Can Yingku become the next "net red car" of GAC Trumpchi?
Author: Liang Zhihao
As a new generation of "net red cars", the emergence of GAC Trumpchi Shadow Leopard allows young people to have a compact car with a sporty atmosphere at an extremely low price. The dynamic appearance, loud exhaust and still surging acceleration have also made this self-brand model successfully replace the already "congliang" Civic and become the new favorite of the ghost fire teenager.
Although the controversy about this car on the Internet is still huge, many people think that it has its own appearance, just a pseudo-sports car, which is the product of independent brands that want to "harvest" young consumers. But no matter what, whether in terms of sales or volume, the Shadow Leopard car is absolutely successful. At least, what GA6 and GA8 failed to do in the past, Shadow Leopard did.
Catch time by the forelock
After seeing the success of Shadow Leopard, GAC Trumpchi seems to have also found a magic weapon to attract young consumers, that is, bold appearance and sporty positioning. So if you carry this magic weapon from the car to the SUV, can it work?
At last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Trumpchi released a new SUV model with the English name of EMKOO, and recently, they registered a trademark called "Yingku" on the State Intellectual Property Office, whether from the time node or The English pronunciation, Yingku will have a high probability of becoming the official name of this new car.
Although the new car is still covered by thick camouflage, it is difficult to see the specific appearance details, but according to the official information released by GAC Trumpchi, the positioning of Yingku will be a compact SUV for young personalized users, and from the general outline of this car, it is not difficult to see that its exterior design may be more radical than that of the shadow leopard who is also a "shadow character generation".
For example, its headlight shape is extremely fierce, the LED strips on both sides are like fangs, and the recognition of the three independent LED light groups is also very high. From the more exposed pictures of GAC Trumpchi, we can also find that the front grille of Yingku will have many lines, and the overall appearance of a mecha style feel.
However, it is foreseeable that such a bold front face design, the evaluation among consumers at that time will inevitably be polarized - people who like it can't love it, and people who don't like it are too much to look at. But just like Shadow Leopard, this personalized out-of-the-box design often works wonders among young people.
We can also see a big HYBRID word on the side of the shadow cool camouflage car, which also means that the shadow cool will most likely be the main hybrid system or even the standard of the whole series. Combined with the information we can get now and see only a fuel port on the body of the camouflage car without an additional charging interface, Yingku may be the same as the GS8, equipped with a combination of THS hybrid system from Toyota technology + GAC Trumpchi engine.
And boldly imagine, if GAC Trumpchi dares to copy the 2.0T hybrid of the same GS8 to Yingku, then Yingku may become a proper "performance SUV". To know that this set of power pulls two tons of GS8, the official 0-100km/h acceleration also takes only 6.9 seconds, and it may have a more amazing power performance on a smaller shadow cool.
Of course, considering the cost of this hybrid system and the positioning of Yingku, this set of 2.0T hybrids will be difficult to see on this new car, but as a model with a positioning movement, we can still look forward to the power level of Yingku at that time.
In the rear part of the car, the C-pillar of the shadow cool is designed to be unusually wide, coupled with a slight sneakback design, the whole car creates a forward swooping posture, but also to meet its sporty positioning. However, the higher window line and the smaller window area may have a negative impact on the openness of the rear row.
From the trailer released by GAC Trumpchi, we can also see that Yingku will also provide Yamaha audio, crystal electronic gear and paddle opening devices and other "full of equipment", which can be described as holding young people's preferences to death.
"Shadow Generation" into an independent series?
Judging from gac Trumpchi's various actions, including the announcement of Shadow Leopard's participation in the 2022 CTCC China Touring Car Championship, the launch of the R-Style sports appearance kit for Shadow Leopard and the launch of the new SUV Shadow Cool, we can see that they are indeed full of confidence in this new market.
On the one hand, the change in the consumption structure is indeed to bring a broad market for such previously unpopular sports cars, on the other hand, many competitors of GAC Trumpchi have also created a variety of younger, sportier and more high-end sub-series models in addition to conventional models.
For example, Geely's "China Star" series of Xingyue S, Xingyue L, Xingrui, Changan's UNI Gravity series of UNI-T, UNI-K, UNI-V, etc., are all successful cases of this strategy.
At the same time, as a major sports car series, Yingzi has obviously gained experience from the previous practice of Lynk & Co using racing competitions to drive the sales of its models, and it can be said that every step of GAC Trumpchi is both bold and thoughtful.
After Shadow Leopard has achieved a fairly good market response, a compact SUV like Shadow Cool that is more in line with the current consumer trend is naturally a matter of "water and water". Under the multiple blessings of Shadow Leopard's traffic effect, personalized design and efficient hybrid system, I don't know if Yingku can become the next "net red car" of GAC Trumpchi?
(Some image source network)
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How much should Yingku sell?
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