Does China's pure electric vehicle market still need a new brand? Someone will always answer "YES".
On December 27, the new pure electric vehicle brand "Electric House" announced that its first pure electric model product YOUNG Guangxiaoxin has officially opened user delivery, and is expected to achieve delivery volume of more than 1,000 by the end of 2021. According to Hu Jun, managing director of electric houses, its order volume has been several times this figure.
And this is only 4 months after the electric house brand turned out to be born. In August 2021, the "Electric House" brand officially debuted, and simultaneously released its first model YOUNG Guangxiaoxin.
YOUNG Guangxiao new positioning A0 class pure electric two-box sedan, launched a total of two models, priced at 59,800 yuan and 65,800 yuan respectively, mainly facing the second car consumer demand of families in first- and second-tier cities.
The upcoming year of 2022 will be an important year for electric house brands to fully open the market and land on the beach. This year, the electric house brand will launch three new models: a more functional and intelligent A0-class pure electric model, a more economical A00-class pure electric model, and a pure electric A-class MPV for the taxi and online car operation market.
In order to promote the rapid development of these models, the electric house will also achieve nationwide coverage of 250 cities and establish 500 stores by the end of 2022. In addition, the brand plans to achieve the first product exports within the year.
According to electric houses, the brand will achieve sales of more than 50,000 vehicles in 2022, and complete the goal of exceeding 10,000 units in a single month by the end of the year, initially achieving breakeven.
Less than a year and a half since its establishment, the first model has just begun to be delivered, where does the confidence of the electric house come from?
Less than 100,000 yuan: a hundred flowers blooming in the car market
According to Liu Hongwei, chief marketing officer of the electric house, this small team of only more than 100 people has completed the research and development, production and delivery of the first product YOUNG Guangxiao in the past year or so, and has achieved channel construction covering 95 cities across the country in 4 months, and has also completed the foundation of the DTC user operation system with Kaiyu Group.
In 2020, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the entire automotive industry is only 5%, and this data has reached 13.1% in 2021. According to the data of the National Passenger Vehicle Information Joint Association, in 2021, the wholesale sales of new energy vehicles in China have exceeded 3.3 million units, an increase of more than 180%, of which the sales of pure electric vehicles increased by 182.9% to 2.736 million units.
In China's new energy vehicle market, the number of vehicles sold more than 250,000 and less than 100,000 is large. The market range of more than 250,000 is mainly the game competition between Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal and Tesla, and the competition pattern has basically taken shape. However, the entry-level market within 100,000 is still in a state of blooming, and the competition has just begun.
"We are more than one car manufacturer, and the new energy vehicles of the future are not only 'travel' attributes." Hu Jun said that the future car is more of a "mobile terminal". In his view, new energy has fired the first shot of this automotive revolution, but intelligence will be the key to the future reshuffle of the automotive industry.
(Hu Jun, Managing Director of Electric House / Source: Electric House Brand Official)
Based on the judgment of the above market, the electric house chooses to knock on the door of the entry-level electric vehicle market below 100,000 yuan first, cut into the market segment with the largest potential user, and obtain a user base. After the foundation is consolidated, this new brand will further move towards the goal of "full-stack pure electric mobility service provider".
According to the electric house survey, when buying a second car for a family, users tend to be more rational and consider from the real needs, and will not pursue face too much. Daily commuting and picking up and dropping off children are their main use scenarios.
In addition to the additional purchase market, there are two major incremental markets for the current consumption of electric vehicles, namely Z generation consumers and low-speed electric vehicle upgrade users. Generation Z consumers' consumption concept is more pragmatic, more pursuit of personality, fun, so that car consumption becomes "fast selling products"; while the budget of low-speed electric vehicle upgrade users is mostly not very high, and attaches great importance to the economy of use.
Whether it is for additional users, young users or low-speed electric vehicle upgrade users, electric vehicles below 100,000 yuan have a market space that is visible to the naked eye.
In the initial stage, based on the huge demand of less than 100,000 yuan market, the electric house hopes to quickly expand sales and service stores with cost-effective products and quickly achieve user increment. And this demand is not only personal travel, but also covers more mobile travel-related business areas, including shared cars, online ride-hailing, urban logistics vehicles, etc.
DTC: Copy the password of the "Wuling Myth"?
From the perspective of leadership background, electric houses do have certain opportunities in the market below 100,000 yuan. Hu Jun was the general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Sales, while Liu Hongwei was responsible for the marketing of small cars at Chery Automobile and the Huge Group.
(Liu Hongwei, Chief Marketing Officer of Electric House /Source: Electric House Brand Official)
The brand background of the electric house, it is difficult not to let it be labeled "Wuling in the Era of Electric Vehicles". But "Wuling in the new era" is easier said than done. In the decades of China's auto industry history, the "Wuling Myth" has only appeared once.
Regardless of whether the goal is "Wuling in the era of electric vehicles", in the face of the market competition environment in the new era and user demand, electric houses have to think: how to quickly increase the volume? How to bring high cost performance? How to be more efficient...
In Hu Jun's view, the 1.0 era of new car-making forces with capital and technology as the core has passed, and now it has entered the era of 2.0 new car-making forces with business models as the main competitiveness. Based on this judgment, the electric house proposes the industry's first DOCK docking model.
Different from the business model of most brands building factories, self-developed technologies and self-built stores, the DOCK docking model of electric houses hopes to do a collaborative system that integrates superior industry resources.
Hu Jun believes that China's new energy automobile industry has been very mature, and there are a large number of resources in the entire industrial chain that have not been fully utilized. Therefore, the electric house hopes to grasp the core needs of customers, focus on core technology development, product definition and service at the same time, through the integration of a variety of resources in the whole industry chain, the establishment of a digital efficient collaboration system, so as to achieve high cost performance on the user side and rapid landing on the market side.
In the future, the electric house will be independent and joint research and development in parallel, focusing on the construction of R & D, manufacturing, marketing, user four ports, including independent quality control and manufacturing OEM integration, parts supply chain cooperation, and with dealer partners to jointly layout sales and service outlets.
On the user side, through the United Nations digital company Kaiyu Group, electric house has established a set of user big data systems and online communication channels, and used a variety of resources to create a DTC user operation and maintenance system. On the front end, the system can reach users through multiple touchpoints such as Mini Programs, Official Accounts, APP, and Official Websites, relying on the data center to directly connect with users to communicate, understand user needs, and ultimately improve customer acquisition efficiency.
In the field of intelligence, the electric house will focus on the research and development of EE electronic and electrical architecture, human-computer interaction and application software, and autonomous driving assistance technologies to meet the needs. In Hu Jun's view, the integrated control domain of the car is the foundation of intelligence, human-computer interaction is the front end of the service, and the automatic driving assistance is the pillar of the future service model.
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At present, the B round of financing for electric houses is in the process of being raised. According to Hu Jun, a number of government and investment institutions have shown investment intentions, and they are also in contact with each other, and it is expected that there will be good news next year.
Even so, Liu Hongwei still stressed: "The fierce competition in the new energy vehicle track can no longer allow us to slack off a little." ”
As he said, although it is not as competitive as the competitive energy of the market of more than 250,000 yuan, the electric vehicle market below 100,000 yuan is not a mess. The earliest pure electric brands of traditional car companies such as Wuling, Great Wall, and Chery are all in the market below 100,000 yuan, while second-tier new power brands such as Nezha and Zero Run have also initially gained a foothold in the market.
Fortunately, the pattern of the pure electric car market has not yet been fully formed, and the electric house still has the opportunity to seize the cake. However, for the latecomers, there will inevitably be greater obstacles than the first movers.