Source of this article: Time Weekly Author: Liao Wei
Denza is about to break away from the Mercedes-Benz sales network and regain independent channels.
"The business license of Denza Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. was officially issued, and the rebuilding of high-end services and experiences is about to begin." A few days ago, Zhao Changjiang, director of BYD's high-end brand preparation office, posted on the social platform.
On February 14, Denza Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. was officially established. According to tianyancha data, Denza sales company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYD Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. The establishment of the aforementioned sales company may mean that Denza will get rid of the state of sending people under the fence and establish independent sales channels. It is understood that since the second half of 2019, Denza's brand operation, marketing, sales and other work are responsible for Beijing Benz, while BYD is only responsible for manufacturing.
It is worth noting that at the end of 2021, BYD issued an announcement that BYD Automotive Industry and Daimler each increased the capital of Denza New Energy by 1 billion yuan. In addition, BYD told the Times Weekly reporter on February 17 that "the two sides will adjust the equity of Denza in the future." After the completion of the equity adjustment, BYD and Daimler will hold 90% and 10% of Denza shares, respectively. "However, the equity transfer is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities and is scheduled to be completed in mid-2022."
BYD has said that it will pour more resources and core technologies into denza's automotive business to help Denza go to a new level in product research and development, intelligent manufacturing, sales channels and services, and promote denza's further development.
At one point, it hovered on the brink of delisting
According to public information, Denza was founded in 2010 as a joint venture between BYD and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and is headquartered in Shenzhen. According to Tianyancha data, BYD Automotive Industry and Daimler Greater China Investment Company each hold 50% of the shares.
As a cooperative brand of Daimler Benz testing the new energy field and BYD exploring the high-end market, Denza has been highly anticipated since its establishment. But unfortunately, the market performance of this brand from the "nobility" is far from meeting expectations.
Since 2014, Denza has successively released Denza 300, Denza 400 and Denza 500, and the price after subsidies is more than 300,000 yuan. Due to the high price, the product strength is not outstanding, the brand awareness is low and other reasons, depression's annual sales volume is only a few thousand.
According to the official website of Denza, there are currently two models of Denza X plug-in hybrid and pure electric on sale. According to Pacific Auto Network data, depress X sold a total of 4783 vehicles in 2021, and sold 4175 vehicles in 2020. In other words, its annual sales data is even inferior to the one-month sales of "Wei Xiaoli".
Less than ideal sales also led to the company's long-term losses. According to data released by BYD, the net loss of Denza New Energy from 2016 to 2020 was 1.299 billion yuan, 477 million yuan, 887 million yuan, 1.152 billion yuan and 426 million yuan, respectively, and its net loss in the first half of 2021 was 65.82 million yuan, with a cumulative loss of about 4.3 billion yuan.
For the sluggish market performance of Denza New Energy, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, once said, "Denza's product line is too single, mainly in terms of price, there is no accurate positioning, there is not much advantage compared with competitors, and the lack of influence on brand power is the problem of Denza Automobile today."
Due to poor performance and the inability to achieve self-transfusion, Denza has been supported by BYD and Daimler "blood transfusions" over the years. According to statistics. Since 2012, BYD and Daimler have increased the capital of Denza by more than 7 billion yuan. Among them, the last time is at the end of 2021, and the shares of both sides will each increase the capital of Denza by 1 billion yuan.
At the same time, the news of the adjustment of Denza's equity ratio has also come out, and BYD's equity ratio in Denza New Energy will increase to 90%, realizing the control of Denza. For this equity adjustment, some insiders believe that under the wave of the new four modernizations of the automobile industry, for Daimler, the successful realization of its own transformation is the most urgent issue, and Denza has little effect relatively much. BYD has shown the style of new energy vehicles in the future world, but its power in the high-end market is weak, if it can operate better, Denza may be able to help it.
Can it be reborn?
"Denza expects to launch three highly competitive new models, including MPV and SUVs, in the Chinese market over the next two years." For Denza's future product planning, BYD told the Times Weekly reporter.
According to Zhao Changjiang's relevant message on the social platform, dentist MPV will be released in 2022, using an exclusive team design language, and the model will be a large 7-seat MPV with a "233" layout. In terms of power endurance, the car will be equipped with BYD's e-platform 3.0 technology and DM-i super hybrid technology; the brand sales channel will also adopt a direct sales model.
It is worth noting that although the current MPV market is relatively niche, with the promotion of relevant policies, many car companies have pinned their hopes for sales growth on this, not only independent brands entering the high-end market, but also joint venture brands have also introduced overseas models.
"The high-end field of MPV is still dominated by commercial demand, but with the opening up of the national fertility policy, the 'home-based' high-end MPV is becoming a new force impacting the market." Jia Xinguang, executive director of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said publicly, "There is reason to believe that there will be more and more high-end products along with MPV, the automobile consumer market will become more mature, and the MPV market will enter a new stage."
Some industry insiders have analyzed that Denza's brand awareness is low, compared with the crowded, fiercely competitive SUV market, MPV and other market segments are more suitable for Denza, as long as it can launch a bright and competitive model, Denza's external image or will have a major change. Denza plans to launch a pure electric MPV currently has few competitors, and Denza has more time to polish the product.
As early as last year, BYD announced that it would launch a brand for the high-end market, which will be announced within this year. For the high-end brand in terms of products, positioning and other aspects of the difference between the Denza brand, BYD told reporters that the high-end brand price range is expected to be more than 50-1 million yuan, in the brand, products, sales and service network, operation team, are new and independent, the first model is a hardcore off-road vehicle. "In the future, BYD's automotive business will be composed of four sections: Dynasty.com, Ocean.com, Denza and high-end brands."
In the industry's view, although BYD has achieved good results in high-end in the past two years, the hot sales of Han and other models have helped BYD successfully open up the situation in the high-end market of 200,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, and its average selling price has exceeded 150,000 yuan. However, BYD's overall brand has not yet fully realized high-end, the brand premium and image are still far from traditional luxury brands such as BBA, and it remains to be seen whether the hardcore off-road vehicles intended to be launched with a price of more than 500,000 yuan can be recognized by the market. In addition, although BYD's new electrification technology has been reborn, depressing's brand image has not yet been fully established, and how it will be differentiated from OTHER HIGH-end products of BYD on the product side also needs time to verify.