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interface news reporter | zhou shuqi

an conghui, president of geely holding group and ceo of zeekr intelligent technology, has participated in the pricing of new models many times in the 28 years since he joined geely auto, but he believes that the latest suv model released by zeekr, the zeekr 7x, is the most difficult to price. on the one hand, the fiercely competitive homogeneous market environment does not allow for pricing errors, and on the other hand, the zeekr 7x is another attempt by this new car-making force to challenge the mainstream market.

on september 20, zeekr's second model, the zeekr 7x, targeting the mainstream home market, was officially launched, offering only three versions, priced from 229,900 to 269,900 yuan. according to an conghui, the pre-sale performance of this new car in 20 days was 58,000 units.

the pure electric suv market of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan is the focus of the current competition among new energy vehicle brands. in just one week, four products, including the zeekr 7x, were launched one after another, and all of them were launched by experienced companies with big brands and rich experience in manufacturing and product definition.

the difference between zeekr 7x and many competing products is that it is not a product developed to match the tesla model y pixel by pixel. it abandons the fastback trend led by the model y and returns to the square and large space shape of traditional suvs; it emphasizes the passability and escape ability of suvs, with a ground clearance of more than 190 mm, which is comparable to hard-core off-road models.

an conghui revealed in an interview with jiemian news and other media that when zeekr 7x was first designed three years ago, it also considered a fastback shape. however, after internal discussions, it was believed that the low wind resistance advantage brought by the fastback shape could also be solved through the advancement of three-electric technology. the classic suv shape is more acceptable to users, and the passenger cabin space is larger, which also achieves differentiated competition in this most competitive market segment.

during the transformation process, traditional automobile companies usually face the difficult problem of balancing innovation and risk, as well as innovation and efficiency. learning from and imitating the paths that other companies have already taken is indeed more efficient and avoids waste of resources, but at the same time it also loses the unique characteristics of their own products, resulting in a vague user portrait.

a senior auto analyst told jiemian news that in the mature market environment for fuel vehicles, choosing benchmark models and launching more cost-effective products was efficient and useful. however, in the era of new energy vehicles, the market environment is developing dynamically, and daring to innovate and launching differentiated products is the top priority.

lin jinwen, vice president of zeekr intelligent technology, told jiemian news that there are more than one pixel-level copies of tesla model y, and the price is 70,000 to 80,000 yuan cheaper, but it has not achieved sales success.

"if you really want to surpass tesla, you can't wear its shoes, walk its path, and then reach its peak. this is not a realistic thing."

zeekr has set an annual sales target of 230,000 vehicles this year, and has delivered 121,500 vehicles in the first eight months. the zeekr 007 sedan, which was launched at the beginning of this year, was zeekr's first product to break into the mainstream market of 200,000 yuan, but it did not achieve the expected results. this new brand, which has been independent for three years, urgently needs to create another hit after the zeekr 001.

zeekr has invested a lot of money and resources in the zeekr 7x. the new car uses the industry's advanced one-piece hot-expansion process, extending 2000 mpa ultra-high-strength hot-formed steel from the a-pillar to the rear head, reaching an industry-leading length of 2.35 meters. in the field of intelligent driving, where competition has entered a fierce stage, the zeekr 7x will start the public beta test of the map-free city navigation auxiliary function at the end of october, two months ahead of schedule.

lin jinwen told jiemian news that the zeekr 7x and zeekr 001 are in the same price range, but the user groups are very different. the consumers of the 7x are three to four years older than the 001 and are more focused on family, while the 001 users pay more attention to driving experience, etc.

on the same day that zeekr 7x was released, geely holding group, the parent company of zeekr brand, released the taizhou declaration. this is the second time that geely group has released a strategic plan that outlines the overall development of the group in the future, after releasing the ningbo declaration in 2007.

the declaration mentioned that geely group will sort out geely's various business segments, clarify the positioning of each brand, reduce conflicts of interest and duplicate investments, and improve resource utilization efficiency. jiemian news learned that geely group has started to integrate resources from r&d, for example, the lotus research institute has been merged into the geely central research institute.

zeekr's self-developed haohan architecture electric platform has long been shared with various sub-brands of the geely group, including jeep, lynk & co and other brands that compete with zeekr. to some extent, zeekr is the core driving force behind the geely group's transformation to new energy.

on the intelligent driving route, an conghui introduced that "geely holding group has integrated multiple intelligent driving routes, and has formed two intelligent driving routes represented by zeekr and geely auto. the former focuses on high-end, and the latter focuses on high-value (low-end) intelligent driving solutions. at present, we have reached a high degree of consensus internally, and these two intelligent driving solutions will jointly cope with domestic and international market competition."