Dongche Daily | Another key person in Tesla leaves / Toyota’s new crown is criticized for being ugly / Xiaomi denies that it will bring an engineering car to the show
Guided reading
- Official image of MINI Cooper SE convertible version released, with a range of only 230 kilometers
- A rival to the Porsche Cayenne? Polestar 3 will be released in October
- Hyundai unveils N Vision 74 hydrogen concept car
- Old fans can't accept it! World premiere of all-new Toyota Crown
- Xiaokang is expected to lose at least 1.6 billion yuan in the first half of the year due to the R&D investment of Celis
- Net profit surged by up to 206%! BYD releases semi-annual performance forecast
- It is rumored that Lei Jun will bring the Xiaomi engineering prototype to debut in August, and the official has made a statement
- Tesla AI team leader leaves, Musk: Thank you
- Cruise fleet under scrutiny over former employee whistleblower
- Shanghai will set up a dedicated test lane for autonomous driving
- "Special Column" Should Classic Car Design Be Inherited?
Official image of MINI Cooper SE convertible version released, with a range of only 230 kilometers
MINI officially released the official image of the Cooper SE Convertible, inheriting the classic elements of the MINI family in the electrified era.
The new car adopts a soft-top convertible design, which supports operation at a speed of 30km/h and takes 18 seconds to complete the opening/closing process. Circular elements can be seen everywhere in the interior, still in classic MINI style.
The MINI Cooper SE Convertible is equipped with a motor with a maximum power of 135kW, achieving a 100km/h acceleration time of 7.7s. However, its battery life under WLTP condition is only 230km. Dong Chejun, who likes to travel far, is a little difficult to accept. What do you think?
A rival to the Porsche Cayenne? Polestar 3 will be released in October
The Polestar CEO said that the Polestar 3 pure electric SUV will be released in October, and the price is between 75,000 euros and 110,000 euros (about 507,000 – 744,000 yuan).
The Polestar 3 is designed based on the SPA2 platform, with a body nearly 5 meters long, making it one of the mid-to-large SUVs, and equipped with dual motors, with a range of 600 kilometers under WLTP conditions.
Porsche Cayenne is regarded as a competitor of Polestar 3, but Dong Chejun thinks that the brand power of the former is better. Next, we will see how the actual product performance of Polestar 3 is.
Hyundai unveils N Vision 74 hydrogen concept car
On July 15, on the 2022 Hyundai N DAY, Hyundai released two new concept models, the high-performance model RN22e based on the Ioniq 6 and the hydrogen fuel vehicle N Vision 74.
The RN22e is the first N-series high-performance model under Hyundai's E-GMP electric platform. The exaggerated "N" logo at the center net allows us to easily identify its identity, and the racing-style pull flowers and large-sized rear wing further enhance the sporty atmosphere.
The new car is also equipped with a large number of sports appearance kits, including sharp-edged double five-spoke wheels, red and black color surrounds, black exterior mirrors, etc.
However, in comparison, Dong Chejun still prefers the square-looking N Vision 74. The shape of this car has a bit of DMC-12 feel.
This is a high-performance model based on hydrogen fuel cell technology, equipped with two rear motors, with a maximum power of more than 670 horsepower, a peak torque of 900 Nm, and a cruising range of 600 kilometers.
These two cars can be regarded as Hyundai's "stepping stone" in the field of high-performance electric vehicles, and Hyundai will carry out deeper exploration in the future.
Old fans can't accept it! World premiere of all-new Toyota Crown
On July 15, a new generation of Toyota Crown was officially released, and it brought four versions in one go, including a sedan version (Sedan), a crossover sedan version (Crossover) and two SUV versions (Sport/Estate).
The all-new Crown is built on the TNGA-L platform. In the early stage, the crossover sedan version was mainly promoted. The body size is 4930x1840x1540mm and the wheelbase is 2850mm. In terms of power, this time there are two hybrid schemes, 2.4T and 2.5L, with power performances of 367 horsepower and 249 horsepower respectively, but no plug-in version is provided.
The interior is equivalent to the old crown with major changes, but retains a large number of physical buttons, with a 12.3-inch central control screen and a full LCD instrument panel.
According to data, the first model released this time is expected to be sold domestically by FAW Toyota (crossover sedan version) in the form of imports within this year, and other models will be gradually introduced into China.
Dong Chejun asked two friends about the evaluation of the new crown. The owner of the old crown 155 said that he could not accept it, while the owner of the Toyota RAV4 liked the SUV model. What do you think?
Xiaokang is expected to lose at least 1.6 billion yuan in the first half of the year due to the R&D investment of Celis
Xiaokang Co., Ltd. announced to the public that it is expected to realize a net profit loss of 1.6-1.76 billion yuan attributable to owners of the parent company in the first half of 2022.
Regarding the expansion of losses compared with the same period of the previous year, Xiaokang said that it has something to do with the R&D investment of Celis, the investment in fixed assets in the early stage, the ramp-up stage of production and sales, and marketing expenses.
However, the delivery volume of Celis is currently in an increasing stage, so the company's revenue in the first half of the year achieved 12.0-12.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62.50%-70.63%.
On the other hand, some time ago, the Chinese name of Xiaokang Co., Ltd. was changed to "Sales Group Co., Ltd.", hoping to enhance the brand image.
Net profit surged by up to 206%! BYD releases semi-annual performance forecast
In the 2022 semi-annual performance forecast, BYD stated that in the first half of the year, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 2.8-3.6 billion yuan, an increase of 138.59-206.76% compared with the same period last year.
According to public information, BYD's sales of new energy vehicles in the first half of the year were 638,157 units, surpassing Tesla's 564,743 units in the same period and becoming the global sales champion of new energy vehicles in the same period.
In addition to the automobile business, BYD also has mobile phone parts production and assembly business. Dong Chejun has also bought BYD OEM mobile phones before, but compared with the automobile business, the current electronics industry is slightly weak.
It is rumored that Lei Jun will bring the Xiaomi engineering prototype to debut in August, and the official has made a statement
On the morning of July 15, Sina Technology reported from a special channel that Lei Jun will show a prototype of Xiaomi's engineering vehicle at a public event in August. However, in the afternoon, the Financial Associated Press reported that Xiaomi PR had refuted the rumor and stated that it is "absolutely impossible".
Xiaomi has previously stated that the size of the Xiaomi automotive business R&D team has exceeded 1,000 people. In the future, it will continue to expand research and development in core areas such as autonomous driving and smart cockpits. The first model is expected to be officially mass-produced in the first half of 2024.
Some time ago, photos of Xiaomi's self-driving test vehicle leaked on the Internet, and the roof of the test vehicle was equipped with lidar. Regarding Xiaomi's first car, do you prefer a sedan or an SUV?
Tesla AI team leader leaves, Musk: Thank you
Andrej Karpathy, Tesla's head of artificial intelligence and designer of Autopilot's self-driving system, announced his departure on the 15th.
Karpathy leads the computer vision team at Tesla, which is critical to Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD), as well as the team responsible for data labeling and deployment of the feature.
In a rare tweet after Karpathy announced his departure, Musk thanked him and said it was an honor to work with him.
Karpathy's departure comes at a time when Autopilot's self-driving system has been plagued with problems. After Musk announced layoffs, Tesla laid off nearly 200 employees focused on autonomous driving, and his departure undoubtedly cast a shadow over Tesla again. (hunting cloud network)
Cruise fleet under scrutiny over former employee whistleblower
A former Cruise employee recently sent an anonymous letter to California regulators in which he expressed concern about the company’s premature rollout of self-driving travel services.
According to TechCrunch, the employee pointed out that Cruise's self-driving vehicles often have certain malfunctions, which are prone to cause traffic jams and affect the passage of special vehicles that are on duty.
The employee also said in the letter that Cruise employees generally believed the company was not ready to roll out self-driving services to the public, but because of leadership and investor expectations, "people were afraid to admit it."
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which issues driverless vehicle permits in California, said it was studying the issues raised in the letter.
Don't rush things about safety.
Shanghai will set up a dedicated test lane for autonomous driving
The Shanghai Traffic Police announced on the 14th that from July 18, 2022, management measures for the dedicated lane for autonomous driving tests will be implemented on the Donghai Bridge.
The dedicated lane for autonomous driving tests will be set up on the outermost lane 3 of the Donghai Bridge in both directions. The dedicated time period is 10-13 pm every day, excluding weekends and holidays.
The dedicated lane for autonomous driving tests is only used for autonomous driving test vehicles during the specified time period, and other vehicles are not allowed to enter, except for special vehicles performing emergency tasks, ambulances, and vehicles carrying out rescue operations.
Dong Chejun felt that someone would still occupy this lane.
Should the classic car design be inherited?
The car circle this week is very lively. Taking the design of new cars as an example, Dong Chejun can see the voices that are hot on the Internet, such as abandoning the traditional Toyota Crown and inheriting the classic MINI Cooper SE. Therefore, today Dong Che would like to talk to you about a topic "Should the classic car design be inherited?"
Let me talk about the conclusion first. Dong Chejun believes that whether to continue the classic design or not depends on the market strategy of the car manufacturer. There is no absolute right or wrong. It can be divided into two factions: "persistence" and "catering".
"About persistence" These manufacturers want to build products that can stand the test of time and last forever. Take European cars as an example, they are the most concerned about pedigree and inheritance of classics. From MINI retro elements, BMW's double kidney grille, to the ducktail rear spoiler of the Porsche 911, they tell a complete family development story through each generation of models, and are favored by car culture enthusiasts.
"About Catering" Japanese cars have always dared to abandon the concept of the past to create products in terms of design elements. Lexus is a brand originally created by Toyota to cater to the North American market, abandoning the traditional tradition of Japanese cars, and the LS400 champagne tower advertisement became famous in the first battle, making Lexus gradually become a world-renowned luxury car brand. This new Toyota Crown will enter the North American market. Obviously, this generation of Crown also hopes to break the tradition, so it will change the very stable Japanese style in the past and face the global market with a more balanced attitude.
As we can see from the above examples, it is possible to create exciting cars regardless of whether the car's classic design is inherited or not. If you ask Dong Chejun what kind of car he likes, Dong Chejun is a fan of a single model, not a brand or a family of models. If you make a good model according to the strategy, you will be pleasantly surprised.
But for the replacement of the crown, Dong Chejun doesn't like the first Crossover model, what do you think?
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