Xiaomi Gives Away Car Models, Louis Koo Plays with Homophonic Wordplay: The Guangzhou Auto Show Opens, with Creative Marketing Hiding Big Trends

Xiaomi Automobile gave away car models, attracting hundreds of people to queue up. NIO LeDao invited Louis Koo as its brand ambassador and played with "memes". GAC and BYD occupied exhibition halls. Mercedes-Benz held games on-site...

GAC Group's exhibition hall. Photo source: Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly.

On November 21, the 23rd Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as the "Guangzhou Auto Show") officially opened along the Pearl River in Guangzhou. More than 70 domestic and overseas automobile brands with a total of 1,085 exhibition vehicles filled the Canton Fair Complex, pushing the year-end exchange in the automobile industry to a climax.

The core of this year's Guangzhou Auto Show is the "incoming of new players and the retreat of old ones", which also closely echoes the theme of this year, "New Technology, New Life". At this Guangzhou Auto Show, not only did the proportion of new energy exhibition vehicles increase to 58%, but new players continued to emerge. In the current in - depth transformation of the Chinese automobile industry, new players are accelerating their rise, while old players are gradually retreating.

A strong atmosphere of competition and cooperation pervaded this auto show. Whether it was the competition between traditional automakers and new brands, fuel - powered vehicles and new energy vehicles, the debate between intelligent and mechanical control, pragmatism and aesthetic design, or even the collisions between different automakers... All players were seizing the opportunity of the auto show to explore future development directions.

The Guangzhou Auto Show is not only a window for the outside world to understand the development and transformation of the domestic and overseas automobile industries, but also an opportunity for the public to gain in - depth knowledge of the latest products and technologies. As many auto executives and car owners said, the more in - depth the exchanges and collisions within the automobile industry, the clearer automakers and consumers will be about what they need.

Through this most important Class A auto show at the end of the year, the development direction of the automobile industry next year will become clearer.

Intense Actions Before the Auto Show

The "smell of gunpowder" at this Guangzhou Auto Show was so strong that many brands released key information in advance.

For example, on November 20, the day before the opening of the auto show, Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit (hereinafter referred to as "Automobile BU") jointly with GAC Group and Dongfeng Motor, Hongmeng Zhixing jointly with BAIC Group, as well as many domestic and overseas automakers such as Mercedes - Benz and XPeng Motors announced new strategic partnerships or new products.

The fact that Huawei's two automobile business units held press conferences on the same day attracted particular attention.

Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution booth. Photo source: Huawei

On this day, Huawei's Automobile BU jointly with GAC Group and Dongfeng Motor announced new cooperation brands, namely "Qijing" and "Yijing". In the new cooperation brands, Huawei will provide not only technologies and solutions but also be involved in product development and marketing.

Reporters from Time Weekly learned that the products of the "Yijing" brand are planned to be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show next April. The first product of "Qijing" will also be launched next year.

The above - mentioned cooperation is regarded by the industry as an enhanced version of Huawei's HI model. Although all parties currently say that the above - mentioned brands will have independent sales channels, the depth of their cooperation is close to that of the Hongmeng Zhixing selected cars sold in Huawei's sales system.

On the same day, Hongmeng Zhixing also released a new product - the new version of the Xiangjie S9. This is a selected model jointly developed by BAIC Group and Huawei. Its pure - electric version was first put on sale in August last year, and then the extended - range version of the Xiangjie S9 and the station - wagon version of the Xiangjie S9T were launched this year. The new version of the Xiangjie S9 has upgraded multiple functions and is priced from 309,800 yuan.

XPeng Motors also officially released the extended - range version of the XPeng X9 the day before the opening of the auto show. This car is an MPV model of XPeng Motors. It was initially only available in a pure - electric version, and then an extended - range version was launched. The extended - range version of the XPeng X9 can achieve a maximum range of 1,602 kilometers and is also priced from 309,800 yuan.

The extended - range version of the XPeng X9 represents a current trend, that is, the industry is significantly increasing the pure - electric range of extended - range vehicles. Previously, the pure - electric range of extended - range vehicles was concentrated between 100 - 250 kilometers. In the second half of this year, many automakers announced the launch of new extended - range vehicles with a pure - electric range of over 300 kilometers, increasing the proportion of battery capacity.

In the eyes of many automakers and consumers, large - capacity batteries are an important development direction for extended - range vehicles.

The President and CEO of Beijing Mercedes - Benz Sales Service Co., Ltd. Photo source: Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly.

Many overseas brands also "stirred things up" before the auto show. For example, Mercedes - Benz brought its high - performance pure - electric concept car, the AMG GT XX of its AMG brand, to Guangzhou. It is reported that this concept car has a horsepower of 1,360 and a top speed of over 360 kilometers per hour, comparable to domestic high - performance electric vehicles such as the Xiaomi SU7 ULTRA and the Yangwang U9.

Both a Year - End Sprint and a New Chapter for the Future

The atmosphere on the first day of the auto show was even more intense. The huge Canton Fair Complex was filled with the promotional voices of automakers, the hawking voices of salespeople, and the footsteps of visitors. Brands such as NIO and Dongfeng Nissan invited celebrity ambassadors such as Louis Koo, Julian Cheung, and Jane Zhang to the event.

At 10 a.m., hundreds of people queued up at the Xiaomi Automobile booth to reserve the Xiaomi YU7 car model. In just a dozen minutes, all the car models were reserved.

Amid the bustling noise, automakers were adjusting their layouts and directions at this Guangzhou Auto Show.

Reporters from Time Weekly observed on - site that although several overseas brands that had performed poorly in China did not participate in this auto show, the booths of domestic brands and many mainstream joint - venture brands were crowded with people. New products from Xiaomi Automobile, Shangjie, Huawei's Automobile BU, as well as mainstream joint - venture brands such as SAIC - GM and SAIC Volkswagen attracted a lot of attention from visitors.

Photo source: Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly.

Domestic brands were the backbone of this Guangzhou Auto Show. Early that morning, automakers (or brands) such as BYD, Geely Automobile, GAC Group, Li Auto, and Xiaomi Automobile unveiled their exhibition models and displayed their latest and most popular technologies and products.

As the "host", GAC Group once again occupied an independent exhibition hall. GAC Trumpchi, AION, Hyper, and two joint - venture brands - GAC Toyota and GAC Honda - respectively displayed their new cars.

Feng Xingya, the chairman of GAC Group, also revealed at the Guangzhou Auto Show that GAC's pilot production line for all - solid - state batteries has been built and put into trial production. It has taken the lead in meeting the conditions for mass - producing automotive - grade all - solid - state batteries with a capacity of over 60Ah, taking a crucial step towards the goal of small - batch vehicle installation.

BYD announced at the auto show that it would add new colors to the Han L and Tang L models and upgrade some functions. For example, the Han L offers new olive - green and Xizi - blue exterior colors, as well as a blacked - out sports appearance kit, wheel rims, and calipers. The Tang L offers olive - green, a floating black roof, and opalescent - silver exterior colors. BYD also upgraded the vehicle's parking - to - parking navigation assistance function and optimized vehicle - control details.

The announcements of Li Auto and Xiaomi Automobile mainly focused on assisted - driving technology.

Li Auto announced that it would upgrade its assisted - driving system by the end of the year and launch functions such as VLA charging and defensive AES. According to its introduction, defensive AES can transform avoiding active collisions into defending against passive collisions, covering scenarios such as American - style stops, slow - moving vehicle cut - ins, and malicious lane - changing. This function can also avoid rear - end collisions by accelerating forward or changing lanes.

Xiaomi Automobile booth. Photo source: Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly.

Li Xiaoshuang, the vice - president of Xiaomi Automobile, said on - site that the enhanced version of Xiaomi HAD assisted - driving function was officially launched, and Xiaomi Automobile also significantly upgraded its safety - assistance functions. This upgrade will be gradually pushed to users through the OTA Xiaomi HyperOS 1.11 series after the Guangzhou Auto Show. This is the first time Xiaomi Automobile has launched new products at an auto show.

There were especially many three - row extended - range vehicles at this Guangzhou Auto Show. In addition to the earliest Li L9 and Wenjie M9, the newly launched extended - range versions of the XPeng X9, IM LS9, and Voyah Taishan also participated in the exhibition for the first time. These products all adopted large - battery solutions, with a maximum pure - electric range of about 400 kilometers.

IM LS9. Photo source: Photo taken by a reporter from Time Weekly.

These new cars imply two development trends: one is that automakers are increasing the pure - electric range (battery capacity) of extended - range vehicles, and the other is that they are striving to enhance the value of products within a limited price range. Take the IM LS9 as an example: As a three - row, six - seat D - class SUV, such models used to be priced close to one million yuan, but this car has higher - end configurations and is priced at less than 400,000 yuan.

The exhibition hall of the Canton Fair was filled with products from many different brands and with different development paths, making the year - end Guangzhou Auto Show even more popular and clarifying the industry trends for the coming year. Among the nearly 70 brands and over a thousand cars participating in the exhibition today, there are still more highlights.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly). Author: Wu Kai, Editor: Liu Xue. Republished by 36Kr with permission.