As the earliest leading big brother of its own brand, Chery, which has been brilliant for ten years, has been on the downward slope since 2013, and now the ranking is falling in the top four. Chery carries the weight forward, can Yin Tongyue recover the time that was "stolen".
1. Chery has been brilliant for ten years?
In 1997, Yin Tongyue went south from FAW to Anhui and led Chery people to open their own brand "car dream" in a small grass house with a barren grass beach. Fengyun, QQ and other models are popular in the north and south of the river, and Chery has played a new movement of independent brand car manufacturing. Since 2001, Chery has become the "leading big brother" of its own brand, not only riding the dust in sales, winning the independent sales championship for more than ten consecutive years, but also embarking on the road of independent research and development, successfully creating the first engine with completely independent intellectual property rights in the mainland - ACTECO, winning the reputation of "Technology Chery".
2. Slipping from pin crown to fifth?
Just when people are expecting Chery to lead its own brand and gradually achieve overtaking the joint venture curve, what happened next is a big surprise. It is most appropriate to describe Chery with ten years of Hedong and ten years of Hexi. After more than a decade of glory, Chery has embarked on a downward spiral since 2013. According to the data, Chery's sales this year were only 423,000 vehicles, down 20% year-on-year, while the Great Wall, which bet on the SUV market, came later, with sales soaring 21%, with a result of 754,000 vehicles, significantly ahead of Chery and won the throne of independent sales.
Since then, Chery has never turned over and entered a decade-long recession. In the golden age of Chinese automobiles, the Great Wall, Changan, and Geely have risen, while Chery has been surpassed by these former little brothers because of the repeated defeats of multi-brand strategies. In 2021, according to the data of the Association, BYD's sales volume is as high as 720,000 vehicles, while Chery only has 600,000 vehicles, which is surpassed by BYD. Today, BYD's monthly sales have exceeded 100,000, while Chery Automobile has only more than 60,000 vehicles, a big gap. In ten years, Chery slipped from its own crown to fifth place, which made people sigh.
3. Can Yin Tongyue recover the time that was stolen?
Today's Chery, along with Geely, great wall, Changan, BYD is not at all in the same order of magnitude, has slipped into a second-tier car company. In recent years, Yin Tongyue has made frequent moves, and Chery has driven full horsepower, obviously hoping to recover the ten years of time that was "stolen". Chery started mixed reform in 2019, and did not hesitate to "sell itself" at a price of nearly 20 billion yuan and accelerate the pace of listing. However, due to the problems with the follow-up funds of the new controlling shareholder Qingdao Wudaokou, Chery had to introduce a new strategic investor from Lixun Precision. Chery's mixed reform road has constant twists and turns, and whether it can be successfully listed is really worrying.
In terms of product layout, Chery adheres to the strategy of boutique products, but unfortunately, the gap with other independent brands seems to be getting farther and farther away. The SUV model is Chery's sales force, but compared to other independent SUVs, Chery does not have an advantage. When the home Huadan Tiggo 8 sales are mediocre, it can't even be on the top fifteen SUV sales list of the federation. In front of Haval H6, Changan CS75, ANDD Song, Tiggo 8 is far behind. As for cars, Chery is even weaker, and Arrizo's sales are not prominent, very marginalized, and there is a big gap with Emgrand, Yidong, and BYD Qin. There is also a high-end brand Starway, which is also a dismal sales volume.
In the face of the unprecedented changes in the automotive industry in a hundred years, Chery does not dare to slacken off in the slightest, and has already begun to exert efforts in the new energy track. In the first quarter of this year, Chery's new energy vehicle sales were 53,000 units, which was not as good as BYD and other head car companies, but it was also OK. However, it should be noted that more than 90% of Chery's new energy vehicle sales are contributed by Chery Small Ant and QQ Ice Cream, two micro-electric vehicles. Relying only on this kind of entry-level electric vehicle cannot make Chery stand in the era of new energy vehicles. If Chery's new energy vehicle business does not go to the middle and high end, it is doomed to lose the future.