As the fifth new car-making force in China, Leapmotor did not use the SUV market as its entry point like mainstream new energy car companies. Instead, it chose the niche coupe model Leapmotor S01. ?
Recently, Leapmoon S01 has released the 460 version. The new car has two configurations: 460 standard version priced at 129,900 yuan after subsidies, and 460Pro priced at 149,900 yuan after subsidies, with NEDC cruising range is 451km.
In January last year, Leapmotor S01 was launched, and it also provided two endurance versions, 300km and 380km respectively. The 460 version launched this time has a significant improvement in endurance mileage. ?
Affected by the epidemic, the car market is still facing a harsh winter, and new car-making forces that are already struggling are planning their own ways to survive the winter. Leopao, which had no background in automobile production and manufacturing before, is not very popular among ordinary consumers. Its first product, Leopao S01, has sold about 1,000 units so far, which is in line with the initial delivery target of 10,000 units. Not even close.
How is the zero run?
As for the questions from the outside world, Zhu Jiangming, chairman of Leapmotor, responded one by one in an interview with Automotive News Agency.
▼
Why launch S01 and T03? ?
New car-making forces such as NIO, Xpeng, WM, Hezon, and Ideal, which have already been delivered, without exception choose the currently popular SUV as their first product. The two models currently launched by Leopao None of the products are involved in the SUV field.
Leapmotor Chairman Zhu Jiangming?
“We believe that the first product is not suitable for mass production. This is a product that the team has just begun to cooperate with, including the R&D team, intelligent driving , electric drive and electronic control, all functions must be realized on one product,” Zhu Jiangming said, “Last year we delivered 1,000 S01s. Although this volume is not large, I don’t think it is a large number in a two-door coupe. Not too much.”?
For S01, Zhu Jiangming’s goal is to achieve a good reputation. He hopes that S01 will always exist in the next five or even ten years, and will slowly improve during the sales process, continue to improve performance, and improve customer satisfaction. “Most of the owners who buy S01 have cars at home. For them, , S01 is basically a 'toy', what we want to do is (to make car owners feel) more relaxed when driving."?
As for why the second product is positioned as a micro pure electric model? According to Wu Wangming, product director of Leapmotor, this is a more pragmatic choice at the moment. ?
“Battery prices are still relatively expensive now, and the cost may drop in the next two to three years. At that time, it will be more suitable to launch SUV products. From a market perspective, the current number of A00-class electric vehicles is relatively high. Small cars are more suitable for urban travel. "Wu Wangming said that as its second mass-produced model, T03 is considered by Leapmoon as a "product that can take off" and will be officially launched in May this year. Pre-sales are currently open, after subsidies. The pre-sale price is less than 80,000 yuan.
Leopao’s products this year are mainly S01, 460 version and T03. Next, it will launch a new SUV-C-More, as well as a sedan model with the internal code name C-01. At present, Leapao has planned three model platforms, namely T platform (A00 level), S platform (A0 level) and C platform (A level). Among them, Leapmo S01 belongs to the S platform, T03 is built on the T platform, and the first model of the C platform is C-More, which will be launched next year. The sedan code-named C-01 will also be built on the same platform, possibly in 2022. Listed. ?
As for this year’s goals, Zhu Jiangming said that at least T03 should reach the same level as competing products in the industry, and the sales volume of S01 should double compared with last year.
?
In terms of channel construction, Leapao Auto adopts the "direct city partner" approach. Last year, it opened nearly 80 experience/service outlets in 50 cities across the country. This year, Leapao's offline outlets The construction mainly focuses on the cities where T03 focuses on sales. “Last year, where others (competing products) had good sales, that was the market where we focused on deploying outlets.” Zhu Jiangming said that the current plan of Leapmoon is to deploy more than 100 service outlets in more than 100 cities around the T30. Last year Focusing on first- and second-tier cities, this year we will mainly launch the construction of offline outlets in second- and third-tier cities. ?
▼
“No financing required within three years”?
Tianyancha data shows that Leapmotor has had 4 rounds of financing since its birth. Financing, the amount of publicly disclosed financing exceeded 3.64 billion yuan. In December 2017, Leapao received Pre-A round financing led by Sequoia China, and later received Series A financing jointly led by Shanghai Electric and CRRC Equity. ?
Compared with the financing of tens of billions of dollars from new car-making forces such as Weilai and Xiaopeng, the amount of financing raised by Leapao is not large. In addition, Leapao lost 307 million yuan in 2018 and suffered a loss in the first half of 2019. About 200 million yuan, capital is regarded as the "lifeblood" of new car-making forces, and the outside world has never stopped questioning Zero Run. ?
“In terms of funding, we won’t worry too much. We can survive for another three years without any financing within three years,” Zhu Jiangming said confidently. “This is our own confidence. Of course we I hope to get more financing and develop faster, that’s for sure.”
Zhu Jiangming’s “confidence” comes from Dahua Group, the parent company of Leapmotor. In the company's shareholder information, the top three shareholders of Leappo are all directors of listed Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dahua Technology"), accounting for more than 30% of the equity. Dahua Security is the second largest security system supplier in the world. Leapmotor was born out of the automotive department of Dahua Co., Ltd. After independence, it received technical and financial support from Dahua Co., Ltd. and has always been regarded as Dahua Co., Ltd. to a large extent. It is self-evident that the "Dahua Department", a subsidiary of the company, is of great significance to Zero Run. ?
As Lingpao enters the delivery stage, each link such as delivery speed, production capacity guarantee, R&D investment, and supply chain requires huge financial support to maintain. Although it is backed by Dahua Group, it is not the first It is not easy for a first-tier zero-run company to obtain external financing. ?
"No matter what happens externally, I can at least guarantee that I will still be alive after three years of zero running." Zhu Jiangming said. ?
▼
“Leopao will become one of the five new car-making forces in the future”
The goal of Leopao is not just to live. "To date, there are no more than 20 new car-making forces that can speak out, and less than 10 companies can actually produce products. In two years' time, five companies will basically be the most. This is my judgment." In Zhu Jiangming's view. Come on, Zero Run will be one of the last five. ?
Why can Leapao become one of the last five companies? ?
Zhu Jiangming believes that electric vehicles are getting closer to electronic products, and the architecture technology of underlying electronic appliances and system integration technology in conjunction with hardware will replace the traditional hardware platform and the three major technologies and become The core technology of future cars. Dahua Technology's 10 years of accumulation in the field of intelligent transportation and its advantages in the field of underlying embedded software and algorithms will give "IT man-made cars" a head start.
Dahua shares not only provided funds for Leapmotor, but also provided technology, talents and management experience. Dahua's Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Big Data and Cloud Computing Research Institute, Chip Research Institute and more than 5,000 scientific researchers have become the "think tank" of Lingpao. ?
As of the end of November last year, Leapmotor had obtained 367 invention patents, including 92 invention patents, 242 utility model patents, 29 motor electronic control patents, 46 power battery patents, 18 intelligent driving patents, etc. , becoming the company with the highest proportion of invention patents among the new car-making forces.
?
However, Leapmotor has not yet obtained the qualification to produce complete vehicles, and it is still cooperating with Changjiang Automobile. Not long ago, Yangtze Motor was involved in rumors of layoffs without wages, which will more or less affect Leapmotor. It has an impact on the production. Previously, Xiaopeng acquired Guangzhou Foday Automobile to obtain car manufacturing qualifications. Will Leapmotor be the same? ?
“In terms of qualifications, as long as we work hard to make the product better, we will definitely get the qualifications.” Zhu Jiangming believes that the focus of the current zero-run is not to get the qualifications, but how to do a good job in T03. “From Looking at it now, there are fewer and fewer new car-making forces. In fact, a lot of qualifications have been vacated. Once they are vacated, there is no need to worry. As long as you are alive, you will not be afraid of not having the qualifications."?
Being criticized by the industry in 2020. Considered to be the "year of life and death" for new car-making forces, Zhu Jiangming called the current zero-race "just completed the first half of the journey." ?
"The first half of the race is a process of laying the foundation. I have always said that long-distance runners have a small chance of finishing first if they start first." Zhu Jiangming, who is called a "technical control" by employees , always emphasizing "stability", "We may not necessarily run the fastest, but we must have stamina and lay a good foundation."
——END——
"Automotive News Agency" Original articles cannot be reproduced without permission. We reserve the right to pursue legal liability for those who fail to comply with this statement, use maliciously, or improperly reproduce and quote original articles from Automotive News Agency.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.