For this matter, Wang Jianlin was busy for more than half a year

In order to lay out the car track, Wanda has been busy for half a year.

During this period, Chairman Wang Jianlin replaced his car with a domestic red flag. Changing cars with Lao Wang, there are also a number of Wanda executives. On January 8, Lao Wang rode his new car, Hongqi H9, to Beijing Fengke Wanda Plaza and attended the opening ceremony of Wanda Hongqi flagship store.

There are many housing companies involved in the automotive field, but Wanda has embarked on a new path -

They don't build cars, they build an ecological chain of car services.

01 Clear goal, steady forward

New energy vehicles are the new outlet in recent years, especially car manufacturing, which is sought after by many enterprises.

Since 2016, more than 10 housing enterprises have intervened in the car circle to build cars, and Evergrande, Vanke, Greenland, Baoneng, R&F and other enterprises are on the list. Some housing enterprises retreated early, such as Vanke and Greenland, and some housing enterprises have been deeply trapped so far, such as Evergrande and Baoneng.

At the same time, Internet companies are also trying to get a piece of the pie in the car circle, and companies such as Baidu and Xiaomi have spread the news of car manufacturing.

Compared with these companies, Wanda's entry into the market is not too early, but the goal is clear enough, and the steps are steady and fast-

In July 2021, Taiyue Group, the largest strategic cooperation distributor of Wanda Group, FAW Hongqi and FAW Hongqi brand, held the first strategic cooperation meeting in Beijing, and the three parties reached a preliminary cooperation intention;

In August 2021, Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin and his party visited China FAW Group, where the two sides held discussions and exchanges and signed a strategic cooperation agreement.

In October 2021, China FAW Group officially launched a strategic cooperation with Wanda Group, and Wang Jianlin said that he would personally take the lead in letting all senior executives above the vice president of Wanda transfer to Hongqi Automobile;

In November 2021, Wanda Automotive Technology Service Co., Ltd. was formally established with a registered capital of 100 million yuan;

In December 2021, Li Hongpeng, former Vice President of Commercial of Hyundai Motor Group (China), joined Wanda Automobile as President.

In January 2022, the wanda hongqi automobile flagship store opened for business in Beijing Fengke Wanda Plaza, and Wang Jianlin personally attended the event;

……

From the second half of 2021 to now, every once in a while, Wanda must expose a big news and firmly grasp the attention of the real estate circle and the automobile circle.

Lao Wang and his Wanda have never lacked traffic, and in the real estate circle, Wanda is the deserved king of commercial real estate. In recent years, Hongqi automobile sales have gone all the way up, achieving a strong promotion of the brand.

The combination of the two also makes the outside world full of curiosity: Wanda's new energy vehicle road, how to go?

Other housing companies are cross-border car-making, Wanda does not build cars, but chooses to play with the veteran players in the automobile circle.

Overall, Wanda's idea of entering the automotive field is very clear, that is, Hongqi Automobile will be sold in Wanda Plaza, and Wanda Automobile will provide it with a series of car services.

In other words, professional people do professional things, car companies manage to build cars, and Wanda does operations.

On January 8, Lao Wang rode his new car, Hongqi H9, to Beijing Fengke Wanda Plaza, where the first Wanda Hongqi automobile flagship store was officially opened.

Beijing Fengke Wanda Hongqi flagship store has a business area of more than 1,000 square meters, consisting of an above-ground exhibition center and an underground service area. Among them, the above-ground display center is located in the middle of the first floor of the mall, and the overall decoration of the store highlights the sense of scientific and technological interaction, and customers can directly experience the black technology in the Hongqi car through the interactive screen in the store.

Located on the second floor of the minus 2nd floor of the mall, the underground service area will provide customers with a number of automotive technologies such as automatic parking, automatic car washing, and automatic charging in addition to providing regular services such as after-sales, maintenance and cars.

From the perspective of service content, Wanda's goal is not just to sell cars.

02 The industry changes lanes and gives full play to its advantages

Housing enterprises into the automotive field, the direction must be chosen correctly, after all, the real estate companies planted in this track abound.

Evergrande spent 47 billion yuan to build cars, and has not yet been able to achieve mass production of models. Nowadays, Evergrande's main real estate business and wealth management products have exploded, and Evergrande Automobile has also become an embarrassing existence.

Similar to the situation is Also Baoneng, Baoneng, who has won a great victory in the "Baowan Dispute", the founder Yao Boss regards car building as the career of the second half of his life, and has smashed more than 50 billion yuan into it, not only did not even listen to a splash, but also stumbled on Baoneng's main business by the way.

On the crowded car track, Greenland, Vanke, Huaxia Happiness, R&F and other real estate companies have been involved in the automotive field, and not long after the investment, they were forced to retreat because of the excessive burning of money.

Once the housing enterprises are indeed not short of money, but in the field of automobiles, they are mostly laymen. Coupled with the fact that the return efficiency of investing in the automobile field is much lower than that of the real estate industry, if these cross-border housing enterprises cannot find the right direction, then it is very likely that the bamboo basket will be empty, and even drag the main business into it.

Therefore, how to give full play to their real advantages has become the real pain point of cross-border housing enterprises.

Unlike other real estate companies, Wanda, which is known for its commercial real estate, has a very unique advantage in the automotive field, and more than 380 Wanda Plazas that have opened across the country have established a dense network to cover the auto sales industry that has undergone changes.

In 2020, the number of auto dealers in the country reached 3,098, which was much higher than the number added in that year. The dealers who have withdrawn from the network are mainly traditional 4S stores, and the new outlets are mostly new energy brands. As the marketing models of many auto brands have embarked on the road of innovation of urban showrooms, the pattern of the auto sales industry has quietly changed.

Unlike traditional 4S stores, the city showrooms of these car brands are more in large shopping malls located in the bustling areas of the city center. And this coincides with Wanda's own advantages.

With this layer of factors, It is natural for Wanda to get involved in the automotive field.

It is worth mentioning that this time Wanda joined hands with FAW, focusing more on "business-oriented investment". Up to now, Lao Wang has not invested heavily in FAW, but has made appropriate changes on the original supermarket system to create a new car purchase service for it.

At the beginning of the establishment of Wanda Automotive Technology, insiders bluntly said: "The establishment of registered automobile service companies this time is not through a joint venture company to intervene in the automobile production industry chain, but through the laying of automobile sales channels, to prepare for the entry of offline automobile trading services, which is equivalent to an additional distribution channel for automobile companies." ”

According to the plan, Wanda Group is based on its commercial plaza and cultural tourism projects to create a Wanda automobile ecosystem. According to the development plan of Wanda Automobile, it is not only to provide a sales network for Hongqi, but also to make full use of the layout of more than 7,000 parking lots and smart parking systems of Wanda Group in major cities across the country in the future to provide charging piles, smart parking and other services to car owners.

Relying on existing resources to intervene in the automotive field, this operation is also in line with Wanda's consistent asset-light strategy.

03 Conclusion

2021 is a year of overall downturn in the real estate industry, and many housing companies have exploded.

Compared with other housing enterprises, Wanda, which announced the asset-light transformation as early as 2018, has become the envy of many housing enterprises with abundant cash flow and low debt, which makes people have to sigh Lao Wang's vision.

Now, Wanda has once again broadened its asset-light strategy to the automotive track, what kind of legend will it write?

Let's wait and see.