What is the strength of Lotus to become the first brand of pure electric luxury?

How to keep the precious brand spirit and technical essence while transforming to electrification and intelligence, so as to glow with brand-new brand charm, is a problem that every supercar brand must seriously consider at present.

While others are still trying carefully, Lotus has taken the initiative and embarked on his own path.

On the evening of March 29th, Lotus Day Lotus Day-brand 75th anniversary celebration and track carnival was held at Shanghai International Circuit, together with China car owners and a group of brand fans.

at the 75th anniversary celebration, the classic models of Lotus in the fuel age, such as Evora, Exige, Elise, Esprit, and three new-era models, such as Emira, Eletre and Evija, all appeared together to demonstrate the innovative spirit of Lotus from the past to the future.

as a brand born on the track, it is undoubtedly significant that Lotus can spend its 75th birthday on F1 track, which not only perfectly sums up the glory achieved in the past 75 years, but also means that they will write a new chapter in brand development and usher in the "decisive year" of Vision8 project.

Vision8 is a brand revival plan first proposed by Mr. Feng Qingfeng, CEO of Lotus Group, in 218. The goal is to complete the brand's comprehensive transformation to electrification and intelligence on the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the brand's establishment, and strive to build "the first brand of pure electric luxury".

the whole industry is looking forward to a real break in the luxury pure electric market, and the Vision8 plan has far-reaching significance for Lotus and the whole automobile industry. However, it is not easy to make this plan truly come to the ground. As the first super-running brand that has fully started electrification and intelligent transformation, what efforts has Lotus made for this? "For the Drivers" practices the Lotus model

For a long time, the growth point of pure electric vehicles has been highly concentrated in the entry market of less than 1, yuan and the mainstream market of 2,-3, yuan, and the million-level luxury pure electric vehicle market has not been activated.

In fact, for the top users, the million-class luxury trams are very attractive. This market at the tip of the pyramid has always had a big gap, but the existing products have failed to effectively fill it.

according to the data of the Federation, in the whole year of 222, the sales volume of passenger cars with a price above 4, accounted for only 3%, of which pure electric vehicles only accounted for 12%.

The mainstream luxury car companies certainly have great advantages in brand power, but the electrification transformation is not thorough enough. At this stage, the products still cannot fully meet the latest needs of users, so they can only make up for the lack of product power with the help of brand power; The new force car companies are indeed technologically advanced enough and their marketing actions are innovative enough, but they lack the support of brand value, and the advanced concept and rich configuration can't win the favor of top users.

brands and products are complementary to each other. Only when the strength of both aspects is top-notch, can they bring real value to users, which is the key to open the market for millions of luxury pure electric vehicles.

in the process of transformation to electrification and intelligence, Lotus has taken a different road from mainstream luxury brands and new power car companies. They have made efforts in both brand rejuvenation and value reset, driven the brand upward with value, and created a unique strategic path of Lotus Model.

The so-called brand is actually the sum of all users' identities. For Lotus, their users are Drivers.

in the past 75 years, Lotus has been constantly challenging itself around "control", not only to win the championship, but also to let users control the limits that others have not reached. It is precisely because of this persistence that the brand spirit of Lotus has won the heartfelt feelings of countless drivers. From this 75th anniversary celebration, it can be seen that Lotus and its users have become highly emotional.

the first batch of Eletre car owners in China celebrated the delivery of new cars by Lotus' iconic "hat throwing" method.

at the key node of brand transformation, Lotus kept its original intention unchanged. They further sublimated the past brand spirit and put forward a brand-new brand proposition of "For the Drivers", which brought unique brand spirit, user value and intelligent experience to drivers.

Lotus and users have always achieved each other, and this relationship has made countless famous Lotus and shaped today's landmark Lotus. For the Drivers is the basis for Lotus to glow with brand-new brand value, and it is also the core driving force for the implementation of Lotus Model. The "second half" of all-round speed increase

With the support of brand-new ideas and strategic paths, Lotus' Vision8 brand revival plan has officially entered a new chapter.

Five years ago, with the release of the brand revival plan of Vision8, Lotus became the first brand among the three super-running brands (Lotus, Ferrari and Porsche) to fully start the electric and intelligent transformation. Subsequently, they released three epoch-making products-"Evija, the world's fastest mass-produced pure electric supercar", Emira, the final work of the fuel road sports car, and Eleetre, the brand's first pure electric supercar.

behind the brand-new product camp is the overall improvement of the brand's "internal strength". From the upgrading of the British factory, the completion of the new headquarters in China, the arrival of the global smart factory in Wuhan, the establishment of Lotus Science and Technology Research Institute, and the launch of the electric performance architecture EPA equipped with 8V high voltage, Lotus is undergoing a transformation at an amazing speed.

at the 75th anniversary celebration, 75 Lotus ELETRE vehicles were officially delivered to the first owners in China, which indicated that Lotus Vision8 had successfully completed the first half.

Now, Vision8 has entered the second half, and Lotus has entered the "decisive year" and also ushered in the most "rolling" year of China automobile market. On the one hand, there are endless new products, All in the other hand, there is a bloody price war, which is an extremely arduous challenge for any new energy vehicle enterprise. For Lotus in the field of luxury pure electricity, they have no successful experience to learn from, and the challenge is undoubtedly more difficult.

But Lotus is not afraid of this. No matter how the market environment changes, Lotus' pursuit of ultimate driving control will never change. The brand proposition of "For the drivers" makes them have the most unique spiritual core, and the high cohesive user circle thus cultivated has become their confidence in coping with fierce market competition.

on this basis, lotus also accelerated the Vision8 plan in all directions, which not only improved the landing speed of the global sales network, but also accelerated the layout rhythm of the brand-new product camp. According to Lotus's plan, from 223 to 225, they will launch a brand-new pure electric vehicle every year, lay out more products that meet the daily driving scenes, and accelerate the formation of a product matrix of pure electric smart life vehicles.

eleetre will be delivered in the UK and EU markets later this year, and delivery in the US and other parts of the world is also planned in an orderly manner.

With the introduction of more new products, Lotus will gradually reconstruct the relationship between people and cars. While inheriting the brand control gene, they will also use intelligent technology to broaden the boundaries of the car, so that they can understand the driver's action trajectory, daily habits and lifestyle, thus making the car a real AI product.

In the process of enjoying the ultimate driving pleasure, you can also have a multi-dimensional and in-depth interaction with the car. This kind of more temperature relationship between people and cars is what a new generation of "drivers" are eager for.

In addition, at the celebration site, Lotus also officially announced the brand's first experience IP, and established Lotus Extreme Driving and Control Experience Center, hoping to create the most iconic experience IP. Through the professional team, professional track, professional training mode, and the certification of China Automobile and Motorcycle Association, users can deeply perceive the essence of Lotus brand, thus forming the trust, appreciation and belief of users. Continue to control the wind in the era of electrification

No matter how grand the vision is, no matter how unique the strategy is, it must be supported by solid products and technologies. The question is, what kind of new technology does a super-running brand need to continue to highlight its own uniqueness in the era of electrification and intelligence?

Take Lotus Eleetre as an example. It is equipped with front and rear permanent magnet synchronous dual motors, and the fastest speed of the version of Eleetre R+is 2.95 seconds, which is the fastest dual-motor mass-produced pure electric SUV in the world! In the era of fuel vehicles, this performance is enough to make them sit firmly at the top of the performance pyramid. However, in the era of electrification, the performance barriers built by engines and gearboxes no longer exist, and "running fast" is no longer something worth showing off.

Fortunately, in the driving philosophy of Lotus, the performance of the whole vehicle will never be improved simply by increasing the power output. Excellent aerodynamics is the secret of their advanced performance.

since 195s, Lotus has applied "aerodynamics" to vehicle design, and they almost pushed the evolution of F1 racing car styling by themselves. In the era of electrification, they continue to carry forward the aerodynamics. Evija, the brand's first pure electric supercar, uses a porous design language to improve the aerodynamic performance and reshape the aerodynamic benchmark of pure electric supercar SUV.

seven groups of Race Aero aerodynamic ducts are hidden in the hood, fender, D-pillar, front bumper and rear bumper of Lotus Eletre, which are combined with the active tail wing, active air intake grille and split tail wing to create an exclusive "wind control suit".

Eletre is also the first batch of mass-produced vehicles in China that can be equipped with streaming rearview mirrors. Intelligent sensors are used to replace the traditional exterior rearview mirrors, providing drivers with a larger dynamic vision and safety alarm, and at the same time effectively reducing wind resistance and improving battery life.

highly exquisite aerodynamic design, the Lettus Eletre has an ultra-low drag coefficient of .26 and a net downward pressure of 9kg. While other pure electric vehicles are thinking about how to "escape" the wind, Eletre is studying how to "control" the wind more fully, so as to achieve a perfect balance between energy efficiency and driving control. This is the real strength of the wind master, and it is also the core differentiated technical advantage of Lotus in the electrification transformation. Creating new value with extreme driving control

For most automobile brands with a long history, in the process of moving from the fuel era to the electric era, they will encounter various problems given by the industry and the market: how to meet the needs of consumers in the new era? How to deal with the rapidly changing technology development trend? How to retain brand equity accumulated over the years?

In the face of these problems, history often becomes a burden in the process of transformation, which will make car companies hesitate and hesitate, thus missing the development opportunity. There are more and more relevant examples in the market today.

But Lotus, which has a history of 75 years, doesn't seem to be troubled by this. Not only can they become the world's first All in electric and intelligent super-running brand with the greatest efforts in a very short time, but as we have seen, they are getting bolder and smoother on their own road.

What did Lotus do right?

the determination to transform is of course very important, which is a necessary prerequisite for them to jump out of their comfort zone and actively embrace the changes of the times. Without enough determination, Lotus can't achieve a comprehensive upgrade of the system, nor can it build a strategic model like Eletre.

What's more important than determination is that Lotus can consistently adhere to himself and tirelessly explore the meaning of control.

In the past, Lotus was brilliant at the track because of its extreme driving performance. Now, they also inject extreme driving into the latest electric products, and take "For the drivers" as a new brand proposition to create more driving value with users.

Lotus has always believed that the million-level pure electric luxury should not be a pile of configuration, nor a contest between endurance and acceleration performance, but a return to the essence of luxury, and stimulate users' emotional and spiritual identity by shaping brand value. The ultimate driving experience is an important link between Lotus and users.

Being able to keep the values unshakable in the impetuous new energy market and inject the persistent beliefs into new products is the confidence that a super-running brand should have, and it is also the basis for Lotus to become the first brand of pure electric luxury. (Text | Superman)

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