In China's vast car history, if there is anything that has left the most colorful stroke, it must be a joint venture car company.
Unconsciously, this special system of "market for technology" has been developed for thirty or forty years. With the development of the economy, the development of the automobile industry and the blowout of automotive talents, the price of vehicles has dropped again and again. The number of domestic cars has also soared, and it has now exceeded 300 million. Every family has the dream of a car, which has gradually shone into reality.
But at the same time, independent car companies are not lagging behind, with the tide of the times, began to prepare for the new decade. Southeast Motor, which held the "Wings Renewal" meeting on December 9, is the most typical example.
In this event, Southeast Automobile interpreted the development strategy of the enterprise after the new life of the new life around the four levels of "new development, new product, new logo and new atmosphere", and also showed the industry its newly designed product LOGO, as well as the three new products of multi-functional family car, future science and technology car, and new pure electric coupe.
From the shape of the wings to take off, we can see the determination of Southeast Automobile's transformation and the hope of future grand plans.
First, across the joint venture + autonomy
Founded in 1995, Southeast Automobile is actually one of the few car companies in China that spans joint ventures and independence.
At the beginning of its establishment, Southeast Automobile was led by Fujian Automobile Industry Group Co., Ltd., spanning the two sides of the strait and three places, and was jointly established with The China Automobile Company, a subsidiary of the Taiwanese automobile company Yulon Group, and Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, which perfectly combined the advantages of the three parties in technology, manufacturing, capital and talent.
The "second-hand ten thousand yuan car" Southeast Ling Shuai, which is loved by many media people and track players, is the product of that era. I had the honor of interviewing a car owner at that time, and his feelings about this car were "very heeled, very easy to open, and the throttle was very rushed and did not cost gas." Such an evaluation is also the first impression of many people on Southeast Automobile.
Due to the background of the cross-strait joint venture, Southeast Automobile at that time also attracted 30 excellent supporting parts enterprises of Taiwan Zhonghua Automobile Company to settle across the sea, and the "Southeast Automobile City" also formed a unique scenery. Nowadays, with the development of the domestic automobile industry and the strong support of the Fuzhou Municipal Government, there are more than 150 parts and components enterprises here, and the scale is about to reach the level of 100 billion.
After having the soil to grow, Southeast Automobile launched a series of classic models including Golan, Lingyue, Lingshen, Delica, Fulika and so on after the millennium. Word of mouth continues to be optimistic, and sales have further taken off.
However, the good times did not last long, with the continuous intensification of market competition, Japan's Mitsubishi, which provided models and technologies, failed to keep up with the development of the times, and it was also acquired by Nissan itself, so the sales volume of Southeast Mitsubishi also deteriorated. In May this year, Japan's Mitsubishi, which holds 25% of the shares, exited Southeast Motor, announcing the end of the joint venture era.
Contrary to most people's predictions, it was thought that Southeast Automobile would be silent for a while, but the Fuzhou Municipal Government and the Fujian Automobile Industry Group directly intervened, led the reform of the equity structure of Southeast Automobile, and also pulled fuzhou transportation construction investment group and Minhou County construction investment group to jointly invest in construction.
Today's Southeast Automobile is already a joint blessing of provincial, municipal and county government shareholders, and the first round has increased its capital by 2 billion yuan to help technology research and development. After the equity restructuring, Southeast Automobile also quickly announced a big move, which is the aforementioned renewal meeting.
Second, the product + brand dual drive strategy
At the event site, Southeast Automobile released three new products, all of which adopted a new LOGO with a more design sense. One of the most eye-catching is this pure electric coupe with the internal code name A7.
It is reported that this car is equipped with many "black technology".
For example, AVP autonomous parking technology in the field of intelligent driving can solve problems such as unmanned parking and automatic driving in the last kilometer. You only need to drive yourself to the company downstairs, you can let it drive to the parking lot or charging station, and then pick you up downstairs after work at night; and its S-Pilot intelligent driving system can not only carry out conventional assisted driving and pilot driving, but also make intelligent recognition of faces, voiceprints, actions and other intelligent recognition for the driver, so as to automatically adjust the settings of the vehicle.
As for the field of networking, Xiaonan, the smart housekeeper equipped with this coupe, has built a full-scene intelligent ecosystem, gradually changing from driving in the past to helping people, and car life has become more convenient and convenient.
However, the real name of A7 and the specific parameters have yet to be announced, and the only known news is that Southeast Automobile has declared that "the range is 0 anxiety, low temperature electricity consumption is guaranteed, and safe cars can be safe" and other technical solutions. It is a bold guess that this car is currently under intensive research and development, and the previous 2 billion investment of financial support may provide great support.
In addition to future models, two more current cars are coming on sale next year. One is the A-class crossover SUV Southeast N7, which focuses on the smart tide play scene, which looks quite similar to the A7 and seems to use the same family design language. In addition to the dynamic styling, this car focuses on taking into account personality and performance, and is the first car suitable for young people.
Another blockbuster product is another masterpiece after the Southeast DX3, DX5, DX7, and is also the current flagship SUV of Southeast Automobile, the Southeast DX9.
According to Southeast Motor, the Southeast DX9, which is positioned in a 7-seat B-class SMV, is designed based on the concept of using the scene, and its front, middle and rear rows can comfortably ride 180cm crews at the same time, so it can switch freely in multi-purpose scenarios such as family travel, business office, and caravan, so that the two seemingly contradictory needs of high-end and practical can be balanced.
From the data point of view, the southeast DX9 up to 2800mm wheelbase can accommodate three rows of seats, combining the shape of an SUV and the space of the MPV, which is quite a bit of "space magician". Its second row of seats uses a special extra-long adjustable rail that can be moved 400mm back and forth, and the second and third rows can be flattened, so it can be transformed into a mattress of more than two meters in the outing scene, and the sleeping bag can comfortably spend the night of the outing.
At the same time, according to the declaration information, the Southeast DX9 will be equipped with a 1.8T turbocharged engine with a peak horsepower of 245 horses, which is infinitely close to the ceiling level of the joint venture car company.
In addition to the product itself, service is also an extremely important part of today's automobile consumer market.
In view of this, Southeast Auto's plan is to create a personalized service experience of "thousands of people" and "thousands of faces" for millions of car owners through CRM customer information collection system and big data mining technology, and to create a southeast farmy ecosystem from the path of "customer-shop-factory", the purpose is to make car owners feel interesting and intimate, and save money, trouble, worry and effort.
To some extent, Southeast Auto, with new products and user thinking, has taken the first step in a new era.
Third, write at the end
In fact, at this time node to make such a decision, the strategic direction of Southeast Automobile is actually very correct.
On the one hand, the recognition of independent brands is constantly improving, as long as the products are done well and the sales volume is not worried, Geely, BYD, and the Great Wall have proved this. On the other hand, as an industrial product composed of tens of thousands of parts, the automobile is inseparable from the upstream and downstream supply chain, and the Fuzhou Municipal Government in the 14th Five-Year Plan has also provided policy support for the Southeast Automobile City to become an internationally leading and domestic top-notch automobile city in the whole industry chain. With the support of this quasi-"100 billion- automobile town", southeast automobile will be more successful in the future development.
But more critically, how to balance the relationship between products, services and brands. After leaving Mitsubishi, Southeast Automobile almost started from scratch to do a new independent brand, how to strengthen brand recognition through products, improve the owner's recognition of the brand, is what Southeast Automobile needs to do after the product.
After all, the brand is the root, the product is the tree, the service is the water, the policy is the sunshine, and the environment and the market are the soil where the tree takes root and grows.
Whether it can grow into a towering tree depends on the next move of Southeast Auto in the next few years.