The strong alliance resulted in a half-year sales of 2700 units. The Jiyue 01 did not sell well, and the product positioning was to blame.

Naming an ordinary car as a "robot" is a pioneering move by Jiyue Automobile. It is not difficult to come up with a name, but it is difficult to get no one to agree with it.

In the first half of this year, the cumulative sales of Jiyue 01 were only 2,700 units. Since its launch, the monthly sales of this car have been as low as 218 units and as high as 1,001 units.

Obviously, users are not interested in a "robot" with four wheels and a large sofa. It is normal for manufacturers to give their products a "personality" and focus on differentiation, but it is always awkward to talk about it without considering sales.

Jiyue 01 is a medium-to-large pure electric SUV with a length of 4853mm and a wheelbase of 3 meters. It is priced at 219,900-309,900 yuan, has a maximum power of 400kW and a range of 720km. It is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip and two NVIDIA Orin-X assisted driving chips, which enables it to reach mainstream levels in smart cockpit and smart driving.

The reason for listing the above performance indicators is to show that the overall performance of Jiyue 01 is not bad. With the influence of Baidu and Geely, even if this car cannot become a hit, selling three to four thousand units a month should be a piece of cake.

The ideal is full, but the reality is very skinny. Baidu and Geely tried their best to promote it, and Jiyue CEO Xia Yiping broadcast it many times, and even brought up the topic to denounce Jia Yueting, but it did not bring an increase in sales. Now that this car has been on the market for more than half a year, it is still selling quietly. In the fiercely competitive Chinese new energy market, the future of a car that has not been able to take off for more than half a year can be imagined.

There is definitely no problem with the hardware of Jiyue 01. The reason why its sales are so poor is mainly because its positioning is deviated - the main selling point is autonomous driving which is not very obvious to users.

In recent years, there are many manufacturers that have entered the field of automobile manufacturing, and Baidu is one of them. As early as 2021, Baidu announced its entry into the field of complete vehicle manufacturing and selected Geely Automobile as its strategic partner. Its stock price has risen sharply, and its market value has exceeded US$80 billion. Later, due to national regulations, Jidu was renamed Jiyue.

In terms of seniority, there is hardly any brand with more say than Baidu in the field of autonomous driving. In July 2013, Baidu established its driverless project. In 2016, when many domestic manufacturers were still fighting in the low-end market, Baidu's driverless cars were already running wildly on the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, and launched the earliest video link of driverless cars in China, which we later called "live broadcast".

In 2017, Baidu further integrated its resources and established the Intelligent Driving Business Group. In the same year, it released its own open autonomous driving platform, which is the Apollo that people are familiar with today.

This may be one of the reasons why Baidu regards intelligent driving as the main selling point of Jiyue. At the beginning of 2021, when Baidu announced its car manufacturing, BYD was still relying on fuel vehicles to prolong the life of its new energy vehicles, and new car-making forces were still worshipping Tesla. Baidu, which has built its own unmanned driving platform, is naturally favored by the outside world.

Like Tesla's FSD, Apollo also insists on a pure visual technology solution. Up to now, only these two mainstream manufacturers in the industry have adopted this solution, and Xiaopeng Motors may also join in the future.

Of course, the solution is not the most important thing. The most important thing is, in the current market, is autonomous driving a rigid demand? If so, from the perspective of promoting its own killer technology, the Jiyue 01 should have it as a standard feature for all models, rather than offering it as an option like other brands.

We can take a look at the three best-performing domestic new energy manufacturers in the market. BYD relies on its powerful three-electric system, Ideal Auto relies on its unique super daddy car positioning and extended-range electric system, and Wenjie became famous because of Huawei's ADS2.0, but Huawei provides not only smart driving, but also core equipment such as Hongmeng smart cockpit and Drive ONE power platform.

As for Tesla, its FSD system is very famous, but it has not been commercialized in China. Tesla's good performance in the Chinese market at this stage has nothing to do with the FSD system.

In other words, autonomous driving is indeed the current trend, but it is difficult to support a car or even a brand by relying solely on autonomous driving without other strong product features. At this stage, consumers are more concerned about space, power, battery life, comfort, price, etc., rather than autonomous driving.

Jiyue 01 has invested a lot of publicity resources in the field of autonomous driving in an attempt to gain consumer recognition, but this is out of touch with consumers' actual needs. Even if you want to experience it, you have to pay extra money to choose the optional equipment, which directly discouraged a large number of potential users.

From here, Extreme Given the dismal performance of 01, Baidu should be more anxious than Geely.

Because even without Jiyue, Geely is the second largest domestic new energy manufacturer after BYD, and its Lynk & Co, Zeekr and Galaxy series new energy vehicles have all performed well. If Jiyue is not successful, it will at most be a failed investment for Geely, which will not cause any serious damage.

But Baidu is different. It has entered the field of vehicle manufacturing, and the only thing it can show off is autonomous driving. The fact that Jiyue 01 did not immediately shine the golden signboard of Apollo is more than just a failed investment for Baidu.

In Baidu's plan, driverless cars have two directions: the B-end and the C-end. The B-end is the driverless online car-hailing service. The Carrot Run that has attracted widespread attention in recent days was developed by Baidu, but on the C-end, its performance is far below market expectations.

It is indeed time for Jiyue to make changes. It should get closer to users and be more generous. It would be best if it could go a step further in promotion, gain recognition from more car manufacturers, and popularize its own technology. After all, judging from the current situation, Jiyue may not be able to take on this responsibility independently.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.