Text | Roger
On Friday, Geely Holding Group and Renault Group announced that they have signed an agreement to produce and sell Renault-branded fuel vehicles and smart hybrid vehicles in South Korea based on Geely Automobile's CMA architecture and hybrid technology, and will also export them to markets outside Of South Korea.
You see, at the beginning of the new year, the hard-working auspiciousness has begun to do big things again. If the car company is anthropomorphized, when Geely goes to receive the 2021 annual independent sales championship trophy, the mood should not be as excited and excited as before.
The number of times is on the one hand, after all, this is the fifth time that Geely has won the championship, or five consecutive years of winning it, which is not a new thing for people who often win championships. But the more important aspect is not in the ranking, but in The Geely itself. Under the aura of self-selling crowns for five consecutive years, how to continuously break through themselves.
In 2018, Geely's wholesale sales exceeded 1.5 million vehicles, leaving other independent brothers behind a large margin, except for SAIC-GM-Wuling, whose sales are supported by Hongguang micro-surface, none of the other independent brands have crossed the million mark.
After 2019 and 2020, also affected by the epidemic, Geely's sales from 1.5 million to more than 1.3 million, although the scale has become smaller, but the advantage is still obvious, the annual sales of millions of this file, the independent camp is still only Geely alone.
Looking at the latest report card, Geely's wholesale sales of 1.328 million vehicles, barely up 0.6% year-on-year, the champion is saved, the distance between the opponents has suddenly narrowed, and more than one has followed, Changan, Great Wall and SAIC-GM-Wuling, have crossed the line of millions of vehicles, and each one has increased by about 20%.
The most alarming thing is not these, but the brand that rose the fastest last year, BYD, which sold only 421,000 units in 2020, and rushed to 735,000 units last year, a 74.8% year-on-year surge, while IN RECENT MONTHs alone has seen more intense growth.
In this way, Geely in 2021 is still the best performance, which is worthy of recognition. However, careful people will find that Geely has not made a big breakthrough in sales in recent years, and it is the only mainstream independent brand that has slowed down the speed. But deep behind the sales figures, Geely in 2021, is it really slowing down?
After reading "Tianlong Babu", you should remember the "Zhenlong Chess Game", which is the starting point of the virtual bamboo hanging set by the top master Wuyazi in the book to screen successors, and also one of the protagonists. The "Zhenlong Chess Game" has not been cracked for many years, and the mystery lies in the idea of retreating into advance, first discarding some of the chess pieces before you can see the blockaded exit in adversity.
Comparing the car-making business to chess, the rise of Geely is actually taking the road of "Zhenlong chess game". Its "five consecutive championships" began in 2017, before that, it was not conspicuous in the autonomous camp, Chang'an, the Great Wall and even Wuling, the momentum at that time seemed to have more protagonist potential.
The time is pulled back to 2015, when it was the outlet of the barbaric growth of SUVs, models with monthly sales of more than 10,000 abounded, and the short-term glory of JAC, Zotye and BAIC Phantom Speed also occurred at this stage. At this time, the main model of the mainstream brand SUV has basically been in place.
Haval H6 was listed in 2011, Changan CS75 was listed in 2014, Chery's Tiggo 5 was listed in 2013, once ranked in the SUV list Top 3 Trumpchi GS4, listed in the first half of 2015, Baojun was once a Shenche 560, listed in mid-2015.
At this time, Geely, after absorbing Volvo's car-making, design and management experience, is promoting the update of products in the 3.0 era, when the SUVs of other car companies are selling hot, the beginning of Geely's new era product lineup, but chose a high-end car - Bo Rui, and the new generation of SUV products Boyue, will not be listed until 2016.
Back to the past few years of 2015-2018 Geely, this is a typical sample of delayed gratification, in the era of casually reaching out to grab money, Geely chose to continue to polish products, cultivate brands, and finally win a wave of big in a few years. Geely's first retreat was to advance, allowing it to grow from a second-tier car company with 500,000 vehicles to an absolute first in the 1.5 million class within three years, opening up an independent five-consecutive championship that other brands have never achieved.
In terms of models, the SUV shortcomings were completely made up, Andray gained a firm foothold at a price of 150,000 yuan, and a series of old models of 50,000-100,000 yuan were revitalized after the comprehensive family transformation, becoming a solid basic plate of Geely, and laying the foundation for sales and brand level for the launch and success of the Lynk & Co brand.
Recalling this "history", looking at 2021, the opponent is pressing step by step, the potential of existing products has been fully released, and it has been forced by Wuling, the Great Wall, and a series of new car-making forces in the field of new energy. At this time, Geely encountered a game of "Zhenlong chess game", if it cannot be cracked, the loss of independent sales crowns, the gradual fall of the new energy market, can be foreseen, I saw in Geely again to retreat into the strange move.
The starting point is The launch of Xingrui in November 2020, which represents the first time that the Geely brand has officially adopted the CMA architecture to create the main product (the previous Xingyue used the coupe SUV as the selling point, not the mainstream type). CMA architecture is the cornerstone of Geely's opening of the 4.0 era, its mechanical specifications are industry-leading, and it has great potential to put on Geely, with Geely's ability to create explosive models, the first main model of the 4.0 era, which has attracted much attention.
In the end, Xingrui was officially released, but it emitted two words from the inside out - restraint.
Compared with Geely's previous products, Xingrui, which has been blessed with CMA architecture and 2.0T engine, does not have the sport and personality of Lynk & Co, nor is it like the luxury of Bo Rui, running on the road, Xingrui is an ordinary family car, even if it is the 2.0T engine that crosses the level inside, it does not want to declare it with a striking logo. In contrast, Xingrui is extremely close to the people, it is not ostentatious, but it makes people close.
This is the first family car that adheres to the middle way and does not attract customers with movement and luxury after the independent brand got rid of the early design bottleneck stage, which is the first layer of restraint embodied by Geely in Xingrui.
The second layer is positioning, 2.8 meters wheelbase, close to 4.8 meters long, with the full range of 2.0T engines, Geely could have uncontroversially packaged Xingrui as a mid-level sedan, and in Geely's official press release promotion, it clearly and conspicuously insisted that this is a compact car, and the pricing was firmly stuck in the main sales range of the corolla, Civic, Sagittarius and other joint venture compact cars.
100,000-150,000 yuan of car market, independent brands have never really broken the monopoly position of the joint venture camp, Geely found in the continuous attempts, with a big strategy is not a good strategy for brand breakthrough, want to really defeat the joint venture, can only with the same positioning, the same price, similar style, and stronger product force, head-on to face the joint venture. To achieve this, Geely's CMA architecture is the foundation.
The subsequent listing of Hoshikoshi L also continued the restraint at the design and positioning levels. Its size and appearance reach the standard of medium-sized SUVs, but it still claims to be a compact SUV, and its mission is to impact the SUV market of more than 150,000 yuan. At the same time, Chang'an and the Great Wall also launched an impact on this price point, and the UNI-K and Mocha they each came up with, in addition to clearly positioning the medium-sized SUVs, also adopted a rather exaggerated styling style.
From the sales report card, we can see that Geely has won the battle again. The average monthly sales of Xingrui remained above 10,000 units throughout last year, and The sales volume of Xingyue L exceeded 12,000 units in the last December of last year. 100,000-150,000 yuan of sedans, and 150,000-200,000 yuan of SUV market, Geely achieved a breakthrough last year.
It is foreseeable that after Xingrui and Xingyue L have gained a firm foothold, Geely's market below 100,000 yuan will once again usher in a comprehensive product upgrade. First of all, Emgrand, based on the BMA architecture of Binyue and Binrui, ushered in a real replacement in August last year, and the internal and external design also continued the calm and simplicity of Xingrui, becoming one of the few entry-level family cars with about 80,000 yuan to take the people-friendly route.
At the same time, Emgrand GS and Emgrand GL were replaced by the upgraded Emgrand S and Emgrand L respectively, and together with the new Emgrand, they completed the renewal of the Emgrand family. In terms of sales, Geely has not made significant progress last year, but its main product lineup has been quietly updated.
The models mentioned above are still products of the fuel era, and now the growth of the new energy market is accelerating, and a new outlet has taken shape. Wei Xiaoli's annual delivery volume reached 100,000 units, GAC Ei safety sold 123,000 vehicles a year, Great Wall's Euler also exceeded 130,000 units, and Wuling Hongguang MINIEV has an annual sales of nearly 400,000 units. The geometric brands that have been listed in 2019 are not very prominent in last year's sales.
Geometry is Geely's attempt at the new energy market, but in the past two years, it can be clearly felt that Geely's focus on new energy vehicles has shifted, and the extreme krypton brand released last year is a new direction, geely once again chose to accumulate strength, directly cut into the high-end market, and then expand the scale from top to bottom.
In the short term, krypton, which has not yet fully released its production capacity, may be difficult to become Geely's sales growth point for the time being, but every strategic adjustment of Geely, we have seen the effect in three years.
At the same time, the hybrid market that made a big splash last year, especially the PHEV plug-in hybrid represented by BYD's DM-i series, has become a new focus of contention. Geely's hybrid technology has been laid out for many years, until the end of last year in the market side of the official force, the first model of the Thor hybrid system Star More L Hi · X is officially listed, and it is believed that in the next year, Geely's HEV and PHEV hybrid models at all levels will be listed one after another.
From 2019 to 2021, Geely's squat has been done for three years, starting this year into a new jump, this time How high Geely can jump, we will wait and see.