This article is from the WeChat public account "Bohu Finance", author: Tang Bohu, pencil Road is authorized to publish.
After five consecutive months of deliveries exceeding 10,000, on February 11, Xiaopeng Automobile's first direct-operated experience store in Europe was officially opened in Sweden.
This means that Xiaopeng Motors has taken a substantial step in going to sea, which is officially "going to sea 2.0", and the first stop is Europe.
What is the biggest test of Xiaopeng Automobile in the European market where Chinese car companies all want to share a piece of the pie? What problems does it have on its own?
What is Sea 2.0
On September 24, 2020, 100 Xiaopeng G3s gathered in Xinsha Port, Guangzhou. This is the first order received by Xiaopeng Motors in the European market, and the destination is Norway in Scandinavia.
Two years later, on February 11, Xiaopeng Motors opened its first direct-operated experience store in Europe in Scandinavia, but not norway, but stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
With the opening of the Direct Experience Store in Sweden, the Direct Experience Store in the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway will also be completed. Xiaopeng's pace of going to sea is accelerating.
However, the key here is not that Xiaopeng Motors has opened up new cities after Norway, but what Xiaopeng Motors calls "Going to sea 2.0".
Two years ago, the Norwegian dealer Zero Emission Mobility AS (ZEM), in charge of 100 Xiaopeng G3s, was responsible for Xiaopeng's local sales and after-sales service.
The cooperation with Xiaopeng Automobile is the European dealership - Emil Frey NV in the Netherlands and Bilia in Sweden, the reason why it is called "Going to the Sea 2.0" is not only because the opening of the Swedish store marks a substantial step in the European market, but also because Xiaopeng adopts a "direct operation + authorization" model, which combines online platform and offline experience, which is more innovative.
What needs to be added here is that to open up foreign markets, a key problem to be solved is the sales channel.
According to industry insiders familiar with Europe, there are generally three channels for Chinese electric vehicle brands to enter the European market. One is to cooperate with local dealers, the second is to build a self-built sales network, and the third is to cooperate with car rental companies.
The third, working with car rental companies, is to do the B-side. This is generally the second echelon of new forces to go to sea, such as Weima Motors and Aiways Motors.
Uber has partnered with WM to purchase WM's EX5 models for sale in more than a dozen European countries, and in May 2020, Aichi Auto invested 500 Aichi U5s in France for leasing.
The second type of self-built sales network has more things to do and takes a long time. In May 2021, WEILAI entered Norway and announced the adoption of a direct operation model, moving the complete operating system in China: cars, power exchanges, services, digitalization and lifestyle.
The first kind of cooperation with dealers is more common, mainly relying on the sales network of large local car dealers, many enterprises going to sea will prefer the model of dealer cooperation.
From this point of view, the sales model of Xiaopeng 'direct operation + authorization' is an innovation of the channel model, not simply looking for dealers to cooperate, nor is it completely direct. However, it can not only borrow the channel advantages of dealers, but also exert the influence of directly operated stores, which is quite "moderate" wisdom.
Of course, Xiaopeng wants to use Norway to pry open the door of Europe, and the difficulties to be overcome are not a little.
New energy vehicles must compete
In 2015, Volkswagen was accused of installing software that circumvented vehicle exhaust detection in some of its diesel vehicles in order to meet "high environmental standards."
According to media reports, as of the end of 2019, the fine for the "Volkswagen emission gate" has reached 30 billion euros, mainly in North America and Europe, where environmental protection awareness is relatively high, such as in 2018, Germany fined Volkswagen 1 billion euros.
The disaster of fuel vehicles, the dawn of new energy vehicles.
In 2020, Europe launched the world's strictest carbon emissions regulations, and in July 2021, the European Union officially introduced the Fit for 55 bill, which plans to achieve zero emissions for all registered new cars from 2035. This is basically equivalent to saying that in 2035, fuel vehicles will be withdrawn from Europe.
According to EV Sales data, in 2020, European new energy vehicle sales increased by 142% year-on-year, accounting for 43% of the global market share, becoming the world's largest new energy vehicle market. In 2021, The sales volume of new energy vehicles in Europe was 1.95 million units, an increase of about 65% year-on-year.
The arrival of the policy and the rise of new energy vehicle sales are undoubtedly a rare opportunity for domestic new energy vehicle companies to enter the market.
Taking the second half of 2020 as the node, Chinese new energy vehicle companies have begun to enter Europe in a large scale, including Weilai, BYD, Great Wall, Hongqi, Lynk & Co, etc. Europe has become a must for Chinese car companies.
It is worth noting that the sales of new energy vehicles in Europe are mainly concentrated in eight countries: Germany, France, Britain, Norway, Italy, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands.
Perhaps given the relationship between some major countries or various factors, some small countries in Northern Europe have become the preferred targets of Chinese car companies, especially Norway. If Europe is China's first stop at sea, Norway is undoubtedly the first foothold for domestic new energy vehicle companies.
(Source: Network)
Weilai, Xiaopeng and BYD all regard Norway as the first stop in Europe. In December 2021, BYD went to Sea Norway's first new energy passenger car, the Tang EV, and has delivered 1,000 vehicles.
But Norway's flaws are also obvious.
Norway is not a member of the European Union and has a population of less than 4.7 million. In December last year, the sales of new energy vehicles in the whole country were 19,151, and the market demand was limited. This dooms Norway to be just a springboard for Chinese car companies to enter Europe.
However, taking Xiaopeng as an example, it will not go to Germany, France, which have a strong foundation in the automobile industry, and the wise choice is to go to The Nordic countries, such as the Netherlands and Sweden, and take a similar idea of "rural encirclement of the city".
Although the new energy vehicle market in Europe is growing rapidly and it is not yet time to compete with each other for the market, Chinese car companies may have many problems in taking root in Europe.
For example, Weilai, moving a complete set of operating systems to the past, with service as the selling point, is questionable whether it is feasible or not. Some analysts believe that the labor cost in Europe is higher than in China, and it costs 30 euros to simply wash a car, so some small problems of the car, users are accustomed to solving them by themselves.
The same goes for Xiao Peng.
Xiaopeng's label in China is flying cars and machine horses, and Xiaopeng wants to shape a sense of technology like Tesla.
But in the aging of Europe, with the ability to consume cars is middle-aged and elderly, in their cognition, the car should be the steering wheel, throttle plus four wheels, mechanical attributes, handling sense is particularly important.
Domestic endless intelligent networking, health management and other selling points, in Europe users there may become chicken ribs. Especially in the face of Schrödinger's automatic driving, Europe is looking at carbon emissions, not whether the car can run on its own.
Therefore, in Europe, those who choose smart electric vehicles are some crab eaters.
Perhaps for domestic car companies, Europe's biggest rival is not their peers, but those who are accustomed to prejudice at home.
Written at the end: Model worry
In January 2022, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 12,922 vehicles, an increase of 115% year-on-year, and delivered more than 10,000 vehicles for five consecutive months. The original "Wei Xiaoli" has become "XiaoLi": Weilai fell behind, Nezha filled up, and Xiaopeng got what he wanted to become the number one.
However, behind this glossy delivery data also reveals some hidden worries of Xiaopeng Motors.
At present, Xiaopeng has 3 models, Xiaopeng G3, Xiaopeng P7, Xiaopeng P5. As of January, Xiaopeng Automobile has delivered 150,000 units, of which Xiaopeng P7 has delivered more than 80,000 units, with top sales.
Xiaopeng's first mass-produced SUV model, the G3, has been performing mediocrely, delivering 2,186 units in January, less than 20% of the total delivery.
(Source: Pictured)
It may be to support sales, or it may be to see the model planning of peers: NIO plans to deliver 3 new cars this year, ideally plans to launch pure electric models in 2023, and release new cars at the rate of two models per year from this year. Xiaopeng's model plan is also following up, and it is even worse.
According to the plan, from 2023, Xiaopeng Automobile will produce 2 to 3 cars per year, and at least 10 models by 2025. This year, Xiaopeng is ready to list a medium and large SUV Xiaopeng G9, there are media reports, the price has soared to 300,000, and even said 400,000, more than the high-end version of Xiaopeng P7.
However, whether the gradually increasing number of models can replicate the top stream such as the Xiaopeng P7 is a problem.
In order to create Xiaopeng P7 that year, founder He Xiaopeng not only learned mobile phone manufacturers at the press conference, compared various parameters with Tesla, but also did enough marketing in the entire product cycle of design, mass production, delivery and after-sales.
In April 2020, in the year of the listing of Xiaopeng P7, Xiaopeng's sales, general and administrative expenses reached 2.906 billion yuan, an increase of 150.8% year-on-year. Obviously this model cannot be copied to every car.
In 2022, Xiaopeng Motors seems to have stood at a new starting point, from the domestic new energy vehicle delivery volume exceeded 10,000, jumped to the first place in the new car-making forces, to the increasing model plan, and then to the recent substantial step on the overseas market, new fields, new opportunities, new risks, Xiaopeng can hold the first position of the new domestic car-making forces, can it smoothly open up the European market?
References:
1.IT Home: Xiaopeng Automobile announces the "Overseas 2.0 Model": the opening of Europe's first directly operated experience store
2. Finance: Can China's new energy vehicles conquer the west, can they win the "automobile base camp" in Europe?
3. CBN: The European strategy of Chinese car companies: new energy vehicles have conquered the Norwegian bridgehead