[Aika Auto Industry Watch Original]
Recently, a new model of SAIC MG was exposed, this internal code name EH32 model was defined internally by MG: the first "global car" in the true sense of the Chinese automobile industry, and this car will be launched in Europe, and the benchmark model is locked in the Volkswagen ID.3. To tell the truth, in the impression of domestic consumers, the MG brand still has a gap with the joint venture brand, so suddenly came up with such a global model, and also to benchmark Volkswagen, many consumers feel a little overconfident. But is MG blindly confident, or does it really have that strength? Today, "The Road overseas of Chinese brands" let's talk about SAIC MG and see if the development of this "confident" brand overseas can support the strength of the benchmark Volkswagen.
First of all, let's first understand the BRAND of SAIC MG, the brand is more special, although it is now a 100% Chinese brand under SAIC Group, but in fact, MG is a very long history. MG, or MG, full name Morris Garages, was founded in Oxford, England in 1924, with a history of nearly a hundred years. In 2005, Nanjing Automobile Group Co., Ltd. acquired MG Rover Automobile Company and its engine production division. In April 2007, SAIC motor group fully acquired Nanjing Motor Group, thus becoming the new owner of the MG brand.
In 2021, although MG's sales in China are average, but looking at the world, MG brand annual sales reached 470,000 vehicles, the cumulative batch sales of more than 520,000 vehicles, overseas overall sales increased by 76.9% year-on-year, continue to maintain the status of China's single brand overseas sales champion since 2019, exported to more than 80 countries, in 17 countries among the top ten single brand sales, of which new energy models ranked fourth in the Swedish market, the Norwegian market ranked tenth.
Especially in the European market, SAIC MG Automobile's sales in Europe will grow strongly in 2021, and sales will triple in 2020. After all, the MG brand was born in Europe, so the popularity is very high, and in order to better serve European users, SAIC Europe headquarters is set up in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and set up SAIC France, SAIC Germany, SAIC Italy, SAIC Spain and SAIC Portugal 5 subsidiaries in Europe. There are also two parts centers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Zeebrugge, Belgium, and more ports and warehouses will cover the whole of Europe.
In 2020, MG has entered the Icelandic, Belgian, Luxembourg, Austrian and French markets, and in 2021, it has landed in Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Sweden, and MG has launched sales in 16 European countries. In the European market, MG's brand sales outlets have expanded rapidly from 65 in 2020 to more than 400. According to the plan, in 2022, mg brands will continue to develop outlets, and it is expected to reach 650 by the end of the year.
Since 2016, the Netherlands, Norway, France, Germany, Spain and other EU countries have proposed a timetable for banning the sale of fuel vehicles. Coupled with the impact of the "dieselgate" incident, the energy-saving wind direction of the European automotive market has begun to tilt towards electric vehicles. MG is naturally also striving to compete for the european new energy model market, MG's MG EZS pure electric SUV retail sales exceeded 100,000 units in the whole year, an increase of 94% year-on-year. And mg EZS is Europe's first E-NCAP five-star security pure compact pure electric SUV.
And this year, MG will also launch the first smart electric vehicle EH32 designed for the global market, and will take the lead in the European market debut. Zhang Liang, Deputy General Manager of SAIC's Data Business Department and Chief Digital Officer of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicles, said: "MG EH32 adopts global product research and development, integrates a sense of science and technology into the sports gene, and creates a smart electric vehicle that users around the world are accustomed to and drive well. At the same time, Zhang Liang also emphasized European standards, and Europe has recently had a large number of global leading requirements for safety, such as side column collisions, which will not be designed and considered in domestic non-global models. EH32 is a product that fully meets European standards in this regard.
In the Australian market, MG's performance is also eye-catching. In 2021, MG's sales in Australia are higher than Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and more than twice that of Honda and Audi, reaching 39,025 units, an increase of 155.9% year-on-year, ranking 9th in Australia's sales, MG HS, MG3, MG ZS are the main sales models. Affordable price, high configuration and long warranty time are the key to ensuring sales, MG provides customers in Australia with a 7-year unlimited mileage warranty, many other brands provide 3-5 years, in Australia, where labor costs are high, the ultra-long warranty is still very attractive to consumers.
The best performer in Australia is the MG ZS EV (that is, the European MG EZS), which sold 5149 electric vehicles last year, of which the MG ZS EV sold 1388 units in 2021, accounting for 27% of the total sales. Even Michael (Mick) de Brenni, Minister of Energy of Queensland, Australia, is the owner of mg ZS EV, and the energy minister said: "Now that the sales of electric vehicles in Queensland are soaring, among the many electric vehicle options, the ZS EV is the most worthwhile and cost-effective product for me! ”
Sales in Europe tripled
In addition to the European and Australian markets, MG's most influential market is in Southeast Asia, and SAIC motor currently has factories in Thailand and Indonesia to produce MG models. In mature European markets, MG uses new energy vehicles as the entry point, while in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, MG focuses on exploring differentiated intelligent networking technologies. In the field of intelligent networking, MG relies on saic's technical advantages to bring the intelligent wave out to sea. At present, SAIC's intelligent network connection system has been used on more than 30 overseas models, and more than 130,000 active users.
As of October last year, MG's share of the Thai passenger car market reached 8.2%, surpassing many Japanese brands that have sold products in Thailand for more than 60 years and ranking fourth. And at the 38th Thailand Auto Expo held last year, the MG Cyberster concept car made its overseas debut and opened advanced reservations for local consumers, receiving 666 orders in just 12 days.
We all know that Thailand has always been the world of Japanese brands, and it is really impressive that MG has achieved such results in only a few years. Among them, the MG ZS has the most eye-catching performance, and it has won the first place in the sales volume of the Thai small SUV segment, significantly ahead of the Japanese products of the same level, such as the Honda HR-V and Mazda CX-3.
The plant in Thailand, with an investment of more than $1 billion and an expected annual production capacity of 100,000 units, will also become a global production base for MG right-hand drive models. The plant is also the only new plant in Thailand with flexible production, including a powertrain workshop, a body manufacturing workshop, a paint workshop and a final assembly workshop. It can produce more than six platforms at the same time, and the current production models include MG ZS, MG 3, MG 5, MG 6 and other models.
At the same time, in 2019, MG signed a cooperation agreement with Eurokars EV Pte Ltd in Singapore, announcing its entry into Singapore, a highly developed and mature automobile market recognized worldwide. As a financial center in Southeast Asia and even Asia, Singapore has a high market activity, high consumption level, and a fairly high entry threshold for automotive products, and the demand for new energy vehicles is growing rapidly under the circumstance that the Singapore government strongly encourages clean energy. Under this premise, MG EZS pure electric models and MG eHS plug-in hybrid models took the lead in landing on the Singapore market.
In addition, MG has also cooperated with SMRT, Singapore's largest transport operator with MTR, bus and taxi business, to provide mg5 pure electric models for local taxis, and this car is officially replaced by the domestic Roewe Ei5 and changed to a right-hand drive. SMRT plans to launch 300 MG5 pure electric taxis, making it the largest electric taxi fleet in Singapore.
In Indonesia, MG released the MG HS I-SMART Magnify in June last year, and at the same time as the listing meeting, MG also held a roadshow show in Bandung, Malang, Surabaya, Medan and other cities in Indonesia. At the same time, the MG ZS MCE listing event was held on YouTube and received more than 20,000 viewers. Arieef Syarifudin, Marketing and PR Director of MG Indonesia, said: "After MG entered the Indonesian market, the response from consumers has become more and more positive, making us more confident. MG also plans to expand its stores in Indonesia to 30.
In the South American market, in 2021, SAIC's South American team overcame the impact of the epidemic, and MG's market share in the first quarter jumped to the third place in the local passenger car market. From January to April, MG ZS topped the chilean auto market. In the face of the ups and downs of the local auto market, the sales rhythm that has been repeatedly disrupted by the earthquake and the new crown situation, MG's sales performance is still eye-catching, and it has achieved "shouting and shouting" in South America. In addition to its outstanding performance in the above overseas markets, the MG brand has successfully entered the first camp of the local passenger car market (TOP10) in New Zealand, the Middle East and Egypt.
In addition to MG's outstanding product performance, it is inseparable from its continuous deepening of the local market and the use of young communication and interaction methods for many years.
MG Europe held an online MG autumn launch "Charge Forward", with a cumulative number of viewers exceeding 46,000 people, setting a new record since the release of MG Europe; MG Middle East launched a limited-time challenge with the Nikon brand; MG launched a "Show and Shine" campaign on Australian social media to encourage MG owners to share their stories with their cars, while donating to the Australian Red Cross to support local philanthropy. It proves MG's strong influence on overseas social media platforms.
In terms of brand communication, MG actively expands brand awareness through social networks, and currently has more than 6 million social media fans overseas; established partnerships with well-known football clubs such as Liverpool in the United Kingdom, Ahli in Saudi Arabia, Lyon in France, and reached strategic cooperation with the Italian national basketball team, the Australian National Basketball League (NBL), the Port Adelaide football team, the Melbourne Star Cricket Team, etc., and enhanced the brand influence in overseas markets with the help of sports marketing. So far in 2020, mg brands have received more than 20 heavyweight media awards overseas. Recently, in the "2021Q3 BrandOS TOP100 Overseas Brand Social Media Influence List" released by OneSight, MG has won the first place in the overseas brand social media influence segmentation industry.
Moreover, MG has the world's largest single-brand owners' club: MGCC (MG CAR CLUB)! Founded in 1930, MGCC has nearly 300 branches worldwide with a total membership of more than 100,000 people. Since 1949, MG fans from all over the world have gathered at Silverstone in the UK every summer for MG Live! It hasn't stopped for over 70 years.
MG Live！ It has also been linked with more than 30 cities around the world, so that the riders at the event site can face the global car owners, and the car fans who like MG can also feel the mg cultural atmosphere from the event site. So to speak, MG Live! It is an international carnival in the true sense, every year more than 10,000 spectators from all over the world come to watch, and thousands of MG cars gather at the Silverstone Circuit to celebrate the birthday of the MG car brand.
Written in the end: MG is a brand born in the United Kingdom, although it has changed hands several times under the sachinchines, but its influence overseas is still very strong. And unlike some domestic automobile companies that adopt the method of export underwriting and consignment sales, MG relies on SAIC's strong global supply system to open up all links including design, research and development, manufacturing, after-sales and so on. It can capture the front-line information of each market in a timely manner, and develop and supply products according to different market needs, providing the fastest service response.
The overseas target for 2022 is to exceed 800,000 vehicles, of which MG strives to be 500,000-600,000, or even higher. Saic Motor aims to achieve the goal of exporting one million products by 2025, and the MG brand is an important part of achieving the goal. As an automobile brand for nearly a hundred years, MG has appeal in the global market, and overseas consumers have a psychological sense of intimacy and identification with the MG brand, which also allows MG to harvest sustained sales and recognition around the world.
The Southeast Asian market is a positive PK Japanese brand