On the evening of September 10th, the second model of Jiyue, Jiyue 07, was officially launched. Robin Lee, the chairman and CEO of Baidu, Zeng Yuqun, the chairman and CEO of Ningde Times, and Li Bin, the founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, jointly appeared at the Jiyue 07 launch conference as special guests. It is not common for several giants to release a new car at the same time, which not only demonstrates the strength and forward-looking vision of Jiyue 07 in technological innovation, energy solutions, and intelligent interconnection, but also marks a profound transformation of the automotive industry towards intelligence and electrification. "Automotive industry analyst Wang Kun analyzed to reporters from Huaxia Times.
As the owner of car number 001, Zeng Yuqun was the first to receive his exclusive ride, the Jiyue 07, on site. He said, "Baidu is responsible for intelligence, and CATL is responsible for electrification. We are both empowering each other with our respective professional abilities to create better automotive robots
Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, also highly praised the Jiyue 07: "Jiyue Automobile uses the industry-leading SEA intelligent evolution experience architecture, and its products are fully empowered by Geely's manufacturing system, with excellent performance and reliable quality." Li Shufu also stated that Geely Holding Group will continue to support the development of the Jiyue brand.
Struggling with Tesla
Public information shows that the Jiyue brand is a high-end intelligent automotive robot brand jointly created by Baidu and Geely Holding Group. It was established in March 2021 and its predecessor was Jidu Automobile. Jiyue CEO Xia Yiping stated that since its inception, Jiyue has been committed to creating world-class intelligent vehicles. The Jiyue Automotive Robot is fully empowered by Baidu's AI capabilities and Apollo, which have been continuously invested by over 170 billion yuan for more than 10 years. It is built on Geely's SEA vast architecture, which took over 4 years to develop and cost over 18 billion yuan, and uses Ningde Times high-performance power batteries with a total investment of over 70 billion yuan.
The reporter learned that the internal code name of Jiyue 07 in the company is Venus, which means Venus, the god of love and beauty in Greek mythology. If we have to benchmark it, I think it's more like a Model 5 that Tesla hasn't made yet, because we've made a car that Tesla hasn't made yet, "Xia Yiping said." If Musk builds a bigger sedan than the Model 3, I believe there will definitely be a shadow of the 2007.
The reason why Xia Yiping has such confidence is still because the Jiyue 07 is stronger than the Tesla Model 3 in terms of range and overall space size. At the same time, in terms of intelligence, the Jiyue 07 also has the same strength as Tesla. According to a reporter from Huaxia Times, the Jiyue 07 is the first AI era intelligent driving sedan equipped with Baidu ASD Apollo advanced intelligent driving, ushering in a new stage of intelligent driving development with "pure vision+end-to-end big model". At the same time, the Jiyue 07 is also the first household car in the world to achieve L4 level autonomous driving big model technology empowerment.
From this perspective, Baidu's deep cultivation in the field of intelligent driving in recent years has indeed yielded results. Through Apollo Go, Baidu has not only achieved the commercialization of automatic driving technology, but also accumulated more than 100 million kilometers of automatic driving mileage. This data not only reflects Baidu's profound accumulation in automatic driving technology, but also provides a valuable practical basis for its technology iteration and optimization.
At the same time, these advanced autonomous driving data also provide rich materials for the "end-to-end" AI big model of Jiyue Automobile. Through deep learning and continuous optimization, the intelligent driving system of Jiyue Automobile can more accurately recognize the road environment, predict the behavior of other traffic participants, and make more intelligent and safe driving decisions.
Wang Kun further told a reporter from Huaxia Times, "Empowered by Baidu's AI, the Jiyue 07 is not just a vehicle equipped with an intelligent driving assistance system, but more like an intelligent car robot that can deeply understand user needs and provide personalized services
In addition to intelligence, according to the introduction of Jiyue, the 0-100 km/h acceleration of Jiyue 07 only takes 3.5 seconds, and the lowest power consumption per 100 kilometers can reach 12.4 kWh. Meanwhile, thanks to the powerful support of the 800V platform, the Extreme 07 can replenish up to 600 kilometers of range in just 10 minutes.
We fought! The Jiyue 07 is the world's first sedan with an investment of over 100 billion yuan, the strongest intelligent driving sedan on this planet, and a new intelligent driving life created by it is about to come, "Xia Yiping said." 2025 is the year when non advanced intelligent driving cars are eliminated, and cars without intelligent driving will completely lose their competitiveness
We are on the verge of a comeback
As the second model of the Jiyue brand, the launch of the Jiyue 07 further enriches Jiyue's product line. In the future, Jiyue will also launch more car models to meet the needs of different consumers. Xia Yiping revealed that the next new car of Jiyue is expected to be released at the 2024 Guangzhou Auto Show, which will open on November 15th this year at the earliest.
However, based on the current market data of Jiyue, it urgently needs to increase its brand voice to achieve breakthrough. On September 2nd, Jiyue announced for the first time the partial monthly sales since the launch of Jiyue 01. Among them, 444 units were sold in June, 1019 units in July, and 2117 units in August. Although sales are gradually increasing, this data is not outstanding in a fiercely competitive market.
Regarding this, Xia Yiping admitted that in the current fiercely competitive market environment, achieving breakthroughs in brand and product development does face many challenges. Xiaomi has performed well in the market with its strong ecosystem and brand influence, while Huawei has won widespread recognition with its profound technological accumulation and brand influence, which undoubtedly brings considerable pressure to our product promotion
From the release of Jiyue 07, it can be seen that Jiyue is increasing consumer attention through product strength. For example, the Jiyue 07 has designed a button type door opening, which is a relatively niche way of opening doors on the market. Many consumers believe that this design will make it difficult to open the car doors in the event of an accident. In order to prove the safety of the vehicle, Jiyue conducted a test on Jiyue 07 at the press conference, rolling continuously twice on a 20m high slope. After testing, the car door can be opened normally without any impact.
Through testing, not only can it dispel users' concerns, but it can also enhance the brand's attention. Wang Kun stated that the performance of Jiyue 07 demonstrates its strength in technological innovation and product research and development, which is also the key to Jiyue's success in future market competition.
In addition to enhancing product strength, Jiyue is also improving its marketing strategy. In January of this year, Jiyue replaced the entire marketing and sales team, with Xia Yiping personally leading the team. At the same time, Xia Yiping has also opened personal accounts on various social media platforms, posted short videos, and started live broadcasts to expand the brand awareness of Jiyue. Xia Yiping admitted that although its models have significant advantages in intelligence, the brand awareness still needs to be further improved. In the future, Jiyue will continue to enhance its brand awareness by introducing consumers to the brand through live streaming, short videos, and other means. However, it will attract consumers through content and will not spend money on traffic.
In terms of channels, according to the official website of Jiyue, there are currently 133 sales stores in operation nationwide (including 42 pop-up stores). Although the sales store layout of Jiyue is gradually improving nationwide, there is still a considerable gap compared to top enterprises, which is also the focus of Jiyue's future layout.
It is worth mentioning that Jiyue has also reached a strategic cooperation agreement with NIO for battery swapping. Xia Yiping emphasized that both sides will engage in comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in multiple dimensions such as battery technology, charging and swapping systems, asset management, and charging platforms.
From the current development perspective, the Jiyue brand is striving in the fiercely competitive automotive market with its advantages in intelligence, electrification, and continuously improving channel layout and innovative marketing strategies. Wang Kun said, "With the continuous improvement of market recognition, it is highly expected to achieve a leapfrog growth in sales in the future. At the same time, deep cooperation with companies such as NIO has injected new impetus into the development of Jiyue