Author: Gao Hao
In 2006, once a self-owned brand medium-sized sedan with the "1" logo was listed, it won the hearts of the Chinese people with its oriental aesthetic shape and excellent chassis comfort, and to this day, this "national car" galloping B70 can be seen occasionally on the road.
But no one expected that after 16 years of rapid development of China's auto market, FAW Besturn, which built the B70, an early "net red" model, quietly "fell behind". Looking back on the past 16 years, it is not only the B70 that has undergone two generations, but also the FAW Besturn that has opened the third "entrepreneurship".
Today, the B70 sedan is still there, and the B70S, as an SUV model, has further enriched the "B70" full of meaningful product lines. On February 20, Changchun FAW Ulsan Plant, FAW Besturn's first new year model B70S rolled off the production line and opened pre-sale, the pre-sale price range of 7 models is 110,900-143,900 yuan, according to the plan will be listed in March.
The B70S is built based on the FMA architecture, equipped with 1.5T and 2.0T engines, the appearance of "National Tide" elements, the D-Life 5.2 AI intelligent ecosystem, L2 level automatic driving technology and other scientific and technological configurations full of sincerity.
B70S also opened FAW Besturn's new online booking model, similar to the new force of car companies to play, FAW Besturn sales company general manager, Party Secretary Wang Shengli said: "Penturn B70S will innovate the sales model, through online booking to bring new experience of Z generation. The user places an order online through the Pentium YOMI App, and the vehicle is delivered by the sales service store. Users get clearer and more transparent prices, eliminating redundant bargaining links in the car buying process. ”
Wang Shengli, general manager and secretary of the party committee of FAW Besturn Sales Company
In addition, Pentol also provides subscribers with a series of pre-sale new ways to play with Super "7" heavy gifts and Super "+1" surprise "Koi Stuffy Pack", which can be described as a sense of ceremony.
Breaking the game, still starting from "B70"
After experiencing the early stage of applause and frequent new products from various manufacturers, the coupe SUV market has gradually been on the right track, and its market share has increased year by year.
In the past January, auchan X5 has squeezed into the top 20 list of SUVs with more than 16,000 units. The Changan UNI-T and Geely Xingyue S also have a higher and higher topic degree in the forum, and it can be said that the coupe SUV is gradually being accepted by consumers.
The Pentium B70S came into being, and there was more to it. If the launch of the new brand strategy and the "Window of the World" logo in 2018 is compared to The third venture of Pentium, T77 has taken the first step, then B70S is the first shot of Pentium to start a game-breaking battle this year.
At the off-line/pre-sale ceremony of B70S, Sui Zhongjian, general manager of FAW Besturn Car Co., Ltd. and deputy secretary of the party committee, announced the development strategy of FAW Besturn 635: "It is planned that by 2025, the Besturn brand will impact the sales of 600,000 vehicles at the speed of 2 new models per year, and enter the first camp of independent brands, of which 5 new energy products will be laid out, with a sales volume ratio of 30%. ”
Sui Zhongjian, general manager and deputy secretary of the party committee of FAW Besturn Car Co., Ltd
This means that FAW Besturn will accelerate its layout, and by 2025, it will have 13 models, 8 traditional energy products will sell 420,000 vehicles, and 5 new energy models will sell 180,000 vehicles, and the three major platforms of "intelligent control platform, intelligent driving power and zhiyue platform" will become the core technologies covering these 13 models.
Sui Zhongjian said: "As the first self-owned coupe SUV of China FAW, and the first blockbuster new car under FAW Besturn's new brand strategy, B70S is a new masterpiece brought to users by Pentium's 'starting from scratch' and living up to its promise of 'yan out of bounds'. ”
"Starting from scratch", revived in self-denial
The determination to "start from scratch" is worth affirming, because it means facing up to the shortcomings. Last year, Besturn sold a total of 57,000 new cars, which is really not very good for the first joint-stock listed company in China's car manufacturing industry and a veteran company that once built a national car.
The replacement cycle is too long, the slow speed of pushing new has affected the brand image to a certain extent, taking the first two generations of B70, respectively, it has experienced 8 years and 9 years, even if consumers have the intention to repurchase Pentium new cars, but there is no new car to choose from. In addition, many netizens said that FAW Besturn has too few dealers, and it is difficult to see the real car.
In fact, many of the key problems faced by Benten, the "same door" red flag has already given the answer. From the perspective of product launch, Hongqi's product positioning is clearer, and it can be seen that Hongqi has clearly planned the brand as L, S, H, Q product lines, respectively, aiming at different positioning markets, and methodically updating products, and has achieved satisfactory results on the road of high-end and rejuvenation.
Speaking of the number of dealers, taking the author's Beijing as an example, it is basically in each administrative district, and there are dealer stores with hongqi not far away. Under such advantages, last year, the sales of Hongqi brand models exceeded 300,000 vehicles, cultivating Volkswagen's new cognition of domestic high-end brands, and it can be said that it has achieved stage success.
In the stage of creating a "people-friendly galloping" image, what Bengten needs is accurate positioning like a red flag, rather than repeated swinging. Of course, the resource investment of FAW Group is also closely related to the revival of Pentol, and under the beautiful answer of Hongqi, who does not want to replicate this success?
The road to brand rejuvenation of Besturn has a long way to go, not only the full support of FAW Group and the attention of consumers, but more importantly, Besturn boldly makes more attempts.
For example, Besturn has achieved certain results in testing the water of new energy network car-hailing, and the Pentium NAT, a power-changing To B market model cooperated with the Ningde era, even ranked third in MPV sales with a result of 5837 units in December last year, which makes people full of reverie about the new energy models launched by Besturn in the future.
This year, Besturn set a sales target of 100,000 vehicles, and whether the B70S can take on the heavy responsibility will have to wait for feedback from the market after the listing in March. Before the launch of more products, it is too early to conclude the success of the Pentium brand transformation, may wish to give Pentium a little more time, look forward to it to bring more tricks.