Some time ago, GAC Honda announced that GAC Acura products will stop production and sales in 2023, and follow-up services will be undertaken by GAC Honda. Acura, which has been in China for 17 years, officially bid farewell to the Chinese market, which is understandable, after all, it is also in response to the law of survival of the fittest. The roof leak is in the overnight rain, and the acura has not been completely sorted out, and GAC has ushered in a headache, and GAC FCA Jeep may have stepped into the brink of suspension and delisting.
Gac FCA was founded in 2010, initially mainly producing and selling Fiat models, in 2015 the Jeep brand was officially domestically produced, and has launched three models: Free Light, Free Hero and Guide. Affected by multiple factors such as Beijing Jeep's word of mouth, the model was very popular after its launch, and the total sales of Jeep in 2017 reached 223,300 units. But no one expected that Jeep fell into the abyss after only two years of scenery, and sales began to decline off a cliff since 2018.
In 2018, the total sales volume was 124,500 vehicles, only 72,900 vehicles were left in 2019, just exceeded 40,000 vehicles in 2020, and fell to 20,000 vehicles in 2021. The decline in sales has left the GAC FCA plant idle for a long time, and the 2021 financial report of GAC Group shows that the capacity utilization rate of the GAC FCA plant is only 4.97%. As a last resort, GAC FCA closed its Guangzhou plant in September last year, leaving only the Changsha plant to produce Jeep models. But that didn't stop sales, with the Jeep brand selling a total of 1,857 units in the first quarter of 2022, including just one in March.
On the bright side, high-level turmoil and poor quality are important reasons why Jeep can't sell.
The parent company of the Jeep brand, Fiat Chrysler Group, after three years of negotiation and negotiation, officially merged with PSA Group in January 2021 to form a new company, Stellantis. The advent of the Stellantis Group has consumed a lot of effort by Fiat Kles and reduced the resource investment for GAC FCA to a certain extent. In recent years, GAC Group has vigorously supported its own brand GAC Trumpchi, coupled with the "two brothers" of Guangfeng and Guangben, it is difficult to talk about being conscientious and responsible for GAC FCA.
Insufficient investment of resources has led to chaos and high-level turmoil in the operation of GAC FCA. Zheng Jie, the former chief operating officer of FCA Group In China, is a meritorious figure of GAC FCA in opening up the Chinese market, but he has no choice but to become a "victim" in the power struggle. At the same time, many dealers have also lost confidence in GAC FCA, and there was a rights protection incident in 2018. GAC FCA failed to give an effective business plan, and eventually some dealers chose to return the gateway store.
Of course, more consumers do not like Jeep, or because of its poor quality. In 2018, Jeep's models had a large-scale burning oil problem, and the manufacturer gave the "only replace and not repair and not recall" program, refusing to admit that there were quality problems in the product. This move angered the public, and they complained to the relevant departments one after another. Finally, under the exposure of the 3.15 evening party of that year, GAC FCA announced the recall. This incident greatly damaged the Jeep brand image, and to this day's word-of-mouth evaluation is mostly negative.
But in these two aspects, it is not enough to make the originator of the off-road vehicle Jeep fall down, after all, the market potential of hardcore off-road vehicles is huge, otherwise how can there be a explosive god car tank 300? In a sense, gaga's FCA's heirloom has not kept pace with the times.
China's car market has entered the era of stock, consumers not only increased the car purchase budget, but also have higher requirements for car quality - before it was good to use, now it is good to look at the intelligence. It is also the change in the concept of consumption that makes the Tank 300 a hit. Hardcore off-roading has been a niche demand since ancient times, after all, Chinese consumers do not have so much spare time to travel in the mountains and rivers, but the younger generation is still looking forward to going out and wading through mountains and rivers. It was based on this demand that Great Wall Motors built the Tank 300.
Non-loaded body + four-wheel drive system, standard hardcore off-road configuration, to ensure the basic off-road ability. On this basis, Great Wall Motors broke the inherent tough guy image of hardcore off-road vehicles, created a refined exterior interior for the tank 300, and was equipped with a wealth of intelligent technology. Tank 300 combines hardcore with romance and intelligence, and infinitely expands its travel environment: want to go to the mountains and rivers, off-road ability is enough; driving in the city, enough tide and fan enough to be cheerful.
Not only can people enjoy the pleasing and cheerful travel, but also can carry the dream of sightseeing, tank 300 is naturally sought after by the younger generation. Looking back at the Jeep brand, there are only three domestic models at present. All models are load-bearing bodies, off-road passability is not as good as non-load-bearing body, fortunately, Jeep four-wheel drive intelligent technology, or can support most off-road environments. But as mentioned earlier, hardcore off-road is a niche market, and if you really come to the name of Jeep, you will most likely buy a wrangler.
Jeep also knows this, so the three domestic models have created a two-wheel drive version, but it seems to be in vain: familiar with the Jeep brand, know that the four-wheel drive is its housekeeping skill, two-wheel drive models are not in the scope of consideration; unfamiliar with the Jeep brand, will take the two-wheel drive model compared with other joint venture cars, brand strength disadvantage may make it fall behind. That is to say, the Jeep brand four-wheel drive version of the model is his family's fist product force, more competitive in the market.
But the jeep brand four-wheel drive version of the model, there is a fatal wound - the city open appears to be abrupt. Whether it's a guide, a free light, or a big commander specially built for the Chinese market, the appearance is very tough. This off-road design is very much in line with the brand's tonality. But most of the time the car is running in the city, the urban environment makes the off-road wind become a "hard injury", consumers inevitably feel out of place. It's like a weak student who can enjoy the iron in the gym, but visually contradictory. And interior design, intelligent experience, etc., the performance is also difficult to describe.
In addition, the driving performance is also off-road wind. For example, the entry-level car guide, in the AUTO mode, there is a power calibration phenomenon: when the vehicle is running at a uniform speed, release the accelerator pedal, the speed will continue to maintain, and even when the throttle is released, there are signs of speed increase. After about 4-5 seconds, the speed of the car begins to decrease, and the deceleration is very slow. The direct result of this calibration logic is that when commuting in the urban area, one brake costs two fuel. NVH, steering feel, etc., are a bit biased towards the hardcore off-road style. Of course, the other two models certainly don't perform exactly the same, but neither of the city road driving experiences are too comfortable.
The four-wheel drive version of the Jeep brand inherits its own off-road stunts, but fails to do a good job in urban road performance. The heirloom of the one-man market has not been able to adapt to the development of the times to achieve change, which is the real reason for Jeep's sluggishness. Today, Stellantis Group has decided to develop an "asset-light" business model, reduce costs and increase efficiency to expand the scale of its imported car business in China, coupled with the wave of new energy, leaving Jepp really not much time in China.