Interview with Xia Yiping, CEO of Extreme Vietnam： I am not a professional manager, and the pressure comes more from myself.

On September 10th, the much-anticipated Extreme Yue 07 was officially listed, and the preferential price for limited-time car purchase was 199,900-289,900 yuan. Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, Zeng Yuqun, Chairman and CEO of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, and Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, attended the event as special guests. Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group, also released a congratulatory video to help the new car go public.

After the press conference, Xia Yiping, CEO of Extreme Yue, accepted an interview with the media and discussed in depth the market prospect, brand strategy and future development direction of Extreme Yue 07. This series of answers not only reveals the foothold of Jiyue Automobile in the highly competitive new energy automobile market, but also reflects Xia Yiping’s unique views on the future automobile industry.

First of all, Xia Yiping emphasized the price competitiveness of Extreme Yue 07 and was full of confidence in its sales performance. He said that although price is an important factor in sales volume, it is not the only determinant. Extreme Vietnam hopes to attract more consumers to pay attention to its brand through careful pricing strategy. In addition, Chaoyue will continue to strengthen its investment in marketing, and plans to enhance its brand influence through weekly live broadcast and daily short video. Last month, Jiyue released 13,000 videos, gained more than 100 million exposures, and significantly increased the number of visitors to the store. In the future, Chaoyue will further expand the release frequency of short videos, and invite more celebrities to participate and continue to accumulate brand influence.

At the press conference of Extreme Yue 07, design and safety became important publicity points. Xia Yiping pointed out that on the basis of intelligence, Extreme Yue 07 further strengthened its advantages in handling, endurance and space. Although intelligence is the core factor of consumers’ choice, it is extremely necessary to fully display the strength of products in order to penetrate all selling points and attract more users.

Regarding the planning of the terminal sales stores of Extreme Vietnam, Xia Yiping revealed that it is estimated that by the end of this year, Extreme Vietnam will have more than 250 stores. As a startup company, Extreme Yue has a very high execution efficiency and can quickly try various innovative strategies. This flexible operation mode enables the company to quickly adjust and respond to changes in the market.

Talking about the future product plan, Xia Yiping said that Extreme Vietnam is not only a car company, but also a technology company focusing on intelligence. The core software and functions of Extreme Yue 01 and 07 are the same, and the future new car release will continue to pay attention to the needs of intelligent consumers and vehicle preferences. Xia Yiping also revealed that the release plan of the new car may be announced at the Guangzhou Auto Show or the Beijing Auto Show next year, which will bring many surprises.

Xia Yiping also talked about his pressure and challenges in the process of starting a business. He said that as an entrepreneur, the pressure mainly comes from his high expectations and sense of responsibility for the company’s future, from his sense of mission to the company and his determination to promote the company’s development. In the face of pressure, Xia Yiping said that he and his team will continue to meet the challenges and gradually achieve their goals through rapid trial and error and adjustment.

Regarding the future market trend, Xia Yiping is full of confidence in the development of intelligent driving. He believes that as more and more brands turn to pure vision solutions, the smart driving market will enter a stage of rapid iteration. Although faced with high computing power requirements, relying on Baidu’s computing power support, it can maintain its competitive advantage in this field. Xia Yiping predicted that 2025 will be the key node of intelligent driving technology, and it will be difficult for vehicles without powerful intelligent driving functions to compete in the market.

Generally speaking, Xia Yiping’s interview not only showed the strategic layout of Extreme Yue Automobile in the market, but also highlighted its profound insight into intelligence and market trends. While constantly promoting intelligent technology, Extreme Yue Automobile is also actively responding to market challenges and is committed to enhancing brand influence and market share.

The following is the interview content (some excerpts)

Q: The price of Extreme Yue 07 is very competitive. What are your sales expectations? What will be the follow-up actions in supply delivery and marketing?

Xia YipingPrice is related to sales volume, but it is not absolute. We hope to attract more people to pay attention to the brand through sincere pricing.

In marketing, we are very confident. Through the efficient implementation of weekly live broadcast and daily short video, 13,000 videos were released last month, with an exposure of over 100 million and an increase in store visitors. Brand development takes time, and we will continue to strengthen product strength and marketing, which may increase to 20,000 or 30,000 short videos in the future, and invite more big coffees to participate, so as to gradually enhance brand influence through accumulated efforts.

Q: At the Extreme Yue 07 conference, we saw that design and safety occupied a lot of space. Does it mean that the sales inflection point has arrived?

Xia Yiping: When we first launched Extreme Yue 01, we thought that intelligence was the core selling point, so we focused on promoting intelligence and ignored the advantages of products such as control and space. Later, we re-emphasized these advantages in the communication, which is equivalent to the "second release" of the extreme yue 01.

With the release of Extreme Yue 07, we not only continue to strengthen intelligence, but also focus on control, endurance and space. Although more and more consumers come for intelligent driving, we must fully demonstrate the strength of our products and penetrate all the selling points.

Q: What’s your plan for the terminal sales stores?

Xia YipingThe construction of stores should be planned in the long run according to the sales volume. We plan to have more than 250 stores by the end of this year. As a startup company, our execution efficiency is very high, so we can try all kinds of innovations quickly and do things that others can’t do.

Q: Extreme Yue 07 has been listed. Can you disclose the follow-up product plan?

Xia Yiping: We are not only a car company, but also a technology company focusing on intelligence. We pay attention to users’ habits, and the core software and functions of Extreme Yue 01 and 07 are the same, so we pay attention to the needs of intelligent consumers and vehicle preferences.

As for the release of the new car, you can pay attention to my Tik Tok and the trend of the auto show. We may release a new car at Guangzhou Auto Show or Beijing Auto Show next year, and there will be many surprises.

Q: After the listing of Extreme Yue 07, will you still invest resources in Extreme Yue 01? What do you think of its sales?

Xia YipingWhen Extreme Yue 01 went on the market, we had high expectations and thought it would become an explosion, but we encountered some challenges. Although some people suggest focusing on Extreme Yue 07, I believe that Extreme Yue 01 has strong products and only needs to solve system problems. Although the market environment is difficult, I still hope to continue to increase the monthly sales of Extreme Yue 01 from more than 2,000 units.

Q: In the last interview, you shed tears, and it was very popular on the Internet. Some people said it was "selling badly". What do you think?

Xia YipingPeople who start a business will have a lot of hardships in their hearts. Dr. Zeng and I also talked about this topic today. In fact, it’s not just me. Many colleagues also cried in the video of the third anniversary of our business.

That interview was my true feelings. The media suddenly asked about my inner pain points and failed to control my emotions. I don’t care if I see all kinds of interpretations on the Internet and say that I am "earning traffic", but I want to emphasize that what I care about is not traffic, but doing a good job in products. Starting a business is to get out of the comfort zone. I am originally from a technical background and introverted, but I am also trying to adapt and change.

Q: You are crying, which means you are stressed. The competition in the new energy industry is fierce. Do you think this pressure comes from more?KPIIs it unfinished, or is it the gap between team expectations and reality? asCEO, how do you resolve these pressures and lead the team forward? When will there be an obvious turning point in growth?

Xia YipingThe pressure does not come from the board of directors, and I am not a professional manager, but an entrepreneur’s mentality. From 2021, there were only two people in the company, and today there are two cars on the market, and the software is developed from scratch. This pressure comes more from itself.

Our team is very hard-working, never flinching when encountering difficulties, and the mission will be achieved. For example, operating 300 accounts into a blue V, although the challenge is great, the team worked hard and finally achieved the goal.

As an entrepreneur, when encountering difficulties, we should bravely meet them and keep trying, verifying and iterating. Our advantage lies in rapid adjustment, and we are fighting for physical strength and time. I only sleep five hours a day, and I will work hard for a few days in one day, and there will be results.

With regard to the inflection point of sales volume, it is not easy to assert at present. Our goal now is to increase the monthly sales from 2,000 to 5,000 and then to 10,000. At least now we know exactly what to do.

Q: Robin is also at the scene today. What are his expectations for the future development of Extreme Vietnam and Extreme Vietnam 07?

Xia YipingWhen Ji Yue was founded, Robin and I had an in-depth chat, and everyone saw the trend of smart cars in the next decade. As a technical background, I am very passionate about the vision of science and technology, and I want to bring advanced technology to the public so that everyone can experience the beautiful life brought by AI.

Baidu has invested more than 100 billion yuan in intelligence, and the more it turns these technologies into products. Robin gave us a lot of resources and support and often encouraged me. He was even the first person to suggest that I be a online celebrity. Last year, he suggested that I explain the intelligent functions of cars in a more popular way like Dong Yuhui.

Robin is also very supportive of what we are doing now to popularize smart driving for all people, so that more people can use better smart driving products through equal rights. He also believes that the pole will get better and better.

Q: Li Bin from Weilai was seen at the press conference. Will there be cooperation between the two sides in the future?

Xia Yiping: We have already cooperated with Weilai. For example, Extreme Yue users can use Weilai’s charging pile by scanning the code through Extreme Yue APP, and directly settle the points without downloading Weilai APP. In addition, we are also exploring new models to join Weilai’s power exchange system. You can look forward to this cooperation.

Q: Tesla FSD is expected to enter China in the first quarter of next year, and many competitors are also pushing pure visual smart driving solutions. What do you think of the performance of the smart driving market next year? Will more players turn to purely visual solutions?

Xia YipingAt present, Huawei, Tucki, etc. are all turning to pure vision, because pure vision may be the best choice if we want to realize national intelligent driving and give consideration to generalization and end-to-end. As time goes by, more brands will join the pure vision camp, but this requires very high algorithm and computing power.

The future competition will revolve around computing power. Musk recently built a $4 billion computing center with 100,000 H100 cards, and plans to expand it to 200,000 H200 cards next year. This improvement in computing power is crucial to training efficiency. For example, it takes 90-120 days for OpenAI to train GPT4 with 30,000 cards, while it takes only 3-4 days for Musk’s 100,000 cards. This shows the huge efficiency difference brought by computing power.

Although our computing needs are also great, we have the support of Baidu’s computing power, so don’t worry about this problem. For the smart driving market next year, I don’t think there will be many brands that can land in the country before the end of the year, but once successful, it will become the core competitiveness of the brand. In 2025, cars without strong intelligent driving function will be difficult to compete, so brands that are expected to achieve national intelligent driving will gain a leading edge next year.

Q: 2025 is called the first year of eliminating non-high-order intelligent driving vehicles. What do you think is the scope of elimination? How long is the window period?

Xia YipingIn Q4 this year, there are very few brands that can realize intelligent driving in China, and there are only a handful of companies with technical strength. Once the smart driver is on the ground, the publicity will be great, and the consumer’s cognition will also increase rapidly. Starting from Q1 next year, intelligent driving will become the core selling point, the gap between brands will widen, and some brands will be phased out. Next year, Zhijia will enter a rapid iteration period, and data-driven will accelerate this process.