An average of 700,000 a car you buy?
Author | Pan Lei
Edit | Zi Yu
Image source | The author shoots
At the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, Ding Lei became a busy person.
As a former SAIC executive, he has participated in many auto shows, but this is the first time he has participated in auto shows as an entrepreneur with the "Gaohe Automobile" he founded.
In addition, he also received He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xiaopeng Automobile, Li Bin, founder of Weilai, and other leading figures of "new car-making forces" at the booth.
Some of the leaders of traditional car companies in China, even Porsche executives, were also photographed visiting the Gaohe Automobile booth.
This made Gaohe Automobile one of the most popular booths at the Beijing Auto Show, which was postponed due to the epidemic.
Everyone has only one purpose - to observe the two HiPhi X launched by Gaohe Automobile, which are priced at 680,000 yuan and 800,000 yuan respectively (later the product line was expanded, starting at 570,000 yuan).
This car is called "China's first electric luxury car".
In the entire history of the development of China's automobile industry, this is a pricing range that Chinese car companies rarely get involved in.
But a year and a half later, what surprised the industry again was sales — Gaohe sold more than 4,000 new cars throughout 2021.
This has clearly aroused the attention of the capital market, and there is news that the parent company of Gaohe Automobile is preparing to go public in Hong Kong.
Mercedes-Benz, BMW is not the "ceiling"
Ding Lei said in an interview with the media that he does not think that BMW Mercedes-Benz (for Chinese car companies) is the eternal ceiling.
At least in terms of product pricing (570,000-800,000), he did it.
HiPhi X was officially released in September 2020, and the delivery began in mid-May 2021, and in about 7 months since then, Gaohe has sold 4237 new cars.
By querying the 2021 vehicle-related insurance data, Chuang Bon confirmed the accuracy of the above sales figures.
In the second half of 2021, HiPhi X delivered 3724 vehicles, which surpassed domestic and foreign luxury brands such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Hongqi, and became the champion of more than 500,000 luxury brand electric vehicle sales in the same period.
By January 2022, Gaohe's delivery volume was 550 units, and it also achieved the 5,000th new car off the production line.
This is a data that many people did not expect.
Among all the benchmark brands, Porsche is mentioned repeatedly.
But in fact, the price difference between the two cars is not small - the Porsche Taycan and Gaohe HiPhi X start at 888,000 yuan and 570,000 yuan respectively.
However, for Chinese brands, this is still a breakthrough.
Before Gaohe HiPhi X, most chinese auto brands were concentrated in the low-end market.
"New car-making force" NIO took the lead in pushing prices to a height of 358,000-566,000, and cumulative sales exceeded 100,000 units.
"Future Automobile", as a "new force in car manufacturing", has made a pure electric sports car with a guidance price of more than 700,000 yuan, but the sales are dismal.
The starting price of HiPhi X has reached 570,000 yuan, with an average price of 700,000 yuan, which has exceeded the price of most major models of first-line luxury car brands such as Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi.
Ding Lei said that this is equivalent to selling more than 5,000 cars for 70,000 yuan per month.
He also considers HiPhi X to be an "epoch-making product."
Stay at the table
"When we talk about HiPhi X in the future, we will remember the time point (2020 Beijing Motor Show)." Ding Lei said.
He mobilized his 30 years of experience and resources in the industry to create HiPhi X.
According to him, eight of the world's top 10 auto parts companies work with Gaohe, "and they use the best technology in Gaohe HiPhi X."
According to official information, HiPhi X initially released with 12 "world-first" technologies, the most obvious product feature is the NT spread door system with 6 doors, with six "scene-based" entry and exit modes including "Avenue of Stars", "Transformers" and "President's Proofreading".
But the product level is not even the full competitiveness of this car.
According to official information, Ding Lei is actually engaged in a "three wisdoms" strategy covering "smart cars, smart transportation, and smart cities", with the aim of achieving complete driverlessness through vehicle-road collaboration in the future smart city.
In this strategy, the "smart car" represented by HiPhi X is only one link in the "three wisdoms" strategy, and the ultimate goal of the entire strategy is to change the way humans travel.
This explains Ding Lei's "scene-defined car" car-making concept. "Our design is reserved according to the synergy of cars, roads and cities. The intelligence of the car reaches a certain level, and it is necessary to coordinate through the road and the city."
An executive from a traditional car company said that it is extremely difficult for traditional car brands to build high-end brands in a short period of time, and it is difficult to succeed without some technical and cultural accumulation, but Tesla has changed the model of car brand cultivation, "The success of Gaohe in terms of sales can only be said to be the success of the new era and new play."
He believes that this car does show different product strength, but the core lies in whether it can find enough users to pay. "Chelucheng Synergy" is a vision that will take time to land, and the real value of Gaohe is mainly reflected in the fact that it has found some users who are willing to pay, "which allows them to continue to stay on the table."
Who is the owner of Gaohe?
A senior person from the "new car-making force" told Chuangbang that everything is related to "user portraits".
In his view, electric vehicle brands currently show a clear "polarization" trend, the low-end to the extreme is the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, and in the high-end market to achieve a breakthrough is Gaohe, "these products are the results of category innovation in specific markets."
Wei Jiadong, a veteran marketer, also believes that according to the distribution method of the "explosive dumbbell model", the top layer is "understanding the trend + understanding the user", the middle layer is "cost performance", and the bottom layer is "value + quality".
Some industry insiders believe that "internal digestion" is one of the factors that constitute the performance of high-volume sales.
Xu Lide, a former assistant to the president who is familiar with the "new car-making forces" business model, said that hiPhi X's ability to deliver more than 4,000 vehicles in 2021 is an incredible number, which means that its customer reserve needs to reach 20,000 (deposit users) and reach at least 20 million (one-thousandth of the subscription rate).
As for "who bought Gaohe", he believes that as a startup, founding employees generally buy a part, and suppliers can digest a part, and then collect some social orders.
According to data revealed by Ding Lei at the Beijing Auto Show in September 2020, Gao He alone has 1,500 engineers.
Bai Yiyang, a senior researcher at CMB International who focuses on the new energy industry, said that Gaohe is still in the early stages of enterprise development, considering its pricing range, the current delivery level of 500-1000 vehicles per month is reasonable, "If this threshold is not reached, it means that the product has major defects."
He said that the customer base of HiPhi X is mainly BBA (Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi) users, who do not care about pricing, want to have identity characteristics, and like the first users to try early. "China's huge market (more than 3.52 million new energy models sold in 2021, the world's first), will never lack the first users."
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, believes that the high price of Gaohe Automobile reflects the characteristics of high-end user groups, and "the wealth effect formed by the Internet field and so on has promoted the outbreak of high-end automobile market demand."
Chuangbang learned through the shop that some users are indeed from the Internet industry.
According to the "2021 China Luxury Car Market Research Report" released by Judasu, luxury cars have maintained an average growth rate of 11% for 3 consecutive years, while users' measurement standards for luxury cars have also changed, and more attention is paid to smart/safe configuration and luxury experience.
This is different from the previous users paying more attention to the "brand accumulation" similar to Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi, and it is also the main feature of the rise of young users represented by "consumption upgrades".
According to the official information of Gaohe Automobile, more than 60% of the owners are "post-80s" and "post-90s", and there are also some "post-50s" and "post-60s" who are more curious about new things.
At the same time, 80% of car owners are at the level of corporate executives/CEOs, and their reason for valuing HiPhi X is "IKEA IKEA".
Guo Tiefu, senior director of marketing and public communications at Gaohe Automobile, told Chuangyebang that many owners of Gaohe belong to their own entrepreneurial business owners, and also have the characteristics of high education and high income, as well as recognition of Chinese brands. "In addition, the number of two-child families is also more than 50%, which corresponds to our six-seater model." In his view, the reason why Gaohe Automobile can get the favor of more than 4,000 car owners stems from the correct company strategy, "strictly speaking, the market segment we entered has no competitors."
Another is the product's recognizability, "including a unique look (winged door design) and a luxurious and tech-inspired configuration."
This is also confirmed by offline stores.
According to the information that Chuangbang learned from the Gaohe experience store, the test drive user values the most about this car, which lies in its almost all-round configuration, and the staff will take a "lifelong warranty five core components" to the user to highlight.
Chuangyebang noted that the promotional materials show that the value of core components including a full set of air suspension, "three electric" systems (batteries, motors, electronic controls), intelligent light sets of the whole vehicle (including the same PML programmable headlights as the new Mercedes-Benz S), smart touch screens, and NT doors exceeded 390,000 yuan.
In addition, product details such as the "rear wheel steering system" for the first time in Chinese brand models and the "British Treasure" audio (jaguar Land Rover's latest model is also equipped) also make users believe that what they will get their hands on will be a luxury smart car armed to the teeth, and the whole car is full of luxury.
But in the eyes of industry insiders, even if it integrates strong global resources and records good sales in 2021, Gaohe must find a way to continue to promote sales growth in 2022.
2022 will be a watershed year
Lu Bin, the former co-founder of WM Motor, said more than two years ago that when the new car company completed the delivery of 10,000 vehicles, it basically digested the "traffic dividend" in the early stage and began to enter the stage of market traffic acquisition.
According to the current sales trend of Gaohe Automobile, the delivery of more than 10,000 vehicles in 2022 will be a high probability event.
This also means that Gaohe will shift from "traffic driven" to "product driven" era.
In addition, there are also many changes in macro policies and supply chains.
According to the notice issued by the Ministry of Finance and other four departments, the subsidy for new energy vehicles in 2022 will be reduced by 30% on the basis of 2021 and completely cancelled in 2023.
In terms of supply chain, Xu Daquan, executive vice president of Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd., recently said that automobile production in 2022 will still be largely subject to chip supply, and "the situation may improve in the second half of the year."
In early February, Toyota motor motor expressed similar attitudes when It announced that eight of its plants would be forced to cut production due to chip problems, and its global production in February was expected to decrease by 150,000 units.
These factors will affect the sales of Gaohe Automobile in 2022.
Bai Yiyang believes that the key depends on the subsequent sales climb.
Another industry insider also believes that The growth trend of Gaohe Automobile this year is crucial. "If you plan a product priced at three or four hundred thousand yuan, there is still hope (to continue to maintain the upward trend).")
This prediction has also been verified in Gaohe's latest product planning.
According to the latest news revealed by Ding Lei, after the first car HiPhi X and the second car HiPhi Z (expected to be released in April this year), the price of the third car will drop to the range of 300,000-500,000, "so our monthly sales may soon reach the scale of 10,000 units."
For the automobile industry, which pays attention to the scale effect, the monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles can basically achieve positive operation.
However, according to the rhythm of Gaohe's product release, the third car is likely to be officially released in 2023.
"Six pure roots, to succeed"
Inside Gaohe, there is probably no one who can know the urgency of time better than Ding Lei.
So he started sleeping in the office.
His schedule also makes many people feel incredible.
Someone found that he received a message from Ding Lei at 1:30 a.m., and after his reply at 5:30 a.m., Ding Lei still returned in seconds.
And according to the people around him, Ding Lei never lost his temper.
This may be related to his emphasis on "strategic determination".
In the eyes of the outside world, the movement of Gaohe Automobile is slightly slower, which can also be said to be very "stable", but in his view, everything is actually very "fast", and it is carried out in an orderly manner according to the plan.
This plan is based on a forward-looking strategy, that is, the transportation involved in the "three wisdoms" - this strategy forms a user scenario, and these "scenarios" have allowed Gaohe Automobile to achieve good sales.
Therefore, he also emphasized the "original heart" - adhere to the original heart, and achieve the "six roots of purity" in order to succeed. "The six roots are not pure, the loss is clean, what others can do, you may not be able to do, what others do, you may not be able to do, others can not do, you may not be able to do." 」
"Getting a car is my specialty. In the new era, how to make a future-oriented car, we have the most say. He said.
His motto is "Beat Yourself last second" and believes that getting rid of the inertia of experience is the key to future victories.
So he made a different car, which currently seems to have broken through the price ceiling of Mercedes-Benz BMW.
According to Bloomberg news at the end of January, Gaohe Automobile's parent company, Huaren Express, is working with UBS and Morgan Stanley to list in Hong Kong as early as 2022 and raise $500 million.
This information has not been officially confirmed.
But one thing is certain, Gaohe has seized the opportunity of this century-old automotive change, and like Tesla, it has chosen to cut into the high-end market, which allows it to achieve sales increase through product decentralization, while maintaining a sufficient brand premium – so far, only Weilai Automobile has done this.