2021 can be said to be the year when the new energy vehicle market really broke out, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 reached 3.521 million units, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year. At the same time, the sales of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market have ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years.
In this context, it can be said that China's auto industry has achieved a comprehensive lead from the backwardness of the era of fuel vehicles to the era of new energy.
In this process, two new forces have gradually risen in China's new energy market, one is a new car-making force based on Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, and the other is a "new face" based on traditional car companies. For example, BAIC's Polar Fox, Geely's Extreme Krypton, Dongfeng's Lantu, Great Wall's Salon, Chang'an's Avita, SAIC's Zhiji, etc., it can be seen that major traditional car companies are also involved in the new energy high-end market.
Review the high-end new energy brands of traditional car companies in 2021
BAIC Jihu: As a new brand backed by the two giants of Magna and Huawei, Jihu has been trying to "distance" itself from BAIC, which is an incomparably correct strategy from the current point of view. This is mainly because most of the early BAIC BJEV started with taxis and online ride-hailing cars, which may be quite good in the B-end market, but in the C-end market, there is always a lack of a high-end brand to establish an image. After a year of hard work, Polar Fox is also constantly using new marketing methods to raise the brand tone. In addition, the Polar Fox has a lot of room to rise in vehicle delivery.
SAIC Zhiji: After more than a year of meticulous preparation, Zhiji Automobile is finally about to usher in the test of the market. At the end of 2021, the first batch of 200 beta experience versions of zhiji L7 will be delivered off the production line at SAIC Lingang Intelligent Factory. But in terms of quantity, it may be more like a show. So we have to wait until after the mass delivery in April to know how zhiji really performs.
Changan Avita: As a brand jointly built by the three giants of Changan, Huawei and Ningde Era, Avita can be said to have stood in the spotlight since birth. It is also reported that Avita 11 will be released in the second quarter, and the first batch of mass production and user delivery will be achieved in the third quarter. However, in our view, if Avita wants to stir up the current market, it must break through the previous limitations, especially in the selection of cooperative media, and break the previous thinking, which is the so-called "no break and no standing".
Geely Kr: Extreme Kr can be said to carry too much hope from Geely, especially Li Shufu personally took charge of the chairmanship. Fortunately, in 2021, the performance of Extreme Krypton is still decent. In particular, it took only 192 days for the brand to be released to the product delivery, I don't know how Boss Jia feels? Of course, after the first year of delivery, the hidden problems of the product will gradually surface, but as long as there is no big problem, the future of Extreme Kr is still worth looking forward to.
Great Wall Salon: At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Salon's first model, the Mech Dragon, was officially unveiled. Regarding this product, the reputation in the industry is also polarized, of course, everyone's point of controversy is more or its unique design. In addition, Wen Fei, CEO of Sharon Motors, also said that Sharon is expected to become the new car brand with the fastest sales of 100,000 vehicles and revenue of 100 billion yuan. But such a "grand" goal, we still have to wait for the follow-up performance to make comments.
Dongfeng Lantu: The birth of Lantu also shoulders the burden of dongfeng brand upwards, but fortunately, Lantu's performance is indeed commendable enough. Since its listing in June 2021, Lando entered the delivery stage in August of that year. On January 21, 2022, Landu Automobile announced that the 10,000th Landu FREE rolled off the production line. Such a performance can not be described as unobtrusive, but also let Dongfeng play a beautiful turnaround battle in the new energy market.
Why have traditional car companies launched new brands one after another?
On the question of why traditional car companies want to launch new brands, we feel that it is mainly related to the development of independent car companies in the direction of high-end. This phenomenon exists not only in the new energy vehicle market, including the fuel vehicle market, but in recent years, everyone hopes to share a piece of the pie by entering the new energy track.
As early as July 2020, Lantu, a new high-end electric brand under Dongfeng Group, took the lead in debuting. After the establishment of the brand, Lantu has given people a refreshing feeling in market operation, strategic layout, business model and team formation. It can be said that the success of Lantu has driven more car companies to launch independent brands. Traditional car companies have also launched another charge to the new energy vehicle market, which can be seen as a breakthrough way for independent brands to rise, hoping to completely get rid of the low-end brand image of the fuel vehicle era.
In addition, traditional car companies lack some flexible ways in the system, so the establishment of new brands is also conducive to solving some of the shortcomings left over from history. In the face of new car-making forces and cross-border car-making technology companies, they will not be at a disadvantage in terms of mode and operation mode. To put it simply, traditional car companies want to reopen new markets, need to carry out drastic reforms, but this process will definitely take a long time, it is better to directly establish a new brand, let the new company to toss, but it is easier to achieve the purpose and effect.
In our view, the new car-making forces can gain a foothold in the mid-to-high-end market, not necessarily because of how leading the product is. In fact, in the experience of product production and manufacturing, traditional car companies should have a better advantage. The reason why the two sides will gradually open up the gap is mainly related to the new marketing service model attached to the product. For example, from store sales to after-sales service, the new forces of car manufacturing have high achievements in pinching consumer psychology. However, traditional car companies have no way to achieve immediate innovation in channel reform and network services. Therefore, this is also one of the key reasons for traditional car companies to innovate.
The traditional car company PK car manufacturing new forces, full of points of view
In fact, in recent years, independent brands have been seeking an upward breakthrough, but it seems that some domestic consumers do not buy it. The rise of the new energy industry has given everyone the opportunity to return to the same running line. For example, in the new energy high-end market, Tesla's advantage can be described as a thriving, completely crushing the older generation of luxury brands such as BBA. In this context, China's new car-making forces have also successfully grabbed positions, and even expanded their assets by virtue of the listing of new energy outlets.
However, there are too many brands pouring in in the short term, even if China's new energy market is still in the rising stage, but after all, they are in the same market, and it is inevitable that they will bump into each other. However, fortunately, the acceptance of independent brands by Chinese consumers has greatly improved in the era of new energy, not only showing a high degree of interest in new car-making forces, but also full of expectations for new brands launched by traditional car companies.
But as we all know, the high-end market is not a mass market after all, and it is difficult to become a fat person in one bite, after all, there is only one Tesla. On the other hand, between independent brands, it is inevitable that there will be internal friction like the original smart phone market. As a rising star, the new car-making forces, although the foundation is not as good as that of traditional car companies, but in the channel network construction and after-sales service concept, it does teach traditional car companies a good lesson.
For example, in the view of some industry veterans, the auto retail format has gradually shifted to shopping malls and online-centered retail network transformation, and the traditional dealer model obviously lacks enough attraction for young consumers. In addition, the current new car-making forces have also made gains in some charging infrastructure and automatic driving technology. For example, Weilai's power exchange and Xiaopeng's automatic driving can be said to be an important reason for boosting its product sales.
On the other hand, traditional car companies may lag behind in these areas, and if you want to break the current predicament, you still have to rely on some "external forces" to help. Especially at the level of new channels and new technologies, traditional car companies have begun to throw olive branches to some technology-based enterprises. The most obvious thing is that BAIC Polar Fox and Changan Avita have successively found Huawei for cooperation. The model equipped with Huawei's smart cockpit has indeed brought about earth-shaking changes in the car experience. Take the recently popular M5, whether it is the seamless connection of mobile phone navigation points to the car machine or the operation of smart phones and smart watches directly unlocking vehicles, it is refreshing.
In addition, Huawei also uses its own retail channel network as a network to display and sell cooperative models. This means that Huawei not only empowers the entire industry in terms of model technology, but also gives great help to partners in sales network channels. To a certain extent, it is precisely because of the intervention of "Huawei, who does not build cars", that some traditional car companies have the confidence and strength to compete with the new car-making forces.
Write at the end
Looking at the future of the new energy high-end market, there will inevitably be a direct dialogue between the new brands established by traditional car companies and the new forces of car manufacturing. In addition, those cross-border technology companies can not be ignored, such as Millet. Because these companies often do not play cards according to common sense, they will also become the X factor in the new energy market. Moreover, although BYD has not launched a new brand to stir up trouble, in terms of the overall performance of the current market, BYD's comprehensive strength can be said to be the most powerful representative of its own brands.
All in all, in our view, the current new energy industry is very similar to the former smart phone industry, it is a situation of rising together, there are new entrants to join, there are also traditional enterprises to save themselves, but it is certain that the situation of the city's changing king banner will be formed in the next decade. And with the gradual replacement of the status of fuel vehicles by new energy vehicles, the new energy market will also move from the blue ocean to the red sea, and the fierce competition will not be lost to the original smart phone market. So the question is, do you think that in this game, is it a high-end new energy brand established by traditional car companies? Or are the new car-making forces that have entered the game more? Welcome to actively participate in the discussion in the comments section!