In a recent video commentary, D1EV founder Pang Yicheng borrows a question from the restaurant trade and applies it to the car business: what does it actually take to get through the current market cycle? His answer is that an automaker today has to operate like a top-tier viral restaurant — the kind of establishment that draws customers across the whole country.
The reasoning comes down to reach and positioning. Only with that kind of pull, he argues, can a brand genuinely connect with China's hundreds of millions of potential buyers, and let pricing do the work of choosing its customer base — rather than getting swept into follow-the-crowd price wars. Pulling that off also demands a standout specialty, which he sums up as "一招鲜": one move so distinctive it becomes the brand's calling card.
Assemble the pieces and his survival formula for the industry reads like this: dependable quality, value generous enough that buyers feel they got their money's worth, low prices — plus that one signature strength. In his view, that combination is what allows a carmaker to cross the cycle rather than be flattened by it.