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how fast is china's new energy market developing?

if you haven’t paid attention to the new energy market for a while, when you look at it again, you may feel that you are out of date.

take wuling motors as an example. in many people's impressions, wuling is best at low-end commuter vehicles. however, from the wuling starlight s that was launched on the eve of the chengdu auto show, it can be seen that wuling motors is no longer the same as the wuling that people are familiar with.

in an interview with me, sun dexing, passenger vehicle marketing director of saic-gm-wuling, also expressed confidence that there is no product that can "replace" wuling starlight s.

so, what kind of car is this?

1. what pain points does wuling starlight s address?

wuling starlight s started pre-sale on august 6 and was launched on the eve of the chengdu auto show on august 28. according to data from wuling's brand and marketing director si xing: orders had exceeded 10,000 units when it was launched.

the car is priced at 99,800 to 129,800 yuan, which is a relatively high-end product in wuling's new energy product lineup. but judging from the order volume, it is still quite popular.

this result may be beyond the expectations of many people. so what pain points of consumers has wuling starlight s grasped?

first of all, appearance.

in the era of fuel vehicles, wuling's models were not known for their appearance, but wuling starlight s continues the starlight aesthetic design concept. the front face is simple and elegant, with the wuling silver logo. there is nothing particularly eye-catching in terms of appearance, but it is stable and durable, not inferior to its competitors.

the second is the large space.

wuling xingguang s is positioned as a compact suv, with a body length of 4745mm, which is not a big advantage, but its wheelbase reaches 2800mm, the distance between the second row of seats reaches 985mm, and the length of the rear seat reaches 525mm. from my actual measurement, it is indeed large. at the same time, it also provides a 610l trunk, which can be expanded to 1768l after the rear seats are folded down.

at the same time, wuling starlight s also supports 180-degree folding of the front seats.

the main users of this car are family users. such flexible and spacious interior space can meet the family users' daily transportation, picking up children, self-driving tours, camping and other car needs.

in addition to good looks and large space, family users are also sensitive to the energy consumption of suvs. wuling xingguang s provides two power sources: pure electric and plug-in hybrid, realizing dual power in one car.

the wuling xingguang s pure electric model has a range of up to 510km and consumes 14kwh per 100km. it also comes standard with a 2c fast charging function, which can increase the range by 200km after charging for 15 minutes. the low cost of using the car and the fast charging are very attractive to family users.

the pure electric range of the wuling xingguang s plug-in hybrid version is divided into two types: 60km and 130km. in urban driving environments, it can be used as a pure electric model. at the same time, the fuel consumption of this car is only 3.9l per 100 kilometers under nedc conditions, which is slightly higher than that of pure electric models, but far lower than mainstream fuel vehicles of the same level.

on this basis, wuling xingguang s is also equipped with a 3.3kw external discharge function, which can provide emergency power supply and can also be connected to induction cookers, ovens, kettles and other electrical appliances. this is also preferred by home users.

in terms of intelligent driving, which consumers are more concerned about, wuling xingguang s chose dji as its partner, and provided l2-level driving assistance functions on the high-end versions of pure electric and plug-in hybrid models. it does not provide advanced functions such as city or highway noa, but functions such as active braking, lane departure warning, and lane keeping can still meet user needs in most cases.

in an exclusive interview after the listing meeting, zhao yifan, general manager of saic-gm-wuling product marketing center, said that the upgrade of dji's zhuoyu intelligent driving system will first be installed on wuling's models, and laser radar will also be used in the next three years.

in other words, wuling is still relatively stable in terms of intelligent driving. it focuses on the actual needs of users and gradually upgrades and replaces its products.

in fact, wuling starlight s has many other highlights, such as ultra-low wind resistance of 0.277cd, body structure parts with 82.5% high-strength steel, 1500mpa hot-formed parts at 24 key collision positions, etc. these are also to meet the needs of family users in terms of energy consumption and safety performance.

2. is wuling really a little different now?

with the launch of wuling starlight s, wuling's new energy product lineup has become richer. moreover, after entering the new energy era, wuling is indeed a little different.

wuling motors now has an intelligent manufacturing island factory and the independently developed "tianyu architecture", forming three technical brands: tian, ​​ling and shen. in addition to the tianling factory and tianyu architecture, there are also lingxi hybrid, lingmou intelligent driving, lingyu intelligent networking, and shenlian batteries in terms of components.

these components are all used in the wuling starlight s. they are the guarantee of product performance and also the difference between the current wuling motors and the past.

in the era of fuel vehicles, wuling's main impression is that it is "sturdy and durable", and it does not show its strength in the field of technology.

but in the new energy era, new energy vehicles such as wuling starlight s can be supported by wuling motors' complete set of new energy core technologies.

3. or is it “building cars for the people”?

from an objective point of view, although wuling has core technologies, there is still considerable room for improvement compared with the mainstream core technologies in the industry.

but wuling has an "ancestral skill", which is "wuling makes what the people need."

at present, china's new energy market is very competitive. the competition here mainly involves two ideas: first, competing in technology to see who can come up with more advanced core technology; second, competing in price to see who has the lowest price.

as things stand, it is still difficult for wuling to "roll" in top technology. but it can provide users with configurations and experiences that exceed those of its competitors within the same price range, thereby achieving technological equality, rather than blindly pursuing low prices.

taking wuling xingguang s as an example, the starting price of this car is 99,800 yuan, which is the price of mainstream compact new energy suv, but it has been recognized by many users since the pre-sale stage.

in fact, after the sales of wuling hongguang mini ev declined, wuling's new energy strategy has reduced its dependence on this type of micro-mobility vehicle and started to move into the market with higher positioning and higher prices. the entire brand is moving upward.

in fact, this is what consumers need.

simply offering low prices may not necessarily gain recognition; providing stronger product performance on the basis of reasonable prices is the true meaning of “building cars for the people”.

conclusion

regarding the xingguang s, after learning about it many times, i still hold the following conclusion: the appearance is decent with detailed texture, the cockpit is comparable to that of mid-to-high-end cars, the space setting is also very suitable for home use, the power selection is good, and the energy consumption is not high. i really appreciate the idea of ​​"spending little money to do big things", and the main word is: practical! there are actually two key points behind it: one is that wuling is not afraid of price wars; the other is that it really spends money wisely.

from the interviews after the meeting, it can be seen that wuling is capable of coming up with a complete set of core technologies, and with this set of technologies, wuling is constantly pushing its brand upward, which is actually a microcosm of the strong strength of china's new energy vehicle industry. for wuling, it not only benefits from such a market environment, but also contributes to this environment!

i am looking forward to the next new product of wuling more and more!