On December 16, 2024, the 11th China Automobile Industry Annual Contribution Award – Xuanyuan Award Ceremony was held at the China Chegu International Sports and Cultural Exchange Center in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The Xuanyuan Award was jointly initiated by the Automotive Business Review and the Austrian EFS in 2013. Adhering to the "three independence" award criteria of independence from business, independence from power, and independence from relationships, global experts selected China’s Car of the Year, seeking samples of China’s auto industry contributions, so as to promote new cars forward.
75 models were submitted, and after the initial evaluation, 40 shortlisted models gathered at the Wuhan Intelligent Connected Vehicle Test Ground. After four rigorous tests and tests of dynamic and static, cockpit ecology and intelligent interaction, intelligent driving experience and scene experience, a total of 25 models entered the final evaluation.
On December 15, the members of the Xuanyuan Award jury gave the final evaluation of 25 models, and the entire selection process was highly discussed.
Dr. Jia Ke, director of the Xuanyuan Awards executive committee, editor-in-chief of the Automotive Business Review and principal of Xuanyuan School, said: "For all winning models, the judges can abstain from voting, and there can be no negative votes. As long as one judge votes against, we continue to discuss until we have a list that everyone agrees on. Our judging process is also a discussion process, during which we can gain a deeper understanding of the industry."
Finally, the list of winners of the 2024 Xuanyuan Award was grandly announced.
Xuanyuan Award TOP10 Model of the Year: Ideal L7, NIO ES6, Jietu Traveler, Xiaopeng G6, MG Cyberster, Warrior 917, Lynk & Co 08 EM-P, Dark Blue S7i, Lantu Chasing Light PHEV, SAIC-GM Wuling Colorful Fruit; Xuanyuan Award Special Award: Excellent Iteration Award – New Lantu Dreamer, Brand Enhancement Award – Nezha S, Rookie Award – Jiyue 01, Scene Innovation Award – Extreme Fox Auto Koala; Xuanyuan Award Nominated Model of the Year: Zhiji LS7, Gahe HiPhi Y, Extreme Krypton X, GAC Trumpchi New Energy E9, Wei Brand Alpine DHT-PHEV, Haobo GT, Haval Raptor SAIC-GM Wuling Baojun Cloud, Geely Galaxy L7, Wenjie New M7, Feifan F7.
Unexpectedly, the 2024 Xuanyuan Award Car of the Year was vacant. This was the first time the Xuanyuan Award had been vacant in 11 years. Why did this happen? The answer will be revealed later.
This year’s Xuanyuan Award Ceremony has added a new link, which is to share the product highlights and product trends discovered by the Xuanyuan Award in the annual evaluation with the industry.
The Xuanyuan Award judge, Professor Ma Jun from the School of Automobile and School of Design and Creativity of Tongji University, shared "The Development Trend of Intelligent Cockpit and New Methods of Product Development". He believes that next year, the big model will be a battleground for military experts, and car companies must do it. They are doing an evaluation system for the big model around the evaluation of the user experience of the big model, the evaluation of the risk of human-machine interaction and the evaluation of safety.
The Xuanyuan Award judge, founder and CEO of Heduo Technology, Ni Kai, released the Xuanyuan Award smart driving test report. This smart driving evaluation is divided into four categories: basic driving, high-end driving, basic parking and high-end parking. In terms of driving, the scores of new power brands, independent new brands and traditional independent brands are equidistant; in terms of parking, new power brands and independent new brands do not reflect advantages. On the contrary, many traditional independent brands have achieved good results.
Zhang Xiaoliang, a Xuanyuan judge and founder and CEO of SoCar Product Strategy Consulting, shared the trends of the Xuanyuan Awards annual evaluation scene experience. "We saw a lot of things from this year’s review that we haven’t seen before, and these things mean that we are going to carry out a new round of innovation in another direction," he said. "Whether these innovations must have logic and can stand the long-term test of the market will take some time to sort out, and may bring more input to our next stage of core scenarios and killer scenarios."
Du Fang, representative of Xuanyuan Award test partner and product director of PATEO, brought the sharing of Xuanyuan Award’s annual test smart cockpit field. The overall trend this year is to face a more hardcore, more delicate, and more connected scene experience, with enhanced scene capabilities and more technology and intelligent blessings. She also put forward some anticipated future trends: the application of large models in the automotive field will become a new trend next year. Whether the natural interaction of multi-modal cockpit will surpass the mobile phone interaction to become a better interaction pattern, the global integration of cockpit, smart driving and vehicle capabilities will bring great challenges.
2024 The 11th Xuanyuan Awards annual evaluation smart driving list was released simultaneously, and outstanding cases of smart driving, smart cockpit and scene experience were also revealed one by one.
There was also a very interesting part of the scene. Minh Cao, an EFS AI expert, used AIGC to generate a set of design drawings of the concept car based on the design features of the top 10 models of the 2024 Xuanyuan Award. In this regard, Wang Xuanzheng, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and a judge of the Xuanyuan Award, asked: "If all our designs are exactly as expected, what role should the user play in the whole system? Where should our emotions and personalities be placed?"
Finally, he commented: "Today, no matter what, we always firmly believe that AI is a tool, not a complete solution. Of course, it must be our interesting minds and souls behind deciding whether it is a tool or a solution."
The only vacancy in the history of the Xuanyuan Award was a unanimous decision by the Xuanyuan Award Executive Committee and the jury members.
Truls Thorstensen, chairperson of the Xuanyuan jury and president and CEO of Austria’s EFS Automotive Enterprise Consulting, said: "If the models we tested this year were in previous years, each model would have the ability to win the final prize."
But at the same time, he pointed out that this year’s automotive products have shown a trend of homogeneity; compared with last year’s products, this year’s automotive products are less daring to try new things; compared with previous years, this year did not see some very good product performance.
Vacancies do not mean a decline in the product and automotive industry, but rather they are generating greater energy, more potential innovation, and better products for the future.
On the basis that there is no model of the year for the 11th Xuanyuan Awards, we put forward the "Xuanyuan Ten Questions":
Jia Ke said that the "Xuanyuan Ten Questions" posed a big "question mark" for the Chinese auto industry, and this question mark is the question mark at the peak.
"In the new track of new energy intelligent networked vehicles, we are the vanguard in the world. In a sense, we still followed Tesla, seized the opportunity very closely, and made a lot of innovations in applications. Today, many of our cars have far exceeded the previous standards. We have climbed from the bottom of the mountain to the mountainside. Can we climb the peak again? We may need to answer the’Xuanyuan Ten Questions’. This is also a revelation left to us by the 11th Xuanyuan Award Annual Car Vacancy."
In essence, the "Xuanyuan Ten Questions" is exactly the sober thinking that China’s auto industry needs in the face of fierce competition and high degree of involution.
This year is the 11th Xuanyuan Awards, the beginning of a new decade. Jia Ke said: "I hope that in the new decade, the Xuanyuan Awards will accompany the Chinese auto industry not only to change lanes and overtake, but also to better promote the world’s auto industry to better develop on the new car track."
The new decade of the Xuanyuan Award also requires the continued support of its partners.
The Xuanyuan Award has been associated with the Wuhan Economic Development Zone for three years, and has also witnessed the extraordinary development of the Wuhan Economic Development Zone for three years. Liu Maohua, member of the Wuhan Economic Development Zone Working Committee and deputy director of the Management Committee, sincerely invited entrepreneurs to build a new highland in the automotive industry with China Car Valley in his speech. "We will provide the best policies, the best services, and the best environment to support enterprises to grow and thrive in China Car Valley and create brilliance together."
The Xuanyuan Award and the Da’an Center have been cooperating since 2015. The location of this year’s Xuanyuan Award evaluation activity is the intelligent connected vehicle test factory of the Da’an Center, which provides a solid foundation for the review of the Xuanyuan Award. Wang Jin, general manager of the Da’an Center, said in his speech: "Da’an and Xuanyuan Award have jointly witnessed the ten years of intelligent development of new energy in China’s automobiles, and hope to jointly open a new decade of intelligent network development to the third space."
The Xuanyuan Awards have independent observers, which is the unique feature that distinguishes the Xuanyuan Awards from other awards. Since the 6th Xuanyuan Awards, the Xuanyuan Awards have introduced an independent observer mechanism in order to further increase the transparency of the selection and ensure the fairness and impartiality of the awards. At the award site, Li Jingwen, manager of Ernest & Young Huaming Accounting Firm (Special General Partnership), read out the notarized words and opened the password box where the award list was stored. (Source: China Automotive Industry Annual Contribution Award & mdash; – Xuanyuan Awards)
The following is the list of winners of the 11th Xuanyuan Awards in 2024:
Nominated Car of the Year
Wisdom LS7
Reason for award: With elegant interior and exterior design and the perceived quality of luxury materials, he has created a high-end new energy SUV with interior and exterior.
HiPhi Y
The reason for the award is that it not only integrates the excellent genes of family products, but also demonstrates good handling, enabling the brand to provide consumers with a unique product experience in the new price range.
Krypton X
Reason for award: Following the brand’s car-making quality and driving pleasure, and creating a boutique small SUV with exquisite interior space.
GAC Trumpchi New Energy E9
The reason for the award is that it has not only realized the comprehensive transformation of the enterprise brand to new energy, but also promoted the development of PHEV technology in the MPV market with independent innovation technology.
Wei Brand Alpine DHT-PHEV
The reason for the award: its original flat floor design provides consumers with a high-end new energy MPV with comfortable driving and large space experience.
HOBO GT
The reason for the award: with the sports car shape of scissors door, it provides a cool and fun electric model for young elite consumers.
Haval Raptors
Reason for award: In response to the strong demand for personalized products in the market, we have created a "square shell" light off-road product with solid technology.
SAIC-GM Wuling Baojun Cloud
Reason for award: Unique shape, emphasizing space and comfort, and achieving high-level intelligent driving assistance within 150,000 yuan.
Geely Galaxy L7
The reason for the award: As a work of Geely’s transformation into new energy, it not only has distinct family product characteristics, but also has a high price/quality ratio.
Ask Jiexin M7
Reason for award: Deeply bound to Huawei’s capabilities and reputation, it has achieved a significant increase in sales in the market through the annual model change.
FIFAN F7
The reason for the award is that it provides consumers with exquisite value choices in terms of design, quality, handling, and comfort.
Special Award
Outstanding Iteration Award – New Landscape Dreamer
The reason for the award: This year-old product insists on continuous improvement and iteration in terms of chassis tuning, interior perceived quality, and cockpit experience. Not only has the product experience been greatly improved compared with the previous year’s model, it is refreshing, and the new product has driven the brand’s sales.
Brand Enhancement Award – Nezha S
Reason for award: Not only does the product concept of equal rights in science and technology provide a value choice for more young people to realize the dream of sports cars, but also successfully helps the brand break the inherent cognition of consumers and shape a new corporate brand perception with new products.
Rookie Award – Extreme 01
The reason for the award: This brand-new product has shown its edge in terms of intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, and dynamic performance. At the same time, it still has more room for expansion and imagination in the Internet ecosystem and future product forms, which is worth looking forward to.
Scene Innovation Award – Extreme Fox Car Koala
Reason for award: Truly practicing the concept of scene definition car, in-depth thinking in multiple sub-scenarios such as mother and baby, parent-child, female, etc., carefully excavating user experience and functional demands, providing a good reference sample for market diversification and customization.
III. Top 10 models
Ideal L7
The reason for the award is that it has deeply inherited the characteristics of the brand’s family-owned products and the concept of user scene definition. With its unique product development concept, it has successfully met the needs of new markets and new consumer groups, and achieved market sales success.
NIO ES6
The reason for the award: solid technology, restraint, but also rhythmic continuous improvement and improvement, always maintaining their own brand style, luxury style and accurate crowd positioning in the fierce market competition, demonstrating the uniqueness of the product and brand.
Jettrip
The reason for the award: As the brand’s attempt to break into new categories, it not only has a high degree of product definition and design completion, but also has created a unique experience that supports external expansion hardware, in-car health detection, and other sub-scenarios such as light off-road and travel +.
XPeng G6
Reason for award: With intelligent driving as the core entry point, on the basis of ensuring user experience and perceived value, the successful subtraction has provided consumers and the market with a better quality and cost-effective smart electric new energy vehicle, and achieved good market sales.
MG Cyberster
The reason for the award: This product pays tribute to the classic, and in the new era of smart electricity and new energy, it is designed with unique product definition, product design, and atmosphere, facing both domestic and international markets, demonstrating the confidence and ability of Chinese car companies to build sports cars.
Warriors 917
The reason for the award: the deep combination of off-road, intelligent, new energy, customized modification and other elements has redefined the new luxury off-road category and new species, and has demonstrated solid technical strength and product performance in two different scenarios of daily driving and hard off-road.
Lynk & Co 08 EM-P
The reason for the award: On the basis of inheriting the original product style, it is built with a new power form and an original car-machine interconnection ecology, which not only realizes the brand’s transformation to the era of smart electricity and new energy, but also gains consumer recognition with excellent product experience.
Dark Blue S7i
Reason for award: With its youthful interior and exterior design, good perceived quality, human-machine interaction and third space design, it has once again created a high-end new energy vehicle replacement high-quality and cost-effective model.
Landmap Chasing Light PHEV
Reason for award: Positioning the new energy era executive car, and with good design, material perception quality, space and ride comfort, it fully meets the needs of market segments and unique scene definitions, and has made an active attempt in the field of autonomous new energy executive cars.
SAIC-GM Wuling Bingguo
Reason for award: With a very cost-effective price, better product shape, and perceived quality of interior and exterior decoration, it not only provides consumers with a fashionable and convenient electric scooter, but also drives the company’s brand perception in the small electric vehicle market segment.
