IM: IM has its own position in the luxury car market

In the upsurge of building new energy vehicles, new players continue to spring up like mushrooms after a rain, and the dazzling brands make it impossible for the media in the automotive industry to remember one by one in the short term.

On January 13, IM jointly created by SAIC, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba Group was released simultaneously in Shanghai, China, CES in Las Vegas, and the United Kingdom. IM, which is positioned as a high-end smart pure electric vehicle brand, was born and officially join the electrified and intelligent track.

There are already many high-end carmakers in the market, such as Tesla, NIO, HiPhi and other brands. Is the pace of SAIC's participation too slow at this time? During the Shanghai Auto Show, IM invited some media to conduct group visits to respond to industry questions.

IM co-CEO Liu Tao said: “SAIC is the seventh largest OEM in the world, and it is undoubtedly the first in China. When SAIC is doing IM projects, it does not face any financial pressure.” Why IM chose Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba Group Cooperation instead of independent research and development? He believes that the main reason is to integrate the resources of the other party.

Liu Tao, IM Co-CEO

It is understood that Alibaba has a certain amount of accumulation in e-commerce and cloud computing, and also has rich experience in related fields such as new retail customer operations. Zhangjiang Hi-Tech is known as the "Silicon Valley of China" and has a large pool of talents in chips, software, data, intelligence, and many new energy-related fields.

Choosing to introduce Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba as the two major shareholders of IM is that IM will add more bargaining chips for future development, and it is also the confidence to enter the field of high-end smart pure electricity.

IM has a place in the luxury car market

“SAIC has invested a lot in hardware, software, and platforms.” Liu Tao explained: “The chassis platform used by IM L7 originated in 2016. At that time, SAIC established a secret internal project team, Project X, to create this The predecessor of the car platform. It adapts to the future pure electric exclusive architecture and the future SOA software architecture. The research and development work will be from 2016 to 2020."

It is reported that the wheelbase of the platform can cover 2,800~3,200 mm, and it can be compatible with battery packs ranging from 600 kilometers to 1,000 kilometers, and it is also compatible with fast-change and slow-change battery technologies. It is worth mentioning that the platform adopts a lightweight all-aluminum chassis structure. For electric high-end vehicles, the controllability and power of the all-aluminum chassis are easier to guarantee.

From the software point of view, IM has made many achievements in intelligent network connection and autonomous driving. Not long ago, SAIC Group announced its SOA strategy, and IM will be the first to carry this platform and become a core user of SAIC Software Center. The person in charge of IM said: "The SOA platform is of disruptive value to consumers, and it will help the IM brand to create the product form that the car should have in the smart era."

What does SOA stand for? In fact, SOA is to extract the smallest functional logical units in the various subsystems of the automobile and encapsulate them into services. The functional modules of these smallest units are like basic parts in toys, independent of each other but can be spliced together.

Consumers can use this platform in any combination according to their preferences. SOA that can be developed with 90 controllers can create unlimited combinations.

In terms of autonomous driving, SAIC invested in Momenta, one of the autonomous driving software and algorithm companies, for the IM project. It was rated as one of the top 50 innovative companies in Silicon Valley and is a veteran technological innovation company in the field of autonomous driving. In addition, SAIC has also invested in some companies that combine hard and soft, such as TTTech, a European and Austrian company that makes RTOS for aircraft flight control.

In the field of batteries, the core component of electric vehicles, SAIC is a business partner of CATL and an early investor. A good cooperative relationship means that IM can be applied to CATL's highest-end technology.

With the support of the above-mentioned multiple technologies, IM has the confidence and determination to compete head-on with other high-end electric vehicle brands. Liu Tao said: "No matter in terms of soft or hard capabilities, or in terms of SAIC's manufacturing capabilities, guarantee capabilities, supply chain capabilities, and quality control capabilities, they can fully support IM, a Chinese luxury brand."

Refuse to use user data gratuitously

At the highly valued user operation level, IM has also spent a lot of thought and created a brand-new model. Not long ago, IM officially released the CSOP User Data Rights and Interests Plan, announcing that it would endorse the 4.9% equity income in the founding round of investment, and issue 300 million "rough stones" to map the asset income and dividends corresponding to this part of the equity. Ways to give back to users.

"If you want to own and use the rights and interests of rough stones, there are two necessary conditions. You must be a car owner and you need to contribute data." Liu Tao used the image of a "mining machine" in Bitcoin to illustrate the way to obtain "Rough Stone", that is, the more data you contribute, The greater the chance of "Raw Stone" falling. But according to the logic of the blockchain, the number of "rough stones" will be halved every four years in the future.

When explaining the original intention of launching this set of plans, Liu Tao said that as smart cars continue to evolve and develop, user data has become crucial. But IM refuses to use user data gratuitously, but hopes to use feedback to let the enterprise and the user stand together.

Summary: More and more capital enter the electric car market, and the fight between brands has become a fierce state. Each car company has tried every means to build its own moat. But how to highlight one's own advantages among many opponents has become a compulsory course for latecomers.

In the era of software-defined cars, IM already has a complete system. In order to reflect the differentiation from its opponents, through the world's first CSOP user rights platform, users are rewarded for providing data, and at the same time, it can also increase the stickiness between users and the brand. This unique new gameplay further enhances the imagination of IM growth.