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The front line of the new energy vehicle market has spread from the SUV market to the MPV market.
On the evening of April 7, The dreamer of the second model of Lantu Automobile opened pre-sale, and the new car still provides pure electricity and extended range, and still retains the well-known air suspension on Lantu FREE, the seven-seat version is 380,000 to 480,000, and the pre-sale pricing of the four-seat customized version is 600,000 yuan, which also implements its positioning of "electric luxury flagship MPV".
This is the first true electric luxury MPV of its own brand, although SAIC Maxus launched the first pure electric medium and large MPV MIFA 9 a few months ago, but the price of the latter from 270,000 is obviously not enough to support the word luxury.
Since last year's Chengdu Auto Show, Sai Na, Kustu, Jiahua and other models on the front page of the new car, the industry has "2021 is the first year of MPV", according to the trend of new cars this year, 2022 may be called "the first year of independent luxury MPV".
After the release of the pre-sale of Dreamer, we will see more independent MPV models in the future, and the currently known brands are Denza, Extreme Krypton, Weipai and Hongqi.
Among them, there are already three electric luxury MPVs with rumored pricing at 400,000+, including the medium and large MPV officially announced by Denza, which provides two power modes of pure electric / DM-i hybrid, with a rumored starting price of 450,000 yuan; the price of Extreme Kr 002 is also more than 450,000 yuan, and the high-end MPV equipped with DHT-PHEV in Wei Pai is estimated to be no lower than the price of Lantu. In addition, there are BYD landing ships equipped with DM-i hybrids, Xena's brother model - FAW Toyota Granvia and so on.
All indications show that the high-end new energy MPV market, which is still blank, is about to usher in a fierce market battle.
Why do they all want to compete for the high-end market?
It should be clear that although there have been more models and fierce competition in the MPV market in recent years, the overall volume of the MPV market has not been "inflated".
According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the cumulative sales of domestic MPVs in 2021 will be 1.07 million units, a slight increase of 1.4% over the previous year, and it can be said that it is insignificant in the passenger car market with annual sales of more than 21.09 million units. Compared with the peak of 2.467 million total sales in 2016, the market has shrunk severely.
From the perspective of internal segmentation alone, the market pattern of MPV is very fixed, the overall dumbbell growth structure, low-end and high-end hot sales, and with the improvement of consumption level, the domestic MPV market has also entered the structural adjustment stage - the low-end MPV market began to shrink, and the high-end MPV is becoming more and more tight.
Among them, the sales of the representative model Wuling Hongguang in the low-end MPV have fallen from 750,000 units in 2014 to 255,000 units last year, while the sales of the representative model Buick GL8 in the mid-to-high-end MPV have increased from 80,000 units in 2016 to 170,000 units last year.
In addition, there is the Sai Na that was listed last year, although the storm of "terminal markup" after the listing continued, but from January to February, with a cumulative sales performance of 9419, it ranked second in the MPV sales ranking, which is enough to show the acceptance of consumers to high-end MPV models.
Therefore, domestic car companies have a common understanding of the MPV market, "The reason why MPV has not caught fire in the Chinese auto market is not because there is no living space for MPVs in the Chinese market, but because there is no MPV in the Chinese market that is good enough and truly in line with consumer demand." ”
And it is generally believed that "high-end + new energy will be the best entry point to open the MPV market." ”
When Lu, CEO and CTO of Lantu, answered "Why should Lantu make an electric luxury MPV" at the pre-sale conference, he also mentioned that the pain points of today's MPV market are:
First, the lack of a truly electrified, intelligent MPV, rather than oil to electricity.
Second, the lack of a luxury MPV that can truly meet the dual needs of home and business.
Third, the lack of a full capacity of the car, can effectively ensure the safety of the occupants.
Fourth, the lack of a real two-row ride comfortable MPV.
Fifth, the lack of an MPV that really takes care of the driving experience.
The market has unmet demand, and car companies have a breakthrough point to break through the market. There is no doubt that the MPV market is a blue ocean with rich market potential, but it is very difficult to gain a foothold in this market segment, not only the competition of product strength, but more importantly, to be able to suppress the appeal of traditional joint venture brands (such as Buick GL8, Toyota Alpha) in the MPV market.
How to meet the user's expectations for electric luxury MPV?
As the first self-owned brand MPV model positioned as an electric luxury flagship MPV, the Dreamer is very representative. From the perspective of product strength alone, this model also fully satisfies several major pain points in the high-end MPV market proposed by Landu CEO and CTO Lu Fang.
Look at them one by one.
The first is the power aspect, Lantu Dreamer was born from the ESSA native intelligent electric architecture, providing pure electricity and range extender two power modes, the official pre-sale did not mark the clear mileage, but conservative estimates will be more than 500KM.
The second is practicality, Lantu Dreamer's positioning is Yishang IKEA, so it provides "2+2+3" and four-seat versions. In terms of overall seating space, the wheelbase of 3200mm is matched with the body size of 5315x1980x1810mm, which is completely different from the MPV models of the same level.
The third is safety, Lantu Dreamers world-first 2000MPa integrated thermoformed door knocker and 2000MPa door anti-collision steel beam, and in the whole car are used ultra-high-strength steel and aluminum mixed body, to create an ultra-high and strong cage cockpit skeleton, improve the safety performance of the vehicle in various collision conditions.
The fourth is comfort, Lantu Dreamer is the world's first new energy MPV model equipped with air suspension + CDC electronic control vibration reduction, with magic carpet function, which can use intelligent technology to monitor and analyze the road conditions in advance, real-time feedback and adaptive cushioning and vibration absorption, providing full-time body stability and bringing better driving experience.
The air suspension can also meet the user's experience of driving experience, coupled with the Dreamer equipped with Qualcomm 8155 chip, with gigabit 5G network, support L2+ level of assisted driving function, and real-time fatigue monitoring system can reduce the burden on the driver to a greater extent.
Standing in the same level of MPV market, such products do have a strong market competitiveness, but looking at the Chinese market, in addition to the Xena, Odyssey, these MPV models, you can also choose 7-seat SUVs, such as the recently very popular ideal L9, the ideal ONE that already has a name in the market, the Weilai ES8, etc., will be the opponent of the Lantu Dreamers.
The market competition in the household MPV is very fierce, so the business will be a good breakthrough point, but it needs a strong brand force to support, which is a problem that dreamers and all independent brand car companies that want to enter the MPV market in the future need to overcome.
In order to establish a good business "human design", the dreamers have also made full preparations, such as benchmarking with Alpha, Lexus LM, Mercedes-Benz V in terms of size, power, configuration and other aspects, and even become the designated car for the guests of Mango Station and TVB's Joint Hong Kong and Taiwan Music Variety Show "Sound and Life", which is regarded as the baton for the Hong Kong and Taiwan star special nanny car Elfa.
The marketing of Lantu has always been very accurate. The last time I was so convinced, it was Lantu FREE and Luo Zhenyu linkage, that time the coverage was mainly in 40+ adult men, and the variety effect of the linkage Hong Kong circle was obviously more far-reaching. As we all know, the reason why Alpha has been able to sell well in China for so many years, in addition to its highly acclaimed product strength, the "star effect" has also played a great role in promoting.
It is difficult to say how much this can play a driving force for sales, but from the brand level, such a variety show linkage will greatly deepen the image of Lantu Dreamers in the hearts of consumers.
epilogue
Undoubtedly, whether it is from product strength or product promotion, Dreamer has made a good start for independent brands that are about to enter the luxury MPV market. As of press time, Lantu announced that the pre-sale orders of Dreamers have exceeded 3,000 vehicles, which is a great encouragement for the upcoming Denza and Extreme Kryptonians who are about to enter the market.
However, from the opening of the market pattern is not difficult to see, the dreamer positioning of the market is not a volume market, looking forward to the impulse through this model is not realistic. The key to measuring the success of this product should also be brand recognition, user reputation, etc.
But one thing is certain, if Lantu can gain a foothold in the luxury electric MPV market, then the future will not be an empty word.