On April 25th, 2024 Beijing International Automobile Exhibition officially opened.
With the theme of “New era and New cars”, this auto show provides a new way of thinking in leading the forefront of automobile consumption and connecting automobile brands and consumers.
In this auto show, Auto House invites senior executives to talk about the future of the auto market and the industry.
Auto House has an in-depth communication with Zhou Ying, general manager of Zero Automobile Marketing Department.
, 
, the following is a transcript of the conversation: automobile House: Hello, Mr. Zhou. This auto show focuses on the listing of Zero C16 (parameters | inquiry) in Beijing.
Can you briefly introduce what are the highlights of this product? Zhou Ying: C16 is the latest product of our LEAP 3.
0technology architecture.
It has all the advantages of LEAP 3.
0technology architecture, including a centrally integrated electrical and electronic architecture, including 8295 cockpit chips, including lidar and Orin smart driving hardware.
On the basis of such intelligence, we give C16 a very special product positioning.
We call it MPSUV.
We think that C16 not only has the spatial sense of MPV, because we have the layout of six-seater space, but also has the generous, dynamic and fulfilling feeling of SUV.
Therefore, C16 has a very leading LEAP 3.
0 technology at the intelligent level, and has the characteristics of both MPV and SUV in the whole sense of space use.
It should be said that it is a very typical 6-seat SUV designed for family travel and for more people to travel.
Auto House: we can see that the sales of zero running have been quite good recently, with an increase of 136% in March.
It is not easy for zero running to achieve such a result in the context of a price war.
What do you think zero running relies on to achieve such a good result? at the same time, what is the sales composition of zero running now? Zhou Ying: let me talk about the sales composition first.
as of March, we can see that there are about 72% of the whole sales composition of C series products, that is, high price series products.
From this point of view, this is more in line with the brand pull-up state of zero running as a whole.
Our C-Series represents a series of products with the latest zero technology and the highest level of car construction, including C11, C01, and the newly launched C10.
We also believe that today’s debut, the opening of the pre-sale C16 will also achieve very good results.
What we can see is that since the Spring Festival this year, the momentum of the whole price war is very fierce, but in fact, looking back, we can see that the price war in the automobile market began last spring.
Who started the price war last spring? we thought it was zero run, because at the launch of the family bucket held on March 1, we sent out all the new products and called it “there is a reference for choosing a car to see the value of zero running”.
Our C11 extended range Pure electricity, as well as C01, should be said to have created a new standard of value at that time.
Under that background, we later saw that many enterprises began to reduce their prices.
This is mainly because we think that the car-building concept of Zero Race has always been to give users a product that exceeds expectations and is inexpensive through global self-research, self-research and self-construction, and through continuous technical iteration and technology reduction.
So we see that zero-run products basically have one thing in common, that is, the same price, our configuration must be the highest, or the same price, our price must be the best, based on this concept of car building, from the very beginning, when our strategy was pricing, we set this product basically at cost.
It may be different from the way we play now, there will be a lot of price reduction actions, in fact, the practice of zero running is to give everyone the most sincere price from the very beginning, this is our idea.
Auto House: now more and more models are participating in the price war.
Will the late zero run continue to reduce costs and push prices down? At the same time, some car companies have now launched zero down payment financial products, what do you think of this phenomenon? Zhou Ying: first of all, I think the first is the general trend of the industry, which will certainly continue to roll.
now that we see this kind of price war, we can understand it as a return of value, because from the perspective of the whole automobile industry, in fact, there are still many products with high premium, and the current situation is that people are less and less likely to pay for the high premium, so what we can see on the surface is that we are reducing the price.
This is actually a process of squeezing out some of the previous premiums.
Gradually, car consumers will return to a more and more rational state, the original so-called I buy a car, highlight my identity, highlight my status, what kind of person I am, what kind of income I am, and what kind of brand I want to buy.
This kind of consumption concept will gradually fade away, and finally the car becomes the same as clothes, that is, a means of transportation.
Just like clothes, people like to wear Uniqlo now, because the price is not expensive, but the quality is good.
I think the car will be in such a state at best.
Those products with good quality but real price can get users in the end.
So in this process, a large number of car companies are doing the action of value return.
In the process of value return, what we may see is that the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and the increasingly fierce competition brings survival of the fittest, and brands and enterprises that have no way to adapt to the new consumer environment may gradually be eliminated.
Finally, those who can adapt to this kind of competition can improve the operating efficiency of enterprises and enable us to survive in our own ability of technological iteration to create a good product.
This is the final direction of the price war that we all see at present.
Based on this direction, what zero running should do is to persist in being itself, because when starting a business from zero running, Mr.
Zhu’s positioning for zero running is to lead the technology at the enterprise level, to do global self-research, and to be an enterprise that has mastered the core technology.
At the product level, what we need to do is to create cost-effective products based on global self-research.
I think this kind of enterprise positioning and product positioning, in fact, from the very beginning, what we do is to match the current consumption trend of products, to do low brand premium, high product value product concept.
So it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for us to be ourselves.
Automobile House: its realization in the domestic price war is getting hotter and hotter, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher, but the trend of electrification in European and American markets has slowed down.
Some people think that electric cars haveFor example, there is mileage anxiety, or it is inconvenient to recharge.
although some people have bought new energy vehicles, I do not want to choose new energy vehicles because of the inconvenience of use.
So many people think that electrification has reached a level.
It will stagnate, or even retrogression.
What do you think? Zhou Ying: first of all, let’s look at the major direction and trend.
Electrification is about talking with intelligence, not looking at electrification in isolation.
Electrification and intelligence, there is no doubt that it must be a major direction and trend, the direction is clear and clear, but the process may have some twists and turns, which is an inevitable law.
Let’s take a look at whether the so-called “slow down” or “pause” mentioned by many enterprises or countries depends on what they say on the one hand and how they do it on the other.
For example, like this Beijing auto show, there are so many enterprises, how many fuel vehicles are really on the show? I don’t think this means that there will be fewer and fewer tankers in the future at the Beijing Auto Show.
As there are fewer and fewer tankers, how do users choose them? the fact just mentioned is that there will be fewer and fewer tankers.
On the other hand, how do we do it? I think from our own point of view, we can see it very clearly.
We also think that the general direction and trend of electrification and intelligence are irreversible.
In this process, Chinese enterprises already have a first-mover advantage, so in this process, do not hesitate, or do not be disturbed by some remarks.
But on the basis of already having relatively good first-mover advantages, how to further enlarge, how to consolidate their own market positioning, how to further give play to the advantages of the industries that have been formed, through more industrial coordination, more technological innovation, so that China’s new energy, intelligent products can really go global.
I think this is more important.
Automobile House: when it comes to going global, China’s car export was the first in the world last year.
Do you have any specific plans to run overseas? At the same time, what challenges do you think will be encountered in the process of internationalization? Zhou Ying: first of all, in the part of internationalization, Zero chose a very innovative path.
Through the strategic cooperation with the world automobile giant Stellantis Group last year, it formed a very good mode of cooperation, that is, to establish Zero International together and expand the entire overseas market through the theme of Zero running International.
I think this kind of innovation model precisely solves some of the problems that many Chinese car companies will encounter in the process of going out to sea, even some problems that we have not solved in the past few decades.
Because the scale of the whole overseas market is very large, but the laws and regulations, consumption habits, local business environment and so on of every country and region are very complicated.
Every time we invest in a country or region, the investment is actually very huge, financial, resource, product development and so on.
But sometimes the volume of business in this country and region may not be so large, which is why it is difficult for us to say that it blossoms fully in the entire international market, and it is difficult to spread out quickly.
At present, what is better is to make some achievements after many years of deep ploughing in some areas.
We have given full play to their great advantages through cooperation with Stellantis Group, because it is a very international enterprise with very mature sales channels, service channels and network layout in various countries and regions around the world, and they also know a lot about local consumption habits, and even some catalyst environment.
Through cooperation with Stellantis Group, on the one hand, we can quickly open our overseas channels.
To put it simply, Zero does not need to be touched or opened by a store like other Chinese brands when they go to sea before.
Based on the international network of the Stellantis Group, we can quickly open our channels in the European market and even in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
We will not say to open a few points in France first.
Once we start to do it, we may be in a state of rapid expansion.
Because we all use the ready-made channels of the Stellantis Group, the resources of their stores in France and Italy, for example, in the very scarce locations of big cities like Paris, we can sell our cars in these places.
This is a great advantage through cooperation, which is part of the channel.
Outside the channel, there is more understanding of the local market, including policies and regulations, etc.
, we can avoid many unnecessary holes and make it faster for our products to be introduced into overseas markets.
So in September this year, including C10, including T03, will start selling in overseas markets.
Automobile House: when the two companies cooperate, there will certainly be a running-in period.
what kind of challenges will zero run encounter during the running-in period? Zhou Ying: I think the so-called running-in period may not be called the running-in period, but should be called the start-up period.
That is, during the start-up period, what we want to discuss together is that when our products are quickly introduced to overseas markets, how to let these foreign consumers quickly understand the brand of Zero run? this is the first task we face when doing overseas markets, and how to introduce Zero to everyone.
It turns out that we have formed the brand label and product image of zero running for everyone at home, whether it is suitable for foreign countries, in the hearts of European consumers, the set of products we are talking about now, high quality-to-price products, whether the whole set of technology self-development can move them, this is a topic that we need to discuss together now.
In the face of overseas consumers, we need to know more about their spiritual aspirations, to find some win-win points between zero running and them, and the understanding of zero running brand in their minds, which is relatively clear from the very beginning.
this is a topic that we need to spend more time and energy on.
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