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Author | Zhen Yao

Editor | Li Guozheng

After 6 years, the man who gambled his last name for Wei brand is back.

On the evening of August 21, 2024, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors - one of the benchmark figures in China's automotive industry - returned to the press conference stage and stepped into the spotlight.

Black slim-fit shirt, black trousers, black belt. On that day, this pure combination on Wei Jianjun seemed to convey some deep and strong signal silently.

This time, he came for the launch of Great Wall's first NOA smart six-seat flagship SUV, the new Blue Mountain, and for the glory and dream of China's first independent luxury brand, WEY. The last time he hosted a press conference was the 2018 "WEY 2nd Anniversary Brand Night" event.

He also came for his passion. That night, Wei Jianjun gave a one-hour speech with the theme of "Passion". He not only shared with guests online and offline the story of how the new Blue Mountain has overcome difficulties in research and development, but also told the story of the mid-frequency cash flow. He said:

"'Wei' is not only a symbol, but also a heritage. Wei brand is a brand that I have put my last name on."

"Great Wall is a company born out of passion, and we have the purest passion for making cars."

"Wei brand will not only survive next year, but will continue to survive, and will get better and better."

"Great Wall's industry-leading end-to-end large model uses the logic of teaching AI to drive to develop intelligent driving... and ranks first in smoothness test scores!"

"The first echelon of intelligence, I think the word 'echelon' should be removed..."

Wei Jianjun's return to the press conference stage this time is not just a simple return, but also an interpretation of his unremitting pursuit of innovation, smart driving, quality, dreams and passion as the head of Great Wall Motors.

At the press conference that day, Wei's new Blue Mountain launched the Intelligent Driving Max version and Intelligent Driving Ultra version, with official guide prices of 299,800 yuan and 326,800 yuan respectively. It also prepared 9 exclusive car purchase benefits, among which the most exciting one is the "Intelligent Driving Gift" - the city NOA (intelligent navigation driving assistance) function worth up to 26,000 yuan, and users are promised free use for life.

The launch of the new Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition is not just about the car, but also carries three far-reaching meanings:

First, it marks the entry of the six-seat SUV market into a new era of intelligence and sets a new benchmark in the field of high-end intelligent travel. As the epitome of Great Wall Motors' intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit and luxury quality, the new Blue Mountain has shown its sharp edge to the market with its solid technical background and super high product value.

Second, which became an important turning point in the development of Great Wall Motors. The new Blue Mountain successfully broke the inherent impression that "traditional luxury brands have driving quality but lack intelligence, while new power brands are intelligent but have poor driving experience", achieved a double leap in intelligence and driving, and entered the first echelon of global intelligent driving technology.

ThirdIt opened a new stage of development for Wei Brand, elevated Wei Brand’s brand image to a new height, and once again let the outside world know that Wei Brand uses the new Blue Mountain as the first stop for the dissemination of intelligent technology. Relying on the 34 years of technological accumulation of Great Wall Group, it continues to create intelligent technology labels and convey the brand concept of "Technology Wei" for a better life.

Because of love

Passion is the engine that drives dreams and creates all seemingly impossible miracles.

People still remember that Weipai has gone through a lot of ups and downs and controversies since its birth in 2016.

In the early stages when it was not widely favored, doubts, ridicule and suspicion came like a tide.

But all these have become the paving stones for Weipai to move forward. The launch of the new Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition has completely dispelled people's doubts.

Wei Pai has been able to grow steadily despite the denial of others because of its unyielding faith, as well as its precious courage and self-persistence.

People often describe Wei Jianjun's character as a "steel straight man", but if you think about it carefully, isn't life a complex and changeable journey, far from a simple straight line?

What force has supported Wei Jianjun to where he is today, and what has enabled Wei Brand to break through and move forward all the way?

The answer is love.

Ten years ago, Al Ries, the founder of American positioning theory and known as the "Father of Positioning", came to China despite his advanced age of nearly 90. He visited Great Wall Motors in Baoding, Hebei, and put forward a forward-looking suggestion - to establish a high-end brand. He used the last name of the helmsman Wei Jianjun as inspiration for the brand name and conceived an English name "WEY" for this high-end brand.

The poetic name is a tribute to Wei Jianjun's personal achievements and vision, and is also a bold attempt for China's automobile industry to enter the international stage.

The global automotive industry is full of stars. Germany is proud of Mercedes-Benz, the United States has Ford leading the way, and Japan is world-renowned for Toyota. Faced with such an international industry landscape, why can't China have a "WEY" that can represent itself and compete with the world's top brands?

"Our Chinese surname is not only a symbol, but also a promise." Wei Jianjun once said that Wei brand is a brand that I have staked my surname on. It is the first luxury SUV brand in China and we must use Great Wall's best resources, best technology, and best talents.

In this way, WEY was born.

The story that followed is well known. The WEY brand rose rapidly: in its first anniversary, WEY brand sales exceeded 50,000 units; in its second anniversary, WEY brand became the first Chinese luxury brand to achieve sales of 200,000 units in two years; in its third anniversary, WEY brand sales reached 300,000 units.

At that time, Wei Jianjun's plan was to build WEY into a world-leading smart luxury brand by 2025.

Despite the ups and downs, WEY has never stopped and has always adhered to the core concept of "technology leads the future" and insisted on the ultimate strategy of over-investment, over-research and development, and over-configuration.

From the perspective of the group, in recent years, Great Wall Motors has accelerated the process of intelligent transformation with unprecedented determination and strength. It has not only continued to increase investment in research and development to ensure that every penny is accurately invested in key areas of the intelligent strategy, but also through a series of special actions, it has turned the intelligent strategy from blueprint into reality.

Data can prove Great Wall Motors' determination and persistence: annual R&D investment ranks first in the industry, exceeding 11 billion yuan in 2023; a R&D team of more than 24,000 people and 1,131 public patents in the field of intelligence have jointly built a solid barrier for Great Wall Motors in the field of intelligent technology...

From the earliest days of playing with AI in the spatial domain to today's large language model team, visual AI team, AI Lab and other intelligent teams - the investment regardless of cost and forward-looking technology layout have brought Great Wall Motors industry-leading technological advantages.

All these are empowered to Weipai. As a result, Weipai has become the epitome of Great Wall Motors' pioneering intelligent technology. Each car of this brand always has extremely strong subversive and pioneering attributes. Today, people see this ability and potential again on the new Blue Mountain.

First Tier

Times are changing and cars are evolving.

From smart cockpits to highway NOA and urban map-free intelligent driving, it is clear that the automotive industry is undergoing unprecedented changes. The concept of "no intelligent driving, no car selection" has become the loudest voice in the current wave of new automotive changes.

When will the first “truly” smart-driving new luxury SUV for Chinese families arrive?

The new Blue Mountain is the first choice for opening the door to a new era of smart luxury. Its most obvious label is that it leads Great Wall Motors in smart development, integrates Great Wall Motors' latest and most advanced smart technologies, and creates a new benchmark for industry intelligence.

This car is equipped with the latest generation of intelligent driving system Coffee Pilot Ultra, based on Orin-X's high computing power platform, equipped with 27 smart sensors including lidar, and adopts a visual camera + lidar fusion solution, with leading perception capabilities in its class.

With the support of the huge computing power of the end-to-end intelligent driving model - SEE and the industry-leading supercomputing center - Jiuzhou, the new Blue Mountain truly realizes full-scene NOA without relying on high-precision maps. Whether in downtown areas, narrow roads, rural roads or winding mountain roads, it can be driven whenever you want, without maps, and there are no limits to intelligent driving.

This is NOA without a map. Based on powerful hardware perception capabilities, it can combine navigation map information and perception information to clearly restore the complete road environment without relying on high-precision maps. Compared with the latter, NOA without a map can meet more daily travel scenarios.

A few months ago, when Weipai's intelligentization process began to show its edge, there was no lack of doubts from the outside world: Great Wall is not a new force, can it really be intelligent? Can the intelligent level of the cockpit lead the trend? Does it have the hard-core strength to achieve NOA in complex urban environments?

In response to these questions, Great Wall Motors only had three words - see you on the road.

On April 15 this year, the new Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving debuted in Baoding, which was not covered by high-precision maps. It was not only Wei Jianjun's first live show, but also a pioneering work in the automotive industry - the first live show of NOA functions without the assistance of high-precision maps, and the route also covered the elevated road, the old city, the commercial street and Liudaokou, the most complex road condition in Baoding.

The new Blue Mountain lived up to expectations. The total mileage of the intelligent driving test was 16.6 kilometers, the average speed was 24.7 km/h, the complex road section was driven for 11.5 kilometers, and the pass rate of no lane line/blurred lane line was 100%, which delivered an impressive answer and amazed the industry.

More than a month later, Great Wall Motors took on the challenge again and moved the venue for the second urban NOA live test directly to Chongqing, which is known as the "3D Magic City".

Chongqing, a mountain city with a complex transportation network, is known as a testing ground and totem for urban intelligent driving technology, but it can also become a purgatory if things go wrong. The Great Wall Motors team fearlessly selected several of the most challenging locations as test check-in points.

Wei Jianjun was still in the test, driving the Wei-branded Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition. "In the first half of the test, I didn't say much, and the back of my shirt was soaked. I was worried about the intelligent driving team." Wei Jianjun said, "After half an hour, I was completely relieved. Especially when I passed the straight bend of the Jiefangbei underground passage, I thought to myself, 'This is awesome.'"

As the outside world has seen, Blue Mountain has easily overcome those challenges, even in the most driver-dizzying sections.

In fact, Great Wall Motors delivers safe and advanced intelligent driving technology to users, which is the result of countless tests and optimizations, and the complexity and rigor of the technology far exceeds expectations.

In addition to coping with complex traffic environments such as Baoding and Chongqing, Great Wall Motors has conducted comprehensive and in-depth tests on the NOA system under extreme weather conditions such as heavy rain, heavy snow, and heavy fog many times, with the sole purpose of making it safer for users to use.

Of course, no matter how useful smart driving is, it is still auxiliary at the current stage; no matter how useful smart driving is, the primary responsible party is still the driver; no matter how useful smart driving is, you still have to hold the steering wheel.

"Therefore, we emphasize every time we broadcast live that at the current stage, all intelligent driving and experiences must be based on safe driving." Weipai CEO Liu Yanzhao emphasized at the press conference on the 21st that Great Wall Motors never engages in blind exaggeration, but objectively looks at the advantages and limitations of current intelligent assisted driving, which is the greatest guarantee for the life safety of drivers and passengers and even all traffic participants.

Pursuit of perfection

In the Chinese automobile manufacturing industry, Weipai is unique and has always been praised by the industry as a model of not following the ordinary path and daring to take on tough tasks. Since the moment the brand was established, Weipai has clearly defined its development concept of pursuing perfection - either don't do it, or do it to perfection.

It is precisely because of the unremitting pursuit of perfection that every Wei brand car brings unprecedented subversion and innovation to the industry and the market.

On April 13, 2023, Wei's large six-seat comfortable electric SUV, Blue Mountain, was launched. In just five days, it won more than 5,000 large orders. Subsequently, the order volume soared all the way and quickly exceeded 10,000.

Following the Blue Mountain, Weihai launched the New Mocha, a luxury large five-seater SUV priced at RMB 230,000 on June 1 last year. With Weihai's consistent high quality standards and superior product strength, this car instantly ignited consumers' enthusiasm. Seven days after its launch, the pre-orders easily exceeded 10,000.

As soon as the new Blue Mountain was launched on the market, it attracted market attention, with sales reaching 8,571 units within 24 hours.

These three consecutive victories are a strong proof of the strength of the Wei brand and also a reflection of the significant improvement in the innovation and competitiveness of the Chinese automobile industry.

Blue Mountain and New Mocha have entered the market with the strong positioning of "smart SUV expert" and "luxury cabin leader" respectively, bringing users a brand new driving experience and luxurious enjoyment, and injecting new vitality and hope into the Chinese automobile market.

In addition to smart driving, the experience of the smart cockpit is also a top priority for Weipai's development. In mid-June this year, Weipai innovatively created the industry's first Coffee OS 3 smart cockpit.

The Coffee OS 3 car system can be called a "three-good student" and soon became the darling of various lists: in August, it obtained the industry's first "Smart Cockpit Smooth Performance" certification certificate from Tel Certification; in July and August, it ranked first on AnTuTu's car system performance list for two consecutive months, and also won first place on Master Lu's car system smoothness list.

"This thing is very 'Great Wall'. It keeps silent at ordinary times, but it explodes when it strikes." This is the recognized evaluation in the industry.

The new Blue Mountain is equipped with the Coffee OS 3 car system. In terms of configuration, it is equipped with Great Wall Motors' Coffee AI Sound intelligent audio system, 23 rare earth strong magnetic speakers adopt a 7.1.4 sound field layout, and the peak power can reach 2440W, bringing an audio-visual immersion effect that exceeds the concert hall scene.

The linkage of five screens is another highlight of the new Blue Mountain. The main driver has a 12.3-inch instrument and a 29-inch ultra-large SR-HUD, which can display larger and clearer vehicle information. The central control and co-driver are equipped with a 15.6-inch 2.5K ultra-high-definition dual screen, which uses a 7mm ultra-narrow frame and a 9.5mm ultra-thin floating design. It is the thinnest LCD in mass production in the industry. The second and third row passengers have the largest 17.3-inch 3K ultra-high-definition entertainment screen in the same class, which supports Coffee Air Touch gesture micro-control.

Obviously, the new Blue Mountain has used a combination of measures, including the car computer, chip, audio system and five-screen linkage, to create a "real" smart driving new luxury SUV.

In terms of power, this car also opens up a new era.

The Hi4 performance version of the new Blue Mountain is the pinnacle of plug-in hybrid technology and the optimal solution for urban family cars. As an intelligent electric hybrid four-wheel drive architecture designed specifically for family cars, it applies the latest generation of new energy hybrid technology, improves economy, power and smoothness, and achieves optimal efficiency in all working conditions and worry-free driving in all scenarios.

The new Blue Mountain has been upgraded with a 52.3 kWh large battery, a WLTC comprehensive range of 1,343 kilometers, and a comprehensive fuel consumption of 6.5L per 100 kilometers (Max version). It adopts dual-motor dual-axle drive and iTVC intelligent torque vector control, which makes the control stable and comfortable in multiple scenarios.

Moreover, it has three power modes: pure electric, pure electric priority, and intelligent hybrid. The three-engine and nine-mode seamless adaptive switching can easily cope with various travel scenarios.

In terms of driving experience, the new Blue Mountain is equipped with CDC electronically controlled shock absorbers with millisecond response, a rear five-link independent suspension, and master-level chassis tuning and optimization, bringing a driving experience comparable to that of a million-dollar luxury car. At the same time, in response to the pain point of motion sickness, it helps families avoid 2Hz and 5Hz bumps during driving, making it the first large six-seater SUV that does not cause motion sickness.

Jobs once said: "Apple's mission is not to meet customer needs, but to let customers know what they really need."

In other words, truly leading companies are creating demand. Meeting demand can at best preserve the stock, while creating demand can create incremental demand and expand the market.

This leadership is reflected in Great Wall, Weipai and Blue Mountain. In particular, the launch of the new Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition has injected new vitality and expectations into the Chinese large six-seat SUV market.

This market segment is full of models from world-renowned brands such as BMW and Toyota, as well as many emerging domestic brands, and the competition is fierce. The new Blue Mountain can stand out from the crowd by refusing to blindly follow the trend, insisting on self-innovation, and leading the trend with a differentiated strategy.

At present, Great Wall Motors' intelligent strategies have been implemented one after another, enabling Wei brand to embark on a new journey.

"Great Wall is a minority, one of the few companies that maintains independent thinking, constantly breaks boundaries, and is not afraid of failure." As Wei Jianjun said, Wei Brand will not only survive next year, but will continue to survive, and will get better and better.

Passion is all the reasons and answers. This is the deep and strong signal that people read from Wei Jianjun and the new Blue Mountain.