Unexpectedly, the first vehicle to install the Huawei Qiankun intelligent driving system was not Yu Chengdong's luxury smart car, but a mid-range SUV owned by Shenlan under Changan.

On July 25th, the general manager of Shenlan Motors, Deng Chenghao, along with Sa Beining, launched a live broadcast of intelligent driving in the "4D City" of Chongqing, featuring the new mid-size SUV from Shenlan, the Shenlan S07, an upgraded version of the Shenlan S7.

In order to promote the new car, Shenlan has gone to great lengths and involved two top players in the automobile industry; Contemporary Amperex Technology and Huawei. The car is equipped with the Divine Power 3C fast charging battery and debuts the latest Huawei intelligent driving system.

It is reported that the pure visual version of the ADS-SE Huawei Qiankun intelligent driving program is installed on the Shenlan S07. This is equivalent to the entry-level version of the Zhijie S7. It supports intelligent obstacle avoidance, high-speed NOA, and valet parking. It replaces the Deepal AD intelligent driving scheme which relied on high-precision mapping.

Behind the networking with these top companies, Shenlan urgently seeks to alter its fate.

Shenlan's goal is to achieve a balance between profit and loss by the end of this year, and to have the opportunity to become the first new energy enterprise to achieve both scale and profit breakthroughs in state-owned companies. In early July, Deng Chenghao set the goal.

According to plans, Shenlan aims to achieve an annual sales target of 280,000 vehicles this year. However, in the first half of the year, only 84,000 vehicles were delivered, which means that Shenlan needs to achieve a monthly sales target of at least 32,000 vehicles in the second half of the year to achieve its goal.

This is not an easy feat for Shenlan, which has only been independent for a year. How to enhance product power and achieve a "breakthrough" is Deng Chenghao's concern.

He admitted, "At first, we hoped to add an intelligent tag to Shenlan. But over the past year or two, we found that the mark of intelligence has not been achieved, but has instead become associated with youth and technology. This, however, has given Deng Chenghao a new idea, deciding to seek out bright spots in these two areas.

By using Huawei's Qiankun system, which is a top-notch intelligent driving system, on the Shenlan S07, an important addition was made. Moreover, the price was even lowered to within 200,000 yuan. The entry-level version (non-intelligent driving version) costs less than 150,000 yuan. To further promote the car's popularity, Deng Chenghao appeared as a "talk show host" and exchanged quips with Sa Beining on live broadcasts and press conferences.

This time, while partnering with Huawei to lower prices to rock bottom, Deng Chenghao even took efforts to prepare more than 2,000 S07 stock vehicles for early delivery, doing everything possible to prepare for higher sales. It is apparent that Shenlan does not want to stay low-key anymore. Internally, expectations for this car are high, with plans to have stable monthly sales of over 10,000 units, and even a push towards 15,000 units, supporting half of Shenlan's burgeoning business.

However, the challenges facing this new force are increasing.

This year, BYD, Lynk & Co, and Zero Run have all released "king cards," with the Zero Run C series, the Lynk & Co 08, and newly launched BYD Song L DM-i all having similar positioning to the Shenlan S07. The upcoming Mona M03 from Xiaopeng is also lowering the threshold for pure visual high-end intelligent driving to below 150,000 yuan. In addition, the incessant price war has made it difficult for the Shenlan S07 to exceed sales of ten thousand in a month.

To improve its situation, Deng Chenghao plans to speed up Shenlan's product launch. This year, Shenlan has two more car models waiting to launch, including the sister car to the SL03, the "L07" sedan, and an A+ class SUV S05.

Deng Chenghao estimates that Shenlan will achieve monthly sales of 30,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter of this year. Input into each vehicle model, Shenlan S07 will have monthly sales of 10,000, Shenlan SL03 and L07 will collectively achieve 10,000 monthly sales, and the remaining vehicle models will account for 10,000 units. Next year, Shenlan will release a six-seat SUV, bringing the total number of models sold to seven.

At the same time, Shenlan has decided to speed up its overseas expansion. Last year, it launched the right-hand drive version of the L07 and S07 in Thailand, and this year it has sold 11,000 units in Thailand. Deng Chenghao revealed that Shenlan will expand to more than 70 countries and regions next year.

It is worth noting that one of the key reasons for the renaming of the Shenlan S07 (from the Shenlan S7) is to avoid naming-related risks in overseas markets and to position it as Shenlan's global strategic model.

Deng Chenghao's efforts are all aimed at making Shenlan the "leader" of Changan's transformation.

Changan Group mainly relies on Shenlan, Qiyuan, and Avita in its efforts to power its new energy initiatives.

However, the Qiyuan brand in the mid-to-low-end market is still in the nascent stage; the high-end Avita brand is also somewhat constrained and unable to break free from its existing system. The success of SL03 and S7 has garnered some publicity for Shenlan; this also means that Shenlan will need to shoulder more responsibilities and become the main force driving Changan's new energy transformation.

Currently, Deep Blue has already struggled its way to the top of the second-tier, with sales in the first half of the year basically on par with those of JiKe, NIO, and Zero Run. Next, it must work hard to move upward to stabilize the current situation and break through again.

Because its ambition is to reach sales of 800,000 vehicles by 2025 and become a world-class electric car brand. Deng Chenghao even declared that he wants to carve out a third of the market with BYD and Tesla, forming the market pattern of "Shen-Bit".

The target has been set, and Deng Chenghao and his Deep Blue can only accelerate their pace. A high-stakes gamble to become a new force dark horse has already begun.