Chapter 157 Test Drive (5K)

"Regret, this is the only feeling I had after test driving the Xiaomi Ultra today. I was impulsive when I saw the U9 launched last month.

I should have waited a little longer and made a decision after test-driving the Xiaomi Ultra.

Simply put, the driving experience of Yangwang U9 is better than Xiaomi Ultra, and it is completely beaten in other aspects. However, the price of Yangwang U9 is 168 million, while Xiaomi Ultra is only 50. The difference between the two is more than one million!

My family is rich, but the feeling of losing money is so unpleasant.

Let’s talk about the appearance first. I don’t like the appearance of the other two versions of Xiaomi because they don’t have their own design language. Although the slogan is to give young people the same experience as Porsche, the appearance is also part of the experience.

But they are too similar, and it always feels weird when driving on the road. Xiaomi Ultra is very good, with its own design language. Its design does not look aerodynamic, but that is because it is not a supercar, but a coupe, and a coupe has lower requirements for aerodynamics.

Coupled with the unique advantages of electric vehicles, it will never lose to any traditional coupe in terms of acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h.

I think its design concept and design feel are more visually impactful than looking up at the U9. It has a sense of the future. When all coupes are talking about arcs, it gives you a line full of tension.

Although we know that it is for perovskite batteries, it is still very bold. I admire Xiaomi's courage that a car worth 50 yuan can have such bold innovation.

In the past, people may have criticized Xiaomi for borrowing a lot of design language from luxury brands. With Ultra, these references are no longer a problem. When you raise the price to 500,000, you can also enjoy a completely original pure electric coupe.

In terms of driving experience, it has a very German feel and is very stable. It is worthy of being benchmarked against Porsche. Unlike the Japanese cars that drift, it is very stable.

At this price point, whether it's the feel of acceleration and braking, the sensitivity of the steering wheel, or the compactness of the chassis when cornering, they are definitely above average and worthy of the price.

Including the full leather interior, Xiaomi's smart system, the sense of luxury and user-friendly operation are absolutely beyond reproach.

The driving start device in front of the steering wheel is also full of ceremonial sense.

What surprised me the most was the borderless feature. After experiencing Ultra, I finally understood why it was called borderless, because it really makes you unaware of the boundary between the real world and the virtual world, and makes me feel like playing a racing game in the virtual world.

The startup process of the Yangwang U9 that I bought myself is quiet enough, and you can hardly hear any sound. The Xiaomi Ultra is even quieter, it is really silent.

I have tried several of its control modes. In the true borderless mode, the speaker will only remind you of some operations that you need to pay attention to. At other times, you are driving in an absolutely quiet environment. You only need to focus on the car, yourself, and the road conditions. It feels like reading a book on a rainy day and everything in the world disappears. It is worthy of being borderless.

This is a feeling that no other coupe has, absolutely black technology. According to the salesperson, it feels even better when driving on mountain roads in rainy days. Unfortunately, there are too many people test driving, so it is impossible to take you to drive on mountain roads. The salesperson himself has not tried it, but other staff who have test driven it told him during internal training.

After my Xiaomi Ultra is delivered, I will definitely go to the mountain roads to try it out.

In terms of specific operating experience, when you step on the accelerator pedal, the electric motor responds very quickly, the vehicle accelerates instantly, and you also have a sense of being pushed back.

When driving in the city, its acceleration performance can definitely allow you to easily surpass 99.9% of the cars. I haven't driven it on the highway yet, and I'm looking forward to the experience on the highway.

In terms of control, it also performs well. I don't know which manufacturer's technology is used, but according to what Lei said at the press conference, it must be equipped with the latest chassis tuning and suspension system. Whether it is driving on a curve or making an emergency lane change, the control feedback is very accurate.

I just had a preliminary experience with the smart driving function in urban areas, and it doesn’t feel much different from other manufacturers.

To be honest, I don’t care about this at all. I bought this car just to enjoy the fun of driving. If I buy this car and also want smart driving, I think it’s better to buy the ordinary version of Xiaomi.

Finally, let me talk about the constant temperature system, which is really cool. That’s why I said it makes you feel like you are playing a car game, because the changes in temperature between the outside and inside of the car, and the sudden silence, will make you feel like you have suddenly come to a world that belongs only to you.

The constant temperature system is very necessary whether in the south or the north. It not only gives you a comfortable experience, but also keeps the battery at a constant temperature, which can increase the battery life. I feel that Xiaomi's rapid start is also due to the constant temperature system to a certain extent. "

"I only test-drove the Xiaomi Ultra. If you buy other versions of Xiaomi, you might be teased for buying a Porsche, the first Porsche for young people, but if you buy the Xiaomi Ultra, you definitely won't have this worry.

Whether in terms of appearance design language or overall style and tone, Xiaomi has gone its own way without imitating or paying tribute to anyone.

This is a very difficult thing for a car company to have its own design language and design well. Among new energy car companies, it seems that only NIO has done this besides Xiaomi. Even Huawei's Q-E has little characteristics in my opinion, and its appearance is its shortcoming.

In terms of driving experience, because so many bloggers have talked about it, I took a rough look at the photos taken by other bloggers before taking the photo. Basically, they all think that Xiaomi Ultra is very good. Relying on the top-level acoustic equipment of Xiaomi Mi 3, its driving experience is very unique, just like playing a racing game.

I agree with their point of view, it is indeed the same as playing a racing game.

What makes me better than them is that I am Xiaomi's specially invited automotive self-media. I had test-driven the Xiaomi Ultra before the press conference. At that time, their staff specially picked a rainy day to take me to the mountain road on Shuangda Road to test the car.

Just as the salesperson advertised, it would feel better to test drive on a mountain road on a rainy day.

Friends who have been to Shuangdalu Yanjing know that the mountain road has many bends and the ground is slippery when it rains, but this has not affected the driving accuracy of Xiaomi Ultra at all. It is very sensitive whether turning or accelerating or decelerating.

Of course, this is not what I want to talk about, but driving the Xiaomi Ultra on a mountain road on a rainy day really gave me the feeling that I was the only one left in the world. The staff even got off the car to let me experience it by myself.

This feeling is too rare in the adult world, because there are always all kinds of things filling your world, such as work, family, and parents. Even if you have the best conditions, it is difficult to have time to specifically experience the joy of driving. Buying a good car is nothing more than being a little faster than others when starting at a traffic light, or having a little higher success rate when changing lanes and squeezing in.

When I was driving the Xiaomi Ultra, especially on rainy mountain roads, I rediscovered the joy of driving that I had when I was eighteen years old. It was like I was back in my youth. This feeling was really great. I recommend that friends who can go for a test drive give it a try.

Finally, I want to say that I really admire Xiaomi, because I listened to both press conferences in full. At the press conference, Lei Jun also talked about his desire to build a good car, how much effort he had put in, and how he had bet all his reputation on it. He then mentioned that he had contacted Guangshen and asked if he had any technology that could be given to them.

What Guangshen has given is nothing more than a new generation of acoustic materials. In fact, it is difficult to use it in new energy vehicles. No matter how good the sound effect is, what can it do? Really, if I were to listen to the press conference, I would think that no matter how good the sound effect is, no matter how powerful the noise reduction is, what can it do?
Don’t tell me about the new generation of perovskite batteries. Other manufacturers can also make them. The new generation of perovskite batteries will be open to other manufacturers in the future. Didn’t you see that Avita also used the new generation of perovskite batteries in the press conference?
What I admire about Xiaomi is that they can integrate acoustic materials into the car very well, and create their own unique style based on this material. This is really difficult. A technology that is not so suitable for cars has been used in a variety of ways by Xiaomi.

In addition, the constant temperature system is also very impressive. Everyone only thought of using perovskite batteries for energy replenishment, but only Xiaomi thought of using it to maintain the temperature of the entire vehicle, giving users a better experience. This is also a rare thing.

Of course, the Xiaomi Ultra costs 500,000 yuan, which I don’t think is expensive if you ask me, but if it is used at home, it is not suitable at all. It is only suitable for one person. If you only need to consider yourself, then it is the right choice to buy it.”

Various self-media outlets have given Xiaomi Ultra high praise, especially users who have test-driven it, who think it far exceeds expectations.

Relying on the borderless system, Xiaomi Ultra allows consumers to experience the feeling of being one with the car.

The Xiaomi Ultra was delivered by Lei Jun himself in Yanjing, opening the door for the first batch of car owners, which immediately created a lot of hype.

As for the owners who got the Chen Yuanguang Signature Founder Edition, they all asked one question when they received the car:
"Boss Lei, where is the God of Light? The God of Light is my idol. I have always admired the God of Light. Can we take a photo with the God of Light?"

No one would say that I want the God of Light to open the door for me. That would be a more tactful way of putting it. We have already taken a photo, so it’s not too much to ask him to open the door for us.

Lei Jun's way of opening the door is not as impressive as Chen Yuanguang's. Not to mention other achievements, mainly speaking from the perspective of scarcity, it is obvious that Chen Yuanguang's help in opening the door is more scarce.

After all, Chen Yuan rarely appears in public, never holds product launches, has only accepted a few interviews, and rarely posts on Weibo.

Not only users who have grabbed the founding edition signed by Chen Yuanguang will ask this question, but other users will also ask it. Everyone wants to take a photo with Chen Yuanguang, and it would be best if Lei Jun and Chen Yuanguang stand on their left and right sides and shake hands at the same time.

Lei Jun smiled bitterly when he heard this question. Don't ask too many questions. "I also want our co-founder Yuan Guang to participate in this car delivery event, but Yuan Guang has more important tasks and can't spare the time."

One reason is that there is no time, and the other is safety considerations. The people on site are too noisy, and if something happens, no one can take the responsibility.

Not to mention that Chen Yuanguang himself was unwilling to attend, the Chinese side would not allow him to participate in this event.

"Xiaomi has too many gimmicks that other car companies can't even think of. This is the gap between the marketing thinking of traditional car companies and the marketing thinking of Internet car manufacturers. Even Wei, Xiaopeng and Li Auto are far inferior to Xiaomi in marketing."

"The founder of Ideal was previously considered the best at marketing, but he is a bit behind Mr. Lei." "The only regret is that I couldn't get the God of Light to open the door for me personally. This is the only thing missing in terms of prestige."

“Lamborghini: I have scissor doors.

McLaren: I have butterfly doors.

Pagani: I have gull-wing doors.

Xiaomi: I, Mr. Lei, will open the door myself! "

"The Ultra owner has won big. All that's missing is the God of Light opening the door himself. If the God of Light opens the door himself, that would be even cooler."

For a while, social media was full of news about Xiaomi Ultra, and the proportion of female car owners exceeded Xiaomi's own expectations. Originally, they thought that only male users would accept the unique design of Xiaomi Ultra.

After all, it is easy to please female users if you borrow design from Porsche, but it is difficult to please female users with your original design, not to mention that it makes extensive use of rough flat lines, which makes it even more difficult to attract female users.

The results showed that female car owners accounted for more than 35%, which was far beyond expectations. The car pick-up posts originally posted by beautiful bloggers on Xiaohongshu were all about Porsche, but now there are a lot of them about Xiaomi Ultra.

In a sense, they also saved money. Originally, in order to create an image of a rich woman, they had to buy a Porsche, but now the Xiaomi Ultra can achieve the same purpose.

"If a person drives a Porsche, then he must be very rich. If a person drives a Xiaomi Ultra, then you don't know how rich he is."

Similar jokes are constantly appearing on the Internet.

Lin Jia boasted to Chen Yuanguang on the phone: "The number of orders this time far exceeded expectations, especially the Xiaomi Ultra, which has established a high-end brand image for Xiaomi.

Xiaomi's Hong Kong stock price has risen by more than 50% since the launch. I bought a small amount before, and the money I made is enough to buy ten Ultras." She is proud of her investment vision.

Chen Yuanguang sighed: "Now we should be walking on thin ice and trembling with fear."

Lin Jia was surprised and asked, “How did you know?

I thought you were going to congratulate Xiaomi."

Not only did Xiaomi's stock price soar, but as one of the shareholders of Xiaomi Auto and the largest Xiaomi Auto concept stock in the A-share market, Guangjia Technology's market value also soared, exceeding 700 billion RMB.

Guangjia Technology not only benefited from the higher-than-expected sales of Xiaomi cars, but also from the broad application prospects of new materials in the field of acoustics. This allowed investors to vote with their feet, and Guangjia Technology's stock price continued to rise.

Chen Yuanguang said: "Isn't it obvious? The sales are so good. We visited Xiaomi Auto when we were in Yanjing before. Its factory is not very big.

That means production capacity is limited, and with limited production capacity, consumers have to wait a long time before they can get their cars.

Expanding production capacity does not guarantee that the product will continue to sell well in the future. If consumers wait too long, their psychological expectations will be raised, which will easily lead to a large number of negative reviews.

In addition, the sales are so good that it has seriously affected the interests of competitors. Everyone is waiting to see Xiaomi Auto reveal its flaws and then attack it.

There are also many netizens who dislike Xiaomi. This is the same reason why the Ideal L series sold well, and then they blindly launched MEGA, but ended up with a Waterloo.

Good fortune and disaster go hand in hand. What seems like a good thing may actually be a big crisis.”

The progress of Project 712 was far slower than expected.

The "not as good as expected" here means not as good as Chen Yuanguang expected. In his opinion, it can be done in one year at most, why would it take two years?

In fact, the overall progress is very slow, the transformation of the lithography machine is very difficult, and Huawei has many opinions.

It would be very risky to modify China's only 7nm ASML lithography machine, but Huawei can already mass-produce chips equivalent to 14nm with its 5nm lithography machines.

Therefore, they believe that they can achieve a 7nm process using this 3nm without taking any risks.

The risks of using topological semimetals are too high, and there are huge differences between the two sides in this regard.

The entire project was initiated by Chen Yuanguang, and the 7nm lithography machine was allocated to them out of Chen Yuanguang's face, and Huawei could not refute it.

This resulted in everyone's cooperation not being so united.

Although the top levels, including Huawei's senior management, have verbally expressed full cooperation and strong support, in reality, the implementation process has been slow due to too many technical difficulties.

In addition to topological semimetals, Chen Yuanguang is also responsible for a series of projects including Pioneer 7, light armor space station design, and China's compound eye. He works almost 12x hours a day.

Therefore, chatting with Lin Jia every day was a rare pastime for Chen Yuanguang.

"That's right, Yuanguang, you have improved. If it were before, you would definitely not be able to come up with these roundabout ways." Lin Jia said.

"After working at Xiaomi Auto, I realized that I had a lot to learn in marketing. I could not have imagined the marketing strategy of Mr. Lei driving the car himself, plus the disruptive effect it would bring on social media.

If we build cars later, can you come and open the door to the first batch of users? Your popularity and reputation are no worse than his. "Lin Jia joked.

Chen Yuanguang smiled and said: "No problem, Xiaomi is just one of the shareholders. If we build our own car, I will definitely support it.

You can gain experience there first, and we will build our own car after Light Armor Aerospace realizes space mining."

Lin Jia: “Well, it’s really not easy to build a car, there are so many issues to consider.

In fact, I found that if I really want to build my own car, it is not enough to just learn marketing. What is more important is supply chain management. Xiaomi is not the best in supply chain management. BYD is even better in automotive supply chain management.

They are ruthless to suppliers and employees.”

Chen Yuanguang said: "This is normal. BYD previously had a large number of OEM businesses. For a long time, the source of profit for the domestic manufacturing industry was harsh treatment of employees and suppliers. It can be described as harsh or exploitative.

This is an inertia that has developed in the process of corporate development. Even though things have gotten better in recent years, they cannot get rid of this inertia in a short period of time.”

Lin Jia felt like a man who had not seen him for three days should be treated with new eyes: "Yuan Guang, when did you gain such a profound understanding of business operations?"

Chen Yuanguang: “People will always make progress.

I feel like I'm in seclusion practicing in Mianyang. When I come out of my practice, my magical powers will be perfect and I'll be invincible.

Don’t send the Xiaomi Ultra to me. It’s too conspicuous to drive in Mianyang. Keep it for yourself. I have a driver here to take me to and from get off work.”

　I updated 10,000 today. I'm so tired~

　　
　
(End of this chapter)