2021 has ended, for Great Wall Motors, in fact, this year can be said to be full of spirit, tank 300 listed, there is a rare domestic car, a long period of short supply, and directly promote the tank as a new brand independence. The Great Wall brand, WEY brand, Anda brand of a variety of new cars frequently, looks like a thriving. From the perspective of terminal sales, according to the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the retail sales of 948793 vehicles in 2021, ranking third among independent brands and eighth among domestic car companies, and the overall performance also looks very good. However, in our view, although in the context of the rise of the head of independent brands, the performance of Great Wall Motors is relatively excellent, but the current situation of Great Wall Motors, always gives us a kind of hidden worry and uneasiness, that is to say, Great Wall Motors actually has a deeper crisis.
First of all, from the sales level, Great Wall Motors is firmly in the top three of its own, but now the new challenger has come, in our view, in 2022, BYD Automobile is very promising to surpass the Great Wall in terms of sales, because BYD's sales in the first half of the year have not been so strong, so there is some gap between BYD and the Great Wall in sales throughout the year. However, in November 2021, BYD's terminal sales have actually surpassed the Great Wall, because BYD still maintains the sales momentum in the second half of 2021, especially in the fourth quarter of 2022, it is very possible to surpass the Great Wall, because overall, Great Wall Motors' sales volume in the top three independent brands is still relatively low!
Of course, sales per se is not a problem, if the gold content of product sales is high enough, then there is no problem with less sales. But from the product level, Great Wall Motors is actually showing some worrying signs, in the past one or two years, Great Wall Motors' Haval brand, WEY brand has discontinued a number of models, such as WEY brand VV5, VV6, VV7, P8, Haval brand under the H2S, F5, replaced by latte, mocha, Macchiato, Haval Mythical Beast, Haval Big Dog, Haval First Love, Haval Red Rabbit and other models, it seems to be a drastic product update, But for old car owners, they don't necessarily think so.
A very simple truth, the above mentioned several models that have been discontinued, basically are "a generation of tourism", that is, after the new car is out of a generation, there is no follow-up, that is to say, many consumers actually bought "out-of-print cars", these out-of-print cars to the user's hands, the later stage will inevitably face a sharp decline in the retention rate, and even maintenance of insufficient supply of parts and other issues, because after the suspension of these models, it is not meaningful to produce the parts of these models. So this way, in fact, to a large extent, will also allow some consumers to buy the products of the Great Wall once, will not choose to buy the products of the Great Wall again, the reason is very simple, these "generation tour" models cut once again leeks are not enough, but again?
Before the Euler brand models because of the actual use of the chip and the advertised chip model, computing power is completely inconsistent, resulting in a large number of complaints, Great Wall Motors in the early stage of the practice, in essence, also offended a lot of old car owners, although in the later under the strong suppression of public opinion, Great Wall Motors for the models involved in the car owners to pay cash compensation, but this is not a manufacturer's active behavior, but a passive behavior. Or is it the same question, do you think that these car owners who are caught in the "core change" storm, even if they receive compensation, will the next car choose the products of the Great Wall? Will you still recommend your relatives and friends to choose Great Wall Motors' products?
In our view, offending old car owners is a very big obstacle for Great Wall Motors to move towards high-end, because it is obvious that the sales and prestige of many luxury brands and high-end brands are actually contributed by old car owners, and the data of 2019 shows that 36.5% of Mercedes-Benz's sales in China are contributed by the purchase and purchase of old owners. Then if Great Wall Motors always offends old car owners in terms of product updates and product promotion/services, then the old owners will never buy again after buying Great Wall Motors, that is, "one hammer sale", and now the WEY brand under the Great Wall brand, itself is struggling in the process of high-end, and the annual sales volume is only 58363 vehicles, down 25.65% year-on-year. Therefore, in the case of its own "foundation" is relatively thin, it also offends some old car owners, and loses the confidence of old car owners to buy and buy more, so is the road to be taken by the high-end of this brand longer?
So in our view, the Great Wall has always been a respectable automobile company, but this still can not hide some of the crises and hidden worries it shows in addition to sales, relatively high sales may cover up some problems, but as long as the problem exists, sooner or later there will be a day to show, weY brand now in the sales level of the downturn is actually a typical result. Therefore, for Great Wall Motors, of course, there is no problem in continuous iteration in terms of technology and products, but it is equally important to respect old owners and exchange for the loyalty of old owners, and even related to the prospects of the brand, after all, the reputation of many brands and models is good or bad, and the attitude of old owners is more convincing!