Let's leave it aside whether the younger generation in China really has a soft spot for coffee, and can tell the difference between the flavor characteristics and textures of mocha, macchiato and latte. However, from the perspective of the creativity and strategy of using coffee varieties to name its vehicles, the Great Wall Wei brand, which has threatened to create a local "China's first luxury SUV brand", can also be regarded as "carrying out the personality to the end".
Since the birth of the brand in 2016 and the intelligent transformation of the heavy warehouse in 2021, the brand that "bets" on the surname of Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, seems to be slowly falling into the dilemma of unlimited scenery in the early stage and insufficient horsepower in the later stage.
(As the "past life" of Weipai, WEY brand was established in November 2016)
In 2017, "WEY's VV7 and VV5" models both had a highlight moment when their monthly sales exceeded 10,000;
In 2018, "WEY"'s new model VV6 was listed, and its total annual sales volume was nearly 140,000 vehicles, an increase of about 60% year-on-year, which once became a successful model for the high-end of domestic independent brands.
Four years passed, looking back, this seems to be the peak moment when Weipai was the most watched in the domestic market.
On January 23, 2022, Great Wall Group officially announced its 2021 performance report: Great Wall's five major brands, including Great Wall pickup trucks, Great Wall Haval, Euler and independently developed tank SUVs, have achieved steady sales throughout the year, occupying a place in their respective main markets. However, Weipai, which was only pinned on high hopes, became the only brand under the Great Wall Group to have negative growth, with cumulative sales of only 58,000 vehicles in the whole year, a sharp decline of 26% year-on-year.
Low sales are "forced" to increase prices
Freezing three feet is not a cold day. The inflection point of the sharp decline in Weipai sales appeared as early as three years ago.
In 2019, the annual sales of "WEY" was about 100,000 vehicles, down nearly 30% from 2018. Among them, VV5 annual sales of 21997 vehicles, down 65% year-on-year; VV7 annual sales of 19678 vehicles, down 64% year-on-year; and after these two models to the edge of the market, the sales of the main model VV6 were also affected, and the performance was worrying.
In 2020, the annual sales of the "WEY" model series further declined to 78,500 units. Although the order for a new model tank 300 launched by Great Wall WEY at that time was overwhelmed, it briefly saved the "WEY" from the precarious situation. However, soon after, the Great Wall Group decided to make the "Tank SUV" a brand independent operation and completely divested from the "WEY" for the sake of brand strategy and product segmentation. The thighs just held were forcibly torn apart, and the prospect of "WEY" seems to be even more unoptimistic.
(In 2021, with BYD's free transfer of the "Wei" trademark to Great Wall Motors, WEY finally named "Wei Brand")
Since then, Weipai's sales in the global market have indeed shown no signs of rebound, and they have "fallen and fallen" all the way. Although under the blessing of DHT hybrid technology, the new models of Wei brand "coffee series" (Mocha, latte, macchiato) also show remarkable points in terms of product strength, but the "lemon hybrid DHT" and "coffee intelligent crowd creation platform" that make "coffee system" proud are soon planned under the Haval and Euler brands. In this way, Wei Pai completely lost its own characteristics.
According to the sales data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association, the sales volume of the three car series of "Mocha", "Latte" and "Macchido" in their respective market segments can be described as "can't bear to look at it".
As of April 1, 2022, Weipai "Macchiato DHT" was listed for half a year, with a total sales volume of 6173 vehicles, and its sales of only 12 vehicles in February 2022 and only 26 vehicles in March were sold, and the market sales were basically at a standstill; in addition, Weipai "Mocha" sales fell sharply after the launch of THEPHE model, selling only 1879 vehicles in March (Mocha + Mocha DHT-PHEV), which has fallen out of the top 100 in the domestic market SUV sales rankings.
However, what is unexpected is that even if sales have been so dismal, the Wei brand "coffee" model still chooses to increase the price.
At noon on April 12, 2022, Weipai Official Micro released a message saying: "Affected by comprehensive factors such as the sharp increase in the prices of raw materials, chips and core components, the official guidance price of some models on sale in the coffee series will be adjusted, with an increase of 5,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan, which will officially take effect from 00:00 on April 15, 2022!" ”
In addition, Weipai officials also said that those who pay a deposit before the price adjustment officially takes effect will not be affected by the price adjustment, and the price list adjusted by different models is as follows:
High-end brand "low-end" quality control services
When we focus on the analysis of the reasons for the current dismal sales of Weipai, in addition to the lackluster of the marketing line and the wavering of its own positioning, the responsibility of the product side cannot be ignored, after all, in the fierce competition in the domestic market, consumers' expectations for quality have become more and more picky.
According to the public information of authoritative third-party platforms including car quality network and black cat complaints, the number of complaints in the domestic market of Weipai has remained high in recent years, and the reasons for complaints involve car machines, abnormal sounds, engines, batteries, fuel consumption, suspension and even "sales fraud", which can be described as various, but the door "hangs red lights".
Among them, a Owner of a Wei brand "Mocha" (2021 2.0T two-wheel drive Special Alcohol Version) complained: "Less than 1 month after the purchase of the car, the fault lights of the car dashboard are all flashed, and the brake lights are accompanied by flashing, which is very easy to bring errors of judgment to the rear car." After the 4S shop repairs, the failure recurred, and no solution could be given. “
The owner contacted the Great Wall Motor manufacturer, the manufacturer did not solve, the complaint has no door so far there is no news.
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(Weipai Mocha 2021 2.0T two-wheel drive special alcohol version fault video)
Another owner of the Wei brand VV5 (2020 1.5T two-wheel drive Yan Pioneer) also feedback the manufacturer's prevarication after-sales. He said that the model he bought claimed to have a tire perspective in the user manual, but the actual car machine function did not, and contacting the manufacturer's customer service has been delayed, asking for a solution as soon as possible. Under this complaint, Wei Pai's reply has always stayed: "The information has been received, and it will coordinate with the relevant 4S stores to verify and process as soon as possible." ”
In the domestic market of the same level, the customer satisfaction of Weipai is obviously low. Looking at the brand high-end banner it raised, I feel quite ironic, the excellent quality of the car does not come from the simple and rough configuration stacked, bright and beautiful exterior interior, but also not only by choosing an international first-line supplier can be solved, high-end brands If even the basic quality control and after-sales service can not be guaranteed, it is really upside down, how can it regain the highlight?
Executives' remarks are controversial, is it self-confidence or defense-breaking?
Although Weipai's domestic sales are "flop" at a speed visible to the naked eye, the public relations attitude of its brand executives is very different from the public expectations, which is quite intriguing.
In the "2022 Global CEO Brand Guardian Index", Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, ranked third in the world and first in China. On the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Great Wall Haval brand, the leader of Great Wall Motors strongly emphasized that "too much depends on the first thirty years, and the life of Great Wall Motor Haval hangs on the line", thus opening a new journey of transformation and development of Great Wall Haval.
But for Wei Pai, Wei Jianjun's doting and indulgence were so much that they were about to overflow.
On January 14, 2022, at a small media dinner before the Weipai Baoding press conference, a reporter mentioned that "if the ideal ONE is replaced by the logo of a traditional car company, it will definitely not sell so much." Unexpectedly, this sentence instantly ignited Wei Jianjun, and he replied with a full sense of gunpowder:
"XXX knows a fart... Li Xiang, a product manager, and Li Bin, who studied sociology, do not understand technology, while He Xiaopeng only understands software. ”
"Wei Pai didn't sell well after the transformation, just because the ability to engage in marketing and the whole concept was not as good as Wei Xiaoli."
The bombshell is staggering.
At the online conference of Weipai Mocha DHT-PHEV on March 1, 2022, Weipai CEO Li Ruifeng mentioned that "Weipai Intelligent DHT Hybrid Technology is the best new energy technology in the world" and said that "Smart DHT achieves the most extreme product performance with three elements of high integration, high efficiency and high performance." Compared with Weilai, Xiaopeng and other products that use other technical routes, DHT mixed can achieve suspension of Wei Xiaoli", so that the term #Wei brand hanging Wei Xiaoli was once on Weibo hot search.
On the day of 315, Wei brand CMO Qiao Xinyu spoke again.
He believes that "the fuel car fragrance is not fragrant, but the joint venture fuel at the same price as the latte DHT must not be fragrant." The appearance is higher than you, the configuration is stronger than you, the intelligence is better than you, the sense of luxury is not to say, the most important thing is that under the blessing of DHT, the fuel consumption is lower than you... There is no future for joint venture fuel. Welcome to punch in the face. ”
Before there was Wei Jianjun media will lose their attitude, after there is Li Ruifeng's press conference to make amazing remarks, and then there is Qiao Xinyu welcome to punch the face, the time interval between the three people speaking is not too long, it is inevitable to make the industry suspicious, Wei Pai Is this really confident or finally broke the defense?
Weipai, which is pinned high hopes on high-end luxury positioning by the Great Wall Group, with its current performance, is obviously far from meeting expectations, especially when compared with direct competitors such as Lynk & Co, there is a huge gap in both sound, sales and word of mouth, and may even become the biggest uncertainty factor affecting the achievement of the 2025 strategic goal of "global sales of 4 million vehicles and revenue of more than 600 billion yuan" of the Great Wall.
According to industry sources, Wei Pai is planning for the brand's "secondary entrepreneurship".
However, from WEY to Wei Pai, and now to Wei Pai. From the tough luxury "VV series" to the feminine style of the obvious "coffee series", this "I am not called WEY" Wei brand, behind the brand name and positioning of several changes, it reflects the Great Wall Motor's wavering for the Wei brand. And today's second change, whether the road ahead is clear, we will wait and see.