The world doesn't define anything in its first place, the key is what meaning you give it.
In August 2016, Automotive Business Review launched the first season of the "New Car Builders Reliable List", which has been updated every six months to a year, and this year is the tenth season. With the rise of hundreds of enterprises, the banquet of guests, the collapse of the building, the name of the new car-making force has not gone away, and it has been used by the entire industry.
From the beginning, the "new car-making forces" defined by the Automotive Business Review generally refer to the start-up companies that began to get involved in the automobile manufacturing business around 2015 and the companies that crossed the border from other industries into the automotive industry, which are different from the traditional car companies and are characterized by new enterprises, new brands, new energy, and new models.
When recording the car-making feast at that time, Dr. Jia Ke, editor-in-chief of Automotive Business Review, wrote in the article "Those young people who build cars, to seek refuge in immortal careers": All kinds of people and horses have appeared on the scene and joined the competition or shaping the future of the global automobile industry or the Future of China's automobile industry. We describe this as when the will of the state meets the will of the industry, or when the will of the state meets the will of the state, although there is a bubble, it is full of sparks.
In five years, a number of new car-making forces have become out of the siege, and the new forces that fight for renewal have come with dreams, and the boundaries of the new forces are getting wider and wider.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, once said that the new forces of car manufacturing, in a broad sense, are the car companies that are non-traditional car manufacturers, which correspond to traditional fuel vehicles, and the car companies that only build new energy vehicles are new forces.
Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred Association, believes that "the new forces do not have the imprisonment of traditional car-making concepts, and bring new ideas and new thinking to accelerate the process of innovation and iteration." ”
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Whatever the definition, it is certain that the new forces represent the direction of the tide. As of the first quarter of 2022, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China were 10.334 million units, and the global market share increased to 65%. The traditional car companies that were still waiting on the sidelines have turned the bow and started a radical transformation, and the new forces of the original generation of car manufacturing have also temporarily walked in the forefront of transformation through intelligence and digitalization.
In addition, now the new forces with a large voice in the market have gone through the "battle royale", a table that has been circulated on the Internet of 40 car-making "new forces" car companies, 32 have been painted with a red cross sentenced to "death penalty", the sales of those who survived continue to strengthen, Wei Xiaoli after ushering in the high point of the market, also stepped over the red line of delivering 100,000 vehicles and monthly sales of 10,000, market value and sales took off.
New forces are rising stars, and when a company prefixes the word "new forces", it represents hope and the future. Everyone loves new forces, and the latest to hit new forces on the public screen is GAC Aeon.
On March 31, Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, said at the 2021 performance communication meeting that there are many institutions interested in GAC A-an's Series A financing. In the future, E'an's goal is to turn "Wei Xiaoli" into "Ai Xiaowei" and become the leader of the new faction.
The day after the words fell, it was time for the new powers to report their monthly sales. Unlike most car companies in the past, they do not know from which day, the new forces will report sales on the first day of each month, representing the momentum of the newcomers.
Aeon sold 20,317 units in March, up 189 percent year-on-year and surpassing The Roc by 5,000. In terms of cumulative deliveries from January to March this year, GAC Aeon delivered 44,874 vehicles, a gap of 10,000 vehicles with the second place, and Xiaopeng Automobile's cumulative deliveries from January to March were 34,561 units.
When the automotive products have undergone fundamental changes, GAC Aean has realized that according to the traditional thinking can not build a world-class new energy vehicle, if you want to survive and live better, you need to break your own roots and say goodbye to the past.
Although it is inevitable that there is still the shadow of GAC, the young E-an has established an independent brand, reflecting a flexible and efficient market-oriented system; Highlight the scientific and technological attributes in the product, and have the ability of independent research and development of scientific and technological innovation; In marketing, user-oriented; In terms of channels, independent channels have been established and the direct operation model has been adopted. There is no doubt that Aehan himself is a new force.
While other brands born out of traditional enterprises are still groping, Aeon took the lead in the circle and walked out of the other way of new forces.
Subtitle 1: Aehan's New Power Genes
"GAC New Energy not only exerts its strength in products through the accumulation and progress of technology, but also creates a new platform for positive research and development, which completely stimulates the advantages of new energy vehicles." In addition, we also make GAC BJEV's brand more vivid and three-dimensional through youthful marketing and IP creation. ”
As early as 2018, Gu Huinan, who was also the general manager of GAC New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. at that time, said that only by building an exclusive platform for new energy vehicles and making multi-dimensional efforts in the fields of products, services and marketing can we create world-class new energy vehicles.
On July 28, 2017, GAC Aean New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially established, almost at the same time as Wei Xiaoli. Responsible for the mission of the electrification transformation of GAC Group, Gu Huinan began to "start a business" with a group of young people, and it has only been five years today, which is a new brand without compromise.
In five years, GAC Aeon has completed the release and hot sales of a variety of products, brand independence, mixed reform, and is now preparing for listing, and gradually gaining a firm foothold in the market.
In 2020, GAC New Energy changed its name to GAC Aeon, positioned itself as a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand, and began to operate independently. In 2021, GAC's annual sales of 123,660 vehicles, an increase of 119% year-on-year, crossed the threshold of annual sales of 100,000. In the first year of the brand's independent operation, the main models such as AION S, AION Y, AION V and AION LX covered the market segments such as small cars, compact cars, and medium-sized SUVs.
In this process, GAC Aean has grown into a technology company with innovative spirit, Internet genes and youthful image.
At the level of electrification, GAC Aean has developed magazine batteries, ultra-double-speed batteries, and sponge silicon anode batteries; In terms of intelligence, Aeon's automatic driving and ADiGO intelligent cockpit technology have also brought a new experience, releasing two new functions of over-the-horizon summoning parking and NDA intelligent pilot assistance system; At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Aeon made the world's first centralized computing electronic and electrical architecture for vehicle-cloud integration - Xingling Architecture.
A series of layouts can be seen that Aeon knows that compared with some new forces that sold concepts in the early stage, technology and innovation are the key to joining the head camp and ushering in high growth, and under the scale effect of the industry, technology and innovation will become the key to victory.
In addition, GAC AEGN redefined the form and business model of the channel. Under the subversion of the new forces, the model of direct operation and agency represented by Weilai and Xiaopeng has gradually been gradually accepted by the entire industry and consumers. The acceleration of the era of intelligent electric power also gives OEMs the opportunity to directly serve users.
In 2021, GAC Aean launched a marketing ecological reform. On July 25th, GAC Aeon opened the world's first brand direct operation experience center in Guangzhou Tianhe Grandview Plaza. Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aean, said that the opening of the new store represents the innovation and change of the channel model, and the entire system framework of 'online + offline', 'car city + supermarket', 'direct operation + distribution' has been built, marking that the new marketing ecology of GAC Ean has entered the 2.0 era.
At present, Eian and Wei Xiaoli have crossed the 100,000 mark, in the post-100,000+ era, the competition between new forces in the fields of scientific and technological intelligence, brand marketing, user experience, energy supply and other fields will be more intense, the competition is not only the ability to define products and innovate, but also the ability to integrate supply chains and continuous blood transfusion.
Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, said that the advantage of E-An is traditional car-making technology, which is also not available to many new forces. The quality of Aeon car is also very reliable, whether it is handling, comfort, quality, durability is well known in new energy vehicles.
Gu Huinan also said that the biggest advantage of GAC Aean lies in the experience accumulated in the production and manufacturing, product development, cost control, supply chain management and other aspects of traditional car companies, which need to continue to be carried forward. "I think the most important basis for car manufacturing is quality and industrial chain, as well as the combination of traditional technology and new technology."
The left hand new force thinking, the right hand traditional car building background, the new force car building thinking superimposed on the scientific and technological innovation strength and the unique state-owned asset background, so that Aian built a higher moat. Combining quality assurance with new technologies, GAC Ae-En has the possibility of becoming "Ai Xiaowei" and even leading the transformation of the electric vehicle industry.
Subtitle 2: The listing of Aeon is imminent, and the new forces are huddled together to keep warm
Aeon, who has revealed his identity as a new force, the most important thing at the moment is the IPO.
In March, more eye-catching than sales were Aeon's mixed reform and spin-off independent listing, and Aeon completed employee equity incentives and introduced some war investment.
"I hope that Aian will complete the A round of financing in September and October, and strive to be IPO next year, at least 50 billion yuan, and then (this money) will all be invested in research and development, technology." The key to mixed reform is financing, governance structure, institutional mechanisms, and then it can retain talents more. Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, revealed, "In (Guangzhou) Panyu built 6,000 sets of commercial housing, the cost price of 15,000 yuan / flat, riverside, all to employees, to let people to bring in, retain." ”
Unlike Wei Xiaoli's listing financing to complete the layout from 0 to 1, Aian's listing is to achieve a leap from 1 to N.
In the "three-step" plan of the Aeon Mixed Reform, the asset restructuring has been completed and announced in 2021, and the second phase of employee shareholding and the introduction of war investment have also been completed. In the inner-rolled automotive market, "talent is the first productive force". Through equity incentives, E-An hopes to bind core employees to the greatest extent and retain key talents to work together to promote the rapid development of its new energy vehicle business.
According to the plan, GAC Aean's second plant will be completed and put into operation in December 2022. This means that in 2023, GAC Aeon will have a production capacity of 400,000 yuan. At that time, the new generation of AION family products equipped with Xingling Electrical and Electronic Architecture + the third generation of GEP pure electric exclusive platform will also be launched in 2023.
Facing the reform of the new energy industry, while inheriting the advantages of the state-owned assets system, E-AN has formed a shared and independent synergy with the group, created a unique "E-an model" mixed reform, and built the most competitive advanced system. It is conceivable that next, GAC Aean will speed up the pace of listing, benchmark Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng, and fully release the company's value. Some forecasting agencies have even given an overall valuation of 200 billion yuan.
At present, traditional car companies have laid out high-end markets to seek breakthroughs, extreme krypton, extreme fox, lantu, zhiji... These brands, which were born from traditional automobile groups, debuted with a new logo, a new design language, and a new channel, becoming another new force in car manufacturing.
When the sales volume of other brands has not yet been exerted, Aeon, who is running in front, provides a good model and beneficial attempt for the rush and transformation of other Chinese brands.
For China's new powers, their opponents have never been each other, but the traditional giants who are eyeing each other, Tesla, which is constantly eating away at market share, and the stubborn fuel vehicles that still occupy a considerable proportion. When more and more brands begin to awaken, willing and take the initiative to become new forces, the day of subversion is coming.