Text/Sun Yu
As the annual hot word in 2021, the "lack of core" of automobiles has successfully broken the circle, from relevant practitioners to ordinary consumers, they have an empathetic cognition of the lack of cores. When consumers who are eager to buy a car face the new market conditions of the automobile market such as "scheduled car" and "installment delivery", some have a half-understanding and some have no choice but to accept, and some have turned into consumer complaints because the two sides have not communicated clearly in advance. Under the "core normal", the "delivery difficulty" of new cars needs to be solved urgently.
■ "Core normal" under the popular "installment delivery" of car companies
Affected by the epidemic, the automotive industry has issued a lack of core warning in 2020, but in the case of the big tone of resuming production and work and the inventory is still there, the market response is not significant. However, with the increase in production capacity of car companies and the return of consumer demand, problems such as insufficient production capacity and missing parts caused by lack of cores in 2021 have gradually emerged, and almost all car companies have not been able to deliver the car to the board.
The traditional German three strong foundation is thick, and it is also the first to face the problem of new car delivery and allocation reduction. Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi has successively announced the reduction of some models from the middle of 2021, some of which are reloaded after delivery, some of which are reduced in price, and some of which are directly reduced by configuration.
It was followed by the three new forces that attracted greater attention. First, Ideal Auto released the "Ideal ONE Delivery Plan" on October 8, 2021, and users can choose to deliver the 3 radar model that is temporarily missing 2 radars in advance, or wait until December to deliver the complete 5 radar models.
Xiaopeng Automobile subsequently announced the corresponding plan, if the owner chooses the car to pick up the car and then install the radar, Xiaopeng Automobile will give away THE XPIRAT 3.0/3.5 software for free.
Due to the shortage of chips, Weilai chose to upgrade the production line and stop production and transformation, which led to a sharp decline in sales in October 2021. Delivery problems caused by lack of cores are gathered in various forums and car friend groups, and may turn into hot potatoes that harm the brand's reputation at any time.
■ New forces rely on "points" to pass the customs Traditional car companies have difficulties in coping
Consumers "one-time payment, installment car" is reasonable, car companies lack of cores and lead to delivery difficulties is also forced by reality, but how to obtain consumer understanding, but is a test of the car company's system strength and reaction speed.
For the new forces that play the "membership point system" early, the ideal will give the owner 10,000 points (equivalent to 1,000 yuan) and promise free reloading. Xiaopeng gave away XPILOT software worth up to 45,000 yuan as compensation and later reloading, and Weilai also formulated a policy of compensating points due to the delay in delivery ladders. I have to say that this kind of integral + software compensation measures, not only do manufacturers do not need real money and silver to pay money, for their own owners to carry out more sticky maintenance, the owners of the accounting can also be accepted, it can be said that the new forces in this round of "installment delivery" to pass the magic weapon.
However, for traditional car companies, it is more difficult to maintain users. Euler good cat caused a large number of complaints because the chip goods were not on the right board, first took out a 7200 yuan rights and interests package, the result was not only did not get forgiveness but also was named by CCTV, and finally took out 10,000 yuan of charging rights and interests to barely convince the public.
Coincidentally, SAIC Volkswagen Langyi has also been complained by users because the car and the machine do not match the user manual, and has attracted much attention because Langyi has an average of 40,000+ per month. "Starting" to the ace model, SAIC Volkswagen is helpless due to the tight supply of CRS 3.0 radio parts. In the end, the original machine is replaced with the original aftermarket accessories and enjoys the same warranty. At the same time, the dealer is required to inform the user in the sales process by signing the user notification form or noting in the sales contract. However, because the manufacturer and the dealer are independent legal persons, once the dealer is not in place in the process of selling the car, it becomes that the customer is unaware, and there will be complaints that the manufacturer "reduces the allocation".
The hardest is Tesla, in order to alleviate the delivery pressure, Tesla simply announced on the last day of 2021, the price increase of two domestic models Model 3 and Model Y: the price of the rear-wheel drive version of the Model 3 increased by 10,000 yuan, and the price rose to 265,652 yuan after subsidies; the price of the rear-wheel drive version of the Model Y increased by 21,088 yuan, and the starting price rose to 301,840 yuan. At this point, the model Y model no longer enjoys the national new energy subsidy due to more than 300,000 yuan. This pure market-oriented adjustment of the business model, domestic car companies are still difficult to do.
■ Be more flexible before the test of lack of cores New forces teach traditional car companies a lesson
On January 20, the New Office of the State Council held a press conference on the development of industry and informatization in 2021. At the meeting, Luo Junjie, spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and director of the Operation Monitoring and Coordination Bureau, said that the problem of "lack of cores" in the automotive field is gradually alleviating, but in the future for a long period of time, chip supply will remain in a tight state.
That is to say, the "installment delivery" will continue for a period of time, in this process, it is actually the biggest test of the relationship between the main engine factory and the user. In addition to the fact that there is no "consumer satisfaction" in Tesla's business dictionary, whether it is a new force or a traditional main engine factory, it is necessary to try its best to maintain the user's favorability.
What is more obvious is that the direct operation mode of the new forces is more convenient for direct dialogue with users, and the handling is more flexible, which can quickly resolve user complaints. However, the reaction of traditional OEMs, especially joint venture car companies, is more passive. On the one hand, it is subject to the unified procurement of parts and components by foreign parties, on the other hand, the length of the decision-making chain and the connection with dealers are the reasons why users complain about the joint venture car companies and complain.
Corresponding to the decline in the overall sales of joint venture car companies, the development of new cars in 2021 continues to soar, Tesla's global delivery volume is 936,000 vehicles, and Wei Xiaoli is close to the annual delivery of 100,000 vehicles, bringing great pressure to traditional car companies, but also has a lot of reform experience worth learning from traditional car companies.
The more significant changes are that North and South Volkswagen uses the ID series to try agency system and directly operated stores, Dongfeng Citroen tests user operation with versailles, and GAC Toyota uses the app as a direct purchase channel for Highlander to control offline price increases. Although this is only a small step for the elephant to turn around for the huge mechanism of traditional car companies, it is a big step to break the inherent channel model.
Just like the delivery difficulties caused by the lack of cores, the new forces have used the "points" to collectively pass the customs to teach traditional car companies a vivid lesson. Whether it is Euler still using traditional thinking to deal with users, or Langyi failed to directly communicate with the owner to change the attachment, in the final analysis, it is still "inertia work" under the "prescribed action". Under the "core normal", it is time to make up your mind for a new change.