Weilai, which once led the new car-making force, has fallen to fifth in March this year.
The pattern of "Wei Xiaoli" was broken
On April 1, Ideal Automobile, Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile successively announced the delivery data for March this year.
NIO ranked last with 9,985 monthly deliveries, the sixth consecutive month after Xiaopeng and Ideal.
It didn't even run past the latecomers Nezha and Zero Run, and fell directly to fifth.
Drafting: Technology pushed daily
Not only that, but last year, Weilai's life was not very good.
From the perspective of annual delivery, THE DELIVERY of NIO in 2021 reached 91,429 vehicles.
Surpassed by Xiaopeng and fell to second, Weilai lost the throne of the champion of the new car-making force.
Source: Multiplying Association
Last year, Weilai increased by 109.1% year-on-year, which seems to be growing, but it is actually lower than the average growth rate of new energy vehicles.
In the same year, Xiaopeng's year-on-year growth rate reached 275.2%, ideally up 177.4% year-on-year, and Nezha increased by 362% year-on-year.
Weilai not only did not maintain the first place in the delivery volume ranking, but also the growth rate was at the bottom.
The former "big brother" Weilai has been defeated and regressed, and the pattern of "Wei Xiaoli" is no longer there.
Wei Lai walked down the altar
"High-end" is hard to sell
In June 2020, He Xiaopeng shared a group photo on Weibo.
The three people in the picture represent the three domestic car-making new forces head enterprise "Wei Xiaoli".
At that time, Weilai CEO Li Bin sat firmly in the C position, like a big brother, with open arms to embrace He Xiaopeng and Li Xiang on the left and right.
The reason why the term "Wei Xiaoli" can become a fixed collocation originally represents the ranking of the three new forces of weilai, xiaopeng and ideal car-making.
Before June 2021, NIO won the sales championship of the new power car brand for 21 consecutive months.
At that time, Weilai was full of spirit, and the word "high-end" has always been its positioning for itself.
Li Bin once said: "We will still stick to our positioning in a high-end market, simply put, how much BMW Mercedes-Benz Audi oil car sells that positioning, that is, we sell him the same price for the tram." ”
But it seems that weilai's high-end is more reflected in its services.
Among many automobile brands, Weilai Automobile has always called itself "service quality" in the industry, and even some netizens have called Weilai's after-sales service "Haidilao" in the automotive industry.
According to different packages, WEILAI can provide car owners with 15 free car washes, 15 free driving, maintenance door-to-door pick-up services, and even illegal handling.
In addition, VIP activities such as flower arrangement, fitness, parent-child activities and so on will be held for car owners every week, and the activity center will be located in the core area of Shenzhen CBD.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this "Haidilao" high-end service that Weilai has cultivated a very sticky user group.
The relationship between brands and users has even risen to the level of idol-fan relationship.
After Lin Wenqin's car accident, 500 car owners even wrote a joint letter to take sides for Weilai, which was quite a fan circle.
It was also after this incident that the word "Wei Zhongxian" spread.
However, as a new energy vehicle company, if it relies solely on service, it is by no means a long-term solution.
Nowadays, from the perspective of sales, Weilai is not only at the bottom of the "Wei Xiaoli", but also surpassed by Nezha and Zero Run in March this year, and is getting farther and farther away from the throne of the pin crown.
Therefore, when more than 20 new energy vehicle companies, including Tesla, Xiaopeng, Ideal, BYD, etc., announced the news that they were about to increase prices, Weilai maverick said that it did not have this plan.
"Price stability is good for the interests of users and the market, so there is no intention of price increase in the short term."
When the news first came out, some netizens joked: "Weilai does not increase the price, because its pricing itself is enough for other car companies to rise several rounds." ”
Having said that, it is also questionable to maintain quality service in the face of increasing costs and increasing losses.
Similarly, Weilai, which has always been positioned at the high end, chose not to increase prices, which also exposed its anxiety about the continuous decline in growth.
NIO's real challenge
Still in the future
It is worth mentioning that Weilai did not release a new model for a whole year last year.
In 2021, the ES8, ES6 and EC6, which are the main models on sale of NIO, will be delivered in June 2018, June 2019 and September 2020, respectively.
It can almost be called an "old car".
Xiaopeng and Ideal, in the past year, both released new models or upgraded remodeled cars, compared with the Weilai model is indeed nothing new.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why sales have been affected.
Although Weilai said that it will intensively launch new models this year: ET7, ET5, ES7, but as to whether this can become the key to Weilai's reversal in 2022, it still needs time to test.
In addition, Niolai also has a big problem: it does not have its own factory.
Two years after Tesla started production at the Shanghai Gigafactory, it has begun preparations for a second plant in China;
Ideal followed the Beijing and Changzhou factories and set the new factory in Chongqing;
Xiaopeng's Zhaoqing intelligent factory has been completed and put into operation, and the Guangzhou factory and Wuhan factory are also planned;
But Weilai is still relying on Jacques's foundry for production.
In today's mainstream new car manufacturing enterprises, the use of OEM production, and there are no independent production qualifications of the enterprise is really very few.
How to enhance product competitiveness and how to enhance its own science and technology attributes have become the next problems that Weilai must consider.
The future of NIO is still full of challenges.
END
Author 丨 Cloth Bird
Source丨 Technology daily push
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