The author | Wang Siyuan
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In August 2018, Baoding City was raining continuously, but Ning Shuyong could not stop the invitation.
As the first general manager of Euler, he had to show the perfect product to the world on the 20th, so he knocked on the office of the chairman of Great Wall Motor, "Jack, two sentences on the 20th?" ”
"I'm not going, this is your business, this is your Euler." Wei Jianjun looked up and said slowly.
At that time, Ning Shuyong was just a 50-day executive of Great Wall Motors, and after hearing that Jack could not stand for him, his expression was slightly bitter, and he returned to the Haval Technology Center depressed and silently prepared for the upcoming conference.
Euler is the first real new energy vehicle brand under the Great Wall, and the attention of the outside world is not lower than that of the original Wei brand, but until the end of the process of the conference, "Why did Wei Jianjun Wei Zong not come?" "It became a question in the hearts of countless people present.
It should be known that as a brand under the Great Wall that symbolizes the connection with the future, there is no platform for the boss, and it is easy to be misunderstood by the public as not paying attention to it internally.
But Ning Shuyong was ambitious. At the end of 2018, Euler proposed that the R1 model should hit 100,000 sales the following year, but the harsh reality was only 38,900.
Perhaps it was the semi-militarized management of the Great Wall that made it impossible for the marketing general to show his skills, or it was that the sales of the model were far less than Wei Jianjun expected, or that the office in the cubicle was not in line with the title of marketing director, and Ning Shuyong finally chose to leave.
He was replaced by a middle-aged man with a full beard, thinning hair and glasses, Dong Yudong.
Contrary to the external image temperament, Dong Yudong immediately shouted out the slogan of "Euler to be the world's more women-loving car brand and fully move closer to women" after taking office, and also changed the model name to cat characters.
It is precisely because of this sense of contrast that makes the outside world stunned that more people have begun to look at and explore this brand with new eyes, and it has also brought explosive growth to Euler.
In 2021, the sales volume of the Euler brand "Three Cats" exceeded 130,000, supporting the new energy business of the Great Wall. However, in the stage when the market was getting better and needed to sprint upwards, Dong Yudong suddenly suspended the production of black and white cats, which once again aroused concern.
Discontinuation is intended for high-end
On the evening of February 14, the Euler Automobile 4S store received a temporary notice from the headquarters, requesting that it stop receiving orders for black cat and white cat models from 00:00 on the 15th, and clearly inform the manufacturer that it no longer accepts orders.
The news quickly fermented, and the relevant person in charge of Euler Automobile also confirmed the matter, and said on the official Weibo, "Due to the shortage of chips, the supply of spare parts can not guarantee production and many other reasons, resulting in a large backlog of orders for black and white cat models, so it is temporarily suspended." ”
But on closer inspection, the official statement is a bit untenable. According to the data, in 2022, the Euler brand sold 13,229 vehicles in January, of which the sales of a model of good cat reached 9,020, and the combined sales of black and white cats were only half of that of good cats.
The shortage of chips and the supply of spare parts can not be guaranteed is the problem of the entire industry, not unique to black and white cats, so the black and white cats with lower sales volume have an order backlog, which is difficult to convince.
An Euler salesman said, "The profit is too low, and it is more expensive to sell later, and euler's good cat is low-grade." This also seems to tell the real reason behind the discontinuation of black and white cats.
At present, among the three models on sale under Euler, the guidance price of black cat is 69,800-84,800 yuan, the white cat is 71,800-8.88 million yuan, and the good cat is 10.39-16.09 million yuan.
According to data released by market research institute IHS Markit, in late 2021, the price of lithium-ion batteries rose by about 10% to 20%; according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), by the end of 2021, the average price of lithium-ion battery packs worldwide was 132 US dollars / kWh (about 840 yuan).
Coupled with the decline of national new energy subsidies, Tesla, Xiaopeng, BYD and many other car companies have announced price increases, and for black and white cats with lower pricing and the main sinking market, not increasing prices means increasing costs, resulting in narrowing its already negligible profits.
In addition, in 2022, Euler plans to launch new products such as ballet cat, punk cat and lightning cat, and their pricing is more than 150,000 or even 200,000 yuan.
Therefore, cutting down the black and white cats with lower prices can guarantee profits on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also provides the possibility for the new year to impact the high-end market.
Of course, at the level of the entire Great Wall Motor Group, Euler's "disguised promotion" may also be an explanation from Dong Yudong to Wei Jianjun.
Because Euler experienced the "chip gate" incident before, it had a great impact on Great Wall Motors, and even some car owners sent an open letter suggesting that Wei Jianjun disband the current Euler publicity team and do not leave the "self-destructing Great Wall".
As the general manager of the Euler brand, Dong Yudong may not have expected that users would directly "throw" the open letter to Jack.
Although Wei Jianjun rarely stands for Euler, for him, the Accident of Euler also means that the entire brand of the Great Wall behind him, and even the reputation of personal "car-making veterans" will be affected. Therefore, Dong Yudong needs to accelerate the change of consumers' perception of Euler, especially at the important juncture when the Great Wall is moving towards high-end.
The suspension of low-end models and the full force of high-end may be one of the paths for Dong Yudong to change Euler the fastest and in line with the development strategy of the Great Wall, because the suspension of production in the development process of the Great Wall for many years should be regarded as the least new thing.
The Great Wall's "Subtraction"
Looking back at several major brands under the Great Wall, the Great Wall, Haval, and Wei brand all launched models in the line of fire and quickly stopped production.
Crazy out of the sub-brand, crazy out of the new model, sell well on the sale, sell badly on the suspension of production, the same powertrain and chassis, change a shell to continue to sell, which has also become a consistent style of network public opinion to the Great Wall summary.
Haval H1-H9, in addition to the H6 and H9 is still on sale, other models are all discontinued, H9 has also recently frequently spread the news of suspension of production; Wei brand VV series and P series of the entire series of production, P8, VV7 GT, VV7 GT new energy and other models have not even survived a year, the listing is discontinued, buy is out of print.
Originally, Weipai positioning was higher than Haval, and the VV7 launched by Lynk & Co of Geely also sold very well, but since then, the new models launched in the same series have only been slightly modified on the basis of the previous, VV6, VV5, full of the shadow of VV7.
Even later Haval directly copied Wei's appearance, and there was almost no big difference in the three major pieces. This may also be the reason for the sluggish sales of Wei Pai's high and low follow-up.
Of course, the large number of production suspensions of Wei brand may also be inseparable from the strategy of the entire Great Wall Motor.
CEO Li Ruifeng once described the strategic position of Weipai as follows: "Weipai and the pure electric BEV architecture of Euler, and the upcoming salon, constitute the three main brands of New Energy of Great Wall Motors, enhance our competitiveness in the new energy market, and help Great Wall Motors achieve 4 million sales in 2025, accounting for 80% of the target of new energy." ”
This also means that Wei Pai has reached the node where it has to carry out intelligent changes. In January 2021, Weipai opened the road to change with the slogan of "a new generation of intelligent cars" and a new smart car, the Mocha, and also discontinued all previous models.
However, back to the consumer's point of view, as a durable product, the brand frequently pushes the new and removes the old, and even changes the direction of development, which will inevitably bring many problems such as difficult maintenance and low retention rate to the previous owners.
Looking at the suspension of production this time, it is almost the same as Wei Pai.
In 2021, the sales of Euler black cats are extremely unstable, although at the end of the year hit the performance of 8100 vehicles, but in January 2022 fell back to about 4000 vehicles; the sales of white cats have been stable between 1000-3000 vehicles; although the price of good cats is higher than that of black and white cats, sales have been all the way up, and monthly sales at the end of the year have successfully exceeded 10,000.
At the same time, Wei Jianjun has repeatedly stressed the importance of the high-end of the Great Wall, and cutting off black and white cats seems to have become a natural thing. Of course, whether euler's suspension of production is the decision of the Great Wall headquarters is still unknown to the outside world, but it is clear that under the grand strategy of high-end and electrification of the Great Wall, Wei Jianjun has given pressure to Dong Yudong.
Pressure was given to Dong Yudong
In June 2021, Great Wall Motor announced its 2025 strategic goal, which will achieve annual global sales of 4 million vehicles, of which 80% or 3.2 million new energy models. The fact is that last year, Great Wall Motor sold only 137,000 new energy vehicles.
However, combined with the current new energy layout of the Great Wall, the first car of its high-end new energy brand salon has not yet been listed, and Wei Pai has just changed its brand image, and the sales volume is not outstanding, but instead pinned on the independent explosive tank, so the sales pressure that falls on Euler, that is, Dong Yudong, is self-evident.
Previously, after Wei Jianjun released the sales target, Dong Yudong also became the object of encouragement in the company, because according to the Great Wall's plan, Euler will achieve the sales target of accumulating 1 million vehicles in 2023.
For everyone to meaningfully pat their shoulders to comfort "Euler to resist the pressure", Dong Yudong, who grinned greatly on the surface, nodded deeply in return.
But can Euler really resist the pressure given by Wei Jianjun? I'm afraid it won't be easy.
From the market level, after cutting the black and white cat, in the small car track, Euler can only come up with a good cat to fight against other players. Although the monthly sales of good cats are in the leading position, the entire track is still a niche in China, and it is easy to hit the ceiling. According to the data, the monthly sales of the entire small car market in December were only about 60,000 units.
Therefore, in Euler's plan, ballet cats, punk cats, lightning cats and other models have directly entered the compact market with more than 30% of the model level. In this track, what awaits Euler is Tesla's future Model 2, Xiaopeng P5 and many other powerful models.
Although Euler is a differentiated product, focusing on women, there is no shortage of models that attract women in the compact track of traditional fuel vehicles.
Gu Yebin, director of the marketing department of Cadillac, said in an interview that the proportion of female car owners is getting higher and higher, and women account for more than 35% of the XT4 car purchase group.
According to the owner data released by Xiaopeng Motors, the ratio of male and female car owners is 1.8:1, and the proportion of female car owners maintains a growth trend; Tesla sources said that after the localization of ModelY and Moel3, the proportion of female car owners has increased significantly, close to 40%.
Some auto analysts pointed out that the proportion of female car owners has risen, because of multiple dimensions: one is the development of intelligent auxiliary driving systems, bringing a better driving experience to car owners; the second is that manufacturers have launched models that focus on women; third, targeted marketing programs for various brands to meet the diverse needs of women.
For Euler, its biggest advantage is that it is more targeted at women, but after other players saw the potential of the women's market, they also made changes.
Cadillac has set up a Cadillac Lady specifically for female car owners, and will also launch an interior color matching that women are interested in, and the concept car LYRIQ released fully considers the aesthetic needs of women; bydir's Mulan Hui has also become an exclusive platform for BYD to communicate with female users.
That is to say, Euler, a compact product that can be accepted by female users, is not unique in the entire track, and its first-mover marketing methods are being imitated by opponents.
Of course, the pressure dong faces is not only above the market, but also has places he needs to pay attention to inside Great Wall Motors.
Euler VS Great Wall Edition MINI?
From a macro level, the birth of Euler is also related to the fact that the Great Wall has not yet been completely transformed.
According to the "2020 China Passenger Vehicle Enterprise Average Fuel Consumption and New Energy Vehicle Credit Accounting Table", Great Wall Motors relies on traditional fuel vehicles to make profits, and belongs to enterprises with fuel consumption that do not meet the standards, with an average fuel consumption score of negative 360,000.
In order to reverse the decline of "oil car backwardness", the Great Wall naturally needs a new electric vehicle to balance. Although Euler cannot quickly reverse the integral, it can gradually realize the gradual electrification of fuel vehicles to hybrid through hybrid at the same time as developing micro-electric vehicles, so as to buy time for the new energy transformation of the Great Wall. This strategy is also seen in traditional manufacturers such as Geely.
At present, the main brand of the Great Wall, Wei Pai, has completed the transition, and no longer needs Euler to help it earn more carbon points to balance, so Euler's attention in Wei Jianjun's heart may not be as good as before, from 2021 to Oula hero Yu Fei to Wei Pai as the general manager of the car brand can also be seen, yu Fei has carried the Euler banner for a period of time after Ning Shuyong left.
In addition, as early as 2018, Great Wall signed a cooperation agreement with BMW, each accounting for 50% of the shares to establish a beam car, cooperate in the production of MINI pure electric models, and in 2019, the beam car Zhangjiagang production base has started construction, is expected to be put into use in 2022.
Judging from the recently exposed spy photos of the test car, the factory already has the ability to manufacture the whole vehicle, which means that the MINI electric version has officially entered the countdown stage of mass production.
Euler and MINI, whether from all aspects of product, price or user population, can be said to be direct competitors, after the domestic electrification OF MINI mass production, the pressure can be imagined.
"Euler is a brand built for women", I can't remember how many times Dong Yudong emphasized this, but what needs to be reminded here is that the Great Wall obviously does not belong only to women.