Listing date: April 7
Brand: GAC Trumpchi
Guidance price: 8.48-10.28 million yuan
Level of concern: ★★★ (more important new remodeled cars)
Keywords: annual revamp, sales decline, insufficient updates
The new GS3 POWER on the market does not have too many fresh information points - just the annual changes of the previous GS3 POWER, and the changes are only reflected in some details. Among them, the yellow decorative strip is the biggest difference point. At the level of configuration price, only 93,800 yuan of the Jinxiang edition is slightly more obvious, and other car changes are minimal.
If so, why should we briefly comment on it?
The Trumpchi GS3 should be considered a very important model in the "small SUV" segment. In 2018, its annual sales were close to 90,000 vehicles. However, in 2020, perhaps due to Trumpchi's main power of the GS3 being replaced by a 3-cylinder 1.5T, sales began to decline significantly (the level of 40,000 units+).
The GS3 POWER, which was launched at the end of 2020, was a mid-term redesign of the GS3, and at the time it seemed that the magnitude of the change was very large: not only was the front face replaced, the interior redesigned, but also the four-cylinder engine was replaced. It is reasonable to say that after this adjustment, GS3 should be able to find its "former glory". In the industry, there is no shortage of such cases (the most typical such as Yinglang, etc.). However, contrary to expectations, GS3 sales in 2021 fell further to only 36,500 units. Even considering the lack of cores and other factors, this sales performance is certainly not up to expectations.
Why is that? The first means that in this class of models, the three-cylinder may not be the main problem plaguing sales. For example, like Jili's Binyue is also a three-cylinder, it sells very well. As for the further decline in sales, Uncle Ka personally feels that there are two main reasons.
The first is that the product is indeed at the end of its life cycle. The current GS3 on sale is still the "first generation", born in 2017, and it has been nearly five years now. Maybe you will say: it's okay, the exterior interior of the GS3 doesn't look outdated! That's right. However, on the issue of "style" of a car, it is not only reflected in the design level such as the exterior and interior. Electrical systems, intelligence, etc., will also be iterative. For example, compared with the master of this subdivision field, Changan CS35 PLUS or Binyue, the GS3's car and machine system intelligence is weaker.
The second is product strategy. In the case that all aspects cannot "keep pace with the times", appropriately lowering the posture can also be conducive to the expansion of sales. However, the GS3 is just the opposite - the cancellation of the previous 1.5L version, resulting in the absolute price of the dominant model is high, and it also more or less affects sales.
So the conclusion comes: although it seems that it is reasonable to make a simple annual change after just over a year of implementation, since the market has given feedback - the effect of medium change + four cylinders is not ideal, is it time to appropriately increase the intensity of the update or adjust the product strategy? For example, appropriately increase the penetration rate of intelligent vehicles and machines.
Of course, maybe Uncle Ka "thinks too much" - although there is no clear news, maybe the new generation of GS3 is already on the way to the market...