IAUTO
Speed Depth Attitude
Introduction |
2022/01/04
Behind it is the powerful SAIC system, in front of the era of endless opportunities, how should Maxus ride the wind of change in the energy structure, break the shackles of its own development and independent brands?
Reporter 丨 Li Sijia
Responsible editor 丨 Du Yuxin
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
At that time, the advent of the era of the internal combustion engine shattered the whims of the Watts and led to the great changes in the civilization of the entire automobile industry; the oil blood of the internal combustion engine gradually stopped meeting the requirements of sustainable development. Therefore, when the automotive industry once again comes to the intersection of energy structure change, it will naturally embrace new opportunities at this moment and launch an industrial top-down change.
Then we can see that the new car-making forces for electric power and a number of cross-circle car-making capitals that bet on tomorrow have flocked to the automobile market in an attempt to divide a cake called "the future of enterprise industry".
In this context, how can the guys who have already led an era allow the late entrants to reach into their arms and "touch it"? Especially in the more radical Chinese market, whether it is independent brands or international traditional giants, they do not just want to participate in the supporting roles of this feast, watching the gluttonous giants open their blood basins and mouths, and the whales swallow the future of the automotive industry.
As an important part of the "independent brother" SAIC Group, Chase has grown from scratch with a growing voice, which has been a decade of traces for ten years. With the emergence of the transformation signal, Chase will naturally produce new questions and thoughts at the intersection of the times...
Chase's "New Force" for Change
The sage Confucius said, "To learn without thinking is to be reckless," and Rockwell also said, "True insight comes first of all from thinking and doubting." "These celebrities agree on the importance of thinking for progress.
Looking back at the automotive industry, there are also many reflectors and thinkers. Akio Toyoda continued to reflect on the next step of Toyota after attending the "recall gate" in Washington, Li Bin continued to reflect on the future of Niolai Automobile when spending the most difficult 2019, and Wei Jianjun also launched a reflection on whether it can survive next year on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Great Wall Motors last year. When the brand encounters big events, big troubles, and big opportunities, only by keeping thinking can it plan to move backwards and step into the village.
However, as a traditional car company, when Chase encounters the industry opportunity of energy structure change, how can it change to resist the impact of new forces and continue the success of the past decade in the field of fuel vehicles?
The answer given by Chase was: "Keep thinking and become a 'new force'."
As we all know, the new forces are the new terms that have emerged from the subversion of tradition in the automobile industry in recent years, and they have launched a series of shocks to tradition again and again with electrification, intelligence, sales model and channel change.
Just like the current heat of Tesla and "Wei Xiaoli", they subvert the tradition, become thorough, and quickly become the leader on the new track. And the car inventor Mercedes-Benz, even if it has been hyped up on the electrification track for many times in a row, still can't escape the shackles of the contribution of traditional fuel vehicles to the company's sales, and it is still difficult to test on the new and old tracks.
Is it true that the gap between traditional car companies and new forces is so large? In fact, it is not, just a different product of different eras: there is no successful enterprise, only the enterprise of the era. Therefore, taking the initiative to embrace the times and achieve changes and breakthroughs is the best policy for enterprises, and the theme of the Shanghai Auto Show at the beginning of the year, "Embracing Change", is not very telling?
Moreover, we all know a truth, the egg breaks the food from the outside, and the life breaks from the inside. Any person or enterprise at the cusp of the times, only active change is the only way to deal with future uncertainty.
As a pioneering force in the exploration of SAIC, Maxus was not a change-maker of that era.
In 2015, under the catalyst of various supportive policies and market demand, the new energy market entered a stage of leapfrog development, and Chase opened the new energy electrification layout with the first extended-range electric wide-body light passenger EV80 in China; in 2016, Chase created a C2B large-scale intelligent customization model, subverting the B2C car manufacturing model driven by car companies in the past and creating a new brand business card. This year, in the decade of the brand, Chase has integrated and developed a channel system that integrates the three modes of authorized distribution, brand direct sales and new retail direct sales pioneered by domestic vehicle enterprises.
Chase's reform has never stopped, and every step has cut to the fortress of industry development, realizing progress and resonance with the times in exploration.
However, the outlet of this energy structure change seems to be more unpredictable than in the past. For Chase, RVs, light passengers, MPVs, pickups, new energy and C2B, although small but a wide range of commercial layouts, in the face of complex automotive markets and future changes, how to straighten out is indeed a big challenge.
"Actually, this has always been the question I was thinking about, can we take the third way?" In an exclusive interview half a month ago, when asked how Maxus should deal with the tide of new energy trends, Lan Qingsong, vice president of SAIC, said.
Ten years, take a difficult road
Not to mention the exploration of new roads, considering the impact of new forces to build cars, many car companies' current roads are already difficult enough.
And this difficulty is not dwarfed by the confrontation and the judgment is made.
Because in terms of technical precipitation, traditional brands and new forces are different from the track, it is difficult to talk about the advantages and disadvantages; in the concept of car manufacturing, the two sides are virtual and real, which is right and wrong; in terms of service, many companies have said that they are a user-driven enterprise, and the difference is very small.
On the contrary, in the expansion of the retail model, the new car-making forces have explored forward with a way that is contrary to the traditional 4S store and contrary to the traditional car company, subverting the traditional distribution model of the traditional car company for more than 100 years, bringing a huge impact to the traditional retail model, and also making the original model of the whole value chain dominated by the automakers undergo great changes.
Therefore, at the time of track switching and the change of energy structure, Chase is also constantly reflecting on the retail model between traditional 4S stores and new power city exhibition halls, looking for a difficult but correct way out of the channel system. Subsequently, the integration and development of the domestic vehicle enterprises pioneered the authorization distribution, brand direct sales, new retail direct sales three models coexist and integration of the channel system.
This coexistence of channel models is the "result" of Chase's thinking, and the "process" has long been all over the road.
As early as 2017, Chase has done sales pilots in Wuxi and Suzhou, Shanghai; last year, the sales of its RV business ushered in an adjustment, that is, no longer as a 4S store agent, but all switched to the direct operation mode; the average efficiency of the current RV direct store can be increased by more than 150%, and the overall RV market growth rate is below 40%.
Different from the expansion of traditional 4S stores, and different from the enthusiasm of new forces for urban exhibition halls, this road is the third way on the channel that Chase has taken according to its own resource assessment.
At the same time, Chase, which has begun a new exploration in retail, still gives long-term support and incentives to existing and future dealers, "Where the dealers are strong, Chase continues to support dealers and help them grow and develop; where dealers are relatively weak, they will retain partners who work hard to continue to help him." Lan Qingsong explained.
The coexistence of these three models of the channel system has greatly improved Chase's fault tolerance rate at the sales end, especially this channel model that considers the brand's direct sales store, which reduces communication costs and improves service efficiency.
Because this kind of sales subsidiary directly invested at the enterprise level is equivalent to a 4S store group. It can do its own organization, its own team, including incentive policies, can rotate and gradually build To C capabilities. By the end of 2021, SAIC Maxus has opened 14 directly operated and 8 RV directly operated stores, with the total number of directly operated stores exceeding 20.
Communication costs are reduced, operational efficiency is improved... In preparation for the "third road", Chase has integrated and developed the channel system of authorized distribution, brand direct sales and new retail direct sales pioneered by domestic vehicle enterprises, and the beginning has been revealed.
Behind its marketing system, it reflects the core of enterprise digitalization, including: product digitization, team operation digitalization and marketing digital establishment and maturity.
"Our direct sales store is not a traditional direct store, the core ability is to be a digital company, which is our new pattern in the model." Lan Qingsong added: "Under such an organizational structure, Chase's digital tools can be played to the end in a package, and eventually connect directly to users, and at the same time, Chase's tools, systems and methodologies can be verified to make them more effective." ”
Relying on the M division, we are moving towards a new track
If you think that Chase's third way is only reflected in the channel, you are very wrong. In the era when products are king, channels are part of service and marketing, and what can really impress consumers is the product itself.
Therefore, Chase has also found a "third way" in product planning. "That is different from the new forces that only produce electric vehicles and traditional companies stick to fuel vehicles, Chase aims to grasp the long-term development of products with two hands - both a breakthrough in the fuel field and a take-off in the field of new energy."
Therefore, at the Guangzhou Auto Show not long ago, we witnessed the grand display of the latest new energy product MIFA 9 at the Chase booth. MIFA 9 is one of chase's most important projects this year, and its arrival makes this year's "fairy fight" MPV market more lively, so that the full-size luxury intelligent pure electric MPV belonging to the future comes into reality, and makes Chase's new energy track wider.
It is not difficult to see from the naming that SAIC Maxus should start from the "9" of this pure electric MPV to open up the miFA exclusive new energy sequence, so that SAIC Maxus can more calmly participate in the competition of the new energy market.
From the FCV80 hydrogen fuel cell light passenger to the pure electric wide body light passenger EV90, from the EG10 new energy MPV model to the EUUNIQ series, in the face of the new wave of the four modernizations washing away the entire industry, SAIC Maxus continues to try in the new energy market, trying to find a route that meets its own development more accurately.
Today, MIFA 9 and even the MIFA sequence shoulder the golden bricks of Chase to open up the future new energy market and set off again.
If new energy products are the latest landing of Chase's idea of switching tracks, then the establishment of an exclusive new energy department is Chase's more adequate and long-term plan for the future of new energy.
This year, within Chase, a more systematic and full-featured M business unit was established. This department with obvious new energy logo aims to unify from the innovation of product definition, technology research and development and channel sales, and integrate and use the resources of the entire company more systematically and specifically to bring better product value and service value to users.
Lan Qingsong said when talking about his views on electrification products: "At present, our electrification penetration rate has reached 15%, and whether we can support the business transformation of the overall enterprise next, this transformation must include channel changes. In addition, the change in products is to think about how to grasp the trend of intelligent electrification from the user's origin and face the real user needs. ”
The electrification penetration rate of 15% is basically the same as the average of the broader market. However, considering that in the export of products, the proportion of Chase electrification is significantly higher, for example, 90% of its products sold in Europe are new energy electric vehicles. Therefore, there is still a lot of room for its electrification penetration in China.
Therefore, for Chase, the introduction of electrification products is relatively easy, but the evolution of different products on the intelligent electric track is bound to be different, and further subdivision must be further subdivided, which is a challenge, behind which is the ability to define user needs, engineering capabilities and software capabilities.
Fortunately, in the past decade, the digital capabilities established by Chase through channel reform, product introduction and the concept of "C2B user co-creation customization" are enough to support its next development. In particular, the creation and persistence of the concept of "C2B user co-creation customization" will be better in the future as the Internet product development capabilities for users become more mature.
In the past decade, Chase has embarked on a development path that meets its own characteristics from wide-body light passengers to medium- and large-sized MPVs, to pickup trucks, SUVs, and home MPVs; in the face of industry changes, Chase will continue to promote the traditional energy + new energy dual track in parallel in the next five to ten years based on its own product characteristics and user use scenarios.
Behind is the powerful SAIC system, in front of the era of endless opportunities, how should we ride this wind of energy structure change, break the shackles of their own development and independent brands? Ten years have passed, and the young, change-seeking Chase seems to have found its own third path.
| Li Sijia |
Leader of the anti-parsley alliance and long-time occupier of the first floor of the commune