Dialogue with Zhiji Automobile： The imagination of growth is very large.
[Aika Auto 2021 Shanghai Auto Show Original]
At the Shanghai Auto Show, Zhiji Auto brought its heavyweight product (|). Tamia Liu, co-CEO of Zhiji Auto, Jiao Qiao, the owner of Zhiji Auto, and Tuoyue, the senior director of Zhiji Auto Intelligent Driving Project, had a dialogue with the media, which answered some questions that netizens were concerned about Zhiji L7 in detail. The following is a record of the dialogue.
Media: The pre-sale price of L7 is announced, saying that Zhizhi has established itself as a high-end electric vehicle brand. What is the basis for supporting Zhiji’s high-end development? How does Zhiji obtain and solve user needs? What role did Ali play in Zhiji automobile system?
Zhiji Automobile: As the seventh largest OEM in the world, SAIC is undoubtedly the first in China. SAIC did not face any financial pressure when it was doing the Zhiji project. Therefore, we are not looking for the cooperation between Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba because of the demand for funds, but mainly to integrate the corresponding resources.
Alibaba has accumulated a lot in e-commerce and cloud computing, and Ali Dharma Institute has many forward-looking technologies, such as very advanced Alibaba Cloud technology, cloud computing technology, large-scale parallel data security technology, and related technologies such as customer operation in new retail. This is the core reason for Zhiji Automobile to seek Ali investment.
Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, known as China Silicon Valley, has talent advantages in chips, software, data, intelligence and many fields related to new energy. SAIC and Pudong have many years of in-depth cooperation, and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech can also provide chip, software and data support for Zhiji Automobile.
Based on the above reasons, we introduced Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba as the two major shareholders of Zhiji Automobile.
CEO-CEO of Zhiji Automobile-Tamia Liu
SAIC, as a high-end brand of Zhiji Automobile, is confident in — —
First, SAIC is already an established manufacturer in the manufacturing field, and its manufacturing supply chain capability is one of the strongest in the world. SAIC has an annual production and sales capacity of 7 million vehicles, while the China market only produces and sells about 24 million automobile products every year. The paint line, stamping line and final assembly line of SAIC are the strongest in China, and our car will be produced in Shanghai Lingang Global Lighthouse Factory. The technological level of this lighthouse factory, the level of robots and the precision of technological equipment are the strongest in the world. In addition, SAIC has a supply chain master like Huayu Automobile.
To give two examples, Yanfeng, a subsidiary of Huayu Automobile, is the largest and most technologically advanced interior integration solution provider in the world. Huayu Vision has also surpassed the global level in high-end headlights. Therefore, in terms of parts and components, the ability to support Zhiji automobile is very strong.
Second, from the technology itself, both hardware and software can fully support a luxury brand.
SAIC has invested heavily in hardware, software and platform. For example, the chassis platform used by Zhiji L7 came from 2016, when SAIC established a secret internal project team — — Project X is the predecessor of this car platform. It adapts to the future pure electricity exclusive architecture and the future SOA software architecture. Research and development work from 2016 to 2020, we have done a lot of accumulation in the early stage of this platform.
The car based on this platform can cover a wheelbase of 2800 ~ 3200mm, with a very large span. It can be compatible with battery packs ranging from 600 km to 1000 km, and can also be compatible with fast-changing and slow-changing battery technologies. At the same time, using all-aluminum chassis structure, all-aluminum material has two benefits for electric vehicles. The first is lightweight. At present, electric vehicles have two electric shafts and four-wheel drive, which are relatively heavy, so they must be lightweight. Secondly, the all-aluminum chassis, for electric advanced cars, is easier to guarantee handling and power.
At the same time, the rear wheel is equipped with the rear wheel steering function only available in millions of luxury cars, reaching plus or minus 12 degrees. The wheelbase of Zhiji L7 is 3100mm, which is the standard wheelbase of a complete C-class car. However, its steering radius is large, which makes it a little difficult to park in the city. The active steering of the rear wheel is to solve this problem, so that the steering radius is smaller and the frame control is more dexterous. At high speed, it can also rotate in the same direction, so that the yaw rate can be reduced by about 35% like driving a yacht, so that the vibration of the car is minimal when you change lanes. The rear wheel steering of many luxury cars is optional, but it is standard on Zhiji L7 car. There are many bright spots like this, so it can fully support the performance of the chassis of an advanced luxury brand from the hardware.
From the software point of view, SAIC has just released its SOA strategy not long ago. Zhiji Automobile is the application of SAIC SOA and the core user of SAIC Software Center Zero Beam. SOA platform has a very subversive value for consumers, which will help Zhiji brand to build what smart auto time should look like.
There are three kinds of target groups, namely, technology enthusiasts, egoists and fashion followers. These consumer groups are relatively young Kochi consumers with strong purchasing power and high knowledge level in the market. They have a common feature, that is, our brand slogan "I am self-reliant", because young consumers are very confident in their judgment of self-values and knowledge. Based on this judgment, the flexible software and hardware integration of SOA can be customized, which can bring me freedom and personal value to consumers.
Originally, air conditioners, seats, doors, skylights, intelligent driving, etc. on the car body were all mastered by core suppliers, and different suppliers were "islands of information". Today, with the SOA platform, we have the ability to encapsulate the underlying architecture of software atomically, and users can combine it at will. There are thousands of SOA capabilities that can be developed by 90 controllers. In theory, we can create unlimited combinations and customize the required functions according to the needs, instead of being limited by the so-called OEM. This is our interpretation of customers, which is also the point that our SOA can really empower.
Therefore, no matter in terms of soft or hard capabilities, or in terms of SAIC’s manufacturing capabilities, support capabilities, supply chain capabilities and quality control capabilities, it can fully support Zhiji, a luxury brand of China.
The automobile entered China in the 19th century, and it has been an imported western brand for so many years. But now the industry is rapidly upgrading to electric intelligence, especially intelligence. I think with China people’s deep understanding of intelligence and investment in Internet facilities, the smart electric vehicles in China will change the world in the future.
Media: What should be the structure of car companies in user-oriented enterprises? What are the uniqueness compared with these enterprises?
Zhiji Auto: We refuse to be a copycat of user data.
User data is very important, which will drive enterprises to move forward slowly and become the core driving force of iterative service experience. Therefore, we are the first to launch the CSOP user data rights plan, which has certain revolutionary changes in the company’s initial genes, which is not the same as other enterprises.
We set aside 4.9% of the equity income, and through 300 million "original stones", we gave back to our users for their data contribution. Take intelligent driving as an example, intelligent driving needs to be iteratively upgraded, and this requires continuous accumulation of user data to solve 10% of the long tail problem. Users can obtain the original stone through "in-program mining" or "cultivation mining", and the original stone can contribute to his data. In this way, users will become our co-creation partners in the era of smart cars, and they will have a deeper sense of participation. We will also give some feedback to users, make corresponding changes and changes to some suggestions and problems, and give them good products and corresponding rights and interests.
The company "Zhiji and I" is the operator of the 4.9% share income. This company is currently in charge of Jiao Qiao, truly standing on the front line and standing with customers. At the same time, he is also responsible for the communication between the user manager and the user in Zhiji Automobile, including the online community operated by our future users, including content production and so on.
From the organizational structure, it is completely different from the original automobile company. Our marketing will not have ATL and BTL. The original air launch, the middle fault, the 4S shop can’t meet, the operation is facing difficulties, and the marketing value will be greatly reduced. Now the real right to speak is in KOC and KOL, and most of our energy is in data-driven content sharing. The whole organizational structure is based on private domain operation and super user operation. We will break the original rules and re-establish brand-new channels.
Cars are high-value and low-frequency, while the Internet is low-value and high-frequency, which determines that it is difficult for automobile enterprises to operate customers, and our CSOP has completely solved this problem, which makes the viscosity between enterprises and customers very high, even higher than that of being hungry. The opportunity and frequency of customer operation will be completely different from the original, which gives us the opportunity to do real in-depth operation, which is a cornerstone for our marketing to be transformed into data-driven operation.
Media: Has Zhiji given any consideration to the plan of financing and listing?
Zhiji Automobile: We have a very complete plan for financing and listing, and there will be A, B and C financing plans and a very clear listing plan.
Person in charge of Zhiji automobile users-Jiao Qiao
Media: Where will the focus of Zhiji’s future investment be?
Zhiji Automobile: First of all, SAIC invested in Momenta for Zhiji Project. Momenta is one of the leading companies in autonomous driving software and algorithms, and is rated as one of the top 50 innovative enterprises in Silicon Valley. It is a very senior science and technology company in the field of autonomous driving. SAIC is Momenta’s golden customer, and has a very deep cooperation with them, so Zhiji Automobile can provide you with IMAD’s extraordinary customer experience today.
In the past few years, SAIC has increased its investment in software, such as companies in algorithms, software and data factories like Momenta; At the same time, we will also invest in key hardware areas, such as Horizon.
In addition, SAIC has invested in some soft and hard companies, which will become the origin of our empowerment, such as a company in Austria, Europe — — TTTech, the head enterprise of aircraft flight control RTOS. In the aspect of automatic driving control, real-time operating system is an unavoidable technical barrier. SAIC has established a joint venture with TTTech for a long time, and Zhiji Automobile will also use TTTech’s most advanced RTOS technology.
Besides, in terms of batteries, SAIC is not only a business partner of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, but also an investor of early CATL. Zhiji automobile can be applied to the top technology of CATL.
Media: Door to Door Pilot intelligent driving system, what is the current situation? There will be a lot of rising hardware costs in intelligent driving. How can Zhiji balance the rising hardware costs and pass them on to users, or how can users use this data to feed back their own hardware costs?
Zhiji Automobile: We have started a lot of intelligent driving test. The so-called Door to Door Pilot intelligent driving experience is to complete the whole intelligent assisted driving experience of automatic parking in the parking lot according to the preset navigation plan, through city navigation and high-speed navigation until the user leaves the car at the drop-off point and the vehicle automatically parks in the parking space.
Now everyone is targeting at structured roads, urban expressways or expressways, such as NGP or NOA, to realize the ability of multi-scene connection. Intelligent driving function is the next track, or a new arms race. For this piece, we have been conducting road tests since the end of last year, including the most challenging urban scene.
In terms of cost, let me give you an example. Originally, there were two things in the automobile industry, one called ESP and the other called ABS. At first, ESP was the exclusive configuration of high-end cars and high-end brands, and the hardware cost of the system was several thousand dollars. Later, it was proved that it could reduce the death rate of serious traffic accidents. After various countries made it standard, the cost decreased by more than 90%. The meaning of this example is that, first of all, intelligent driving should not be a tool for any business to make profits. I believe that intelligent driving will definitely become a standard in time, because it can really reduce the death rate of traffic accidents and is a social welfare, just like ESP in that year.
If it becomes standard, the cost will definitely be reduced. At present, the main challenge of intelligent driving perception system and chip system is to reach the vehicle regulation level, for example, the camera of vehicle regulation, whose requirements are mainly the process safety requirements of vehicle regulation and the requirements of high temperature, high humidity and high precision of vehicle regulation, which itself does not necessarily increase the material cost. The key is your understanding of the vehicle condition. When this industry awareness system becomes more and more standard, that is, when the assembly volume is increasing, its level will be significantly improved and the price will drop significantly, which has been confirmed many times in the automobile industry. As long as you have enough quantity and demand, the price is definitely not a problem.
In addition, the core now is IDP, which is the arithmetic control unit of intelligent driving. At present, this piece has two constraints, and the price of the chip is difficult to negotiate. Moreover, the universal chip based on vision is not really designed specifically for automatic driving perception. Its computing power of 30 tops may be 40% to 50% for real perception. In the future, the chip that is really used for autonomous driving perception may be customized.
The IPD chip is put on the car after being made into a control calculation unit, which requires a balance between production capacity, output and technical requirements. At present, only high-end cars are equipped with IPD chips. In the future, there will be a lot of room for decline in both perception and planning unit itself, so that it is possible to bring intelligent driving experience to all consumers.
Moreover, intelligent driving is an investment-intensive period in recent years, and the cost is very high. With the maturity of technology in the future, its efficiency will be greatly reduced, and consumers in the future can experience intelligent driving ability with more frequencies and lower thresholds.
Media: At present, in the field of autonomous driving perception, various enterprises have different technical paths. Excuse me, in the future, will Zhiji’s auto-driving system choose lidar as the technical development direction?
Zhiji Automobile: Zhiji L7 chose the vision-based automatic driving perception solution; The whole vehicle is equipped with 12 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, military-grade ultra-high precision inertial navigation, high-precision maps and V2X terminal technology.
Based on the advanced visual perception system, Zhiji L7 is also compatible with the redundancy scheme of lidar software and hardware architecture, and supports the upgrade capability of NVIDIA Orin X(500~1000+TOPS) and two lidar systems. Later, when the lidar enters the mature stage of commercial mass production, Zhiji L7 can quickly and conveniently upgrade the lidar system capability. Our second car, the LS7, will also be equipped with advanced laser radar software and hardware system after mass production.
Media: When is Zhiji Automobile expected to realize L4-class autonomous driving of a single route? When can I experience the Door to Door Pilot autopilot of Zhiji automobile?
Zhiji Automobile: In fact, the Zhiji L7, which started the pre-sale today, has the self-driving ability of Door to Door Pilot in some cities when it is delivered. Starting from June this year, we will gradually open test drive opportunities to media friends, hoping to bring you an experience worth looking forward to.
Media: The pre-sale price of Zhiji L7 is 408,800 yuan. What kind of consideration is the price based on? Think of it as a flagship car, and then push a variety of lower-level models, or do you have other considerations? In the era of intelligent electric vehicles, intelligent driving may become the standard of vehicles. In this case, what do you think luxury electric vehicles should look like in the future? What does it support its high price?
Zhiji Automobile: Frankly speaking, we only introduced the price of the Angel Edition after careful consideration.
Zhiji L7 is positioned as a luxury pure electric smart car. In terms of size, the wheelbase of Zhiji L7 is 3100mm, which is basically the size of C class and (|), but the size can’t explain everything, because the wheelbase of electric car is different from that of gasoline car.
In terms of configuration, Zhiji L7 is equipped with CDC electronically controlled suspension and rear wheel steering, which are only available in 800,000 or even millions of traditional cars, as well as our all-aluminum chassis and front double wishbone/rear multi-link suspension system, which are also available in hundreds of thousands of gasoline cars, so from the physical hardware itself, we adopt leapfrog configuration.
In addition, we have to look at what luxury quality is from another angle. There are two aspects that I particularly want to talk about. The first is design. We didn’t do a design analysis meeting like a fuel car, because the skill of high-end brand design itself is not based on words, but on your feelings. We invited the top designers in the world to design Zhiji L7 to ensure the proportion and streamline of the car body, and we have an overall grasp. If you look at it from 45 degrees behind Zhiji L7, this car brings you a very luxurious atmosphere.
On the other hand, it is the manufacturing process. For example, Zhiji L7 will be produced in Lingang Lighthouse Factory of SAIC. We have invested more than 100 million yuan to improve the stamping manufacturing capacity of Lingang factory from 300 to 400, so that the quality standard can be improved by leaps and bounds.
In addition, in terms of VOC control of vehicle interior, our quality and materials are absolutely outstanding, and the total VOC emission inside the vehicle is only one tenth of the national standard, which is definitely the standard of European home improvement industry. From this aspect, I think it is a new way and dimension to express luxury.
Media: rough stones and crystals are very interesting, but I feel that the gameplay is very complicated. Where are the core interests of users? Recently, data security has attracted great attention. How can we ensure the security of this data and the privacy of users?
Zhiji Automobile: Actually, the gameplay is very simple. We have two ways to get the original stone. The first type is "nurturing mining". Users only need to download our official APP, participate in brand co-creation activities or interactions, such as limited special exhibitions of art, and discuss how digital art can be combined with smart cockpits, such as publishing suggestions on Zhiji cars on the APP. You can get crystals in activities like this. Then the original stone is extracted in the form of a blind box, and when it is really delivered, the original stone will be activated and grow together with the value of our company.
The second type is "in-program mining", which aims at the real Zhiji car owners in the future. After owning Zhiji car, they will run a certain mileage every year. When driving Zhiji car, the original stone will fall according to a certain probability, and the more they drive, the greater the probability of getting the original stone.
We will also regularly publish tasks in the community. For example, when studying intelligent driving, we need some data in specific areas, and car owners can drive to punch in on weekends. Accumulate a certain amount of data, through data backflow, simulation and algorithm, and then we will iterate our intelligent driving technology to give users better products, and at the same time we will give users more feedback. Therefore, it is very simple to play. Both ways, whether you buy a car or not, can participate in our CSOP gameplay.
When did you choose to do the CSOP user data rights plan? We know very clearly that data is two-sided.
First of all, starting from the strategy, we have two cameras, a DMS and a CMS in the car, but in order to protect consumers’ privacy, we promise never to adopt the technology of Face ID, and we can completely solve this problem technically. For example, if you are sleepy and your eyelids are fighting, we only need to extract the core information of your face, such as eyebrows and eyelids. In the system, even if hackers come to attack in reverse, they will never find a complete face.
Secondly, we have established the IDPP Data Privacy Protection Committee, which is set up by experts in customer privacy, and is independent. In the process of developing many new functions, some functions that may violate consumers’ privacy will be decided and evaluated by them.
Thirdly, we use some advanced technologies, such as zero-knowledge proof, differential privacy, database firewall, etc. to protect data security.
Based on the above three aspects, users can rest assured that we can use data to create an experience for users without infringing on users’ privacy.
Media: (|) The concept of 4.9% equity co-creation was also put forward at the press conference; In this regard, what does Zhiji Automobile think?
Zhiji Automobile: Frankly speaking, our mood is very complicated. A few days ago, I wrote a paragraph on WeChat, saying that CSOP is only the inevitable logic that Zhiji Automobile has led the times, and it will definitely be recognized and follow by more and more people. But I didn’t expect that just a few days later, I would be followed by such a simple and rude follow.
The reason why it is said that the mood is complicated is because it is difficult for people to imitate CSOP easily. Behind this innovation, we need to invest huge resources and do our homework.
The first is the compliance barrier, and its operating rules must comply with laws and regulations. The core of this plan is to give back the income corresponding to 4.9% equity to users. To this end, in the past year, we invited more than a dozen law firms to repeatedly scrutinize and study one by one, in order to not only give back the rights and interests for the contribution of user data, but also comply with the supervision of laws and regulations in a seamless way to ensure the smooth operation of CSOP after its launch. Any follower who wants to do this must also do his homework; It is irresponsible to users to imitate and act rashly.
The second is technical barriers. If we want to give back to users’ rights and interests fairly, justly and openly, we must have strong and advanced technology to support it. There are smart contract technologies, users’ data security and users’ privacy security, which are very complicated and necessary.
We say that in the intelligent era, the data provided by users is the core driving force for the growth of enterprises; Therefore, all enterprises want to be user-oriented enterprises. According to the logic of this era, the CSOP of Zhiji Automobile is the terminator of white user data. We should also say: following the logic of the intelligent age, if you continue to be vain, you are choosing to be the enemy of the times.
I believe that there will be more and more followers of Zhizhi in the future.
Senior director of Zhiji automobile intelligent driving project-Tuoyue
Media: What kind of differentiated label does Zhiji Automobile want to put on itself in the track of the intelligent age?
Zhiji automobile: in the intelligent age, data determines experience and software defines automobile. Every mile counts，Every byte builds！ It is the label of Zhiji automobile. We make every kilometer of users’ travel generate value, so that every data provided by users can become the fuel to promote brand progress and product evolution. In the symbiosis and co-creation with users, the user experience is constantly improved, and the user travel experience is getting better and better.
Media: The first batch of consumers in the pure electric vehicle consumer market have already generated replacement demand. Excuse me, has Zhiji Automobile launched a targeted replacement plan for these "old owners" of pure electric vehicles?
Zhiji Automobile: I feel that this is a question of exploring the target market. First of all, Zhiji Automobile values the rapidly growing high-end pure electric smart car market segment. In March this year, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China was 189,000, with a year-on-year growth rate of 300%+, and it is still growing rapidly; Among them, 85% are pure electric vehicles, and the market share of pure electric vehicles with a price of more than 250,000 yuan has increased from 4% to 35%, an increase of nearly 9 times, which clearly shows that the consumption trend of new energy market is tilting towards high-end and high endurance; The goal of Zhiji Automobile is to get our due share from this incremental market first.
But this is not the whole story. The more important goal of Zhiji Automobile is to occupy a place in the luxury car market. After 28 years of continuous growth, the passenger car market in China began to grow negatively in 2018; On the other hand, from 2018 to 2020, luxury car brands represented by BBA maintained a positive growth rate of double digits in the China market, with an annual sales volume of about 3.5 million vehicles. Therefore, Zhiji Automobile should not only focus on the new energy vehicle market with a monthly sales volume of 189,000 vehicles, but also focus on the luxury car market with an annual sales volume of about 3.5 million vehicles and is making great strides; And the latter is more important. Because in the luxury car market, the proportion of post-85 s and post-90 s is rapidly increasing, and they are the "golden users" of Zhiji Automobile.
Young users in China have the following characteristics: First, they don’t think BBA is a myth. Users who are a little older have a traditional path of car selection and upgrading in traditional values, for example, upgrading to Mercedes-Benz after getting started and having a small career, and upgrading to &hellip if they have the ability again; … BBA is the representative of a luxury car brand in this path. However, this upgrade route is being gradually broken by young people in China. He doesn’t think BBA is the only landmark in the upgrade route.
Secondly, young people in China are really "little pink" at heart, and have stronger values and self-confidence. They have a very strong judgment on their own knowledge and values. This view has been repeatedly confirmed in industries such as FMCG and clothing, and it will certainly happen in the automobile industry. Therefore, a truly powerful new species of smart electric vehicles, born in China, must have a strong appeal to young people in China.
In a word, the core market of Zhiji Automobile is 85% of the new energy vehicle market (pure electric vehicle market segment), and with the young Kochi users in the 3.5 million luxury car market, this market is at least 2 million in annual sales.
Therefore, the imagination of the growth of Zhiji Automobile is very large.