(Text/Zhang Jiadong Editor/Zhang Guangkai)
As the dust settles on the price of Xiaomi SU7, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Automobile, who was slightly nervous at the press conference, finally took a reassurance.
On March 28th, at the Xiaomi car press conference, which started the warm-up more than half a month in advance, the price of the much-anticipated Xiaomi car's first mass-produced model SU7 finally unveiled the true face of Lushan.
27 minutes "Dading" 50,000 units
A total of three SKUs are available in the whole series, priced at 215,900-299,900 yuan, of which the Xiaomi SU7 standard version (rear-wheel drive long-range intelligent driving version) is priced at 215,900 yuan, the Xiaomi SU7 Pro version (rear-wheel drive ultra-long battery life high-end intelligent driving version) is priced at 245,900 yuan, and the Xiaomi SU7 Max version (high-performance four-wheel drive ultra-long battery life high-end intelligent driving version) is priced at 299,900 yuan. After Lei Jun's lengthy and apprehensive foreshadowing, the price of Xiaomi SU7 does not seem to have significantly exceeded the market's previous predictions.
After all, after the Xiaomi Group repeatedly denied the selling price of 99,900 yuan and 199,900 yuan, the starting price of Xiaomi SU7 within 200,000 yuan has become "wishful thinking" from the outside world.
But in any case, Lei Jun "spent an hour" convincing other executives to offer a price, undoubtedly finding the right entry point to stimulate his target users.
Although before the listing, many media and consumers said that more than 200,000 yuan of Xiaomi SU7 will inevitably be educated by the market, but it turns out that "a 215,900 yuan intelligent C-class pure electric car + Xiaomi's influence + Lei Jun's two-hour affectionate speech at the press conference" is still a huge "killer" in the same level of the market.
Sitting at the press conference, Li Bin and He Xiaopeng, the founders of Weilai and Xiaopeng, became more and more solemn; the founding version was sold out at the speed of light; and more than 50,000 units were "Dading" in 27 minutes (5,000 yuan deposit can be refunded). All indications show that Lei Jun's pricing for Xiaomi SU7 is not only right, but can even be said to be "winning".
On the hot search on Weibo, "Lei Jun Thor" is second only to the price of Xiaomi SU7, rushing to the second place in the hot search entry and completing the list.
At the press conference, Lei Jun said that the Xiaomi SU7 standard version and Max version will be delivered at the end of April, and the Pro version will be delivered at the end of May. In addition, Lei Jun said that the launch of the Xiaomi SU7 founding version, the price is the same as the standard version, Max version, limited to 5,000 units, the deposit of 20,000 yuan is non-refundable, and the delivery will start on April 3.
According to the Xiaomi car APP, 5000 Xiaomi SU7 founding editions were all sold out at the speed of light after the sale, which also means that Xiaomi generated 100 million yuan in revenue that night only for the founding version of the deposit. There are also many netizens who reported that although they were squatting on time, the server was crowded and still could not be grabbed, compared with the ordinary version, the founding version added the vehicle nameplate number and Lei Jun's autographed gifts, which shows Lei Jun's personal charm.
Of course, the price is only the surface of XiaomiSU7 to win the first battle on the market, and what is hidden behind it is Lei Jun's comprehensive consideration from the field of product, technology, ecology and even marketing.
Lei Jun said in an interview before going public that the current industry competition is fierce, and Xiaomi has a sense of the cruelty of competition. The price war is just a method, and it should be fought in terms of product war, technology war, and ecological war. At the press conference, he also highlighted that "intelligence and ecology are our strongest strengths. Xiaomi SU7 has few rivals under 500,000, and I am very happy with this car. ”
Geographical advantage: the ecological war of Xiaomi SU7
Dragging competitors into their own areas of expertise can help you be invincible. This is a commonly used way to win in the art of war, and this is also the most intuitive display of Xiaomi SU7's product strength.
Since the second half of last year, a large number of new power car companies have piled up the "7-character generation" car, which has made Xiaomi Auto fall into the whirlpool of public opinion, especially before the press conference in December, Extreme Krypton 007 locked the price at 200,000 yuan in advance in the form of a sniper, which once made the outside world think that Xiaomi SU7 had encountered the strongest opponent before it was listed.
However, with Lei Jun's 3-hour passionate explanation at the Xiaomi technology conference, when Lei Jun continued to strengthen the concept of C-class sedans and called it the best car within 500,000 yuan, the focus of the market has changed from price alignment to the exploration of product value.
The concept of "people, cars, home ecology" and intelligent technology thrown by Lei Jun have naturally become Xiaomi's most unique advantages.
In the whole listing conference,The biggest highlight may not be the product power of XiaomiSU7 itself,But Lei Jun's Xiaomi car ecological peripheral products that are hung out on PPT from time to time,This kind of undisguised price"Bringing goods"Behavior,Unprecedented in the past car press conferences。
Although it looks a little strange, it can even be said that Lei Jun also took advantage of the trend to grab a job in the modified market, but this is indeed an "ecological scene" that Xiaomi can do.
This is also why Lei Jun did not pick up the car first at the beginning of the press conference, but first talked about the precipitation of its mobile phone market. After 14 years of precipitation, Xiaomi is now one of the world's top three mobile phone companies (with 641 million monthly active mobile phone users worldwide), and has built the world's largest consumer-grade AIoT platform (740 million connected devices on the AIoT platform).
Reflected in the car, Xiaomi SU7 not only has Xiaomi's surging OS, the cockpit interconnection experience opened up at the bottom layer, and the whole ecology of people, vehicles and homes, but also realizes the first time that Xiaomi's self-developed "MiLM-1.3B" device-side large model is on the car. Xiao Ai, who is fully blessed by the large model, can not only realize voice interaction and control the car, but also integrate the location, direction, vision and other information of the car, so that the car can understand the real world like a person.
Lei Jun gave an example of the "grounding" gameplay of his large model on the spot, which can ask about the use of the vehicle, or combine it with environmental perception elements to realize real-time information exchange of information inside and outside the vehicle.
In terms of smart cockpit, Xiaomi surging smart cockpit regarded mobile phones and tablets as part of the cockpit at the beginning of the design to achieve multi-terminal integrated native design; on this basis, Xiaomi has also built an in-vehicle intelligent ecosystem, which can access a variety of CarIoT devices. For example, the expansion of physical buttons, the smart dual dial of the central control screen, the smart walkie-talkie, even a mobile phone holder, Bluetooth speaker multi-function flashlight, products that appeared in the Mijia ecosystem in the past, are now also included in the design of the Xiaomi SU7.
Lei Jun said, "Xiaomi's 'people, cars, and home ecology' connects all smart terminals together like never before, with non-inductive interconnection and capability collaboration, allowing everyone to experience a ubiquitous intelligent life." ”
If from the point of view of time, Xiaomi Auto is not the first car company to put a large model on the car, and the CarIoT expansion is not the first to be proposed by Lei Jun, but just like Xiaomi's success in the field of mobile phones, the existing products and functions will be integrated through ecological integration to achieve advanced "gameplay" and innovation, which is Xiaomi SU7 as a latecomer in the car circle.
Perhaps for an "old gun" of his own car, Lei Jun's explanation of design, performance, and even the factory will always seem a little lengthy, but from the perspective of the whole industry, Lei Jun's passion can carry the content of this "Car Spring Festival Gala" that is praised by people inside and outside the industry, and this is the fundamental reason why Xiaomi cars can break the circle quickly and efficiently.
Time: 3 years ago, it was benchmarked against Tesla
It is worth mentioning that no matter how powerful the automotive product is, it also needs accurate market positioning.
Before the press conference, many "rice fans" are still looking forward to the Xiaomi SU7 that starts with the word 1 "make a friend", but in fact, perhaps in addition to 59,900 yuan, I am afraid that there is no price that can satisfy everyone's fantasy of "cheap millet". Not to mention the Xiaomi SU7, which was crazy at the press conference 4 months ago, and Lei Jun repeatedly emphasized that it is "a bit expensive".
At the end of the press conference, Lei Jun gave a portrait of the target users of Xiaomi SU7: not willing to be mediocre, still fighting for their dreams. There is fire in the heart, light in the eyes, and the light of optimism and confidence shines all over the body. To put it simply, they are young people who are currently working hard for their lives and families.
This positioning is destined to make Xiaomi unable to go too far into the market, but this is also the user portrait of most 200,000 yuan new energy cars.
Therefore, comparable to Porsche, it is more like the expectation management that Lei Jun has been hanging on to words. What Lei Jun really wanted to benchmark 3 years ago was Tesla, which now has the highest sales volume in the field of electric vehicles in the world.
Lei Jun said frankly at the press conference, "Three years ago, our target was Tesla, although he is very strong, but I think when the Xiaomi SU7 is launched, the owner of the Model 3 should also change the car." ”
As Lei Jun guessed, in the past three years, Tesla has failed to further expand its lead in the passenger car field, and last year's Model 3 facelift did not bring more positive feedback to the market, but with the intensification of the electric vehicle price war, Tesla is gradually losing its pricing power in the same market between repeated price jumps.
The Xiaomi SU7 is launched at this time, which is the best time to surpass the Tesla Model 3 with product strength.
As a pure electric sedan focusing on handling, based on Xiaomi's huge investment in the positive research and development of the Modena technical architecture, Xiaomi SU7 can show excellent body transient response in every link of "driving, turning, and stopping".
In terms of power, the MAX version is equipped with a dual-motor, all-wheel drive, and super 800V silicon carbide high-voltage power platform, which can burst out with a maximum power of 673 hp and 838 Nm, and the 000 acceleration reaches 2.78s. At the same time, the model can reach a top speed of 265 km/h, and still has plenty of power in the rear acceleration of 100 km/h.
What Lei Jun is most proud of is that the MAX version is the only electric vehicle in the market with 2-second acceleration and 800 km range.
In addition, the long battery life of the whole system is also the "time of day" for Xiaomi to take the lead in seizing the minds of users. Compared with the battery price of 1000 yuan/kwh two years ago, the sharp drop in the price of automotive power batteries has indeed created an excellent pricing opportunity for latecomers such as Xiaomi SU7.
Similarly, the increasing maturity of intelligent driving technology also enables Xiaomi to adopt the most preferential solution in the selection of intelligent driving solutions. Lei Jun said that at present, the Xiaomi Home system is divided into two sets, namely Xiaomi Pilot Pro and Xiaomi Pilot Max, both of which use NVIDIA DRIVE Orin computing power platform and 11 camera vision solutions, and use zoom BEV technology and end-to-end large models.
The establishment of the project 3 years ago allowed Xiaomi SU7 to be born at the moment when electric vehicles and intelligent technology were "the most involuted", and witnessing the price war of electric vehicles after the Lunar New Year in 2024 also allowed Lei Jun to accurately find the most suitable foothold for his first new car in the chaos of the market.
Harmony: Lei Jun's turn enemies into friends
Until the end of the press conference, the outside world has not stopped discussing Xiaomi SU7.
However, unlike the lonely struggle of other car companies when their new cars were released, Lei Jun did many operations to turn enemies into friends before the new car was launched.
and Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, exchanged vehicles, so that the three founders of "Wei Xiaoli" were in the same frame again at the press conference, and Zhang Jianyong, the new chairman of BAIC Group, appeared to cheer. At the same time, a number of new energy vehicle companies such as BYD, Great Wall Motors, Li Auto, and Xiaopeng Motors posted on their official accounts to welcome Xiaomi Auto to enter the market.
As the tribute before the last technology conference, Lei Jun, as an investor in many new power car companies, now wants to enter the market and get a piece of the pie, and it is inevitable that the former "friend" will become a "friend businessman" in the future.
But in Lei Jun's eyes, the secret of Xiaomi's success in marketing is to make friends.
Xiaomi has been known for its "supply chain" since its mobile phone products, and now it has entered the automotive industry, and its competitors, who are also car manufacturers, may also be "friends and foes" with Xiaomi. In the three years since the car was made, Lei Jun has personally visited various car companies to learn from experience, and now the lithium iron phosphate blade battery used in the standard version of the model comes from the Fodi battery of BYD, a "friend".
In this dating trip, perhaps in addition to Geely, who was poached as a technical executive, Lei Jun's circle of friends has been reflected in the congratulations at the press conference.
Lei Jun's "pattern" is also shown in the product,At the press conference,Lei Jun mentioned the Xiaomi ecology on the car,He also deliberately named and said that Xiaomi cars will support the Apple ecology very well,Support ipad on the car。 As we all know, Apple has officially announced the termination of the car business this month, as one of the companies with the highest market share of smartphones, Apple is also known for its ecological construction, and Xiaomi SU7 for the acceptance of Apple's ecology, which means that Lei Jun not only expects to harvest Xiaomi ecological users in the market, but also wants to absorb the Apple user market that has been excluded by many Chinese brands.
Judging from the results, turning enemies into friends in the market is not only the top priority of Xiaomi SU7 and Lei Jun themselves to win a lot of attention, but also brings many positive evaluations to Xiaomi cars.
SU7 on the starting line
Extending from smartphones to smart cars is the dream of almost all mainstream mobile phone manufacturers, and Xiaomi is no exception.
However, the stark contrast between Apple's halfway launch and Huawei's hot sales in the world still raises doubts about the feasibility of mobile phone manufacturers entering the automotive field.
For Lei Jun and Xiaomi Auto, the birth of Xiaomi SU7 is only the first step from "0 to 1". In an interview, Lei Jun said, "In the pure electric automobile industry, apart from Tesla, I don't know which one is still making money." The pricing of Xiaomi Auto SU7 should not only make consumers feel that we are sincere, but also that we can afford the losses. This sentence not only shows Lei Jun's vision for the electric vehicle market, but also expresses his concerns.
Since the Xiaomi SU7 configuration was announced on social media as early as possible, the only suspense is the price as far as the product itself is concerned, and as stated at the beginning of the article, the starting price of 215,900 yuan is not high, but it is by no means too many surprises in the increasingly involuted market at the same level.
In the face of the price war, the hot spots of Xiaomi SU7's listing stem more from its latecomer identity and Lei Jun's personal charm. However, as competitors are eyeing each other, it remains to be seen how long Xiaomi cars will be able to maintain this popularity.
For Xiaomi Automobile, its advantage lies in its strong brand influence and the attention brought by its broad channel depth, which has been fully demonstrated in a variety of products in the world. Up to now, Xiaomi's first batch of sales outlets has covered 29 cities across the country, including 59 sales stores, 17 limited-time exhibition halls, 58 service centers, and it is expected that by the end of this year, its number will expand to sales covering 39 cities and 211 sales stores, and services covering 56 cities and 112 service centers. Lei Jun said that once the model is run, the number of channels and service capabilities of Xiaomi cars will be further improved.
On the other hand, judging from the financial report announced by Xiaomi Group, the current advanced reserves of Xiaomi are as high as 136.3 billion yuan, which is more than other domestic new energy vehicle brands, not only the most abundant capital pool, but also the lowest debt ratio of the company, according to last year's Xiaomi automobile-related business invested 6.7 billion yuan in the group, the company is also enough to support Lei Jun's "last venture" for more than 10 years.
However, the market pressure left for Xiaomi is equally intense.
The first thing to face is the pressure of market competition, and it is still unknown how long the Xiaomi SU7, which has a late-mover advantage, will be able to lead the market with cost performance. As its models in the market with a similar price, the Zeekr 001/007, Tesla Model 3, Huawei Zhijie, and even the upcoming Zhiji L6 may become its potential competitors.
Since Xiaomi SU7 did not jump out of the price range of 20-300,000 yuan, this also means that in this price segment, many details such as fierce configuration comparison and product reputation will affect the final market performance of the product. As the first model of Xiaomi Automobile, the product experience and reliability performance within half a year after its launch will also form a long-term test for its subsequent brand building and new product promotion.
In addition, Lei Jun previously expressed concerns about production capacity: "I'm particularly worried that everyone won't buy it if it's not popular." What's even more worrying is that if everyone comes to buy it, it will take a year or two to wait for it, and they will definitely be scolded miserably. Judging from the current order situation, Xiaomi has achieved both hot sales on the market, and for production capacity, Lei Jun said that under full production, Xiaomi car factories have a Xiaomi SU7 off the assembly line every 76 seconds.
Ferry Porsche once said, "When I looked around and couldn't find my dream car, I decided to build one myself." And this is not a true portrayal of Lei Jun personally leading the team to build a car three years ago to "start the last business".
But looking back on Porsche's 100 years of accumulation, a new car launch conference is only enough to make the passionate Lei Jun god again, for Xiaomi Automobile, Xiaomi SU7 hit the ground, it only means that it has just crossed the starting line of the new energy track.