Text: Haoran Zhang, Zhu Yun
ID：BMR2004
On March 1, 2022, Euler Automobile announced a price increase of the Good Cat GT version model on its official user APP, with an increase of up to 12,000 yuan. Euler Automobile said that due to the sharp rise in raw material prices and the decline of new energy car purchase subsidies, the price of the GT version of Euler Good Cat was officially adjusted on March 1, and the adjusted price was from 147,000 yuan.
Image source: Euler Auto APP
In addition to the rise in the price of Euler's good cat, Euler Automobile has also frequently entered the public eye in recent days because of the suspension of orders for black cats and white cat models. The rise of the "she economy" has allowed more companies to see new market opportunities, and Euler Automobile, which focuses on the slogan of "the world's more women-loving car brand", has quickly won a market with the user positioning of women. However, recently, Euler Automobile has been caught in a shutdown storm.
On the evening of February 14, the Euler Automobile 4S store received a temporary notice from the headquarters, requesting that it stop receiving orders for black cat and white cat models from 00:00 on the 15th, and clearly inform the manufacturer that it no longer accepts orders. For the reasons for the suspension of black cat and white cat models, Euler officially responded, "Due to the shortage of chips and the supply of spare parts, the national replenishment slope and many other reasons, the order backlog of black cat and white cat models is more, and the customer purchase cycle is too long, affecting the customer experience." In order to avoid bringing bad feelings to car owners who trust the Euler brand, considering all factors, we stopped receiving new orders for Euler black cat and white cat models. ”
Source: Euler Auto's official Weibo
After this response was issued, there were constant doubts about the suspension of both black cats and white cats of Euler Motors. In this regard, the "Business School" reporter sent an interview letter to Great Wall Motors and Euler Motors respectively, and Great Wall Motors responded: Black and white cats stopped taking orders, not stopped production. In the environment of "lack of core and less electricity", the cumulative number of orders waiting for delivery to users by black cats and white cats exceeded 20,000 units, according to the current production volume, if orders continue to be received, the delivery of new orders will wait until the second half of 2022. Euler will actively seek raw materials, strive for the maximum resources, and quickly realize the delivery of existing orders.
Both black cats and white cats stopped taking orders
In the first quarter of the Year of the Tiger, Euler Automobile, which had a large number of fans in the "cat star" circle, began to stop receiving orders for black cats and white cats, in this regard, many car owners questioned that Euler Automobile's two cars were about to stop production, worried about affecting their rights and interests.
The reporter found through the inquiry of the official website that in the choice of model options for booking test drives, at present, only Euler good cat GT and Euler good cat can choose from, and there is no black cat and white cat model.
Under the continuous discussion, on February 23, 2022, Euler brand CEO Dong Yudong released a response to this matter on the Euler Auto APP: "We have indeed encountered difficulties, although there are advantages in the industrial chain behind the Euler brand, but this fashionable and people-friendly car still brings huge losses to the company!" Taking black cat as an example, after the sharp rise in raw material prices in 2022, black cats lost more than 10,000 yuan per unit. ”
Dong Yudong added in the comments: "At present, the black and white cat is mainly the lack of chip supply in ESP, and it is the world's automotive industry that is facing a shortage of chips, due to fire, epidemic, low wafer production capacity and other reasons, Malaysian factories can not meet global demand. Last week, three senior executives of the Great Wall (including Chairman Wei Jianjun) also went to Shanghai, and we have been on the road of 'urging the core'. ”
Since 2021, affected by the epidemic, the production capacity of chip factories in Southeast Asia and other places has declined sharply, and the supply of automotive chips has exceeded demand. According to CCTV Finance, since the beginning of the year, a number of automakers have announced price adjustments for their products. The average price of FAW-Volkswagen's two new energy vehicles rose by 5,200 yuan, Xiaopeng Automobile rose by more than 4,000 yuan, and the latest price announced by Weilai Automobile also increased compared with 2021. Among them, the shortage of automotive chips is the reason commonly mentioned by these car companies.
For the current situation of chip shortage and how to alleviate this pressure within car companies, Bai Yiyang, manager of the international research department of CMB, said: "At present, the chip is still relatively tense, we understand it, and car companies believe that the second half of the year will be completely alleviated." However, the degree of influence of each car company is different, and from the perspective of chip companies, it will also selectively protect some car companies. On the one hand, enterprises must do a good job of communication with chip suppliers, on the other hand, they must go to the market to find some loose orders. ”
This time, Euler Automobile stopped accepting orders for black cat and white cat models, which was also largely affected by the shortage of chips. However, for euler's response, some owners questioned in the comments: "Black and white cats, no material production, good cats are not affected!" Please accept our complaint. "There are also many car owners who have said that the waiting time for picking up the car has exceeded 100 days, and it can be seen from the comments that the owner's mood is very anxious.
For the question from the owner of the car "why good cats are not affected", from the product itself, Bai Yiyang said that the price of good cats is 35,000-40,000 yuan higher than black cats and white cats, profitability is indeed stronger, and the price of rigid raw materials, such as batteries, steel, aluminum and so on, is relatively strong. Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automobile Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, also believes that because the profits of good cats are higher than that of black cats and white cats, their anti-risk ability is relatively strong in the face of rising raw material prices.
From the consumer level, Ren Wanfu, a well-known analyst in the automotive industry, added that the price of black cats and white cats is better, the price is lower, the profit is significantly less, the consumers in the market are more sensitive to the price, and in the case of rising raw material prices, suddenly announcing the cessation of orders is indeed easy to be complained about by consumers.
However, just before the black cat and white cat were questioned to "stop production" storm, Euler Automobile fell into a crisis of trust because of the chip problem.
Not long ago, Euler Good Cat was suspected of fraud by consumers because of the use of car chip that did not match the publicity, and finally Euler officially "cashed back" 10,000 yuan in cash to each good cat owner, and the amount of compensation is expected to reach 400 million yuan. Euler Automobile's turmoil continues, Bai Yiyang said that the compensation for consumers this time, according to Euler's brand positioning, can give users some compensation for peripheral products.
For the cessation of orders by Euler Automobile, Ren Wanfu said that the rising production and sales of automobiles in the second half of 2021 indicates that the shortage of automotive chips has eased, but the increase in raw material prices has led to an increase in production costs, and the decline in subsidies has also led to a significant reduction in the profits of low-end new energy products. Bai Yiyang also believes that this is a passive choice under the influence of the supply chain.
An industry observer said that overall, the pressure on Euler's automobile supply chain is still relatively large, especially the lack of core problems has a direct impact on the overall industry, so under the premise that the target users are more similar, the resources are more placed on relatively high-end products, which is a better choice for the use of chips, from the perspective of supply chain.
Then, for the owner of the concern about the black cat, white cat when the situation can be delivered, Dong Yudong also gave a reply on March 1, in the official APP said that the delivery rhythm according to the customer booking order, it is expected that the black cat before October 23, 2021, white cat before October 15, 2021 most of the orders can be satisfied in this batch, the order due to incomplete materials, will be in the next batch of accelerated arrangements.
Inside and outside, sales decline?
With its cute appearance and the positioning of the car brand of "the world loves women more", Euler Automobile has attracted many fans as soon as it was launched.
Source: Euler Motors official website
At the end of 2018, Euler Black Cat was officially listed, the official guidance price was 59,800 yuan - 102,800 yuan, in July 2020, Euler White Cat was listed, the official guidance price was 71,800 yuan - 106,800 yuan, black cat, white cat in the positioning of new energy mini-vehicles. Immediately after that, at the end of 2020, Euler Automobile once again launched the "Cat Star" series of models - Euler Good Cat, the price of Euler Good Cat is 103,900 yuan - 143,900 yuan, and the model positioning is also upgraded to a small car.
According to the production and sales express data released by Great Wall Motor, the annual sales of Euler Automobile in 2020 achieved a total of 56,261 units, up 44.76% year-on-year; the cumulative sales of Euler Automobile in 2021 was 135028 units, up 140% year-on-year.
Euler automobile "cat star people" product characteristics for it to win a certain market, the Central University of Finance and Economics digital economy integration innovation and development center director Chen Duan analysis believes that Euler auto products to "cat star people" as their own characteristic IP, and play the "global more love women" car brand this slogan, in fact, for the market a redefinition, re-division, breaking the traditional price of high-end and low-end and functional family cars, SUVs and so on These categories of division standards, Taking gender as a new market positioning and support is actually the rise of "new women and her economy".
Chen Duan explained that on the one hand, women's economic and social status has risen, on the other hand, their sense of independence has increased, and they have gradually grown from being consumed and watched objects to self-pleasing consumption and experiential consumption as the main consumers pursuing their goals. This market positioning itself is an innovative initiative, redefining the market through gender, in fact, taking women who account for half of the population as their target market, it should be said that the prospect of this target market is very broad. From the size of the crowd to the emotional substitution of the target group, as well as the brand identity, it can play a differentiated feature advantage.
However, the reporter found through the data that the annual sales of black cats and white cats in 2020 were 46774 and 6651 vehicles, respectively, and the total sales of the two were 53425 vehicles, accounting for 94.95% of the total sales of Euler cars. After the launch of Euler Good Cat, the sales of black cats and white cats were 63492 and 20605 respectively, accounting for 62.28%. The latest data show that in January 2022, among the total sales of 13229 Euler cars, the sales of Euler good cats were 9020, accounting for 68.18%, and correspondingly, the total sales of black cats and white cats fell to 31.82%.
Source: Gestapo Cars
Euler black cat not only plummeted in the proportion of internal sales, but also showed that the sales data of Euler black cat in January 2022 fell by 36.11% year-on-year, and Euler white cat fell by 84.78% year-on-year.
Referring to the decline in sales of Euler black cat and white cat models, Ren Wanfu believes that the internal reason for the decline in black cat and white cat sales is due to the tilt of resources, and the external reason is a significant increase in the quantity and quality of competitive products. Qiu Kai, former deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association Industrial Coordinated Development Working Committee, added an analysis that black cats, white cats and Wuling Hongguang MINI and Chery QQ small ants belong to the same type of models, are entry-level pure electric vehicle models, the target consumer group of these models should be the middle and low-tier cities with limited budget just need consumers, after several years of development, this part of the consumer's car purchase demand may have been basically excavated and released almost, and more and more consumers in the field of new energy have begun to upgrade consumption. The choice of higher-level models, coupled with the leading position of Wuling Hongguang MINI in the market segment, has largely squeezed the sales space of competing models, so the sales of black cats and white cats will decline.
Bai Yiyang said that from the perspective of sales, the delivery volume of black cats and white cats is steadily increasing, and the overall decline in the proportion is the result of the improvement of the strength of good cat products, which is a decline in the relative proportion. Overall black and white cat deliveries are still good. But we have also seen the launch of some competitors, such as zero-run T03, Chery Ant, A0/A00 level competition has a tendency to intensify.
The black cat and the white cat stopped taking orders to point directly to the loss problem, the two main entry-level models, according to Dong Yudong, each car has a loss of 10,000 yuan, in this regard, Bai Yiyang said that the entry-level is indeed separately accounted for there will be a loss, and the integral income will offset part of the loss. Ren Wanfu said that the entry-level new energy vehicle market is mainly cost-effective, susceptible to raw material prices, sales decline and other factors, which is similar to the previous fuel vehicle A00 level market shrinkage year by year, but also with the new energy vehicles seven or eight years ago when the situation was just started, A00 level and A0 level market with subsidies decline rapidly shrinking.
For how to reduce losses, Bai Yiyang mentioned that on the whole, there are still two roads, and it is necessary to rely on scale to drive the decline in depreciation and amortization of bicycles and the procurement of platform-based parts.
An extension of the "She Economy" segment
The suspension of production, many people questioned Euler is to open the way for the main promotion of new models. Although Euler Automobile has denied the suspension of production, Euler Automobile does have new products on the market in 2022.
Great Wall Motors said that in the future, Euler will continue to adhere to the positioning of "car brand that loves women more" and provide better products and services for women around the world.
Specific to the market positioning of new products, Great Wall Motors responded that among the 3 listed products of Euler Automobile in 2022, Ballet Cat is a new masterpiece of Euler's brand positioning of "More Love Women", which is committed to creating an exclusive and elegant car for women, leading a new standard for women's cars in the name of treasure and girlfriend, and passing on a new model of euler women's friendliness. Lightning Cat is a new generation of new energy models created by Great Wall Motors based on global research and development, supporting and manufacturing standards and systems. Punk Cat is a flagship model of Euler's innovative category with the design concept of "classic restoration aesthetics", focusing on category innovation, and integrating emotional car experience into the exquisite art product design to interpret the core competitiveness of punk cat.
In terms of model size, the Lightning Cat is positioned as a medium-sized car, and the size of the Ballet Cat has also reached the level of a compact car.
In the future, Euler Automobile will continue to focus on female car brands, Chen Duan, director of the Digital Economy Integration innovation and development center of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that in the future, under such a big IP as a cat star person, continue to refine various IP, with half of the population as a whole as a target consumer group, on this basis, the population is subdivided twice, relying on subculture preferences and consumer demand and consumption affordability, launching a more segmented series. It helps to build emotional connections, identities, and consumption purposes with target consumers in a more granular dimension.
Chen Duan further pointed out that if you look at it purely from the perspective of the law of marketing, the cat series and subsequent continuous segmentation strategies are still relatively good, but marketing is only a dimension of enterprise operation, which must be combined with other front-end supply chains and continuous research and development innovation at the product level. At present, the cat star series models still highlight the feminine characteristics in terms of shape and color. It is to match its marketing strategy, innovation on the product side, or show its own highlights and characteristics. In the future, whether it can maintain the brand heat accumulated in the early stage, and avoid the negative impact of some uncertain factors at the external supply chain level on the brand image, this is actually a system engineering, or it needs to be based on the overall product system, product structure, market positioning, and the overall synergy of upstream and downstream supply chains and sales.
As for whether the future new models will have an impact on the market of black and white cats and good cats, Chen Duan said that the biggest competitor of the cat star series is not internal but external, and the above new products are more rich in brand personality characteristics and IP recognition, and can achieve more refined penetration of the market together with good cats, black cats and white cat series.
"Cat is a common companion animal, but the personality characteristics are more diverse, gentle, independent, wild, arrogant, the pursuit of exquisite life and other styles, although in some literary and artistic works 'cat people' are often associated with female influence, but in fact, women with different personality traits for cats emotional connection points are not the same, ballet cats, lightning cats, punk cats and other subdivisions break the simple black and white, good and bad binary partition, with more cultural connotations and identity lines point to the realization' Cat Star's IP is deeply connected and emotionally resonant with female segmented audiences, and the segmented IP is closely linked to the shape and functional characteristics of the car, which is further in brand creativity. Chen Duan analyzed.
With the continuous launch of more subdivided cat star IP with more sharp characteristics and subcultural trend characteristics, it can be used to form a better support for brand creativity with the advantage of brand clustering. Of course, it is also necessary to be very cautious when launching more subdivided IP, because the shaping of new women's identity and subcultural trends is still in progress, involving women's self-concept cognition and identity, and also involves the re-examination and re-evaluation of social culture on the trend of new women's culture and "her economy" consumption trend, which is prone to the improper use of some subcultural symbols to trigger sensitive topics and negative public opinion. In recent years, many consumer brands have fallen into negative public opinion because of the improper use of some sensitive cultural symbols involving the topic of male power and feminism, and latecomers are best to take it as a warning. Because cats are an overall IP, one of the sub-IP may affect the whole if not properly planned, which is a noteworthy potential brand risk point. Chen Duan added.
The above observers pointed out that the entire Great Wall, including Euler, has done better in recent years to make some of their sub-brands stronger related to the user group, whether it is the tank brand shows a customer group match for tough guys, or the Euler brand for cat sex, female consumer affinity, this is their great feature, but also they win the market is a very important point of difference, this time although the suspension of orders black cat and white cat models, but because of the follow-up new listing products, in fact, there is a strong continuity in tone, Their own attention to female consumers is more to hope that the market and demand can pay attention to and divert traffic to relatively high-end new products.
Chip disputes, stop taking orders, Euler Automobile "a wave of uneven and rising", in the future, Euler Automobile will continue to focus on female car brands, launch ballet cats, punk cats, lightning cats and other relatively high-end models, in the price of a level of new models will be like the previous good cats, black cats and white cats like the sales explosion? Bai Yiyang said that this year, ballet cats, punk cats, lightning cats will have a new brand marketing campaign as a whole. The price of ballet cats, punk cats, and lightning cats has increased to 150,000 yuan - 300,000 yuan, which should not be a volume of models, mainly focusing on profits.
For the future product layout of Euler Automobile, Zhang Xiang said that the price of a series of products designed by Euler is also rising, and when it is found that the sales of black cats and white cats are very good, they launched a relatively high-end product of good cats, with a sales price of more than 100,000 yuan. After the sales of good cats increased sharply, the lightning cats and ballet cats it launched, the product price even reached 200,000, so Euler Automobile is testing the market step by step, and its competitiveness is rising with the popularity of the Great Wall brand.
When will the black and white cats that stop taking orders under the "lack of core and less electricity" be able to resume normal sales? In the future, whether the sales of models such as ballet cats, which continue to extend to the female consumer market, can be renewed, and the explosion of "Business School" will continue to pay attention to.