Author| Li Yan Source| Brand front page
Whenever the “May 1st” and “11th” holidays are blocked on the highway, does everyone hope that there will be a “flying” car that will take us over the sea of people?
No, it’s really possible for a dream to become a reality-October 24th,Xiaopeng Huitian, a subsidiary of Xiaopeng Motors, released a video of the first flight of the new flying car X3 on Weibo.
However, this should have been a remarkable physical contribution in the past hundred years since the concept of “flying car” was put forward, but it has become a “simple and rude” that netizens frantically complain about.
On October 24, Xiaopeng Huitian released a video called “the world’s first electric vertical take-off flying car” with the topic of #flying car is far from us .
In the official introduction, this flying car adopts a distributed rotor configuration, which is more secure in terms of safety and reliability, and is more convenient to use.
At the same time, the flight system set on the top of the vehicle can be freely switched between the land state and the flight state by folding and deforming .
The official said that the appearance based on the configuration design has not yet been finalized, and the mass production model will be further optimized. As a result, not long after the new product video was released, the comment area fell.
Many netizens said bluntly: Isn’t this a large drone? It is also a joint model with DJI.
I feel that this form is too stupid to be the target form.
Some netizens are more concerned about energy consumption, thinking that the power consumption of this flying car will be twice that of an electric car.
In the opinion of some netizens, there are two mountains that are insurmountable for flying cars: one is the energy issue that affects the flight time, and the other is the issue of regulations and financial support.
Of course, some netizens commented that this is a good attempt and should be viewed from the perspective of encouraging innovation. How do you know the right path without trial and error?
In the face of doubts like “a DJI lifts a car”, the official immediately responded to the product positioning, ” In the short term, it is more about the attributes of the car, 90% of the time running on land, 10% of the time in fly in the sky “.
It is worth mentioning that in early October this year, Xiaopeng Huitian has completed the flight demonstration of the fifth-generation product X2 in Dubai.
According to the official introduction, Xiaopeng Huitian X2 is a full-stack self-developed pure electric intelligent flying car. The body is made of carbon fiber and can accommodate two people.
Judging from the video pictures, the X2 intelligent flying car, which ” everyone is applauding China’s intelligent manufacturing “, is more like a large helicopter.
▲ Source: Xiaopeng Huitian Weibo
In fact, since the release of the exploratory version of Xiaopeng Flying Car in 2020, it has experienced a shift between the two morphological concepts of flight and car.
In September of that year, Xiaopeng Motors released the first-generation low-altitude flying car exploration version- the Traveler T1 at the Beijing Auto Show .
The appearance of this product is very similar to the aircraft, only with a simple seat under the propeller. No matter from which point of view, it lacks the modern sense of technology that “flying cars” should have in the general awareness of users.
▲ Source: Netease Number Digital Frontline
Then, Xiaopeng Huitian released a video of the design concept of a flying car. In the video, the flying car transforms into a car with “angel wings” inserted.
Conceptually, a “flying car” should be a multi-purpose passenger vehicle that has both road driving capabilities and the ability to fly in the air. Therefore, the design must make a balance between flying in the air and driving on land.
He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xiaopeng Motors, once said, “The flying car in our eyes is not an aircraft. A flying car should be a smart electric car in the city, and a low-altitude aircraft in the suburbs.”
▲ Source: Rice Evaluation Weibo
In fact, in the eyes of senior drone enthusiasts, the new flying car X3 launched by Xiaopeng Huitian this time is more like a combination of drones and cars.
From a professional point of view, for good endurance performance of ordinary drones, aerodynamic optimization and weight reduction are required in terms of appearance, aircraft center of gravity, and materials.
And this senior enthusiast believes that the X3, which consumes a lot of power in flight, does not seem to have adjusted its appearance or aerodynamics for flight.
Since 1917, when G. Curtis, known as the “father of flying cars”, first demonstrated flying cars, there is still no mature flying car on the market.
We saw that in 2017, Geely acquired Terrafugia (Tai Li), a flying car company in the United States, in an attempt to lay out the field of flying cars.
In 2021, auto giant GM released a concept flying car, the Cadillac VTOL. Following that, Google co-founder Larry Page also invested in Kitty Haw, a flying car company.
▲ Source: Xiaopeng Huitian Weibo
These industry giants and elites who are eager to try out the flying car track, except for some of the concept announcements and the stock price soaring, almost all of them have failed.
There is only one sigh of relief: it is difficult for flying cars to be “commercialized” !
To this day, only Xiaopeng has been very active in creating a “surrealistic species” of flying cars and realizing the dream of flying cars in the sky.
▲ Source: Xiaopeng Huitian Weibo
This state of constant trial and error and innovation is a way for Xiaopeng Motors to increase the brand’s sense of technology .
As we all know, the current situation of Xiaopeng Motors is not optimistic.
At the end of September this year, two days after the launch of Xiaopeng G9, the strategy of high price and low allocation and complicated product configuration attracted a flood of negative reviews in the market, and the brand reputation was damaged for a time.
▲ Source: Xiaopeng Motors Weibo
In order to quell the market turmoil, the configuration was increased by “surprise”. It is a pity that the G9, which is regarded as the flagship of the brand, cannot bear the heavy responsibility of sales. The sales volume dropped from 11,524 units in July to 8,468 units in September.
Even worse than the decline in sales, the stock price plummeted, and the market value of Xiaopeng Motors fell by 80%, evaporating more than 200 billion yuan.
In the past two days, Xiaopeng, who was aware of the market crisis, had to start the biggest organizational adjustment in history.
▲ Source: Rice Evaluation Weibo
Perhaps, the launch of flying cars at this time will not only demonstrate its R&D capabilities and technical strength in the field of travel, and expand the brand’s voice, even if ordinary users do not pay, they can also explain to investors.
However, in the new energy track where new products are emerging one after another, the continuation of the brand’s voice needs to be tested by the market for a long time .
For Xiaopeng, a “new car maker” that has just gained fame, the negative impact of an ill-considered market strategy may be more profound than expected.
▲ Source: Digital Tail Weibo
Even if the flying car is finally put into mass production, what consumers are willing to choose will not be a “high price and low price” brand.
He Xiaopeng has always hoped that Xiaopeng Motors could compete with Tesla. This is because Musk has attracted countless attention in cutting-edge projects such as aerospace and Mars immigration, and has also created a good brand image for Tesla.
Compared with the gimmick of the huge investment in manned spaceflight, choosing the category of flying cars seems to be able to achieve the same eye-catching effect.
▲ Source: Digital Tail Weibo
However, when consumers choose Xiaopeng flying cars, it must not only be because the car “can fly”, but because the brand can give users enough sense .
Whether it’s driving on the road or being able to fly in the air, practicing your inner skills is better than all fancy marketing. “Simple and rude” should never be the traffic password of the new car-building forces.
*Arrangement | Youer Review | Miki