On August 12, 2021, a new brand called "Electric House" appeared in the radar map of the new energy car industry. The brand's first model is called YOUNG Kwangko-shin. Hearing "Xiaoxin", most of the post-80s and post-90s have a sense of familiarity. In fact, the electric house has found a well-known Japanese manga/anime IP crayon Shin to do cross-border cooperation, which also makes this pure electric A0 car more youthful, stylish and kind for young people.
From the 3740*1655*1550mm body size plus the wheelbase of 2415mm, it can be seen that this car is in the A0 class of product positioning. In addition to providing a total of four drivers and passengers with enough practical seating space, the new car also provides 540L of rear variable space. The size of the space of YOUNG Light's new dimensionality reduction strike is a great advantage that other A00-class cheap electric vehicles cannot match.
The starting price of 64,800 yuan is also particularly affordable for clTC's four-seater car with a range of 408 kilometers. In fact, this car is indeed one of the models with the highest endurance relative to the price on the market, that is, the "continuation price ratio". This alone, coupled with a more realistic spatial configuration such as five doors and four seats, is enough to become a killer highlight that breaks through from other similarly positioned products.
1 Tend to improve the terminal experience
Product strength is on the one hand, but in the A0-level market with huge capacity, rich channel pairs are the last word to hit the market. As of December 31, 2021, the number of new deliveries of electric house YOUNG has exceeded 1,000 units, and more than 95 cities have been covered nationwide. High coverage means high exposure in the consumption scenario, which is the most direct market competitiveness for a brand that was established last year.
It is reported that the electric house will also open the top digital company in the United Nations to open the international group to create an efficient digital user service system and user big data center. To put it simply, even electric houses closely follow the footsteps of the new forces of the Internet, and continue to exert efforts in user operations and Internet customer acquisition.
At present, the electric house has a multi-touch system such as Mini Program, Public Account, App (which currently supports Android and Apple dual platforms), and official website to reach users. Through direct user communication through the data center, the electric house will become more user-aware and optimize the efficiency of customer acquisition.
2 DOCK docking mode
1. Offline store expansion speed - the key to increment
Regarding the direct operation model, Hu Jun, managing director of the electric house, has a very decisive attitude: "In fact, we do not think that the direct operation model is the right choice. No one understands the market better than a local dealer. We can't sit in an office and have a deep understanding of the national market. Especially when we begin to go deep into the second, third and fourth lines, enter those markets that are far away from us, we must dig out the local market resources, and look for dealer partners who really understand the market and understand electric sales everywhere. ”
For the cost control, it is the basis for the electric house to claim profitability in 2022. In 2022, the electric house brand will continue to expand the coverage of the sales network at a high speed, and it is expected to achieve nationwide coverage of 250 cities and establish 500 stores by the end of the year. The core driver supporting such rapid development is the operating concept of electric houses called the DOCK model.
However, if all 500 stores are directly operated, this is obviously too heavy a burden for a newly established brand.
For the selection of dealer cooperation candidates, Hu Jun also expressed his own views: "The main sales force in the new energy market is not the main force of sales of traditional fuel vehicles. Therefore, we must find excellent distribution partners who understand the market and understand the sales of new energy vehicles. These people are often not the big local dealers, but some small and medium-sized dealers. And because they were not people who had a lot of resources in the fuel vehicle market, they had already begun to transform into selling trams. On the contrary, these people know more about the sales of new energy vehicles and the needs of new energy customers. ”
The electric house adopts the cooperation model of a dealer partner in a prefecture-level city. In terms of store investment, the current largest level of stores is only 200 square meters, the decoration cost is controlled at more than 200,000 yuan, and the electric house will also give a certain subsidy, and the actual dealer cost burden is not heavy. Because of the low-cost advantage of laying offline stores, electric houses can fully reduce the threshold for joining, and obtain incremental benefits through rapid coverage increases. In turn, the increase in storefronts and sales also means more awareness of the market and the profits of dealers, which is a positive cycle that attracts dealer partners to join.
2. Precise development, flexible production - mutual empowerment of developers and producers
Hu Jun mentioned: "We are now producing and manufacturing using the way of China National Heavy Duty Truck VGV OEM, which saves us a lot of financial resources. As we all know, even the smallest factory investment is starting at 2 billion. But we feel that there is no shortage of production capacity in this industry, so we feel that we should integrate these resources. Therefore, our cooperation with SINOTRUK VGV is like this, we take what we need, and this cooperation is very stable. ”
If faster channel laying is the biggest booster to the volume, then the flexible production method is today's core R & D capabilities and product definition capabilities to weigh more in the asset model of the more flattering Chinese-style electric vehicle play. In fact, after several years of baptism and development of China's domestic new energy industry chain, it has been very mature and stable for the new entry and choice to build a model within 100,000 yuan as the first model of the electric house, and there is a price advantage.
In terms of manufacturing, the electric house chose to cooperate with Sinotruk VGV. But the cooperation between the two is not only pure OEM, but a deep strategic cooperation. Sinotruk VGV helps the electric house secure the production base, which in turn helps the former in its new energy product strategy. In this way, the transformation pressure of traditional automobile manufacturers such as fuel consumption credits and new energy credits can also be alleviated by electric houses.
At present, the definition of the role of the electric house is to define the requirements, define the product, and then only do the most core research and development. For example, the core areas of EE electrical and electronic architecture and autonomous driving technology will be an in-house capability of electric houses. And a considerable part of the technology research and development, electric house will be jointly developed with technical enterprises with industrial advantages, which is actually a more efficient and faster way. In terms of production, since the electric house adopts the form of OEM, the role of the electric house in this link is supply chain management and quality management. However, brand and user operation are also things that need to be done as the core.
At present, the industry has formed a complete third-party professional research and development system, external production capacity distributed in many places, as well as the improvement of spare parts supply chain, leading sales and after-sales service concept and its team outsourcing capabilities. In order to quickly enter the market, the focus of electric houses is not on self-built factories and completely independent research and development with longer cycles and lower and lower input-output ratios, but how to make itself a lightweight and highly concentrated car-making think tank, and use the DOCK docking mode to externally integrate these existing high-quality resources to create perfect systematic collaboration capabilities and systematic expansion advantages.
3. Streamlined team
Regarding the acceptance of kaiyu international funds, Hu Jun's logic is: "We need its IT resources, as an automotive industry person, we may know more about the car industry, but we are not so professional about the IT industry." ”
The team of electric houses has formed a scale of 100 people, although for the new energy industry often thousands of personnel team size, this volume is not large, but according to Hu Jun, each is a carefully selected industry top soldiers. When a team is lean enough and has a clear goal, it tends to turn into a team that is flexible enough to fight.
For electric houses, the basis for the number of users is sufficient sales. The electric house that has just established a brand and is in the period of rising sales will obviously pay more attention to store laying and production progress. Therefore, in terms of user operation and App and data, the electric house will be built backed by Open Domain International for information and DTC user operation and maintenance system.
The four most important ports of the docking station include R&D, manufacturing, service, and users. The electric house will adopt independent and joint research and development in parallel, independent quality control and manufacturing OEM integration, parts supply chain cooperation, and incorporate high-quality dealer partners to jointly lay out sales and service outlets. In terms of online, we have built a user big data system and online communication channels to create a DTC (Direct to Customer) brand model to directly operate and maintain users.
In fact, for the problem of how the latecomers can catch up, the answer to the electric house is to reduce costs in the best way in various links, improve the speed of operation, and finally achieve the high cost performance of the user side and the rapid occupation of the market side, and finally gradually achieve the goal of "full-stack pure electric mobility service provider".
3 small steps to the future
Liu Hongwei, chief marketing officer of the electric house, said: "Official delivery will begin in October, and it is expected to exceed 1,000 by the end of 2021. Of course, we have also been affected by some chips, otherwise the amount would be even greater. So the electric house started well. ”
The electric house plans to sell 50,000 units in 2022 and break even. In this perhaps historic year for electric houses, the electric house brand will also launch three new pure electric model products, covering the product spectrum of A00-A class, and is expected to achieve the first batch of product exports. In terms of funds, in 2021, the electric house has completed a round of financing of 100 million yuan, and the investors include the government of Chongqing Changshou High-tech Zone, CDH Investment, Kaiyu International Group, Andimu Technology. Series B funding is currently underway.
In fact, many new energy brands have adopted a product strategy of high opening and low walking at the beginning of their establishment. Tesla drove high, from the Pure Electric Sports Car based on Lotus all the way to the Model 3, while Niolai started from formula E, and also produced a limited number of power-changing supercar EP9 and refreshed the Nürburgring lap. The Lucid, which has only recently begun to be delivered, is clearly positioned as its first model, the Air, as well as a flagship sedan. Different from the routine of the previous years, the entrance ticket to the electric house is an A0-class car. This is also a symbol of the gradual maturity of the electric vehicle market. First, the supply chain is becoming more and more flexible, which can support the emergence of more entry-level models, and second, consumers have also changed, from the early geek consumers to the transportation needs of ordinary families.
It is understood that after the young light small new model, there will be an annual car with a lower price and a shorter battery life next year. The electric house will launch a more intelligent and more personalized A0-class pure electric model, and continue to attack the market with higher competitiveness.
At the same time, the electric house will also launch a more cost-effective A00-class pure electric model through its own DOCK cost advantage, and open a horizontal exploration for the field of shared cars. Many people think that A00 electric vehicles and the A00 fuel vehicles of the year are the same as a transitional product, but the development speed of electric vehicle intelligence is not achieved overnight, and this type of car still accounts for a large proportion of the current market. It is also a reasonable choice to get a considerable piece of cake in a place where the new forces with a larger market scale and higher brand positioning have no intention of stepping into.
The electric house will also launch an A-class MPV pure electric model product that is more in line with the scene according to the needs of the operating markets such as taxis and online ride-hailing vehicles. As a latecomer, the positioning of electric houses is clear. The To B business and the overseas plan can help it to seize resources in the mid-to-high-end C-end electric vehicle market that has not been excessively rolled up to some extent under the more flexible entry-level market layout of electric houses, so as to obtain a bigger cake.
Regarding the entry into higher-level markets, such as the B-class car market, electric house said that it is still in the early stages of the brand, focusing on the market that is still an entry-level model.
4 Written at the end
In 2021, China's new energy market will blow up, and the production and marketing performance will continue to create new highs. According to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to November 2021, China's cumulative output has exceeded 3 million new energy vehicles.
Among them, the sales volume of the A00 level alone exceeded 750,000 units. The consumer's favor for personal transportation caused by the epidemic coupled with the cost advantage brought about by the maturity of the supply chain, as well as the preferential treatment on the first-level right of way in some cities, is not so much a consumption downgrade, but rather such a new category has allowed many young people to join the consumption upgrade road of "what bicycle". The popular "national god car" and "ant" belong to this category. The electric entry-level market should not be underestimated.
For latecomers, achieving lower investment and more efficient operation is the core appeal of an enterprise, and it is also the basic requirement of investors. The realization of cost-effective products and services on the market side and the increase in the speed of market development are the core concepts of the DOCK model and the core competitiveness that the electric house brand will continue to have.
The DOCK docking mode of electric house is different from the traditional mode of high investment, low return, high latency and low agility of self-built factories, self-developed technologies, and self-built stores, and is an efficient collaboration system that integrates advantageous industry resources. In this mode, the electric house will become a cpu with high-speed computing, coordinating the management of user needs and data, focusing on the research and development of core technologies and the deployment of product definition and delivery strategies.
Asset-light, product definition capabilities, and flexible production and sales cooperation systems may be new technology indicators for the "new forces" to compete.