On December 25th, 2020, Zhiji Automobile, a brand-new customer-oriented automobile brand jointly built by SAIC, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba Group, was established. The initial round of financing for this project was 10 billion yuan, of which SAIC held 54%, Pudong New Area and Ali each held 18%, and others accounted for 10%. It can be completely called the "second generation car" born with a golden spoon. The word "Zhi Ji" is taken from "Knowing everything around, but Dao Ji is the world" in The Book of Changes. It is intended to use wisdom to consider everything, diligently explore, define, create and realize the smart travel driven by the times and needed by users. Zhiji automobile is five years later than Wei Xiaoli and others in creating new forces, and of course it is much less than other new forces in making cars. Zhiji automobile technology’s own Slogan is: to achieve the best of yourself; However, judging from the three years since its establishment, it is obviously quite different from this.
On March 29th, 2022, Zhiji L7, the first production model of Zhiji, went on the market. Zhiji Auto also officially opened the lock-up link between A-round users and angel-round users, and announced the complete "exclusive rights and interests of A-round users" and "special rights and interests of angel-round users". The specific contents are: within 7 days of car purchase, you can apply for car return service, lifetime warranty commitment, lifetime free charging, lifetime free entertainment flow, lifetime free road rescue, lifetime free maintenance and delivery, on-site service, unlimited travel service, and free home charging pile service. Round A users will use the IM AD evolvable intelligent driving assistance system for 3 years free of charge, and after 3 years, they can choose to buy it out at the price of 8800 yuan, or exchange it with the corresponding value of data rights "original stone" for lifelong enjoyment and so on.
Since April, 2021, the top 3,000 car owners who have booked Zhiji L7 have launched the promotion policy of "angel rights", and these 3,000 places are also called "angel wheel seats". At the same time, Zhiji Auto also opened the lock list for Angel Wheel users and A Wheel users, and announced the full version of "Angel Wheel User Special Rights" and "A Wheel User Exclusive Rights". At this point, when the owner of the "Angel Wheel" who had been waiting for one year welcomed the delivery of the lock list, some owners found that the configuration table of Zhiji Automobile was different from that promised at the previous press conference, and then they discussed related issues in the WeChat riders group and Zhiji official App community, and then organized this 100-person rights protection activity.
The "Joint Statement on the Rights and Interests of Zhiji L7" initiated and signed by 102 prospective owners of Zhiji L7 attracted attention on the Internet, which listed five problems of Zhiji L7. 1. The rights and interests of the Angel Wheel Edition are surpassed, and the scarce seats are not scarce; 2. The conditions for upgrading lidar and high-order energy battery are not clear; 3. The 93kWh battery capacity advertised in the configuration table is inconsistent with the registration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; 4. A number of auto show conferences and advertisements have not been fulfilled; 5. The management of the official App community is chaotic.
The owner’s main feedback problem is that the prospective owner’s rights and interests of "Angel Wheel" are surpassed by other car booking channels within the group, while the "routine discount" publicly expressed by Zhiji CEO appears on other car booking channels within the group, and the prospective owners of "Angel Wheel" think that they have been treated unfairly. On this issue, Zhiji announced that there is indeed a group customer car purchase policy for the employees of the founding shareholders, but there is no binding relationship between the rights and interests of the group customers and the rights and interests of the "Angel Wheel /A Wheel". New users of the group can only enjoy the current user rights and interests superimposed on the group rights and interests.
User’s rights and interests are always available when every car company opens a new car reservation. However, "Angel Wheel", as the initial user group that supports Zhiji, can’t get the best car purchase rights, which will really make these users psychologically unbalanced. During the car booking process of Zhiji L7, users can choose whether to upgrade the "laser radar integrated intelligent driving system, OrinX chip and high-order energy battery", but the official only introduces how many points can be obtained through points, but there are no other conditions. Zhiji has not announced it. Lidar and high-end energy battery are two popular technology configurations of new energy vehicles at this stage. Some consumers will place orders for these functions, but the government can’t give a specific upgrade method, which will inevitably make consumers lose their desire to buy.
In addition, in all the publicity for the launch of Zhiji L7, the battery pack with a standard capacity of 93kW/h is used in the whole system, and the comprehensive cruising range of CLTC is 615km, but the information declared in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is 90kWh, and the actual vehicle is 89.9kWh, with a difference of 3kWh. The explanation given by Zhiji’s staff is that there are two sets of standards for the reporting country of battery power, namely, the testing standard and the reporting standard. Although the tested battery power is different, it will not affect the vehicle’s endurance. Zhiji automobile should not publicize unverified data. Although the difference between the publicity and the actual battery power is only 3kWh, it will also make consumers feel confused. In addition, Zhiji L7 is under-matched: 21+6 piston calipers are changed to 20+4 piston calipers; 12 HD cameras were reduced to 11; Five fifth-generation millimeter-wave radars were reduced to four; Vehicle wireless charging receiver changed from standard to optional; A series of problems, such as the kick-type electric tailgate becoming an electric tailgate.
In addition, some car owners were ridiculed and insulted by Zhiji’s car product manager when discussing vehicle-related issues in the APP, saying that some users who posted posts were "smart" on the Internet and had a Kong Yiji mentality, and they had not made any progress for more than 100 years. In this regard, Zhiji car owners stressed in the statement, "We hope that Zhiji senior management team can pay full attention to and listen carefully to the opinions and demands of car owners and give a positive response."
The car owners said: "I waited for a year, but I was disappointed. Originally, I went to the big company SAIC, but I didn’t expect it to be so unreliable. " As one of the first 3000 people to book Zhiji L7, he felt cheated. The so-called "scarce enjoyment" was not scarce, and the contrast between the earliest official configuration propaganda and the actual configuration was also made him feel cheated.
The words "scarce and exclusive", "limited to 3,000 seats" and "angel wheel" may confuse consumers and make people feel superior and enjoy special preferential treatment. It is precisely because of this that consumers have become angel wheel users of Zhiji Automobile, but today’s sense of gap makes them unacceptable. Drawing a pie for users in this way will directly hurt those consumers who like and support the brand, and will have a negative impact on brand reputation and the future development of the enterprise.
Zhiji Automobile is different from other new car-making forces. It didn’t launch SUV models first, like Weilai, Ideality, Tucki, Ai ‘an and Lantu. Secondly, it took the lead in launching a luxury pure electric car. On March 30, 2022, Zhiji L7 Pro, the first mass production model with high hopes, was officially launched, with a price of 408,800 yuan. As a heavy model built by Zhiji, the sales performance of Zhiji L7 Pro in a few months can be described as very bleak. In fact, Zhiji L7 Pro has been delivered since the end of June this year. From July to December, the sales volume was 816, 1007, 1019, 860, 608 and 266 respectively, and the cumulative delivery volume was 4,576, less than 5,000, which can be seen. The cumulative sales volume in six months is not as good as that of a car from Ai ‘an, Nezha and BYD in a single month. Even compared with the same class cars, such as Krypton 001 and Weilai ET7, its sales volume is at the bottom. Zhiji automobile not only lost the brilliance that attracted people’s attention at that time, but also did not have much sense of existence in the hearts of consumers.
Tamia Liu, CEO of Zhiji Automotive Technology, once said: People who spend more than 400,000 yuan on BBA are miserable, and Zhiji L7, such a powerful treasure car, will one day become online celebrity. But judging from the current sales performance, it is impossible for Zhiji L7 to become a "online celebrity".
As a new energy brand, Zhiji is blessed by SAIC, Ali and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, but its reputation is really too small. Directly promote the positioning of a start-up brand to a luxury brand, and the price is as high as 400,000 to 500,000. Without the historical accumulation of the brand, how can you have such great courage? We know that Weilai Automobile only targets BMW; What about Zhiji car? It’s the whole BBA that needs to be subverted. It’s really courageous. Does Na Zhi have this strength? As far as products are concerned, Zhiji L7 claims to compete with BBA；; However, in its price range, fist products such as Wei Xiaoli, BYD, and Krypton, which are lower than its price, also have good performance and the capital to compete for BBA. After horizontal comparison, it will be found that Zhiji L7 is not scarce.
Zhiji not only overreached himself in brand positioning, but also failed in product and price positioning. Zhiji L7 nominally pure electric C-class executive family car, which should have made great efforts in space comfort, failed to do well in what it should have done. On the contrary, it can play well in the power that potential car owners don’t pay much attention to. It can win prizes in accelerating and drifting events, which further confirms the fact that its positioning is deviated. I don’t think 90% car owners will spend 400,000 yuan to take a family on the track. In terms of sales outlets, needless to say, while Zhiji does not have an advantage in the number of stores, there are still some "moisture" in Zhiji stores. According to industry media reports, in Zhiji stores in Beijing and other places, there are some channels joined by traditional 4S Buick dealers, which means that excluding these non-self-operated channels, Zhiji will have fewer offline channels.
After-sales problems of Zhiji L7 quality control also occurred one after another. On February 1, 2023, Mr. Li of Chongqing filed a complaint with relevant channels, requesting to return the car or change it. Mr. Li is the owner of Zhiji L7 Angel Wheel. He booked the car in May last year and picked it up in Chongqing Liangjiang Zhiji Automobile Sales & Service Co., Ltd. in August.
The problem that the owner of Zhiji L7 Angel Wheel is treated unfairly by Zhiji Automobile has caused a heated discussion on the Internet. Although depressed, Mr. Li is very happy to drive his favorite car. He explained the reason for choosing Zhiji L7. "I like the shape of L7 very much, and with the background of SAIC, Zhiji Automobile trusts its technical strength and product quality."
However, Mr. Li’s good mood didn’t last two minutes and he was hit in the face by cruel reality. When he was ready to drive home, he found that the car navigation could not be used. No matter how to operate the navigation, it always showed "GPS positioning". Fortunately, the door of the 4S shop has not been opened yet. Mr. Li quickly found the staff, tossed for a long time and didn’t solve the problem. Finally, he explained that it was a software problem and asked Mr. Li to drive home first and wait for the software version upgrade. Just waiting for two months, although there were two so-called software upgrades during this period, the problem has not been solved. Finally, after Mr. Li made many representations, Zhiji Automobile replaced the GPS module for Mr. Li to solve the problem.
For Mr. Li, the navigation failure of this Zhiji L7 has just begun, and then the bad things followed. Mr. Li said that the wireless charging device of Zhiji L7′ s mobile phone can be lifted. When the mobile phone is charged, it will be lifted up, and then it will be lowered after it is put on, which is quite ceremonial. "At that time, I felt that this device was a bit over-designed. I didn’t expect it to break after several uses." Mr. Li said that this useless device did not move after being used twice. After inspection, the driving motor was broken, and finally the lifting assembly was changed twice to solve the problem.
Not long after, Mr. Li found that the right front door and the left back door of this Zhiji L7 were making abnormal noises from time to time. Mr. Li reported the situation to the 4S shop, and the staff did a variety of inspections and found no problems. At Mr. Li’s insistence, the staff took apart the car door and found that it was the abnormal sound caused by the wiring harness swinging back and forth inside the car door. After disassembling the door panel, Mr. Li found that the roughness of Zhiji L7′ s workmanship was shocking. The internal wiring harness has no protective treatment, and it is exposed directly to produce abnormal noise. According to the conventional practice, the door panel should be treated with NVH noise prevention. This Zhiji L7 has no noise prevention measures at all. Later, Mr. Li found that the floor under the front of the main driver and the co-driver of Zhiji L7 was directly exposed. "There is not even a layer of covered rubber, and the rough workmanship is completely different from that of a 400,000 car, which is similar to that of a 100,000-yuan van."
If these problems can be tolerated, the problems exposed by a recent scraping accident completely angered Mr. Li, who directly asked Zhiji to change cars and return them. Just before the Spring Festival, Mr. Li’s intellectual L7 had a little rub. Considering keeping the original car paint, he went to the repair shop for a third-party seamless repair. Surprisingly, the maintenance master in the shop took a paint tester and measured it around. He asked Mr. Li, "Did you paint this car?"? This made Mr. Li silly. How can a newly bought car be painted? After Mr. Li told us that it was the original car paint, the maintenance master carefully tested the whole car again, and the result is as shown in the figure:
The paint thickness of this Zhiji L7 varies greatly in different positions, ranging from 200 to 600 um, and the paint thickness of at least four parts is 1-2 times that of other parts.
Normally, the painting process of the main engine factory is robot painting, and the whole process is strictly controlled by computer programs. The painting is very uniform, so it is impossible to have such a big deviation. Mr. Li believes that there is such a big difference in the paint thickness of the same car, which will seriously affect the price of used cars in the future, because others can’t judge whether it is the original paint or the secondary paint after the accident. Mr. Li gave the question back to the customer service of Zhiji Automobile 400, and 400 told him that it was a normal factory standard, and repeatedly stressed that it had been signed and accepted. Mr. Li said angrily to the 315 report group: "The customer service of Zhiji Automobile means leaving the cabinet and refusing to recognize it. It seems that buying a Zhiji automobile must bring a paint film instrument like buying a used car, otherwise you can only admit that you are unlucky!"
Mr. Li said that the reason why Zhiji was chosen among many new energy vehicles was because he believed that it had the background of SAIC. The process of buying Zhiji L7 was too bad. I really didn’t expect Zhiji’s technical process and quality control ability to be so bad, and Zhiji’s after-sales attitude was even more wry and heartbreaking. At present, many car owners have reported that Zhiji L7 has a series of quality problems, such as battery shrinkage, black spots on the front windshield, white screen of panoramic image, driving recorder not reading SD card, electric tailgate not being closed, bubbles in the display screen and so on.
In November, 2022, a video about Zhiji CEO Tamia Liu’s test drive L7 was exposed by the media. In the video, Tamia Liu made a number of behaviors suspected of violating traffic regulations, such as high-speed parking, lane change of compaction line and serious speeding, trying to show the acceleration performance of this model to reflect the characteristics of super-running. After the video exposure, Tamia Liu’s dangerous driving behavior caused many netizens to question and criticize, and even some netizens said, "The CEO of a car company doesn’t understand traffic regulations?" Perhaps under the pressure of public opinion on the Internet, Liu Taocai issued an apology statement in his official micro, saying that he would deeply reflect on his behavior and actively cooperate with the investigation and punishment, and also said that he would take a warning.
As the CEO of Zhiji Automobile, Tamia Liu has not only repeatedly touched the hot spots of Tesla, BBA, Weilai, Tucki and other car companies, but also frequently made controversial behaviors and expressed relevant opinions, trying to keep standing in the focus of controversy and accumulate popularity and eyeballs for Zhiji.
As a new high-end brand, Zhiji, if the first impression of quality control can’t conquer consumers, and the sales performance of Zhiji L7, the first mass-produced car listed on the market, will make the road after Zhiji’s car very difficult. If a car-making brand does not have solid brand power and product power as the basic support, even if there is traffic, it is difficult to convert it into sales. Tamia Liu, CEO of Zhiji, do you really take the user as a confidant?
