Xiaomi und Li Auto, warum müssen beide so stark sein? Warum muss es einen solchen starken Rivalen geben?
Within 3 minutes, 200,000 units were pre - ordered, and within 1 hour, the pre - order volume exceeded 289,000 units. The most high - profile "game - changer" in the automotive circle this year, the Xiaomi YU7, has finally hit the market. Its performance is astonishing and far surpasses last year's SU7.
In terms of market attention, the YU7 is not as popular as Xiaomi's first model, the SU7. In terms of product strength, the YU7, which comes standard with the NVIDIA Thor chip, lidar, end - to - end assisted driving, an 800V platform, and 5.2C fast charging across all models, is indeed excellent, but it is far from the exaggerated level of being "a generation ahead".
The fact is that there's not much point in exploring why the YU7 is selling so well. We can only say that Xiaomi has once again demonstrated its powerful marketing and ecological capabilities, and also proved the Chinese people's "preference" for SUV models.
For all new energy vehicle manufacturers, last night might have been a sleepless night. Although everyone knew that the YU7 would sell well, no one expected it to sell so crazily. Especially for the competitors in the 200,000 - 350,000 yuan pure - electric SUV segment, this is almost a one - sided "massacre".
Yes, it's almost all new energy vehicle manufacturers. From BYD to Wenjie, they will all inevitably face the "indiscriminate attack" of the Xiaomi YU7 in the future. The question that everyone needs to think about now is how to play the game next and where the opportunities lie.
The most affected car manufacturer might be Li Auto.
The failure of the MEGA last year significantly slowed down Li Auto's electrification process. Just as Li Auto regrouped and was fully prepared to make a comeback this year, the Xiaomi YU7 emerged out of nowhere, casting a shadow over the prospects of the i8 and i6.
The "Stealth War" That Started Early
During the pre - launch stage of the YU7, the "undercurrent" had already begun to surge.
On June 23rd, Lei Jun posted on Weibo, further explaining the original intention of building the YU7. He said that it should not only have "luxury sports performance" but also "luxury comfort".
From the public's perspective, Lei Jun's Weibo post might just be a promotion for the upcoming YU7. But from the perspective of the automotive circle, its directivity is very obvious.
The most typical example is the concept of "color TV, refrigerator, and big sofa". As the first car manufacturer to integrate and popularize this concept, Li Auto established its user perception in the family scenario, that is, a "mobile home", through comfortable seats, large - screen displays, and in - car refrigerators. It can be said that the "color TV, refrigerator, and big sofa" have become a distinctive label for Li Auto.
There are many other things worth pondering. "6 - seat SUV", "sufficient large space", and even "boxy SUV" can easily make people familiar with the automotive industry think of Li Auto at a glance. The former two are also characteristic labels of Li Auto, and the i8, which is derived from the MEGA in appearance, has an obvious square shape and can indeed be called a "boxy" vehicle from a certain perspective.
Lei Jun, who has been in the automotive industry for a long time, couldn't fail to understand these principles. Although he didn't name names, Xiaomi might as well have revealed Li Auto's "identity card number".
So the only reasonable explanation is that Xiaomi has decided to expand the product's coverage to the core "hinterland" of Li Auto, which is the family user group, in order to bring more incremental scale to the YU7.
The performance at the press conference also proves this. Lei Jun not only specifically mentioned that the YU7 is "suitable for family use" but also repeatedly talked about the designs and ingenuities for children, female drivers, and pets. These are the frequently mentioned promotional points for family - oriented models.
Compared with the SU7, several changing trends of Xiaomi are clearly reflected in the YU7. Firstly, it hopes to cover a wider group of people, not just limited to performance enthusiasts. Secondly, the focus has shifted from "driving experience" to "riding experience" to some extent, such as the specially developed "motion - sickness mode".
In short, the YU7 fully interprets Xiaomi's "wanting it all" philosophy. It not only highlights the characteristics of high performance and handling but also covers comfort. It even specifically caters to Apple users. In Lei Jun's words, this is a car that "combines sports, comfort, and luxury".
Xiaomi and Li Auto had a very harmonious relationship before. At last year's SU7 press conference, the founders of "NIO, Xiaopeng, and Li Auto" all showed up to support. Lei Jun also thanked them at the conference, saying that "they had given him a lot of advice in the past three years, which helped him avoid many pitfalls". Li Auto also revealed on Weibo that when the MEGA was in a public - opinion crisis, Lei Jun's team actively helped solve the problem. For this reason, Li Auto specially gave Lei Jun an L6 as a token of gratitude, but Lei Jun politely declined and insisted on buying it with his own money.
There are no eternal enemies or opponents in the business world. Xiaomi and Li Auto got along well before because there was no direct competition. Now that Li Auto's "basic market" is under threat, Li Auto is not willing to sit back and do nothing.
Li Auto once reposted Lei Jun's Weibo, using it to promote the upcoming i8. At the same time, he also subtly emphasized the "sporty orientation" of the YU7 and the "family orientation" of Li Auto. He Xiaopeng and Li Bin also quickly "followed the rhythm", each posting on Weibo to "congratulate the YU7 on its great sales" and using this wave of traffic to promote their own upcoming G7 and LeDao L90.
If we add the Li Auto i6, "NIO, Xiaopeng, and Li Auto" and Xiaomi will compete directly in the same segment for the first time in the second half of this year. From the previous situation of "each minding its own business", the product positioning and market overlap have increased significantly. The competition at that time might be extremely exciting.
Where Are Li Auto's Opportunities?
It's impossible for Li Auto not to be affected by the performance of the Xiaomi YU7.
When Xiaomi first entered the automotive field, the outside world widely believed that it would become the biggest competitor to Xiaopeng. They share the same concept of technological geeks and the same trendy and youthful labels. No one might have expected at that time that Xiaomi would become a competitor to Li Auto so soon.
Judging from Xiaomi's automotive layout, it is mostly replicating Tesla's successful path. For the SU7 and YU7 to achieve the same success as the Model 3 and Model Y, their user groups cannot be completely limited to Xiaomi's fans and the young generation.
Xiaomi has adopted a different strategy in the automotive market compared to the mobile - phone market. Although Xiaomi's mobile phones and IoT products started with high cost - effectiveness, having suffered from the "low - cost" image, Xiaomi has paid a lot of tuition fees on the path of moving towards high - end. Obviously, it doesn't want to solve the same problem again in its newly - started automotive business.
Therefore, from the positioning of Xiaomi's models, it has basically given up the low - end market. Even the SU7 Ultra, which is "built without considering cost", is aimed at the mid - to - high - end market. Xiaomi hopes to establish its luxury label from the very beginning, rather than focusing on commonness and cost - effectiveness.
This strategic route means that a head - on collision with Li Auto is inevitable. For Li Auto, what it needs to worry about now is not only the debut performance of the i6 and i8 but also that the "basic market" of its L - series extended - range models might also lose a significant number of users to the Xiaomi YU7.
Xiaomi might further expand its "battlefield" in the future. There are rumors that Xiaomi has started the development of a new platform. This platform will use an extended - range hybrid powertrain, and the product is planned to be an SUV model, directly targeting Li Auto's L - series. The price might be lower than that of Li Auto.
Li Auto is not without opportunities. Firstly, its dominance in the family - user market is still stable. Although the Xiaomi YU7 has started to attract the family group intentionally and will surely take away a lot of Li Auto's "cake", its "performance" label is still too prominent, and it won't be able to cause a devastating blow to Li Auto in the short term.
On the basis of consolidating the moat of the "mobile home", if the Li Auto i6 and i8 can make some breakthroughs in performance and handling, they might still have the strength to compete with the YU7.
More importantly, Xiaomi's production capacity is still a fatal shortcoming in the short term. Currently, the order - delivery cycle of the SU7 is still more than half a year, and the YU7 has further increased the pressure. After multiple expansions, the actual monthly production capacity of Xiaomi's first - phase factory is only about 30,000 units. The second - phase factory is expected to start production in July or August at the earliest, and the planned annual production capacity of 150,000 units is obviously not enough to solve the problem. The delivery problem this year is still Xiaomi's biggest obstacle.
Of course, Xiaomi's production capacity will gradually increase. As Xiaomi has just acquired land in Yizhuang, Beijing, and is intensively building its third - phase factory, this shortcoming will be completely made up in the future.
That is to say, the "window period" that Xiaomi leaves for its competitors due to production - capacity issues might be at most one year, and there won't be such an opportunity after that.
Just like the smartphone market back then, the new - energy vehicle market is now evolving at an extremely fast pace. One year is enough to change a lot of things. There have been many cases where new - energy vehicle manufacturers' subsequent product launches were affected or even completely dragged down by production - capacity issues, although Xiaomi doesn't need to worry too much about the latter situation. However, during the long waiting period, a considerable proportion of users will go to test - drive other products. This is a positive point for Li Auto. Whether it can seize the opportunity to convert the potential customers of the YU7 into its own users depends on Li Auto's ability to respond and adapt in the future.
In other words, the preemptive Xiaomi YU7 has both advantages and disadvantages. Xiaomi has "shown its cards", while Li Auto still has more room for operation and change.
In addition, the automotive field is a long - term battle. Currently, Xiaomi's ecological synergy and marketing capabilities are its sharpest weapons, but in terms of the maturity of technology and the industrial chain, there is still a certain gap compared to Li Auto, which has been in the industry for a long time. In the long run, the competition will ultimately come down to the comparison of basic skills such as supply - chain management, technology R & D, organizational ability, and execution efficiency.
Li Auto has repeatedly demonstrated its foresight and resilience and has also changed the industry's conventional perception with its actual performance many times. Anyone can play well in a "favorable situation", but "turning the tables in an unfavorable situation" is a real test of a company's strength. Now the pressure is on Li Auto. How will Li Auto play its cards next?
This article is from the WeChat official account "guangzi0088" (ID: TMTweb). Author: Xu Zhi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.