Seizing Market From BMW And Volkswagen: Weilai Up, Tesla Down

Weilai et7 is not benchmarking the model s, but BMW 7 series and other luxury cars.

Weilai et7 is not benchmarking the model s, but BMW 7 series and other luxury cars.

"There is not so much competition between the products of Weilai and Tesla. Our competitors are BBA (Benz, BMW, Audi). We want to change their oil vehicle users into their own users in the same price range." On January 10, after the annual NiO day, Li Bin, chairman and CEO of Weilai automobile, once again emphasized the positioning of Weilai in the interview session the next day.

On January 1, this year, Tesla launched the domestic model y, setting off the new year's climax of the new energy vehicle industry. The abnormal popularity of model y has brought impact on the market, and Weilai is the first to bear the brunt.

Of course, Weilai, known as "China Tesla", also has its own rhythm. On January 9, on NiO day, Weilai released its flagship car, Vera et7, which is the first new car equipped with the latest automatic driving technology NAD (NiO autonomous driving). It has greatly improved battery life, automatic driving technology, automatic driving chip computing power, camera accuracy, etc. In addition, Weilai also said to let the solid-state battery "get on the car.".

However, the delivery time of Weilai et7 is in the first quarter of 2022, of which the 150kwh solid-state battery pack is not expected to be launched until the fourth quarter of 2022.

A year ahead of the release of pre-sale models and prices, in the eyes of the outside world, Weilai's move is in response to Tesla's price reduction. At the same time, we can get support and orders by revealing new technologies in advance.

"We have used so many new technologies, such as chips and lidar, and the mass production time has been greatly advanced. We don't want to release a car of a generation and a half, but a car with completely new technology." Li Bin said.

No matter how the performance of et7 market a year later, the capital market quickly gave Weilai affirmation. On January 11, US Eastern time, Weilai's share price rose by more than 5% before trading, breaking through $60 for the first time. Several securities companies raised the target price of Weilai. JP Morgan raised its price from $50 to $75. CICC predicted that Weilai would lose 5.5 billion yuan and 3.8 billion yuan in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and would make a profit in 2022, and raise its target price to $85.

"There is not so much competition between Weilai and Tesla's products. Our competitor is BBA. We need to transform their oil vehicle users into their own users with the same price range." Li Bin, chairman and CEO of Weilai automobile, stressed the positioning of Weilai. IC photo

Benchmarking BBA

Weilai et7 is a D-class car with a length of more than 5 meters and a wheelbase of more than 3 meters. The price of Weilai et7 starts from 448000 yuan before subsidy, and from 378000 yuan before the subsidy of baas scheme (battery is purchased by rent).

On January 10, a reporter from 21st century economic report found in NiO house, Yintai Center, Chengdu, that although the new car has not been put into mass production, many consumers have come to see the car. A founder owner of Weilai es8 told the 21st century economic report that he had placed an order immediately after the new car was released on the evening of January 9, preparing to replace the new car after it came into the market. "In addition to the appearance, the ability of autonomous driving is greatly improved than it is now."

According to Qin Lihong, President of Weilai automobile, et7 is very popular. Due to the large number of people placing orders at the same time, the system of Weilai app was once paralyzed on the evening of January 9, but it has recovered in about ten minutes.

From the product positioning point of view, this is bound to be not a model of volume, but will further enhance the brand strength of Weilai.

This reflects the different playing methods of Weilai and Tesla. Tesla has entered the mainstream market by launching model 3 and model y, thus driving the rapid growth of scale. However, Weilai did not launch cheap models and continued to stick to the high-end market.

"Tesla's goal is to become the public in the era of electric vehicles. Weilai wants to compete with Tesla in the same market segment, and there is not much chance of winning, so Weilai chooses to hit the high-end market." On January 11, some people in the automobile industry told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Li Bin told the 21st century economic reporter that Weilai focuses on the mainstream high-end market of BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi. BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi all sell 700000 units a year, and Tesla sold more than 100000 units in China last year.

Of course, in the high-end car market, Tesla's model s on sale will inevitably be compared with Weilai et7. In terms of configuration, the two vehicles have their own advantages and disadvantages. The endurance, computing power and configuration of et7 surpass Tesla Model s, while Tesla's 100 km acceleration performance is more excellent. In terms of price, the starting price of model s is nearly 300000 yuan higher than that of Weilai et7.

It is understood that the maximum range of et7 equipped with 150kwh solid-state battery pack can reach 1000km. The supercomputing platform is based on four NVIDIA drive Orin chips, with a computing power of 1016tops, which is more than seven times that of Tesla (144tops).

However, Li Bin stressed that Weilai et7 is not benchmarking model s, but luxury cars such as BMW 7 series.

"Benchmarking doesn't mean aiming at them in terms of technical standards, but to grab the market from these luxury fuel drivers. In terms of price, our price is comparable to them, but we have advantages in intelligence, service and performance. " Li Bin said.

Semi solid state battery?

At the press conference, Weilai also released a 150kwh battery pack, becoming the first car company to release mass production of solid-state batteries for cars.

Li Bin introduced that the 150 degree battery pack adopts solid-liquid electrolyte with in-situ curing process, silicon carbon anode with inorganic pre lithium process and ultra-high nickel cathode with nano coating process, which will achieve 50% energy density improvement, reaching 360wh / kg.

It is understood that the service life of the 2018 Weilai es8 with 150kwh can reach 730km, the new es8 can reach 850km, the high-performance version of ES6 and ec6 will exceed 900 km, and the endurance of Weilai's new car et7 can exceed 1000km.

Weilai's new solid-state battery once released, has triggered a heated discussion in the industry. The outside world has speculated who the battery supplier is, there are also doubts that solid-state battery technology is not mature, whether Weilai can be launched as scheduled is still unknown.

Li Bin said in an interview with reporters that it was inconvenient to disclose supplier information, but said the supplier is a top company in the industry. "The 360wh / kg solid-state battery that can meet our performance requirements will definitely produce energy. At present, these samples meet the requirements." Li Bin said.

Some people in the battery industry told the 21st century economic report that the solid-state battery introduced by Weilai is not a complete solid-state battery in the true sense, but a semi-solid battery.

It is speculated that the suppliers of Weilai solid-state batteries may be Qingtao energy from Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, and Huineng technology from Taiwan, China, etc. it is also said that the suppliers may come from Ningde era. In response, Ningde times refused to comment, saying: "the high-intensity R & D investment and technology reserves, as well as the mass production and manufacturing capacity of Ningde era, can support the continuous leading of our product competitiveness."

Two challenges

Compared with the most difficult year of 2019, Weilai automobile will go more smoothly in 2020. But this does not mean that Weilai can rest assured. Whether it is to make up for the shortcomings in technology and products, or to strengthen the advantages of service quality, Weilai is facing a lot of challenges.

One of the most important highlights of NiO day is the upgrading and introduction of automatic driving technology. Compared with the main competitors, the intelligence is actually the obvious short board of Weilai before.

In October 2020, Weilai released the NOP (navigation on pilot assistance) function. Now, when Li Bin introduced, he directly omitted the word "auxiliary", indicating that it would launch Weilai automatic driving (NAD).

In terms of perception, Weilai has launched Aquila supersensor system. The camera uses 8 million pixels, while Tesla currently uses 1.2 million pixels.

From the sensor configuration point of view, et7 uses the lookout tower structure, the front lidar is embedded into the roof, and the cameras on both sides are embedded into it, forming a shape with horns.

In terms of computing power, Weilai's Adam supercomputing platform uses four NVIDIA drive Orin chips, and the vehicle's computing power reaches 1016tops, four times that of Tesla FSD chip.

These four chips include not only the main computing chip, redundant chip, but also one chip responsible for group intelligence and personality training.

It is understood that the business model of Weilai nad is: all hardware will be standard configuration, and users can pay for it through subscription. The monthly subscription fee is 680 yuan. Tesla's FSD (automatic driving system) needs to be purchased at one time, and the price is about 9000 dollars. Therefore, many car owners do not choose to purchase the FSD. The standard hardware configuration of Weilai may greatly increase the automatic driving utilization rate of its users.

The strength of Weilai automatic driving will be the core and challenge of its next step in competition with Tesla.

Another big challenge of Weilai still comes from the dilution of user experience brought by the expansion of user scale.

On NiO day 2017, Li Bin once said that 1100 replacement power stations would be deployed by 2020; however, by the end of 2020, only 177 exchange stations had been built in Weilai. At the same time, with the expansion of the user scale, and the construction of the power station is not as expected, so the user experience of Weilai is affected.

"In 2019, the construction of replacement power stations has stalled. Now, in terms of our size and the financial and budgetary position of the entire company, these are not the biggest challenges. The real challenges lie in the operational efficiency and service standards of the replacement power station. " Qin Lihong said.

Li Bin said that Weilai will increase the layout of replacement power stations in 2021. Weilai will launch the second generation power station, which can hold up to 13 batteries. One power station can serve 312 sets a day, and the power exchange efficiency is four times that of the present. By the end of 2021, 500 replacement power stations are planned to be built.