In 2008, the Jeep brand entered the Chinese market and quickly gained market recognition with its ultra-high cost performance with free light and guides. In order to reduce costs, Fiat Chrysler Group cooperated with GAC Group to establish GAC FCA Joint Venture, and since then Jeep has embarked on the road of localization.
But who would have thought that Jeep, who used to call the wind and rain in the hardcore off-road, would fall to the point of "delisting"! Today, the production line has also come to a standstill, and the brand, known as a "professional SUV maker", is terminally ill.
Falling from disruption to trough, Jeep took only 3 years
In 2016, GAC FCA quickly launched three new joint venture SUV products of Free Light, Liberty Man and Guide, with prices covering the mainstream SUV segment of 130,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, and the cumulative sales volume of 179,900 vehicles in that year was completed. In 2017, Jeep ushered in a moment of subversion in China, with annual sales reaching 222,300 units, a year-on-year increase of 57%. But just as everything was moving in a good direction, Jeep ushered in the darkest hour in 2018.
March 15, 2018, is definitely a day to change GAC FCA, and the 315 party in 2018 exposed Jeep's frequent burning of engine oil. According to the results of CCTV surveys, free light consumes 0.84L of engine oil per 1000km, which is twice the oil consumption standard of the manufacturer, which seriously exceeds the standard.
But it was not until after the CCTV exposure that GAC FCA realized the seriousness of the problem, and finally was forced to recall 143,900 vehicle models under pressure, and such a slow action also caused Jeep to lose the best time to save the "machine throttle". In addition, until now, complaints about the quality of Jeep have also remained high, gradually giving consumers a loss of confidence in Jeep.
Coincidentally, 2018 is also the turning point of the domestic auto market from the incremental era to the stock era, and the overall sales decline of the auto market has also made the already ill-fated Jeep worse. In 2018, Jeep's sales, which had just ushered in a bright moment, plunged 39% year-on-year, with annual sales of only 125,000 units.
It is also from 2018 that Jeep's sales in China have been in a state of decline for three years, with sales of only 20,100 vehicles in 2021, becoming the fastest declining car company in GAC Group.
With 134 vehicles sold in February, where is the root cause of GAC FCA's problems?
I thought that last year' annual sales of 20,100 gac FCA had bottomed out, but I did not expect that after entering this year, Jeep was still plummeting in sales. In January this year, GAC FCA sold only 686 vehicles, while in February sales were only 134, not even French cars.
According to the official website of GAC FCA, GAC FCA has a production capacity of 164,000 units, an engine production capacity of 488,000 units, and nearly 2,000 employees. In fact, from 2021, GAC FCA has stopped work in advance, and the factory in Guangzhou has been decided to close down, leaving only one factory in Changsha.
In February, GAC FCA actually had a production capacity of only 35 vehicles, almost only one car a day, and the capacity utilization rate was not even 1%. 2,000 people only build one car a day, and delisting seems to be the only solution for GAC FCA now.
For GAC FCA, it can be described as a good hand of cards. Although Jeep entered The Country late, it has always had a certain fan base, so it can harvest good sales when it is just domestically produced. Many people attribute The decline of Jeep to the "throttle" incident, in fact, the lack of attention to the domestic market is the root cause of Jeep's decline.
When it comes to Jeep, domestic consumers will first think of Wrangler, but the model with the highest voice of Jeep has not been domestically produced until now, and it is still sold in the form of imports in China. Coupled with Jeep's own off-road feelings, its domestic models have not been inherited, and more are also as ordinary urban SUVs, which makes Jeep itself not have too many highlights, and some models are equipped with three-cylinder engines in power, and it is reasonable that sales will plummet.
Write at the end:
Obviously, Jeep's core problem is still in quality control and competitiveness, since 2018 was named by CCTV, until now Jeep's quality control has not been improved, blindly relying on the domestic consumers' feelings for wranglers, it is difficult to endure. For Jeep now, it is almost impossible to complete the reversal in China, and delisting has become inevitable.
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