On the evening of April 8th, IM Motors held a technical conference featuring the IM L6. Previously, this new car had attracted industry attention with its marketing tagline ‘First mass-produced vehicle equipped with ultra-fast charging solid-state batteries’.
At the press conference, IM Motors Co-CEO Liu Tao once again emphasized the deep integration between IM L6 and Xiaomi SU7. From an external perspective, this is partly because the two models have similar positioning, and on the other hand, it may be a strategic move for the IM L6 brand to gain more traffic and popularity through its association with Xiaomi SU7.
“The smart electric vehicle market has become even hotter in recent days because of Lei Jun (the founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group) and his SU7. During the press conference, Lei Jun clearly demonstrated that SU7 outperforms Model 3. Today, instead of comparing with Model 3, let’s directly compare the strengths of L6 and SU7.” Although focusing on the Xiaomi SU7 model, Liu Tao emphasized that in this era where ‘short is king’, while traffic is important, technological innovation is the true long-term strategy.
For intelligent configuration, Liu Tao said: “Not long ago, we actually saw some clever smart tricks, flashlights, phone holders, external speaker stands, external ambient lights. It can really be described as a dazzling array of products. My team and I admire the imagination of other car-making teams very much.” The above accessories are all products just released by Xiaomi Auto.
When introducing the smart driving aspect, Liu Tao said: “I calculated that it took us nearly 6 minutes to introduce smart driving. At this time, if we compare it to Xiaomi SU7’s launch event, Lei Jun finished talking about smart driving in just 1 minute. Sometimes I can’t help but admire Lei Jun’s efficiency.” After speaking, Liu Tao bowed slightly towards the audience.
During the product introduction stage, Liu Tao “imitated” Lei Jun’s “data benchmarking” approach, comparing the battery capacity, energy density, peak voltage of the motor, and maximum power of Xiaomi SU7 Max version with IM L6 ultra-performance version. “We can see that SU7 has put a lot of effort into the power battery, drive motor, electronic control system, and SU7’s 800V platform is very close to IM’s 800V platform,” said Liu Tao.
However, when introducing the electric drive system, Liu Tao stated that the IM L6 ultra-performance version uses front and rear dual SiC (silicon carbide) electric drives, while the Xiaomi SU7 Max uses front IGBT and rear SiC module electric drives, which is not consistent with Xiaomi‘s official promotion.
Although Liu Tao apologized and clarified through her personal social platform after the press conference, stating that the above errors were due to “incorrect research results of product information,” Xiaomi‘s spokesperson, verified as “Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd.,” continued to post three Weibo posts from the evening of April 8th to early morning on April 9th, saying: “We do not accept casual informal apologies from individuals. We once again urge IM Motors to immediately clarify publicly and formally apologize to the misled public!”
In the content released in the early hours of April 9th, a spokesperson for Xiaomi stated, “Regarding the repeated harassment and defamation by IM Motors recently, our tolerance has its limits. We firmly believe that IM Motors’ unreasonable, illegal, and disgraceful behavior is completely inconsistent with SAIC Group’s corporate culture, values and industry status, as well as with the historical trend of unity and development of China’s new energy vehicles.”
SEE ALSO: Xiaomi SU7 Delivery Time Extended, Orders Now Scheduled 3 to 6 Months Ahead
Later, IM Motors issued an apology letter through Weibo in the early hours of April 9th and tagged a spokesperson from Xiaomi. The apology letter indicated that during the just-concluded ‘Beyond All Desires’ IM L6 super intelligent sedan launch event, there was an error in labeling a key parameter due to a team content review oversight when comparing with the recently discussed Xiaomi SU7 product capabilities. “Both front and rear motors of Xiaomi SU7 Max version adopt SiC silicon carbide modules, consistent with the technology used by IM L6, both are industry-leading technological standards. Xiaomi‘s car and its product SU7 are our respected competitors! Due to an internal audit oversight causing negative impact on Xiaomi‘s car, we deeply apologize and sincerely apologize to all fans and users!” stated IM Motors in the apology letter.
In fact, Liu Tao had mentioned Xiaomi‘s car several times before the launch of IM L6. On April 6th, Liu Tao expressed on her personal Weibo account: “Xiaomi‘s car is indeed fast. It only took three years from the platform to produce the first complete vehicle. Starting from scratch in R&D for native platforms, with such a complex testing and validation plan for both vehicles and components, following the pace of major manufacturers’ R&D testing, it would be difficult to accomplish without 4-5 years. Internet companies can achieve this efficiently and quickly; indeed there is a feeling of ‘running fast with excitement in my heart.”
Liu Tao also stated at the IM Motors L6 launch event: “IM Motors has always insisted that technological innovation is the core driving force of progress in this era.”
For this incident, some netizens commented in the section below, saying “this time I stand with Xiaomi” and “IM Motors just knows how to ride on traffic, support Xiaomi.” However, there are also netizens who joked by saying “Porsche hasn’t sued you yet,” “I can bump into others for compensation, but others cannot do the same to me,” and “Xiaomi repeatedly harasses Tesla and Porsche.”
It is worth mentioning that the appearance design and wheel styling of the Xiaomi SU7 have been questioned by the public for possible ‘plagiarism’ traces. For example, some netizens questioned the similarity between the side lines and steering wheel design of Xiaomi SU7 with Porsche Taycan; similarities in front headlight styling with McLaren 720S; rear taillight design language similar to Aston Martin; and 20-inch ‘flower-shaped wheels’ resembling those of Lamborghini Aventador LP700.
For the IM Motors L6 launch event on April 8th, the official Weibo account of IM Motors issued another statement on the afternoon of April 9th, apologizing to Xiaomi Auto. “During the IM Motors L6 launch event on April 8th, there was an error in labeling the parameters of Xiaomi SU7. We sincerely apologize once again. Here, we would like to earnestly clarify that IM Motors did not have any deliberate intention to discredit in this incident,” said IM Motors.
IM Motors also stated in the apology letter, “Subjectively, we really did not have the intention to deliberately discredit, and we have no intention or ability to challenge Xiaomi‘s overwhelming traffic.”
At the same time, IM Motors explained the causes and consequences of the whole incident. “Unfortunately, Xiaomi spokesperson used harmful moral derogatory terms such as ‘intentionally spreading rumors, smearing, harassing, indecent’ in three official responses, escalating to a denial of IM brand and parent company SAIC Group’s corporate culture and values. We kindly ask Xiaomi to be more restrained in words,” said IM Motors.
SEE ALSO: Xiaomi SU7 Goes on Sale for 27 Minutes, With Sales Exceeding 50,000 Units
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