Is it a "trapped beast", or a confident one.
Text/Shanshan Xu
China's electric vehicle industry has accelerated its going global, and electric vehicle brands such as SAIC, Weilai and Xiaopeng have made Norway the first stop at sea. India, by contrast, is a battlefield that belongs only to a few people.
According to CarDekho, India's new and used car e-commerce platform, there are currently 12 electric vehicles on sale in the Indian market, covering the lowest-priced Mumbai brand Strum Motors R3, and the Audi RS e-tron GT with a maximum of 20.4 million rupees (about 1.7 million yuan).
Of course, Chinese brands have not missed the world's fourth largest automotive market. Electric models such as MG ZS and BYD E6 have successfully entered the Indian market. In addition, the Great Wall Euler R2 (Euler White Cat) seems to be expected to land in India at the end of March this year.
It always backfires
The goal of capturing India was once placed indefinitely by Great Wall Motors.
Great Wall Motors launched its R&D center in Bangalore, India, in 2016, and at the India Auto Show held in February 2020, Great Wall Motors unveiled its "India Market Strategy" with its Euler R1 and Euler iQ models.
According to the plan, Great Wall Motor will introduce two major brands in the Indian market in 2021, namely Haval, which specializes in SUVs, and Great Wall EV, a new energy brand. "The Indian market will become the most important component of Great Wall Motor's strategic layout." Hardeep Singh Brar, Director of Marketing and Sales at Great Wall India, said.
Today, the progress of Great Wall Motor's Indian business is more of a negative signal at the level of personnel loss and business stranding.
India's Economic Times automotive media recently reported that because Great Wall Motors' business in India has not improved in the past four years, the company's director of strategy and planning Kaushik Ganguly chose to leave. March 21 was his last day on the Great Wall.
Kaushik Ganguly joined Great Wall Motor's family in India in October 2018 and is responsible for the overall business strategy for the Indian market, including brand and product planning.
Perhaps it is the delay in euler R1's appearance in the Indian market, or the Great Wall's investment in India of $1 billion is unresolved, with many variables, and some important players have left in the past two years. Last year, Hardeep Singh Brar resigned to join Kia India.
According to Reuters earlier, due to the investment restrictions imposed by the Indian government on Chinese companies, Great Wall Motors decided to transfer part of the $1 billion it plans to invest in the country to Brazil. The investment was part of Great Wall India's market strategy, but it was allegedly blocked by the Indian government and the investment could not be landed.
Meanwhile, Great Wall Motors' purchase of GM's Tarigan plant in Maharashtra has not progressed. The acquisition was originally expected to close in the second half of 2020, but the two-year wait for approval may have eroded the Great Wall's patience a little. It is reported that James Yang, who is responsible for the Indian market business of Great Wall Motors, has been transferred to the Brazilian market.
The Rayong plant in Thailand, which reached an acquisition agreement with GM in the same year, was officially put into operation in the middle of last year. For the Indian market business, the Great Wall has long planned, how to backfire.
With an Euler R2 to achieve from 0 to 1?
Even so, Great Wall Motors still does not seem to have any intention of abandoning the Indian market. Especially in the field of electric vehicles, the Indian market is considerable and urgently needs to be developed.
According to the CarDekho platform data, the 12 electric vehicle brands currently on sale in the Indian market are Tata, Strom Motors, BMW, Mini, Jaguar, Porsche, Audi, as well as Chinese brands SAIC MG and BYD. The lowest price of the model is Rs 450,000 (three-wheeled electric vehicle), while the lowest priced four-wheeled electric vehicle is the Tata Tigor of 1.224 million rupees (about 100,000 yuan).
From the list, it can be found that the price of electric vehicle models launched by MG and BYD in the Indian market is extremely close, both of which are around 200,000 yuan. If according to the law of the Chinese market, high-end models of more than 200,000 yuan and low-end models of less than 100,000 yuan are hot-selling new energy vehicles.
The reason why the sales performance of pure electric passenger cars of 100,000-200,000 yuan is flat is that Essence Securities believes that the main reason is that the price of these models is relatively expensive, and the mileage is short and the charging speed is slow.
However, Unlike China, India is more price sensitive to consumers. Taking the Indian smartphone market as an example, the total market share of Chinese brands xiaomi, vivo, OPPO, Realme and so on exceeds 60%, and the main best-selling products are still concentrated in the low-end field.
Perhaps the speed of using the people-friendly "Redmi" will be faster than using the "iPhone" to conquer the Indian market. This may also be one of the reasons why Great Wall Motors used the Euler R2 to play in India. According to estimates, the price of Euler R2 bicycles is expected to reach 1 million rupees (about 83,500 yuan), which is basically the same as the domestic market price.
In 2021, Euler sales reached 135,000 units, of which the cumulative sales of black and white cat models exceeded 88,000 units in the whole year, accounting for 65% of the total sales of the Euler brand. At the beginning of 2022, due to the high backlog of orders, both models have been announced to be discontinued.
According to this line of thinking, although the news of the listing of the white cat in India has not yet been officially confirmed, it is undeniable that with an 80,000 yuan best-selling car to cut open the Indian market, the probability of the Great Wall's move going wrong is extremely small. Under the guidance of Indian Prime Minister Modi's goal of achieving net carbon zero emissions by 2070, electric vehicle companies in India will benefit from a series of policy guidelines implemented by the local government.
Whether this model will be released in India as expected may determine the progress of Great Wall Motor's business in the country's market. Because more competitors are rushing in.
Brands including Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Hyundai and Ford will also bring their electric vehicles to the Indian market. According to carDekho's website, Tesla Model Y is expected to be available to Indian consumers at the end of March this year, while Model 3, Model S, Model X and Cybertruck may be launched in India in 2023.
We don't know if Musk has solved the import tariff problem, but it may only be a matter of time before Chinese brands conquer India.