Year-end inventory| 2021 domestic car-making forces "leopard change"

Author 丨 Gu See

Executive Producer 丨 寛夕

The 2021 of China's auto industry can be described as a twist and turn.

The front foot is racing against time to formulate a "carbon neutrality" plan, and the back foot has to deal with the rise of raw materials and the problem of "lack of core". In the upcoming 2022, with the "full opening up of foreign investment in automobiles", more and more foreign car companies will come to China like Tesla to build factories. In this regard, we can't help but ask: Are the domestic car-making forces ready?

Not long ago, at the Guangzhou Auto Show, which is known as the "year-end finale of car companies", the domestic car-making forces showed strong combat effectiveness. Compared with previous years, this year's Guangzhou Auto Show domestic car-making forces have brightened their swords to suppress the joint venture brand, the Great Wall Salon Mecha Dragon, Xiaopeng G9, Lantu Dreamer, Tank 500 and other models stand out, becoming the focus of the media and car fans, and are even more popular on short video platforms such as Douyin.

Looking back at the performance of domestic car-making forces in the past year, there are many bright performances worthy of recognition.

1

The momentum of domestic vehicles is rapid, and domestic exports have doubled breakthroughs

In the past, when it comes to domestic cars, people's first impression is always: low, ugly, low cost performance. In contrast, foreign-funded and joint-venture car companies have enjoyed the "true fragrance dividend" for a long time. For example, a few days ago, there was an auto self-media article discussing the pricing of the Cyber Tank 300, and many netizens questioned the pricing of the car in the comment area as "overconfident". One of the dissenting comments said, "If it comes from the joint venture car factory, it is another interpretation", and there are many people who like it.

It is undeniable that the three major pieces of domestic cars in the initial stage of the earlier period are immature, and there are also problems such as borrowing and imitating in terms of design concepts. Coupled with the low brand recognition, it has not been possible to open the pattern in the mid-to-high-end market. But today, domestic cars, whether it is the engine system or the power of Chengdu, have a qualitative leap, not only have a "rich connotation, but also a "good-looking leather bag".

Taking the design as an example, many independent brands have hired internationally renowned designers to carry out drastic reforms for their own models. For example, BYD's designer Wolfgang Egger was recruited from Audi, The Great Wall hired Pierre Leclerc, who had worked for Ford and BMW, and GAC hired the famous designer Zhang Fan directly from the Headquarters of Mercedes-Benz in Germany.

At this Guangzhou Auto Show, we can see the design breakthroughs of many independent brands. The model Mecha Dragon exhibited by the Salon brand under the Great Wall this time has changed the "streamlined" design style in recent years, with sharp edges and tough shapes, refreshing the inherent cognition of the Great Wall brand from the outside world. As the second model of the Changan Gravity series, the Changan UNI-K also has a futuristic appearance, with flat headlights, grille "scales" with suspension effect, and LED daytime running lights, making the front face design quite visually impactful.

In addition to the design concept out of the circle, the sales of domestic cars have also increased significantly this year. For example, Xiaopeng p5, which has the support of the "strongest car machine", sold more than 10,000 orders within 53 hours after opening the reservation. Xiaopeng Automobile has stabilized the high-end market with its super single product strategy, and BYD's "car sea tactics" also have a bright performance: from the perspective of the monthly sales of cars, BYD Qin and BYD Han both exceed 10,000 vehicles, with sales of 30,049 vehicles and 12,838 vehicles respectively, and the bydir Dolphin, which has just been listed, is facing the female market and has reached 8800 vehicles, entering the top five. In the SUV list, BYD Song sold 19,697 units in November, second only to tesla Model Y.

In overseas markets, some domestic brands are also frequently reported. As of October 2021, the domestic brand Haval has sold 4803 cars in Russia, which is three times the sales volume of the same period. Among them, the compact crossover Haval Jolion was the driving force of growth, and it advanced into the list of the 25 most popular models in the Russian market in October.

Another domestic brand, Chery, also showed exciting results. Of the 25 most popular models on the Russian market in October, two were from Chery. In addition, Geely and Changan Automobile also have good performances. In the current Russian market, the popularity of domestic cars has surpassed the old Japanese cars such as Mitsubishi and Mazda, and it is believed that it will soon be able to surpass Nissan cars.

While domestic independent brands "let go of themselves", some foreign brands have not stepped out of the old road of empiricism. Among them, the decent performance is really difficult to hide the light of domestic models.

2

Intelligent, electrification reshapes the industry pattern,

"China Speed" overtaking in curves

The current automotive industry pattern is at the intersection of new energy technology and traditional fuel technology, and the new trend gives domestic cars the opportunity to overtake in curves.

In this regard, some insiders have used "walking Japan, running South Korea and flying China" to describe the current situation of the market. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, also pointed out that the global sales of generalized new energy passenger cars reached 7.02 million units from January to October 2021; the penetration rate of China's new energy vehicles reached 51% of the total share, and in October it was as high as 61%, accounting for the vast majority of the global share.

The rapid development of New Energy Vehicles in China is due in part to the catfish effect produced by the introduction of Tesla. With this world-class benchmarking object, domestic car companies continue to improve their core technologies and continue to innovate in key areas such as batteries, motors, and electronic controls. Coupled with the relevant support of government policies, the enthusiasm for the development of the new energy automobile industry has been greatly mobilized.

In terms of intelligent applications, China's car-making forces have also shown extraordinary "Chinese speed". For example, in-vehicle intelligence, Tesla Model3 has problems such as not being able to set wake words, speech recognition rate, and imperfect understanding ability of voice assistants. On the other hand, domestic car companies have outstanding performance in this regard: some domestic cars can not only recognize some vague instructions, but also recognize faster than Tesla, and many interactive functions of intelligent voice are better than Tesla's performance.

In terms of "stacking materials", China's independent brands are also full of blood, giving car fans a "great value for money" that is visible to the naked eye.

For example, at the Guangzhou Auto Show, many domestic new energy models are equipped with lidar, large screens, high-performance intelligent cockpits, etc., and are fully prepared to meet the arrival of the intelligent tide. It can be said that in the three levels of the strongest endurance, performance and intelligence of Tesla, the pure electric benchmark, some domestic new energy vehicles have not fallen behind. In addition, in order to improve the future-oriented travel experience, some domestic brands have also independently developed intelligent platforms to create future-oriented intelligent systems, such as the Great Wall's lemon platform focusing on urban travel, and the tank platform emphasizing professional off-road experience. Another example is BYD e platform 3.0, which can keep the car high endurance in the cold winter.

These efforts just show that Chinese car companies are ready to fight a "protracted war".

3

"New species" are frequent,

Internet thinking access to the automotive industry,

Internet thinking is a somewhat old word, but it is "living water" for the automotive industry. The core of Internet thinking is to direct users, and nowadays, more and more state-owned enterprises and car companies have stepped out of the state of self-sufficiency, and began to be guided by user thinking and user needs, guiding the entire process from design, production to sales and after-sales.

Weilai, the new force of domestic cars, has a great sense of futurism from its name, and from products to services, it operates with Internet thinking. The biggest trouble of new energy vehicle owners comes from mileage anxiety, and Weilai starts from user needs, the first electric energy service system NIOPOWER can not only make charging convenient and fast, but also has a three-minute power replacement function, which can be said to be a major innovation of new energy vehicles.

For example, according to the more refined Internet thinking principle of user portraits, Great Wall and Wuling Hongguang have launched Euler Good Cat and Hongguang MINIEV in the female market. Among them, Hongguang MINIEV deeply cultivates the needs of users, breaks the circle of play, and bursts of social attributes make it a "net red car" that has swept the whole network, dominating the chinese new energy market for 15 consecutive months.

In the high-end market where BBA and Cadillac "dominate", the Hongqi series has entered the list with its excellent design concept and product positioning. Xiaopeng P7, a new force of domestic cars, launched the most direct challenge to Tesla Model Y, not only has the performance and cost-effective configuration of Tesla, intelligent driving, intelligent interaction, intelligent interconnection and other characteristics, it highlights the Internet gene everywhere, and has achieved good results.

There is a popular saying among Chinese car enthusiasts: without the rise of domestic cars, it is now necessary to buy Santana for two or three hundred thousand. Domestic cars are becoming more and more intelligent and outstanding, and the technology is one of the best in the world, and even forcing joint venture car companies to change. The automotive industry is rolled up, and it is undoubtedly the consumers who benefit. With the younger generation's support for domestic products getting higher and higher, today's domestic cars have risen in an all-round way. It is believed that in the near future, China's automobile industry will become a "giant" that goes abroad and conquer the world with Chinese-style automobile aesthetics.