Can Weima still create early myths?
This article is original by "New Energy Vehicle Review EV" (ID: Xinnengyuanev) and can be reproduced with permission.
Text/Mu Jiujiu
Editor/Huang Xiaojun
Header image source/network
Weima, who was left behind, expects to return to the mainstream.
Recently, WM announced the official listing of the new WM E.5 for smart pure electric home car. Compared with the best-selling E.5 in the taxi market last year, the new Veyron E.5, in addition to upgrading its technology configuration, is mainly aimed at the personal consumer market.
With the best-selling products on the B-side returning to the C-end market, can WM still create an early myth?
PART.01
Proud Wymar
Among the new car-making forces, Weima is definitely a rare "positive gang".
In 2018, WM launched the first SUV model EX5, with a guiding price of 186.55 to 247,300 yuan and a subsidy of 112,300 to 164,800 yuan (taking Beijing as an example), becoming the only national new energy vehicle company facing the mainstream consumer group.
Image source: Network
You know, 150,000 to 250,000 yuan is regarded as the core market of traditional car companies, and the new car-making forces choose this market segment to undoubtedly find a hard bone for themselves. Therefore, most of the new energy vehicle companies that have just arrived have avoided it and turned to the upward or downward market.
However, Weima does not believe in evil, and the first arrow of the bow is directly pounded into the hinterland of traditional car companies, and this is inseparable from the founder Shen Hui.
Before founding WM, Shen Hui was already a prominent figure in China's automotive industry. He not only served as the president of BorgWarner China, an American parts company, but also served as vice president of Geely Holding Group, becoming one of the operators of Geely's acquisition and integration of Volvo and turning it into a profit.
These experiences allow Shen Hui to understand traditional cars at the same time, but also has a different insight into new energy vehicles. He believes that although compared with traditional automobile companies, the technical disadvantages of new energy vehicles cannot be compensated in the short term, but it must be the most grounded to define the new era with the traditional automotive people's thinking.
This traditional car idea is most directly reflected in the price. In Shen Hui's view, although setting the price at 150,000 to 250,000 yuan will face fierce competitors, this is also the most acceptable price for mass consumers and the largest market for new energy vehicles. Therefore, the price of many models such as WM EX5 and W6 is 150,000 to 250,000 yuan.
This line of thinking also led WM to practice the volume route when entering the market. Shen Hui believes that like some new brands that have emerged in the past few years, as long as the target is right and the market is right, the amount can be run in the short term.
Behind the successful volume is the high requirements for the factory, and Shen Hui, who has been in the automotive industry for more than 20 years, knows it well. Therefore, unlike Weilai, which chose to produce oem vehicles, WM built its own factory in Wenzhou Oujiangkou from the beginning.
After that, WM successfully delivered nearly 4,000 EX5 vehicles, becoming the best result in the new domestic car-making forces second only to Weilai. At the same time, WM EX5 has ranked first in the sales of a single model of the new car-making force for more than ten consecutive months, becoming the first model among the new car-making forces to sell more than 50,000 vehicles.
PART.02
Weima "no longer" fierce
In 2020, after a round of life and death, the growth trend of new energy vehicles is obvious.
Although a large number of new energy vehicles were weak due to the impact of the epidemic and Tesla's entry into the domestic market in the early stage, after this, the growth of new energy vehicles was obvious. In December in particular, sales of new energy models reached 206,000 units, up 58.1% year-on-year.
According to data from the China Automobile Association, in 2020, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 1.366 million units and 1.367 million units, respectively, an increase of 7.5% and 10.9% year-on-year, hitting a record high.
However, under the favorable conditions of new energy vehicles, Weima quietly fell off the team.
In 2020, WM sold 22,495 units a year, up 33.3% year-on-year. It seems to have increased, but in horizontal comparison, compared with Wei Xiaoli, Weima is slightly insufficient. In the same year, WEILAI sold 43,728 vehicles, an increase of 112.6%; the ideal annual sales of 37,624 vehicles, an increase of 112.6%; And Xiaopeng Automobile sold 27,006 units a year, an increase of 62.6%.
In terms of sales volume and sales growth, WM has lagged behind Wei Xiaoli and fallen out of the first camp of new car-making forces.
This year, Weima can be said to be controversial.
At the beginning of the year, Wang Xing boldly predicted that in the future, the 3+3+3+3 pattern of Chinese car companies competed for the next two rounds, of which the first three were 3 central enterprises, 3 local state-owned enterprises and 3 private enterprises, while the last 3 new forces were Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, kicking Weima out.
Shen Hui was not convinced, bluntly said that he wanted to make a bet with Wang Xing, and declared that Weima would definitely be one of the TOP3.
In the same period, car-making forces have completed listing, and Weima, which has been rumored to be listed, has never seen results in its IPO road.
External doubts remain, and Weima is in an internal crisis.
On the one hand, in 2020, WM faced the departure of a number of senior executives and management turmoil.
In February, Liu Liqun, the former general manager of the travel business unit, left his job; in April, Qi Liren, the former chief retail officer, left his job; in August, Lu Bin, co-founder of WM Motor, also left for "personal reasons".
On the other hand, WM has also been involved in spontaneous combustion crisis many times.
As early as 2018, WM had a spontaneous combustion problem of batteries, and in 2020, WM spontaneous combustion incidents were more frequent.
From September 23 to October 27, 2020 alone, WM Motor had spontaneous combustion accidents in Beijing, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places. On October 5 and October 13, two operating EX5s in Shaowu City, Fujian Province, spontaneously combusted, and on October 27, a WM EX5 exploded violently at the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
The occurrence of many spontaneous combustion accidents has undoubtedly greatly reduced the influence of the brand.
At the same time, complaints about the "power lock" problem in WM have also appeared on major automobile complaint platforms, and have also been named by the Central Radio and Television and Xinhua News Agency. According to reports, the owner of Yiwei horse-drawn carriage found that after his WM EX5 received free maintenance, the actual cruising range was 50km less than the original, and the owner found that after WM upgraded the battery management system, the full voltage of the battery was reduced from 408V to 397V.
After this, many car owners sent lawyer letters to the latter because of WM's unauthorized locking of the electricity.
PART.03
New energy collectively grabs the price hinterland
In 2021, Weima sold 39,095 cars, doubling its results, but ranking only sixth, not beating Wei Xiaoli at the same time, but also surpassed by the second camp of the new car forces zero run and Nezha.
Industry analysts believe that WM lags behind because it is too conservative as a new energy vehicle company.
First of all, in terms of endurance, the endurance of the two models of WM EX5 and W6 is about 500km, while the weilai ES6 and Xiaopeng P7, which are also new energy, have a battery life of more than 600km;
Secondly, in terms of the intelligence of consumer demands, WM still has not reached the level that the new forces of car manufacturing should have, and only the main form of intelligent driving is the AVP unmanned autonomous parking system, although it strives to ensure safety, but at the same time, it also opens up the gap with Wei Xiaoli and other advanced assisted driving as the core selling point.
Image source: Network
This statement seems flawless, but it is worth noting that there is obviously some "robber logic" in comparing different varieties of eggs in one basket.
From the price point of view, whether it is Weilai ES6 or Xiaopeng P7, its price is much higher than WM EX5, and Weilai is the "Tesla in new energy vehicle companies", mainly focusing on the more high-end market, so there are naturally higher requirements in endurance and intelligence.
If you look at the configuration, the WM M7 unveiled in October last year also has a cruising range of 700km, and is the world's first model equipped with three autonomous zoom high-precision super-vision solid-state lidar, the first model to achieve a lidar level detection range of 330 °, and has the world's first full-scene intelligent mobile space.
Therefore, WM is not conservative, nor is it immutable, but under its original positioning, it continues to cultivate the price hinterland of 150,000 to 250,000 yuan, and this is likely to become the advantage of WM in the future.
In 2021, the mainland new energy vehicle market entered an explosive growth stage, with the annual wholesale volume of new energy passenger vehicles reaching 3.312 million units, and the market penetration rate reached 15.7%, an increase of nearly 10 percentage points over the penetration rate of 5.8% in 2020. Among them, the cumulative sales of A00-class pure electric vehicles are about 898,500 units, accounting for 30.1%; the cumulative sales of B-class pure electric vehicles are about 616,000 units, accounting for 20.6%.
Although unlike the "spindle type" of fuel vehicles, the sales structure of the "dumbbell type" of the entire new energy vehicle market is obvious, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, believes that the A00-class new energy vehicle market will maintain growth this year, but the growth rate will not be too fast, and the increase in the new energy vehicle market will be mainly reflected in the A-class car and B-class car market represented by BYD.
Especially under the goal of "carbon neutrality", as new energy vehicles are gradually recognized and accepted by consumers, new energy vehicles are accelerating the replacement of fuel vehicles, and the market structure of new energy vehicles in the mainland will also accelerate from "dumbbell type" to "spindle type" optimization in the future. According to IHS Markit, mainstream new energy products positioned at 150,000 to 250,000 yuan in 2030 will have a market share of 60%. This means that the future battle for new energy vehicles may still be in the subdivision battlefield of 150,000 to 250,000 yuan.
At that time, Weima, which has already preemptively entered the hinterland of this price, may have the advantage of home combat.
Resources:
"The market structure of new energy vehicles will be optimized from "dumbbell type" to "spindle type""
"The Birth of "Xiaomi" in the Automotive Industry"
Weima: The New Force of Ultra-Traditional Car Manufacturing
Article transferred from: New Energy Vehicle Review EV
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