Dong Che Daily｜Tesla’s first V4 supercharger station unveiled / FAW gave up production of Hongqi sports cars in Italy / Xiaopeng completes marketing system reform
guide
- Tesla's first V4 super charging station unveiled
- FAW to drop production of Hongqi electric sports car in Italy
- 28 years later, McLaren F1 ushered in its "successor"
- Tesla rejects $6.4 million offer from California
- McLaren gets £70m investment to drive electrification
- Xiaopeng completed the reform of the marketing system and merged direct sales and authorization
- Leapao released a 90-day price guarantee commitment
- Tesla updates Autopilot data report
- U.S. transportation secretary says Autopilot's name 'defies common sense'
- Google is pushing again, and CarPlay is slowly losing the market
Tesla's first V4 super charging station unveiled
In March of this year, Tesla began building their first V4 super charging station in Harderwijk, the Netherlands. The V4 charging pile under the white cloth looks much taller.
On Wednesday, Tesla lifted its veil, and we saw the true face of the V4 supercharger for the first time.
The new charging station has a total of 16 charging piles. As expected, the V4 supercharger is much taller than the previous generation and can accommodate longer cables-Tesla is opening up the charging network to other brands of electric vehicles. Long cables Can be better adapted to different models.
On the other hand, the V4 supercharger is expected to achieve higher charging power. Currently, the highest power of the V3 supercharger is 250kW.
Tesla has confirmed that the Supercharger will open later this month.
FAW to drop production of Hongqi electric sports car in Italy
Silk-FAW, a start-up co-founded by U.S. auto engineering and design company Silk EV and FAW Group, has given up on building a factory in Italy, Reuters reported.
Silk-FAW signed an agreement with the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy in 2021 to establish a production facility and a research center in the city of Reggio Emilia. Known as Italy's "Auto Valley," the region is home to brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Ducati.
Silk-FAW previously planned to invest more than 1 billion euros to build Hongqi-branded electric sports cars locally.
28 years later, McLaren F1 ushered in its "successor"
In 1992, McLaren's F1 was a sensation. 28 years later, British car manufacturer Gordon Murray launched the most logical "successor" of this classic supercar – the Gordon Murray T50.
The new car, which Murray calls "the purest, lightest, most driver-focused supercar ever built," is an ultralight, mid-engined, all-carbon fiber three-seater.
The built-in 4.0-liter Cosworth V12 engine has a redline speed of 12,100rpm and can provide a maximum of 650 horsepower. The transversely mounted six-speed manual gearbox, supplied by Xtrac, has been designed using new thin-wall casting technology and is 10kg lighter than the lightweight gearbox used in F1. The lightweight design of the whole vehicle makes the weight of this V12 supercar only 986 kg.
Like its venerated McLaren predecessor, the rear-wheel-drive T50 puts the driver in the center of the cabin, with a rear fan similar to the one Brabham brought to F1 in 1978 that speeds up air flow at the bottom so Generates downforce.
Currently, Gordon Murray T50 has been put into production, limited to 100 units.
Tesla rejects $6.4 million offer from California
Tesla could have received $6.4 million (about 44 million yuan) in funding from the state of California for the construction of super charging stations, but now they have given up this funding.
The $6.4 million comes from the California Clean Energy Council (CEC), who hope Tesla can build four large super charging stations in California with a total of 428 parking spaces. One of the charging stations will have 164 parking spaces and will be one of the largest in the world.
However, Tesla changed their minds.
Jennifer Cohen, Tesla's director of policy and business development, explained that "the project was too cumbersome and the requirements for payment methods were too high," so they rejected the funding.
California requires charging stations to have a variety of payment methods including card swiping and mobile payment. To realize these functions, a screen needs to be added to the charging pile. Tesla's super charging stations can only pay for charging through the Tesla App or official website.
Tesla believes that this simple and easy payment method has greatly improved customer satisfaction. At the same time, since no screen is required, the production and maintenance costs of charging piles are also reduced.
McLaren gets £70m investment to drive electrification
Sky News recently reported that McLaren received a cash injection of 70 million pounds (about 585 million yuan) by selling shares to existing investors.
But the money is only part of the plan, with McLaren aiming to raise £500m in preparation for electrification.
In July 2021, McLaren raised £550m from sources including the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Bahrain's Mumtalakat sovereign fund, following a £150m loan from the National Bank of Bahrain.
The company has also sold several valuable assets: spinning off their Applied Technologies division in 2021 and selling their Woking headquarters for £170m.
McLaren launched its mainstream-market hybrid hypercar, the Artura, last year, but it still hasn't announced a detailed electrification plan.
McLaren CEO Michael Leiters has said hybrids are a "huge opportunity," but we're still years away from pure electric supercars.
Xiaopeng completed the reform of the marketing system and merged direct sales and authorization
According to Jiemian News, Xiaopeng Motors has recently completed the reform of its marketing system. In terms of internal organizational management structure, the two channel teams of Auto Trade and User Development Service Center (UDS) have completed the merger, removed the large sales area, and adjusted it to a community system.
Previously, Xiaopeng Motors adopted a mixed model of self-built direct sales and authorized dealerships on the terminal network. This model helped Xiaopeng Motors quickly expand the number of stores in the early days. As of the third quarter of last year, the number of Xiaopeng Automobile stores has exceeded 400, of which about seven are directly operated stores.
▲Photo taken by Dong Chehui at Xpeng’s first flagship store in Guangzhou in 2018
The two channels of direct sales and franchising are owned by different persons in charge. The former is led by co-founder He Tao, while authorized dealers are managed by UDS and supervised by Liao Qinghong, chief talent officer and vice president of sales of Xiaopeng Motors.
People familiar with the matter said that the stores under the two systems conflict with each other and the competition is fierce, leaving hidden dangers for front-line marketing. The confusion of the terminal network has also become one of the reasons for the poor sales performance of Xiaopeng Motors last year.
Leapao released a 90-day price guarantee commitment
On March 14, Leap Motors announced their price protection policy:
From now until 24:00 on March 31, during this period, users who place and lock a single 2023 zero-run model (including 2023 T03, C11, C01, and C11 extended range versions) Within 90 days from the start, if the official price of the purchased model is reduced or the cash preferential policy is increased, Leapmotor promises to take the initiative to return the price difference.
Previously, Ideal Auto provided users with car purchase price protection rights, saying that starting from March 11, if the price of the Ideal L series models ordered by the user through the official channel of Ideal Auto decreases within 90 days, it will actively refund the difference to the owner.
Tesla updates Autopilot data report: only one accident per 4.85 million miles
Tesla gave the Autopilot data report for the first three quarters of last year in January this year, and updated the data for the last quarter this week.
The data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, when American users drive an average of 4.85 million miles when using Autopilot, an air bag pop-up accident will occur; For the US as a whole, including internal combustion engine vehicles, the figure would be 652,000 miles.
Based on this, Tesla believes that if the age and environmental factors of the car are not taken into account, Tesla cars under Autopilot are about 7.5 times safer than ordinary cars, and even when Autopilot is turned off, they are more than 2 times safer.
U.S. transportation secretary says Autopilot's name 'defies common sense'
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently joined Tesla's Autopilot skeptics, saying the feature's naming "defies common sense."
"I wouldn't call it Autopilot if the manual said you had to keep your hands on the wheel and keep your eyes on the road," Buttigieg told Bloomberg.
Buttigieg emphasized that this statement has nothing to do with the NHTSA investigation, "I am just asking a question on a common sense level."
In February of this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, announced that Tesla would recall more than 360,000 vehicles. There are security risks.
Google is pushing again, and CarPlay is slowly losing the market
Porsche confirmed on the 15th that it is negotiating with search giant Google to integrate its services into products. Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said they are exploring Google's car services.
News of the partnership between Porsche and Google first appeared in early January, when Porsche was still looking for other potential partners, including Apple.
But Apple is clearly not ready yet. Porsche may be the next car company to adopt Android Automotive.
Compared with the previous Android Auto, Android Automotive is a full-featured platform that can not only be responsible for the infotainment system of the entire cockpit, but also carry out car control settings including the air conditioning system.
Currently, Android Automotive is used in cars from Volvo, Polestar, GM and Renault.
Of course, we can't experience it.
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