AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/10 Report--

On January 9, according to several media reports, Lulai Capital will invest tens of millions of dollars in electric car start-ups in order to create a multi-million yuan super-high-end market. According to the report, Zhi Xing positioning high-end intelligent electric car brand, focusing on exploration, off-road market, the first model will be a million yuan level of high-end SUV, based on the third generation technology platform to build, and in the technology platform and other in-depth cooperation with Xilai, the first model is expected to be released in 2025 and listed overseas simultaneously. Subsequently, people close to Xilai Capital confirmed the authenticity of the news to the media. However, as of press time, Xilai Automobile officials have not yet responded to the above news.

If the above news is true, it means that NIO will invest in vehicle companies to lay out the ultra-high-end car market, which is not common in the field of new energy vehicles. Of course, as of press time, the official of Xilai has not responded to the above news.

In December 2022, it was reported on the Internet that Xilai will launch a million-class ultra-luxury car, and the new car is also based on the third-generation technology platform. At that time, NIO insiders said that the current high-end car brand has entered the design stage, and this high-end luxury car will not appear as a new brand, but will continue to be operated by NIO Automobile. If the research and development goes well, the model will be launched as early as 2024 and go on sale around the world, after which it will be matched with Maybach's S-class.

Li Bin, chairman of Lulai Automobile, said at the NIO Day media conference at the end of 2022 that "there is no high-end brand, at least he doesn't know" about the news that the million-class ultra-luxury car will be launched.

According to the official website, the six models currently on sale under the company include ES8, ES6, EC6, ET7, ET5 and ES7, covering SUV and sedan models, all of which are priced at more than 300000 yuan and are positioned as luxury brands. On NIO DAY 2022, NIO released two new cars, the sedan SUV EC7 and the new generation ES8, of which the EC7 starts at 488000 yuan. Delivery of the new car will begin in June this year, when there will be more than eight models on sale, making it the largest of the three "Wei Xiaoli" car companies.

In addition, as early as July 2021, it was reported that NIO will launch a sub-brand independent of NIO, the sub-brand code-named ALPS, with a price range of 200000-300000 yuan, and is expected to be mass produced in 2024. In June 2022, Li Bin said at a user communication meeting that Xilai is speeding up the research and development of more than 200,000 models and launching a new mass market car brand, which will be directly comparable to Tesla Model Y and Model 3 Tesla Model Y and Model 3, and will be about 10% cheaper than Tesla. While the second brand has not yet officially landed, in August 2022, there is news in the market that Lai plans to launch a third car brand in addition to the two brands, the third brand positioning is lower than the second brand, focusing on the 10-200000 yuan market, and the project code name is the Firefly Plan (internally known as FY), but NIO also did not respond to this statement.

From the perspective of the positioning and price of the three major brands of Ulai, Alps and Firefly, the future three brands will focus on luxury, middle and high-end, and middle and low-end markets. With the landing of the million-class luxury model, by 2024, the product matrix of 100000-1 million yuan will be fully covered by different forms. Of course, the launch of the million-class model can enhance the image of the high-end brand to a certain extent, but at the same time, it also means that the model is unlikely to become a volume model under the company.

Data show that a total of 122486 cars were delivered in 2022, ranking third on the annual list of New Power, lagging behind 133246 ideal cars.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat