Written by / Long Shihui
Edited / Kilig
Design / Zoi.
Before the April 8 announcement that "GAC Acura will stop all products in 2023", to be honest, many people believe that Acura has a future.
Especially for consumers in Guangzhou and Foshan, Acura has its own unique brand charm. Driving a Japanese car, want to replace a good power, relatively luxurious and low-key model, counting more than 40,000 comprehensive offers, such a consumption upgrade is not too much pressure, so it will also include Acura CDX in the car selection list.
However, for the entire domestic market, Acura, which has been in China for 16 years and has been localized for 4 years, has always had a lower sense of existence than second-tier luxury brands such as Cadillac and Lexus, and even Infiniti has had a highlight moment, and Acura has always maintained a regional niche user circle and cannot expand its cognition. Therefore, the decision of Guangqi Honda is more sober to retreat into the advance, the new pure electric brand e: NP offensive, if it can be quickly promoted in the original Acura channel, then acura's delisting will also retreat.
Admittedly, if you make a data comparison, Acura is not the only brand with a relatively low presence in 2021. Regardless of luxury or joint venture positioning, niche brands with a market share of 1% or less are facing the fact that the head, middle and upper brands are pressed down, as long as they are still surviving in the cruel domestic car market one day, how to curb marginalization is a common issue faced by these car companies.
(Market share of some joint venture brands)
Where are the opportunities for reverse "marginalization"?
Recently, when the market spread the news that FCA "only produced and sold 1 vehicle in March", a set of Jeep's new pure electric Wrangler's trailer chart ignited a large wave of emotional powder attention on the Internet, regardless of whether pure electricity is original, people dare to roll out pure electric offensive on the home model, rushing this wave to shake the courage and courage of hardcore off-road, it should be given a key triple.
Combining the two contradictory information, it seems unlikely that the Guangfeik Jeep will return to the peak level of 220,000 vehicles sold in 2017, but accepting the "small and beautiful" setting, focusing on shaping several high-value differentiated models, finding a balance between reducing operating costs and market noise, and ensuring sufficient profits, this may be the best path for Jeep to stay in the Chinese market. This path is not rigid about whether to continue to be domestic or imported.
Before 2018, China's auto market is still a good era of incremental market, luxury, joint venture, independent consumption circle is clearly distinguished, emerging brands want to become bigger, while expanding product lines and scale, while rapidly becoming a "public" brand covering more people in marketing, often has a good effect. At that time, Guangfik Jeep did not mention the off-road ability, only mentioned the city SUV, Infiniti bound "Where Daddy Goes", and Borgward strongly posted "BBBA", which had achieved good performance in sales, although it was only a flash in the pan.
However, this road can no longer be copied in the stock market, the vast majority of the market share is occupied by the "big and complete" brands of Volkswagen, Liangtian, Geely, and Chang'an, niche brands must look for gaps in areas with distinct personalities and can withstand market differentiation competition, and their consumer group portraits are no longer all-encompassing family groups, but personalities and even paranoid buyers. That's why citroen Versailles was able to catch fire last year, and Skoda Octavia PRO and Infiniti QX60 brushed a round of presence, but still can't stop the continuous decline in brand sales. As for the more niche Genises G70, it still gets a lot of attention under the import identity of the rear drive and no longer wheelbase, because the latter relies on pure control experience.
According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the retail sales of passenger cars in the first quarter of 2022 were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year, while the retail sales of new energy passenger cars exceeded 1.07 million units in the same period, an increase of 146.6% year-on-year. And from the new energy sales of Volkswagen and BBA, it can be seen that the brand value created by the head car companies in the era of fuel vehicles has not yet been directly brought into the new energy market, which is a good opportunity for niche brands to change lanes and overtake, GAC Mitsubishi launched Artuka, Subaru also brought pure electric vehicles cooperated with Toyota at the end of last year, Kia's pure electric offensive is also wave after wave, these "sober in the world" niche brands, are actively embracing the tide of new energy development in China's auto market.
Mazda, is actively "marginalizing"?
At a time when almost all niche brands' strategies are nothing more than making a fuss about differentiation and electrification, mazda is getting farther and farther away from us.
According to statistics, Mazda's sales in China in 2021 were 183,900 units, down 14.3% year-on-year, and Mazda's sales in China fell by more than 40% in five years. This year, Mazda's sales in March were only 8608 units, down 54.0% year-on-year, far outperforming the big market -10.5%. Such a wretched downward trend is really hard to believe that it happened less than 7 months after the "merger of the two horses". Fu Yuanhong, executive vice president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., said in an exclusive interview at the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of 2021: "We are full of expectations for next year (2022), which is the first year of the development of the new Changan Mazda in the Chinese market. ”
At the beginning of the first year of the new development, why did Changan Mazda come to this point?
As mentioned above, the determination to do a good job as a niche brand in the stock market is not to seek greatness and perfection, but to take a differentiated route, or to ride the east wind of electrification and compete on another track. And Mazda, which is "one of people and horses" and has the gene of driving pleasure of the brand, should have a natural advantage. But look at what new models have been pushed by the long horse in these two years? From 2021 to October, only a "oil to electricity" CX-30 pure electric SUV was listed, and after the "merger of two horses" to March this year, a modified CX-5 was launched, and when the Angksela and Artez did not see the news of major changes or replacements, where did the CX-4 go from the official statement, in the brand, channels "two horses" is merged, but the sales volume can not see the effect of 1+1>2.
Could it be that the arrogant Mazda does not push new cars? Non also.
Mazda's recent moves in overseas markets are very lively, first launched in the U.S. market wheelbase, rear space are significantly higher than the CX-5 CX-50, and then in early March the world released the CX-60 plug-in hybrid SUV symbolizing Mazda's entry into the era of electrification, and from the real car photos, the CX-60 is determined to hit the mid-size luxury SUV market, and the interior uses maple, Nappa leather, and traditional Japanese textile decorations. The 2.5L naturally aspirated engine + motor adopts a longitudinal rear-drive layout, aiming at models such as bmw X3, and the CX-60 was first listed in Europe and then introduced to other markets.
Apparently, Mazda's two new cars have "forgotten" the Chinese market. And according to foreign media reports, Mazda plans to launch four medium/ large SUVs including hybrid models - CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90 in 2022-2023; in terms of electrification, in addition to the MX-30 REV extended range electric, five electrified models developed with a new modular platform will be launched within three years, and the new Skyactiv EV platform will be able to cope with various different sizes of electric vehicles in order to develop new models. Admittedly, this series of initiatives aimed at enhancing brand image and achieving higher profits has bypassed the Chinese market "without exception".
Electrification transformation, high-end products, these other brands are eager to "pour" into the Chinese market overnight, but Mazda is slow to introduce. From the perspective of Mazda's global sales last year, sales and profits in the United States and Europe are higher, and China is still the only overseas market with negative growth, accounting for only 14.28% of global sales. Because of this, it is difficult not to speculate that the focus of Mazda's future development is not in China.
(Mazda's global sales in 2021)
Jeremy Thomson, Mazda's head of UK, once said: "Mazda aims to become a true luxury brand car company, so it does not intend to imitate the German high-end brand, but will replace the traditional mainstream luxury brand." "Mazda, which is bent on becoming a high-end brand, the price of this CX-60 is not low, about 36.40-39.80 million yuan; in contrast, Changan Mazda's positioning, if the high-end models are introduced into China without making changes, the terminal market does accept limited acceptance."
However, if the high-end strategy is not applicable in China and abandons the development of China's market segment, then the "Toei BMW" will fall into a vicious circle: because of the shrinking sales volume, and the strategic neglect of the Chinese market, but also because of the stagnation of new products, resulting in less and less satisfactory sales performance in China.
Of course, because of the postponement of the Beijing Auto Show, we have not yet known Changan Mazda's new car planning this year, but compared with the similar volume of Kia and Chevrolet, the new car plan and electrification information have not decreased, on the contrary, the most concerned CX-50, CX-60, are from the media's active release, for the introduction of new products into the Chinese market, Changan Mazda has not expressed its position.
On the other hand, Changan Mazda's annual sales target of 200,000 vehicles in 2022 is not false, "Nanjing products 158,500 vehicles, Changchun products 41,500 vehicles" Task division is not false, but according to the current rhythm of monthly sales decline, Changma products are not updated, it is easy to be abandoned by the market, especially brands with a market share of less than 1%, and then do not work hard, once the window period is over, no matter how hard they try.
Write at the end
Under the pressure of the head and the central echelon, how can the gradually marginalized car brands survive, this topic is indeed not easy, but the market share fell below 1% does not mean that you can only lie flat, mix by skill, and rely on luck. After all, the "Chuang chi blue sky" technology created by Mazda for many years is excellent, and the "ZOOM ZOOM" control personnel is not white, and it can still be a fight, but the self-marginalization will not fade before the battle.
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