Competing for the high-end new energy car market, BYD Han L is well prepared

Is BYD’s "L" series newly added?

After the Qin and Song families, the two major sales forces of BYD Dynasty series, ushered in the "L" series, the BYD Han family also exposed a new car recently, which was suspected to be Han L.

As the car with the highest positioning in BYD Dynasty series, the sales volume of Han family has been in the forefront of domestic sales of 200,000 yuan cars for a long time, but BYD, as the global champion of new energy vehicle sales, obviously has higher requirements for itself. Moreover, in the past two months, the domestic sales of BYD Han family have won and lost each other, and the sales crown of pure electric cars in more than 200,000 markets was taken away by Xiaomi SU7.The increasingly powerful companies such as Krypton and Xiaomi have become strong rivals of the Han family.

You know, the starting price of the 2024 Han DM-i/EV Glory Edition model is only 169,800 yuan, which is far lower than that of Extreme Krypton 001 and Xiaomi SU7. With the price advantage and the blessing of BYD’s new energy technology, the sales volume is difficult to open the gap with the extreme krypton and millet explosion models. BYD needs more competitive mid-to-high-end models, open up the market with a price of 200,000 yuan, and further consolidate its leading position.

The launch of Han L is undoubtedly BYD’s counterattack against Krypton and Xiaomi. In BYD’s product positioning, the "L" series is usually oriented to young consumers, with power, appearance and intelligence as the core competitiveness. Han L is no exception, but can Han L really shoulder the heavy responsibility of BYD’s market layout of 200,000 yuan?

There are not many spy photos and information exposed by Han L, and the headlights can only see the general outline. The outer enclosure, lines and lower grille continue the consistent aesthetic design of the dynasty series, but the whole is more tense, which highlights the sense of movement of the model and obviously inherits the characteristics of the "L" series that tend to be younger.

In addition, the Chinese L size seems to be larger than the Chinese DM-i/EV Glory Edition. The size of Han DM-i/EV itself has reached the level of C-class car, which is called "B+C" class car by BYD. The size of Han L is larger, and the internal space it can provide will naturally be more plentiful. Combining Qin L and Song L, it is not difficult to see that the positioning of the "L" model is usually higher than that of the original members of the dynasty family, and it seems that the same is true of Han L.

In terms of interior, many parts of Han L are covered with camouflage materials, which is generally consistent with the current models.Considering that the car is extremely confidential, Xiaotong speculates that Han L is still in the testing stage, the appearance and interior design may not be finalized, and the real car will probably change. According to BYD’s speed estimation, it will be tested again soon.

The most easily guessed configuration of the car should be the power part, and the fifth-generation DM technology is almost certain. Based on this technology, Qin L DM-i, a B-class car, has achieved a fuel consumption of less than 3L per 100 kilometers. With a 65L large fuel tank, it can last more than 2000 kilometers when it is fully charged. Song L DM-i and the new Song PLUS DM-i are based on the fifth-generation DM technology, and have also achieved a battery life of more than 1,500 kilometers.

In addition to excellent hardware quality, BYD also has something to look forward to, which is undoubtedly the intelligent driving system. BYD’s products have been equipped with DiPilot 100 "Eye of the Gods" advanced intelligent driving assistance system, and Tengshi N7 is the first to realize the functions of national expressway pilot-assisted driving, pilot-assisted driving in some cities, and parking service.

Although BYD once said that in the future, vehicles with a price of more than 300,000 yuan will be equipped with high-level intelligent driving as standard, and vehicles with a price of more than 200,000 yuan will be equipped with high-level intelligent driving, but many car companies such as Wuling and Tucki are committed to the decentralization of high-level intelligent driving, and the newly released 2025 Seal is equipped with laser radar and "Eye of God" intelligent driving in two configurations. It is believed that BYD will also follow the pace of the industry and gradually adapt to the models of Han, Song, Seal and other families to experience better high-level intelligent driving, but Han L will not be equipped with high-level intelligent driving as standard.

Finally, in terms of price, the 2024 BYD Han DM-i glory version starts at 169,800 yuan, and the EV version starts at 179,800 yuan. Han L has a higher positioning, but I believe BYD will surprise us and the price will satisfy Di Fen..In addition, it is also possible for Han L to imitate the glory version of Han EV and launch the intelligent driving version of the Eye of God.

Only from the exposed configuration, the main upgrade points of Han L are larger size, more fuel-efficient power system (limited plug-in mixed version) and possibly stronger intelligent driving system.In the market of more than 200,000 yuan where strong people are everywhere, can Han L achieve the leading position in brands such as Krypton, Xiaomi and Tucki only by relying on these configurations?

It seems a bit strange to say that BYD, which has stopped in the middle and high-end market for a long time with brands such as Han, Tangjia and Tengshi and Equation Leopard, seems to have become a challenger to brands such as Krypton and Xiaomi overnight. It’s not that BYD doesn’t give force, but that the market trend has been changing.

Today, in the 200,000-yuan new energy vehicle market, the best-selling cars are Xiaomi SU7, Extreme Krypton 001, Model 3, etc., and then you can go down to Han DM-i/p and Han EV (calculated separately). If you look closely, you will find that the hot-selling cars of Xiaomi, Kyk, Tesla and other brands have one thing in common, that is, they are full of sports and tend to young consumers.

According to Insight into Automobile Consumption in China in 2023, young people under the age of 35 account for nearly 40% of the intended car buyers. While BMW celebrated that the sales of the 5 Series exceeded 10,000 for two consecutive months, it also said that the post-90 s young group has become the main force of car purchase.Young consumers pay more attention to the functions of face value, power and intelligent driving, so there are more and more coupe and cross-border SUVs on the market.

BYD is well aware of the changes in market trends. While maintaining the "heavy feeling" of the Dynasty series, it established the Ocean Network for young consumers in 2021, and according to the opinions of consumers, it launched the seal model equipped with the front double wishbone and the rear five-bar chassis suspension. In the past four years, the sales volume of ocean net has hit record highs, but the sales volume of seal models with higher positioning has not reached expectations. Now the seal family has a high sales volume, relying on the seal 06 DM-i, which started at 99,800 yuan, but this car obviously can’t help BYD compete for the 200,000 yuan market.

BYD has also launched Tengshi N7 and Song L models for young people. Unfortunately, Tengshi brand has too strong business attributes, and it is an independent brand, so it is not as good as positioning a million-level brand with gimmicks, which leads to low popularity and affects the sales of Tengshi N7.

Song L is Xiaotong’s favorite product and has been looking forward to the DM-i version of the car. However, the sales volume of the L EV version of the Song Dynasty is not as good as expected, and the delivery volume continues to decline. Although the configuration and price of the newly listed L DM-i of the Song Dynasty are good, it has lost its sense of movement, which is more like an enlarged version of the Song Pro DM-i, which makes Xiaotong somewhat disappointed.

There is no doubt that products such as Seals, Tengshi N7 and Song L have hit the market of more than 200,000 yuan. Although their performance is acceptable, they are not successful. Han L is another charge for BYD to face the market of 200,000 yuan.Simply looking at the power system and hardware configuration, Han L is not inferior to models such as Krypton 001/007 and Xiaomi SU7. The fifth-generation DM technology and huge interior space are the highlights, but in the era of smart cars, the software is excellent enough to give full play to the potential of hardware.

Many founders and CEOs of new car-making forces are from the Internet industry, so they pay more attention to the smart cockpit and ecological layout of new energy vehicles. Traditional car companies generally pay attention to the mechanical quality of their products, but the intelligence aspect is obvious.

Nowadays, car companies are pushing big language models and richer car ecology, not to mention cross-border brands in the mobile phone and Internet industries such as Xiaomi and HarmonyOS Zhixing. Extreme Krypton has also come up with big language models and visual models. By calling sensors inside and outside the cockpit, it can simultaneously perceive multi-dimensional information such as hearing, vision, time and location, and serve users with high IQ and high EQ.

BYD launched the Xuanji AI big model on the dream day at the beginning of this year, covering the smart cockpit, but the big model seems to be biased towards vehicle intelligence and intelligent vehicle control, and the experience improvement for the smart cockpit is limited. As for the ecology, BYD is also slightly lacking. Fortunately, BYD’s car is open enough, users can easily install third-party applications, and with the assistance of mobile phones, the overall experience is acceptable.

In terms of intelligent driving, the development speed of advanced intelligent driving is faster than expected. According to Xiaotong, after entering the second half of 2024, the threshold of the first echelon of intelligent driving is "it can be opened all over the country". At present, only a few car companies in China should meet this standard, such as HarmonyOS Zhixing, Weilai, Ideality and Tucki.Most of the other car companies’ "all-country driving" are limited to high-speed sections. Xiaomi plans to push the "all-country driving" high-level intelligent driving by the end of this year, which actually refers to major cities in the country, not all cities.

Intelligent driving technology has entered the end-to-end era from rule-based algorithms, and the demand for data is extremely high.Yu Chengdong once said that intelligent driving technology will enter a situation where the stronger the stronger, and the investment is high and the cost is high, so that ordinary car companies simply can’t afford to play, and finally only a few manufacturers can realize automatic driving.

Car companies that are already in the first echelon will gradually widen the gap with other car companies and raise the threshold for entering the first echelon. Even BYD, which has a rich background, can hardly catch up with HarmonyOS Zhixing and Wei Xiaoli in a short time. Cooperation with other car companies is the best solution for car companies to quickly improve their product intelligent driving ability and shorten the gap with the first echelon.

BYD’s Equation Leopard brand is exposed. The Leopard 8 model will be jointly launched by Huawei and equipped with Huawei Gankun ADS intelligent driving system. Perhaps BYD can consider deepening its cooperation with Huawei, adapting Huawei’s intelligent driving system for more models at this stage to improve product competitiveness, and on the other hand, stepping up self-developed intelligent driving technology. However, Huawei estimates that it is not willing to make Gankun ADS "cheap", and may only provide basic versions of Gankun ADS for other brands within 250,000 yuan.

There is a large profit margin in the market above 200,000 yuan, and with the improvement of domestic economic level, consumers’ acceptance of vehicles above 200,000 yuan is also increasing. Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the Association, said that the proportion of domestic high-end vehicle sales has increased significantly, and the average car price has risen to 179,000 yuan.

A cake that is still growing will inevitably attract more car companies to enter the market. The D-series models in preparation for the zero-run and the first C-class car that Wuling has just declared will all go to the market of more than 200,000 yuan. Under the competition of car companies, the involution of the whole industry will inevitably intensify, and cars need to be more "valuable".

Relying on BYD’s technical background, Han L will not be worse than other products at the same price in terms of hardware quality, and still maintain sufficient cost performance. The shortcomings in intelligence require BYD to gradually improve through technology research and development and accumulation. Although cooperation with friends can improve the intelligent cockpit experience and intelligent driving ability in a short time, it does not belong to itself after all, and upgrading iterations and sinking the market may not be so convenient.

The new energy automobile industry is still developing rapidly, and any situation may happen. Even BYD, the industry with the highest sales volume, may fall behind for various reasons.Technology research and development to fill the shortcomings and release new products to open up more markets are necessary solutions for car companies to improve their anti-risk. BYD’s re-layout of the 200,000-level market through Han L may impress young consumers, hit a higher sales record and improve BYD’s anti-risk ability.