From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 244: Starry Sky L9 Project Launch, Dual-Cavity Air Suspension Rear-Wheel Steering Technology, Heaven and Earth Gate Design!
Camping is an outdoor activity that has become popular in the last two years.

It is also a way for many middle-class people to express their lifestyle.

After all, playing golf and skiing also have entry barriers and are relatively selective in terms of the target audience.

Camping is different.

Regardless of age or gender, all groups are buying things, and anyone willing to spend the time can join in.

"The chill dissipates with laughter, and the tender meat becomes fragrant as it boils."

"A leisurely drink brings lasting pleasure, and the night is still young when we are drunk."

"It's hot pot season again, so don't forget to treat yourself to a meal."

Yang Li laughed heartily, picked up a steaming piece of hot pot meat, faced the snow-capped mountains and the cold wind, and ended the video after reciting a half-literary, half-classical text.

The lingering aftertaste, however, inexplicably stirs up a sense of longing.

Many people actually have no concept of a car's power and features.

But I saw this video today.

I inexplicably started to relate to it.

Many travel and camping enthusiasts are sharing the video.

There's also something to say in the comments section.

"Brother, you already weigh over 200 pounds, and you're still treating yourself here?"

"Sigh, I'm not being good to myself."

"This car... looks really cool."

"After watching a camping video, I felt the urge to buy a car. I really long for that kind of life. This car would definitely be comfortable for traveling with my wife and kids."

……

With its spread through various channels, the "refrigerator, color TV, and large sofa" strategy has once again proven its correctness.

Whether it's offline promotion or actual offline experience.

In the automotive industry, this is already of epoch-making significance.

From a communication perspective, it's perfectly accurate to say it's "high technology fighting primitive people."

After all, traditional car manufacturers are keen to promote features such as handling, power, and engine and transmission parameters, which are far less impactful than the large screens, refrigerators, and sofas.

Not only is the explanation cost relatively high, but it also doesn't bring a particularly noticeable difference in user experience.

Even if we have to explain it—the Starry Sky L7 comes standard with dual motors and 590 horsepower, and its 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 4.9 seconds will redefine the "family comfort SUV".

Many netizens who hadn't watched the launch event went to find out about the specifications.

He also showed a slightly astonished expression.

—You call this powerful, brick-flying engine a family SUV??
The advent of the electric era is revolutionizing the perceptions of consumers who rely on traditional fuel-powered systems.

12 month 3 day.

The Starry Sky organization is still planning for increased production.

Before the press conference, there were concerns that production might be hampered by insufficient orders. Now, a month after the conference, the snowballing trend of orders has become increasingly apparent, turning into a new worry. The marketing and sales department keeps reporting the weekly increase in order data internally, while the production side is experiencing mixed feelings of joy and worry, with mountains of pressure piling up.

"Mr. Xu, the production capacity of the air suspension has been basically determined, and the production capacity will exceed 8,000 units next month."

"The main bottleneck for high-power components in the vehicle is the SiC module. Tianyue Advanced's 6-inch SiC wafer yield has just exceeded 50%. The previously expanded production capacity has been fully utilized, and we are planning the construction of new production lines."

"In addition, the production capacity of second-generation Polestar batteries..."

Assistant Zhou Qiang compiled a list of the production capacity of each core supplier.

As a new energy vehicle that surpasses its class, the Xingchen L7, in addition to its basic configuration, inevitably touches upon the most cutting-edge technologies in the industry, such as power semiconductors and chips, at various levels of the vehicle supply chain.

Advanced technology also means smaller demand.

Production capacity is limited.

As for batteries, it's not too bad. Xingchen can produce them itself. As long as the price of raw materials doesn't rise significantly, they can expand production according to the normal cycle.

However, in the chip and semiconductor industry, economies of scale are difficult to achieve.

Take SiC modules as an example. Before Xingchen Automotive participated in the joint venture production, Tianyue Advanced only had a 4-inch SiC wafer production line, which was an experimental production line.

The current 6-inch wafer production line is still being built with investment led by Xingchen and in collaboration with Taike Tianrun. Compared with foreign giants Wolfspeed and STMicroelectronics, it does not have an advantage in cost or quality.

However, Xingchen Automotive still signed a long-term order with them, placing nearly half of its production capacity demand domestically, and strongly supporting and investing in joint ventures to build controllable independent production lines.

The company's support, which emphasizes that "you can't put all your eggs in one cage," deeply moved Zong Jianmin, the CEO of Tianyue Advanced. As a result, Tianyue Advanced listed Xingchen as its top priority core customer and is willing to cooperate fully in terms of production capacity and demand.

Today it is today.

The driving effect of Xingchen Motors on the upstream and downstream industrial chains of new energy vehicles is gradually becoming apparent.

Many domestic automakers have also taken note of this.

Equipping new energy vehicles with SiC silicon carbide modules and domestically produced air suspension... Apart from Tesla, Xingchen Automotive is the first domestic automaker to take the plunge.

This involves not only high costs, but also a significant investment of time and energy. Even though some people learned about Xingchen Motors' moves in advance through the supply chain, they still felt it was too risky and too aggressive...

And now?

The market feedback has been very successful!
While the consumer market may not be paying attention to this aspect, many automakers are gradually beginning to discover the "transformative" impact that this range-extended electric vehicle is bringing to the industry from the ground up.

Unsurprisingly, more automakers are now willing to reverse engineer the Xingchen L7.

A new round of transformation is also underway within Xingchen Automotive.

"I'm sure everyone is aware of the project being initiated for the next model. The Starry Night L7 has been very successful in the market, and judging from order feedback, this success is likely to continue..."

Inside the conference hall.

As soon as Xu Yi spoke, many key personnel and executives laughed. It was a rare moment of relaxation. Xingchen had invested heavily in the Xingchen L7, bearing enormous risks and pressures. Many aspects of it were groundbreaking. If it failed, all the initial investment and internal efforts would be wasted, and the losses would be enough to bankrupt an ordinary new energy vehicle company.

“Traditional car companies operate in a family-run, systematic manner. We didn’t follow this plan before, mainly because we had to meet our profitability requirements. We would just use whatever technology we could find first. Now we can free up our resources to make more choices and pursue things at a higher level.”

Leaving aside joint venture cars, domestically produced cars from independent brands had never before achieved a monthly sales volume of over 5,000 units with a final selling price of over 300,000 yuan. But now our Xingchen L7 has done it, which is inseparable from everyone's tireless efforts day and night..."

Xu Yi said a few words of summary.

"This is all thanks to President Xu's wise leadership!"

"Without President Xu, there would be no Xingchen Motors today!!"

"To be honest, whether it's the employees in the core supply chain or the workers in our own car manufacturing plant, everyone gives Mr. Xu a thumbs up!"

The sound of flattery rang out.

But I must say, it sounds quite pleasant, and most importantly, I can't find any fault with it!

For the supply chain, Xingchen Auto prioritizes technology and quality capabilities, and all one-time fees are paid to lower-level suppliers. Millions of employees will receive year-end bonuses, and millions of families will live a sustainable and prosperous life.

Xingchen Motors is also generous with its profits, even though workers have to work overtime to meet production capacity. It is common for them to work several times the normal amount of wages, and their benefits far exceed those of local workers. As a result, the number of positions available for external recruitment is becoming increasingly sought after.

……

"Well—we'll see if it's wise or not later!"

"Let's get down to business..."

Xu Yi suppressed his smile. Car manufacturing is something that can bring a sense of accomplishment. The profits may not be as high as those of the Internet and high-tech industries, but the charm of real industry is far beyond what virtual industry can match, and the spread of influence and scale effect is also difficult to quantify.

It is no exaggeration to say that Xingchen Motors currently employs more than 30,000 people directly, including those in R&D, sales, manufacturing, management, and service, and drives more than 600,000 jobs in the upstream and downstream industries, and this number is still expanding rapidly with increasing sales.

"My next car will be a full-size, six-seater luxury SUV, continuing the strategy of using refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas as bait. As for pricing... I'm tentatively setting it at around 500,000 yuan!"

Many people already know the direction the next car will be produced.

But the official confirmation still has a very strong impact. — A full-size, six-seat luxury SUV!!
—At the 500,000 level!
This is yet another completely uncharted territory for independent brands.

"Lack of experience", "Lack of technology", "Lack of sales!"
If the price range of 300,000 yuan is something that ordinary domestic brands can still consider, then the car manufacturing market above 400,000 yuan is actually completely monopolized by joint venture and imported brands.

However, luxury cars in this price range often represent the largest profit margins.

A domestically produced car priced around 200,000 yuan might only have a gross profit of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan, even with good cost control.

For luxury cars priced at 400,000 to 500,000 yuan, the price increase during peak sales seasons at dealerships can reach 30,000 to 40,000 yuan, making the overall profit margin of the vehicle incomparable.

"Mr. Xu, does that mean our next Starry Night L9 will be positioned at the same level as the NIO ES8?"

Yu Nian asked, NIO's first press conference was held this month, and the industry has learned a lot about its information disclosure. It can be judged that the final positioning of this car is in the range of 400,000 to 500,000 yuan.

In terms of configuration, the NIO ES8 also has its high-end features, adopting an all-aluminum unibody body and 6-series aluminum alloy.

It is currently the first domestically developed and manufactured all-aluminum body structure, and also one of the models with the highest proportion of all-aluminum body-in-white among mass-produced vehicles globally.

In comparison, the Starry Sky L7's steel-aluminum hybrid body is still considered a traditional luxury car craftsmanship. It is much lighter, but it is no less strong, and even surpasses it in terms of structure. After all, Starry Sky has special expertise in structural strength and hot-formed steel.

"They're the same price, but different in class." Xu Yi nodded, his expression turning somewhat amused as he recalled Li Bin's stressed expression from a few days ago.

“NIO is quite willing to invest in high-quality components, but apart from the all-aluminum body and ternary lithium batteries, their other technologies are not independently controllable. Despite being positioned in the high-end market, it is difficult to achieve breakthroughs at key stages... Moreover, a lot of money is spent on services and performances…”

In Luzhou, Xu Yi also naturally received several guest seat tickets. It is said that NIO spent 100 million yuan on the NIOday event.

It's worth noting that Xingchen's budget for expanding the production line of the suspended suspension system and subsequent research and development last month was exactly 120 million.

Xu Yi had no intention of discussing the successes and failures of competitors, but instead instructed the product manager to display the next vehicle's plan on the conference screen.

Product manager Zeng Daiyan stepped forward:

"Our competitors are more restrained in terms of size, such as screen size and vehicle body size..."

The full-size SUV we define is a versatile luxury family vehicle that is over 5.2 meters long.

A statement made at a previous meeting was correct.

"Bigger is better, better is bigger!!"

...

The excellent offline feedback and very few negative reviews of the Starry Night L7 are also closely related to its good spatial design.

In terms of size, with a length of 5030mm and a wheelbase of 2950mm, the six-seat layout may feel a bit cramped.

But it depends on who you're comparing it to.

The Highlander seven-seater has a length of 4855mm, while the BYD Tang DM seven-seater is even shorter, with a length of only 4815mm.

Although the interior space has been utilized to a great extent for the seating layout, physical space cannot be violated.

Compared to these two vehicles, the second and third row space of the Xingchen L7 is simply a game-changer, extremely spacious.

Unfortunately, although the ES8 may be priced between 400,000 and 500,000 yuan at its initial launch, the publicly disclosed overall length of the vehicle is only 5022mm.

This is more embarrassing.

It's even 8mm shorter than the Starry Night L7, which costs 32.88 yuan.

"Long-wheelbase models generally sell 30% more in China than standard-wheelbase models. Mr. Xu asked us to define it as large as possible, so we finally decided on a length of 5250mm."

Of course, such a large size also brings new problems: the handling of large vehicles is reduced, and their cornering ability is too poor.

The Xingchen L7 features a large-scale variable steering ratio technology to assist in reducing the turning radius to within 6 meters. However, given the vehicle's length of over 5.2 meters, relying solely on variable steering ratio is insufficient.

Considering the technical possibilities, the Starry Night L9 will be equipped with active rear-wheel steering technology.

In addition, it features advanced dual-chamber air suspension technology, along with the unique top-and-bottom door design found only on imported luxury cars costing millions.

The design drawings of the Starry Night L9, several key selling points, and structural analysis diagrams appeared on the large screen.

This configuration is absolutely astounding!

—Active rear-wheel steering technology.

From a market perspective, it is even rarer than air suspension, and the models that can be equipped with it are often the representatives of joint venture flagship luxury, which is a true "high-end configuration".

Such as the Cadillac CT6 Platinum, BMW 7 Series, Audi A8L, Mercedes-Benz S-Class...

Its principle is that the front axle active steering is linked with the rear wheel steering. Relying on the electronic control unit, the steering motor outputs torque, and the steering force is transmitted to the rear wheels through the tie rod on the rear axle to achieve ±10° steering. At high speeds, it can also achieve ±4.5° rear wheel follow-up steering angle.

The greatest advantage is that it makes large vehicles as agile as small vehicles, and when driving at high speeds, the rear-wheel steering can achieve a near-parallel translation effect, reducing body roll.

"Yes, rear-wheel steering technology... We are working with Kong Hui on in-depth development, reverse engineering the steering systems of established international suppliers such as ZF and Schaeffler, and the progress is quite clear at the moment," Wang Jingming said. Kong Hui has many years of experience in chassis system development, and Xingchen Automotive's vehicle assembly center is also making rapid progress in accumulating technical patents.

Strictly speaking, rear-wheel steering is a relatively rare technology, but its technical limitations are not that severe.

The main issue is that it's used in a limited number of car models, making it difficult to spread the cost, and the tuning and control also require a significant amount of work.

Compared to NIO's approach of spending lavishly on product launches, Star Auto is more focused on advancements in research and development.

"For high-end cars, a complete and integrated chassis platform is needed, which includes adjustable air suspension and active rear-wheel steering that also takes into account steering control."

Wang Jingming's enthusiasm remained undiminished. In fact, he had suggested this plan in the early stages of the development of the Starry Sky L7.

But Xu Yi rejected it.

First, the research and development cycle cannot keep up. Second, although the active rear-wheel steering technology has many advantages and the driving experience is incredibly comfortable and awesome, it also has a fatal flaw.

That includes the rear wheel steering motor and hydraulic mechanism, which are usually installed near the rear axle and require about 5-10cm of space between the rear axle and the rear seats.

This is pretty troublesome.

It is difficult to eliminate the negative benefits even by increasing the wheelbase or optimizing the rear overhang design.

The biggest selling point of large-sized vehicles is their spaciousness.

If a 5-meter-long vehicle is to be equipped with rear-wheel steering, the space it occupies will inevitably be reduced.

So even though the Starry Sky L7 could have been upgraded to a 2.0T engine, it only uses a 1.5T.

Cost is one aspect, but noise, space occupation, and additional weight are purely negative benefits.

"Is this dual-chamber air suspension more advanced than the existing air suspension in the Starry Sky L7?" someone from the marketing department asked. This product planning meeting also included a technical alignment session.

"Dual-cavity air suspension refers to an air suspension system with a dual-airbag structure," Wang Jingming said, while showing a technical document.

"The air suspension in our Starry Sky L7 is already quite high-end, but it is only comparable to or close to luxury joint venture cars, and has not yet reached the level of leading or surpassing them."

"The top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz S-Class is equipped with a dual-chamber air suspension, which not only adjusts faster, but also decouples the height adjustment from the stiffness adjustment, resulting in a wider adjustment range, more stable suspension frequency, and a more comfortable ride."

Similar to the differences between the Apple Air and Pro/Max versions.

The simplest example is that single-chamber inflation and deflation takes about 2 seconds, while dual-chamber suspension and inflation/deflation take less than 1 second, and the height is also greater.

He gave a brief explanation and showed models on the market equipped with dual-chamber air suspension.

Air suspension systems also come in different heights.

It must be admitted that Xingchen Automotive has only caught up with some foreign automakers in terms of cutting-edge technology; it is too early to say that it has surpassed them.

The top-of-the-line Porsche Panamera even features a three-chamber air suspension, which is a testament to cutting-edge technology.

The final design element, the "heaven and earth gate," is incorporated into the trunk area.

As you can see, the trunk of the Xingchen L9 is a split-opening type, with the tailgate divided into upper and lower parts, which can be opened independently or simultaneously, making it convenient for loading and unloading large items or dealing with narrow parking spaces.

When folded down separately, the trunk opens elegantly from top to bottom, allowing you to sit gracefully on it while fishing and enjoying the scenery.

This design actually looks very familiar; it's not something Xingchen created alone.

Anyone familiar with off-road vehicles will immediately exclaim in surprise: this thing is exactly the same as the trunk of the Land Rover Range Rover and Cullinan!

……

(End of this chapter)