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At the end of each year and the beginning of the year, taking stock of the past and looking forward to the future is a routine operation of various media. For the automotive media, the selection of the most influential models of the year is not only an inventory of the past year, but also an important part of the media influence.
There are many annual car selections every year, but it is recognized that there is more value and influence, one is the "Xuanyuan Award" jointly created by the "Automotive Business Review" magazine and the famous automotive enterprise consulting company EFS austria, and the other is the "China Car of the Year" selection, which is known as the "Oscar of the Chinese automotive industry".
It is worth noting that the judges of this year's two major selection activities have invariably paid attention to the 100,000-yuan fuel vehicle of Shadow Leopard, which is especially worthy of attention in the context of the current intelligent electrification and high-end transformation in full swing.
In the "2022 China Car of the Year" selection of the top three awards, Shadow Leopard "opened twice". Among them, in the most important "2022 China Car of the Year", Shadow Leopard ranked second with a score of 104 points, the first place was the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and the third place was Xiaopeng P7; and in the "2022 China Annual Design Car" selection, Shadow Leopard also ranked third with 75 points, the top two were the two luxury brand models of TheGenis G80 and the High-Company HiPhi X, which cost nearly 400,000 yuan.
In the "Xuanyuan Award" annual car award, the models that finally won the top spot were also Gaohe HiPhi X and GAC Trumpchi Shadow Leopard. In addition, The shape designer of Shadow Leopard, Guan Baichi, also won the Annual Car Designer Award of the "Xuanyuan Award", which can be said that Shadow Leopard is the biggest winner of this year's "Xuanyuan Award".
It is undeniable that today's new energy and high-end has become the vane of the development of China's automobile market, and even luxury cars and new energy models have become the hot "new stars" in the automobile market, in this context, Shadow Leopard, an independent brand entry-level fuel family car with a starting price of less than 100,000 yuan, can stand out in many competitors and win the grand prize, which has more important practical significance.
It is a "sports coupe" that young people can reach
The reason for the "Xuanyuan Award" to the Shadow Leopard is as follows:
"In the increasing penetration of electrification in the market, this car began to build China's own street car culture, finding a new path for the development of traditional fuel vehicles. Under strict cost constraints, it breaks the norm and meets the desire of young Chinese consumers to drive the first car of their lives through the ultimate styling, the impactful power response and the tough control of exhaust sound, both sportiness and comfort, and the personalized and digital experience beyond the competitors. ”
Here are two reasons for the award.
From the industry level, the emergence of Shadow Leopard has provided a new development direction for building China's street car culture.
From the product level, Shadow Leopard not only meets the needs of contemporary young people for modeling, power, personalization and intelligence, but also can reduce the price to the extent that young consumers can accept it while ensuring quality.
Looking at the current automotive market, especially the A-class car market, car companies are inseparable from the positioning of new cars in the two directions of youth and sports. Unfortunately, fish and bear paws are often not compatible.
Many models on the market that look avant-garde and sporty, the power control is actually not satisfactory; while meeting the design and control of the sports of the model, often lost in intelligent performance; even if the above three premises of the model can be met at the same time, the price is often more than the budget of many young people who have just entered the workplace.
The Shadow Leopard is one of the few models that can meet all four conditions at the same time.
The first is the highly impactful exterior design. The design language of "light plastic curved surface" is adopted on the exterior, with the front face with a strong combat atmosphere and the four exhaust sounds, which subverts the conservative and elegant style of traditional Chinese car design and shows the originality and plasticity of Chinese car design.
Coupled with the sharp and smooth waistline slip coupe design, the wind resistance coefficient is only 0.26cd, creating a sense of momentum. The body size is 4700mm*1850mm*1432mm, and the wheelbase is 2736mm, which takes into account the superiority of space. It fully highlights the positioning of the Shadow Leopard Sports Coupe, and understands the minds of young people at a glance.
The second is the strong power that matches the dynamic appearance. At present, the Shadow Leopard is equipped with the third generation of Julang Power 1.5T GDI engine + 7WDCT transmission, the maximum power is 177Ps, the peak torque is 270Nm, and the parameter performance is better than that of the Civic, which is also equipped with a 1.5T engine.
The Juxing chassis is also a guarantee of Shadow Leopard control, with mcPherson-style independent suspension at the front and multi-link independent suspension at the rear. Starting from the user experience, through the detailed design and tuning of suspension, steering, tires and ESP performance, it can easily cope with the challenges of various road conditions.
The third is a strong intelligent ecosystem. Intelligence is one of the weapons for independent brands to impact joint venture brands, Shadow Leopard is equipped with a super sense interactive intelligent cockpit, relying on the ADiGO 4.0 (intelligent driving interconnection) ecosystem, to achieve a full-scene, whole-process immersive intelligent interactive experience, but also through OTA to complete self-evolution. At the same time, The main sales model of Shadow Leopard is equipped with L2-level driver assistance system as standard, which can greatly reduce the driving burden of users and truly achieve "scientific and technological equality".
The fourth is very competitive prices and car purchase policies. In the same level of car that also focuses on sports control, the official guidance price of Shadow Leopard is 98,300-131,800 yuan, the Civic guidance price is 119,900-169,900 yuan, and the guidance price of Lynk & Co 03 is 136,800-256,800 yuan, and the value advantage of Shadow Leopard is obvious. In addition, Shadow Leopard has pioneered the "1+3" car purchase policy: 10,000 yuan deposit and then pay a monthly "rent" of 888 yuan to use Shadow Leopard for a whole year, and then decide whether to buy after 1 year. This invisibly reduces the pressure on young people to buy cars.
Therefore, the hot sales are also reasonable. According to the data, the pre-sale of Shadow Leopard has accumulated more than 70,000 orders so far, and the sales volume has exceeded the 10,000 mark for three consecutive months, and it should be known that at present, the domestic independent brands can sell no more than 10,000 models in the field of cars.
This is not only the success of Shadow Leopard's car, but also a witness to the brave peak of China's own brands.
It is a popularizer of Chinese automobile culture
This success is not only reflected in the growth of the share of independent brand models in the Chinese automotive market, the significance of the emergence of Shadow Leopard, but also in the encouragement of the development of China's automobile culture. In the final judging session, Professor Xu Min, dean of the School of Automotive Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, commented on Shadow Leopard-
"In China, the car is changing from a means of transportation to a toy, in this process, tanks are a way to play, shadow leopard is also a way to play, for entry-level playable car products, shadow leopard is the only one that passes, I see the previous car is always a little disappointed, so this car came out immediately by the market recognition."
Playability is reflected in the modification potential, in the past, the most reflective of the car culture in the modification market rarely has the figure of independent brand models, mostly american and Japanese cars, Lynk & Co 03 may enter the modification circle earlier, but the real "entry-level" playability products must be shadow leopard.
Professor Fu Lizhi of the School of Design and Creativity of Tongji University also praised the influence of Shadow Leopard on China's automobile culture: "Asians, including Japan and South Korea, even in the United States, are very fond of street cars and cars with potential modifications. First Corolla created street racer street racing in the United States, and later this market was taken over by Honda Civic, and shadow leopard has a strong similar flavor in it. ”
The emergence of Shadow Leopard has enabled independent brands to shine on the map of China's automobile culture. And all this, in addition to the strong technical strength of Shadow Leopard itself, is also inseparable from the unremitting efforts of the marketing team of GAC Trumpchi.
It should be known that before shadow leopard, the brand image of GAC Trumpchi is more like an "affordable man", and shadow leopard, as a blockbuster product of GAC Trumpchi car category, also shoulders the mission of brand rejuvenation.
A series of marketing activities planned by the Shadow Leopard marketing team this year are also related to youth and sports. For example, cross-border linkage with PCRC Supercar Club to create a "leopard" walking night activity; for example, participate in the GTShow modification exhibition to show the charm of shadow leopard modification; and for example, move the listing conference to Chinajoy.
A series of marketing initiatives related to supercars, modifications, and animation culture have quickly attracted the attention of a large wave of Z generation young people. In addition, Shadow Leopard has also innovated to create a model of co-creation with users, taking user needs as the center, opening up the whole value chain of research, production and marketing, and actively listening to user suggestions and improving products through the formation of light friends groups and car friends associations, and "cultivating" new cars with users.
It is worth noting that because on the day of the launch of the Shadow Leopard, the spokesperson Su Bingtian advanced to the men's 100m final of the Tokyo Olympic Games with an excellent result of 9.83 seconds. To this end, GAC Trumpchi also specially launched the Shadow Leopard "Asian Flying Man Edition" model, and adjusted the manufacturer's guidance price to 98,300 yuan.
This extremely rapid response and the marketing of the circle of fans have given Shadow Leopard a deeper emotional connection with "China Speed".
It can be said that in creating a youthful product image and performance car, Shadow Leopard has explored its own way.
epilogue
While the transformation of rejuvenation has been successful, the inherent advantages of GAC Trumpchi in the family car market have also been further expanded.
According to the latest data, GAC Trumpchi's total sales in 2021 reached 320,000 vehicles, of which Shadow Leopard sold more than 10,000 units in December, with cumulative sales exceeding 70,000 units; Trumpchi M8's cumulative sales exceeded 150,000 vehicles, an increase of nearly 100% year-on-year, ranking first in The chinese brand luxury MPV sales for 27 consecutive months; In addition, Trumpchi GS8's cumulative sales so far have also exceeded 230,000 units, becoming the most competitive Chinese brand medium and large SUV.
Under the leadership of the three high-end flagship models of M8, GS8 and GA8 and Shadow Leopard, the average price of GAC Trumpchi's products this year has approached 150,000 yuan, achieving "volume and price rise". It is not difficult to see that GAC Trumpchi has begun to gradually break through the strict defense of joint venture brands and open up a space for independent brands in the Chinese auto market.
Trumpchi is creating its own "legend".
But this is not only the highlight moment of GAC Trumpchi's enterprise, but also the epitome of the upward trend of Chinese car brands. We believe that in the future, the Chinese auto market will emerge more "subversive" products like Shadow Leopard. I think this is the meaning and value of Shadow Leopard becoming the "Car of the Year".