The price of U8 is announced: 1.098 million yuan, giving you the “V12” in the pure electric era
More than nine months have passed since the launch on January 5. During this period, BYD has held rounds of press conferences and communication meetings for the brand, erasing one question mark after another in our hearts. .
Tonight, Yangwang finally took the final step – announcing the listing price.
1.098 million yuan, this is the final price of the U8 Deluxe Edition, exactly the same as the pre-sale price.
After 9 months of publicity, I believe everyone is already familiar with the appearance, interior, and configuration of the U8. There is no need to go into details. Today we will talk about the U8 from three perspectives: technology, brand, and market.
V12 in the pure electric era
Large-displacement V-type engines have always been an important moat and symbol of traditional luxury brands. High-performance, high-efficiency, high-smooth engines require extremely high technical levels and exquisite manufacturing processes – these are the only few A capability that only luxury car companies have.
However, with the impact of the electrification wave, this threshold is no longer high, and major luxury car companies have also begun to think about what is the "V12 in the pure electric era"?
The current "version answer" is four motors.
BMW's M division recently unveiled a special i4, and not surprisingly, it will become the basis for BMW's next-generation performance car.
▲Picture from: Autocar
Judging from the footage captured by Autocar's spy photographers, BMW has adjusted the chassis of an i4 M50 and significantly widened the wheelbase in order to accommodate four wheel motors, which are powered by a new xDrive The four-wheel drive system is controlled.
This new drive system "offers us completely new possibilities," BMW writes in a press release. In addition, M department head Frank van Meel also confirmed that the next-generation M3 will be a "crazy" four-wheel drive pure electric sedan.
Another powerful Mercedes-Benz also has plans for four motors. The luxury off-road model EQG, which incorporates four in-wheel motors, is expected to be launched in 2024. It can be seen that if you want to master the power to define the performance of high-end new energy vehicles in the new energy era, you have to do it.
The birth of high-end automobile brands must be accompanied by the maturity of top core technologies. Super technology creates high-end brands.
According to Chairman Wang Chuanfu, technology has always been the foundation of BYD. "In the past 20 years of development, BYD has had a R&D team of 49,000 people and 26,000 patents." Although BYD has also shouted out the slightly nihilistic marketing slogan of "Chinese cars are together", it is undeniable that its industry-leading technical strength.
In 1997, in order to improve my country's continuous technological innovation capabilities and implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and sustainable development, the former National Science and Technology Leading Group decided to implement the "973 Plan". BYD was one of the units that completed the plan. The work they handed over, It is a distributed drive of multiple motors.
BYD successfully applied the four-wheel electric wheel distributed drive bus vehicle control system in 2015, and used their electric buses to sweep the European, American and Japanese markets. Now, BYD's years of experience in manufacturing wheel motors have finally been put to use in passenger cars.
▲BYD buses drive on the streets of Britain
Looking up at the U8, the Yi Sifang power architecture can independently drive and allocate torque through four motors, thereby more precisely controlling the body posture, the "tank U-turn" that the public loves to see, and stable body posture control under a high-speed tire blowout accident at 120km/h. , is the best proof.
Extremeness is the common denominator of luxury brands
A hard-core off-road vehicle is a highly technical product, but its technical leadership is usually difficult for ordinary consumers to perceive. Fortunately, through Yi Sifang, U8 has gained two abilities that can dominate major WeChat group chats.
One is the "tank U-turn" mentioned above, and the other is its emergency floating ability.
Last week, screenshots of a chat in which a self-proclaimed "Mr. Lai" who said he looked up to U8 boasted to others that "looking up to U8 can sail a ship" was widely circulated on social media platforms. Mr. Lai even said that looking up to U8, "you don't have to pay a toll to cross the Humen Bridge."
Of course, this is just a farce. The U8 cannot sail as a boat, and it also has to pay tolls. However, from an emergency perspective, the floating ability of the U8 is indeed commendable.
Based on the sealing advantages of the entire vehicle and core components, combined with Yi Sifang's control capabilities, the U8 Deluxe Edition can float in the water for 30 minutes, and can control the vehicle's forward and directional control.
You may say that this function may not be used once in a lifetime, but behind the emergency float, it reflects BYD's pursuit of "extreme".
Regarding looking up, Wang Chuanfu once said this:
In the future, the Yangwang brand will take the lead in applying many of BYD Group's top technologies to provide users with ultimate safety, ultimate performance, and ultimate experience based on extreme driving scenarios.
Although the term "boatman brother" is relatively general, it can be found that the pursuit of perfection has always been a common feature of luxury brands. Any luxury brand product has at least one of the following characteristics:
- Ultimate performance;
- Ultimate quality;
- The ultimate sense of luxury.
Looking up to the brand has expanded a dimension horizontally on these foundations – ultimate safety. The deep integration of the independently driven four motors with the entire vehicle brings extremely high safety redundancy to the U8.
Take the steering system as an example. When the steering system fails, looking up at the U8 can also make a U-turn through the wheel speed difference between the left and right motors, with a turning radius as small as 12.5 meters.
In terms of acceleration and deceleration in the longitudinal dimension, U8 also has sufficient safety redundancy. Even if the braking system fails, its four motors can provide up to 1 G of braking force. On the other hand, even if one motor is damaged, the U8 can still run normally.
▲Looking up at the U8 rear motor assembly
BYD Vice President Yang Dongsheng revealed at the press conference that in order to achieve the ultimate safety of the U8, BYD's 3,000 R&D personnel spent 4 years and completed more than 100 extreme product tests with more than 300 test vehicles.
The most shocking thing is the number of test vehicles. Although BYD has strong financial resources, the number of 300 is a bit exaggerated. For this reason, Dong Chehui checked with a BYD insider for verification. The other party said that the number was true and that more than 300 test vehicles were indeed used throughout the development cycle.
From this point of view, extreme security also means extreme cost.
The high cost of the U8 is also reflected in its luxurious technology cockpit and high-precision perception capabilities, including a 12.8-inch Galaxy curved screen, a double-encircled star ring cockpit, a 70-inch AR-HUD head-up display, Dynaudio Platinum Evidence audio, and 508Tops Nvidia Orin chip. … I won’t list them all, but they are all there.
But for BYD, how to implicitly embody luxury is still a lesson that needs to be learned. The balance between functionality, aesthetics, and luxury is the biggest difference between traditional luxury brands and Wangwang.
However, looking up to do this may also have its reasons.
After all, traditional luxury brands have already established a complete brand image and do not need too much superficial luxury to prove themselves. We can only hope that Zhanwang can usher in its brand halo as soon as possible.
The birth of an all-round car company
When the price of 1.098 million yuan appeared on the press conference screen, BYD was officially promoted to an all-round car company covering all price ranges.
Today's BYD Group can meet the needs of different consumer groups through BYD, Denza, Fangbao, and Zhangwang brands in different price ranges.
This brings two major benefits to BYD. First, BYD can gradually guide users of entry-level products to mid-to-high-end products with higher profit margins, achieving higher customer stickiness. Secondly, brands in different price ranges can form more complete product portfolio barriers and consolidate market positions.
What's even more valuable is that BYD has established a spiritual totem and strong cultural confidence, technological confidence, and brand confidence by looking up to the brand.
Does it sound a bit like the Volkswagen Group?
As competition in the electric vehicle industry becomes increasingly fierce, BYD's multi-brand strategy will surely face greater challenges. But as long as it balances the needs of different market segments and avoids brand positioning being out of focus and confusing, BYD will most likely be able to occupy a favorable position in the fierce competition.
References:
[1] BMW M testing quad-motor EV prototype-Autocar
[2] What do you think about BYD looking up to this high-end model? -Zhihu@比方说WindyWing
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