Lead
Introduction
Say the harshest things, but do the most ordinary things? Why is it so difficult for traditional car companies to block new car-making forces.
Author 丨 Cao Jiadong
Responsible editor 丨 Cui Liwen
Editor 丨Zhu Jinbin
Will the dominance of China's auto market be transferred from the traditional giants to the hands of newcomers? Three years ago, the answer to this question was indisputably no. However, with the entire industry undergoing round after round of market transformation, China's auto market has finally come to the forefront of cutting history in the education of a number of new enterprises such as new car-making forces.
From 2021 onwards, the wave of energy change and consumption innovation has not only made all kinds of "laymen" think of building cars, but also forced traditional car companies to make new choices. Even Japanese and Korean car companies, which are still cautious about full electrification, have to stand up at the moment.
In the middle of last year, Hyundai Motor officially announced the electric vehicle brand "Ani Krypton"; at the end of the year, Akio Toyoda jumped to the front of the stage and declared war on the world with a huge lineup of 15 new electric vehicles... This series of actions seems to prove that those rising stars still cannot escape the fate of being surrounded and suppressed by traditional big men.
But is that really the case? "Wei Xiaoli" has stepped through the pass of selling 10,000 vehicles a month one after another, building a defense line for itself, and the entire industry has also been reshaped. From the migration of consumption hotspots, the direction of product research and development, and even the construction of the industrial chain, all of them put forward new topics for the whole industry.
In it, as the first person to radically transform traditional car companies, Volkswagen uses the ID. car system and a huge channel network to try to confront the new car-making forces. At this moment, we also see a new round of offensive from the electrification plan that Honda and Toyota are about to settle. Or launch a new brand strategy, or set up a separate business unit to deal with...
However, it is obvious that the situation of always falling behind in the game still makes the outside world fall into thinking about 2022 and even the future: has the inherent advantages maintained by traditional car companies gradually hindered the development of electrification? How much lethality is there in the resolute attitude?
Great determination, but not enough?
The madness of the new energy market last year was well known. In the past, Tesla, Weilai and other high-end pure tram markets have seized more than 25 high-end pure tram markets, and then BYD has single-handedly provoked disputes in the entire car market. At that time, the role played by traditional car companies in it declined from a supporting role to a group performance.
Although the emergence of Cadillac LYRIQ, Mercedes-Benz EQS and other models, the industry has seen their precipitation and accumulation in pure electric technology. But up to now, the huge difference in sound volume still reflects the powerless side of traditional car companies under the curtain of the times.
There is also a reason why electric vehicles are not sold well. On the one hand, it is true that because of the huge dividends left in the fuel vehicle business, most vested interests have no time to take care of the changes brought about by electrification. Another is precisely the development model that has long been solidified by itself, which restricts its pace in the electrification transformation.
Compared with the asset-light operating model and worry-free way of doing things by the new car-making forces, the successive emergence of problems such as decision-making restraint within the joint venture, the gap between products and consumer demand, and the entanglement of interests between the main engine factory and the dealer not only failed to allow the car companies to quickly find the answer to the problem, but also magnified their disadvantages.
Taking Volkswagen as an example, at the beginning of last year, Herbert Diess, the head of Volkswagen, publicly shouted elon Musk on Twitter, "Hello@Twitter!" I'm here to make an impact for the Volkswagen Group. Of course, it is also to seize some of your market share @elonmusk. Because our ID.3 and e-tron won the first victory in the European market. ”
However, since the ID. series officially entered China and fought in the terminal market so far, I think this should not be the performance of a giant that has dominated the Chinese auto market for 30 years.
Think about it carefully, in addition to the ID series in the product failed to have absolute product highlights, self-built direct channel ID. Store (X) can not undertake the mission of the main engine factory to face the terminal market, but also makes it difficult to survive under its own huge 4S store network. In addition, if dealers have no intention of increasing the promotion of pure electric models under the premise that the fuel vehicle business is still strong, everything will be more counterproductive.
When Volkswagen sold 70,625 ID series electric vehicles in the Chinese market alone last year and failed to meet its annual sales target on schedule, Feng Sihan, then CEO of Volkswagen China, said, "This has been a very difficult year for us." ”
But the cruelty of reality is that the same problem even spreads from the public to the luxury car camp led by the BBA. Throughout the year, only the BMW iX3 was able to barely rely on the "oil and electricity at the same price" strategy to deliver 22,446 new cars. It can be said that in order to gain a sense of existence, in addition to starting a "price war", BBA has no effective measures.
Yes, in recent times, the outside world has often heard how determined these mainstream car companies are to go down the road of electrification. With the release of a large number of its people-friendly, performance or intelligent electric vehicles, one by one is eager to engrave the determination of "fully realizing electrification in 2030" in the chest. Since the beginning of 2022, such plans have also been implemented one by one.
And what I still want to ask is that the annual sales target of "Wei Xiaoli" is running to 200,000 vehicles, and the new wave of car manufacturing led by Chinese car companies has also accelerated.
In front of the "catfish", there are no shortcuts
Looking back at the origin of this dark war, almost everyone believes that the final result of the new energy industry is that traditional car companies once again achieve the encirclement and suppression of all latecomers. Without the blessing of a mature manufacturing system, the new forces of car manufacturing, including Tesla, have a temporary scenery that is immeasurable but short-lived.
At the end of 2020, Feng Sihan also vowed in China, "We believe that ID.4 will really change the way we play, and we firmly believe that the ID. family can completely change the automotive market." The ID. family has a solid foundation: Volkswagen's unrivalled manufacturing standards, the high level of consumer trust in our brand, and our ability to maintain economy and high quality in mass production. ”
Herbert Dies, on the other hand, lamented in "How We Changed Volkswagen", "The structures and processes we have formed over the decades have become obsolete and complex. More importantly, a series of entanglements of interests and political agendas within the group also made the project difficult. ”
Today, 2021 is a long way off. Regardless of whether the pain of industrial transformation will cause everyone to suffer as much as volkswagen in the process of electrification, the real status quo so far is indeed amplifying this contradiction.
As we mentioned earlier, mainstream joint venture car companies have decided to see 2022 as the latest inflection point to land "electrification". All in this Volkswagen needless to say, Honda's latest electrification product e:N series has recently opened pre-sale, toyota bZ4X official landing has been planned, even BMW i3/i4, Audi Q4/Q5 e-tron and other luxury pure electric models are also poised.
However, once we return to the reality of China's new energy market, we have found that after such a long period of trial and error, from products to channels, from personnel to services, from mechanisms to systems, in the pace of these traditional car companies, it seems that some are still more focused on the future.
Whether it is a bit of "thunder and rain is small", I dare not say. At least compared with the head of new energy vehicle companies, the problem of dissatisfaction in the so-called awakening of traditional car companies is real. Volkswagen, which is actively seeking change, Ford, which brought the Mustang Mech-E to China for the first time, and GM, which has been holding a micro-blue car series for several years, there is one to count one.
If, among the many consumption options, they have never been the first choice of the current young generation, there is no absolute advantage in the actual car experience. Then, it is to illustrate that subject to the existence of practical problems such as channel expansion with little effect, lackluster products themselves, and with the brand power becoming worthless in the new wave of consumption, the solidified service system is difficult to come up with new ideas, and in today's new people, it is still difficult for the traditional car companies to make achievements.
Do you think that Hyundai and Nissan's delay in playing cards is naïve to the sense that the Chinese market is insignificant? No, in the case of rapid market iteration, they just can't come up with good enough products and more forward-looking decisions.
At the end of last year, when BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu boldly predicted that the penetration rate of the new energy passenger car market in 2022 would exceed 35%, in the face of a nearly doubling market gap, the major traditional joint venture car companies seemed to see hope. Especially for those strong brands, the market potential huge dividends, everything is easy to say.
Today, in Europe, Tesla's Berlin plant has officially put into operation. Elon Musk's awkward dance hides a sharp knife stabbed at Wolfsburg. Then, looking back at China, "Wei Xiaoli", Huawei AITO, Niuchuang and other new forces, as well as high-end new energy brands incubated by independent car companies, and the gap between traditional joint venture car companies, is not hiding a long gun.
At this stage, in layman's terms, it is, "What are you fighting with me?" ”
China's new energy market has rebuilt a new set of rules of the game under the shaping of emerging forces, and Toyota, Honda and other car companies that are accustomed to being held away have no shortcuts except to clearly recognize their disadvantages and put down their bodies to learn. No matter how "top-headed" the release of new brands and new strategies is, the final result of not being able to get rid of obsession and unshackles can be imagined.
| Cao Jiadong |
Gasoline running in the blood,
Only fast is not broken!