When you think of buggies, who comes to mind first? In the past, the answer to this question is quite monotonous, in addition to japanese models such as the Land Cruiser, Prado, and Pajero, plus the JEEP brand Wrangler, Grand Cherokee, etc., the off-road vehicles with high popularity are basically just a few of the above cars. However, after entering 2021, the domestic off-road vehicle market pattern has suddenly changed, the new off-road vehicle "jianghu", independent brands also have a place, BAIC, Great Wall, etc. are making efforts, Chery Automobile's Jietu brand has also officially announced its entry into the off-road vehicle market, and its first off-road vehicle will be listed in 2023.
Image source: Jetway
Because of its joint venture with JEEP many years ago, BAIC is one of the only autonomous car companies that has always been able to connect with off-road vehicles. If you count from the Beijing 212 listed in 1965, BAIC has been building off-road vehicles for more than 50 years, although the market size has not been large, but off-road vehicles have become an important business component of BAIC. At the beginning of 2019, BAIC also further increased the weight of the off-road vehicle business, and the former OFF-road vehicle division of BAIC Group was officially upgraded to an independent operating company integrating research and development, procurement, manufacturing and marketing. At present, BAIC Off-road Vehicle Company already has 5 models of BJ30, BJ40, BJ80, BJ90 and F40, and the product line covers the market range of 100,000-700,000 yuan.
In the past two years, as optimistic as BAIC, the off-road vehicle market is also Great Wall Motors. In the middle of last year, Great Wall Motors released three major technology platforms, one of which is the tank platform focusing on off-road vehicles, and the Tank 300 is the first model built on this platform. The price of more than 200,000 can have "three locks", coupled with the blessing of functions such as creep mode and tank turning, the tank 300 quickly became a popular model in the terminal market after the listing, and it is precisely because of the gratifying sales results after the listing, the tank 300, which was originally a model under the WEY brand, soon became an independent portal and became the first model of the new Brand of the Great Wall - Tank. Since its launch at the end of 2020, the cumulative sales of tank 300 vehicles have exceeded 70,000 (Great Wall Motor's other off-road product, Haval Big Dog, sold nearly 90,000 vehicles in the first 11 months of 2021). In addition, the second model of the tank brand, the Tank 500, has also announced the pre-sale price, and the price of 335,000-395,000 is not low, but from the current market heat, the new car should not worry about sales.
Just two days ago, another self-owned brand extended its product line to the field of off-road vehicles. On January 10th, Jietu Automobile held a brand night event, officially releasing the four major product sequences of X, T, P and V, of which the T product sequence focuses on hardcore off-road. At the event site, Jietu Automobile also unveiled its first hardcore SUV, the Jietu T-X concept car, and it is expected that the first mass production car under the T series will be launched in 2023.
Jetway T-X, Image source: Jetway
Jetway is a new product sequence launched by Chery Holding Group in January 2018, and in July last year, Jetway was officially announced as a brand new brand. To achieve brand independence, to be able to hand over a good market performance is certainly the line conditions, the data shows that in 2021, Jietu Automobile achieved sales of 154,077 vehicles (including exports), an increase of 17.9% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales since its establishment reached 463,814 vehicles, which has been an important sales pillar of Chery Automobile.
Although the recent market performance is quite good, but for Chery Automobile, the market crash caused by the multi-brand "chaotic war" has always been a deep pain in the heart, and after returning to a Chery brand in 2012, it has finally recovered its market vitality after many years of dormancy. However, in recent years, Chery Automobile's brands have begun to become rich again, Chery, Jietu, Xingtu, Kaiyi, etc., at present, Chery Holding Group has formed a "multi-brand" market layout in the passenger car business sector, how to reflect differentiation to avoid internal friction between sub-brands, has become a problem that has to be considered.
At present, the brand characteristics of Jietu are quite distinct. In order to make a distinction, Jietu Automobile has been focusing on the concept of travel before, committed to developing the travel + market segment, regardless of the effect, but it can be intuitively seen that Jietu is making efforts to create its own brand personality. From this perspective, the development of the off-road vehicle market by releasing the T product sequence is also an attempt by Jietu Automobile to seek internal brand differentiation.
T-X is the first concept car of T product sequence, the current official information revealed shows that the length of the vehicle is between 4.6 meters and 5.1 meters, which will cover the price range of 150,000-300,000 yuan, and competitors directly lock the tank brand.
The reality that big dogs and tanks 300 are sought after by the terminal market has allowed the industry to see the market potential of autonomous off-road vehicles, and a new independent off-road vehicle is taking shape. However, the shortcut off-road vehicle that has to wait for two years to arrive can still catch up with the popular off-road vehicle market that relies on cost performance to win? In the end, the main thing is to look at two points, one is what kind of products Can Jietu bring, and the other is whether there is a competitive advantage in terms of price.