Starting at RMB 170,000, Lynk & Co 07 EM-P challenges the Haibao DM-i, but the worst hit are the Accord and Camry

How competitive is the current car market?

In the era of fuel vehicles, with a budget of tens of thousands of yuan, you could only buy a mid-range joint venture A-class car; but now, you can buy a plug-in hybrid B-class car.

On May 17, Lynk & Co 07 EM-P was officially launched on the market. The new car has a total of 3 models, priced from 169,800 to 189,800 yuan. This price can be said to be quite affordable. So what is the prospect of this car?

Including Lynk & Co 07 EM-P, Lynk & Co currently has 8 models on sale. Lynk & Co 07 EM-P is Lynk & Co's fourth new energy model with EM-P system. It is equipped with a plug-in hybrid system consisting of a 1.5T engine and an electric motor. The maximum power of the engine reaches 120kW, and the maximum power of a single motor is 160kW. The pure electric range under CLTC conditions is 126km, and it also supports 6.6kW of external discharge.

In terms of the smart cockpit that consumers are more concerned about, the Lynk & Co 07 EM-P is equipped with the LYNK Flyme Auto in-car intelligent system, and the entire series is equipped with common functions such as intelligent voice recognition system and 50W mobile phone fast charging as standard.

In terms of intelligent driving, the entire Lynk & Co 07 EM-P series is equipped with L2-level driving assistance functions, including active braking, lane change assistance, lane keeping assistance system, transparent chassis and other common assistance functions. As for high-level assistance functions such as high-speed NOA, they will have to wait until the fourth quarter to be released.

In terms of power, intelligence and other aspects, the performance of Lynk & Co 07 EM-P is not outstanding, but basically average. In fact, the idea of ​​this car is very simple, which is to provide users with a relatively affordable price while ensuring that all performance is "sufficient", focusing on cost performance.

From the front and the stance of the car, the Lynk & Co 07 EM-P has obvious youthful and sporty features, targeting young consumers who like new energy vehicles. According to this positioning, the direct competitor of this car is BYD's Haibao DM-i.

The Haibao DM-i also focuses on youth and sports features, and is also equipped with a plug-in hybrid system. Compared with the Lynk & Co 07 EM-P, it has certain advantages in price, but its power system is slightly insufficient, and its two low-end models are also equipped with relatively low configuration levels. Overall, the performance of the two cars can be said to be comparable, but the Haibao DM-i has a stronger brand influence.

Compared with fuel vehicles of the same price, Lynk & Co 07 EM-P has obvious advantages in space, appearance, intelligence, power performance, entertainment performance, etc. At the same time, its car use cost is far lower than that of fuel vehicles of the same price. Therefore, in addition to the same-level Haima DM-i, Lynk & Co 07 EM-P's competitors are mainly Honda Accord, Volkswagen Passat, Volkswagen Magotan, Buick LaCrosse and other models.

This is also in line with the current competitive landscape in the B-class car market. Geely Auto may be the only large domestic manufacturer that can compete head-on with BYD. Currently, the plug-in hybrid B-class cars on the market, except for the Lynk & Co 07 EM-P and the Haibao DM-i, are basically uncompetitive.

The reason is very simple. BYD and Geely are currently the champion and runner-up in domestic new energy sales. Their sales volume significantly exceeds that of other manufacturers, which can greatly reduce production costs. Therefore, they are able to launch plug-in hybrid B-class cars with powerful performance and prices down to around 160,000 yuan. Other manufacturers cannot do this for the time being.

If nothing unexpected happens, other domestic manufacturers will join this group in the future, but so far, BYD and Geely have taken the lead. If you like the driving experience of pure electric B-class cars, but have concerns about battery life, and want to choose a plug-in hybrid B-class car, then you can choose between Lynk & Co 07 EM-P and Haibao DM-i.

As for the fuel-powered joint venture cars of the same level, they will most likely lose ground to domestic new energy B-class cars and eventually exit the market. However, at this stage, joint venture B-class cars can still gain some living space with their remaining brand influence and crazy price reduction policies, so they will still become rivals of Lynk & Co 07 EM-P.

So, what kind of results will Lynk & Co 07 EM-P achieve in the end?

There is an interesting phenomenon in the current Chinese new energy car market, that is, C-class cars sell better than B-class cars. Take BYD and Geely as examples. BYD's Haibao DM-i has not sold more than 6,000 units per month since 2024, while BYD Han, which has a higher positioning and price, has sold more than 10,000 units per month all year round. The same is true for Geely Auto. The 300,000+-level Zeekr 001 can also achieve monthly sales of more than 10,000 units.

This may prove that consumers are not very receptive to plug-in hybrid B-class cars, and even BYD cannot get a piece of this market. Objectively speaking, the positioning of plug-in hybrid B-class cars is indeed awkward. Its overall performance is much lower than that of C-class cars, but its price cannot compete with plug-in hybrid A-class cars such as Qin PLUS and Geely Galaxy L6. It feels like it is neither high nor low.

Therefore, the sales volume of Lynk & Co 07 EM-P is unlikely to be very high. 5,000 units sold per month should be a normal level, which is also the current performance of the Haibao DM-i. The overall performance of Lynk & Co 07 EM-P is not inferior to that of the Haibao DM-i. It has a certain disadvantage in terms of brand. If it can reach the sales volume level of the Haibao DM-i, it can be called a success.

The biggest beneficiaries of the competition between Lynk & Co 07 EM-P and Haibao DM-i are ordinary consumers, who finally no longer have to choose among a bunch of low-profile and high-priced joint venture B-class cars; the biggest victims are joint venture B-class cars, which used to dominate the market, but are now being surpassed by domestic new energy B-class cars in terms of product performance, and the low-profile and high-priced approach is becoming less and less recognized. It can be said that the process of the continuous launch of models such as Lynk & Co 07 EM-P is the process of the continuous shrinkage of models such as Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Volkswagen Passat.

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.