Lead
Introduction
Hongguang MINIEV "killed" Wuling high-end, but incubated the entire new blue ocean of micro-electric vehicles.
Author 丨 Li Sijia
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
The rise of new energy vehicles is no longer a secret.
In 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, ranking first in the world for 7 consecutive years, and the market share reached 13.4%, 8 percentage points higher than that of the previous year, which further shows that the new energy vehicle market has shifted from policy-driven to market-driven.
In the new energy vehicle market, A00-class and A0-class electric cars are very special. With their unique features such as space and price point, they have gotten rid of consumers' cognition of electric vehicles that have entered the white-hot stage and are moving towards high-end.
As we know, in the early stage of the promotion of new energy vehicles in China, driven by subsidy policies, many car companies are from the layout of micro-electric vehicles, such as Changan Benben EV, JAC iEV series, Baojun E series, etc. With the advantages of small size and low price, micro-electric vehicles quickly swept the country. According to the statistics of the Association of Automobile Associations, the market share of domestic A00-class and A0-class electric vehicles in China was as high as 87% in 2015.
However, with the decline of subsidies and consumption upgrades, micro pure electric vehicles were once snubbed by the market, sales fell sharply, and some companies that started with micro electric vehicles also lost their advantages, and even if they launched replacement models, it was difficult to get market recognition. It was not until the Hongguang MINI EV began to sell hot and the micro-electric vehicle market recovered rapidly that this market was paid attention again.
Last year, driven by a number of hot-selling models, A00-class pure electric vehicles once occupied more than 40% of the share of pure electric vehicles.
Between the ups and downs of the market and the attention, the new energy car market is magical, and the carnival that belongs to small electric vehicles comes again. Its popularity not only made Changan, Chery, Geely, SAIC Roewe and other people regain interest, but even Tesla was also very concerned, and the news of the production of micro-electric vehicle Model 2 was reported.
But then again, when it comes to the micro-electric vehicle market, we have to mention Hongguang MINIEV, we have to mention the Wuling brand, and we have to mention Liuzhou. Because of the brands and models that later poured into this market, most of them witnessed the Hongguang MINIEV to open up the market blue ocean before acting, and the Hongguang MINIEV was incubated in Wuling and Wuling was incubated in Liuzhou.
Micro electric vehicles dominate Liuzhou
At about 6 p.m. on a certain day in March, Liuzhou Bayi Road staged a carnival of electric vehicles.
In just five minutes, 114 Wuling new energy cars and 66 other brands of new energy vehicles galloped one after another during this rush hour. This is just the main road, looking at the non-motorized road next to it, two-wheeled electric vehicles are countless shuttles at green light intersections, running to the night sky that symbolizes freedom in a way that is not unique to Liuzhou but is not out of Liuzhou.
The above phenomenon is just a corner of Liuzhou's city, and the scene of the electric car army that can be seen everywhere like this or even more exaggerated is staged over and over again on the streets of Liuzhou.
Judging from the scene in the streets and alleys, electric cars have become one of the city's business cards that can be discussed side by side with snail powder.
As a pilot city for new energy vehicles, Liuzhou has vigorously and decisively developed the new energy automobile industry in recent years, becoming the only city in the country with four major automobile group vehicle manufacturers such as FAW, Dongfeng, SAIC and Sinotruk, and its annual automobile output ranks among the top in the country, with the output of new energy vehicles in 2021 being 482,000 units, an increase of 157.6%, accounting for 1/7 of the country.
As a native enterprise in Liuzhou, Wuling brand has thrived in the local new energy soil, from the streets of Liuzhou to the top of the sales list of new energy cars, and has become an important force driving the development of Liuzhou automobile industry and even China's new energy vehicle market.
With its rich product matrix including baojun E series and Hongguang MINIEV models running on the road, parked on the side of the road, lying in the store, coupled with home battles, it has naturally won most of the market share here, and led a city to do the test of the development of the new energy market as a "giant" with absolute right to speak.
Especially after the crazy car - Hongguang MINIEV became a hit, the Footprint of Wuling Brand Micro Electric Vehicles in Liuzhou and even the whole country has become more and more numerous.
According to the data, as of December 31, 2021, the cumulative sales of Hongguang MINIEV exceeded 550,000 vehicles, and the cumulative sales of the entire GSEV products of Wuling were 750,000 vehicles, which is not only the achievements of Wuling micro-electric vehicles, but also the evidence of its rush out of Liuzhou and the whole country.
"Since its launch, Hongguang MINIEV has won the top spot in China's new energy sales for 16 consecutive months, and has repeatedly topped the global single-model sales championship, becoming the leader of new energy vehicles."
At last year's National People's Congress, Wu Wei, a deputy to the National People's Congress and secretary of the Liuzhou Municipal Party Committee, introduced the Hongguang MINIEV electric car, which has repeatedly achieved sales miracles, to the premier. A year later, Wu Wei, who attended the National People's Congress this year, brought another new energy vehicle, the KiWi EV. He said, "KiWi EV is expected to become another star product after Hongguang MINIEV. ”
Wu is like a number of family treasures, year after year, over and over again to introduce the different electric cars under Wuling, which is enough to show that Wuling and even Liuzhou attach great importance to this model and its achievements. This attitude has also laid the development route of Wuling's micro-electric vehicles in the future to a certain extent.
As a result, we saw the Macro MINIEV macaron (high-end version), KiWi EV, NanoEV, Macro LIGHTEV GAMEBOY version, and even in the third quarter of this year, we can see the convertible version of the Macro MINIEV.
At the same time, represented by Hongguang MINIEV, a successful micro-electric vehicle echoes with the brand and promotes the development of the latter, which is a good thing, but it cannot represent the whole brand, and even become a stumbling block to the development of the brand.
Hongguang MINIEV to the left, Wuling high-end to the right
This is not alarmist.
On the one hand, Shanghai's adjustment of the new energy vehicle license policy restricts the sales of Hongguang MINIEV, Euler White Cat/Black Cat and other models, breaking the penetration of micro-electric vehicles into first-tier cities; on the other hand, Wuling has long said that it will take the high-end route, and the hot sales of Hongguang MINIEV will undoubtedly deepen the impression of Wuling's cheapness, which will hinder the brand's upward climbing.
In the current automobile market, major car companies have entered the high-end competition, from the transformation of fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles, intelligence and sense of science and technology have experienced how fierce this competition is, and Wuling, which has been crowned with a cost-effective label, has also joined the competition.
Determined to take the high-end route, Wuling launched the new Baojun brand and launched the Wuling silver label, from "The People's Wuling" to "China Wuling", which can be described as a continuous action. But the embarrassment is that the low-end image of The overall price of Wuling has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is difficult to change, and new Baojun is a good example.
Since the establishment of the brand in 2010, Baojun has experienced 8 golden years of rapid development with the Chinese automotive industry. At the same time, the continuous hot sales of its 560, 730, 510 and other models have continued to break through in sales and entered the head camp of large automobile companies. However, with the upgrading of automobile consumption, Baojun, which has long been positioned in the low-end market, has inevitably been affected by the market environment.
In 2019, New Baojun laid out the high-end market to find new opportunities and try to get rid of the low-end image. However, Baojun can't get rid of the shackles of eating the old book, just like Shenyang pointed out in the 2019 New Year message, "The Baojun brand has not been able to find the user base and has become a parasitic brand of the Wuling brand, resulting in a clear overlap between the two brands." ”
Today, the Baojun brand has weakened, its 560, 730, 510 and other models have long become legends, Baojun E100 only accepts orders to produce, Baojun E200 transition to Wuling has become NanoEV, and E300 has also been discontinued, the entire Baojun brand is currently only the replacement of E300 - KiWi EV.
As the vanguard of the Wuling brand towards high-end, Baojun is a failure, and another silver label model with the brand's high-end mission can only be regarded as a pass, not outstanding.
According to the data, the silver label model Wuling Capgemini sold 1544 vehicles in March, and the cumulative sales volume in 2022 was 5037 vehicles, ranking 8th in the MPV monthly and 7th in the year, and among the Chinese brand models, the monthly sales ranked 101st, and the annual sales ranked 87th.
For Wuling, the brand is still a long way to move up and towards the middle and high-end, and the hot sales of Hongguang MINEV are undoubtedly accelerating the situation of "brand down". After all, relying on an extreme price exploration, the ultimate small profit and high sales, and the bicycle profit of only 88 yuan of the model, can not support the brand's high-end road.
The Hongguang MINIV for the Wuling brand is only a microcosm of the "brand down" dilemma faced by domestic car companies that vigorously develop micro-electric vehicles, including Geely, which launched geometric E, Changan, which launched "glutinous corn", and Chery, which launched QQ ice cream.
But then again, if we don't talk about brand high-end, China's new energy market, especially the micro-electric vehicle market, can have a successful image such as Wuling and Hongguang MINIEV, which is not bad.
| Li Sijia |
Leader of the anti-parsley alliance and long-time occupier of the first floor of the commune