlefields for the formation of new quality productivity. This year's government work report also proposed to vigorously promote the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerate the development of new quality productivity. The proposal of new quality productivity means that mastering more key core technologies has become the core of enterprise development. With the release of Xiangjie S9, Beijing's layout in high-end and intelligent areas has been enhanced, and Beijing's car-making map has further expanded "upward", accelerating the release of new quality productivity.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Liu Xiaomeng