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Author | Dawn Editor | Ai Xiaojia
Source: Shentu
Evergrande really built the car and officially launched it.
As long as 179,000 yuan, you can own a Hengchi 5 – known as “the best pure electric SUV in history within 300,000 yuan”. Its body size is far larger than that of BMW X1 and Audi Q3. It can run 602 kilometers on a single charge. Assisted driving function.
At the first press conference on July 6, Liu Yongzhuo, president of Hengchi Automobile, said: “This price is full of sincerity.”
When it comes to selling cars, Evergrande is really sincere. Although the stock of Evergrande Automobile Company is still suspended, and the Evergrande Group, which has been caught in a capital chain crisis, has not recovered, but Evergrande insisted on “working hard and working quickly” to create the Hengchi 5, which began in October. deliver.
Don’t ask how the car was made, whether it’s in the right order or reversed, anyway, the car is here, and the leader also likes it. The original words of Xu Jiayin, chairman of the board of directors of Evergrande, were: “Beautiful! Really beautiful!”
In order to promote this car, Evergrande has created a new transaction method: the car payment is only required when the car is delivered, and the car can be returned and refunded within 15 days after the car is picked up. The purchase price is not credited to the Evergrande account, but notarized. A special account, and a three-year 40% discount for repurchase. This is telling customers: don’t have concerns, buy with confidence!
Evergrande, which started with real estate, has thousands of Evergrande communities across the country and more than 12 million owners, all of whom are potential customers. After the real estate is sold, the car is sold to them, forming a closed loop. Is the story of Evergrande’s car building reliable?
Far more than BMW Audi, comparable to million-class Mercedes-Benz?
Like those exaggerated new car-making forces, the BBA was pulled out and stepped on as soon as the press conference of Hengchi 5 opened.
The first is the appearance size. Hengchi 5 is positioned as a compact SUV, with a length, width and height of 4725mm, 1925mm and 1676mm respectively, and a wheelbase of 2780mm. This size far exceeds the BMW X1 and Audi Q3 of the same level, and is on par with the higher-level BMW X3 and Audi Q5L.
Judging from the data alone, the Hengchi 5 is indeed too “big” to say anything. However, Hengchi 5 did not disclose at the press conference how the interior space is.
A common sense is that a large body size does not mean a large interior space. One of the selling points of the Ideal L9 and Wenjie M7 just released some time ago is how to maximize the interior space under the limited body size, not just empty shelves. This is the time to really show the technology.
Although the Hengchi 5 is positioned as a compact model, its size is close to that of a mid-size car. The mid-size SUV Tesla Model Y and Leapmotor C11 are both 4.75 meters long, while the Hengchi 5 is 4.725 meters, only 2.5 cm smaller than them. In terms of width and height, Hengchi 5 is even larger than Model Y.
It’s like, a middleweight boxer running into a light heavyweight ring.
The body is big and the wheels are big too. The average compact SUV uses 18- or 19-inch wheels. The standard wheel of the Hengchi 5 is 18 inches, but 21-inch super-large wheels are optional, which is the largest size in its class.
Evergrande’s idea of building a car is a bit like selling a house. The same price, the same level, the “area” is larger, it seems to represent good, representing high cost performance.
Inside the vehicle, the front row of the Hengchi 5 has an embracing 3D curved triple screen – a 10.25-inch LCD instrument screen, a 14.6-inch central control screen, and a 10.25-inch passenger screen, which are 1.2 meters wide.
The Mercedes-Benz EQS, which sold for over one million yuan before, redefines the triple screen. This time, Hengchi 5 pulled out the triple screen of Mercedes-Benz EQS, saying that it can be “comparable”. However, I don’t know what the standard of comparison is.
The body is bigger, the screen is bigger, and the battery life can’t be too shabby.
The Hengchi 5 has a cruising range of 602 kilometers under CLTC conditions, and is equipped with a 72.8-degree lithium iron phosphate battery from the Ningde era. This battery life is relatively high among electric vehicles of the same level.
However, since the second half of last year, most new energy vehicles have replaced the original NEDC cruising range with the CLTC comprehensive cruising range, which will lead to an increase in the displayed cruising range. Moreover, it will definitely be discounted in the actual use process.
The power performance is mediocre. Hengchi 5 is equipped with a single motor, with a maximum power of 150KW, a maximum torque of 345N m, and an acceleration of 100 kilometers in 7.8 seconds. In the same class of SUV, this performance is not bad, but not top-notch. The motor configuration of GAC Aeon V PLUS is not much different from that of Hengchi 5. The acceleration from 100 km/h is 7.6 seconds faster and 7.9 seconds slower.
As for the chassis system, the price of the Hengchi 5 is less than 200,000 yuan, and it is definitely not available for the luxurious configuration of the front double wishbones and the rear five-link. It uses the front MacPherson and rear five-link suspension. , which is the architecture that most compact SUVs will use.
Overall, the biggest impression of Hengchi 5 seems to be only “big” – large size, large wheels, large screen, and large battery. In terms of size, BBA does not have the upper hand, but Hengchi 5 is still a little far from “luxury”.
A “brand name” is not your own
Whether it is the warm-up before the press conference or at the press conference site, Evergrande is trying to convey a message to the outside world – we have an extremely powerful circle of friends.
Shortly after the opening, Liu Yongzhuo specifically emphasized that Hengchi is “cooperating with the world’s top parts suppliers”. In the list of suppliers of Hengchi 5, there are Idaq, Bosch, Continental, Aptiv, Faurecia, CATL, Magna, Valeo, United Electronics and so on. They are indeed “big names”.
For example, the battery mentioned above is provided by Ningde era, and also adopts CTP technology. Ningde era is the global leader in power batteries, and its brand and quality are beyond doubt.
The three-in-one electric drive system is from Bosch UMC. Bosch is the world’s largest automotive technology supplier. No one can shake its position in the industry.
The cockpit chip uses Qualcomm 8155, which is the ceiling of the car-grade chip, representing the most cutting-edge technological achievements. The recently released new cars, the NIO ES7, the Ideal L9, and the upcoming Xiaopeng G9, all use the 8155. chip.
The car machine uses Baidu ecological application, Baidu voice assistant, Baidu map, and Baidu search are all on the battlefield. Now there are not a few models equipped with Baidu system in the industry.
Evergrande integrated these “famous brand” products together, packed a whole car, and it was Hengchi 5.
Resource integration has always been the strength of Evergrande. Xu Jiayin once summed up Evergrande’s car-building route into five words: “buy, buy, buy, combine, circle, big, good, good”. He believes that all technologies and companies that can be bought should be bought, and those that cannot be bought should be cooperated.
However, neither acquisition nor cooperation can quickly transform into Hengchi’s competitive advantage.
The Ningde era batteries used in Hengchi 5 are used by most car companies; as long as it is a model that is related to “luxury”, they will find a way to use the 8155 chip; Baidu ecological applications can only be used for money.
The latest context of the new car-making forces is: self-research.
Xiaopeng has been vigorously promoting full-stack self-development. Last year, it launched high-speed NGP, and this year it will be launched in urban NGP soon. The central domain controller of the Ideal L9 is fully self-developed, and the intelligent driving system is also self-developed for perception, decision-making, and planning. and control software; Weilai is even developing its own chips with the highest threshold; even the second-tier Zero Run has proposed “global self-research” to be tough on Tesla in terms of intelligence.
How many things in Hengchi 5 are self-developed?
At the press conference, Hengchi announced a set of data: 2,483 authorized patents and 3,413 patents are being applied for in core areas such as vehicle manufacturing, intelligent networking, and power batteries. The Global Research Institute and the Global Battery Research Institute have been established, and more than 2,000 top international scientific research talents have been introduced to carry out R&D work simultaneously in China, Sweden, South Korea, Japan and other places.
The results of these research work have not been fully reflected in Hengchi 5.
The battery of Hengchi 5 is still from CATL, not the battery supplier Kanai acquired by Evergrande. Hengchi did not see any achievements in battery management technology at the press conference; the power system comes from UMC, not from Evergrande Joint venture with Hofer, Germany.
In terms of assisted driving functions in the battleground, Hengchi 5 claims to be able to realize 19 functions such as forward and lateral automatic reversing, lateral traffic automatic emergency braking, and full-speed adaptive cruise. What surprised the outside world is that Hengchi 5 can turn on the turn signal and automatically change lanes.
Supporting these functions are a Mobileye vision chip, a monocular camera, a front-mounted millimeter-wave radar, 4 corner millimeter-wave radars, 4 surround-view cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors.
This configuration is very common in today’s crazy involution of autonomous driving. Fortunately, Mobileye’s solution is highly versatile and can be used immediately, but the system is highly closed, and the black-box delivery model prevents car companies from doing more in-depth development. New forces such as Wei Xiaoli have already switched from Mobileye to the NVIDIA platform.
Of course, for Evergrande, it is already very good to be able to build a car. As the first mass-produced car of Evergrande, the Hengchi 5 is somewhat of a road-seeking nature.
Paying for Hengchi requires money and courage
In order to build a car, Evergrande has spent nearly 50 billion yuan. Now that the car is built, who does Evergrande plan to sell the car to?
The first person ever targeted by Evergrande is the owner of Evergrande.
During May Day this year, Hengchi 5 has been quietly on the road. It launched a national touring exhibition, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Hainan… These exhibition areas have one thing in common – there are Hengda buildings in the local area.
Evergrande sells its new cars directly in its own real estate. For example, Evergrande Yayuan in Xinxiang, Henan, Evergrande Yujingwan in Zhengzhou, and Evergrande Jiangwan in Xi’an, Hengchi staff drove the car into the community, put it on the booth, and prepared lucky draw gifts. “It’s officially started.
Evergrande has thousands of Evergrande communities across the country and more than 12 million owners. These people have paid for Evergrande and are the most accurate potential customers. For them, living in a Evergrande house and driving a Evergrande car doesn’t sound like a breach of harmony at all.
At the scene, some owners expressed their opinions: “The house that Evergrande bought has been 6 years, and the quality, greening, and property have nothing to say! Such a real estate company is rare! I believe that Xu Jiayin can also do a good job in the car and become a new model trusted by the people. Energy brand, fight a beautiful turnaround!”
This represents the voice of a part of the owners. A user who has already booked Hengchi 5 told Shentu that buying Hengchi 5 is to support Evergrande. He has not driven the car yet and plans to test drive it in August.
But more people’s response is to doubt and wait and see. The more common comments are: “The house can be unfinished, what if the car is unfinished?” “Will the pre-sale money be swept away?”
Previously, Evergrande Group was in crisis, and Evergrande’s wealth was thundering, which has greatly reduced Evergrande’s reputation. Whether Evergrande still has enough funds to build a car, how long it can be built, and whether the after-sale service can be guaranteed, many people questioned.
Evergrande is well aware of this. In order to dispel external concerns, Hengchi pioneered the “notarized car purchase” method. The full amount is paid when the car is delivered, and the car can be returned and refunded within 15 days after the car is picked up, and the money must go through the special account of the notary office. In order to emphasize, the pre-sale plan was clearly displayed on the homepage of the official website, and the everlasting wind was blowing.
In response to after-sales problems, Hengchi emphasized in the press conference that it adopts an authorized business model and has deployed 313 after-sales service outlets in 235 cities across the country.
According to the plan, the pre-sale of Hengchi 5 has been started, the subscription will be accepted from August 1, the delivery will start in October, and the delivery target of 10,000 units will be completed in the first quarter of next year. In this way, the average monthly delivery of Hengchi 5 is 1,667 units.
Looking at it now, there is still uncertainty about whether the Hengchi 5 can be delivered as scheduled. Previously, Hengchi 5 was originally scheduled for mass production on June 22, but it has been postponed to September 20. Evergrande Motor has been suspended from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since March 21, and was suspended again after a brief resumption of trading. So far, trading has not resumed, and its financial results have not been released on time.
Aside from the brand factor, the Hengchi 5, priced at 179,000 yuan, is not too expensive compared with other models of the same class. The functions and configurations disclosed at the press conference are not bad when viewed individually, but the problem is that these configurations are integrated into At the same time, whether it is a good car, whether it is the “best pure electric SUV within 300,000” declared by Hengchi to the outside world, there is a question mark.
In any case, Evergrande’s car is built, and how long it can run depends on the next comprehensive performance.
*The title image comes from @hengchi.
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