"It's not that fuel vehicles are not selling well, it's that your fuel vehicles are not selling well," said Li Xueyong, deputy general manager of Chery Automobile, at the Tiggo 8L launch conference.
Faced with the current situation of the gradually shrinking share of fuel vehicles in the Chinese auto market and the wave of smart electric vehicles, Chery may be one of the few players in terms of which domestic auto companies can still sell fuel vehicles with confidence.
Obviously, Chery’s goal is not to “overtake on a curve”, but to overtake fuel vehicles on the straight road.
Its confidence comes from two aspects: one is the technical accumulation from long-term positive research and development of engines, and the other is the cumulative sales of 1 million units of the Tiggo 8 series.
On August 8, Chery chose this meaningful day to launch its new self-developed flagship SUV Tiggo 8L, with a price range of 129,900 to 174,900 yuan. Through this car, Chery intends to further consolidate its leading position in the field of self-owned brand fuel vehicles.
The core part of the new car is Chery's proud 2.0TGDI Kunpeng power engine, which has won the title of "China Heart" Top Ten Engines, with a maximum power of 187kW and a peak torque of 390N·m. It has four advantages: efficient thermal management system, second-generation efficient combustion system, low-resistance motion system, and high-response supercharging system. The Kunpeng 8AT gearbox is characterized by super smoothness and high performance.
Safety is another major strength. The high-strength steel proportion of its body reaches 85%, supplemented by double anti-collision beams and oversized aluminum alloy upper anti-collision beams.
At the same time, Tiggo 8L is equipped with 7 airbags, including remote airbags, 2060mm curtain airbags and 6 seconds of pressure retention. Together with the fatigue monitoring system and E-CALL rescue call system, it provides users with a relatively complete passive safety guarantee.
In terms of active safety, Tiggo 8L is equipped with L2.5+ intelligent driving assistance, ACC full-speed adaptive cruise, SCF vehicle speed assist control, LDW lane departure warning, AEB automatic emergency braking, IHC automatic high and low beam switching and other 19 intelligent assisted driving systems.
Space is also the main advantage of Tiggo 8L. Although the wheelbase of 2770mm is not amazing, thanks to the design layout of the interior space, the new car has a larger actual space than the parameters. The trunk volume of 2065L is also among the best in the same class.
Based on the ample space, Tiggo 8L achieves "equal comfort" for the front and back rows. The driver's seat supports electric 10-way adjustment, the co-driver's one-touch reclining, the front row's 10-point massage and other comfort configurations. The back row is also equipped with B-pillar air outlets, the second row's electric one-touch giving way and other humanized functions.
In terms of intelligence, the new car is equipped with Qualcomm 8155 smart chip, based on AI big model empowerment. Users can have smooth and natural voice interaction with the smart voice assistant, and it supports full-time wake-up-free and dialect-free switching.
In addition, configurations such as a 15.6-inch narrow-edge 2.5K high-definition screen, a 10-inch instrument panel, high-definition W-HUD, and a second-row air-conditioning screen also support intelligent multi-screen linkage.
In July this year, Chery's sales of fuel vehicles reached 150,389 units, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%, which is a "counter-trend rise."
In addition, since Chery Chairman Yin Tongyue announced last year that he would "not be polite in the new energy market", Chery Automobile has begun to accelerate the layout of new energy products. In the first seven months of this year, its new energy vehicle sales reached 45,370 units, a year-on-year increase of 254.5%.
Chery has thus become a rare car company in the industry with "double growth in oil and electricity".
In fact, "oil-electric parallel" is also the path advocated by the current industry to steadily achieve carbon reduction. Under the current national conditions, the combination of high-efficiency internal combustion engines, low-fuel-consumption hybrid vehicles, and zero-emission electric vehicles can build a healthy electrification ecosystem.
In the words of Li Xueyong, only by mastering the basic skills of fuel vehicles can you get the highest score in new energy vehicles.
