Lotus Feng Qingfeng on Hybrid: The origin of European technology is fuel, while ours is pure electricity.

Electrification is not confined to pure electric vehicles. This is the new perception of new energy vehicles by contemporary automakers. From entry-level compact cars to million-dollar luxury vehicles, they are all contemplating adopting hybrid technology to broaden market coverage.

During the Guangzhou Auto Show, Feng Qingfeng, the global CEO of Lotus, a luxury car brand under Geely, granted interviews to 36Kr and other media. He forthrightly declared that there are diverse approaches to resolving the power issue. "Everyone asserts that fuel vehicles have no future, but I believe fuel vehicles still have a lengthy life cycle."

In his viewpoint, pure fuel, pure electric, hybrid, and extended-range are all forms of power performance. There is no best, only better, and one needs to discover the optimal solution that suits oneself.

Centering on the hybrid power solution, Lotus is on the verge of launching its own super hybrid technology "Luyao", with a pure electric cruising range of over 200 kilometers, a comprehensive cruising range of more than 1,100 kilometers, utilizing an ultra-900V voltage platform, and supporting the "dual fast charging" capability, that is, static plug-in fast charging + dynamic engine self-charging 5 times that of discharging.

Lotus was formerly the British luxury sports car brand Lotus. In September this year, Geely Holding announced the completion of the acquisition of a 51% stake in Lotus Advance Technologies Sdn Bhd, while the remaining 49% of the equity is held by the Malaysian automotive company Etika Automotive (Etika).

In terms of price, Lotus' main sales range is in the luxury car market with a price bracket of 600,000 yuan to 1.5 million yuan. Data indicates that in 2023, Lotus' global sales were 6,970 units, of which the sales in the Chinese market accounted for 46% of the global sales, that is, 3,206 units. Rapidly expanding sales is an urgent objective for Lotus, and hybrid power will assist Lotus in adding a crucial fulcrum to撬动 the market.

Feng Qingfeng stated that as a luxury performance car brand, Lotus must ensure a sufficient power supply throughout the entire process. Hence, it did not opt for the industry's mainstream extended-range solution. "When the battery of the extended-range vehicle is depleted, the vehicle's performance declines significantly."

According to 36Kr, although it is not an extended-range solution, the technical model of "Luyao" has been significantly simplified compared to Geely's previous plug-in hybrid technology and will adopt a 1-speed gearbox.

The industry generally regards luxury performance cars as "toys", and the demand for a long cruising range is not particularly prominent. Nevertheless, Lotus has discerned diverse user needs from its internal data. "The average annual driving mileage of our users is 30,000 kilometers," Feng Qingfeng said, which exceeds the conventional driving mileage of 20,000 kilometers per year.

It is reported that the "Luyao" technology has entered the vehicle testing stage and is anticipated to be equipped on the corresponding products in 2026. In this process, Lotus is also constructing a 6D intelligent chassis to enhance the vehicle's technical capabilities.

"Now, after the vehicle utilizes a battery, the vehicle weight increases, making handling challenging, energy consumption rises, and safety becomes difficult. Therefore, we need to enhance the safety and handling through an intelligent chassis," Feng Qingfeng said.

Without exception, the luxury car market is also undergoing a new energy transformation, and the large-battery hybrid solution has already been verified in the market by brands such as Li Auto and AITO. Other automakers can seize more of the time gap in decision-making.

Feng Qingfeng believes that once Lotus' "Luyao" technology is launched, "it will be at least 3 - 5 years ahead of traditional luxury car brands."

The following is a conversation between 36Kr and other media and Feng Qingfeng, the global CEO of Lotus, edited:

Q: Where is the "Luyao" super hybrid technology being developed?

Feng Qingfeng: Lotus is a global brand with R&D centers in the UK, Europe, and Asia.

The super hybrid technology is developed with the collective strength of Lotus globally and is planned to empower the future driving experience of Lotus electric vehicles.

Q: In the market, there might be an impression that using a fuel tank is a compromise and not extreme enough. Has Lotus contemplated this issue in the middle?

Feng Qingfeng: Of course, we have contemplated it. In fact, when we discuss electrification, it is not entirely pure electric. Electrification always gives people an electric experience, but we need to address the user scenarios. Energy replenishment can be in various forms, including plug-in charging and charging while driving. Currently, other luxury brands have not contemplated this, but we are already taking action, particularly overseas, where we have an absolute advantage.

Q: Everyone has the same technical system and engines. Why haven't other luxury brands considered this direction?

Feng Qingfeng: Each enterprise has its own resources and burdens. Europe developed plug-in hybrids early. However, its starting point is to address the enterprise's emissions, not to solve the user's needs. China always prefers to commence from the user's perspective, not merely the legal and regulatory perspective.

Europe utilizes plug-in hybrids because the emission requirements in Europe are becoming increasingly higher, so they add an electric component to meet the legal and regulatory requirements, but it does not address the user's pain points.

In Europe, PHEVs are not very popular because they do not address the pain points and instead bring numerous troubles to users. Pure electric vehicles have a small battery capacity and need to be charged every day, and the fuel tank is also small and needs to be refueled every week. Not commencing from the user's perspective has led to this current situation.

The origin of European technology is the fuel vehicle, and the origin of our technology is the pure electric vehicle. I just need to add a fuel system to address the electricity problem well.

Q: Just now, it was mentioned that Chinese enterprises attach greater importance to the user experience. In addition to developing the super hybrid technology, have you received any feedback from the user side? What kinds of needs have pure electric vehicle users put forward?

Feng Qingfeng: Lotus users travel long distances rather frequently. It is already considered high for a pure electric vehicle to travel 20,000 kilometers in a year, but the average for Lotus users is 30,000 kilometers, including daily and long-distance usage.

Q: Perhaps luxury car users have some doubts about the pure electric form, including intelligent driving acceptance. From Lotus' perspective, have you encountered this phenomenon at the user observation level?

Feng Qingfeng: The penetration of luxury cars is slow because the engines of the original luxury cars are very powerful, and the power experience is similar. Eight-cylinder and twelve-cylinder engines are also very excellent.

The engines of the original low-end cars in China were very weak, and it was already considered good if the 0 - 100 acceleration could reach 8 seconds. But the original luxury cars could accelerate from 0 to 100 in 4 seconds, so the improvement in their power demand is not so obvious.

Intelligent technology is a necessary demand. In the future, cars will be divided into two categories. One is for play, such as the Emira. This car will never be considered for intelligentization and automation. It is for users to play with. The other is for daily use, such as commuting and long-distance travel. In this boring scenario, it is entrusted to intelligence. Therefore, intelligence and automation are definitely necessary demands in daily-use cars.

Q: What do you think are the core competencies of Lotus in the new energy track?

Feng Qingfeng: We still pursue performance. The development of cars is divided into two categories, one is the increase in functions, and the other is the breakthrough in performance.

In terms of the vehicle's own functions, in addition to intelligence, there are only three: steering, braking, and throttle. When the throttle is depressed, it can be faster, more stable, and smoother. This is performance; a shorter braking distance is performance; more precise steering is performance.

Especially in terms of handling, many cars do not possess any handling ability. In China, it is called comfort, but in fact, it has no performance and the handling is very poor.

For a car, performance is a representation of safety. The moose test is actually the emergency avoidance ability. In the same scenario, some cars can avoid, while some cars cannot. That is poor performance.

Lotus' development direction is to be able to achieve the ultimate vehicle performance in any power form, and this is the distinction between us and others.

Q: Do we have any new plans and arrangements for the Chinese market?

Feng Qingfeng: The Chinese market is extremely important, accounting for 1 / 3 of our market. We hope that in the future, the global market will be 30% in the US, 30% in Europe, 30% in China, and 10% in other countries and regions.

Currently, the share in China is slightly lower, and the share in Europe is slightly higher. Our goal is still to increase the share in China to 30% of our entire structure.

Q: The super hybrid is a very milestone technological product. In which areas will Lotus continue to improve or optimize?

Feng Qingfeng: What we have been continuously undertaking is the intelligentization of the chassis, just like our current 6D chassis. Once it enters the software era, it is a process of iterative upgrading.

The reason for making the chassis intelligent is that after the vehicle utilizes a battery, the vehicle weight increases, making handling challenging, energy consumption rises, and safety becomes difficult. Therefore, we need to enhance the safety and handling through an intelligent chassis.

I think in the future automotive technology, this will also become a very important area that everyone needs to compete and develop. We have布局 the 6D intelligent chassis early and will continue to exert efforts in the future.