Kowartz capacity cut by 90%? SAIC-GM Chevrolet "cuts" edge fuel vehicles

| Hong Hanqi

Edit the | Mao Shiyang

On December 29, an internal document on the Internet showed that SAIC-GM will upgrade its Wuhan vehicle production base, with the total production capacity of the plant remaining unchanged at 360,000 units per year, but will reduce the production of the Chevrolet model on sale, the Kowartz, codenamed "K216".

According to the contents of the document, after this round of technology upgrades, the production capacity of The Kowartz will be reduced by 90% from 180,000 vehicles per year to 20,000 vehicles per year, and the annual production capacity of 160,000 vehicles released will be used to produce two electric models, code-named "B223" and "B233".

For this news, SAIC-GM officials did not deny it. The relevant person in charge of SAIC-GM said in an interview with caijing network that it has indeed transformed the factory and reduced the production of Kowartz in a small amount to increase the production capacity of electric vehicles, but "definitely not 90%."

The Kowartz is positioned as a compact sedan, with a price range of 89,900 yuan to 99,900 yuan for the 2021 model. The compact car market space is vast, and it is one of the most likely market segments to give birth to "sales responsibility". This is especially true for joint venture brands that rely heavily on the sedan product line.

With its youthful design, good spatial performance, and cost-effective advantages, Kołoz once carried the sales banner for Chevrolet. Public data shows that since entering the Chinese market in 2016, Kowartz model sales have risen all the way, and at its peak, Kowartz sold 28,300 units in a single month in January 2019. In fact, half of the annual production capacity of the Wuhan vehicle production base is used to produce Kowartz, which is already evident in its hot sales at that time.

But the change came quickly, a month later, in February 2019, Kowartz sales "cut" to 11,600 units, falling to less than 5,000 in April. Since then, Kowartz sales have continued to be sluggish, and they have not broken through the 10,000-vehicle mark. Entering 2021, the average monthly sales of The Kowartz have been less than 2,000 vehicles.

It can be seen that the production capacity of Kowartz will be reduced to 20,000 vehicles per year, that is, about 1,700 vehicles per month, which is actually in line with the current market situation of Kowartz.

In the compact sedan segment, Chevrolet often presents a state of alternating between old and new, "internal fighting". Before the Kowartz, the model that consumers were more familiar with was the Cruze. As the "handle" of sales in the past, Cruze once sold 30,000 vehicles a month, and was regarded as one of The most successful products chevrolet introduced to the Chinese market. Since its production in 2009, Cruze has achieved cumulative sales of domestic models exceeding 1 million units in 2014.

However, with the launch of the more cost-effective Kowartz model, Cruze sales gradually declined until March 2019, when they chose to delist after ten years of service.

Today's Kołoz faces the same test. At the beginning of 2019, Chevrolet's new model Cruze was launched, although it was also positioned as a compact car, but Cruze had more advantages than The Corvus in terms of body size, interior space and configuration. In May of the same year, in the first full month after the launch, Cruze sold 21,400 vehicles, beating the market segment Santana, Leiling, Sagitar and other rivals, while in the month, The Kołoz sold only more than 4,900 vehicles per month.

In addition, when Nissan X-Trail, Chevrolet Mai Ruibao XL, Buick Yinglang and Geely Jiaji canceled the three-cylinder version of the model, the latest Kowartz still insisted on the three-cylinder engine in the whole series, which further weakened the market competitiveness of the product in the eyes of the industry.

In the eyes of industry insiders, with the sharp reduction of production capacity, Kowartz will also face the risk of delisting. In fact, the replacement of the "ownership" of production capacity is no longer a translocation of "sales responsibility" in the world of fuel vehicles, but a more important signal - the acceleration of the electrification process of SAIC-GM.

In early 2021, GM said it plans to achieve zero emissions for all new light vehicles by 2035. In April this year, at the General Motors Technology Day, SAIC-GM announced that electrification and intelligent networking will be an important research and development direction for the company in the future, and it is expected to invest more than 50 billion yuan in research and development expenses in 2025.

At the product level, GM will begin to build products based on the pure electric platform. By 2025, SAIC-GM will launch more than 10 new pure electric vehicles based on the Ultium intelligent pure electric platform, covering the car and SUV market segments, covering the Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet brands. In November this year, the first mass-produced cadillac LYRIQ based on the Ultium intelligent pure electric platform has opened pre-sale.