Weilai also sold “futures”?
Editor’s note: This article is from the micro-channel public number “trip wire” (ID: lianxianchuxing), Author: Zhouxiong Fei, Editor: midnight.
NIO Day in 2020 has become a concert again without surprise.
The NIO’s new product release, which has been in focus after many rounds of warm-up before, only accounts for nearly three hours of NIO Day’s 1/4 of the time, so that it is nicknamed “really just a’show'” by the outside world. .
However, this “show” still received the most applause from the audience.
On the evening of the 9th of this month, after a series of spontaneous performances by NIO car owners, NIO CEO Li Bin stepped onto the stage of NIO Day to the applause and cheers.
NIO CEO Li Bin released new products on NIO Day, Tuyuan Weilai official microblog
He first made a brief summary of the past 2020, and then released products including the second-generation power station, 150KWh solid-state battery, NAD automatic driving system and the highly anticipated first electric car ET7. In each new product After the release, the audience will express their excitement with long applause.
However, both the new battery technology and the new ET7 models are currently only “PPT”. According to Li Bin, the ET7 equipped with 70/100kWh battery packs will only be delivered in the first quarter of next year, while the 150kWh solid-state battery pack is expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of next year.
Looking at the domestic new energy car market, Weilai is slow. Tesla has launched two electric cars, Model S and Model 3, of which the latter has been domestically produced and killed all parties. In addition, new energy car companies such as Xiaopeng Motors and BYD launched their electric cars Xiaopeng P7 and BYD Han last year. To
Not only that, but NIO’s existing business is also being threatened. Some time ago, after Tesla’s domestically produced Model Y was released, some media revealed rumors that Weilai owners would unsubscribe from Weilai and choose Model Y.
Tesla Model Y, picture source Tesla official micro
Just after this NIO Day, when asked whether Tesla will become an ET7 opponent, Li Bin told the media: “Even if we really want to compete with Tesla, the sales of Tesla Model S will definitely Can’t do NIO ET7”. This answer, in the eyes of the outside world, is more or less a counterattack to Tesla’s release of Model Y. For a time, the “flavor of gunpowder” between Weilai and Tesla has become stronger.
Although Weilai and Tesla have already faced each other tit-for-tat, it is worth noting that their opponents happened to become the same-to kill the fuel car.
Li Bin once told the media after the meeting that Weilai’s short-term opponents are Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, and the long-term opponents may be Apple. Coincidentally, Tesla CEO Elon Musk expressed his views on fuel vehicles on the “Battery Day” last year: “The fuel vehicles will eventually disappear.”
So, what are the highlights of the new products released this NIO Day? Why is Weilai’s speed slow? Can the “late” ET7 pose a threat to BBA?
NIO who sells “futures”
“Unexpectedly, Weilai also started selling futures to car owners.”
Once the live broadcast of the event ended, the owner of the new energy vehicle, Opteron, said this to LianMo. As a loyal owner of NIO, he has been looking forward to this conference for a long time, especially for ET7. “At first I was excited to see so many new technologies released, but at the end did I realize that we still need to wait some time.”
After Li Bin stepped onto the stage, the first thing he released was the second-generation power station. He mentioned that this power station will have 13 batteries and support the one-key automatic battery replacement service without getting off the car. The efficiency of the battery replacement will be the first. 4 times the generation. In addition, Li Bin also put forward higher requirements in terms of the number of substations. “By the end of this year, Weilai will have 500 substations.”
For this number, it may be seen that Li Bin has learned to be stable. As early as 2017 NIO Day, he once boasted about going to Haikou and announced that he would deploy 1,100 replacement power stations by the end of last year. According to public data, Weilai currently has only 117 replacement power stations, which is quite different from the “big words” of the year.
After the release of the second-generation power station, one of the focuses of attention before the conference-the 150kWh solid-state battery pack appeared on the big screen in Li Bin’s introduction.
According to Li Bin’s introduction, this battery pack adopts solid-liquid electrolyte with in-situ curing process, silicon carbon with inorganic pre-lithiation process as the negative electrode, and ultra-high nickel positive electrode with nano-scale coating process, which can increase the energy While the density jumps, the lifetime is guaranteed and the charging efficiency is improved.
Weilai’s new generation of 150kWh battery pack, sourced from Weilai’s official website
The energy density increases, and the most obvious effect is reflected in the mileage. “If the three models currently on sale by Weilai are equipped with this battery pack, the battery life will be increased by more than 100km. For example, with this battery pack on the 2018 ES8, the battery life can be increased from 580km (100kWh battery pack) to 730km. “Li Bin introduced.
In addition to power station replacement and battery packs, Li Bin also announced a new generation of autonomous driving functions on this NIO Day. Regarding the “new”, Li Bin specifically explained that the automatic driving released this time will omit the word “assisted”, indicating that the NIO automatic driving system (NAD) will be launched, which can meet the needs of urban areas, high speeds, parking and battery swaps. The demand for autonomous driving in large scenarios.
This is another major feature upgrade after NIO released the NOP pilot assist system in October last year.
In order to realize this function, Wei Lai launched the autonomous driving mobile computing platform-ADAM Wei Lai Super Computing Platform. According to reports, the platform is equipped with 4 NVIDIA Orin chips with a computing power of 1016TOPS, which is four times that of Tesla’s FSD chip.
These four are the main computing chip, the redundant chip and a chip responsible for group intelligence and individual training. In other words, with the cooperation of this platform, NIO’s autonomous driving will become smarter and in line with user habits.
Wei Lai ADAM Wei Lai Supercomputing Platform, Picture Source Wei Lai Official Wechat
After the appearance of this series of “supporting actors”, the audience finally saw the real protagonist-NIO’s first electric car ET7, slowly pulled out from behind the screen to the center of the stage, applauded and cheered for a while The sound filled the whole venue.
Li Bin said that this car is equipped with an electric suction door that is rare in the industry and the world’s first UWB digital key, which truly realizes non-inductive entry and exit. In addition, in terms of cruising range, after carrying the existing 70kWh and 100kWh battery packs, the cruising range can reach more than 500km and 700km respectively, and the subsequent cruising range with the 150kWh battery pack can even reach 1000km.
Compared with the current cruising range of all car companies, 1000km is the longest cruising range in the industry. In this regard, Li Bin said, “This is a landmark milestone.”
In terms of intelligence, ET7 is also eye-catching. The car adopts the second-generation digital cockpit of Weilai, which is the third-generation digital cockpit computing platform of Qualcomm, which can realize more powerful in-vehicle mobile communication and car networking services. In addition, like Xiaopeng, Weilai also uses lidar and cameras in this car.
The lidar carried by ET7, introduced by Li Bin, is an equivalent 300-line lidar with a maximum detection distance of 500 meters; for the camera, an 8-megapixel device is used, which can identify more than 600 meters away Vehicles and pedestrians more than 200 meters away.
Weilai ET7 top lidar, picture source Weilai official micro
After combining 8 million high-definition cameras and 33 high-precision sensing hardware, ultra-long-distance ultra-long-distance high-precision lidar, the AQUILA Weilai Super Sensing System is formed. Li Bin said, “The safety of autonomous driving has been improved by two levels.”
From 150kWh solid-state battery pack to automatic driving function NADNoodles are not much different. The EC6’s cruising range is only 10km longer than that of the ES6, and the acceleration from 100km/h is only 0.2 seconds faster. “Liu Kai, a practitioner in the new energy automobile industry, said to Online Travel.
Because of this, EC6 has little voice in the domestic new energy vehicle market. According to data from the Travel Association, in 2020, Weilai EC6 sales were only 2,804 units, while the sister model ES6 sales reached 25,685 units, almost 9 times as much as the former.
So, ET7, which has been restarted and is late, can make a breakthrough in the new energy vehicle market under the current situation of sluggish sales of EC6 and change the decline of Weilai in new models last year?
Can ET7 play?
Whether it is an ADAM computing platform with up to 1016TOPS computing power, or an equivalent 300-line lidar, or a 150kWh battery pack that can allow ET7 to reach 1000km, in the eyes of the outside world, under this series of components , ET7 can be described as a good car with a sense of technology and innovation.
However, in the industry’s view, behind what seems to be innovation and technology is the fact of stockpiling.
Look at the aspect of autonomous driving first.
According to Li Bin’s introduction in the release link, ET7’s ADAM computing platform is mainly equipped with NVIDIA Orin chips. NIO is not the first to carry this chip. As early as September last year, Ideal Auto announced a cooperation with Nvidia and said that it would use this chip in the next ideal model.
According to relevant media reports, Nvidia’s chip was released in 2018, but it was officially put into production next year. Perhaps this is the case. It is not just a coincidence that Weilai and Ideal will release new cars next year.
In order to better realize autonomous driving, Xiaopeng announced at the end of last year that the new version of Xiaopeng P7 “Pengyi Edition” will use lidar on the new model. As a result, Xiaopeng was ridiculed by Musk, just because the latter disdain to use lidar to achieve autonomous driving.
The time has not passed too long, and NIO announced that it will also carry Lidar on ET7. According to reports, the lidar selected by Weilai comes from a company called “Innovusion”. According to the company’s data, the company’s A round of financing completed in 2018 was led by Weilai Capital.
But if nothing else, the Xiaopeng P7 equipped with lidar will achieve mass production a year earlier than the NIO ET7. “One year in advance means that more data can be obtained, but this difference will determine A lot of things.” Sun Tao, a practitioner in the smart car industry, said to Connect.
ExceptIn addition to lidar and chips, in terms of battery life, “ET7 will have a maximum battery life of more than 1000km after being equipped with a 150kWh battery pack.” The data released by Li Bin was mentioned by Musk before. He said that it uses a new generation After battery technology, Tesla’s new models will have a battery life of 1,000km.
New battery plan released by Tesla’s “Battery Day”, sourced from Tesla’s official website
Compared with Tesla’s battery technology, although both are “PPT”, Weilai’s 150kWh battery pack has also achieved innovation, using solid-state batteries, and said that it will be launched in the fourth quarter of next year. In other words, it will It will be faster than Tesla’s new battery technology.
But whether it can become a reality requires a question mark.
“The Weilai 150kWh battery can only be regarded as a’semi-solid’ battery. Its negative electrode is likely to use graphite, which is different from the advertised metal lithium. The industry is still working on the technology of metal lithium, which also means I am afraid that there will be no technological breakthrough when Wei comes next year.” A PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge told Entrepreneurship.
Looking at it now, NIO ET7 does not have the advantage of innovation, but its goal is not other new energy vehicles, but wants to grab the fuel vehicle market.
From the pre-sale price of ET7:
The 70kWh battery version is priced at 448,000 yuan, and the 100kWh battery version is priced at 506,000 yuan;
If you choose the BaaS solution, the price of the whole car is 378,000 yuan, and you need to pay 980 yuan and 1,440 yuan for the battery rental price respectively;
The first limited edition ET7 is 526,000 yuan, after choosing BaaS, it is 398,000 yuan, and the monthly battery fee is 1,440 yuan.
From the price range of 448,000 to 52.6 million yuan, the price of ET7 is almost the same as the price range of BBA’s new energy models such as Mercedes-Benz E-series, BMW 5-series and Audi A6L. This also confirms what Li Bin said in the release link: “The ET7 benchmark is BBA.”
Li Bin’s confidence in saying this comes from ET7’s crushing of these three cars.
According to data from Autohome, Mercedes-Benz E-series and Audi A6L do not have the most important OTA upgrade for smart cars, let alone competing with ET7.