Qiantu K50 rolls off the production line, Lu Qun's "Dragonfly" finally takes off

On June 30, just after the summer solstice, the south entered the plum rain season.

At the Qiantu Automobile factory in Suzhou, Lu Qun and hundreds of employees gathered around a K50, raised their hands to celebrate and took photos. This was the first mass-produced K50 to roll off the production line.

Lu Qun gave a thumbs up, and all the employees gave a thumbs up as well. This was a thumbs up from them. Among many new energy vehicle manufacturers, only Qiantu chose the route of pure electric supercars.

There was no choking of tears from Li Bin, nor was there the pomp and circumstance of Jia Yueting. On the day when the K50 rolled off the production line, Lu Qun only posted a photo on WeChat Moments with the caption: Song of the Enterprising.

1. Eight years of hard work

The public first got to know the name "Qiantu" at the 2015 Beijing Auto Show. At that time, Great Wall Huaguan first displayed the prototype of Qiantu K50, which was positioned as a pure electric sports car with a dragonfly logo.

As early as 2010, Great Wall Auto established its electric division and started the research and development of three-electric technology. Prior to this, Great Wall Auto exhibited the "Scorpio" and "New Scorpio" concept sports cars at the Beijing Auto Show in 2008 and 2010 respectively.

At that time, Scorpio was positioned as an internal combustion sports car equipped with a BMW engine. The establishment of the Electric Business Unit in 2010 marked the abandonment of the traditional route by Great Wall Corolla and the shift to a pure electric model.

That year, there were two other major events: one was the implementation of the national policies on new energy, and the other was the listing of Tesla on NASDAQ. It can be said that the low-key Great Wall Automotive Group was early in the layout of electric vehicles. This is completely different from some newcomers who came on the scene a few years later.

Lu Qun, who was born in Beijing Jeep, has a calm and restrained business style. The imprint left on him by traditional enterprises is fully reflected in Qiantu. Compared with Byton, which has various press conferences and high-profile publicity, Qiantu is a bit too down-to-earth.

Chejujun is a good friend of several employees of Qiantu Company. During our interactions, I found that this company is very gentle and down-to-earth. At a certain auto show, when talking about the technical details of K50, everyone talked freely, without the kind of tit-for-tat and polite perfunctory between manufacturers and the media.

2. The national supercar dream

While many new power brands are betting on SUVs, only Qiantu has chosen an electric supercar as its first product. This is the same as Tesla's initial entry point, starting with niche users, mass verification, perfecting technology, building a brand, and then entering the mass market.

The price of K50 has not been announced yet, but the sales company is expected to announce the price in the next January or February, which is about 600,000 to 800,000 yuan. To be honest, for a brand that is still unfamiliar to the public, it is not cheap.

Moreover, the current performance indicators of the K50 are a combined power of 320kW and an acceleration of 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds, which is not considered a "super" sports car. The reason why it is called an electric supercar is entirely due to its cool appearance design.

The exaggerated exterior design is indeed somewhat inconsistent with the actual acceleration level of 4.6 seconds. However, the K50 is calibrated in this way partly to leave room for subsequent improvements, and another reason is the obstacles of technical standards at the regulatory level.

In order to achieve lightweight, K50 uses a large amount of carbon fiber composite materials and designs an all-aluminum alloy frame body. The carbon fiber material here is mainly used in the body cover, and the main body of the body is still aluminum alloy and high-strength steel. If it is used in the body structure like BMW, the cost will be very high.

It is said that Qiantu Motors has also solved the industry difficulty of large thermal deformation of aluminum alloy welding, but no specific details were disclosed. I am also very curious about what process Qiantu used. The aluminum alloy body of Cadillac CT6 also encountered this problem before, and it was finally solved by seeking the assistance of Japanese suppliers.

In any case, the K50 is the first pure electric supercar independently developed by a Chinese company. Compared with "crazy" products like Rimac, we are a bit "weak". But the quality of traditional car companies is to seek progress in stability, which is what many new power brands lack.

Look at the "ancestor" Tesla. Although it is relatively aggressive, its technological iteration has also been accumulated over fifteen years. It is not like Faraday Future or Lucid Motors, which shocked everyone as soon as they appeared, fully armed with all kinds of black technologies, and looked like they were born with difficulty.

3. Song of the Aspiring

Lu Qun is not like Jia Yueting, who defines himself as a disruptor and does not have any "chemical reaction". He believes that his future is to be an enterprising person, from a traditional car person to a new force car maker.

In the Chinese automotive industry, it is rare for small factories to conduct forward research and development. Although electric vehicles are less complex than fuel vehicles, it is still difficult to create a high-performance product that meets the 100,000-kilometer warranty.

For electric sports cars, the three major challenges are electronic control system management, lightweight technology, and vehicle control management. According to official data, Qiantu Motors has submitted a total of 1,190 patents, of which 415 have been approved.

We do not judge success or failure by patents, but ultimately by product strength. Moreover, patents are "deceptive". Some car companies' so-called patent rights are to outsource technology research and development to foreign teams, and then agree that the ownership of the research and development results belongs to the buyer, thereby obtaining the so-called "independent technology".

From what I know about Qiantu Automobile, except for the chassis which was tuned by British company Mira, all other core technologies were developed by Qiantu itself or in collaboration with suppliers, and were not outsourced to any third-party team and then patented. Lu Qun should give himself a thumbs up for the thumbs up.

Summary of the car gathering

Qiantu K50 "saves the country in a roundabout way" and realizes the Chinese dream of building their own supercar. If it uses traditional power, then the identity of this car is the same as W Motors' Lykan, which is designed with a shell and installed with a Porsche engine to cheat the rich. In China, it is extremely difficult to mass produce such a car.

The dividend of electric vehicles has given Qiantu Motors a chance to prove itself. Lu Qun does not need to become Musk, and Qiantu does not need to become Tesla.

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.