It seems to be a continuation of the "hot scene" in 2021, and the MPV market has recently ushered in new players.
On April 7, the second car of the Lantu brand, the Dreamer, officially opened pre-sale. The new car positioned MPV, the power form adopts the same range extender and pure electric two solutions as Lantu FREE, and announced the pre-sale price of two seat layout versions, of which the pre-sale price of the seven-seat version is 380,000-480,000 yuan, and the pre-price of the four-seat customized version is from 600,000 yuan.
As early as last year's Guangzhou Auto Show debut, this "new combination" of MPV + new energy has made Dreamers a hot topic in the market, and now the high pre-price of 400,000, 500,000 or even 600,000 yuan has been announced, which has made Dreamers solid and solid.
Why does Lantu want to make such an electric luxury MPV? Lu Fang, CEO of Lantu, gave this explanation: "In the era of electrification and intelligence, the way of low-carbon travel has gradually become popular, and the market needs a truly electrified and intelligent MPV, which needs an MPV with tram genes, rather than oil to electricity." ”
Consumption upgrades, the blue ocean becomes the red ocean
According to the latest data released by the Association, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in March was 28.2%, an increase of 17.6 percentage points over the 10.6% penetration rate of the same period last year. According to other data, the overall penetration rate of new energy MPVs in 2021 will only reach 3.32%, which is still a lot of room compared with the overall penetration rate of new energy vehicles. That is to say, in the era of electrification, new energy MPV is indeed a blue ocean market worth looking forward to.
However, expectations alone are not enough to dispel the market's doubts about the future of the dreamer, for example, if the new energy market is abandoned and the Lantu dreamer is placed in the broader MPV market, will it still have a chance?
According to the statistics of the Association, the cumulative sales volume of the MPV market in 2021 was 1.079 million units, down 1.0% year-on-year. In the sales rankings, Buick GL8, Honda Alexandre and Odyssey these veteran players still firmly occupy the sales rankings, new products want to break through, facing a lot of problems, as if each newly listed MPV are holding high the flag of challenging GL8, but the market sales at the end of the month or year will often give them a heavy blow.
In fact, some problems can be found in the annual sales ranking of MPV. Although Wuling Hongguang once again won the MPV sales championship with the result of 252214 vehicles, the growth rate has declined, and in the top ten of the list, there is also a decline in Dongfeng Fengxing Lingzhi, Ruifeng and Baojun 730. On the contrary, Buick GL8, Trumpchi M8, Alexand, Odyssey, MPV products for the mid-to-high-end market, have maintained a good growth rate.
The growth of the mid-to-high-end MPV market also shows to a certain extent that the current domestic MPV for the high-end market and the overall performance of models with stronger product strength are good. At the same time, it also supports the second reason of Lantu CEO Lu Fang on "why Lantu should make such an electric luxury MPV" - "Consumption is upgrading, Chinese families and Chinese entrepreneurs need a high-end luxury MPV." ”
So what do dreamers do in the high-end luxury space?
Judging from the product parameters and service policies announced by Dreamer, Dreamer's definition of "high-end luxury" is simple and direct enough, that is, to rival or even exceed millions of competitors in product configuration and function. For example, in the chassis part, the Dreamer not only has an aluminum alloy front double wishbone + rear five connecting rod suspension combination, and even arranged an air suspension to improve the driving experience of the vehicle, such as double-sided sliding doors, intelligent air conditioning, Dana audio and other comfort configurations are not absent.
In addition, the dreamer based on the native intelligent electric architecture not only allows the vehicle to have an electrified experience in terms of driving, but also has a basic advantage at the intelligent level. For example, with the blessing of Qualcomm 8155 chip and Gigabit 5G in-vehicle network, Lantu Dreamer has 26 L2+ level intelligent driving assistance functions and ECALL collision intelligent call system, and its equipped automatic parking system and remote control parking system can also eliminate parking anxiety and improve parking efficiency.
What does it take to support the high end?
Of course, these are only some of the configurations of the Lantu Dreamer, and more high-end features will not be known until after the official listing. But before that, the market still has a very big doubt about the Dreamer: can it afford such a price?
Taking the seven-seat version with a minimum of 380,000 yuan as an example, such a pre-price is not common in independent brand products, and such a price can buy the top match of last year's hot and messy GAC Toyota Race, you can buy the MPV market Immortal God of War Buick GL8 in the middle match, and even can buy the top match of Kia Kahua, Honda Alisson or Odyssey. Although in terms of power and configuration, Lantu Dreamer has sufficient advantages, but this is not enough to become the whole reason for consumers to choose Dreamer.
Only from the price point of view, independent brand models can stand firm in this price point at present, only Weilai Automobile, but aside from the product itself, Weilai Automobile has enough satisfactory service experience to provide users, then what is the unique advantage of Lantu at the same price? I believe lantu has made sufficient consideration in this regard.
It is worth mentioning that the pricing is so "crazy", but the reason why Landu remains optimistic is probably due to the delivery volume and user portrait of its first model, Lando FREE.
At the recent 8th China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, Lu Fang, CEO of Lantu, said, "At present, Lantu's brand and products have been initially recognized by the market and consumers. Our first model, Lantu FREE, since the start of delivery in August last year, the total number of deliveries has exceeded 10,000, and 97% are top-notch models, 61% are from BBA and other luxury brand owners to increase the purchase, the average transaction price has reached 338,600, this proportion and price ranked first among mature car companies. ”
Regarding the current user group portrait of Lantu, Lantu CBO Lei Xin once revealed that the current lantu user group is about 35 years old, 81% of the users are from luxury brands, and 61% are from BBA users who have converted to buy and buy.
Two days after the opening of the pre-sale, the number of Lantu Dreamer orders exceeded 3,000 units, the product power itself is attractive enough, coupled with the early Lantu FREE laid a good brand foundation, it is not surprising that Dreamer can harvest a large number of orders in a short period of time.
However, Lantu FREE and Lantu Dreamer represent two completely different product types after all, and there are certain differences in the population they face, coupled with the increasing downward pressure on the economy, Lantu Dreamer, such a minimum price of nearly 400,000 yuan MPV, whether it will become the mainstream of the market, still need long-term judgment.