Chinese consumers' tastes seem to be very difficult to figure out.
You say that the Chinese people like the long-axis version of the car, some brands even if it is extended, they sell well; you say that the Chinese people attach importance to the power, some brands even if the engine shrinks repeatedly, they live very moist; you say that the Chinese people do not like the special supply must be original, some brands are directly introduced with the same frequency overseas, unchanged, but still can not sell ...
It's like when you're on a blind date, the girl you're dating has a mother who only asks for "good character", and in the end you find that the "good character" in people's eyes includes and is not limited to 985 graduates, is more than 180cm tall, has a job with an annual salary of more than 500,000 yuan, and is in Shanghai Central (Shanghai is such a standard, right?). Have a matrimonial home where you live independently and preferably without a loan, etc. Like everyone thinks that not smoking or drinking, it is not related to character at all.
The same is true for selling cars, sometimes the consumption (father) fee (mother) person (mother) wants to express is not necessarily the literal meaning, the car company needs to speculate one by one, carefully do a good job of demand analysis. The analysis is right, the order is exploded, and the pick-up cycle of three or five months is not a problem. The analysis was wrong, hundreds of units a month, and the marketing team could not sleep at night.
The lingyun S, a medium-sized SUV priced at 160,000 to 170,000 yuan, focuses on athletic performance, which is the result of starway analysis.
Hoshikoshi S is in front of The starway is definitely visible
Sport SUVs have long been not a new category, in the 150,000 to 200,000 yuan level, veterans have become a history of FAW Mazda CX-4, GAC Toyota C-HR, Haval F7x, Changan CS85 COUPE, recruits have Geely Xingyue S, Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback and other models. They have different brands, different power, different sizes, and the only thing they have in common is that sales are very average.
Previously, the Hoshigoshi S from the CMA platform was the model that I thought had the most potential to carry the 150,000-class sports SUV flag. But in addition to the flash in the pan when it first went public, from the middle of last year to last month, the average monthly sales of the Hoshikoshi S were around 1,500 units, and only in December last year, it soared through 4,000 units.
Is it that the Hoshikoshi S product is not strong? Otherwise, the CMA platform is blessed, and the high-power 2.0T engine equipped with it is used in many "China Star" models such as The Star Yue L, matching the Aisin 8AT gearbox, the interior material is thick, and the configuration will not pull the crotch. The GKUI 2.0 smart ecosystem is not the top, but it is definitely not bad. In terms of the external environment, the media reputation is also generally good. Hoshigoshi S is like the "rich second generation" in the automotive industry, with a high starting point at birth, but the final market response is relatively general.
Of course, there are comprehensive reasons for poor sales, but this also shows that at the level of 150,000 to 200,000 yuan, the consumer market is not interested in sports-oriented SUV models.
These situations, I believe that all the R & D engineers and marketing leaders of Xingtu are also in the eyes. But they still spared no effort to launch the Lingyun S, which focuses on athletic performance, and even pulled the new car to Zhuzhou International Circuit for field testing before the launch to prove its excellent athletic performance. In my opinion, the more important purpose of Xingtu's move is to broaden its own user circle.
Including Xingtu, the owner group of the entire Chery system is characterized by high loyalty and high average age. Undertaking the upward mission of the brand, Xingtu has been thinking about how to get more young people's hearts.
At the same time, as a high-end brand under Chery Group, Xingtu has different positioning from the two major brands of Jietu and Chery. The latter two are to solve the part of the population from "0" to "1", and Xingtu needs to open up a series of "upgrading markets" such as personalization, trend, and technology. Generally speaking, most of the groups that can pursue personalization, trend, and technology are mainly young people. For many reasons, Xingtu's desire for young people has reached a very strong point.
So, even if the cake of the sports SUV is not large, Xingtu must take this step. The mission of Lingyun S is not only to contribute to the total sales of Xingtu, but also to spread the brand image among young people.
And judging from the marketing activities before and after the listing, Xingtu has indeed made some efforts to attract young people. The 72-hour live circuit broadcast makes the performance of Lingyun S no longer stop at words, and the lap time of 2 minutes and 17 seconds also refreshes the record for the fastest lap of the mass-produced SUV on the F2-class track of Zhuzhou International Circuit. With talking points, there is naturally a basis for spreading among young circles.
Why are sport SUVs not selling well?
When the automotive industry has developed to this day, "sports" marketing has been difficult to make people enthusiastic. Any car, as long as it is not a hardcore off-road, is mentioning the "sport" attribute. When sports are linked to rejuvenation, it has become an important way for many car companies to reflect youth when designing and developing products.
But let's put aside the ideal and talk about reality, how many young people like sports cars? Or rather, how many people have the freedom to buy a sports car?
The reality is that there are many people in fat houses that don't like sports, not to mention cars.
To this end, I counted the young people who have cars around them, although the sample size is not large (39 people), but also has a certain reference, because the purchasing power of most of them is in the most mainstream range of China's automobile consumer market, that is, 100,000 to 350,000 yuan.
Among them, 11 people chose to use "sports" as a product feature, accounting for only 28%, which was lower than I expected. Of the remaining 72 percent, about half have the right to choose their own cars. In other words, if young people are completely allowed to choose a car freely within the budget, the number of people who want to own a sports car is not more than half.
By the way, 10 of the 11 who chose sports cars are automotive and related industry practitioners.
In fact, many of today's marketing activities and sports selling points are labels imposed on young people by the brand side, and they do not fully get the G-point of young people. According to the difference in personal personality, car environment, family background, and wealth accumulation, young people still choose cars in a wide range of situations. If you simply equate young people with sports, such as Lynk & Co 02 and Mazda CX-4, which I think are very competitive in sports, you can only take the report card of 1,000 units sold per month and lose Maicheng.
This is because, in addition to young people will not be "tearful" for sports SUVs, sports SUVs in China also have the characteristics of water and soil.
From the BMW X6 era, it is not too late for sport SUVs to enter the domestic market, but most of them stay in the middle and high-end models dominated by luxury brands, which are suitable for consumer groups based on additional purchases. This car does not have to carry too much performance, and can take into account the passability of sports cars and SUVs.
However, when this cross-border movement wind began to blow into the household consumer market, its many inherent shortcomings began to gradually appear.
Based on the data of the seventh national census released in May 2021, the number of cars per 1,000 people on the mainland is less than 200, that is to say, at the level of 100,000-200,000 yuan, Chinese consumers are still mainly buying for the first time and buying for the first time. In such a consumer context, the choice of an SUV has to consider its daily practical performance, and the sports SUV generally uses a slipback design, making it often stretched in the trunk space and the performance of the rear head space compared with the ordinary SUVs.
In addition, because the sales of models in the sports segment are not expected to be higher than that of traditional models, the proportion of R&D and design costs evenly shared on each car will increase, making most sports SUVs more expensive than ordinary SUVs. For example, Mercedes-Benz GLC COUPE vs Mercedes-Benz GRC, BMW X4 vs BMW X3 and so on.
Including today's mention of Xingtu Lingyun S, compared with the Entry Model of Lingyun 2.0T, it has also increased by 2,000 yuan, which is still the case that Xingtu has always been priced thickly, and Lingyun S has not changed much compared with Lingyun in terms of interior and exterior design.
On the one hand, there is a cheaper and more practical ordinary SUV, and on the other hand, it is a sportY SUV with a cooler appearance and more personality. The data tells us that most Chinese people have chosen the former.
Master observation
Of course, the sports SUV is not a good road, and it does not mean that the Starway S will sell poorly. Because Lingyun S has the advantage of being a latecomer after all, it still meets the car needs of the first-time buyer in terms of product characteristics, and it is more like a choice for Lingyun potential customers. Unfortunately, the future sales of Lingyun S must also be in the same model as Lingyun statistics, we may be difficult to track how the Lingyun S single product market will perform, which is also my biggest curiosity about this car.