On the road to brand upwards, the only outlier is Wuling. When other car companies are desperately taking off their domestic identities and moving closer to the direction of joint ventures, Wuling has taken a path against it, strongly flaunting it as: the light of domestic goods and the pride of the nation.
Recently, SAIC-GM-Wuling held the 2022 Wuling brand conference in Shanghai, officially released the brand strategy of "China Wuling Two Wings Flying Together" on the spot, and opened a new journey of brand upward with "user wings" and "technology wings".
In addition to the objectives of the global silver label strategy, the press conference also created momentum for the Wuling Capgemini 280T equipped with the new generation of Ling OS Lingxi system. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with the two, but under the extreme fear of careful consideration, Wuling may have reached a dead end on the road to brand upwards, and all efforts may not reap the corresponding results.
Wuling's ambition, silver label Capgemini planted hope
With a Wuling Hongguang, Wuling fire all over the country. However, in the new era environment, China's economy and society have undergone earth-shaking changes, and the needs of consumers are also changing. In the transition period when the domestic auto market is gradually changing from incremental to stock, various car companies are seeking new breakthrough directions to meet the needs of users in the new era.
In particular, the improvement of domestic automobile technical strength and quality control will naturally try to impact the high-end field, such as Chery's Qoros, Great Wall Weipai, Geely Lynk & Co, Hongqi, Changan UNI series models are all attempts.
SAIC-GM-Wuling, which has been mixed in the low-end level to make a fortune, is naturally not lonely, from Baojun's launch of the new Baojun to Wuling's proposed silver label strategy, in addition to giving it a richer brand connotation, it also shoulders the mission of upward breakthrough of the SAIC-GM-Wuling brand.
As the first model under the silver label strategy, Capgemini was promoted by SAIC-GM-Wuling after its listing, and both online marketing and ground pushing are unprecedented phenomena. However, compared with the situation that was blown up at the beginning of the listing to the present situation, it really should be said that "high open low go".
Following the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, following the successive declines in November and December 2021, the sales of Wuling Capgemini in January 2022 continued to show a downward trend, with a performance of 4198 vehicles, down -51.4% from January 2021.
This sales volume is enough to cause a lot of discussion, why can't the silver label Capgemini, which is remembered by Wuling, not sold? Could it be that hopes have been dashed?
The product strength has been complained about, and the confidence of Wuling has been painfully frustrated
Objectively speaking, with the huge user base and reputation accumulated in the MPV market, It is reasonable and expected that Capgemini will sell more than 10,000 per month at the beginning of the listing, but it is surprising that the sales volume will be cut off in just one year.
Under careful study, the shortcomings of product strength are inextricably linked to the sudden decline in sales of Wuling Capgemini, and with the passage of time, the shortcomings of Wuling Capgemini's product strength have attracted more and more attention from car owners. These problems eventually turned into terminal sales, so it's not surprising that sales have declined.
On the one hand, Wuling Capgemini adopts a 1.5T engine, which can be called a "typical small horse-drawn cart". For Wuling Capgemini, the entire series uses a 1.5T engine with a maximum horsepower of only 147 horsepower, which is indeed somewhat unsatisfactory. In terms of car experience, this car has the problem of insufficient power, especially the problems of weak starting power and insufficient climbing power.
On the other hand, there are major deficiencies in the space design of Wuling Capgemini. It is undeniable that as a compact MPV model, the large space is a major selling point of Wuling Capgemini. However, it should be pointed out that in terms of space in the third row, Wuling Capgemini not only has a narrow space, but also is extremely inconvenient to enter and exit. This greatly reduces the practicality of Wuling Capgemini.
In addition to the problems of tire noise, poor body materials, low speed and setbacks, the fuel consumption performance is amazing enough to call it "oil tiger". According to the actual data of the media, the average fuel consumption of Wuling Capgemini per 100 kilometers is 9.53 liters. To know that the 1.5T engine equipped with wuling Capgemini is only 147 horsepower, this fuel consumption is somewhat unexpected!
Flaunting national brands, quality after-sales is worrying
Although most consumers will make compromises on product strength based on their tolerance for the Wuling brand. But Capgemini and Wuling Hongguang are not the same, Wuling Hongguang, Baojun, the reason why this can win the favor and support of domestic consumers, the key is the high cost performance, the product itself is good performance, the price is also cheap. But the price of Wuling Capgemini is not cheap, its price at the terminal is 85,800-134,800, which is more expensive than Song MAX and Geely Jiaji, which is nothing more than a Wuling Hongguang with higher appearance and greater space, why sell so high?
In particular, capgemini soon after the listing broke out in a large area of quality and after-sales problems, which also further declined the brand power.
According to the complaint information of the third-party portal, Wuling Capgemini has engine failure lights, audio and video system failure, brake noise, and body resonance in terms of quality. Transmission setbacks, engine shake, brake failures, steering shakes, etc. Among them, the engine failure light is a relatively frequent problem.
For Capgemini, which has only been on the market for one year, there are so many quality problems and customer feedback after-sales attitudes, it seems that it is no longer the Wuling that the people needed.
In addition, in the official promotion of Wuling, Wuling Capgemini is a high-strength steel body structure that is built in accordance with the GMS BIQ4 global highest car certification standard and has a high-strength steel body structure that exceeds the same level. However, in November last year, C-NCAP announced the crash evaluation results of SAIC-GM-Wuling Capgemini, and to the surprise of many riders, Capgemini only received 4 stars, becoming the only four-star model in C-NCAP this year. According to the collision video, during the crash test, within 3 minutes of the difficult 100% frontal collision, the front cabin of the engine was opened.
Although after the collision of the vehicle, the fire of the pure electric vehicle occurs from time to time, but the engine fire after the collision of the fuel vehicle is rare, and a brand new car catches fire during the crash test, which is shocking.
Some people may have questioned, where did the Wuling who once paid tribute to each generation of strivers go? Or is it the national god car, the pride of the nation?
In fact, this is nothing more than Wuling's marketing strategy and slogan, whether it is the former red label or the current global strategy of the silver label, although the Wuling brand belongs to the autonomous, but according to the shareholding structure (SAIC accounts for 50.1%, General Motors accounts for 44%, Wuling Automobile accounts for 5.9%), SAIC-GM Wuling is a proper joint venture brand. For playing a national brand or China Wuling, it is just playing the brand of localization to harvest the only remaining consumer feelings.
Online car reviews believe that from Capgemini's failure Wuling should have woken up earlier why he could not break through the 100,000 mark. First of all, although the silver label strategy is feasible, it is still essentially a representative of the high-priced cars below 100,000, and there is no room for Wuling to survive above 100,000. If you want to break through upwards to obtain a broader market, especially in the current environment of consumption upgrading, only by building a new brand, the comprehensive sublimation of quality control and quality foundation is the only way out, rather than a single banner of "China Wuling" can be transformed into a high-end brand.
Guardian Wen
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