According to data released by GAC FCA in March 2022, its Jeep brand has produced only one vehicle in China and sold one. In the first quarter of this year, GAC FCA produced only 821 vehicles. According to the data released by the association, the Free Rider Guide under the Jeep brand did not sell in the first two months of this year.
China is one of the world's largest SUV markets, so what led to the Jeep brand falling here?
[1] The Jeep brand did not insist on itself and gave up its own area of expertise
What is Jeep's brand best at? Definitely the best at off-roading, the best at it is the modification. However, none of these models of the Jeep brand domestically insisted on their own independent style. On the contrary, it follows the trend of the market, and the result is that the competition is not independent brand.
In recent years, as we all know, the development of China's urban SUV market is very rapid. Most of the independent brands have launched 100,000 yuan of urban SUVs, and sales are also very good. Therefore, Jeep launched the Guide, Liberty Light, Liberty Hero and other models in the Chinese market. These models are urban SUVs with load-bearing bodies. To put it bluntly, there is no obvious essential difference from the urban SUV launched by Toyota Honda Volkswagen.
In addition, in recent years, the city SUVs of independent brands have also slowly developed in the direction of high-end, such as Geely Xingyue L, Changan UNI-K, and Great Wall Mocha. Both in terms of luxury and quality, it is much better than Jeep's model.
Suppose, let's just assume that Jeep can produce the Wrangler domestically, and if the price can be appropriately reduced after the domestic production, I guess there is nothing to do with the current tank 300.
Therefore, the most fundamental reason why the Jeep brand has not developed well in China is that it has not insisted on itself and given up its own field of expertise.
[2] For Jeep, SUVs are all there is to it. But for other brands, SUVs are just a fork.
There is an interesting phenomenon that Chinese consumers buy cars, that is, the herd mentality is particularly serious, the more best-selling models are sold, the higher the sales, and the lower the sales models, the less they sell. And those models with low sales are really not necessarily models with weak product strength. The Jeep brand only has SUVs and no other models. So for the Jeep brand, the SUV is all he has. No new car is allowed to fail, as the cost of trial and error for the Jeep brand is too high.
But it doesn't matter to other car brands, SUVs are just a fork of their brand. SUV is not OK, I still have a car, sedan is not OK, I still have MPV, MPV is not OK, I can also develop new energy. So it doesn't matter if other brands have one or two models that don't sell that high.
So would you say the Jeep brand could launch a sedan or an MPV? That certainly doesn't work, because Jeep is originally a brand that specializes in SUVs.
So what should be done? It is also very simple, we should transform new energy earlier. But now the domestic Jeep has a new energy SUV? There are but very few. Obviously, the domestic Jeep did not transform in time when new energy arrived.
In fact, there are no good new energy models in China's hardcore off-road vehicle market, and the tank 500 will have a new energy version, but it has not yet been listed. So if Jeep can launch a model with very strong off-road capabilities and new energy for the Chinese market, it will also fill the gap in China's market in this regard. However, at present, Jeep's domestic models do not have such a car.
Many people may say that the big commander PHEV, a plug-in hybrid new energy vehicle, but although this car is a new energy. But it is front-facing, there is no four-wheel drive. And it is a load-bearing body, and the off-road ability is too poor.
So in the final analysis, the Jeep brand did not adhere to its best areas, and it was not able to transform new energy in a timely manner. Has been in the urban SUV market, can you compete that can compete with independent brands?