Written by | Liu Yiwei
Edit | Huang Zhi
Produced | Automotive Sankei
18 years ago, Chery became one of the first people to eat crabs in China's mini-car market.
At that time, Chery QQ became a hit after its listing. In just 8 years, sales exceeded 1 million units.
"At that time, Chery QQ fuel vehicles opened the first year of China's family cars, which is a common memory of the times." Yin Tongyue (party secretary and chairman of Chery Holding Group) recalled.
Under the market dividend, car companies such as Changan, Geely, BYD, and Great Wall have all taken action in the micro fuel vehicle market, but in the end, due to the impact of market demand and policies and regulations, micro fuel vehicles have gradually been marginalized.
Against this background, Chery refocused its attention on the field of mini cars.
And Chery QQ ice cream will also carry Chery's determination and hope for change in the new energy era.
Why re-enter the mini car market?
Different from the era of fuel vehicles, China's new energy sales distribution shows a "dumbbell shape", and the mini-car market occupies one of the ends.
The latest production and sales data released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that from January to November 2021, the cumulative sales of A00-class (mini-vehicle) pure electric vehicles are about 750,000 units, accounting for 25% of sales in new energy passenger cars.
Li Jinyong, president of the New Energy Vehicle Branch of the Automobile Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, expects that the sales volume of A00-class pure electric models will reach more than 1.5 million units in 2022.
In fact, in the domestic micro-electric vehicle market, Chery already has a small ant model, but with the latecomers Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, Changan Ben and other models into the game, the micro electric vehicle market has sunk again, and the market share of small ants has been divided up a lot. For example, Hongguang MINIEV, the monthly sales of Hongguang MINIEV in November this year have exceeded 45,000 vehicles, while the sales of small ants are less than 10,000.
The arrival of QQ ice cream has lowered the threshold for car purchase, and at the same time, chery new energy's layout in the micro-electric vehicle market has become more perfect.
"We set ourselves a small goal, and the sales of QQ ice cream and Chery ants will exceed 300,000 in 2022."
At the QQ ice cream conference, Bao Siyu (general manager of Chery New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd.) set a sales target for next year.
However, everything has to return to the product itself.
QQ Ice Cream is equipped with unique cloud remote control and vehicle reporting and other vehicle-machine interconnection functions in the same level, APP intelligent power replenishment, heat preservation, remote car search, in-car temperature regulation, etc.
"QQ Ice Cream integrates an ecological closed loop that can meet the needs of users' diverse scenes through intelligent networking with cars as the carrier, plus mobile phones, smart homes and other viewing terminals."
From the introduction of Bao Siyu, QQ ice cream is more inclined to focus on "value experience".
The lack of intelligence in entry-level products is where the differentiated competition of QQ ice cream lies. With these functions, Chery hopes to create an intelligent ecology, rather than simply relying on low prices to grab the market.
The big ecology of small QQ
In June this year, Chery launched the iCar ecological brand, and Chery QQ ice cream is the first model under the iCar ecosystem.
According to the official statement, iCar ecology is an open co-creation platform based on industrial integration, which aims to build a new automotive ecosystem with digital technology, link everyone's global life scenes with cars, and create a closed-loop ecology of intelligent life.
For example, unified retail prices, you can apply Huabei to buy cars, support logistics and delivery to home; users can also participate in customized models through the iCar ecosystem. In the future, you can even customize the exclusive name to apply to the car.
At this stage, Auto Sankei understands that the iCar ecology is mainly through the app method, online functions in addition to the conventional interactive community, online activities, services, iCar custom mall, etc., there are also investment platforms and entrepreneurial platforms, enterprises can apply for product agency and other permissions.
In fact, especially since this year, major car companies will emphasize their own ecology when releasing Car Networking products, and it is a very common way to cooperate with Internet companies to create an ecology.
Personalized customization and diversified sales channels may be an important part of supporting the iCar ecosystem.
Li You (General Manager of Channel Development and Sales Center of Chery New Energy iCar Marketing Company) told Auto Industry and Economics, "We have innovated and changed the marketing model of offline channels, turning the 4S store model of traditional automobiles into an agency system. At the same time, more diversified channels have been expanded. ”
At present, Chery has signed contracts with Alibaba, Haili Zhixing, Tmall Automobile and other enterprises. According to the plan, in the future, the iCar ecosystem will carry out more cross-industry cooperation and build a new industrial chain covering B-end and C-end.
As the first experimenter of iCar ecology, Chery QQ Ice Cream "in just 6 months, user interaction exceeded 65 million times, online orders exceeded 70,000 units, plus more than 1,300 offline sales channels, the fastest delivery of new cars in the month of listing was 6878 vehicles." ”
Bos called it the "QQ ice cream phenomenon."
The significance of the iCar ecology is not limited to the single product of QQ ice cream, it also represents the exploration and attempt of Chery's electrification transformation.
After QQ ice cream, Chery will also launch a large luxury pure electric vehicle, "Chery adheres to the strategy of starting from small and large two-engine force, and breakthrough in the middle, and it is expected that the listing in the fourth quarter of 2023 will bring a huge impact." ”
Yin Tongyue also announced his sales target for next year.
"In the upcoming 2021, Chery Automobile's cumulative sales will exceed 1 million vehicles, and by 2022, Chery Automobile aims to exceed 1.5 million vehicles and challenge 2 million vehicles."
It is foreseeable that Chery is bound to avoid the new energy market if it wants to achieve its sales target in 2022. At present, Chery Automobile's market share in the field of new energy mainly comes from micro-electric vehicles, and while improving the iCar ecology, Chery has launched explosive new energy products, which Chery cannot avoid.
Write at the end
"We firmly believe that Chery will become a world-class Chinese brand on the new energy vehicle track." At the scene of the press conference, Bao Siyu put down his bold words.
Yin Tongyue also appeared at the press conference and said that he wanted to "make QQ ice cream a benchmark product in the new energy boutique automobile market." ”
Whether QQ ice cream can become a new benchmark still needs to wait for the test of the market.
For Chery, how to create a good iCar ecology next, so that this ecology will have a wonderful reaction in the field of "K-Car" electrification, and even in the entire new energy layout of Chery Automobile, it is more interesting.
So why wait and see, in case there is a surprise?