Write on the front
Perhaps many people have noticed that in recent years, sports models have emerged in an endless stream and have been well received. The reason is not unrelated to the fact that Gen Z young people have become the main force of consumption. Looking at the characteristics of this group, they advocate appearance and like to pursue personality and passion. Therefore, in the matter of car selection, it is natural to favor cooler and sportier models. Because of this, the Civic can flourish for a long time, MG can make a comeback, and Lynk & Co can become high-end...
Of course, GAC Trumpchi can also launch a shadow leopard. But can the shadow leopard, which lacks sports genes, shape the legend like its predecessors?
First look at the sales data, under the various high-standard publicity and hype, Trumpchi Shadow Leopard can be described as the peak of the debut, not only the traffic is large, but also the topic is particularly numerous. Correspondingly, sales are also good. Sales were 3,900 units in August, 6,153 units in September, 10,021 units in October, and 10,052 units in November.
Judging from the performance in the first half, the shadow leopard did not live into a joke in the eyes of others, although the terriers of "seconds and seconds of thinking", "hanging million-class models", "Trumpchi shadow leopard YYDS" were widely circulated, and the shadow leopard was for a while as a ghost fire teenager who saw who collapsed, but the market finally completed the vote with his feet. I thought that the road to the gods would begin here, but I never had a dream shattered. In the past January and February, Trumpchi Shadow Leopard sales continued to decline, including 4458 vehicles in January, and only 2002 vehicles were sold in February, which was a month-on-month sales cut.
So what's the problem? Is it the user's empathy, or is there something wrong with the car, or the market environment is not good? In the editor's view, there are many problems, but a very important point is that the "cowhide" blows a little big and is not introverted enough!
Let's start with the brand marketing aspect. It must be admitted that with the help of several blockbuster SUV models and MPV models, the brand power of the GAC Trumpchi brand has increased a lot. Compared with Honda, MG and other brands, Trumpchi undoubtedly still lacks some athletic temperament. Therefore, when launching Trumpchi Shadow Leopard, GAC Trumpchi chose to spread with great fanfare. For example, choosing the popular Su Bingtian as a product spokesperson, rendering the speed and passion of the product. In addition, in the slogan, it is threatened that "performance lifts 99% of the cars on the market". What's more, some car critics say it drives like a Mercedes-Benz AMG.
It can be said that after a large wave of operations, the shadow leopard has satisfied the appetite of car fans.
In a media test, the shadow leopard measured 8.21 seconds, which was 6.95 seconds higher than the official hype before the hype, a difference of 1.26 seconds. Even if the car critics put on the PS4 tires, they still did not run out of the official publicity results. In this regard, we can't say that the shadow leopard is fake, after all, it is possible that people invite professional racing drivers and drive customized modified cars. Anyway, as ordinary people, it is really difficult for us to drive 6.95 seconds. Don't forget, 300,000 BMW 3 Series, Audi A4L, but that is 8 seconds of zero hundred acceleration results. Therefore, cowhide can be blown, but it must be pragmatic, blown, easy to blow!
Objectively speaking, even if the shadow leopard has a score of more than 8 seconds, it seems to be good. As an excellent sports car, in addition to zero hundred acceleration, there are excellent control and excellent chassis tuning and other performance. Look at the Trumpchi Shadow Leopard, sports kit, imitation carbon fiber, four exhaust and other metaphysical things do a good job, but its dual-clutch gearbox shift speed is slow, slow response and other problems do exist, coupled with the chassis tuning is more general, we have to say that the shadow leopard is just a car that looks sporty.
To sum up simply, the wine is afraid of the deep alley, so it has to be publicized. But if you are not fragrant enough, you are unscrupulously publicizing. Then, it must be greeted by the collapse of word of mouth and a sharp decline in sales. For this problem, did Li Yong, who did not know the shadow leopard, realize it?
Let's look at the product force. Shadow Leopard has been talking about that its 1.5T engine uses a lot of advanced technology, for example, with GCCS technology as the core, integrated dual-runner supercharging, overhead water cooling, high-pressure injection, large inertia balance shaft, intelligent thermal management, low friction and other advanced technologies, in addition to strong power, but also has the advantage of low fuel consumption. But the reality is that from the actual data, compared with some sports models of the same class, it seems that it is not so prominent. Mg 6's 1.5T engine has a maximum horsepower of 181Ps and a maximum torque of 285N·m; the Dongfeng Fengshen Yixuan MAX Mach engine is powered by a 1.5T engine with a maximum horsepower of 190 Ps and a maximum torque of 300 N·m. In this way, we understand that even these stronger than it do not run into 7 seconds every day, but the shadow leopard is so confident. It's just that overconfidence is a bit of a conceited punch in the face.
In addition, compared with the body size, the Shadow Leopard is slightly inferior to the Yixuan MAX, both in terms of body length and wheelbase. Just in terms of wheelbase, it is a little larger than MG 6. In fact, not only the surface of the space performance, if you go to compare, in the intelligent driving assistance, multimedia systems and other aspects, the configuration of the shadow leopard is not as good as yixuan MAX. If it is compared with the Dark Night Max, even the body sports kit is bound to be inferior.
In addition to product strength, Shadow Leopard also has many problems. On a domestic third-party complaint network, we can see that from the abnormal sound of the engine and gearbox to the failure of body accessories and electrical appliances, to the incredible service problems, we finally understand why the sales of Shadow Leopard will decline so quickly. In this case, looking at the manufacturer's statement that the lack of chips has led to a decline in sales, it seems more like a joke. In addition, the problem of "losing power" has also become a heart disease that Shadow Leopard cannot erase, and such content abounds on related complaint platforms. What used to be a second of Civic eventually became a "charging leopard".
There is some over-marketing on the brand side, and the product side is not as good as advertised. In order to beat the swollen face and fill the fat, the shadow leopard had to fake it. Since its listing in August last year, the average monthly number of Shadow Leopards has been less than 8,000 units, while the Civic has reached nearly 15,000 units in the same period. At the beginning, Trumpchi shouted the "first month order 15,000" and "cumulative order exceeded 30,000" results, which were completely exposed in the face of actual performance. Under the defeat, does the shadow leopard have a future?
On September 16 last year, Zeng Qinghong, whose term of office was about to expire, was once again shortlisted as a candidate for the sixth board of directors of GAC Group as an executive director candidate. This means that Zeng Qinghong, secretary of the party committee and chairman of the board of directors of GAC Group, who has reached retirement age this year, will continue to take the helm of GAC. During this year's two sessions, Zeng Qinghong mentioned that facing the future, GAC Group will seize the new opportunities for the development of electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing in the automotive industry, and THE GOAL of GAC Group is to achieve 50% of the sales of self-owned brand new energy vehicles in 2025 and 50% of the group's new energy vehicles in 2030. And claimed that GAC will take electrification, hybridization and fuel cell multi-route initiatives, in addition to new energy vehicles, but also vigorously develop hybrid vehicles, its own brand GAC Trumpchi will achieve hybridization of all models in 2025, 2030 to achieve hybrid sales accounted for 60%. At the same time, we will increase the development of alternative fuel models, including hydrogen power.
In this regard, Li Yong, deputy general manager of GAC Passenger Vehicle and general manager of GAC Trumpchi Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., also said that GAC Trumpchi is advancing on the dual track of Toyota THS and GAC GMC two sets of hybrid systems, and plans to achieve full hybridization in 2025, and hybrid sales account for more than 60% in 2030, challenging carbon neutrality in 2045. So, see? In GAC's strategy, the electrification of the powertrain is destined to be the future. Therefore, for The Shadow Leopard, the 1.5T power rendered may only be the life cycle of these years. In this way, the shadow leopard only has to fight for the day!
Car World Perspective:
For GAC Trumpchi, the Shadow Leopard can become an additive model. Not only can it broaden its product system and improve the product camp, but it can also make it gain an advantage in the competition for young users of Generation Z. However, the various madness in the early stage made a group of car fans have too many beautiful fantasies about this car, and once this beauty cannot be perfectly landed, saying that its false marketing is a trivial matter, and the reputation collapses and it is no longer able to return to heaven.
Nowadays, in the future strategy of GAC Trumpchi, electrification will become the trend of the times, and the time left for shadow leopards with traditional power as a gimmick is not destined to be too long. Therefore, in the end, I would like to ask the respected Chairman Zeng Qinghong and Mr. Li Yong, if Trumpchi Shadow Leopard is a little more introverted, do you think sales will continue to decline? High-profile and flamboyant shadow leopard, when can it stop the decline?
Note: Some of the pictures come from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact the author to delete.