For many people, "Sway" is most likely an unfamiliar brand.
Although it was born in Italy in 1971, the source of "Sway" is not a car, but a motorcycle. It was not until it was wholly acquired by Xinyuan Group in 2014 and applied to passenger cars by Brilliance Xinyuan in 2016 that "Siwei" was able to start another journey.
The beginning of the story is very beautiful, at that time when the domestic SUV boom, Siwei Automobile and Hanteng Automobile, Bisu Automobile, Borgward Automobile, Junma Automobile and other competitors together with the wool of the market. Time, location, people and underneath, the new brands have made a lot of money. After the first full sales year in 2017, Siwei Automobile handed over the report card of "annual sales exceeded 50,000 units", which can be said to take off at the beginning, which also brought great confidence to Chairman Gong Daxing, so that at that time, it put forward the grand goal of "more than 100,000 units sold in 2018 and over 10,000 units per month".
However, under the applause, the follow-up plot did not develop as expected. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the annual sales of Siwei Automobile have been hovering around "50,000 units", and the new SweiG01 in the middle has not brought significant sales improvement. Interestingly, Swell initially positioned the G01 to "target Great Wall WEY and Lynk & Co to compete." Yes, you read it right, relying only on brilliance Xinyuan's weak foundation in producing Jinbei commercial vehicles and more than a year of brand operation, Siwei will impact the high-end market, presumably this courage is given by Liang Jingru. For comparison, the average monthly sales of G01 last year was just over 500 units. Such a contrast is cute, somewhat ironic.
However, the G01 is not the most tragic, the biggest tragic role is the new model launched in April 2021 - Iron Man. Because the brand appeal is difficult to withstand the pricing of Iron Man's 9.59-12.59 million yuan, it is difficult to find the final Iron Man sales information on the whole network. The meaning behind this is understood.
From 2016 to 2020, Sway's development has not improved, but the sales volume of good villains is relatively stable. But by 2021, the annual sales of 36,579 units is really a cliff-like decline. After carrying the cold winter of the overall decline of 5.8% in domestic passenger car sales in 2018, and also carrying the black swan of the epidemic in 2020, how can it not be carried by Swee in 2021?
Some people would say that the main cause is "lack of core". This possibility is not ruled out, but Siwei's "0 interest + 30 interest-free" car purchase policy last year revealed its extreme desire for orders, so the "lack of core" may not be related to last year's sales decline. In fact, the industry generally believes that the reason why Sway has gone downhill is purely due to the lack of its own "brand value" and "research and development capabilities".
Low brand value: big gimmicks, poor influence
Sway has declared his "Italian ancestry" and "sports genes" countless times, which is somewhat reminiscent of ferrari, Lamborghini and other top supercars. I have to say that this gimmick of Sway does work on the surface, and under the premise of its own brand foundation is weak, "foreign moon" is indeed easier to make consumers feel good. But what Sway did not understand is that "returnees" also have a strong anti-phagocytic effect, once the truth is revealed, then it will usher in the instant collapse of the brand image.
Although it was wholly acquired by Xinyuan Group in 2014, the products and equipment listed in the later stage of Siwei are all localized, and there is no half-cent relationship with "Italian ancestry", and it is not too much to say that "hanging sheep's head and selling dog meat" is not excessive. This is completely different from the acquisition of Volvo next door Geely, Volvo as a pure European power, in the operation, research and development, technology and brand value are remarkable, even after being acquired, it can still do the difference between import and domestic production, which is the real "strong combination".
Weak product strength: slow iteration and poor configuration
R&D is Swell's biggest hard wound. The early Swey X7 and Svi X3 have not chosen to be updated for many years, and only sit on the mountain with poor cost performance. In the face of the current fierce market environment, it is of course difficult for Sway to survive, and even if it was once strong, such as Mondeo, it was marginalized by the market because of the delay in replacing.
The "newborn calf is not afraid of tigers" Swei G01, in addition to the shape to earn eyeballs, can not bring substantial effect. Not to mention whether it can be benchmarked WEY and Lynk & Co, even if it is compared with the mainstream Haval H6, Changan CS75, etc., it has no fight at all, the appearance value is not comparable, the configuration cannot keep up, the power is not qualified, and the Swei G01 is a failure.
In fact, Swei is not without effort, I think that before the G01 was listed, Chairman Gong Daxing also repeatedly "rode the royal conquest" in Germany, and finally successfully invited the former BMW quality control director Gohrmann to join, but unfortunately it was still to no avail.
As for the once optimistic Swei G05, it is produced under the G platform based on the expensive G platform, and the official claim is "super cost-effective", but it is still cool. The old power system, the design of the cottage style, the performance of the Hull Swei X7, etc., make the Swell G05 easily exploded by the same level of jietu X70, and what about market preferential treatment?
By extension, the existing ills of Siwei are actually the ills of the so-called "Chongqing Gang". Motorcycles crossing over cars has never been a new thing, and the "Chongqing Gang" has come this way, but they have not gone so smoothly. The story of the former Lifan dragging down Lifan's shares due to unsatisfactory car manufacturing, and then there is the case of "dark horse" BAIC Phantom Speed from annual sales of 266,800 units to rapid decline, which reflects the same problems as the core reasons for the cliff-like decline of Sway.
Poor marketing ability: high investment, low efficiency
Of course, in addition to this, Sway also contributed to the mystery operation several times. For example, in order to overtake in the marketing curve, Siwei reached an official cooperation with Inter Milan Football Club and Chongqing Contemporary Lifan Football Club. What is the cost behind it? Sponsorship fees, advertising fees, marketing fees, etc. alone exceed hundreds of millions of yuan. So what did Sway get after a series of football marketing? There is nothing, but because of negative information such as arrears of wages, the brand image has fallen. As for football marketing, Sway also contributed a "oolong" during last year's European Championship: at that time, Sway introduced a policy that if the Italian team won the European Cup, then Sway would give away 3 Swei Iron Man for free, and return 8888 yuan to the owners who had already purchased Swei Iron Man. Everyone on the earth knows that this is Sway's intention to use his birth to rub the hot spot, and I have to say that it did attract the attention of the outside world at that time, but due to the violation of the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China", in the end, Sway could only adjust the content of the reward and apologize openly and honestly.
For another example, the official website of Siwei has "blatantly" announced two clauses that infringe on the rights and interests of consumers, one is that "users who do not arrive at the store on time for walking maintenance are deemed to automatically give up the right to the next three guarantees", and the other is that "users who do not arrive at the store on time for routine maintenance are deemed to have given up the follow-up three guarantees of the engine, transmission, rear axle and other assembly parts". Old drivers should be able to understand how the content of this is different from the "Regulations on the Responsibility for Repair and Replacement of Household Automobile Products" announced in August 2021. Blatantly arguing with national laws, Sway Motors did give up on me.
Jianghu Car Review:
In another 5 months, it will be the sixth birthday of Sway Motors. Along the way down, Sway Cars had highlight moments, but more of a slump. In the next six years, what Siwei Automobile will become, we do not know, but it is certain that Gong Daxing wants to let Siwei sit side by side with WEY, Lynk & Co, etc., and the next six years is bound to be insufficient.
If you could turn back the clock, back to that summer of 2016, Sway Motors might not be the same today. After all, at that time was the stage of the start of domestic new energy vehicles, the same period of Wei Xiaoli, Nezha, zero running, etc. have achieved good results to today, if Xinyuan Group can aim the muzzle at the new energy track at that time, perhaps today Siwei Automobile has been able to enter the first and second echelons of the domestic new energy market. However, fate is so fond of teasing people, the final outcome, who knows?