Economic Observer Reporter Zhou Ju On October 27, the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition was officially released, with the new car price of 399,800 yuan. Jidu said that the first batch of 1,000 chief experience officer places have been booked. At the press conference, Jidu CEO O Xia Yiping announced an additional additional 1,000 seats. The new car will be delivered in 2023.
Jidu Auto is a new car brand jointly created by Baidu and Geely . The company was officially established in March 2021 with Xia Yiping as CEO. The ROBO-01 Moon Exploration Limited Edition is the first version of Jidu’s first mass-produced car model of ROBO-01. The so-called lunar exploration version was jointly created by Jidu and China's lunar exploration project.
From the perspective of real cars, Jidu Automobile Robot ROBO-01 highly restores the design of the concept car. Most physical controls such as car door handles and central control buttons are eliminated to reflect the simplicity of technology. In addition, it is equipped with an active lifting tail wing and a U-shaped steering wheel, which emphasizes the driving feeling of the vehicle.
This car combines the technologies of two companies, Geely and Baidu. The SEA Haohan platform comes from Geely, and intelligent driving and intelligent networking come from Baidu. In terms of parameters, the vehicle is equipped with CATL 100kWh ternary lithium battery, with a range of 600+km; front and rear permanent magnet synchronous dual motor configuration, with a total peak power of 400kW, and a 000-hundred acceleration of 3.9 seconds. Why is the first model of
launched a limited edition rather than a mass-produced version? Regarding this question, Jidu Auto CEO Xia Yiping said in an interview with the media after the press conference that this is the company's established product strategy for . In fact, the limited edition model and the mass-produced version will be promoted together, but the mass-produced version will be released at the Guangzhou Auto Show later.
Xia Yiping said: "After all, Jidu is still a startup company. In the process of 0 to 1, we hope to bring the first product to everyone in a relatively unique way earlier. Because in the early days, the brand needed to convey its own ideas." Compared with most new car manufacturers, Jidu Auto will not start delivering until 2023, which is much later than the "Wei Xiaoli ( Weilai , Ideal, Xiaopeng )" in the same industry. As a latecomer in the industry, how will Jidu seize a place?
Xia Yiping believes that coming late is relative, and there are still many opportunities for concentration. "First, new energy vehicle is still a growing market, which does not mean that there is no space. Fuel vehicles are a competition in the stock market, and electric vehicles are still very large. For Jidu, whether they can catch up with this wave of growth is more important. Second, the previous wave of electric vehicles has already brought the foundation of many products to a relatively flat. For Jidu, electric vehicles in the past have gradually become more homogeneous. But in terms of intelligence, the real competition has just begun. I think for Jidu, intelligence is a core competitiveness that is relatively good at."
Baidu CEO O Li Yanhong once said that Jidu Automobile "leading ahead of Tesla generation" in terms of intelligent driving capabilities. The biggest highlight of Jidu’s first automotive robot ROBO-01 mass-produced model is also intelligent driving and intelligent networking.
According to reports, the ROBO-01 lunar exploration limited edition is equipped with a leading advanced intelligent driving hardware package, including the dual Nvidia Orin X that provides the underlying computing power driver up to 508TOPS, 31 intelligent driving sensors (2 lidar , 5 mm wave radar , 12 ultrasonic radars, and 12 high-definition cameras), which can provide 360-degree perception. Among the 12 high-definition cameras, there are 7 8-megapixels, 4 3-megapixels, and 1 2-megapixel, meeting the visual perception needs in different complex scenarios.
"Now (intelligent driving) is basically iterating every week. Jidu and Baidu are integrated teams, which is why Jidu can realize many autonomous driving scenarios in the early stages, because it integrates Baidu's capabilities. Next, with the delivery of products, there will be more scenarios. Many algorithms in the backend are shared by both companies, and the goal is to promote autonomous driving to achieve higher-level capabilities." Xia Yiping said.
In the interview, Xia Yiping mentioned Tesla many times."Our main users and core users are young and tech-loving groups, which overlap with brands like Tesla at this level." At the same time, Xia Yiping believes that Jidu's product strength is better than Tesla. "If we compare Model Y with us, our space endurance will definitely be better than it, and the interior and exterior will definitely be better than it. Although Jidu focuses on intelligence, the car itself needs to do better, which is very important. Otherwise, how can we compete with others?"
Judging from the pricing of the first car released by Jidu, Jidu is mainly concentrated in the mid-to-high-end prices. Since Tesla is regarded as a competitor and Tesla plans to launch an affordable product with a price of only more than 100,000 yuan, do Jidu have any plans for this? In response, Xia Yiping gave a negative answer.
"What Tesla wants to do is understandable. I want to do it too, but I can't do it now. Competing for electric cars under 200,000 is not the strength of , electric cars, and the competition is cost. Jidu does not have enough ability to make very low-cost cars at this stage. I think it is in the mid-to-high-end smart car market, especially the smart car market with more than 250,000 yuan, Jidu is very competitive. Jidu also hopes to participate in the competition in a relatively mid-to-high-end market in the future." Xia Yiping said.
It is reported that the goal of Jidu is to sell 10,000 units per month, which is equivalent to the current level of leading new car manufacturers. According to the established plan, Jidu's first mass-produced version will be delivered in the third quarter of 2023, and Jidu will release a new car every year in the future.
