Unhideable Anxiety in the Automotive Circle

Author | Chai Xuchen

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

In 2025, the domestic automotive industry is experiencing a wave of anxiety, with high horsepower speed and passion, self-driving technology that boasts "zero takeover," and hidden door handles that follow the racing trend... In the face of intensified homogenization competition, these experiences once exclusive to million-level luxury cars are being rapidly "downgraded" to mass-market models by automakers.

Just as the consumer market heats up, and the industry's worship of performance has reached extremes, a series of subsequent lessons have pulled the industry and users back to rationality.

Since the beginning of the year, many popular brands in the public opinion arena have faced backlash. First, it was Xiaomi Auto, which encountered a traffic accident on the Anhui highway at the end of March, followed by issues of locking horsepower without communicating with car owners, and then the "carbon fiber hole-punching hood" rights protection incident. This once-popular newcomer in car manufacturing seems to be facing unprecedented challenges.

On the eve of the Shanghai Auto Show, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a normative requirement document regarding the promotion and functions in the field of intelligent driving, prompting star players in the self-driving track to revise their copy overnight. Subsequently, the Ministry also initiated the "Safety Technical Requirements for Automotive Door Handles," pointing out issues such as insufficient strength and power failure of hidden door handles, which could affect accident rescue and escape, and publicly solicited opinions on the mandatory national standard revision plan.

It is undeniable that in the era of new energy, the intersection of cutting-edge technology and traditional automobiles has brought once-unattainable expensive "black technology" from movies into reality. Manufacturers hope to create a more high-end or advanced brand image through it, thereby gaining an advantage in market competition.

From the perspective of automotive industry insiders, such "showing off technology" is the most "cost-effective" in the new energy era. "Most drivers have only a vague understanding of how to handle high-performance electric vehicles, and more and more automakers are making 'performance' their core selling point, yet they do not provide safety education for users."

"A car that can't stop doesn't deserve to be called a performance car; assisted driving without hardware support is all pseudo-assisted driving." Qin Peiji, newly appointed president of Lotus China, has brought the balance of speed and passion, technology and safety to the forefront, injecting rationality back into the current restless automotive market.

In fact, as the global automotive industry embraces a new energy revolution today, obtaining power performance has become unprecedentedly simple. While many automakers are obsessed with the horsepower arms race, how can drivers truly harness this powerful energy? Amidst the industry's collective frenzy, Lotus Cars is injecting a dose of sobriety into the industry with its track-level safety training camp.

Recently, Lotus announced an investment of 20 million to launch the world's first free advanced safety driving public training program, the "Lotus Track-Level Safety Driving Training Camp."

In Lotus's view, mastering a high-performance car requires not only strong mechanical qualities but also matching driving abilities. Therefore, it has invited Lotus engineering experts and FIA-certified racing coaches to co-teach. Users can practice high horsepower acceleration/braking, slippery road handling, and other skills in a safe closed track environment.

This attempt to feed track technology back into civilian safety is redefining the value of "performance"—true driving dignity lies not in acceleration data, but in the ability to control mechanical limits The more far-reaching impact lies in its open chassis database accumulated over 77 years, which promotes the sharing of extreme condition testing data in the industry. This shift from closed competition to ecological co-construction thinking may break the deadlock of "innovation involution."

Lotus, as a brand with 77 years of racing heritage, understands that high horsepower is no longer a scarce resource, and that while people may drive high horsepower, their abilities may not necessarily improve in tandem. Therefore, Lotus made a significant announcement at the Shanghai Auto Show, declaring that it would open-source its chassis technology.

Qin Peiji stated that Lotus's mission is not only to create high-performance cars but also to ensure that drivers can safely enjoy speed. To promote the important development of handling safety in the industry, Lotus has opened its chassis database accumulated over 77 years to the entire industry, including testing and research and development data of various Lotus sports cars under extreme conditions.

Supporting this generous act of chassis open-sourcing is Lotus's profound engineering technical foundation.

Looking back, when Porsche was researching ceramic composite brake systems, Lotus had already secured 7 F1 championships; when Ferrari was continuously improving engine technology, Lotus was studying aerodynamics; when "far ahead" was frequently mentioned, Lotus was still refining its chassis technology. All performance cars cannot bypass this Lotus.

Among them, the key chassis tuning capability has been inherited by the Lotus engineering team, which has designed and tuned nearly a thousand models worldwide. It is worth mentioning that Tesla's first-generation supercar, the Roadster, was upgraded based on the Lotus Elise chassis.

The open-sourcing of chassis technology is also Lotus's "sunny strategy" to redefine and externally promote racing culture. Eleven years ago, when Tesla open-sourced its patents, it significantly accelerated the rapid development of new energy vehicles. Clearly, Lotus wants to replicate this success and become the whistleblower of the supercar racing track.

On the other hand, Huawei's upcoming "Smart Driving Safety Training Camp" model is also enlightening: users must complete 4 hours of theoretical training and practical assessments to activate full functionality. This "technology driving system" may reshape the relationship between people and cars. When insurance companies offer a 12% premium discount to owners who complete the training, it shows the potential for integrating business logic with safety responsibility.

Tracing back, the collective anxiety of car companies is actually a desire left behind in the fierce competition of the industry. Researchers point out that the current industry environment is extremely involuted, leading to short-sightedness in both upstream and downstream. When users' vehicles have problems, the reasons consumers see and the fundamental reasons analyzed by the automakers often do not align.

However, repeated accidents and public opinion are key opportunities to drive automakers and consumers back to rationality. Moving forward, how to find a balance between technological innovation and safety will determine whether players can truly take root in the automotive market