Rather than competing for cars, shouldn't we compete for traffic and technology?

The annual Guangzhou Auto Show has ushered in its media day. According to official data, this year's Guangzhou Auto Show features 78 global premieres, with a total of 1,171 vehicles on display, including 512 new energy vehicles, accounting for 43% of the total. In previous years, the total number of displayed vehicles was only 1,132, with 469 new energy vehicles and 59 global premieres. As the final battle of the domestic auto market for the year, the scale of the Guangzhou Auto Show has once again reached a new level.

As an electric vehicle enthusiast based in Guangzhou, I have to run around for several days during each Guangzhou Auto Show to complete my reporting tasks and am very familiar with the exhibition halls. However, this year's Guangzhou Auto Show is somewhat different from previous years, especially for new force brands. One notable feeling is that there are fewer truly new products.

Source: Electric Car News Production

I remember last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, where Ideal and XPeng competed in the MPV segment, and Hongmeng Intelligence made its debut, bringing considerable traffic at that time. Electric Car News noticed that this year, Xiaomi Motors and Geely Auto's new faces participated in the Guangzhou Auto Show for the first time, but the new forces did not seem to have the intention to unveil heavy-hitting new cars. The press conferences during the auto show were mainly focused on "retrospect", "technology", and "looking to the future", accompanied by various marketing tactics to increase traffic during the auto show.

The Electric Car News team spent two days and walked tens of thousands of steps to bring you a comprehensive observation report on the auto show, interpreting the hidden development trends behind this year's Guangzhou Auto Show. Next, we will focus on the new force brands to see how these new automotive forces performed at the Guangzhou Auto Show.

Lei Jun visits again, new forces prioritize traffic over sales

At this year's Beijing Auto Show, Lei Jun set a precedent for auto company executives to visit each other. Thanks to Lei Jun's strong influence, his visits always attract a lot of media attention, and this continued at this year's Guangzhou Auto Show.

Electric Car News was invited to attend the press conferences of Xiaomi Motors and XPeng Motors. Xiaomi Motors was the first brand to hold a press conference in Hall 17.2, and after the conference, Lei Jun began his round of visits, first to Ledao Motors, which had just concluded its press conference, and then to XPeng Motors.

Exchanges between executives are actually more conducive to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of products and examining one's own shortcomings. On media day, executives from various auto companies are basically present, making Lei Jun's visits at this time meaningful. From another perspective, Electric Car News does not believe that individuals with high traffic, such as Lei Jun and Yu Chengdong, will bring too much scrutiny to brands or auto shows. On the contrary, these high-traffic individuals further enhance brand exposure.

Source: Electric Car News Production

Cars are always the protagonists of auto shows, and the media and audience naturally focus on them first. However, visits by auto industry leaders also attract viewers from other fields who are not very interested in the auto industry, thereby enhancing their brand influence. In addition to Lei Jun, Huawei Executive Director and Chairman of the Intelligent Automobile Solutions BU Yu Chengdong, Chery Automobile Chairman Yin Tongyue, and other entrepreneurs also appeared at the auto show.

Corporate executives are inherently traffic magnets. With the high-traffic platform of an auto show, the traffic of individual IPs is infinitely amplified. In the media group where Electric Car News is located, XPeng's public relations team also began to use the dialogue between Lei Jun and He Xiaopeng to increase visibility.

Source: XPeng WeChat Media Group

Even brand executives do not see high traffic as a problem.

When Electric Car News passed by the Geely Auto booth during the press conference, Geely Auto CEO Xia Yiping just released a short video ranking of auto company executives. Yes, you read that right. Press conferences at auto shows are time-sensitive. When brands want to quickly release key information such as their achievements for the year and future outlooks and plans, Geely Auto also emphasized the short video data of auto company executives.

Source: Electric Car News Production

Competition in the automotive market is fierce, and if an auto company does not have a good marketing system, it may find itself in an awkward situation where "even good wine fears deep alleys." In the opinion of Electric Car News, while individual IP traffic is indeed lucrative, products are the cornerstone of traffic. Without highly competitive products, it is difficult to convert traffic into sales, no matter how good the marketing data is.

Few new cars, intelligent technology becomes the most eye-catching scenery

After discussing the movements of executives, let's take a look at the new actions of new force brands at the auto show. Overall, the new forces did not bring too many new cars to this auto show. There were only a few models such as the Geely Auto 07 Passion Edition, which announced a limited-time discounted price, the Geely Auto ROBO X concept car that opened for pre-orders, the domestic debut of the Leapmotor B10, and the debut of the new Zeekr S7.

Oh yes, there's also the private exhibition of the Zeekr S800.

Source: Electric Car News Production

In terms of new car launches, the new forces are indeed far inferior to the large traditional brands. After all, the new forces had already released their product plans for the year in advance, with models like the Ledao L60, XPeng P7+, Ideal L6, and more, all contributing to excellent sales data for their brands. Therefore, at this Guangzhou Auto Show, the basic process for most new forces' promotions was to first review and then look to the future. As for the models or technologies on display at the auto show, they were basically already in mass production, with the most avant-garde being the Geely Auto ROBO X concept car.

Take XPeng Motors as an example. The press conference emphasized the sales performance of the XPeng P7+, XPeng MONA M03, and XPeng X9 over the past year, as well as the latest developments of XPeng Huitian Flying Car. It also announced the commencement of the first online test of the "parking spot to parking spot" intelligent driving solution and the manned first flight of the XPeng Huitian "Land Aircraft Carrier".

Source: Electric Car News Production

Regarding the sales performance of new force brands this year, Electric Car News will not interpret it further. Instead, we will focus on the brand's new technology. While selling cars is undoubtedly the primary task for auto companies participating in the auto show, the Guangzhou Auto Show is, after all, the final battle of the year. The new forces do hope to continuously output their technology at the Guangzhou Auto Show, which is also more conducive to strengthening brand recognition.

Among them, intelligence, as an important means for new forces to capture market share, was highlighted at this Guangzhou Auto Show.

In addition to XPeng Motors, IM Motors announced a partnership with Momenta and NVIDIA to create the industry's first mass-produced intelligent driving solution using the DRIVE AGX Thor chip. Geely Auto showcased its full-stack self-developed HaoHan Intelligent Driving 2.0 technology for the first time, which introduces end-to-end PLUS and Digital Proactive Network. Simply put, it trains human driving experience and trajectories in a large model to cultivate a higher-level intelligent driving style reminiscent of an experienced driver and full-scenario parking spot-to-spot navigation. Ideal Motors announced the official rollout of the end-to-end + VLM parking spot-to-spot function.

Source: Electric Car News Production

As a leading player in intelligent driving, Thalys mainly shared the latest intelligent driving data at the Guangzhou Auto Show. Officials stated that the cumulative intelligent driving mileage has exceeded 930 million kilometers, with over 337,000 intelligent driving users, and an average daily increase of 4.9 million kilometers in intelligent driving mileage. Over 3 million OTA upgrades have been completed so far.

Electric Car News believes that the concept of "parking spot to parking spot" intelligent driving will become the next major trend in advanced intelligent driving. If we broadly distinguish the focus areas in the field of intelligent driving, there are currently three main segments: urban intelligent driving, highway intelligent driving, and smart parking. From the perspective of auto companies, the logic behind these three areas is actually quite different. When Electric Car News previously experienced advanced intelligent driving, it could feel a clear disconnect among these three segments. For users, such a disconnect can significantly impact the user experience.

To this end, new forces such as XPeng, Geely Auto, and Hongmeng Intelligence have begun to develop "parking spot to parking spot" intelligent driving solutions. Intelligent driving can be applied from start-up to parking, breaking down the barriers between parking and road intelligent driving and reducing the frequency of user operations, which is more in line with the essence of intelligence.

One detail is that brands such as XPeng, Geely Auto, and GAC have also begun to display the same blue intelligent driving assistance lights used in Ideal models. Their essence is to inform other traffic participants around that the vehicle is in intelligent driving mode. It can be seen that this design has gradually been accepted by auto companies.

Source: Electric Car News Production

In addition, GAC Toyota officially launched the Platinum Intelligence 3X, the first end-to-end intelligent driving pure electric SUV from a joint venture brand, which also realizes intelligent driving functions that can drive on any road and park in any spot. Although it is still some distance from the level of "parking spot to parking spot" intelligent driving, the efforts of multiple auto companies in the field of intelligent driving will undoubtedly increase consumer trust in intelligent driving and better promote the development of smart cars.

The ever-changing Guangzhou Auto Show and the ever-flowing new force brands

Brands like Xiaomi Motors, Hongmeng Intelligence, and Ideal, although not bringing too many new products, still have high popularity. The energy replenishment system is NIO's traditional skill. Although no new cars were launched at this auto show, the latest battery swap station technology was showcased on the booth, attracting the attention of many visitors.

Source: Electric Car News Production

However, many new forces do not have the ability to attract too many visitors.

Take Geely Auto, which participated in the Guangzhou Auto Show for the first time, as an example. The exhibited vehicles are mostly tough, boxy models, with a couple of special edition models. However, according to Electric Car News' observations, many visitors simply experienced the cars and then moved on to the adjacent Lantu Motors, Hongmeng Intelligence, or Ideal Motors booths.

Source: Electric Car News Production

Unfortunately, cars are major consumer goods. Even consumers who prefer intelligence tend to choose more well-known new force brands. Moreover, Geely Auto's tough, boxy products are not mainstream in the domestic market, so it is understandable that the traffic is not high.

Nezha Motors, which has recently been rumored to be cutting salaries and laying off staff, also participated in the Guangzhou Auto Show. However, there was not much news about Zhou Hongyi, one of Nezha Motors' shareholders, at this auto show. The "top model car" from the first half of the year was nowhere to be seen. According to Electric Car News' observations, the popularity of the Nezha Motors booth was indeed quite low.

Source: Electric Car News Production

Whether in terms of popularity or sales, new force brands have begun to divide into multiple camps. The novelty of established new forces can no longer benefit the brand, and with the entry of new brands, if they do not show off their muscles in a timely manner, they will not be able to stay in the first tier.

It is said that the second half of the automotive industry is intelligence. If new forces can do well in intelligence and combine it with traffic, they believe they can bring better sales to their brands.

(Cover image source: Electric Car News Production)

Source: Lei Technology