"Without the success of Xingtu, there will be no future for Chery", Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Automobile, once said such words at the ceremony of Xingtu's moon rolling off the production line, but it is clear that Xingtu Automobile still has not met Yin Tongyue's expectations. As the product of Chery's "independent high-end" ten years of grinding a sword, Xingtu is a high-end automobile brand created by Chery with the strength of the whole company, but since its birth, Its sales performance has been tepid, and it is far from brands such as Lynk & Co and even Weipai.
With major car brands announcing sales in March, Chery chose to "hide" the sales of Xingtu, but instead announced quarterly sales of 10,421 units from January to March, which translates to an average sales volume of more than 3,400 units in January and March. Weipai, which was born in 2016, Lynk & Co, which was born in 2017, and Xingtu, which was born in 2018, were established on the front and back feet of three high-end car brands, but the sales gap was getting wider and wider. In 2019, Xingtu sold 14,300 units, while Lynk & Co and WEY sold 128,000 units and 100,000 units, respectively. Xingtu's sales in 2020 only achieved about 21,500 units, and in 2021, Xingtu sold 37,154 units, while Lynk & Co and Weipai achieved 220,000 units and 67,000 units, respectively. Of the three independent high-end car brands, the development of Xingtu is the most unsatisfactory.
The biggest reason is the product
Some people say that Chery does not lack technology, what is missing is design and marketing, what are the three major pieces of autonomy first, the research and development ability is the strongest, and the lie is true after a thousand times? The only thing Chery can get its hands on is engine technology, which is still a product developed in deep cooperation with AVL, so what about other aspects?
The gearbox is Chery's biggest short board, most of the current models use Getrag's dual-clutch transmission, there is no self-developed AT transmission, there is no self-developed dual-clutch transmission, even if the use of Getrag's dual-clutch transmission, power matching is also relatively poor, smooth performance and the current independent line of the Great Wall and Geely Gap is obvious.
In terms of chassis, although it was a relatively early positive research and development, the texture of the chassis of its models was generally more general, and the general tuning was hard, sacrificing comfort for handling, and there were more aftershocks when entering the size bumps.
It is undeniable that Chery's engine fuel economy is relatively strong, which is crucial for low-end models, but this alone is not enough to support the product strength of high-end models, and in terms of power matching, sound insulation and vibration filtering and many details, Xingtu is not satisfactory, and the iron also needs to be hard, although Xingtu is positioned high-end, it still needs to polish the details well.
The distinction between chery and Chery products is not high
Chery's high-end road has been repeatedly defeated, from the early Ruilin to Qoros, and then to the current Starway, if you must find a common reason, in addition to the marketing packaging has not been very powerful, there is a very important reason is that Chery's high-end brand, often and Chery models of the distinction is not high, and the biggest reason for this is that Chery can use less technical products on high-end models.
In terms of engines, in previous years, the high-end engine only had a 1.6T engine, and the rest was 1.5T and 1.5 self-priming, etc., lacking a 2.0T engine.
In terms of gearbox, it basically relies on Getrag's 6-speed and 7-speed dual clutch to play the world, and the low-end model is equipped with Wanliyang's CVT.
This has led to a result, that is, no matter how you arrange the combination, high-end models and low-end models, will inevitably overlap in the three major parts, last year, Chery's 2.0T engine came out, to a certain extent to alleviate this problem. Many people ridicule Wei Pai as Haval's finely decorated version, but the distinction between Xingtu and Chery is not as great as that of Wei Pai and Haval, the three major pieces are completely consistent, and the creation of a luxurious atmosphere in the interior is also general, and it is difficult for consumers to convince themselves to choose higher-priced Xingtu products. At present, There are four models on sale under Xingtu, namely Chasing Wind, TX, Lingyun and Lanyue, covering the range of 110,000-240,000 from the price point of view, but in addition to the one car of the moon, there is a great overlap between the high-end positioning of Xingtu and Chery's products, resulting in serious internal friction.
The brand influence is weak, and the strategic planning is one step slower
Because of poor sales, EXEED Xingtu was established less than two years ago, and has changed three marketing center managers, but frequent coach changes have not solved the fundamental problem. Originally, Chery hoped that Jietu would focus on cost performance, Chery would focus on the low-end, and Xingtu would focus on high-end. The combination of low, medium and high is very reasonable, but the problem is that Xingtu has not established its own brand influence.
In fact, for high-end car brands, brand influence is very critical, especially in the case of the three major pieces are completely consistent, why consumers should add money to choose the so-called high-end products, which is probably a problem that the top management of Xingtu is thinking about, and the model design of Xingtu always gives people a feeling of lack of refinement, and the appearance value is low. In fact, the design level is not that Chery is reluctant to spend money, mainly because of chery's internal struggles. In terms of marketing, he repeatedly emphasized his own technical genes, but did not establish his own distinct product label, product positioning is very vague, and the stereotype of "first-class technology, second-rate brand, third-rate marketing" in the eyes of the outside world is difficult to please young people.
In terms of product planning, Chery is always slow to shoot, the heat of SUV models has passed, other car companies are powering coupe models, Chery's Arrizo 8 is late, seeing the Great Wall's tank series fire, Chery hastily released a shortcut T-X that is highly similar to the tank 300. Seeing the hot sales of Hongguang Mini EV, Chery launched a model of imitation QQ ice cream. Chery's actions in the past two years have always followed the rhythm of friends and businessmen, but they lack their own long-term strategic planning.
Every time chery is talked about, most people's first impression is that what Chery lacks is marketing, and it is inevitable that the problem is a bit simple, Xingtu has changed coaches many times, why is it still difficult to lead Xingtu out of the predicament? That is because the problem of Xingtu is multifaceted, not a simple sentence can be summarized by marketing, product details polishing, product planning, face value design, marketing publicity, product positioning, etc., are currently lacking in Xingtu.
From Ruiqi to Qoros to today's Starway, Chery's high-end road has been repeatedly defeated is not accidental, and the Starway, which has high hopes, if it continues, is likely to become the next Qoros.