On August 1, Zhiji Automobile announced the completion of the signing of the A round equity financing agreement. After completing this round of financing, the post-investment valuation of Zhiji Automobile will reach nearly 30 billion yuan. This is only one year and seven months after the official establishment of Zhiji Automobile-December 25, 2020.
This round of financing was led by Bank of Communications Capital, and SAIC continued to increase investment. At the same time, it also introduced many well-known investment institutions such as ICBC Investment, National Green Development Fund, Zhiyou Venture Capital, Shanghai State-owned State-owned Enterprise Comprehensive Reform Fund and CITIC Securities Investment.
The first model of Zhiji Automobile, Zhiji L7, was delivered on June 18th. As of July 31st, this model has delivered 1,051 vehicles to users, making it the fastest model with cumulative delivery of more than 350,000 yuan of luxury pure electric vehicles in China.
After the completion of the A round of financing, the development of Zhiji Automobile is bound to further accelerate.
According to the plan, in the second half of this year, Zhiji will also go on the market and deliver the L7 SUV model Zhiji LS7. By then, Zhiji will form a "double flagship" product structure. In 2023, Zhiji will also introduce two pure electric intelligent luxury B-class models.
After the first shot was fired by Zhiji L7, can Zhiji Automobile pursue victory and reshape the current new power pattern?
On November 26, 2021, SAIC announced that it would jointly invest with Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba to set up Zhiji Automobile, a high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle project. This "No.1 Project", which was previously code-named "L" in SAIC, officially surfaced, and Zhiji Automobile also entered the running state.
Less than two months later, on January 13, 2021, two "mass production vehicles" of Zhiji Automobile were released in Shanghai, one was the pure electric car Zhiji L7 and the other was the pure electric SUV Zhiji LS7.
Zhiji L7 is the first product introduced to the market by Zhiji Automobile. Since the nationwide user delivery was started on June 18th, the first delivery volume of Zhiji L7 has exceeded 1,000 vehicles. This allows Zhiji Automobile to quickly enter the public’s field of vision from a young brand that has just been born.
In today’s new energy vehicle market, new products are listed together. As far as high-end models are concerned, a number of models have been listed this year, including Weilai ES7, Tucki G9 and Ideal L9, and the delivery time is within this year. In this "Wei Xiaoli" high-end product fight in 2022, why can Zhiji L7 stand out?
First of all, the products of Zhiji L7 must be excellent.
The electrification level of a new energy vehicle is the embodiment of its basic skills. In this respect, Zhiji L7 has the ability comparable to that of a million luxury cars. Zhiji L7 adopts four-wheel steering all-wheel drive system and front and rear mixed tire width design, especially the latter’s four-wheel drive system with mixed tire width and partial rear drive characteristics. Due to technical barriers and high cost, this kind of technology is rarely used in practice. At present, only Porsche Taycan applies the same design in electric vehicles.
In terms of assisted driving, the descriptions of various new energy brands on the market are dazzling, but some technologies are often not mature, resulting in uneven actual experience, and Zhiji Automobile hopes to create a "more human-like" intelligent driving experience.
At present, Zhiji L7 can cope with the high-order ability of complex road scenes such as "traffic jam on congested roads", "big cars dodging with special-shaped cars" and "big curvature curves" only through visual fusion scheme. This is due to the artificial intelligence super algorithm empowered by Zhiji L4-level same algorithm platform.
With the increasing intelligence level of new energy vehicles, software OTA has become a standard. However, Zhiji Automobile does not equate simplicity with intelligence, but insists on the technical route of coordinated upgrade of software and hardware, and regards Zhiji Automobile as a growing "digital life".
In other words, with "upgradeable hardware" as the growth trunk, "software iteration" as the development thinking, and iteration on the cloud driven by numbers, the "smart car" has the ability of self-evolution.
Different from fuel vehicles, the attributes of smart cars have changed now. It is no longer just a means of transportation, but a mobile space, which meets more diverse needs for travel, work and entertainment than in the past.
This also means that users put forward higher requirements for the comfort of cars, and in all these comfortableness, although the air health level is extremely important, especially for the mother and baby groups, it is often overlooked.
The 180+ clean and high-definition cockpit is a major feature that distinguishes Zhiji automobile from other brands. Through the whole industrial chain control far exceeding the national standard benchmark, Zhiji has realized the industry’s first pure taste workshop, and the new car will have a healthy air level after being placed for 180 days. This also allowed Zhiji to get the perfect score of CN95 fresh air cockpit certification, the only one in the industry.
Due to these characteristics, Zhiji Automobile has won the recognition of a large number of users from an emerging young brand in a very short time, and competed with Tesla, Weilai and Ideality in the high-end market.
Nowadays, with the completion of A round of equity financing by Zhiji Automobile, the future of Zhiji Automobile’s rapid development is very clear.
As a new car-making force that landed in the capital market earlier among the new forces, "Wei Xiaoli" has become a solid head of the new energy track. These three companies were established around 2014 and 2105, and many models are currently on sale. Last year, the delivery volume was close to 100,000.
Behind "Wei Xiaoli", there are Nezha and Zero Run, whose delivery volume has increased rapidly since last year. With their cost-effective products, they have gained a firm foothold in the second echelon.
From the establishment of the company to the launch of products, although the speed of Zhiji has been very fast, it is not too early to enter the game.
Under such circumstances, it seems that it is not easy for Zhiji Automobile to break through. In addition to the most important product strength, it is particularly important whether Zhiji has the advantage to widen the gap with its competitors in terms of system, service and even resources.
Different from the "Wei Xiaoli" Internet cross-border car building, Zhizhi has its own unique advantages in the background of car building.
On the one hand, Zhiji is backed by SAIC, the largest automobile group in China, and can share SAIC’s rich experience in automobile manufacturing, ensure product quality and shorten the cycle of making cars. This is also the reason why Baidu built a car and bound Geely early.
On the other hand, Alibaba and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech provide support for Zhiji’s software and intelligence. As the largest artificial intelligence company in China, Alibaba will empower Zhiji Automobile in terms of cloud capability, data security, intelligence and future cutting-edge technologies. Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, known as "China Silicon Valley", provides technical soil for the growth of Zhiji automobile.
In the first half of this year, due to uncertain factors such as epidemic situation and local conflicts, the automobile supply chain suffered an unprecedented impact. Stopping production and reducing production are the common difficulties experienced by most manufacturers, which once challenged the lean production mode of the automobile industry. The ability to control the supply chain has also become one of the core competencies of current automobile companies.
At present, Zhiji has established in-depth cooperation with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, Momenta, Zebra Zhixing, Huayu Vision, Yanfeng Group and other leading enterprises in the automobile industry chain. In the future, this will bring more gains to Zhiji’s spare parts supply and cost.
If Zhiji’s strong background gives it a higher starting point, then the "Yuanshigu User Data Rights Plan" is entirely from Zhiji’s own innovation ability.
Through the "Original Stone Valley User Data Rights Plan", Zhiji applied the blockchain technology to the smart car industry for the first time, with 300 million "original stones" corresponding to the growth rights of Zhiji’s founding value, and gave back the contribution of user data in the form of data rights.
This means that Zhiji makes cars no longer "consumables" in the traditional sense, but can constantly "add value" through the use of users, bringing them a steady stream of new value.
For example, new users can use up to 6,800 rough stones and 10,000 yuan in cash to exchange for the laser radar integrated intelligent driving hardware system. According to Zhiji’s plan, in the future, the original stone can also be used to exchange software and hardware upgrades, enjoy services, limit fine products, digital collections and limit experience activities.
This is the first in the world. On July 12, 2022, Zhiji Automobile specifically announced the details of the rights and interests of the original stone convertibility, and penetrated the mining path of the original stone, and this user data rights plan officially landed.
Following Zhiji L7, the SUV model Zhiji LS7 will also be listed and delivered in the second half of this year, and two pure electric smart luxury B-class models will be introduced next year. These products will quickly enrich Zhiji’s product matrix, so as to bring greater brand effect.
A young brand, how to tear open the existing pattern to find a place? Zhiji Automobile will give an answer.