Recently, a news that "BYD is about to completely stop production of fuel vehicles" has caused an uproar in the automotive industry. The car company that relies on traditional fuel vehicles to enter the vehicle manufacturing industry is about to enter the new energy era in an all-round way.
In fact, not only BYD, there are already many traditional independent brand car companies and "new car-making forces" to join the competitive camp of domestic new energy vehicles, and a situation of "a hundred flowers blooming, a hundred schools of thought contending" has been formed. Looking at the sales ranking of new energy vehicles in the past year, independent brand models have formed an overwhelming advantage. The reason why domestic new energy vehicles can form such a vigorous development, in addition to benefiting from the state's strong support for related industries, is also related to the fact that domestic brands have formed a considerable technical accumulation in new energy vehicle technology.
Comparatively speaking, the joint venture brands that have relative advantages in the traditional power field are "getting up early and catching up with a late set", although behind them are multinational car companies with strong technical reserves of new energy vehicles, but many joint venture car companies have not come up with many best-selling new energy models. But even so, there are still some new energy models launched by joint ventures (such as Volkswagen ID.4 CROZZ, Micro Blue 6, BMW 5 Series PHEV, etc.) that appear on the list, and their sales even exceed star self-owned brand models such as Qin EV and Weilai ES8. These joint venture brand new energy models usually have a low exposure in the media, but they have also gained a place in the new energy model market. From this, we have led to the following questions: Since domestic new energy vehicles are so hot, why do people still buy joint venture new energy vehicles?
1. Brand inertia of joint venture car companies
Although for many young people, the brands of traditional car companies do not have any additional premium in new energy. But for some older customers, the joint venture brand has been operating in China for many years, and the choice of relatives and friends around them, as well as the influence of past experience, will make them more inclined to choose the joint venture brand that has accumulated a certain reputation when buying a car and choosing a brand, rather than the new power brand of "newborn calves". As for those independent traditional brand car companies, they are affected by the early product reputation, making this part of the people prefer to believe in the joint venture brand.
2. In terms of after-sales service, joint venture car companies still have advantages
The joint venture car has been operating in China for many years, with huge sales and ownership, creating a solid after-sales service network of the joint venture car enterprises. For example, weilan 6, which ranked 35th in new energy vehicle sales last year, has a network of more than 800 offline stores with new energy vehicle maintenance capabilities behind it, and the number of public service networks is certainly not less than Buick's.
On the other hand, many domestic brands cannot achieve such a large-scale after-sales service network. For example, Weilai, which is located in the head car company of the new force, currently has 221 after-sales outlets (data as of April 8, 2022). The number of after-sales service stores of many new energy vehicle companies is not as good as that of Weilai, especially in the density of stores in third-tier cities and below, and it is difficult to compete with the number of stores of joint venture car companies. This has little to do with consumers in first-tier cities, but for consumers in small and medium-sized cities, it can have a huge impact.
3. Technical standards for joint venture vehicles
Compared with the new energy vehicles of its own brands, some joint venture brands need to meet the requirements of the national standard in addition to the relevant standards of the host country or the enterprise. This determines that in terms of some technical indicators, the new energy vehicles of the joint venture car companies are better than the independent models. For example, in terms of battery thermal runaway, volvo C40, as a joint venture new energy model, if thermal runaway occurs, its design of multi-layer fire insulation structure can ensure that the vehicle has no open flame for more than 20 minutes (as a comparison, the national standard GB38031 requires only 5 minutes for thermal runaway). For example, the battery pack of micro blue 6 has a vibration test duration of 9 times that of the national standard, a high and low temperature alternating test time of 10 times that of the national standard, and a corrosion strength test of 12 times that of the national standard. Rigorous engineering verification experiments ensure that the battery safety of these joint venture models is more secure.
Battery packs that are undergoing hot and cold shock experiments
Although the joint venture new energy vehicles also have the above advantages, many of the above aspects are not the most concerned issues for most consumers. For example, in terms of traditional power, Volvo, known as the "safest car", has sales in China, but it can't even enter the head of a second-tier luxury brand. For example, although an international new energy head brand is not outstanding in workmanship and NVH convenience, this does not prevent consumers from flocking to it. In addition to the problem of after-sales outlets mentioned above, independent brands will continue to expand with the continuous increase in vehicle ownership, and the number of outlets will continue to expand. The gap between independent brands and joint venture brands at this point will also become smaller and smaller.
New energy vehicle products are constantly iterating, if the joint venture brand car companies can not keep up with the pace of upgrading in the domestic market, still want to only by the parallel introduction of overseas models into the country, you can win a lot of money in the domestic market Era is gone. If the joint venture car does not develop for the preferences of Chinese consumers and follows up the iteration speed of domestic new energy vehicles in a timely manner, then as domestic new energy vehicles gradually make up for the shortcomings, joint venture new energy vehicles will only be more and more marginalized.