Among luxury brands, although the number of seats of the top three Ashkenazi will change, the status as a front-line will still be unstoppable. In recent years, with the intensification of market competition, the pattern of second-tier luxury brands has undergone significant changes. Especially in the market environment where luxury brands are growing against the trend as a whole, Hongqi as a Chinese brand can be said to be the biggest beneficiary. Whether it is the Hongqi HS5 and H5 that were previously used as explosive models as the main force of its sales in 2021, or the Hongqi H9 becoming a new explosive model in medium and large cars, it is not difficult to see that more youthful products, more grounded strategies, and more trendy marketing have made Hongqi's products really enter the consumer market in recent years.
Key takeaways:
1· Focusing on upgrading existing models, Hongqi HS5/H5 is still the main sales force, and Hongqi H9 has become a new explosive model.
2· Enhance brand recognition and services, build its own brand ecosystem, and enter the pure electric vehicle market.
3· SUVs, new energy, and high-end will become the focus of Hongqi's efforts, and the number of models will soar to 28 in the next 10 years.
● Blockbuster - traditional Hongqi HS5/H5 and the new Hongqi H9
After the reform of the Hongqi brand, its sales in recent years seem to be "open and hanging". In 2017, Hongqi's annual sales did not reach 5,000 vehicles, while in 2018 after the reform, it exceeded 30,000 vehicles, and in 2020, it was close to 200,000 vehicles. Although Hongqi did not achieve its sales target of 400,000 units in 2021, only 300,600 units, it still achieved a high growth rate of 50.52%.
From the perspective of specific models, at present, the Hongqi brand still mainly relies on the hot sales of H5 and HS5 two mid-level cars, and these two models with an average price of about 200,000 yuan, although the price is slightly lower than our traditional luxury brand, but it is also based on the cost performance to participate in the competition of mainstream joint venture brands at the same price.
As a true flagship sedan, The Hongqi H9, which is highly expected by Hongqi, although the annual sales volume exceeded 40,000 vehicles, an increase of 197.98% year-on-year, and in September, it once surpassed the perennial hot model of Audi A6L, but objectively speaking, the latter is mainly affected by chip problems. After entering the traditional sales season at the end of the year, the sales volume of Hongqi H9 has declined.
As for The Hongqi HS7/H7, although the two models have been in the market for a long time, they do not have much share in the proportion of sales, which is probably because of the high level of price and relatively stable product positioning. As for new energy models, sales of E-HS9 and E-HS3 models were flat, while E-QM5 was positioned in the ride-hailing market.
●Precipitation-------------------------------------------------
Although Hongqi has achieved rapid growth in sales, it did not put more blockbuster new cars on the market in 2021, but chose to further upgrade the existing product line, not only launching a redesigned model of Hongqi H7/H5/HS5/HS7/H9, but also launching a long-endurance version of Hongqi E-HS9 and an E-QM5 for the online car market.
In addition, The Hongqi brand has also invested more in brand marketing, through brand experience, product experience and user image, three-dimensional to enhance the sense of brand luxury. For example, in conjunction with the Chinese women's volleyball team, the Forbidden City, the Olympic champion and other IP, strengthen the unique attributes of the Hongqi brand, create the exclusive label of the Hongqi brand, and then achieve the effect of "breaking the circle" communication.
In addition, Hongqi also cooperated with Wanda to use its commercial plaza, cultural tourism hotel, etc. to jointly build Hongqi Wanda supermarket experience store to further expand the channel layout; at the same time, Hongqi also opened up with Wanda's membership system to obtain more customer resources. Of course, after some precipitation, Hongqi naturally has its own "big plan" for its product planning.
● Vision - The next 10 years are planned, and the product line will expand rapidly
According to the product planning for the next 10 years announced by the Hongqi brand, Hongqi will build four series of products of L, S, H and Q, and begin intelligent and electrification transformation, and follow-up hybrid, plug-in hybrid and other products will be put into production one after another, of which Hongqi H6, a new generation of Hongqi H5, Hongqi HS9, Hongqi HS6, Hongqi HS3, Hongqi L3, Hongqi L1, Hongqi LS7, Hongqi LLS3, Hongqi LQ7, Hongqi S5, Hongqi MPV and other products are in planning, by 2030, The number of products under the Hongqi brand will reach 30.
According to the planning of Hongqi, the H series of the four major product series will give birth to a new generation of Hongqi H5 (code C100) and Hongqi H6 models, and from the perspective of product positioning, Hongqi H6 may be positioned at the level of luxury medium-sized cars. In the SUV lineup, Hongqi will release a pure fuel version of the medium SUV - HS6, and the HS5 will also usher in a mid-term redesign in the future.
Red Flag H6
As for the new energy products that also belong to the H series, in addition to the E-HS9 and E-HS3 that have been released, Hongqi will also release two pure electric cars, one of which is positioned as a pure electric compact car, and the other product code-named E111 is positioned higher.
Red Flag L5
In addition to the flagship model Faw-Hongqi L5 in the L-series products, Faw-hongqi will successively develop two cars, Faw-hongqi L3 and Faw-Hongqi L1, as well as two SUVs, Faw-hongqi L7 and LS3, although The Faw-hongqi L5 is positioned as a luxury large car, we are not sure whether other products of the L-series will enter other levels in the future.
Secondly, in the Hongqi Q series of products positioned for commercial vehicles, the MPV and LQ7 commercial vehicles code-named C095 will be released one after another, of which the C095 project has been launched, and the product is scheduled to be frozen in February 2021, trial production will be carried out in January 2022, and mass production will be officially launched at the end of June 2022.
Finally, in the S series of products belonging to the positioning of sports cars, Hongqi will take the lead in mass production of Hongqi S9, at present, Hongqi has reached a cooperation with silk and signed a letter of intent with the United States, and will set up a joint venture company to promote the mass production of the first supercar product; and another Hongqi S5, it is not clear its specific sports car positioning.
In addition to model product planning, Hongqi will continue to develop in-depth powertrains, creating a full powertrain including electric motors (covering 80-250kW), hybrids (1.5L-2.0L), conventional fuel power (1.0L-6.0L) and batteries (52.5-100kWh).
● Say at the end
As the only luxury brand in China, Hongqi is also one of the brands that has attracted the attention of Chinese auto consumers. Nowadays, with the transformation of FAW Group, the achievements of the Hongqi brand in sales are obvious to all. The past 2021 has been more of a year of precipitation and adjustment for the Faw-hongqi brand, and it has applied more energy to the upgrading of existing product lines and brand marketing. From the perspective of future new car planning, Hongqi has done a good job in the next 10 years of product planning layout, from the existing 8 products, soaring to 28 models, of which SUVs, new energy, high-end product layout will become the focus of Hongqi's power, Hongqi brand will also occupy more market share in the luxury brand market.