Produced | Wave Breaking Graphics Group
Text | Zhang Hailing
"No matter how big or small, every choice is an active change, and we are looking forward to a bitter end." Just like every new shoot that breaks the ground, it carries the stubbornness that penetrates time. ”
This is the most impressive paragraph in the New Year's message of the recent screen circle of friends. As an automotive industry media, I witness history every day, and I can see the different choices of different car companies every day, especially at the intersection of the era that has not been seen in a hundred years.
Even on New Year's Day, major new power brands still can't wait to release the 2021 sales results, and behind the urgent mood, it is not only the joy of sharing the results, but also the self-motivation of the choices made in the past year, because the choice itself is forward.
As a "new force" of traditional car companies, Aeon naturally does not miss it. According to official data, terminal sales of 16,675 vehicles in December, the annual sales of 2021 reached 123,660 vehicles, exceeding expectations to complete last year's sales target of 100,000, so that the car circle can see new forces in addition to new car-making forces.
You know, 2021 is only the first year of brand independence, but also the fourth year of the brand's establishment, Aian has shown a variety of vigorous trends, technology, products, sales, marketing are blossoming, it is not too much to say that it is in the first echelon. However, the shackles that plague its further development are gradually emerging, and how to achieve brand upwards after mixed reform has become a problem that Aean needs to solve in the next stage.
01
Go to Guang vaporization, Aehn has his own way of playing
When the tide of electrification is surging forward, the choice has become a fact that every car company must face, and independent brands are frequently breaking through. Aeon's independence is not new, but its sales performance makes people curious about the car company.
Before independence, Ian's 100,000 vehicles took 3 years; after independence, Ian's 100,000 vehicles took only 1 year. Although this comparison is not very accurate, after all, 2021 is the year of the outbreak of new energy, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeded 20% at the highest.
But in fact, in the first year of independence, Aian has been working hard to "de-gag vaporization", because as a new energy vehicle company born from an old state-owned enterprise, it will be relatively conservative in terms of marketing, research and development, etc., which is a common phenomenon and also has institutional constraints.
Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aian New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., said at last year's Guangzhou Auto Show: "The biggest change we have made in the past year is to make changes in all fields, including research and development, intelligent manufacturing, industrial chain, marketing services and organizational culture.
Those who pay attention to new energy vehicles or E'an should also find that Gu Huinan's words have been confirmed many times last year. In March last year, the magazine battery technology released by E-an inhibited the acupuncture experiment, which largely solved people's anxiety about the safety of ternary lithium batteries, and the heat was not weaker than the birth of BYD blade batteries.
Subsequently, Aeon launched the super-double speed battery technology and sponge silicon anode plate battery technology, the former with the highest working voltage of 880V, the maximum charging power of 480KW of high-voltage platform, can achieve "charging 5 minutes, endurance of 200 kilometers"; the latter through patented technology to make the vehicle CLTC working conditions endurance of 1008km, so that electric vehicles into a thousand kilometer era.
It is reported that Aeon and GAC Research Institute even carried out the restructuring of personnel and R & D business, GAC Research Institute's Sanden R & D team of nearly 600 people, as well as some of the patented technology, R & D center have been transferred to GAC Aeon, so that it has its own R & D business, and then become a production and marketing integrated technology company.
The accumulation of technology has enabled AEan to expand to the diversified path. AION Y, AION S PLUS, AION V PLUS are the new models launched by Aeon last year, all using different technology paths, which also brings it a lot of traffic and sales.
Of course, this is inseparable from Aeon's "radical" marketing methods, compared with the past one-on-one marketing plan, Aeon was able to let go of his hands and feet last year, and the young people's consumption concept of deep binding gameplay frequently out of the circle.
At AION Y's various activities, Aeon has built the car into a cinema, gym and other scenes, and presented the possibility of car life by showing AION Y's various lifestyles, which is both fresh and attractive.
Later, the listing of AION S PLUS and AION V PLUS also used similar schemes, but their groups were more segmented. AION S PLUS has added two new colors, "holographic silver" and "ice rose powder", to target the young female consumer market; AION V PLUS and Happy Twist have jointly created a limited-time special comedy in the hope of gaining more love from young consumers in more dimensions.
Obviously, for Aeon, "de-gazing" has given the company greater flexibility, independence and decision-making power, which has won it more market favor and played an important role in the construction of EIAN's brand image.
In the past, for a while, the image of Aeon was more about taxis, ride-hailing cars, the hot sales of AION S, or the visibility of Eion S, which was more related to the B-end market. In other words, strengthening market awareness through the AION S is a double-edged sword for Aion's brand building.
Therefore, in order to achieve brand upwards after independence, E-An must shift the main market from the B-end to the C-end.
Fortunately, the development momentum of AION Y, AION S PLUS, AION V PLUS is still quite positive, although Aeon did not disclose the sales data of specific models, but the proportion of individual users has increased from 77% in the first half of the year to 84% in the second half of the year, and the production and marketing system that originally relied on online car support has gradually changed into individual users, which means that the reconstruction of Aeon's brand image can be said to have been achieved.
Don't look at Aean with the old eyes anymore, because after independence, Aeon has explored a set of his own way of playing, empowering products through technology accumulation, shaping brands through innovative marketing, and the two complement each other to strengthen market awareness.
Regardless of whether Aeon can eventually become a member of the big wave, because the times change quickly, technology changes quickly, and the needs of consumers will change quickly. At the very least, Aehan's current style of play is immediate.
02
The new forces are transformed, and Aian is proofing for the breakthrough of the national team
A question for everyone: Compared with fuel vehicles, electric vehicles have only changed from engines to motors?
Obviously, under the continuous brainwashing of the new forces of car manufacturing, consumer cognition no longer follows a simple linear thinking, as well as experience, service and so on. To this end, Volkswagen Group China CEO Feng Sihan also lamented: "We feel the challenge from these new car-making forces every day, and they also make us realize what Chinese users really expect from us in the future." ”
At present, when traditional car companies or new brands bred by traditional car companies describe their future development paths and visions, they are gradually unable to avoid the reference system of new car-making forces. Ean is one of them, or rather, Ean is already becoming a new force.
First of all, the experience of science and technology, new energy vehicles opened an arms race last year, lidar, Qualcomm 8155 chips, electronic and electrical architecture, supercharge technology, etc. can be the first to experience in the new cars of new car-making forces, and Aian has not fallen behind.
At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, AEAN released the AION LX PLUS, as Aeon's flagship SUV model, the new car is equipped with 3 second-generation lidar, and the car machine chip also uses qualcomm 8155 chip. At the same time, Aeon also launched the Lingxing electronic and electrical architecture at the Guangzhou Auto Show, similar to the X-EEA3.0 electronic and electrical architecture released by Xiaopeng at the same time.
In terms of charging technology, Aeon is ahead. In August 2021, EON released the A480 supercharge pile, which can achieve 6C rate charging, and has been deployed in Tianhe District, Guangzhou. Xiaopeng Automobile only released a similar product at the Guangzhou Auto Show, and Ideal Automobile is developing a 4C magnification product.
The second is the marketing model, EIAN adopts the direct operation model, but does not fully adopt the direct operation model, using the three automobile sales models of direct operation + joint venture + distribution, to achieve the online + offline, direct operation + distribution, and car city + supermarket model.
It is true that Aeon is exploring its own marketing model, after all, the marketing model for the next decade has not yet been conclusive, direct sales and 4S stores have merit, and one model can solve all the ecological problems in the future.
Up to now, GAC Aeon has built 194 checheng stores and 183 commercial supermarkets in major key cities across the country, reducing the sense of distance between the brand and customers through direct operation, and reaching the sinking market through checheng stores. Aeon was able to achieve sales targets this year, thanks to this marketing model.
Finally, the IPO, since the independence of the Aeon brand, there has been a lot of news about its mixed reform and listing. On August 30 last year, GAC Group officially issued an announcement announcing that GAC Aeon would soon launch the mixed ownership reform.
In the announcement of the mixed reform, GAC Group announced four core information: GAC Aean Mixed Reform will carry out employee shareholding, the introduction of strategic investment and other matters; the research and development business will be transferred to GAC Aean, making GAC Aean a technology company integrating research, production and marketing; after the GAC Aean mixed reform, GAC Group will still be the controlling party; GAC Aean will choose the opportunity to go public.
As for why the mixed reform and listing were carried out at this time? First, it can add a lot of communication to the enterprise, and in the past year, there should be no less news that the market value of "Wei Xiaoli" surpasses that of a certain traditional car company; the second is to prevent the brain drain, carry out employee shareholding, so that employees can really participate in the whole process of the development and growth of the enterprise, so that the enterprise continues to be full of vitality and competitiveness; the third is that there is money, and car manufacturing is always the most "money-burning" competition, especially the arms race that is currently opened.
However, it should be noted that Aeon is only learning the model and thinking of the new forces of car building, not copying. From a variety of interesting and fun marketing methods and cutting-edge technology to take the lead in investment, to the dual-track system of direct operation + distribution, and then to the mixed reform and listing, Aeon is more thoroughly embracing Internet thinking from multiple dimensions such as organizational structures, products and services.
Aian is on the way to becoming a "new force" in car manufacturing, but this new force is not a new force, and Aeon, who has traditional car-making experience, has explored an integrated development model of "traditional car companies + new car-making forces".
03
Che Tanjun observation
In the national team that builds cars, Aehan is the first to practice this model, which will provide a comprehensive reference sample for the subsequent national team to break through.
Of course, the sample of Aeon has certain limitations, and the current product layout of Aeon is mainly concentrated in the range of 100,000-200,000, which is not high compared to the average price of new forces and other national teams.
I also asked people about Aean when writing this article, and he said: For a new brand, the most important thing is to solve the problem of survival first, and there is no sales everything is empty talk. After gaining a firm foothold in the new energy vehicle market, the next step will be to gradually achieve brand upward through continuous product upgrading.
After solving the problem of survival, how to live with style and live a higher order must be the breakthrough battle that Aeon will attack in the future: product up and brand up.
For Aean, there is a difficulty here: when the brand has formed a certain market awareness, it is extremely challenging to create a high-end brand image. But it cannot be generalized, because after independence, E'an showed a surging energy, with the confidence to break the shackles of the system.
Recently, AION LX PLUS was officially listed, with a price range of 28.66-45.96 million yuan, which is the second time that Aion has launched a charge to the high-end after LX. To this end, AION LX PLUS also integrates the second generation of lidar, 8155 chips, 2.9s acceleration per 100 kilometers, endurance of 1008km and other eye-catching performance.
In the first year of his independence, Aehan handed over a remarkable report card. Over the past year, the huge efforts have paid off, and more importantly, we have seen a new Aeon running forward.
It was born out of the old car companies, but according to its own logic to become a "new force" ability runner. It wants to outperform the opponent, outperform the big picture, outperform the time, and it does not stop for a moment.
In 2022, it deserves more enthusiastic expectations.
*The pictures in this article are from the Internet