As the 2024 Star Road impact high-end carry tripod, on April 15th, Star Era ET pure electric version and extended range version opened pre-sale, the new car set Chery Group spire technology, with super endurance, super safety, super comfort, super driving control, super intelligent five all-round product strength, to become the best electric SUV within 500,000 in the minds of consumers, and will help Star Road impact China’s first independent luxury brand, reshape the new energy high-end market new pattern.
After the Star Era Night and Star Era ET pre-sale conference, Dr. Gao Xinhua, executive deputy general manager of Chery Automobile joint stock company, CTO of Chery Automobile Engineering Technology Research and Development Institute, deputy general manager of Chery Automobile joint stock company, CEO of Dazhuo Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. Dr. Gu Junli, assistant general manager of Chery Automobile joint stock company, general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center Huang Zhaogen, executive deputy general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center Jin Xin accepted an exclusive interview with the media, from the brand, market, technology, products and other aspects to discuss how to make the Xingtu brand a competitive luxury brand, leading the entire Chery Group brand upward, so as to bring super comfortable high-end new energy travel experience to global users.
Why benchmark Audi’s luxury
Dr. Gao Xinhua, executive deputy general manager of Chery Automobile joint stock company and CTO of Chery Automotive Engineering Technology Research and Development Institute, said that for the understanding of luxury, the luxury of Xingtu positioning is synonymous with the word "luxury", and the reason why Audi Q5L is selected for the benchmark is not "attack". Chery has said on many occasions that Xingtu is Chery’s high-end brand and "Chery’s Audi". Q5 is indeed a very good car. The sales volume has been very high in the past two years, and there are many things worth learning. We hope to build Star Era into a brand similar to Audi.
Star Era ET’s monthly sales target
Huang Zhaogen, general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center, said that in fact, every marketer is very sensitive to sales volume, especially in the current market situation, we always set the goal of selling 10,000 units of ET and ES per month, which is also an internal goal. As for how to achieve it, it is based on product power, price power, marketing power, and communication power. We set the goal of 10,000 units and keep improving, and the channel is also rapidly adjusting. I hope that ET will sell 5,000 units per month in the first half of the year. The confidence comes from the addition of extended range power, which further opens up the market. The opportunity is huge, and the extended range market is more in line with Chery users’ understanding of new energy and meets Chery users’ demand for new energy.
Moreover, the capacity of the extended range market will further increase, and Chery has a huge advantage in doing extended range. First, the extended range is done on the pure electric platform, and the starting point and technical foundation are higher than other companies. Secondly, the extended range mainly depends on the engine. Chery’s technology is world-leading, and the matching engine thermal efficiency has reached 44.5%. Star Era ET has two versions of extended range and pure electric, and it is believed that it can sell 10,000 units per month by the end of the year.
What are the differences between consumer groups?
Huang Zhaogen revealed that from the blind ordering of Star Era ET, it can be seen that consumers are very confident in this car, and the effect is relatively good. From the data point of view, there are three main categories of users now: the first category is users who want to buy electric vehicles in luxury brands, hoping to buy a reliable product produced by a big factory. Describing customer portraits is therefore very simple. They drive luxury cars over, and clothing looks inexpensive, but leather shoes and belts are very expensive. High-quality and low-key users are the first type of users.
The second group of people have a very high pursuit of comfort, and the comfort of Star Era ET is very good, especially the seat. The most common question asked by consumers after experiencing the seat is "What kind of technology does the seat use? What kind of leather? This micro-fleece seat is better than the leather seat, and at this stage, many new users have been generated based on the comfort of the product, accounting for 40% of the order ratio.
The third category is the joint venture brand customers who used to buy 150,000-250,000 models. When choosing new energy vehicles, they are more willing to choose traditional large factories like Chery. The manufacturing process is good and the performance is very reliable. Especially in terms of safety, Chery’s reputation is very good.
These three types of customers are typical customers, currently accounting for 50% of sales. Nationwide, 60% of users choose to extend their range, and 40% of users order pure electricity. However, in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen megacities, 60% of users choose pure electricity, and more than 30% of users choose to extend their range. In third- and fourth-tier cities, 80% of customers choose to extend their range, and 20% of users choose pure electricity.
How to Build a Brand in Star Era
Jin Xin, executive deputy general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center, said that it is meaningless to talk about brands, and the core is to have the connection between brands and users. Without the user’s mental strategy, talking about technical routes or brands is actually worthless. So for Xingtu or Star Era, the core now is to create mental connection points. From the luxury point of view, it is a luxury brand of humanities and technology, and it is most concerned about safety related to people. The same is true for intelligent driving, such as scenes and experiences. The brand tone pays attention to the details of every tiny individual, which is also transformed from the original functional sensuality to emotional feelings. This may be the branding path of Star Era in the future.
The new experience of Shenxing battery
Gao Xinhua introduced that the divine battery provided by Ningde Times has many advantages: the first is that the charging speed is very fast, the second is that the low temperature resistance is particularly good, the lithium iron phosphate battery decays less in the low temperature environment, and the output power is very large. The third is that the safety is relatively good, and we use an 800 volt battery. Give users a relatively good experience from fast charging, low temperature resistance, and multi-dimensional safety.
How long will it take to catch up and lead?
Dr. Gu Junli, CEO of Dazhuo Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said that creating the ultimate product does not mean the most expensive technology, but the most suitable price, the best experience, and the ability to penetrate around these:
The first is how to quickly develop Product Research & Development with the help of ecological power. It is not about full-stack self-research, but self-research controllable.
The second is platformization. In the past few years, it has been very difficult for all Tier1 and autonomous driving startups to do productization. Now the advantage is that they are market-driven and go back to the market to complete a complete chain from product definition to product platformization to technology research and development and integration.
The third is that the industry has already cultivated good companies, and in the future, whether it is algorithms, maps, or computing platforms, they can all be shared. Making laptops now will never say that we have finished making chips and keyboards, and we have finished making keyboards and screens. So we are now in the industrialization period, which is how to lead autonomous driving into the Z era. The Z era must have different value propositions, pleasing ourselves, rich experiences, and around this is our "golden window".
At present, Chery has a unique track, which is to take the road of internationalization, hoping to lead the international intelligent high-end as soon as possible. At present, the sensitivity and demand of international and domestic users for intelligence are about 3-4 years behind, which is also a window for strength. "For science and technology workers, a very important understanding I learned in Chery is that cars must rely on ecology. There is an ecological chain and ecological value, but there is also a core logic, which is the logic of whose user experience. Dazhuo Intelligent Driving is a Chery intelligent brand, with nearly 1,000 R & D employees. Focusing on the mission of formulating the most suitable and best price intelligent driving experience for users, we will master the three forces of the product in our own hands."
Product mental definition capabilities, including experience, product system definition capabilities, including the entire platform planning for the next five years, including technical KPI application capabilities. Different product lines are very rich based on market models, so it is impossible to do all the projects by yourself. In fact, the project is no longer the most critical at this stage, but the three forces of the product, but the user always has to keep this force, so different product lines are now doing ecological partners. A week later, the Beijing Auto Show announced the brand strategic partner of Dazhuo Smart Driving. Chery has a very good ecological traction, and many partners also realize that it is ultimately market-driven. Some are jointly developed products, some are accompanied by products, and some are jointly delivered. Only in this way can we reflect the demeanor of a large enterprise and quickly deliver cost-effective products to users, which is also the key to success. (Text: Wu Yue, Photo: Chery)
