At the iCAR brand night of Mirimiqi, Chery finally became foreign.

Just one year later, the iCAR brand has once again ushered in rejuvenation, from product design, product positioning, to all VI vision and brand slogans, which Chery calls "brand upgrading".

On April 16th last year, Chery officially released its fourth brand "iCAR". At that time, iCAR showed its first brand-new pure electric SUV-icar03, and unveiled a concept car iCAR GT, and even specially launched an "I" logo designed by jigsaw puzzle.

At that time, there was a feeling in the whole press conference that Chery, who lives in Wuhu, wanted to build a new energy brand for the young market. The perception of this brand was still a bit "rustic" and there was a feeling that "the science man pretended to be a hipster".

ICAR brand was promoted step by step last year, and iCAR 03 was officially listed at the beginning of this year after a year of preheating. Although the sales volume of iCAR 03 has now exceeded 8,000 vehicles, the volume of the market and the popularity among young consumers are not high.

The turning point of events occurred on March 30th this year-which happened to be the third day when Xiaomi SU7 was listed-Su Jun, CEO of Zhimi Technology, posted a detailed picture of an off-road vehicle on social media, and the brand on it was written as "iCAR V23", which quickly attracted the attention of a small number of car enthusiasts.

Soon after, some media officially released the static live video of iCAR V23, and with a series of official maps released by the iCAR team, the whole social media was "chain detonated".

Young consumers wandering on social media quickly found this pure electric SUV that looks like the "mini version of the guardian" and has a classic hard-core off-road vehicle design style, and their eyes were quickly attracted by it. At that time, there were rumors that this car was the legendary "Redmi Automobile", which is the deputy brand of Xiaomi Automobile. With Su Jun’s certification as "CEO of Zhimi Technology", the term "Redmi Automobile" seems to be "traceable".

Soon, Zhimi Technology and Xiaomi issued separate articles, explaining that iCAR V23, Zhimi Technology CEO Su Jun, Zhimi Technology and Xiaomi Ecological Chain have no equity relationship, nor are they the so-called "millet ecological chain cars". However, these relationships show that the inclusion in the listing boom of Xiaomi SU7 quickly made the general public pay more attention to the relationship between iCAR and Xiaomi’s ecological chain, which further made iCAR V23 an instant hit and the iCAR brand re-entered the general public’s field of vision.

Until April 12, Chery iCAR brand night, Chery and Su Jun officially presented the brand-new iCAR brand in front of the stage, which gradually clarified the status quo of Chery iCAR brand.

Yin Tongyue, Party Secretary and Chairman of Chery Holding Group, defined iCAR as a "new special zone" created by Chery Group. He emphasized that Chery has no upper limit on its investment in the development of iCAR, and its goal is to help iCAR enter the first camp of new energy.

Another protagonist of the conference is Su Jun, CEO of Zhimi Technology. He is also the chief product officer of iCAR brand, which is regarded as the "joint leader" of iCAR brand. ICAR brand official said that Su Jun will lead the entrepreneurial team hatched by Zhimi Technology into the iCAR brand. He and his team will be responsible for industrial design, product definition and innovative marketing, while Chery will be responsible for technology development, supply chain and quality management capabilities.

The phrase "the entrepreneurial team hatched by Zhimi Technology" actually shows the new changes in the iCAR team.

According to the understanding of the driving school, the current iCAR brand is actually different from last year’s state and organizational structure. There are rumors that Su Jun originally led the internal team of Zhimi Technology to plan to build a car, which was manufactured by Chery. However, in the end, due to various reasons and decisions, the car-making team that originally belonged to Zhimi became independent and merged with the Chery iCAR brand.

At this point, Su Jun’s Xiaomi eco-chain car has also been integrated into the iCAR brand, and the design, marketing, public relations, engineering and other talents in the team have also merged with iCAR. This also formed the "special zone" model that Yin Tongyue said, which is equivalent to Chery’s semi-opening of the original iCAR brand and its integration with the external market-oriented team, instead of Chery’s overall leadership.

The biggest help for Chery here is that the V23 product originally built by Zhimi Incubation Team was directly incorporated into the iCAR brand, and with the planning of X25 model, the new iCAR brand was directly derived from the original iCAR 03 model to three models in a short time.

Not only is the product line expanded, but after the integration of the new team, the Logo, VI and even Slogan of the whole iCAR brand have been completely replaced.

One of the most prominent places is that the jigsaw puzzle I Logo created by the previous iCAR brand did not appear again at this new iCAR brand conference, and it was replaced by a newly designed iCAR logo. At the same time, including brand promotional videos, product animations, PPT speeches, etc., the new iCAR brand has more youthful and digital features that technology companies like Xiaomi were good at before. From the whole visual point of view, the brand has become more "foreign".

It can be said that these changes are the brand images of so many brands that Chery has built before-except perhaps Guanzhi-which have the most consumption characteristics of the new generation.

However, the core reason why Su Jun and Chery can reach an agreement on the iCAR brand is that the brand positioning of both old and new brands is to build cars for young consumers, and their products are built according to the needs of young users, creating cool and valuable cars for young people. Therefore, the iCAR brand night emphasized "upgrading iCAR brand" instead of appearing as a brand-new brand.

At this brand launch, Su Jun further revealed some information about the previously published iCAR V23 products, and also brought a brand-new series of products-X25.

Some new information about iCAR V23:

With a body length of about -4.2 meters and a wheelbase of 2730mm, you can choose 21-inch large wheels and off-road tires.

-At present, apart from silver, there are two car colors: olive green and Hermes orange, with corresponding interior colors;

-The car is designed with four large sofas, but it is actually a five-seat model. The rear central seat belt is stored on the roof, and the seat can be laid down at 50:50;

-The car system adopts 8155 chip, 2.5K high-definition large screen, 3D HMI based on unreal engine, supports wireless CarPlay, and the UI color tone is consistent with the orange decoration in the car;

-The assisted driving system uses an 8-megapixel forward-looking camera, a 3-megapixel panoramic camera and five millimeter-wave radars. The chip uses Horizon J3+ Qualcomm TDA4 to support L2++ intelligent driving including high-speed NOA;

-The new car will adopt 80-degree Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited battery pack, dual-motor drive and intelligent dynamic torque distribution system;

About iCAR X25:

-This car is positioned as a ONEBOX off-road MPV. Since it is an MPV, it must have a three-row design;

-The length of the car body is about 4.4 meters, the wheelbase is estimated to be more than 2.9 meters, and there is also an exaggerated ground clearance;

-the whole design pursues low wind resistance, which is similar to the ideal MEGA； of mini off-road version;

-Full flat floor design can realize transparent interior space and flexible seat combination;

-The new rear door is designed with opposite doors, which is very interesting;

-The concept car uses a streaming rearview mirror, which may be cancelled in production models.

At the same time, iCAR has made it clear that iCAR will use an extended-range hybrid system, equipped with a range extender with a thermal efficiency of more than 44%, and also released a new car outline. It is reported that this model may be the iCAR 03 Pro version to be released at the Beijing Auto Show, which is the extended-range hybrid model of iCAR 03.

In short, after the upgrade of iCAR brand and team integration, the future iCAR brand will have three product lines: 0, V and X.

Among them, 0 series focuses on exquisite technology and pursues equal rights in science and technology;

V series features off-road style, emphasizing differentiation, high value and super practicality;

X series is committed to becoming a "new species of single-compartment car".

In addition, iCAR plans to launch eight models before 2026, becoming a brand with a youthful lifestyle label.

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