【Understand the way of the car, new car】The first issue of the "Auto Business Review" column, more content will be released on its public account in the future, you can pay attention to it. In the eyes of Chinese consumers, the image of Wuling Automobile van is highly accepted, since the beginning of the creation of high-end, play with high-priced cars, exquisite cars when the problem is continuous, every family car is accompanied by controversy. The launch of Wuling Jiachen is no exception.
Recently, "The Way to Understand Cars" learned from the official wuling automobile that wuling jiachen opened pre-sale. A total of 5 models (1.5L MT Enjoy Elite, 1.5L MT Comfort, 1.5T MT Comfort Vitality, 1.5T CVT Smart Luxury, and 1.5T CVT Premium Flagship) models were launched, with a pre-sale price range of 6.98-105,800 yuan. The new car is positioned as a 7-seat compact MPV, and Wuling officials said that the new car will be available in the second quarter.
Wuling Motors rushed high and failed three times
Wuling has always been synonymous with low-end, not to say that low-end is not good, low-end is to take a cheap and practical route to meet the manufacturing and research and development of tool attribute models.
Baojun, which was bad earlier, was established in 2010, just in time for the golden 8 years of rapid development. At the same time, the continuous hot sales of its Baojun 560, 730, 510 and other models, the good times are not long, with the passage of time, sales continue to break through, coinciding with the domestic market consumption upgrade, long-term positioning in the low-end market Baojun was finally forgotten by the market, in 2019, the new Baojun layout of the high-end market, trying to get rid of the low-end image.
By 2022, the Baojun brand has been marginalized by the market and consumers, its 560, 730, 510 and other models no longer exist, Baojun 560 has also been criticized by CCTV 315, in the past few years, baojun brand scenery, leaving a bunch of bad debts, now Baojun E100 only accepts orders to produce, Baojun E200 has become Wuling NanoEV, and E300 has been discontinued, Baojun brand only E300 alternative brand - KiWi EV.
Wuling high-end attempts have failed twice, Baojun is also a joke, and the performance of high-end silver label models is not outstanding, Wuling has also been seeking market expansion, in recent years, the domestic market share of less than 100,000 yuan has declined seriously.
In 2020, Wuling's global silver label strategy was officially released, and Wuling began its global journey and the brand went up. Silver Label's first strategic product, the large 4-seat MPV V-Ling Capgemini. With cumulative sales of 6,787 vehicles in 2022, ranking 10th in MPV in monthly sales and 8th in annual sales, it is not difficult to see that Capgemini's sales have shown a downward trend.
Wuling Xingchen was released in September 2021, with sales exceeding 10,000 vehicles in 26 days of listing, 25,000 vehicles in two months, and more than 50,000 vehicles in less than 4 months.
At the Wuling brand conference two months ago, in addition to the release of the Wuling Capgemini 280T version and the brand strategy of "China Wuling Flying Together", the scene also saw the third model of the global silver label - the 7-seat family car Wuling Jiachen, the reality is that the Wuling brand that made its fortune by low-end vans cannot support the vans with higher and higher prices, the Wuling brand has failed again, and the hope of Wuling Jiachen impacting the 7-seat family car market will not be too big.
On the topic of whether Wuling Automobile is an independent brand, "The Way to Understand Cars" learned from public information that there is a difference between Wuling Automobile and SAIC-GM-Wuling. The former is a Hong Kong-listed enterprise with full name: Wuling Automobile Group Holdings Limited, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under HK0305; the latter is a Sino-US joint venture consisting of saic motor group (holding 50.09792%), General Motors (holding 44%) and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. (later renamed Guangxi Automobile Group Co., Ltd., holding 5.83458%).
There is a certain connection between the two, such as Guangxi Automobile Group, which holds 100% of Liuzhou Mini Automobile Factory, and Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., which is referred to as a Sino-foreign joint venture with Wuling Automobile.
According to relevant information, the registered address of SAIC-GM-Wuling is: No. 18, Hexi Road, Liunan District, Liuzhou City, Guangxi, and the registered address of Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. is also: No. 18, Hexi Road, Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province. Interestingly, Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. was revoked on December 8, 2004, registered address: No. 18, Hexi Road, Liuzhou City, registered capital: 10 million US dollars, legal representative: Shenyang, the business scope includes the production and sale of mini cars and mini cars.
According to the relevant laws and regulations, the current two "Wuling" are Sino-foreign joint ventures, and the "National Shenche Wuling Hongguang" and "People's Scooter Hongguang MINI EV" in our eyes are from the Sino-foreign joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling.
In the SAIC-GM-Wuling project, Wuling undertook almost all aspects of the division of labor from the base and personnel to production, manufacturing and marketing, but it could only obtain less than 6% of the benefits from the equity.
(Vice President of SAIC Group, Director and General Manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling, Shenyang)
The core problem in the development of Wuling Automobile is that Shenyang, the vice president of SAIC Group and the director and general manager of SAIC-GM Wuling, who was born in 1961, has exceeded the retirement age, and who will take over after his retirement is appointed from within Wuling Automobile or the major shareholder SAIC Group, who will preside over the situation of Wuling Automobile, which is the key to the fate of Wuling Automobile.
On the one hand, the brand is high-end, and on the other hand, it is fed by the old scooter Hongguang MINIV. The interior of Wuling Motors, including SAIC-GM, is entangled, and over the years, if the Wuling brand does not publicize the high-end brand again and again, Wuling Motors has successfully sold well in the micro-electric vehicle market in the Hongguang MINIEV, and indeed has the image of a national car.
Wuling Jiachen, how is it?
Externally, the interior grille of the new car adopts a V-shaped design that echoes the brand LOGO, and the light group echoes the grille. The rear of the car continues the design style of the front of the car, using a similar through-type design language, the two sides of the light group and the middle net are separated, and the mainstream fusion design is not adopted, as a global silver label model, equipped with THE WULING English logo.
Body side, the overall or Wuling van design style, body lines have tension, sculpture surface also appeared on the new car, but the overall still gives people a sense of cheapness, still push sliding doors, so strictly did not catch up with the mainstream design of household MPV. In terms of body size, the new car has a length, width and height of 4785/1820/1760mm, and a wheelbase of 2760mm.
The rear part gives people the feeling of an ordinary van, but the overall workmanship is not as rough and inferior as Wuling Hongguang.
In terms of interior, the overall style is different from the previous Wuling SUV model, and no big new car will adopt a black + light brown color scheme in the future, and is equipped with a three-spoke multi-functional steering wheel.
10.25-inch suspension central control screen, etc., very deliberately to create a sense of technology, but their own workmanship and materials, are very rough. Of course, Wuling Jiachen is most proud of Wuling's self-developed Ling OS Lingxi system, which gives the exclusive IP image "Xiaowu Xiaoling" to interact with users, supporting functions such as visible speaking, continuous multi-instruction, and custom wake words.
In terms of technology configuration, the Ling OS Lingxi system supports team travel, navigation, road book customization and other functions to achieve location sharing, real-time intercom, circle layer communication between different vehicles; Ling OS has remote car control functions, which can realize vehicle status monitoring, remote switch air conditioning, open and close lock, Bluetooth key sharing, built-in NetEase cloud music, Himalaya and other applications. In fact, these functions are also available on other domestically produced cars.
In terms of safety configuration, the high-strength steel cage body structure design is adopted, and the high-strength steel material of the whole vehicle accounts for more than 64.2%, and the 5 doors of the whole vehicle are galvanized through the anti-rust process on the body. Wuling Jiachen is equipped with four surround airbags for the main/co-driver, ESP body electronic stability system, Nexteer electronic power steering system, keyless entry, one-button start, rearview mirror folding heating, 360° hd panoramic image, reversing radar, electronic handbrake, multi-function steering wheel, etc.
In terms of power, the new car will be equipped with a 1.5T turbocharged engine with a maximum power of 108 kW and a peak torque of 250 Nm. In terms of transmission, it is matched by a CVT transmission that simulates 8 speeds. According to Wuling officials, the fuel consumption of the new car is only 7.2L/100km.
In terms of suspension, the front McPherson independent suspension rear torsion beam is non-independent suspension. At the same time, Jiachen vehicle adopts 43 acoustic packages to cover the whole vehicle.
The editor has something to say:
The domestic compact MPV market is very lively, such as Geely Jiaji, GAC Trumpchi M6, Song MAX, Wuling Hongguang PLUS, Capgemini are just in a price range.
Wuling has always taken root in the field of compact MPV, this time, Wuling Jiachen MPV opened a pre-sale, from the pre-price point of view, the pricing is also in this range, significantly higher than the Price of Hongguang.
In the case of frequent obstructions in the road to the Wuling brand and the uncertainty of the domestic 7-seat family car market, it is difficult to say whether Wuling Jiachen can succeed. Even if it is not successful, Wuling Motors can also be regarded as filling the 100,000-class 7-seat family car market, after all, the front Baojun 730 is lying there, about the official price of Wuling Jiachen's new car, we look forward to it, as for the dynamic experience of the new car, we get a test drive in Guangzhou, and we are giving everyone an experience. (Photo: Source Network; Text: Li Ling, Editor)