The large sofa: The top priority in the competition among automobile companies.

For new energy vehicles, automobile companies attach the most importance to electric motors, electronic controls, and batteries, while consumers value refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas.

Whether it's a million - yuan luxury car comparable to a Maybach or a new energy sedan priced under 200,000 yuan, when it comes to users' comfort experience, it's impossible to do without the "large sofa", or more accurately, the car seat.

The evolution history of seats is half of the development history of automobiles.

The earliest car seats were not very different from carriage seats. They were wooden benches with springs and were designed with the advent of the world's first car. In 1910, Buick first used leather seats. Eleven years later, with the advent of the Ford Model T, the first reclining seat (supporting three - level adjustment) was born, and car seats began to have basic functionality. After another 37 years, the three - point seat belt was invented at Volvo, strengthening the safety of car seats.

In the era of new energy vehicles, Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturers have accelerated the evolution of seats. Starting from Li Auto, the new standard three - piece set of refrigerator, color TV, and large sofa has gradually become the standard configuration for new energy vehicles - especially the seats. Even new energy vehicles priced at just over 100,000 yuan can claim to be "comparable to million - yuan luxury cars".

Functions and configurations such as seat ventilation, seat heating, massage function, NAPPA leather, and ten - level adjustment are almost all standard. New seat forms such as the queen's co - pilot, first - class cabin, and cloud - feeling seats have emerged. However, in the models of luxury brands such as Mercedes - Benz, Audi, and BMW, these functions and configurations are almost all paid options.

Why do Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturers rack their brains to provide large sofas for users?

Back pain, the helplessness of new energy vehicles

Although new energy vehicle manufacturers always hope that users will regard their vehicles as a second living space outside of their homes, this "home" also has its own problems.

On Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle interest community, there are quite a few posts sharing experiences and promoting products related to "back pain from driving new energy vehicles". The brands involved include both new brands such as NIO, Xiaomi, XPeng, AITO, Li Auto, and Tesla, as well as traditional brands such as smart, BYD, and BMW.

One of the reasons for the easy occurrence of back pain when driving new energy vehicles is the excessively high floor of new energy vehicles.

People who have ridden in both fuel - powered vehicles and new energy vehicles will find that the legroom in new energy vehicle seats does not have a sunken space like that in fuel - powered vehicles, which is especially obvious in the rear row. In fuel - powered vehicles, the rear legroom is divided by a raised central island, forming two sunken spaces, which often makes it difficult for passengers to move left and right. However, the rear floor of new energy vehicles is as flat as the ground. When the LeDao L60 was launched, they even demonstrated running through the rear row, which is impossible in fuel - powered vehicles of the same class.

Between the two axles of fuel - powered vehicles, the transmission shaft and exhaust system are mainly arranged. Automotive engineers have cleverly integrated these components into the central passage, which is directly below the armrests of the driver and front - passenger seats and the rear central island. This is also the reason for the bulge in the middle of the rear row. Therefore, the floor height under the feet of rear - row passengers is relatively low, which reduces the height of the knees when sitting and makes the body posture more natural.

However, new energy vehicles are different, especially pure electric vehicles. A thick and flat battery pack is integrated into the chassis. This battery pack is placed in the rectangular space formed by the four tires and the two axles, that is, directly below the passenger compartment. Even in extended - range and plug - in hybrid models, there is a battery on the car chassis - and this battery is getting larger and larger.

As a result, the floor of new energy vehicles is almost a flat surface, similar to a mattress that is about 2 meters long and 1.8 meters wide.

The result of the higher floor under the passengers' feet is that the height of the knees also increases. In other words, in fuel - powered vehicles, due to the lower floor height, the angle between the calf and the thigh is larger, and the thighs are supported, so the whole - body posture is more relaxed, the stress on the waist is lighter, and the back pain is reduced. On the contrary, in new energy vehicles, due to the limited floor height, the stress on the waist is more concentrated, and the seat does not support the thighs enough. Over time, the waist is more prone to fatigue.

Automobile companies that have suffered losses in seat design

NIO once caused user dissatisfaction with its seat experience. Different from other new energy vehicles, NIO's battery - swapping is limited by the development of a standard platform, resulting in a relatively high floor height. Coupled with problems in the seat design, user dissatisfaction with the seats gradually intensified from April 2021 and finally erupted in July.

"The front of the seat cushion is higher than the back, with an excessive inclination angle, and the headrest protrudes too far forward, causing the sitting posture to be bent like a cooked shrimp. All the pressure is transmitted to the waist, causing discomfort in the waist and even damage to the lumbar spine..." This was the summary of NIO owners at that time. Even NIO's proud queen's co - pilot was criticized: "When lying down, the waist is suspended; when sitting, the feet cannot touch the ground, the waist cannot lean against the backrest, and the seat is very hard."

At that time, these users even formed a discussion group in NIO's user community and specially designed a logo called "Bending for NIO".

To solve this problem, NIO launched a questionnaire survey in its user community, covering nearly 30,000 users. In the statistical data finally released by NIO, nearly 20% of users were dissatisfied with the seat design and comfort. The conclusion was that users' dissatisfaction and the discomfort of the seats were real.

Finally, after the release of the survey results, NIO launched a seat upgrade plan. In this plan, NIO even specified the cost of each upgrade item in detail. Roughly speaking, adjusting the angle of the driver's seat basin costs 200 yuan; adjusting the driver's seat cushion costs 200 yuan; adjusting the headrest costs 200 yuan; and the co - pilot and second - row seats are also priced separately. If all the seats in the front and rear rows of the ES8 are upgraded, the cost is 2,600 yuan; for the ES6 and EC6, the cost is 3,000 yuan.

In the early stage of the development of new energy vehicles, many models only discovered the problems of floor height and seats after actual user experience. NIO is not the only one. Tesla, AITO, XPeng, etc. have all encountered similar problems.

A Tesla owner also had back pain when driving a Model 3. His summary was: "Either drive in a lying position, and many people have developed this habit. Or you have to endure the seat pinching your buttocks (meaning that the angle between the backrest and the seat cushion cannot support the waist). Over time, it's easy to get back pain."

Another owner of the AITO M7 also found that after the floor height increased, the uncomfortable seat caused back pain, especially in the front row. The feeling was more obvious: "The seat is too hard and lacks wrapping. The side wings of the backrest cannot fit the back of the body, causing the waist to move left and right. The backrest does not support the waist enough and does not fit the curve of the back well; the seat cushion does not support the thighs enough."

Creating large sofas: Co - creation with suppliers at high standards

@ToTo Wenhan, who has served as a product manager and product engineer at Lexus, NIO, and Jidu (the predecessor of Jiyue), conducted statistics, analysis, and comparison. The results show that the floor height of pure - electric sedans is nearly 50mm higher than that of fuel - powered vehicles of the same class. As a result, the body height of pure - electric sedans is 50 - 100mm higher than that of fuel - powered vehicles of the same class to compensate for the insufficient vertical space caused by the increased floor height.

Making the wheelbase long enough to provide sufficient legroom for passengers is also a solution. This is why it is now common for users to compare the interior space of new energy vehicles priced at 200,000 yuan with that of Mercedes - Benz, BMW, and Audi. Take the XPeng P7+ as an example. Its wheelbase can be comparable to that of the Audi A6L and the Mercedes - Benz E300L, but its price is less than half of theirs.

Another way to solve this problem is to improve the comfort of the seats - using more skin - friendly seat upholstery materials, longer seat lengths, more adjustable seat backrests, seat ventilation and heating, seat massage, leg rests that can support the calves, and even seats that can be fully reclined, such as the zero - gravity seats that have become popular in the new energy vehicle field in the past two years.

It was Li Auto that thoroughly established the user perception of the "large sofa". During the product experience and review stage before the launch of the Li L9, Li Auto invited users to experience the seats of the L9. During this process, they turned off all functions such as ten - point massage, ventilation, and heating, and only focused on the passengers' first - time sitting experience. They called this feeling "basic comfort". On the basis of meeting this requirement, functions such as seat massage, ventilation, and heating can bring a qualitative improvement to the users' comfort.

The seat frame of the Li L9 was optimized and upgraded on the basis of the 2021 Li ONE. Zhixing, the person in charge of seat R & D at Li Auto, once revealed a detail in an interview with the media. The main fabric of the Li L9 seats uses NAPPA leather, and the auxiliary fabric uses PU. However, the problem with PU is that it has a long rebound time and is prone to wrinkles.

Li Xiang himself once agreed in the review that "a few wrinkles are okay", but the seat R & D team didn't agree. So they worked with the supplier to solve the wrinkle problem. It took them several months to adjust and test the panel pattern before finally solving the problem.

NIO has also put a lot of effort into seat design. After the pre - sale launch of the LeDao L90, Li Bin said when talking about the pricing and gross profit margin: "The seats and electric drives of the LeDao L90 reuse a lot of technology within the NIO system." In other words, the LeDao L90 did not specially develop a new seat system but reused NIO's technological accumulation in seat design.

Behind this change, NIO's seat R & D and supply model has also changed. In the past, NIO used a model of overall vehicle sourcing and supplier price comparison. Then it changed to a model where NIO "decouples and stratifies" the components and then centralizes the supply: NIO develops the seat frame platform, and the seat frame supplier will receive orders for all the frames. The same goes for the suppliers of seat controllers and seat assembly, who will receive orders for all the sub - processes. This can ensure that NIO can efficiently respond to user experience feedback, master core R & D capabilities, and reduce costs.

Chen Zhen, a well - known car reviewer, gave the following evaluation after experiencing the LeDao L90: "The seats are more comfortable than those of the Rolls - Royce Spectre. I also invited my colleagues to experience them, and they all agreed with me." Just in 2021, NIO caused strong user dissatisfaction with its seats.

The seats of the XPeng P7+ have been significantly optimized compared to the XPeng P7. One of the core reasons is that He Xiaopeng attaches more importance to seat R & D. To expand the seat R & D team, XPeng Motors poached many core figures with rich professional knowledge and practical experience from a car company that focuses