The development of new energy vehicles in China has progressed over 20 years, moving from a market cultivation phase to a period of stable growth. In recent years, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has rapidly increased, surpassing 50% for two consecutive months as of August. This indicates that new energy vehicles have begun to replace gasoline vehicles, becoming the main players in the market. However, amid fierce competition, phenomena like excessive configurations, low-quality price wars, and homogenization have hindered the healthy development of the industry.
For instance, some companies lower prices and reduce configurations in a race to capture market share, even compromising safety standards. While this may seem beneficial for users, it may lead to long-term issues. Similarly, companies oscillate between pure electric, range-extended, and plug-in hybrid models, and also waver between fully visual and Lidar-based autonomous driving solutions.
Since consumers and the market have yet to become "mature," such phenomena are hard to avoid during the "wild growth" phase of the new energy vehicle industry. To achieve long-term success, it is essential to selectively "ignore" some short-term trends and focus on long-term goals.
Staying True to the Original Intent, Achieving Clarity
Between "running around in chaos" and "strategically planning," Jiyue has evidently chosen the latter. Based on its foresight for the long-term future of intelligent electric vehicles, it remains undisturbed by external distractions, steadfast in its vision for future automobiles, and firmly implements these concepts and ideas. This is not an easy feat in a volatile market.
Furthermore, this choice not only reflects Jiyue's strategic composure but also benefits from the support provided by industry giants Baidu and Geely.
Thus, while others chase market trends and produce whatever is in vogue, Jiyue insists on its understanding of future vehicles, sticking to original designs and its own logic. For example, the absence of traditional door handles might seem unconventional, but it is because future vehicles will sense their owner approaching and automatically open the door to "welcome" them, eliminating the need for users to manually open the door. Additionally, the interior features minimal physical buttons since future vehicles won’t require so many; the voice system will be sophisticated enough to perform most vehicle control tasks.
Moreover, these designs, although initially breaking from tradition, enable a long-term convenient user experience after a brief period of adjustment.
Indeed, users need an adaptation process.
The first model, Jiyue 01, faced slow sales upon its launch in October 2023. However, over time, it has achieved a "cloud opening to see the moon" effect, with sales gradually climbing from hundreds to thousands, breaking the monthly sales of 1,000 units in July and hitting 2,117 units in August. It is worth noting that during this year of intensified competition, statistics show that at least one new vehicle is launched daily, inevitably diverting consumers' attention. Under such circumstances, Jiyue's market performance still saw significant improvement, attributed to consumer recognition of Jiyue's product strength and the genuine realization of these designs after adaptation.
Just like the transitions from the horse-drawn era to the combustion engine era and from feature phones to smartphones, we can imagine that the revolutionary concepts presented by Jiyue 01 may temporarily "dazzle" the market, but once people regain clarity, they will exclaim in appreciation. This reflects Steve Jobs' famous saying: "Users sometimes don’t know what they want until you show it to them."
If Jiyue 01 illustrated a vision of the new era of vehicles, then the Jiyue 07, launched on September 10, completely unveiled the future automotive world, showcasing a brand new, intriguing, and even demanding car-making methodology. It does not seek external validation, rather it reveals the infinite possibilities of automobiles.
Massive Investment, Phenomenal Launch
The Jiyue 07 officially launched with three configuration versions, priced between 199,900 and 289,900 yuan (including a limited-time cash reduction of 10,000 yuan). Although the previously projected price was already competitive at just over 210,000 yuan, the official launch price pushed it below 200,000 yuan, even bringing the long-range version with an 880 km range down to 220,000 yuan, prompting many online users to exclaim: "It's too good to be true!"
It can be said that Jiyue has dropped a deep-water bomb into the 200,000 yuan sedan market.
While the price is set at a competitive level, the value of the Jiyue 07 far exceeds this number.
The platform is built on Geely's SEA architecture, developed over four years with an investment exceeding 18 billion yuan, while the power battery embodies the technological achievements from CATL’s investment of over 70 billion yuan. Furthermore, in terms of differentiation in intelligence, this vehicle leverages over 170 billion yuan in AI capabilities developed by Baidu over more than a decade.
On the launch night, Baidu founder Robin Li, CATL founder Zeng Yuqun, and NIO founder Li Bin all came to show their support, while Geely Holding Group Chairman Li Shufu sent a congratulatory video. Undoubtedly, the Jiyue 07 has excellent genes and structures. As the brand voice continues to grow, this vehicle is a key instrument for Jiyue to further open up the market.
Currently, the automotive market views new energy vehicles and looks for intelligent cars within that sector. According to consumer research, the top three considerations for consumers when buying a car are brand, price, and intelligence. Intelligence has gradually become a "core indicator" of a new vehicle. Therefore, when Xia Yiping stated, “Next year, it will be very difficult to sell cars without high-level autonomous driving,” it doesn’t seem exaggerated.
This is an opportunity for the Jiyue 07, and also a chance for Jiyue. In the market, typically, only the highest configuration version with Lidar can achieve advanced autonomous driving capabilities that include urban settings. However, unlike many automakers’ configuration strategies, the Jiyue 07 comes standard with high-level autonomous driving capabilities across all models, including those priced below 200,000 yuan. This is the Jiyue 07's significant advantage.
Widespread Visual Autonomous Driving
The Jiyue 07 is the first to implement Baidu's cutting-edge autonomous driving technology product “ASD” (Apollo Self-Driving). Currently, apart from Tesla, Jiyue is the only company that can achieve advanced autonomous driving solutions based purely on vision.
The ASD is based on Apollo's ADFM, which supports L4-level autonomous driving. It reconstructs autonomous driving through large model technology, with safety indicators several times greater than that of human drivers. It achieves coverage of complex urban scenarios, providing solid foundational support for Jiyue's luxury and intelligent propositions.
The purely visual solution can address the issues of poor collaboration between different modules in Lidar schemes and is more advantageous in terms of cost, sampling resolution, and information collection capacity.
With Jiyue's breakthrough in vision technology, it has opened a “gap” in the Lidar camp, prompting brands like Xpeng and Leap Motor to follow suit. This means that purely visual solutions could become the norm for autonomous driving.
Specifically, the ASD includes enhancements and upgrades for 106 functions, including navigation assistance, valet parking, advanced lane keeping, and active safety, achieving a comprehensive evolution in driving, safety, and parking capabilities.
Jiyue has taken autonomous driving to a level where it surpasses competitors. This progress is backed by over 100 billion yuan in research and development investment. As Xia Yiping, who comes from a tech background, once stated, “Autonomous driving developed for several billion yuan are just road killers,” emphasizing his respectful apprehension and profound understanding of the practical significance of technology.
To "translate" Xia Yiping’s words, one could say: Technology is not just for show; it isn’t sufficient to simply have it. The goal of technology is to mainstream use, and the precondition for that is for users to dare to use, want to use, and even fall in love with it. In this aspect, Jiyue undoubtedly aims to provide users with a superior driving experience through technology.
Moreover, breaking the reliance on Lidar by adopting a pure visual approach to empower users with confidence is a testament to Jiyue's strategic insight and formidable vision. This is the impact and inspiration Jiyue offers to this competitive industry.
Fully AI-Driven Interaction with Lip Reading Ability
The cockpit, as the first contact point between the vehicle and its occupants, greatly influences the overall user experience, which is also one of the leading areas for Jiyue 07.
Under the new native AI large model architecture, Jiyue has restructured all foundational capabilities of its intelligent cockpit for quicker responses and stronger understanding. Jiyue's offline large models are quite unique; aside from applications needing cloud support such as Wenxin Yiyan and music, many large models are operated locally on one of the largest AI computing chips globally, the 8295, utilizing 60 TOPS of computing power combined with full vehicle SOA to maximize interactive speed. Essentially, the vehicle responds to voice commands in about 0.5 to 0.7 seconds, easily executing multiple instructions in succession.
Additionally, by merging audio processing with in-vehicle perception cameras, the SIMO system can track lip movements in real-time while interpreting user commands, boosting the speech recognition rate from 10% to 90% even in noisy environments. Simply put, it uses visual and auditory double guarantees to ensure user voice commands are accurately identified.
Notably, when navigation is activated, the vehicle can automatically signal turns in advance, regardless of whether it is in autonomous driving mode, which simplifies the process of signaling. This reflects Jiyue 07’s design consistency and coherence. Looking back at the earlier decision to eliminate the turn signal lever and reduce physical buttons, it becomes clear that all of Jiyue's features are interconnected, enhancing the overall user experience.
This feature is further enriched in the Jiyue 07 cockpit, equipped with an ultra-wide 35.6-inch screen, zero-formaldehyde Nappa full-grain leather material, and ventilated/heated seats in both front and rear rows, along with luxury-standard fully automatic tri-zone climate control and dual 50W wireless fast charging. Jiyue enhances user satisfaction, ensuring those capabilities are experienced within a 200,000 yuan price range.
Impressive Specifications: Range, Charging, and Handling to the Maximum
Now, let’s examine the core aspect of an electric vehicle's "mechanical quality" – the three-electric system.
The Jiyue 07's three-electric system is designed based on advanced technology and concepts, achieving a maximum CLTC range of 880 km, a 0 to 100 km/h sprint in 3.5 seconds, and the ability to charge 600 km in just 10 minutes. Moreover, it addresses the pain points of electric vehicles in long-distance and low-temperature conditions by employing various new technologies to optimize energy efficiency in the three-electric system, allowing for quicker charging and longer ranges.
We won't delve into the technical principles; instead, we’ll look at the results. The CATL's Kirin battery used in the Jiyue 07 enables an incredible charging efficiency of adding 600 km of range in just 10 minutes, which currently seems unmatched. At the same time, the safety of the Kirin battery has been meticulously optimized, ensuring that thermal runaway does not spread and that the battery remains safe even if the battery pack's bottom plate sustains damage. Some might say, “Safety is the greatest luxury,” but for Jiyue, safety is simply a fundamental attribute of the car.
The Jiyue 07 imparts a clear message: An outstanding intelligent electric vehicle is not merely a sofa or a chip that puts it "miles ahead"; rather, it's a comprehensive systematic project, and the SEA architecture serves as the solid foundation for these engineering efforts.
Within this platform, it accommodates different wheelbases, categories, and drive types. For instance, the sporty Jike 001 is the pioneer utilizing the SEA architecture, while the electric supercar Emeya from Lotus, which was acquired by Geely, also originates from the SEA platform.
Thus, it’s conceivable that, not only does the Jiyue 07 excel in intelligence, but it also boasts exceptional handling qualities, firmly placing it among the industry top performers.
