Reporter Duan Siyao
The domestic automobile market is full of enthusiasm, and the speed of new car releases and product iterations by car companies is constantly accelerating.
On August 13th, the 2025 Extreme Krypton 001 and Extreme Krypton 007 were launched. Among them, the Jike 001 has been on the market for less than half a year. From a configuration perspective, the main change of the new model is the upgrade in the field of intelligent driving. For example, the 2025 Extreme Krypton 007 comes standard with a LiDAR across the entire lineup and upgrades the intelligent driving chip to a dual Orin X.
(Jike) pursues continuous leadership, not only in market performance, but also in creating intergenerational leadership in all dimensions. Jike's intelligent drive, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent driving have all ushered in a new generation of evolution. "On the night of the launch of the 2025 Jike 001 and Jike 007, Jike Intelligent Technology CEO An Conghui said.
Jike wants to be a "leader" in product updates and iterations, but not a "lone warrior". Recently, the BYD Ocean Network 2025 Sea Lion and Sea Lion 07 DM-i were launched, while the Sea Lion Honor version was only launched in March this year, just over four months ago. Some argue that the current iteration speed of new energy vehicles is comparable to that of smartphones.
Intelligent electric vehicles enter the era of 'speed competition'
Zhu Jiangming, founder, chairman, and CEO of Zero Run Motors, once said, "In the past, domestic automobile companies generally updated their products every four years, while overseas it may take six years. I think intelligent electric vehicles should be updated every two years because they are electronic products
Compared to traditional automakers, new car manufacturers often rely on higher-level intelligent cockpits and intelligent assisted driving chips to strengthen their innovative labels. They compete for the "first release" like smartphone companies to enhance their innovative labels. Therefore, in the promotion of multiple smart electric vehicles, companies are emphasizing the "debut".
For example, the 2025 Jike 001 will be launched with Jike AI OS and Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0. According to Chen Qi, the head of Jike Intelligent Driving, "Unlike the rule driven approach in the 1.0 stage, Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 brings the Scene Cognitive Model (SCM) and Interactive Control Model (IPM). SCM can understand more than 1000 new traffic scenarios, and cognitive accuracy has been improved by over 120%. IPM integrates prediction, decision-making, and planning into a large model, trained on the driving experience data of experienced drivers, and maximizes the restoration of human driving style
Some people believe that whether it is Zero Run, Extreme Krypton, or BYD, the reason why they have shortened the product iteration speed to about six months is not unrelated to the current fierce market competition. Recently, He Zhiqi, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of BYD Passenger Cars, responded to the question of whether BYD's renewal speed this year is a bit fast, saying, "New energy vehicles have entered the era of speed competition, and we must fully turn on the power and continue to accelerate
In an internal speech, Li Bin, founder, chairman, and CEO of NIO, also stated, "We used to have a five-year strategic plan and considered it for a longer period of time. But now the market fluctuates too much and changes too quickly. If we look at things from a five-year perspective, it may be easy to have unclear goals when making many plans. Therefore, this time we only have a two-year business plan and think through the two-year process thoroughly. The research and development cycle and resource investment cycle of many products are around two years
Fuel car companies are also taking the initiative to 'learn from experience'
Unlike smart electric vehicles, which have a product iteration cycle of as short as six months, gasoline vehicles often have the saying of "one year for a facelift, three years for a major overhaul, and five years for a new generation", and some models even require longer replacement times.
For example, recently, the chief engineer of the Land Cruiser car series revealed that "the development of the new Prado took 6 years." He believes that providing users with better experience products and ensuring product quality still takes some time, and hopes that users can continue to use this car after ten, twenty, or even longer years of experience.
Not only Toyota, but also Honda and Audi are sticking to the 48 month research and development time. Guangqi Honda has announced that it is still adhering to a complete 48 month R&D and validation cycle, strictly following a complete quality management system. Audi also adopts a 48 month development process, compared to the 30 month rush development process of some new forces, which includes an additional 6 months of parts and vehicle warranty approval time.
In addition to the lengthy development process, traditional car companies also value the testing phase before product delivery. For example, before delivering Audi products, a total of over 7 million kilometers of vehicle testing covering 44 test modules and 10 extreme working conditions must be completed to complete the "two winters and two summers" product validation and ensure long-term product quality.
It is worth mentioning that as traditional car companies accelerate their transformation towards the intelligent electric track, these companies are also beginning to learn from new car manufacturers. The multiple collaborations between Volkswagen and Xiaopeng Motors are an example. Volkswagen stated that by jointly developing with Xiaopeng Motors, Volkswagen will significantly accelerate its development speed. According to the plan, Volkswagen's new car development cycle will be shortened from 54 months to 36 months, in order to keep up with the development efficiency of Chinese competitors.
Yamazaki Shohei, Senior Vice President of Nissan Motor Corporation, Chairman of Nissan China Management Committee, and President of Dongfeng Motor Corporation, believes that "to overcome the impact of price competition in the Chinese market and improve Nissan's competitiveness in the Chinese market, the key is to push products to the market more quickly and shorten the research and development cycle