On September 22nd, Lantu Dreamer 9 was officially launched. The new car offers both plug-in and pure electric power options, with a price range of 419900 yuan to 529900 yuan. As the flagship MPV of Lantu, the Dreamer 9 is equipped with Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS 5, HarmonySpace 6 for the HarmonySpace cockpit, a full range 800C high-pressure platform, and the Tiguan chassis P solution. It is equipped with three chamber air suspension, dual valve EDC damping system, and bidirectional 10 ° rear wheel steering, balancing the comfort of a large MPV with the handling flexibility of a sedan like vehicle.

However, what really impressed people at this press conference may not be the price and configuration list. On the eve of its listing, Lantu conducted a series of extreme real car tests such as "Six Car Stacked Tower" and "Double layered One Word Horse", and put itself on the hot search list of social media. Prior to this, Lantu also took on challenges and tests such as climbing Hero Hill and 360 degree loop, and in just a few months, transformed itself into the most adept central state-owned automobile brand in terms of "liveliness".

Before the launch of this new car, the Lantu Dreamer 9 had already gained a wave of attention in a unconventional way. On September 4th, the official Weibo account of Lantu released a brief notice: the pre-sale event for Lantu Dreamer 9 has been cancelled. At 10am the next day, the new car will start pre-sale directly. Lantu Automobile Chairman Lu Fang's explanation for this is: "What we stopped was not the press conference, but redundant marketing hype

This judgment has its industry background. In the first half of 2026, there will be over 600 domestically launched and upgraded car models, with nearly a thousand press conferences held by car companies. At one point, there was a scene of 12 consecutive press conferences in a single day. Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, bluntly stated that "hearing the press conference makes me feel a bit nervous," while Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Automobile, defined it as "press conference inflation." As more press conferences are held, the information density decreases, and user attention is severely diluted.

Cancelling pre-sales is just the beginning. What really made Lantu popular on social media was a series of extreme challenges. During the pre-sale stage, Lantu released a "Six Car Stacking Tower" test video: Six Dreamers were vertically stacked to form a nearly 11 meter high and 18.1-ton "tower". The bottom level vehicles completed dynamic driving conditions such as starting, accelerating, and braking under pressure, and traveled with a load of 35 meters.

According to Lu Fang, the weight borne by the bottom vehicle is about 15 tons, which is equivalent to 4 to 5 times the national standard requirement. At the launch event, Lantu showcased a martial arts performer completing a "double layered one legged horse" challenge on the overlapping roof of the Dreamer 9. Two vehicles at the bottom synchronously drove past the speed bump, and the performer on the roof remained steady.

Even earlier, the "clean-up" of other models under the Lantu brand was equally impressive. In June this year, Landu Mount Taishan X8 launched a live broadcast challenge at the Yichang professional off-road testing ground in the state of the original factory's mass production of plain cars without safety ropes, and climbed a 45 °, 100% gradient, stepped steep slope at one time; In July, the whole terrain of Mount Taishan X8 "Duyin Mountain" crosses about 100km, and the dry drawn heroic slope (the maximum is 32 °, and the sandy road surface exceeds 250m); In August, Lantu Chasing Light S released a 360 ° tunnel loop challenge video, in which the vehicle accelerated to a critical speed of 130km/h in a very short distance and completed a complete rotation along the top surface of the tunnel arc with a precise 16 ° turning angle. Lantu officially stated that it was tested on the actual vehicle without any special effects.

The series of operations by Lantu does not seem like a state-owned enterprise in the new energy brand of central state-owned enterprises. For a long time, the impression of state-owned enterprises in the automotive industry has been "traditional" and "stable", and their marketing has also tended to be conservative. But Lantu's approach is breaking this stereotype, and has even been praised by peers as the "most effective new energy brand among state-owned enterprises".

Behind this transformation is the pressure of market competition and the result of Lantu's own transformation. In the first half of 2026, the competition in China's new energy vehicle market will be fierce, and the pace of new car releases will continue to accelerate. How to capture users' attention in the information flood has become a common challenge faced by all car companies. At the marketing level, Lantu encourages the team to quickly try and adjust, saying 'mistakes can be made, but we cannot stay put'. This market-oriented organizational atmosphere provides the soil for "whole life" marketing.

Lantu's "whole life" marketing has shown a clear polarized evaluation in the industry and public opinion. The positive reviews are focused on two points. Firstly, Lantu's marketing innovation is indeed supported by product strength. Taking the example of the large loop of the Chasing Light S Tunnel, some comments believe that "one shot to the end, flawless". Secondly, Lantu attempted to respond to public doubts about China's chassis technology capabilities through extreme testing. Shao Mingfeng said in an interview that these tests are not meant to show off skills, but to let users understand the vehicle's ability redundancy and its ability to get out of trouble in special situations.

Doubts also exist. The most concentrated criticism points to the "six car tower" test of Dreamer 9. Some comments suggest that there are precedents for stacked car testing in the industry, and both Volvo and Xiaomi have faced similar challenges. Lantu "used imitation" and lacked innovation.

Coincidentally, on the same day that Lantu Dreamer 9 showcased the "Double layered One Word Horse" challenge to the public, Ideal Auto also took on a similar challenge on the Ideal new model. Regarding this, Shao Mingfeng said, "This is truly a coincidence, as heroes share similar views. Essentially, everyone is doing this to express that Chinese chassis already has the strength to lead the world

More noteworthy is that there is also a contradiction within Lantu. Lu Fang previously criticized the industry's "exaggerated style" marketing in multiple public occasions, stating that "it doesn't make sense to be the best on Earth or the strongest in the entire universe. But at the same time, Lantu itself is also conducting visually impactful marketing displays. Some comments have pointed out that this attitude of "criticizing the theatrical effect while participating in traffic performances" constitutes a certain degree of "double standards".

Lantu's "live streaming" has indeed been effective in terms of dissemination. In recent months, Lantu has frequently appeared on the hot search due to multiple extreme challenges, and has sparked discussions among consumers about its product capabilities. But whether the marketing volume can be converted into sustained sales still depends on the overall strength of its products.

(Author Wang Shuaiguo)