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Recently, a group of spy photos of two new cars owned by the Alps, a subsidiary of Ulai, have been exposed on the Internet. It is understood that one of the two cars is the SUV model, the internal code is DOM, and the other car may be positioned as a medium-sized car.

From the espionage photos exposed, the appearance: the front faces of the two new cars are equipped with large air intakes and penetrating light sets on both sides. Under the front face of the SUV model is equipped with a large vent design, equipped with large-size sports wheels, so that the vehicle as a whole looks very athletic. As for the car, the body uses a slippery back shape with smooth lines to make the vehicle look slimmer. In terms of interior decoration, there is no relevant news yet, but a person familiar with the matter has revealed earlier that the interior structure of the new car is similar to that of ET7 and will use vertical screen design.

In terms of power system, Shen Fei, president of Xilai, has revealed that the first Alps car will be developed based on the third-generation technology platform NT3.0, will carry 60kWh and 90kWh battery packs, and its battery pack will be thinner. With regard to the launch date of Alps's first car model, it was previously reported that the DOM model is scheduled for trial production in July and is expected to be mass produced and delivered in the second half of this year.

Relevant data show that the Alps brand of Weilai Automobile is priced lower than Weilai, with a price between 200000 yuan and 300000 yuan, and the first model is expected to be mass produced in 2024. Earlier, Li Bin, CEO of Xilai, revealed that Lailai is speeding up the research and development of more than 200,000 models and will launch a new car brand for the mass market, which will compete with Standard Tesla Model Y and Model 3, but the price is about 10% cheaper than Tesla.

With regard to the relationship between the Alps and the Xilai brand, Li Bin has also said that the relationship is similar to that between Audi and Volkswagen, Lexus and Toyota. Li Bin attaches great importance to the arrival of the new brand. He once said: the household market has the opportunity to produce models with monthly sales of 50, 000 to 60, 000 vehicles, which has been confirmed by Model Y.

However, in terms of the current sales volume of Lulai cars and the degree of competition in the market, it will take some time to reach a profitable scale. The data show that last year, the company sold 160038 cars a year, meeting only 64 per cent of its 2023 sales target of 250000.

If the sales volume is not strong, the financial report is naturally not ideal. According to the latest financial results of the third quarter of last year, the revenue of Lulai Motor in the third quarter was 19.07 billion yuan, an increase of 46.6% over the same period last year. Although revenue has increased compared with the same period last year, the net loss is also increasing. The net loss in the third quarter was 4.56 billion yuan, an increase of 10.8% over the same period last year. In the first three quarters of last year, the cumulative net loss of Xilai was 15.315 billion yuan.

To this end, Xilai officials opened about 10% of the job cuts in November last year. At that time, officials said that layoffs were a difficult decision that had to be made in the face of fierce market competition. For this year, Li Bin said that it is necessary to resolutely avoid ineffective and inefficient investment, resolutely save every penny that does not create value for users and companies, save electricity that is not needed at every time, and print every unneeded document. Do not waste every click and inquiry, do not waste every opportunity for product and service improvement brought about by user feedback, and ensure that the research and development of 9 core products of three brands are carried out on schedule.

The emergence of the "Alps" may be one of the channels for Lulai to save itself. For Xilai, the emergence of sub-brands can cover new price areas and will also play a role in boosting sales. However, at present, many car companies are also laying out new energy brand models with different prices. With the launch of these models, the new models launched by Alps will also face certain challenges. Whether the follow-up can bear the important task of sales volume of Weilai remains to be verified in the follow-up time.

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