Tank brands focusing on the off-road vehicle market, in 2021 can be described as the scenery, its first medium-sized SUV tank 300 since the listing, with excellent product power, in addition to the new car market "big kill", even in the second-hand car market is also a mess, called "phenomenon-level products" is not exaggerated.
A few days ago, the second SUV tank 500 under the tank brand was also officially launched, and the new car was priced between 335,000 and 395,000 yuan. So, this medium-sized SUV with a higher starting price, a larger size, a more luxurious configuration, and a more powerful power is a miracle that will replicate the Tank 300? Will it be reduced to a "popular or not popular" product?
Since its debut last year, the market heat of the Tank 500 has remained high, mainly for two reasons: One is that the Tank 300 has laid a good market foundation for the tank brand, so that more and more consumers have begun to pay attention to the tank brand, thus attracting attention to the Tank 500; the second is that the product power of the Tank 500 itself is enough to impress people's hearts, and the whole series is equipped with a self-developed 3.0T V6 engine + 9-block hand automatic transmission, equipped with an intelligent four-wheel drive system, providing five and seven seats two kinds of seat layouts. Driver assistance systems come standard and much more. In short, many highlights are integrated into the tank 500, and the product strength is beyond doubt.
However, in the automobile market, a scene of applause and thunderous applause is often there, but the phenomenon of "applause" but "not calling" is not uncommon, specific to the tank 500, the same doubt stems from its unique positioning. Like the Tank 300, the Tank 500 is a hardcore off-road vehicle with a non-load-bearing structure. In China, the rise of off-road vehicle culture is relatively late, the circle is relatively niche, and it is also reflected in sales. Taking the Haval H9, which laid out the off-road vehicle market earlier, as an example, from 2020, the sales of the H9 will hover around 1,000 to 2,000 units, and the tepid sales can also prove from the side that this is a relatively niche market segment.
Secondly, the price problem, although the tank 500 is richly configured, there are few opponents in the same price range, but the actual cost of an independent brand SUV is nearly 400,000 yuan, or it will dissuade most consumers. In the price range of the tank 500, independent brands do not have too many bright results, such as the Hongqi HS7 with the halo of the Hongqi brand, which is also equipped with a 3.0T V6 engine, the monthly sales are only more than a thousand units, and the Lynk & Co 09, which is extremely hot in the early stage and claims that the strength is comparable to volvo XC90, the actual monthly sales are also hovering around more than a thousand units.
In addition, the market shows that 150,000 yuan is a watershed in the sales of independent brand SUVs, low price and high with the main cost-effective strategy, creating a god car like Haval H6 and Changan CS75 that can sell hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year, but once the price rises to more than 150,000 yuan, few models can break through the shackles of sales, not to mention the tank 500, an SUV with a price of nearly 400,000.
Some people may say that the tank 500 has exceeded 20,000 orders in one hour just after the pre-sale, which is not enough to prove the success of the tank 500? Success or not, these early orders mainly contain two major categories of users, on the one hand, are very professional, have clear needs for off-road users; the other is the pursuit of personality, eager to be different and not very sensitive to the price of users, such users' appeal is relatively simple, the appearance of the momentum, the model configuration is enough, as to whether it is an off-road vehicle has nothing to do with it, and at the price of 400,000 yuan, consumers who do not care about the brand and pursue individuality are essentially a group that pursues off-road play. And such a niche consumer group, how to support the long-term sales order of the tank 500?
In addition to sales, the Tank 500 also faces a more realistic capacity problem. At the moment when the epidemic superimposes the problem of lack of core, the tank 300 that was once beautiful last year is still facing the problem of insufficient production capacity, and many tank 300 quasi-owners can even reach more than half a year.
Tank 500 is produced in the Great Wall Jingmen Factory, although it will not conflict with the already tense tank 300 production line, but in the overall difficult environment, it also has to go through many necessary preparation processes such as capacity climbing and production line debugging, and the pick-up time of tank 500 is also not optimistic.
At the moment of the transformation of the automobile market to new energy, the development momentum of small displacement engines and hybrids is strong, and it seems that it is not timely to encounter large-displacement V6 engines with soaring oil prices. Of course, these are not problems for consumers who are obsessed with tank 500, but this also dooms the tank 500 to be a big toy for a niche group.