After 5 years of establishment, WEY can no longer see the taillights of Lynk & Co?

2022-01-14 17:23:03

With 58,300 vs 220,500, WEY and Lynk & Co have already made a big deal out of it.

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In 2016, two more interesting new car brands appeared in China, one is Li Shufu's LYNK&CO (Lynk & Co); the other is Wei Jianjun's WEY (Wei brand).

After 5 years of establishment, WEY can no longer see the taillights of Lynk & Co?

The two auto industry tycoons invariably entered the high-end and challenged the joint venture, which played a leading role in the upward road of China's local cars. Since the time is almost the same, the conditions are almost the same, the two new brands can not avoid being compared, especially after the establishment of the brand 5 years later, what they have become, how much market share they occupy, presumably many people are very interested.

The data doesn't lie, let's look at the results first —

On January 6 this year, Great Wall Motor officially released the December 2021 production and sales express, the data shows that the WEY brand sold 10,065 vehicles in December, 10,031 units in the same period of 2020, an increase of 0.34% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales volume in 2021 was 58,363 vehicles, compared with 78,500 units in the same period of 2020, down 25.65% year-on-year.

It was also on January 6 that Lynk & Co also released its 2021 sales data. In 2021, Lynk & Co sold a total of 220,500 units, an increase of 25.68% year-on-year. This is the first time since its inception that the Lynk & Co brand has exceeded the all-time record of 200,000 units sold, and it is also the best annual sales volume. So far, Lynk & Co has a user base of 650,000+.

In terms of sales alone, Lynk & Co has exceeded three times that of WEY, and the two are hardly in the same order of magnitude. What's more, WEY fell 25 points year-over-year, while Lynk & Co increased by 25 points. In contrast, the superior and inferior are judged from above.

In fact, as early as 2018, Lynk & Co sold 120,000 vehicles; in 2019, Lynk & Co sold 128,000 units; in 2020, Lynk & Co sold 175,400 units; and in 2021, Lynk & Co sold 220,500 vehicles. Over the past four years of organic sales, Lynk & Co has grown at an average annual rate of 23.01% and a median of 31.34%.

In the eyes of many industry insiders, Lynk & Co has now climbed out of the various quagmires of the initial stage of the brand and entered the stable upward development stage of the spiral curve.

The WEY brand was also full of scenery at the beginning of its establishment, with sales reaching 139,000 units in 2018, even surpassing Lynk & Co, but it began to decline in 2019, with sales of 100,000 units in 2019, 78,500 units in 2020, and 58,300 units in 2021.

Compared with the spiral of Lynk & Co, the sales volume of the WEY brand has shown a cliff-like decline, which is also farther and farther away from Wei Jianjun's original expectations.

So, what is the reason that has caused the two to go from being side by side in the past to the difference between the two and the current abyss?

In the view of the Daily Car News, WEY and Lynk & Co actually take two very different routes: WEY belongs to Haval's Extension, positioned higher than Haval, and its launch ideas are somewhat like Toyota (Haval) and Lexus (WEY), its marketing and network will be built independently outside of Haval, and emphasize the image of light luxury products. Lynk & Co emphasizes the attributes of youth and connectivity, and has the identity of a joint venture car, especially the same powertrain and CMA platform as Volvo, which makes it have a very strong product persuasion.

The different concepts of the brand also profoundly affect the product planning and layout, and from the performance of recent years, the problems exposed by WEY have been very obvious.

The first is that the product lineup is relatively single.

Judging from the existing products, WEY's model is more like a luxury version of "Haval". Whether it is the exterior design, interior workmanship, atmosphere creation and various high-tech configurations, WEY's performance is impressive, and the overall performance has even surpassed some joint venture brand models. Combined with the price and configuration, WEY has not turned away ordinary consumers, which is indeed thick.

But there is a point, WEY still continues Haval to "SUV king" product idea, although the launch of many SUV models, but not involved in the field of cars, and these SUV in the design, functionality of the difference is very small, it is difficult to give people a differentiated product experience. In contrast, many of Lynk & Co's products have their own characteristics in the positioning of the target group, and they are more likely to succeed.

In addition, from the perspective of mature market structure, cars and SUVs should also be balanced development to achieve "two-legged walking", which will also enhance the anti-risk ability of automobile companies in the increasingly fierce competition, and once a certain market segment changes significantly, it has the ability to achieve strategic transfer. Obviously, after the WEY brand appeared the risk of volatility, the single model structure made it impossible to get out smoothly.

Again, the product has no continuity.

On the other hand, weY's non-continuity in product planning is also an important reason for the loss of consumers.

As we all know, the WEY brand quickly launched a number of SUV products such as VV5/VV6/VV7 shortly after its establishment, and successfully opened the market. However, when consumers have identified with such a product system, WEY has launched a "coffee platform" and derived models such as Mocha, Macchiato, latte, etc. If you are a professional, you may also know that they are VV5/VV6/VV7 replacement products, but for ordinary consumers, it is really difficult to figure out their positioning and relationship.

Moreover, for old car owners, the conversion of products makes their cars completely "orphaned", and the retention rate is falling, so it is difficult to establish a sense of trust in the brand.

Then there is the shunt of the tank series.

Of course, there is a very objective reason, the tank series originally belonged to the WEY brand, and later because of its good development, it was spun off to become a new brand. In fact, as a tank series that is also positioned as a high-end, it is inevitable to rob some weY users.

According to the data, the cumulative sales volume of the tank brand in 2021 is 84588 units, of which the sales volume in December was 11958 units.

Write at the end

If the decline of WEY can always find the cause, then the success of Lynk & Co is also completely traceable, in fact, whether it is in the positioning of youth, or the comprehensiveness of product planning, Lynk & Co has shown a more sophisticated side. Of course, 5 years is only a starting point for a car brand, whether it is Lynk & Co or WEY, just leading or lagging behind in stages, and there are still greater challenges waiting for them in the future.

After 5 years of establishment, WEY can no longer see the taillights of Lynk & Co?

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