In the 24 years since SAIC-GM established the factory, its cumulative sales have exceeded 20 million, and it has owned many best-selling models such as Buick GL8, Yinglang, Oncoway, Regal, Chevrolet Explorer, and Sail. In recent years, under the multiple attacks of old joint venture brands, independent brands and the front and back of the new forces, they are facing greater pressure to survive.
Author | Blue-shirted brother
Edit | Chris
A solo show is not spring
In August 2021, SAIC-GM's cumulative production and sales exceeded 20 million units. Since the start of the project in 1997, SAIC-GM has set a new record for the speed of development of the industry for 24 years.
In the Chinese market, SAIC-GM has three major auto brands, Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac, with a total of more than 20 series of product lineups, covering gradient markets from high-end luxury cars to economy cars, as well as market segments such as MPV, SUVs, hybrid and electric vehicles. Its models have also had Buick GL8, Buick Yinglang, Buick Encore, Buick Regal, Buick LaCrosse, Chevrolet Explorer and other models that have sold well.
In December 1999, Buick GL8 rolled off the production line at The Jinqiao Plant in Shanghai and was officially launched in May 2000; the Buick GL8 was also the first batch of domestic models after Buick entered China, and is considered to be the witness of the fastest economic development in China for 22 years, with a total of five generations of Buick GL8 models launched in the past 22 years. As soon as the Buick GL8 was launched, it opened the road of legend and always occupied the "top spot" in China's MPV market (Wuling Hongguang is not a real MPV, and Xiaobian does not include the comparison).
With its calm and atmospheric design, luxurious and spacious space, excellent safety and sufficient power, Buick GL8 became a "business card" in the domestic high-end political and business activities at that time and an exclusive car for high-end business travel in the era of online car-hailing. Up to now, the Buick GL8 has accumulated sales of more than 1.5 million units in China, making it the only model of SAIC-GM that has maintained long-term sales. The reason for the impressive performance of GL8 is that the commercial car was basically blank at that time, and the competing models were mainly concentrated in the "Honda Second General" AliShen and Odyssey, and other car companies and independent brands had not yet made efforts in this segment.
From January to November 2021, Buick GL8 series models sold 149,175 units, an increase of 9% year-on-year. Among the medium and large luxury MPV of more than 300,000 levels in China, GL8's sales accounted for nearly 43%, ranking first in the market segment; in the joint venture brand MPV models, GL8 accounted for up to 53%. Although this achievement is still very good, it must have declined compared with previous years. In the future, buick GL8 will not be able to maintain the status of the boss of the MPV market in the face of the encirclement of the old joint venture car companies and the pursuit of independent brands, and how will SAIC-GM break the game?
Around 2014, when the performance of the independent brand SUV market was not so strong, the joint venture brand SUV was still the real hegemon, when Tiguan, RAV4, CR-V were sought-after goods, and it was necessary to increase the price to pick up the car, until the emergence of Buick Encore changed this situation, when oncover shouted out the slogan of "10% more spirit". Buick Encore brings consumers a more valuable choice with the positioning and quality of medium-sized SUVs and competitive prices. Soon after the listing, Encore overpowered the top joint venture SUV sales throne such as Tiguan and CR-V, with monthly sales of more than 30,000 units and annual sales of more than 270,000 units at the peak, and achieved a record of more than one million cumulative sales at the end of 2019, including 200,000 vehicles exported to the United States in reverse, successfully creating a sales myth of american mid-size SUVs in the Chinese automotive market.
With the development of the trend of rejuvenation in the automobile market, the Z generation people pay more attention to the "all-round" strength of car purchases, which requires both the car to represent their ambitions and to show a unique identity. Coupled with the continuous efforts of major car companies in the SUV market in recent years, the product lines of major manufacturers from compact SUVs, medium-sized SUVs, medium-sized SUVs are fully covered, resulting in more and more SUV models and models on the market, and consumers have more and more room for choice; especially with the rise of independent brands Great Wall Haval, Changan CS series, Geely Xingyue series, BYD Dynasty series, and Chery Tiggo series. Under the squeeze of the old joint venture brands Toyota, Honda, volkswagen and the catch-up of independent brands, Buick Encore's power is not enough, and sales continue to decline and have to be delisted.
Now the sum of the sales of the newly listed Oncovi S and Oncovey PLUS, whether it is a single month or a cumulative sales volume for the whole year, it is difficult to enter the top twenty, and the Chevrolet new explorer who succeeds Buick Encore is GM's best-selling SUV in the world, but it is a bit unsatisfactory to enter China, plus the Chevrolet brand has the lowest recognition among the three major brands of General Motors, facing the joint venture brands Volkswagen Tuyue, Toyota RAV4 Rongfang, Nissan X-Trail, Honda CR-V and its own brands Changan CS75, Geely Boyue, The competition of Chery Tiggo 8 is still defeated, and it is difficult to achieve the performance of the former Oncovey.
2017 is the highlight of Buick Yinglang, the annual sales of 417,000 vehicles, an increase of 12.59% year-on-year, second only to Volkswagen Langyi, ranking second in the sales of A-class cars, with an average monthly sales of 34,750 vehicles, which can compete with Langyi. But since Buick Yinglang launched a three-cylinder engine two years ago, its sales have fallen all the way. In 2018, sales of 274,100 yuan, down 32% year-on-year, slid directly from the second place to the sixth place, and gradually lost the strength to compete with Volkswagen Langyi and Nissan Xuanyi for the top sales in the field of intermediate cars. Although the sales volume of Buick Yinglang has always been at a high level, it is still in an absolute disadvantage compared to competitors such as Langyi, Xuanyi, Civic and Corolla, and it is difficult to compete with these peers. In order to save sales, Buick Yinglang had to reinstall the four-cylinder engine, although sales have picked up, but still can not reach the original height.
As far as the models currently on sale are concerned, none of the three-cylinder engine models in the domestic market have sold well, including the newly listed three-cylinder Nissan X-Trail, which is also a voice of doubt. The misjudgment of SAIC-GM's decision-making has caused a "king of sales" to lose the championship throne, and also missed the opportunity for a brand to win the double championship in MPV and sedan. Nowadays, Buick Yinglang product strength has been relatively old, this generation of Yinglang was launched in March 2015, it has been 6 years now, although there have been several small changes during the period, but according to the life cycle of automotive products. If SAIC-GM still wants to re-occupy the top three in the mid-level family car market, it must launch a new generation of Buick Yinglang, and either it will not come out, or it will be a blockbuster, super cost-effective, and regain its reputation through a blockbuster!
No country can always be the boss, no boss is always the richest man, and no product always remains the first seller. A single branch is not spring, a hundred flowers bloom to full of spring in the garden. SAIC-GM has dozens of models of three major brands, and relying on gl8 alone is obviously not enough to support itself, only "multiple arrows" can survive and face fierce competition.
Friends are hard to find
In 2021, it may be due to the impact of the decline in sales of most models of SAIC-GM in recent years, and the budget expenditure will gradually decrease, coupled with the fact that there are not many new models, whether it is brand activities or new car listing activities, it can be said that there are only a few. The first is the "Buick Brand Day" held in April 2021; the second is the world debut of the new pure electric luxury SUV Cadillac LYRIQ at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show; the third is the listing of the new Buick ONCOWE PLUS at the Dongyue plant of Yantai SAIC-GM; and the debut of the Buick GL8 concept car at the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of the year.
For SAIC-GM, which has three major car brands and dozens of models, four events a year can be said to be too few. As a result of the lack of activity, its voice in the industry is getting smaller and smaller, and it is difficult to attract the attention of consumers. On the other hand, the new forces of car manufacturing play is completely different, good at using the media to speak out, even if it is to create a topic, release monthly sales rankings, and constantly attract the public's attention to pay attention to the brand and enhance popularity. In today's situation where there are many car companies and models are dazzling, who often dangles in front of their eyes and engages in visual bombardment, who has high exposure.
This year is chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac three major brand products small year, Chevrolet brand has no new model listing, Cadillac only LYRIQ opened pre-sale, Cadillac XT4 is also a small makeover; Buick only a new Encore PLUS listed, the other models of the three major brands are small revamped models, internal press release is also listed. Previous annual conventions, the Seven Consecutive Chevrolet Nights and cadillac Brand Nights, were not held in 2021.
In contrast, the independent brands Geely, Xiaopeng, Weilai, and the Great Wall have been carrying out various online and offline activities throughout the year, dozens of large and small events; and each region has built a special regional media group, with special personnel docking and making friends, and timely recommending the latest information of manufacturers for the media to release.
Since 2019, the directors of the marketing departments of SAIC-GM's three major brands have been adjusted one after another, Zhou Peng has taken over as the director of the marketing department of Chevrolet, Gu Yebin, the director of the Buick Marketing Department who succeeded Bao Ye, was transferred to Cadillac as the director of the marketing department, and Niu Feng replaced Gu Yebin as the director of the Marketing Department of Buick. In the impression of the editor, compared with the previous Chevrolet Marketing Minister Ji Qiwei and Buick Marketing Department Director Bao Ye, each event media can also meet with the brand minister several times through the opportunity of listing activities and interviews, talk about market changes and chat about models; now the three newly appointed brand ministers are difficult for many media teachers.
In the face of thousands of auto self-media, not your family will encounter this problem, all OEMs are facing the same problem, whether to refuse to go thousands of miles or smile. As the saying goes: it is difficult to find friends, and friends have more roads to go. Whether it is the leader of the car company or the public relations department of the group, it is necessary to dare to "forge a good relationship" and be good at using media resources.
Abandon old ideas and embrace new ideas
SAIC-GM's three major brands all have a century-old history and profound technical heritage. Chevrolet is the pioneer of SUV models around the world, Cadillac is the presidential car, and Buick has a perfect performance in the Chinese market. As a century-old brand, SAIC-GM in the power system and exterior design is blameless, subject to the influence of design communication between the two sides of the Sino-US joint venture, and now in the face of the rise of China's independent car brands, the design thinking of americans has been far from keeping up with the changes in Chinese cars, not to mention that the interior design of the new forces of car manufacturing is fashionable and advanced, that is, the independent brand is also obviously progressive, and has surpassed many joint venture brands.
The new cars released today are not embarrassed to get their hands on the new car without a large central control screen, not to mention the triple screen on the new car-making forces. The three major brands of SAIC-GM are too conservative in this area, and it can be said that they are completely behind the development of the times, and have been left behind by their own brands and new car-making forces. What is particularly criticized is the entire series of 8-10-inch central control screen and MyLink car machine system, which is completely a bit of implementation of the development of the times? One step is late, and the sales of models illustrate the problem.
Buick Encore PLUS interior
Cadillac XT6 interior
Chevrolet Explorer interior
WEY Macchiato interior
BYD Song PLUS interior
Geely Star Yue L interior
High-he-he-HiPhi X interior
Landu FREE interior
Xiaobian test drove most of the three major brands of SAIC-GM, on SAIC-GM's MyLink car machine use is very unaccustomed, first of all, the interface design does not conform to the development of the Internet era, does not use intelligent UI interface design, the design concept is relatively old, the car technology system response is slow, the operation is not humane enough, and the navigation is not smooth.
SAIC-GM MyLink locomotive system
Geely GKUI 19 locomotive system
BYD DiLink system
WEY locomotive system
In contrast, the car machine system of other brands is more like a large-screen mobile phone, the interface and icons are basically the same as the mobile phone, and the operation is more convenient and convenient, without any sense of violation. Some brands of car machine systems also interoperate with intelligent platforms such as Baidu, Tencent, and Xiaomi, grafting applications to make car machine systems more convenient like smartphones.
Thousands of calls began to come out, we saw changes on the new Buick GL8 and Cadillac LYRIQ, and finally on the big joint screen. The debut of Cadillac LYRIQ gives us hope, an all-in-one 33-inch diagonal large screen, 9K resolution, 1 billion colors, 86.8% screen ratio. The screen is not only large in size, but also uses the most powerful Qualcomm 8155 car chip in the mainstream new energy models, using 7nm technology, and it also adopts a multi-layer anti-fouling coating treatment, which is smoother to the touch. In addition, this 33.8-inch surround screen is divided into two areas of dashboard and multimedia function, the dashboard can display rich vehicle information, with a variety of theme modes, UI design has also changed the previous determination, full of scientific and technological sense.
In the face of the trend of comprehensive intelligence of automobiles, it is hoped that SAIC-GM can use Cadillac LYRIQ to open the transformation of the intelligent era, focus on intelligent driving, and build a future intelligent ecological strategy. The integration of "intelligent driving", "intelligent cockpit" and "intelligent service" into one, the intelligent travel solution that realizes the "integration of three wisdoms", redefines intelligent travel, and brings users the all-round liberation of "liberating both eyes and hands, liberating attention, and liberating all body and mind".
▓Editor's own comment
In the 24 years since SAIC-GM established the factory, the cumulative sales volume has exceeded 20 million, and it has best-selling models such as Buick GL8, Yinglang, Uncorvel, Regal, Chevrolet Explorer, and Sail. In recent years, under the dual attack of the old joint venture brand, independent brand and the front blockage and rear chase that has caused new forces, we are facing greater pressure to survive, and we must dare to emancipate our minds and seek new changes for our own shortcomings.
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