ZEEKR has the stomach to fight the value war

In the first half of 2023, China's car market can be described as treacherous. The "price war" is raging, and the whole market is also showing a roll-up. But the Kryptonite brand, born two years ago, seems to be full of vigour, making steady progress in the luxury pure electric market.

In the first half of this year, Extreme Krypton achieved double year-on-year and year-on-year growth for five consecutive months, and completed the delivery of its 120,000th unit in June. In June, the company completed the delivery of its 120,000th vehicle. 110,000 units of Krypton 001 were delivered, and Krypton 009 was the top-selling MPV above 500,000 RMB for four consecutive months, surpassing the Elfa after deliveries were started in January.

At the time of the 2023 China Automotive Forum, the automotive home and extreme krypton intelligent technology vice president ZhaoYuHui had an in-depth dialogue, for the current market trend and extreme krypton's future development for in-depth communication.

　　In the face of the industry's attention to the price war, he said: "Krypton is more willing to say that they are a hexagonal warrior, we are through the system force to provide user value, the system force so that we can not only communicate with the user in the price of a dimension, we have the courage to fight the war of value."

How to face to deal with the "price war"?

　　Admittedly, in the era of stock competition, the challenge is everywhere, the price war is understandable. But for the new energy market, is still in the incremental era, far from entering the stock competition time. But even so, many brands have chosen to join this large-scale, unprecedented price war.

　　Krypton has its own considerations. "For the entire new energy market, we are in a high and very important window period, this time to choose a low level of price competition is a wrong choice." Zhao Yuhui said. In other words, for Extreme Krypton, the period of opportunity for incremental new energy vehicles has always existed, regardless of the difficulties encountered.

　　In this regard, Extreme Krypton's response is to improve the value leap of the product and the industry through innovation and providing user value, and to improve the user experience and user value from the dimension of the value war.

"The real challenge for the whole industry is the mining of user value, the pursuit of innovation and the improvement of systematic efficiency, and these important aspects are the real problems faced by manufacturers and brands in the new energy vehicle business, not just the cost problem or the price problem. Even the fast-growing new energy industry, even if the challenges are great, is still full of opportunities." Zhao Yuhui added.

　　Obviously, in the perception of Extreme Krypton, the value of the user is very comprehensive, and price is only one of the dimensions. From the beginning of the creation of the brand, Pole Krypton has always insisted on doing two things, first, the full life cycle management of user products. Second, the full scene coverage of user services. The problem to be solved is how to build better products, how to provide more innovative experience with better and higher efficiency, so that users can use the car without worry.

　　This is the industry has been mentioned "value war", and "price war" counterpart, has been widely discussed.

　　Objectively speaking, it is much more difficult to fight the value war than the price war. Because the price war is only one dimension of the value war. If we use mathematical language to explain, the price war is included in the value war. The value war not only takes into account the price, but also includes product innovation, after-sales service, complementary energy system, ecological system and so on.

"We want to really be a brand that understands the user, and we're resolutely focusing ourselves on the value war, not just going for a downgraded price war." Zhao Yuhui said.

　　During the conversation, Zhao Yuhui also explained in detail. After all, the car is now not only a means of transport, but a multi-scene, all-round systematic product. Especially with the arrival of the era of electrification and intelligence, the car provides users with a lot of value dimensions, such as social, entertainment, leisure and other areas, can find the value of mining space.

How to do a good job of communicating with users?

　　As we all know, with the arrival of the wave of "new four", the concepts of "user-centred" and "improving user experience" have become the industry consensus, prompting OEMs to shift from product-orientated thinking to user-orientated thinking. thinking to user thinking. Undeniably, under the new market conditions, the relationship between car companies and users has undergone a fundamental transformation.

Based on this shift in philosophy, OEMs are also improving and optimising processes from product development, manufacturing and after-sales service. Some innovative initiatives such as experience shops, directly-managed shops, user centres and co-creation concepts, which did not appear in the era of fuel vehicles, are emerging.

　　In fact, since the birth of the brand, Extreme Krypton has been emphasising that it is not following anyone's old path, but rather the third track, which has two core points, one is the power of the giant (backed by Geely), and the other is the user mindset. From the very beginning, Extreme Krypton has actively embraced the user mindset called for by the times, choosing to start from the hardest place, start from luxury, and take the route of differentiation.

　　But want to become a user-oriented enterprise is not so easy, it needs a set of processes and playing method to do a good job of communication with users.

　　However, before talking about the playing method, Zhao Yuhui still stressed the importance of the mindset. In his view, whether talking about user-based enterprises, or talk about user operations, must sincerely believe that they can stand with the user, on the basis of this positioning in order to decide whether it is possible to do a good job of user-based enterprises and user operations.

Extreme Krypton believes that it is very important for users to understand them and reach them. This is why Extreme Krypton insisted on the direct management model from the very beginning. To date, Extreme Krypton has 5 different user businesses, including Extreme Krypton Space, Extreme Krypton Centre, Extreme Krypton Home, Delivery Centre and so on. Up to now, Extreme Krypton has laid out more than 300 directly-managed shops across the country at an average speed of 2 days to build 1 shop.

　　Of course, Extreme Krypton is also in the process of building an integrated service centre for Extreme Krypton, as well as establishing an online community through the APP online digital matrix. "Through such touchpoints we are truly able to reach users, mingle with them and respond to them quickly." Zhao Yuhui introduced.
This is only the first stage, the second stage of the task is to co-create with users. In the past two years, Extreme Krypton has realised a number of user co-creation projects in this way, such as the early selection of the logo style on the steering wheel of Extreme Krypton 001 and the later free replacement of the 8155 chip. All of these are deeply bundled with users and deeply co-created.

　　Through the first stage of contact and the second stage of co-creation, Krypton really reached a certain level of insight and understanding of the user. Then Extreme Krypton can make use of its professional advantages to achieve the leadership of users.

　　"Through our insight and understanding of the user, through the user constantly feeds us, we eventually realise to lead the user and lead the industry, this is our concept of user operation and being a user enterprise. We hope that with the help of users and users together to make this industry have better products and provide more perfect service." Zhao Yuhui said.

Subscription market has a bright future

　　In order to better serve users, at the 2023 Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area International Auto Show held last month, Extreme Krypton Intelligent Technology officially announced the launch of the Extreme Krypton subscription model to meet the user's new energy car travel needs. At the same time, Extreme Krypton also upgraded the battery warranty rights and interests, battery quality assurance full scene coverage, Extreme Krypton mobile power synchronised launch, to provide users with high-quality options for camping life.

　　When it comes to the subscription model, I believe that many people are not unfamiliar, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, including many overseas brands have launched such a model, but have not formed a particularly good business model to occupy the user's word of mouth and mind.

Why did Extreme Krypton choose to step into this market without a good case in front of it? What are the capacity requirements of the subscription system for car companies?

　　Zhao Yuhui believes that some brands enter this industry and market, in fact, still operate in the old business model in the past. Users in the past stepped on the pit is still stepping on, users in the past feel the tangled and difficult, now under a different banner will still encounter. What Krypton is trying to do is to innovate and fundamentally solve the user's confusion.

　　Krypton's subscription business has launched a number of innovative initiatives, including providing users with millions of "garage" for users to choose. "Our purpose is very simple, is to make the user's car ownership costs become lower, if there is no subscription, car ownership is only to buy this one way, after the purchase of the relative car ownership scene and car ownership radius is limited", Zhao Yuhui explained.

　　In Krypton's view, the entire subscription market is a broad prospect, especially through the digital capabilities, can make the user's car owning habits and user preferences, through the digital way, in different cities through the subscription of car owning; at the same time can also make their own personal habits to achieve the low-cost migration, which is very great for the value of the user. The one-stop service allows users to truly realise worry-free car ownership through subscription.

It is understood that in order to perfect this model, Krypton has been incubated in Hangzhou for almost a year. Now as the overall business model is maturing, Krypton is also expanding this model to more cities. This year, Pole Krypton has been promoted in six cities, including Haikou, Sanya, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.

　　"During the trial operation in Hangzhou last year, it was found that many users came from other cities to Hangzhou to subscribe to a car and drive back to his city. People are still very recognised for the whole brand of Extreme Krypton as well as the business model of Extreme Krypton subscription, and we also hope that the majority of users in the six cities can try it enthusiastically, which can play a better role in promoting the subscription business model of Extreme Krypton." Zhao Yuhui said.

　　For Extreme Krypton, the first half of this year is undoubtedly a good start. With the delivery of Extreme Krypton X one after another, its sales performance is bound to have a new breakthrough. Of course, Krypton in this year also prepared a sedan product to kill the red sea market, and this will undoubtedly be more test of Krypton's system capabilities. At that time, perhaps we can witness the results of Krypton's "value war".