"Under the bottleneck of technology, automakers regard marginal demands as differentiated selling points, neglecting practicality. Therefore, automakers should focus on solving core problems rather than excessively marketing marginal demands."

@Original by Technovation

How should we define the ideal car? More and more people are giving their answers.

On Xiaohongshu, the number of notes on the theme of bed cars has exceeded 100,000+. The popularity of bed cars largely stems from their ability to strike a delicate balance between young people's pursuit of poetry and distant places and their commitment to honest work.

Unlike recreational vehicles (RVs), bed cars emphasize the ability to "eat, drink, and sleep" within the confined space of an ordinary car. The popularity of bed cars is due in part to the increasing space available in new energy vehicles. Whether it's for lunch breaks, weekend camping trips, or longer journeys, bed cars are increasingly featured in the content shared by bloggers.

The topic of bed cars, which emphasizes leisure and stress relief, is being targeted by mainstream manufacturers who are turning it into reality as a marketing approach.

On October 13, a hot pot feast in a car instantly propelled Geely ZEEKR MIX to the top trending topics, drawing widespread criticism from netizens. In the video, Geely ZEEKR's Vice President Yang Dacheng and his team rotated the front seats 180 degrees and set up a hot pot on an extendable table. Yang Dacheng emphasized the car's effective air conditioning, making it feel cool, and even mentioned the possibility of playing mahjong in the car.

Bed car modifications based on traffic logic are gradually being brought to life by automakers, but as people in the comment section have pointed out, "Musk has successfully launched a rocket with chopsticks, while we've accomplished a three-fold seat and a hot pot car."

Putting video content into practice doesn't necessarily meet user needs; it may satisfy traffic preferences more. The absence of hard technology and technological breakthroughs has allowed refrigerators, TVs, and sofas to thrive in the current context, continuously being promoted. Marketing tactics like Geely ZEEKR's directly reflect the homogenization of products and automakers' thirst for exposure.

At the same time, this traffic based on algorithmic preferences has minimal value for automakers. Under the guise of pseudo-demands and novelty-seeking logic, automakers are gradually distancing themselves from genuine user needs.

A direct example is that older Tesla models, which have been on the market for years, continue to dominate sales of new energy vehicles. From a broader perspective, the new energy vehicle sector has entered an elimination phase, and it seems obvious whether such products will have room in the future.

01.

Making a "scene" in the car has become a traffic password

"The trend of making a scene in the car originated with Tesla. Due to its unfinished interior and the company's reluctance to advertise, some bloggers came up with the concept of bed cars, which also allowed them to sell related products, addressing the reality that Tesla only had traffic but no monetization in China." Li Ming, who has many years of experience in car sales, told "Technovation."

In his experience, some buyers do ask similar questions. These demands, in his words, are a bit like phone cases, but far less exaggerated than what's seen in videos today. "From the early days of decorating Tesla's unfinished interiors to the later 'queen's throne' with refrigerators and TVs in Ideal cars, and Xiaopeng's one-button bed function, everything people want is already available."

What really astonishes professionals like Li Ming are the bizarre car modifications that have emerged since then.

"Instant toilet, watching TV while using the toilet, instant bathroom." In October 2023, a Douyin blogger named Junlinghou, who was at a Hunan highway service area, felt like a star for the first time. In his Douyin videos, a small A0-class car, a BYD Dolphin, became comparable to an RV, with a makeshift bathroom, toilet, and kitchen quickly set up in the cramped cabin.

But a closer look reveals that most of these modifications are more like "homegrown" DIY projects. The typical instant toilet, for example, involves installing a toilet seat behind the car seat and placing a plastic bag underneath. The instant bathroom, on the other hand, is a makeshift setup with a water tank and showerhead in the car.

"When he pulled out the showerhead, I felt like my cerebellum had shrunk," commented one netizen, garnering hundreds of likes.

The novelty-driven spectacle brought Junlinghou significant traffic and fame. The video not only became his most popular work, with nearly 100,000 likes, but also sparked controversy. While most people couldn't understand such modifications, some found them fitting for a downgraded travel lifestyle.

Since then, traditional bed car content videos have taken on another extreme form. It seems that more and more people have discovered that creating a scene in an ordinary new energy vehicle is a promising path to monetize traffic. As a result, more and more non-professionals have embarked on modifying bed cars, including teachers, civil servants, and camping enthusiasts, who often lack professional knowledge but use their modified cars for travel and self-media filming.

In terms of vehicle types, there's no uniform standard, ranging from small cars like the Dolphin and Venucia to later models like the Wey VV6, Honda CR-V, and even the Tank 300 and 400.

In terms of video development, creators have almost identical scripts. Tired of the nine-to-five city life, young people quit their jobs, modify bed cars, and embark on a journey to pursue their ideals. Lifestyle content is the focus of their creations, with everything from doing laundry and cooking to using the toilet becoming important elements.

Among the many bed car bloggers, in addition to those pursuing traffic, there are also entrepreneurs, such as Sun Haitao, Chairman of 51 Group, who claimed to have lived in a car since July 2023. In his personal introduction on Xiaohongshu, Sun Haitao's other venture is China's first mass-produced immersive multi-functional vehicle. From the content, it seems that Sun Haitao is professionalizing the bed car sector, but as a niche market, its development speed is difficult to predict, with video content still focused on eating, bathing, and using the toilet.

In summary, making a scene in the car has become a favored traffic niche, but in practice, its self-media attributes seem stronger. In many videos, even the bloggers themselves complain about the poor experience of bed cars.

"It's too cold in winter and too hot in summer, with cramped spaces, tough conditions, and unstable income," admitted one blogger who couldn't keep it up, comparing the lifestyle to a regular job. But encouraged by traffic, automakers seem to have more plans, turning pseudo-demands into reality as an alternative innovation path.

User "demands" generated under such conditions are not surprising when criticized when replicated in mass-produced cars.

02.

Pursuing marginal demands: genuine innovation or pseudo-demands?

Such content is actually quite common among bed car bloggers. Relatively speaking, the earlier JiShi 01, which claimed to have a built-in toilet, may have just grasped the essence of bed car content.

On October 15, at the launch event of the Dongfeng Venucia VX6, the company directly referred to the venue as the "Venucia Car Sales Center." Surprisingly, the event invited Junlinghou, a Douyin blogger with 251,000 followers who mainly shares content about modifying the space-constrained Venucia VX6 into a bed car with showering, dining, and sleeping functions.

It wasn't until Geely ZEEKR MIX brought a hot pot into the car that most users realized the severity of the issue: pseudo-demands in cars had reached a new level.

What's even more astonishing is that automakers have actually taken these pseudo-demands seriously as research and development priorities.

Looking back at recent years of competition among automakers at launch events, the bombardment of parameters has led to increasing homogenization – batteries from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), double-wishbone and five-link suspensions, zero-to-hundred acceleration times, and charging times. Even Xiaomi, which has outperformed its peers, had Lei Jun spend considerable time explaining the car's sun protection function and summer cooling efficiency to attract female users.

Marginal demands have thus become a communication focus and an anchor point for consumers to understand automakers. In other words, they essentially point to the frustration of being unable to differentiate products after technological breakthroughs have reached a bottleneck.

However, the loss of control over marginal or pseudo-demands highlights automakers' one-sided understanding of user needs, especially regarding in-car space.

In 2023, a post titled "Why do automakers love promoting sleeping in the car?" became popular on Zhihu. According to statistics, after Ideal Automobile successfully positioned itself in the market for families with two or more children and sales soared, related terms like in-car space and "extension of home" were increasingly mentioned by automakers.

Related demands, from queen seats, zero-gravity seats, home theaters, to seat massage functions, each emergence seemed to be another interpretation of space. The spatial attributes and comfort of cars have become increasingly important memory anchors and promotional focal points, with related functions becoming standard in popular models. By extension, after the needs for sleeping and watching movies were gradually met, eating hot pot seemed like a straightforward linear extrapolation, but it crossed a user red line.

The logic is simple: when demands are extended indefinitely, they ignore the authenticity and frequency of use in real scenarios. Theoretically, anything can be done in a car with enough space, but that doesn't mean people will fulfill all their needs there. From the automakers' perspective, a more direct reason may be the difficulty in implementing such functions.

As an ordinary modification enthusiast, Junlinghou can install swivel seats, voice-controlled showers, and laundry machines in a car. No matter how much Ideal Automobile promotes its other features, people will still categorize them as big sofas with refrigerators and TVs.

Data from the "2024 New Energy Vehicle User Needs and Product Insights" report indicate the boundaries of popular demand. Pre-70s generations focus more on product quality and handling, while post-70s generations prioritize range and handling. Post-80s generations are more concerned with spatial performance and product quality, while post-95s generations value appearance and configuration more. Among concerns, pre-70s generations worry more about safety, post-80s generations about the resale value of used cars, post-90s generations about rapid depreciation of new cars and inability to upgrade older platform models, and post-95s generations about paid subscription models.

From this perspective, consumers are still rational.

Even in a dedicated Questauto survey on users' preferences for intelligence, entertainment, and technology, it's clear that although the new middle class in the new energy vehicle market is concentrated among married men who are interested in smart living, entertainment, fashion, and gaming, their primary interests do not lie in simply sleeping or eating hot pot in the car.

In terms of real sales feedback, marginal demands appear subtle and have more social and emotional value.

"Actually, from our actual contact with customers, functions like massage or even queen seats are often glossed over. First, compared to professional products, these functions are not comparable in terms of massage intensity or modes. Second, they are redundant technological features that add icing on the cake rather than being essential. Customers may be pleased to hear about them, but they're not the professional direction," an Ideal Automobile salesperson told "Technovation" and added that customers are willing to share such content on WeChat Moments or Xiaohongshu.

In the era of Steve Jobs, he believed that "customers don't know what they want until we show them our products, and then they realize that's what they need." This belief likely influenced automakers keen on studying marginal demands. However, the reality is that most people are not like Jobs, and what they're truly ignoring or avoiding is solving core problems.

03.

While competitors focus on marketing, Tesla builds a technological fortress

In contrast, Tesla can be described as having extremely low comfort levels, with unremarkable interior space, massage functions, and even interior decorations that can only be described as "spartan," yet it maintains its dominant position.

Statistics show that Tesla delivered 88,321 vehicles in September, with 72,000 sold domestically, marking a staggering 66% year-on-year increase. Its best-selling model, the Model Y, is a six-year-old design, yet it still sold robustly with 48,000 units. According to data, the Tesla Model Y has become the king of resale value in the 200,000-300,000 yuan price range, a figure that includes both gasoline and electric vehicles.

Even Lei Jun, during Xiaomi's launch event, had to admit that Tesla leads the world in energy consumption, despite citing a myriad of parameters.

"During test drives, I usually quickly go through the features and then demonstrate the car's handling and acceleration. Customers tend to be impressed by the car's performance," Tesla salesperson Wang Xiao told "Technovation," acknowledging that the car does have many flaws but is still a joy to drive.

Remarkably, Tesla, which does not pursue big-screen TVs or sofas, has also gained some imitators this year.

As NIO's first attempt with its sub-brand, the Ledao L60 has gained many fans due to its pixel-level imitation of Tesla. After all, its lower price than Tesla and larger interior space have impressed users. In particular, the statement made by NIO's founder Li Bin at the press conference was impressive: "I have everything Tesla has, and I have things Tesla doesn't have."

On the other side of public opinion, there are also disagreements among Tesla bloggers. Some bloggers claim that Tesla's updates are slow, and its products are already falling behind the evolution speed of domestic manufacturers. However, after the product configurations and driving experience were released, users seemed to start voting with their purchases. Tesla continues to dominate the charts, while Ledao has become the target of criticism.

From the confrontation between Tesla and Ledao, it can be seen that a truly excellent technological moat is very apparent. Even if domestic manufacturers pursue it, it cannot be surpassed in the short term, let alone those companies that have already deviated from the right path.

In Tesla's 2023 financial report, research and development expenses amounted to nearly $3.969 billion (approximately RMB 28.39 billion), an increase of nearly 29.07% year-on-year. This figure is equivalent to the sum of R&D expenses of multiple emerging automakers. Among domestic manufacturers, only BYD's R&D expenses of RMB 39.9 billion can compete with Tesla's. Meanwhile, NIO spent RMB 12.8 billion on marketing expenses. In the words of an industry insider, "Spending RMB 80,000 on marketing per vehicle on average, Tesla indeed lacks what NIO has."

To some extent, the currently competitive new energy vehicle market has not yet reached a technological bottleneck. On the contrary, there are several areas that urgently need technological breakthroughs, such as intelligent driving, solid-state batteries, and dry electrode technology. Automakers entering the elimination round no longer have time to continue creating redundancies by focusing on marginal demands.

Eating hot pot in a car may seem appealing, but cars are not manufactured for eating hot pot. It is hoped that Chinese new energy vehicles, whose first-mover advantage is being gradually evened out, can address users' genuine needs.