Europe's new energy is a better world
In 2020, the founder of a new car-making force, after being introduced by an acquaintance, accidentally met a European car dealer. European car dealers described to him the huge demand for electric vehicles in Europe and their desire to sell their company's electric vehicles in Europe. Dealers can do it single-handedly, responsible for channel sales, and the new car-making forces are also full of yearning for Europe, looking forward to the beautiful world of the European electric vehicle market, and want to reach out to find out. The two talked happily and hit it off. So, half a year later, 100 electric cars were sent across the ocean to Norway.
In the dream of the new car-making forces, the European electric vehicle market is beautiful. This is the 1.0 version of the new car-making forces going to sea.
In 2021, the penetration rate of pure electric vehicles in Europe has been close to 20%, far exceeding the 13.77% of the Chinese market, which also verifies their judgment. Among them, the European countries with the highest penetration rate are Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, which are 89.32%, 45.79%, 36.23%, and 30.81% respectively, while Germany's sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 have surpassed the United States. These countries have also become the preferred European market for the new powers.
The clarion call to the sea has been sounded, the Weilai Xiaopeng have begun to form a team, release the strategy, the ambitious plan is announced in a high profile, real money and silver are sprinkled on Europe, and a series of work is also unfolded.
In the past two years, traditional car companies, like many new car-making forces that have entered or announced their entry into Europe, have also quietly announced plans for the European market – but they are obviously much more low-key than Weilai Xiaopeng.
According to statistics, starting from 2020, whether it is Weilai and Xiaopeng, which have entered Europe, or Nezha and Zero Run, who are preparing to enter the European market, and Aichi and Weima, who have begun to explore in the European travel market, the new car-making forces have targeted Europe.
Drafting: Quality driving
But two years later, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment finally returned to the lesson, compared with the high profile of the year, their sales are much more lonely. Xiaopeng and Weilai, which have entered Europe, will deliver only 474 and 200 vehicles in Europe in 2021.
According to eu-evs data, MG sold 14,228 vehicles in 2021, while BYD sold 1,247 units in Europe. Among them, Xiaopeng P7, P5, WEIO ES8 and BYD Tang EV are not full sales years.
Drafting: Quality driving
In fact, in the Chinese market last year, the annual sales of Xiaopeng P7 and NIO ES8 far exceeded that of BYD Tang EV.
According to the understanding of PinChai, some new car-making forces that announced that they have entered the European market for one year have opened a drastic layoff and announced plans to adjust the European market; on the other hand, more new car-making forces have begun a new round of high-profile announcements to enter Europe. At such a stage, how exactly should we examine the choice of new powers to enter the European market? Here you might as well try to look at it from a few perspectives:
In the past year, the new forces of fire in the Chinese market, why can't MG and BYD sell in the European market?
The European electric vehicle market is full of temptations, why is it difficult for new forces to penetrate?
What challenges does the new retail model, intelligent and autonomous driving, which are the core of the new forces, facing the smooth landing in Europe?
The new forces cannot sell traditional car companies
In 2019, MG sold to Europe. In order to truly enter the European market, MG has replaced "export" with "going to sea", which means that in addition to products, Chinese brands also want to use electric vehicles to infiltrate the system capabilities into Europe.
In the eyes of the outside world, this seems to be a choice to return to its hometown through British identity, but in fact, on the one hand, SAIC motor uses MG to achieve global expansion, and for MG, this way may have a reverse impetus to its domestic market.
However, from the perspective of the domestic market, the MG MZ electric version, which is popular in Europe, sold only 14,000 vehicles a year in China last year, which is similar to its annual sales in Europe.
This may be considered that MG's hot sales in Europe have not fed back into its domestic electric vehicle market. Thinking about it further, this may also mean that MG has not really penetrated into the European electric vehicle market.
In fact, at this stage, the competition of Chinese brands entering the European market is not the competition of products, but the competition of market strategies.
A person in charge of the overseas market of a new power brand told Pinchai that at this stage, the core reason why BYD Tang EV sold better than Weilai and Xiaopeng was that they cooperated with local dealers in Europe and carried out full authorization. European distributors can give full play to the advantages of the channel in the local area, "they have money to earn, of course, desperately sell." ”
Weilai and Xiaopeng, which have entered the European market, have chosen two channels at present, and Weilai insists on direct operation and wants to move a complete set of systems in China to Europe. Xiaopeng's channel model in Europe is also similar to its model in China, "direct operation + authorization" model. Authorization means working with a local distributor.
Xiaopeng Automobile's first brand direct experience store in the Netherlands Image source: Xiaopeng Automobile's official website
But on the other hand, it can be seen from the domestic channel model that the two new forces are taking the same "online + offline" new retail model as Tesla, which means that the early stage needs to be built including charging network system, service network, middle and back office system construction, IT system and other capabilities, and the construction of these capabilities cannot be completed in a short period of time.
A person familiar with the operation of overseas markets told Pinchai that tesla will prepare four years in advance for each overseas market.
Correspondingly, a person in charge of the overseas market of the independent brand told Pinchai that the independent brand has a set of mature experience in the overseas market, and in terms of channels and sales models, it will take three ways according to the situation in different regions: cooperation with local dealers, and the brand is uniformly managed by the market leader in the local area; the factory direct operation model, the establishment of sales companies in the local area, management of the market and after-sales; the distribution mode of the brand represented by foreign dealers.
On the side of independent brands, selling cars is still the first. For the new forces, they hope to bring the domestic new retail business model to Europe in its entirety.
The different goals have created different sales and channel models of new forces and independent brands in overseas markets.
Has been Southeast Asia, South America, South Africa as the main export region of the independent brand, and in the domestic market has a wealth of dealer system management experience, they do not pay attention to the development of online model, or that they are not trying new sales models in overseas markets at this stage, but the mature channel model copied to Europe.
Compared with the experienced independent brands in overseas markets, the new forces can only rely on the experience of the domestic market, taking Xiaopeng as an example. Its sales in the Chinese market have maintained a continuous upward trend, and the "direct operation + authorization" model has not encountered problems in the Chinese market, because the authorized dealers have money to earn.
An overseas market observer introduced to PinChai that at present, only the first echelon of new car manufacturers in the overseas market to fight for the new retail model, in the long run, the overall efficiency will be higher, the user experience is better, but the systematization ability requirements are very high, the general enterprise can not do.
United New Energy, which has just entered the Thai market, has adopted a distribution model of cooperation with local distributors. At present, in addition to the mature Tesla, which is currently doing the "online + offline" new retail model in overseas markets, only Weilai and Xiaopeng are there.
The difference in channel models directly leads to differences in pricing power and profit models.
Taking Xiaopeng as an example, in the European market, on the one hand, it is necessary to complete the construction of the online system, at the same time, Xiaopeng may face a stronger and more profit-oriented dealer in Europe, and before the market share really rises, the pricing power and profit may intensify the contradiction between the two sides.
In the pricing of the overseas distribution model of traditional car companies, it is usually the two sides that price according to the local market conditions, and the manufacturer gives the settlement price, the difference between which is the profit of the dealer, and the dealer who participates in the market pricing determines the profit margin accordingly.
Drafting: Quality driving
In contrast, although NIO has less problems of joining in Europe and can decide its own pricing, combined with the expectations and long-term development of the European market, NIO's current pricing in the European market is actually at the expense of profit margins.
In terms of pricing strategy, Weilai almost "copied" domestic pricing to Europe, which is much lower than the Audi e-tron, which is popular in Europe. You know, affected by the epidemic, the cost of shipping has risen.
Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of Weilai Automobile, once said that the cost of shipping has risen by 3-5 times, and the ship is still relying on robbery, but at this stage, shipping is still more convenient and cheaper than building factories in the local area, and Weilai will observe it overseas first, and then think about the more long-term layout problem.
At the same time, WEILAI has also moved the charging and replacing system in the Chinese market to Europe, and its construction, manpower, and operation are facing high costs. Recently, foreign media reported that WEILAI is negotiating with other car manufacturers in Europe and is willing to share its power exchange platform technology, and its purpose is not excluded in order to reduce the construction cost of the substation.
In January this year, NIO's first substation in Europe was officially opened, and NIO, which is planning to enter Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, aims to build 20 substations in Europe this year
Nio's layout of the substation in Norway Source: NIO official
For Weilai, to complete the landing of a huge power exchange system like China in China, not only takes time, but also doubles the amount of money invested, which also means that continuous revenue capacity, whether for Weilai or Xiaopeng, is the basis for ensuring the normal advancement of its European market in the next few years, and before that, the new forces in Europe must be prepared not to make money for 5-10 years.
Intelligent, can not meet the European local standards
In addition to the sales system, for the new forces with a high degree of intelligence, going to Europe also means overcoming the difficulty of intelligent landing in Europe.
That is to say, the new forces that claim to be full-stack self-developed in China and constantly improve their autonomous driving capabilities cannot really exert these advantages in the early stage of entering the European market.
Take Xiaopeng as an example. Its first G3i to enter Norway has been optimized for adaptation in the on-board intelligent system, which can adapt to English, support English speech recognition, and retain automatic parking assistance functions.
A person close to the overseas market of the new force told PinChai that intelligence cannot be done in Europe in the short term because it requires strong data training.
When it comes to data, you can't avoid GDPR, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR has very strict regulations for businesses to collect, store and use data about the personal information of European residents.
For autonomous driving, which requires a lot of data accumulation, because of the strict management of customer data, on the one hand, it has to be tested in a large number of test vehicles locally, and on the other hand, its data processing also needs to be carried out locally.
The head of a new force in the European market, the head of the autonomous driving algorithm, told PinChai that because of the strict data protection in Europe, they have recently been accounting for the self-driving business in Europe, and the money paid may be considerable.
For example, in terms of data collection, it is necessary to outsource or collect it yourself, and at the same time, it is necessary to set up data centers overseas and invest a certain amount of manpower and resources.
At the same time, automatic driving is the core capability of intelligent electric vehicles, for the new forces that want to go to sea, the successful landing of autonomous driving in Europe determines that its brand truly has the ability to gain a foothold in Europe.
In addition to autonomous driving, the entire car and machine applications are also almost facing reconstruction.
Also because of the popularity of the new forces in Europe, local suppliers maintain a cautious and cooperative attitude towards the construction of the vehicle application system.
A new overseas market source told Pinchai that when negotiating cooperation with the service, the other party will first ask: How popular is your brand in Europe? How much does it sell per year? How much exposure and penetration will we have?
At present, the sales volume of the new forces is not enough to bring satisfactory answers to the above questions for service providers.
At the end of last year, Qin Lihong revealed in an interview with the media at NIO DAY that NIO's technology center in Berlin has begun to be established, and the main direction is intelligent and automatic driving.
Qin Lihong once said that in the automatic driving of Weilai, the bottom layer of global research and development is consistent, but each market should be divided and ruled, such as high-definition map partners, road training for different countries, etc., all need to be adapted to local conditions.
MG's personnel in charge of overseas technology development have mentioned that in addition to regulatory problems in Europe, there is no uniformity in infrastructure and charging systems. He gave an example of how, if a car could be charged across Europe, a dedicated communication module would be needed, which could take two and a half years, as well as millions of euros in development costs.
For the new forces, localization research and development is also a test of time and money one after another.
Tesla's old ways
Tesla's european footsteps from the Norwegian market and its rapid success in the local market should be a temptation for the new car-making forces.
However, looking back at Tesla's performance in the European market in the past few years, it will be found that even if it has brand awareness in the international market, Tesla's development in the European market has also experienced many setbacks.
For example, in the few years since entering the Norwegian market, Tesla has been complained by local consumers for long delivery times and delayed customer service response speeds.
Musk also responded on Twitter to the problem: it is because of the difficulties it encountered in expanding its service facilities in Norway, including the need to move service vehicles to wait for government approvals, which caused slow service response.
In 2020, Tesla was also sued by the German Anti-Unfair Competition Center for misleading consumers because of the promotion of autonomous driving.
It is not difficult to see that for a brand that has just entered the overseas market, service capabilities, autonomous driving capabilities, etc. will face various tests in the local area.
Early Tesla owners in China also experienced vehicle repairs, waiting months for Tesla to mail in the United States for accessories and defending their rights because of assisted driving accidents.
For the new forces that do not yet have market share in the European market and are still expanding, they will also encounter the same problems as Tesla, and at the same time, because they do not have the same brand international influence as Tesla, it will only be more difficult for them to open the European market, and even pay for their own trial and error.
At the same time, the European automotive market is often described as a stubborn market. The profound accumulation of its century-old automobile industry still gives European local brands an absolute advantage, and it is very difficult to penetrate.
An overseas market observer told Pinchai that even Toyota, which has been in Europe for 40 years, has a market share of only 2% in Europe.
Can Xiaopeng and NIO's core capabilities in China help them gain a foothold in Europe?
Previously, Li Xiang, the founder of the ideal car who has always said that he will not enter Europe in the short term, said that in fact, the ideal has set up a team to study overseas markets, and is seriously studying the product + channel model and what form to go to sea.
Going to Sea Europe is a must, but not overnight.
Source: NIO
2.0 mode
Judging from the objective environment, there is indeed no reason why the new car-making forces should not enter Europe.
However, at this stage, Weilai and Xiaopeng are facing various reconstruction problems in Europe, and for a long time they have to rely on the domestic market to feed the overseas market.
In the past two years, due to the impact of the automotive industry environment, more companies are making plans to "slow down the pace of the European market and focus on the single market".
At the end of 2020, Weima, which announced an agreement of intent with Uber and is preparing to enter the European travel market, has not heard any closer news in 2021.
An investor in the industry analyzed to PinChai that the difficulty of the European market may be unimaginable to everyone, and for many new car-making forces that are still seeking IPO, there are more to balance and trade-offs.
In fact, just as the new forces first poured into Silicon Valley at the beginning of their establishment, eager to have the label of technology companies and global positioning, selling cars to Europe is also part of their global ambitions for the new forces.
However, unlike the setbacks in the United States, at this time, they chose Europe, already have a stable domestic growth market, and have a clearer positioning for future development. Although at present, the new forces in the European market has not really opened the situation, the first to enter the European Weilai, Xiaopeng are facing the problem of how to layout the sales system, price system, product system and brand system, due to their different strategies, in these aspects must make trade-offs, whether it is Weilai or Xiaopeng, at this stage can not achieve the best of both worlds.
For the new power brand, this is an inevitable stage of development to enter Europe, but in the long run, the new force has the hope of breaking the problem of failing to enter Europe in the era of fuel vehicles.
For the optimism and excitement of the entire industry on the European market at this time, the new car-making forces have also begun to hold a cautious attitude.
A European team of new car-making forces has begun a massive layoff, downsizing by 50 percent, and replacing the head of overseas markets.
Another person related to the new car-making force believes that the promotion of the European market in the past year has been a trial and error stage, and no actual meaningful progress has been made, and it can even be said that the result is very bad - equivalent to a year of idle work in the European market last year, making two shouts.
Compared with the high-profile plan of the past, the new car-making forces now hope to find a 2.0 model that is more suitable for them and has steadily entered the European market.
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