behind the explosion of orders for ledao l60: the family car market is accelerating the abandonment of fuel tanks
2024-09-23
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the 150,000 to 200,000 yuan class of family cars has welcomed a player who is powerful enough to subvert the market segment. on september 19, the first model of nio's new brand ledao, the ledao l60, was launched. the standard range 60-degree battery version is priced at 206,900 yuan; the long range 85-degree battery version is priced at 235,900 yuan.
after adopting the baas battery leasing solution, the price of this car starts at 149,900 yuan. this figure, which breaks through the floor price of medium-sized smart electric suvs, is impossible for a new brand with zero foundation to achieve in any case, but because it is ledao, with the foundation of nio's 10 years of system construction, it can be so "arrogant".
according to li bin, founder of nio, orders for the l60 exploded after its launch, and their next priority is to quickly increase production capacity. according to the plan, they will strive to deliver 5,000 new ledao cars in october, 10,000 in december, at least 16,000 in january next year, and 20,000 by march next year.
the confidence behind the 36-day, 20,000-kilometer test
before the new car launch conference began, xia qinghua, owner no. 0000001 of ledao l60 and head of ledao auto's user and service operations, stepped out of a new car in morning orange color in high spirits. he had just completed the ledao l60's journey around china.
from the moment the first ledao l60 rolled off the production line at nio's hefei f2 factory, he drove the car across china for 36 days, covering a total journey of more than 20,000 kilometers.
during the process, xia qinghua slept under the stars, cooked in the wilderness, drank tea in herders' homes, and encountered emergencies. for example, he encountered fog on the way from wenzhou to fuzhou, but the intelligent driving system of ledao l60 was "as stable as an old dog". when li bin, chairman of nio, asked him, "why didn't you lose a few pounds?", he replied, "i gained weight" because "the seats of l60 are too comfortable."
as the person in charge of user services, xia qinghua personally helped ledao users to accept the products, services and infrastructure of this new brand and this new car. these scenes are not staged, nor are they scripts, but real experiences in actual use.
in today's era where car manufacturing is like manufacturing consumer goods, a newly launched car often has various imperfections covered up by "ota", not to mention taking a car that has just rolled off the factory line and putting it through a real test on various road conditions. it can be said that this is ledao's extreme confidence in its product strength, manufacturing capabilities, and service system, and is also based on the unique confidence of the nio system endorsement.
we believe that this is not only a real and successful communication initiative, but it also proves to the outside world that this car has been perfect and leading in all aspects since its birth.
redefining the family suv
whenever a new brand is born, people always ask, does the chinese market still need a new brand? but this time we want to ask from a different angle - can the existing car brands meet all the needs of users? the answer is obviously no. in this way, the first question is also solved.
in the era of smart electric vehicles, technology iteration basically follows moore's law, which has led to many consumers buying a "far-ahead" car, which soon becomes an "old model". obviously, the long-term accumulation of industrial technology in the automotive industry has not been truly applied to the widespread mass market.
compared with the approach of "pleasing new users and stabbing old users in the back", nio's solution is to launch multiple brands for different groups of people and rationally utilize the overall technology reserves. this not only maintains the style of the nio brand itself, but also realizes "technology accessibility" in the family market.
the ledao l60 debuts seven world-leading technologies, which will be the leading technology for three to five years and the mainstream technology for eight to ten years. in short, it is always new with frequent use, and you don’t need to worry about the new car becoming old soon after you buy it.
however, in the field of family suvs, there is no shortage of strong players in the market. for example, the world's best-selling model y is a huge obstacle in front of the ledao l60. so where does the latter's competitiveness lie?
product strength is its strongest support.
in the 10 years since its establishment, nio has invested 10 billion yuan in research and development, and ledao l60 can be said to be a product that has been "honed for ten years" at the technological peak of nio. ledao l60 is a product of the "nt3.0 platform", and in this sense, it is even "ahead" of nio.
at the beginning of designing this car, ledao decided to focus on the high-frequency scenarios of family cars. therefore, safety, space, comfort, smart cabin, smart driving, energy consumption, these core needs of most families for daily travel are where ledao l60 stands out.
first, let’s look at intelligence. ledao l60 uses the nt.coconut intelligent system based on nio’s skyos, the global operating system for the entire vehicle. it is the first product in the industry to integrate the functions of smart driving, smart cabin, vehicle control, and vehicle connectivity, with lower costs, lower energy consumption, and higher computing power.
let's look at the epoch-making 900v silicon carbide architecture. under this architecture, the three-electric system can be made lightweight, small, and efficient. this is why this mid-size suv can achieve an excellent energy consumption of 12 kwh per 100 kilometers, which has reached the energy consumption level of small electric vehicles on the market. before this, no one could imagine that a battery with a capacity of 60 kwh could achieve a range of more than 500 kilometers.
what is more noteworthy is that the four-wheel drive model of ledao l60 is only 0.6kwh/100km higher than the two-wheel drive model, and the comprehensive cruising range is only 30 kilometers different. this energy consumption difference is rare among four-wheel drive models.
in terms of intelligent driving, ledao l60 is equipped with osd ledao intelligent driving system. pay attention to two key words, this system is "standard for all series" and "can be used when delivered", which is obviously more sincere than some manufacturers who have to wait for ota before delivery and treat high and low configurations differently. as for the chip and subdivision functions, it is definitely full, and the specific parameters can be referred to the official information. according to our previous actual use experience, it can be said that it is very easy to use and very desirable.
in terms of space, the 4.8-meter-long vehicle can achieve a wheelbase of 2950mm, the effective leg and knee space in the second row is 160mm, and the effective head space is 1010mm, which is unprecedented. to put it in a more vivid way, three 1.8-meter-tall people sitting in the back row can sit in a very relaxed posture. the improvement in space utilization is also due to the inherent advantages of the leading architecture.
in terms of comfort, the seats of ledao l60 use a very thick composite surface layer, which is soft and skin-friendly and has sufficient support. thanks to this, the middle position in the back row, which is usually the most reluctant to sit, has become "comfortable and equal". at the same time, the passenger seat is not only comfortable and adjustable, but also can be seamlessly connected with the back seat to form a large sofa where ge you can lie down.
the above-mentioned product features are not individual features that are randomly selected, but rather systematic designs made by ledao based on the actual needs of family users, and are also the best embodiment of weilai’s decade of technological accumulation. in this respect, it is no exaggeration to say that ledao l60 has redefined the family suv.
ledao + weilai: 1+1>2
for consumers, the addition of a groundbreaking family suv to the market is undoubtedly exciting, but for nio, ledao has even more far-reaching significance.
as the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has exceeded 50% for two consecutive months, the internal competition in the field of smart electric vehicles continues to intensify. whether traditional car companies or new forces, they need to "walk on two legs" to survive. one is the basic plate of volume to ensure revenue, and the other is the premium plate to increase profits. as for launching multiple brands, the stronger the system capabilities, the more it can play the synergy effect of 1+1>2, otherwise it will just be an additional business. behind ledao is the support of weilai, which has been established for 10 years and has deep technical reserves, service systems and energy infrastructure layout.
for example, the reason why the intelligent driving of ledao l60 is easy to use as soon as it is launched is inseparable from the technical foundation and real data accumulated by nio itself. for example, the rapid progress of ledao's current more than 300 battery swap stations and the access to more than 1,000 battery swap stations by the end of the year is also inseparable from the battery swap system that nio has started to build earlier. for another example, ledao has more than 350 service centers in more than 200 cities across the country as soon as its first car was launched, which is largely due to the service support of nio over the past 10 years.
in terms of key manufacturing capabilities, the second nio factory in hefei can realize the co-production of multiple models, providing flexible production capabilities for ledao. after all, although ledao l60 is ledao's first car, it is already the 12th car under nio's intelligent manufacturing system.
from another perspective, the birth of ledao is also "reversely helping" nio, especially in expanding sales and overall market share, as well as achieving a break-even point. in addition, ledao will also help nio's system capabilities continue to grow. still taking the battery swap system as an example, due to the different battery degrees of ledao and nio models, engineering fine-tuning of the battery swap station is required, which is equivalent to building a small system in a large system. once the transformation is completed, it means that nio's battery swap network has become more diversified and can adapt to more car models and battery models. you must know that faw, changan, gac, geely, chery, jac, and the new force jiyue have all joined nio's battery swap alliance. the powerful battery swap system is not only better adaptable to the brands within the alliance, but also further strengthens its moat and voice in the energy field.
in short, the relationship between ledao and nio is not just that the former has effectively utilized nio’s technological achievements, but that based on a set of underlying architectures and systems, they each fight in the market, yet can play a synergistic role, helping both to penetrate the c-end market faster, serve a wider user group, and accelerate nio’s ultimate vision of “blue sky coming”.
at last
nio's vision is also the vision of the industry. the automotive industry has long reached a consensus that the competition for new energy vehicles is not competitors, but fuel vehicles.
byd, as the first automaker to officially announce the discontinuation of fuel-powered vehicles, uses dmi technology to achieve lower fuel consumption than fuel-powered vehicles; huawei enters the market with hongmeng intelligent driving, promoting the industry's transformation from oil to electricity; nio, through its new brand ledao, applies cutting-edge intelligent and underlying electric technologies to family cars, achieving a balance between user experience and technical costs, so that mainstream families can enjoy the high-quality travel experience brought by advanced smart electric vehicles, thereby further accelerating the "oil-to-electricity" process.
every effort made by chinese brands is aimed at reversing the situation in which the automobile market was once dominated by joint ventures and foreign capital.
the birth of ledao l60 has redefined the 200,000 yuan-class family suv. it has achieved unprecedented efficiency in the "three electrics", achieving longer driving range, lower energy consumption, and faster charging; its intelligence and comfort have made joint venture fuel vehicles of the same level stay away; the baas solution allows more users to enjoy the value brought by technology at a lower threshold - after all, new technologies will only have practical significance for oil-to-electricity conversion if they are widely popularized.
ultimately, the significance of new energy vehicles is not just to replace blue license plates with green ones, but to accelerate the industry's transformation to low-carbon and green, to accelerate the application of energy technology and electronic information technology through new tracks, and to strengthen china's entire industrial chain. in this process, it is only natural for china's automobile industry to break the old pattern of being dominated by joint ventures and foreign capital.
zhou chunlin
(this article is from the paper. for more original information, please download the "the paper" app)
