Recently, there is news that Chevrolet has announced that it has stopped receiving new car orders for The Maribao XL in the US market, although the official did not clearly state that the follow-up Maribao XL will usher in a production suspension, but to some extent it may also mean that the future of this car is not optimistic.
As we all know, the U.S. market is Chevrolet's home base, but as the brand's main force in the mid-range car market, The performance of the Maribal XL in the local area is becoming less and less optimistic, with less than 40,000 cumulative sales last year. Looking back at 2016, the car sold more than 220,000 units, and this huge decline can undoubtedly reflect some things.
In fact, it's not just that more and more U.S. consumers are abandoning the Maribal XL, it's also in a dire situation in the Chinese market today. At its peak in the past, its monthly sales basically exceeded 10,000 units, making it one of the first choices of B-class cars for young people, but last year the total domestic sales of the car were only 51,000 units. There is a very important reason, when the Replacement of The Maribal XL was when GM laid a large area of three-cylinder engines, the manufacturer installed a 1.3T three-cylinder engine + CVT transmission for it, which led to the deadlock of the Mribao XL, although the subsequent Chevrolet replaced the 1.5T four-cylinder engine +9AT transmission for the Mribao XL, but it did not seem to have much effect and could not restore it to its previous performance.
But not only The Maribal XL, the entire Chevrolet brand is somewhat lonely in China, and it seems to have been declining in recent years, with annual sales of only 266,000 units in 2021, and in 2014, the brand reached 767,000 units. Why did this American brand, which was once loved by the Chinese people, fall here?
In fact, technically speaking, Chevrolet, which has a century-old history, does not have a weakness. At the end of the day, there are still problems with the brand at the domestic strategic level. In the past, Chevrolet had a lot of hot models in The country, in addition to Mai Ruibao, there are Cruze and so on, but these classic IP have been discontinued, I think that at that time to abandon Cruze instead of Cruze, in fact, it is tantamount to actively abandoning a large number of fans accumulated before, Cruze used to rely on the small "Comaro" sporty design style and sporty chassis tuning, unique in the same level of the market, and Cruze's sales are good but the terminal is exchanged for a large discount, In fact, to a certain extent, it has also pulled down Chevrolet's brand positioning.
In addition, the model in the design level is actually not fully aware of the psychology of Chinese consumers, American cars may be more concerned about practicality, the car is just a tool, so the interior is simple does not matter much. The Chinese people may have more requirements for vehicles, and the design is also quite critical. Chevrolet cars with track genes are actually quite good in appearance, especially after the introduction of Redline/RS elements, but the interior has always been a short board.
Finally, at present, Chevrolet's many models are still using three-cylinder engines, Chuangjie, Chuangku, Cruze, Corvus, Volando, etc., the brand has more products in the low-end field layout, the main cost performance, the face of competitors may be biased towards their own brands, and in recent years, the acceptance of their own brands has been continuously improved, and it is not an opponent that can be underestimated. And in terms of configuration, in general, it is difficult for joint ventures to win autonomy.
What Chevrolet has to do now is to improve the brand image, minimize the use of three-cylinder engines, and improve the interior design level, in addition, under the transformation of electrification, Chevrolet should also speed up the pace as soon as possible, so that it will not be left behind again in the future competition.