Economic Observer Network reporter Pu Zhenyu Intern Zhang Qian With the relaxation of restrictions on pickup trucks entering the city in various parts of China, and the emerging outdoor lifestyle coincides with pickup truck culture, "pickup truck fever" is becoming a unique phenomenon in the current automobile market. More and more pickup truck companies have joined in, and Geely Holding Group is one of them. The new brand radar car built by the group is aimed at the new field of electric pickup trucks.
On November 9th, Radar Auto held a press conference in Hangzhou, announcing the official launch of the first pure electric platform pickup radar RD6 in China. As the first product under the radar, the radar RD6 is positioned as a passenger vehicle with diversified lifestyles based on the concept of "new energy+diversified outdoor". It is understood that Radar RD6 has launched four models: Sailing Edition, Maker Edition, Yuexiang Edition and Yueye Edition, with the prices of 178,800 yuan, 198,800 yuan, 228,800 yuan and 268,800 yuan respectively.
Compared with other established pickup truck companies in China, Radar is a rookie. However, due to the domestic consumption environment of pickup trucks and other reasons, the use scenarios of traditional pickup trucks are limited, either carrying goods or moving, and it is only in the past two years that they have entered the life scene. There are even fewer pickup trucks driven by new energy. What the radar car wants to do is to try to upgrade the pickup truck’s previous functions of taking care of goods and tools into a new experience of outdoor multi-scenes, and promote the pickup truck to evolve in the direction of lifestyle consumer goods.
According to the research on the development trend and policy suggestions of pickup truck industry jointly issued by China Automobile Association and National Information Center, it is predicted that the demand side of pickup truck products will be released in large quantities under the premise of steadily lifting the ban on pickup truck entering the city, and the domestic demand of pickup truck market will reach more than 1 million vehicles by 2030. Coupled with export demand, the total sales volume of pickup trucks is expected to reach about 2 million by 2030.
At present, the domestic pickup truck market presents a monopoly situation, and the Great Wall pickup truck will also be the enemy of radar vehicles. According to the data of China Automobile Association, in 2021, the sales volume of pickup trucks in China reached 554,000, of which the sales volume of Great Wall pickup trucks exceeded 233,000, ranking first in domestic and export sales for 24 consecutive years. According to the latest data of the Federation, the cumulative sales volume of Great Wall Motor from January to October in 2022 was close to 160,000 vehicles, which opened the gap of more than 100,000 vehicles with the second place () and was far ahead among pickup truck manufacturers.
The Great Wall Cannon pickup truck under the Great Wall is the leader of domestic passenger pickup trucks. The Great Wall Cannon brand has a wide range of models, covering multiple market segments, and has made great achievements in promoting the outdoor and refitting culture of pickup trucks.
The radar car took a different approach and chose a new energy track. At present, domestic new energy vehicles are gradually shifting from "policy-driven" to "market-driven". According to the data of the Federation, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 30.2% in October, up 11 percentage points year-on-year. In this context, the new energy pickup market is also expected to usher in development opportunities.
Li Donghui, CEO of Geely Holding Group, said, "The birth of radar new energy pickups has created a brand-new category of native pure electric pickups. This is based on the accumulation of Geely Holding Group in the past few years. This is a decision of forward-looking layout, accumulation and development, and taking advantage of the trend. "
Li Donghui pointed out that on the basis of maintaining the independence of radar brand positioning, governance structure and development strategy, Geely Holding Group will provide all-round support in technology research and development, intelligent manufacturing, quality management, channel service, supply chain coordination and personnel training, and continue to help radar develop in high quality.
Like radar, there are other pickup truck companies that extend their reach to the market segment of electric pickup trucks. However, electric pickup truck models have long had some product pain points, such as limited off-road capability, doubtful outdoor charging and discharging safety, and low energy replenishment efficiency. These factors make it difficult to popularize outdoor scene models such as electric pickup trucks and electric off-road vehicles on a large scale. And radar focusing on new energy and outdoor, can it break through this situation?
One advantage of radar is that it is backed by Geely Automobile Group. Geely started as a passenger car business, and it naturally has the thinking of a passenger car when it enters the pickup truck field, which is different from the commercial vehicle origin of most pickup truck companies. The comfort, safety and intelligence of passenger pickup trucks are also easier for a passenger car company to play.
According to reports, as the first seed model of radar car, RD6 is built on the first native pure electric platform M.A.P in China, and it has the first domestic electric expansion dock consisting of 6kW driving discharge and travel space to meet various demand scenarios.
In terms of battery life and energy replenishment, the radar RD6 uses high-energy density Ni55 batteries, which can achieve a maximum battery life of 632km. At the same time, it also creates a "trinity" service system of multi-level service network+multidimensional technical support+multi-terminal communication and a "home-on-the-road-emergency" full-scene energy replenishment system.
As a model that focuses on outdoor travel scenes, loading capacity is also very important. Radar RD6 has 1200 liters of outdoor space, 70 liters of luggage space and 48 liters of expensive storage space in the back seat, and its comprehensive loading capacity is better than that of its peers.
In terms of intelligence, the radar RD6 car is equipped with the Galaxy OS intelligent networking system developed by Geely, which provides a high-standard solution from three aspects: remote control, interaction and ecology, supports OTA online upgrade and various intelligent function settings, and can open the whole scene intelligent voice interaction when voice wakes up.
The arrival of radar brand symbolizes that the domestic pickup truck market has entered the competitive era of category innovation, which is also the inevitable result of the pickup truck market gradually moving from niche to mass. As an experimenter of brand-new categories, Radar Auto has planned a number of follow-up products. After RD6, it will also launch medium-sized pure electric pickups, medium-sized and large-sized new energy pickups, full-size pure electric pickups, full-size new energy off-road vehicles, pure electric all-terrain vehicles, and so on.