It is the fourth model of the Deep Blue brand. After operating independently from Changan Automobile for more than a year, Deep Blue Automobile has been growing rapidly.

With the first model SL03, it started the brand volume and became the absolute dark horse popular model in the 10-200,000 price range. Deep Blue Automobile took "the first new energy automobile enterprise in the state-owned enterprise to achieve double breakthroughs in scale and profitability" as its corporate goal, and also shouted "Build the’deep bit ‘development pattern of state-owned enterprise Deep Blue, private enterprise BYD, and foreign enterprise Tesla".

Looking back at the story of the dark blue brand in the past two years since its birth on the eve of the L07 listing, it can be said to be a model example of the transformation of domestic traditional car companies to new energy.

Find your spot

Deep Blue Automobile is the second new energy brand hatched in Changan. It was established later than Avita. From the very beginning, its brand positioning and Avita have gone in two different directions, one for the high-end market and the other for the mainstream mass market. This has also allowed the Deep Blue brand to undertake the important task of Changan New Energy’s growth in the market.

In the early period of Changan Deep Blue, after the first model SL03 went on sale and rapidly expanded through the channel advantages of Changan Automobile, Deep Blue soon became famous as a latecomer.

The success of the SL03 also established the brand foundation for the dark blue car.

The 10-200,000 price range is known to be the most competitive in the market and the most difficult for car companies to hit the mass market. New energy vehicles have grown rapidly in recent years, which has caused a great impact on fuel vehicles, but this is mainly reflected in the low-end market below 100,000 yuan and the high-end market above 250,000 yuan. In the 10-200,000 yuan fuel vehicle sales volume is the largest and the most stable market price range, the overall proportion of new energy vehicles is still much lower than that of fuel vehicles.

The reason is that low-end electric vehicles within 100,000 yuan mainly meet the needs of urban transportation, and the price of more than 250,000 yuan, under the blessing of intelligence, brand and service, with the performance advantages of electric vehicles themselves, it is very good to meet the needs of high-budget consumers for high-end models.

At the price of 10-200,000 yuan, people still need to be able to bear the main products of daily household use, which need to meet various use scenarios, and have high requirements for space, configuration, performance and battery life, and can not appear obvious shortcomings. So far, new energy vehicles that can meet the above requirements are still very scarce.

SL03, which makes up for the gap in this category, its main price range is the market where fuel vehicles are more accepted and recognized by users. It is much more difficult to gain a foothold in this market than to win the high-end market of more than 300,000 yuan.

The positioning of the first model fits the gap in the market well, and also sets the image and tone of the dark blue brand. Several models currently on the market have been cultivating the market built around the SL03 in terms of price, configuration, and positioning. This is a key step for the success of dark blue.

Act of innovation

SL03 established the dual energy route of range extension + pure electricity at the beginning of its listing, which was rare in the market where both new car makers and traditional car companies were rolling in the form of pure electricity in the exploration stage of new energy.

Li Auto has only launched models since the beginning of ONE, but the high price is not acceptable to mainstream household users in the mass market. After the launch, it not only gives users dual options, but also allows the power to "afford" the position.

Deep Blue has abandoned the pure fuel route since the beginning of the development of the model platform, balancing the two types of extended range and pure electricity. This approach has not appeared before, and it is this that makes the Deep Blue SL03 extended range version have the advantages of the pure electric platform in power layout and space utilization, while the pure electric version does not compromise because of the extended range power.

This is Deep Blue’s innovative move, which not only completes the layout of dual energy forms, but also optimizes both forms.

Innovation and exploration in the energy situation have allowed Deep Blue to have a relatively loose degree of freedom in the product line, which can not only meet household needs, but also dig deeper into sub-segments. For example, the G318 launched this year is another layer of innovation completed under the deep range extension technology research and development of Deep Blue.

After the successive launch of SL03 and S07 home models, no one would have thought that Deep Blue, which aimed at the mainstream mass market, would use a large SUV for city + off-road as the third model. The launch of G318 not only made Deep Blue’s range extension technology implementation a leap and self-evidence, but more importantly, brought the price of off-road models back to the "mass range". After all, the price of off-road models built by domestic car companies is generally 300,000, and it can also meet the needs of daily urban transportation.

Born out of Changan Automobile, Deep Blue has inherited Changan’s century-old emphasis on product and technical leadership. Although it has been established for less than three years, the growth rate of Deep Blue is very fast.

Embrace the market

After changing from Changan Deep Blue to Deep Blue Automobile, it has been improving the brand operation thinking of traditional car companies in the past, and adapting to the current market competition with a more flexible and changeable style in the new energy transition stage.

NIO’s form of power exchange is unique in today’s global new energy vehicle companies. It makes the way of replenishing pure electric vehicles shift from relying on charging piles to more flexible and fast "battery exchange". After NIO has vigorously carried out power exchange infrastructure building for many years, the current domestic power exchange station layout has been relatively mature. When seeing the advantages of power exchange, Deep Blue chose to cooperate with NIO to innovate in the form of power exchange. In the future, Deep Blue will also launch models that can achieve power exchange.

Secondly, when the new energy market has moved from early electrification to intelligent stage, the competitiveness of car companies today is reflected in intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit. Compared with the intelligent cockpit, it can be completed through the cooperation of car companies and suppliers. Intelligent driving requires car companies to spend huge manpower, material resources, financial resources and time, which is not easy. Deep Blue also took the initiative to choose Huawei as a partner to make up for Deep Blue’s shortcomings in intelligent driving capabilities.

Huawei’s smart driving ability can be felt from the performance of brands such as Q Jie and Avita, and as the current global leader in smart driving, Huawei’s smart driving is also a full selling point, which can help car companies carry out effective marketing publicity. The upcoming L07, Deep Blue officially called it "the only medium-sized car equipped with Huawei’s smart driving in the 200,000". First, let users perceive the relationship between Deep Blue and Huawei’s smart driving, and second, let Huawei’s smart driving enter the mainstream market 200,000. After all, other models equipped with Huawei’s smart driving are priced in the 300,000 range.

Deep Blue’s flexible business philosophy allows it to actively embrace market changes and choose timely and correct measures to respond, which is different from traditional automakers and is also a capability that most new energy automakers do not have.

In more than two years of establishment, it has achieved multiple breakthroughs in sales and market volume. These are the "surprises" that Deep Blue has brought to the new energy market as a rising star. To ask if Deep Blue has succeeded? Maybe the L07 and S05 that will be listed one after another will give a clear answer.