Chinese medicine + online car + supercar = ?

Produced 丨 Tiger Sniff Car Group

Author 丨 Li Wenbo

Edited 丨 thoughtful

Head map丨 《Crazy Alien》

On March 31, 2022, Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, said three words at the media communication meeting for the release of GAC Group's annual report:

The first sentence: GAC Aeon wants to become a leading brand in the field of new energy; the second sentence: GAC Aeon will change the current pattern of "Wei Xiaoli" to "EXiaowei"; the third sentence: GAC Aeon will challenge the sales target of 240,000 units in 2022. (Total sales of 123,660 units in 2021, double from 2020)

At the scene, it is known that the GAC Group held a financial report communication meeting. Those who were not at the scene also thought that the top brass of GAC had jumped into the game and helped the April Fools' Day for the next day.

Leading the industry, killing "Wei Xiaoli", and selling more than 200,000 yuan a year, this is a flag that almost every ambitious Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer has ever set. But so far, "Wei Xiaoli" is still strong, the flag is still fluttering, and these automobile companies that once boasted about Haikou have become more and more disturbing the more they live, and the more they are on the edge.

GAC Aeon, who mistakenly took the script, is a typical case. Next, we will take the three visions of GAC Group as an incision to carefully analyze Aeon's past, present and future.

"Old" is very "old"

GAC Aean is very young, and to this day it is only more than 1 year old, which is very similar to its growth trajectory - WM Motors, founded in 2015, is a full 5 years younger.

498 days ago, on November 20, 2020, Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, announced that GAC BJEV changed its name to GAC Aeon. As a result, the independent operation of the Aeon brand as a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand of GAC Group was officially opened.

At the 2020 independence oath ceremony, Feng Xingya revealed a detail: there are many differences within the GAC Group on the independence of Aeon. It took the executive team half a year to finally settle these differences. E-an is eligible to sit on an equal footing with GAC Trumpchi and ranks second in the "Twin Stars" of GAC Group's own brand, and Feng Xingya is the most powerful.

New brands, new LOGOs, new models, new systems, new production lines, and GAC Aean, which makes electric vehicles, are all brand new, and only one link comes from the old world of fuel vehicles: Gu Huinan, the manager.

Some of the information is described as follows: Gu Huinan has worked in Guangzhou Peugeot, Guangqi Honda Engine Company, and GAC Toyota Engine Company. In 2007, he was responsible for the preparation of GAC's own brand plant and the establishment of GAC's passenger car powertrain system. In 2013, he was responsible for the production, manufacturing and quality control of GAC Trumpchi. In 2017, he became the general manager of GAC New Energy. In 2020, GAC BJEV changed its name to GAC Aean and operated independently as general manager.

Gu Huinan, who is respected by the media as "Lao Gu", graduated from Guangdong Institute of Technology in 1987 majoring in mechanical manufacturing technology and equipment, and single-handedly built the existing power structure of GAC passenger cars, and is a thorough "oil car person". Gu Huinan was very reluctant to abandon the internal combustion engine and switch to the production of electric vehicles, believing that he had overthrown himself. After officially joining Aean, it gradually recognized that electric vehicles are the mainstream and trend in the future, and completed the first step in the change of mentality.

In addition to the mentality, Gu Huinan's age has also been questioned by the outside world. According to the 22-year-old university that graduated in 1987, he is 57 years old this year, and there are only 3 years left before his official retirement. It should be known that Gu Huinan's opponents are in their prime: Weilai founder Li Bin was born in 1974, Xiaopeng Automobile founder He Xiaopeng was born in 1977, Nezha Automobile CEO Daniel Zhang was born in 1975, and Ideal Automobile founder Li Xiang was the youngest, in 1981. Even Shen Hui, the founder of WM Motor, who has the strongest taste of ancient history, is also a post-70s generation.

Some people will ask, what is the inevitable connection between the age of the person at the helm and the development of the company? The answer is inextricably linked.

Weilai Li Bin once described the car building as "a marathon on a muddy track, there will be no quick victory, there will be no miracle". In front of Li Bin, He Xiaopeng and Gu Huinan, it is actually a marathon that cannot see the end and does not know the result. Building a car is time-consuming and laborious, and there is no miracle in building a car.

Taking Li Bin as an example, his energy will be allocated to some extremely fine-grained actions in the car-making process, such as insisting on sending red envelopes to the owner group every day, setting aside time to answer questions, dancing and singing with users in strange costumes, and receiving users on the platform for seven consecutive days.

There is a story that is widely circulated, a car owner suddenly grabbed Li Bin at the event and asked: I sang on NIO Day, Brother Bin, do you remember me? Li Bin thought for half a second and said, no, it's not NIO Day, you are singing at the annual meeting.

Gu Huinan's more common impression was that of an "artillery" commander. For example, in the face of GAC Ae'an's questioning of "getting up early in the morning and catching up with a late set", Gu Huinan was very unhappy, and he simply and rudely responded:

"At present, there are only two new energy companies with product platforms, one is Tesla and the other is GAC New Energy. Which new car-making force independently developed an autonomous driving system? Which new car-making force has made its own operating system? ”

You see, Gu Huinan so quickly forgot about the self-driving partners Sagitar Juchuang, Wenyuan Zhixing, Didi, Baidu Apollo and Huawei.

GAC Ae'an itself "debuted" too late, coupled with the end of his career Gu Huinan is facing a baton, and the young and powerful "Wei Xiaoli" stepped into the same hell track to fight head-on, and the script that is not enough has been written at the beginning.

"Ai Xiaowei"? No, it's oops

If you take sales as the dimension of investigation, GAC Aean has actually killed "Wei Xiaoli". Last year, Aeon sold a total of 127,000 new cars, and Wei Xiaoli did not pass the 100,000 mark.

In the past March, Aeon sold 20,317 units, Xiaopeng sold 15,414 units, Ideal sold 11,034 units, and Niolai sold 9,985 units. Aehan is the absolute winner in the sales report.

What Aehan wants to change is actually consumer impression and word of mouth.

"Wei Xiaoli" has achieved the current reputation, relying on the distinctive characteristics of each company: Weilai focuses on advanced technology and user services, Xiaopeng is dead and intelligent, and the ideal is accurate to cut into the milk dad group, but GAC Aian has not anchored the characteristics so far, and repeatedly jumps between what it wants and what it does not do well.

At the beginning of its establishment, Gu Huinan once said that GAC Aean positioned itself as a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand. However, in order to win the sales battle in a short and fast way, the initial model prices of GAC Aean were buried between 150,000 and 250,000.

GAC AE's models on sale include AION S, AION S Plus, AION Y, AION LX Plus, and AION V Plus.

The Sedan AION S is currently the main model of Aeon, and its low price attracts many taxi and ride-hailing users. According to the insurance volume data, the rental ratio of AION S in 2020-2021H1 is 60-70%, and after July 2021, the proportion of private car customers of AION S has increased from 27% to 54%, which means that nearly half of the AION S that sped on the road last year were taxis and ride-hailing.

In response to this situation, Gu Huinan gave an explanation, "The taxi or online ride-hailing market is done well, which will reduce the brand image, I don't see it this way." Now the world's successful car brands, such as Toyota, are all taxi start-ups, and their products have been recognized by society in the B-end market, but everyone does not think that they are low-end brands. ”

"Gac Aeon's entry into the taxi market proves that its products have good reliability and durability." Gu Huinan added.

For home brands like Toyota and Volkswagen, entering the B-end market is a reliable evidence of quality and durability. But Gu Huinan forgot that he had laid the brand's original intention for GAC E'an: high-end.

On the one hand, high-end means that the price is not cheap, on the other hand, it also means that it is not easy to start. Weilai, China's first high-end local car brand, does not produce models under 300,000 yuan. The ideal of being "removed" by GAC Aean, the price of the products exceeded 300,000 yuan. Moreover, these two new brands have never taken the initiative to enter the B-end travel market in batches, just to cherish their feathers.

Are there any electric vehicle manufacturers that have actively entered the B-end travel market in batches? Of course, there are two most typical examples, the first is WM Car, but it has not been related to the high-end.

The second is BAIC BJEV. Before 2019, BAIC BJEV was the sales king in the B-end field such as "taxis, online ride-hailing cars, and shared cars", and in 2017, it became the first pure electric vehicle company in China with an annual production and sales of more than 100,000 units. In 2019, THE B-end market accounted for 70% of BAIC BJEV's sales.

Bai Yiyang, manager of the international research department of CMB, has publicly stated: "BAIC, GAC and Geely have all adopted a B-end sales model to do online car-hailing to boost sales. But there is a balance here, once positioned as an online car, to C-end consumers may have an inherent impression, affecting the sales behind. In this process, we must balance the two factors of short-term sales and long-term brand image. ”

Especially for high-end consumers with a budget of hundreds of thousands of yuan, who would be willing to pay for a ride-hailing car that runs all over the street?

If the ride-hailing car slows down the progress of Aeon's high-end, the frequent quality problems will give Aeon's brand a fatal blow on the upward road.

In May 2020, Aion AION S spontaneously ignited for the first time. Subsequently, guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou, Haikou, Taiyuan and other places have reported accidents of AION S spontaneous combustion. In the year since, there have been at least 7 publicly available spontaneous combustion accidents in Guang'an AION S, and the title of "Spontaneous Combustion King" has not disappeared.

In addition to safety hazards, on the car quality network, the complaints of Eian users have not stopped, and popular problems include battery life false standards, screen leakage, battery failure and charging restrictions.

In the face of the weakness of brand power and product power, GAC Aean came up with a fierce move: the marketing method of sword and edge.

Exaggerated remarks and the creation of golden sentences are the "native skills" that "Wei Xiaoli" came with their appearances, but GAC Ae'an's Dong Shi GongYi actually let himself be deeply involved in the whirlpool of public opinion.

In 2020, GAC Aeon launched a vehicle-mounted Chinese medicine fragrance with disinfection and sterilization functions, which was later upgraded to a "twenty-four solar terms national style Chinese medicine fragrance" that can soothe appetizers, regulate qi and blood, and improve human immunity.

In 2021, GAC Aeon announced the successful development of graphene-based super fast charging batteries, and NEDC's endurance of more than 1,000 kilometers is not a dream. Soon, Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, said: "If someone says that his electric car can run 1,000 kilometers and be charged in minutes, it is also particularly safe and the cost is still very low, so you don't have to believe it." ”

At the just-concluded 2022 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, GAC Aeon announced the first "infrared intelligent driving sensing technology" to transplant infrared technology from aerospace, military and other fields to family cars. But when to mass-produce, GAC Aean never mentioned. Don't ask, ask is "imminent", that is, "form a leading trend on this new track".

Listen to these words, if you must label GAC Aean, the most appropriate is probably "South China Weima". Moderate marketing allows users to make up their minds happily in the spring breeze, and excessive marketing is like pressing the user's head and forcibly infusing the concept, and GAC Aean chose the latter.

Write at the end

Gac Aeon wants to sell 240,000 new cars in 2022, is it difficult?

For Tesla, which occupies the advantages of time and technology, and Wuling Hongguang, which occupies the price advantage, this achievement is not difficult. These two class representatives, one with scientific and technological attributes from the traditional luxury oil trucks to grab the market, one directly occupied the traditional oil trucks can not see the ultra-low price market.

Gac Aeon is in the range of 100,000 to 250,000, which is the most bayonet market segment.

In 2021, the penetration rate of New Energy Vehicles in China will be 15%, and it can be seen from the price segment that the penetration rate of pure electric vehicles is a spindle-type distribution of "thin in the middle and thick at both ends". In the three price ranges of 100,000 to 150,000, 150,000 to 200,000, and 200,000 to 250,000, the penetration rate of pure electric models is 5%, 10% and 7% respectively, which is lower than the overall distribution of the industry.

The price range of 100,000 to 250,000 is the market with obvious advantages of traditional fuel vehicles, and it is also the market with the most acute consumer perception of cost performance, and the explosive models within the price, such as Toyota Corolla, Honda Accord, Nissan Xuanyi, etc., are the models that will achieve the ultimate cost performance. The last electric car to challenge that price segment was the WM EX5, which is now selling a total of 1,019 units in the first two months of 2022.

Judging from the existing development path, GAC Aeon seems to have taken the script of Weima and copied it at the pixel level. But everyone knows that Weima's script is not a good play.

Even if the goal of 240,000 units is not successful, GAC Aean does not have to worry, after all, the million-level electric supercar with 1.9 seconds of acceleration per 100 kilometers is just right for the bottom.