This article is the 476th original work of deep diving atom
Shouldering the mission of Dongfeng Company's new energy transformation and brand upwards, Lantu, who does not allow failure, starts with other people's technology and painstakingly paints a "blueprint" of his own.
In December 2021, less than half a year after the official delivery, Lantu Automobile rushed to the fourth position in the sales of high-end electric SUVs in that month, with single-month sales of 3330 vehicles, an increase of 236.36% month-on-month, more than the total sales since the birth of the Lantu brand. This number and speed make Dongfeng Motor Group feel excited, and also let the industry see the hope of Dongfeng breaking the situation in the high-end field.
Just when people predicted whether Lantu could pull the ideal one that had been listed for more than two years off the altar, the beginning of 2022 gave Lantu a "first blow".
In January, Lantu sales were only 1553 units, down 53.4% month-on-month; then in February, it continued to decline, delivering a total of 740 new cars, down another 52.4% month-on-month, and sales fell for two consecutive months. By March, its sales had finally bottomed out and rebounded, returning to a relatively normal 1,385 units.
Although in 2022, the entire auto market is affected by many unfavorable factors such as chip shortages and repeated epidemics, most car companies have different degrees of sales fluctuations. However, relying on Dongfeng Group's more than 50 years of experience in car manufacturing, coupled with innovative operating ideas, it prides itself on "new strength in car manufacturing". Compared with the main competitor Ideal ONE, it is still slightly inadequate. As can be seen from the sales trend chart, the ideal volume is larger, the month-on-month decline is lower, and the rebound is more rapid.
What happened to this new brand and product that the whole group has invested heavily in?
Extenders are not at the heart of success
For the positioning of Lantu, Lu Fang, CEO of Lantu Automobile, once said, "Electric new Lantu, a new blueprint for life." Lantu will take the new strength of car manufacturing as the development goal to meet the five senses of users, provide a series of zero-anxiety products and services for the new backbone, and is committed to becoming the leader of high-end new energy passenger cars. "From this pile of words, I only saw that Lantu wanted to make a high-end new energy vehicle, but what is this car like?" Who is the target group? None of them mentioned.
In the first model that followed, we found out with hindsight that Lantu seemed to be running in the ideal direction.
Ideal Auto relies on a product to take another way to drive the new force of car manufacturing successfully out of the circle, ideal ONE since delivery, the cumulative delivery volume has reached more than 155,000 vehicles - this is a number that makes the same level of new energy vehicle companies red. But the success of the ideal car is not the so-called range extension that solves the endurance anxiety.
Because Lantu FREE found that he solved the battery life anxiety, but failed to solve the sales anxiety. Lantu Automobile positioning Lantu FREE is a "zero anxiety medium and large intelligent electric SUV". In its official WeChat public account, it also advertised itself, "Oil and electricity, I can run 860km in one breath." The long-distance running model in the electric industry is none other than me. After your travel freedom, I will contract! ”
But can this be the main reason for consumers to buy a car? As a luxury electric SUV, Landu FREE achieves a long-term endurance, which is only the completion of the basic task, and still has not formed the core competitiveness that can truly attract customers.
The ideal success lies in the precise positioning, the successful transformation of everyone's perception of the 6/7 seat SUV from the third row of guilty cars into a warm "daddy car", from a redundant move to a must-have car for family travel, and target consumers to the long-neglected market segment of "Daddy".
And Lantu FREE can't see its brand characteristics, it has most others. This makes Lantu FREE appear indistinguishable in front of the ideal ONE, and the market positioning is blurred. It feels like a "mediocre person" who has no shortcomings but lacks characteristics. In today's era of extreme personality and innovation, the sense of luxury technology of the stack can be perfectly copied in minutes, and the adjustment in the bones, the clear market positioning, and the distinctive characteristics of the car are the keys to the stand out.
If the lack of features can still be improved in subsequent models and marketing strategies, the quality problems of the vehicle itself can easily make consumers completely hit the bottom of the new brand. On January 28, a number of industry media, including Sina Finance and Jinan Traffic Radio, reported the Lando FREE stall incident.
A Weibo netizen named "Scorching Heart V" posted a video saying that the Landu FREE that he had just purchased suddenly had a vehicle power outage during the driving, and then the direction was lost, the power system was lost, the direction was locked, and the vehicle was parked in place. Subsequently, the vehicle was towed to the designated maintenance point of Lantu, and after testing, it was notified that the vehicle's electronic control and the high-voltage relay in the battery pack were damaged, resulting in a power outage in the vehicle.
△ Screenshot of accident video
In fact, such quality problems are not unique. On a complaint website, a Lantu FREE car owner in Shanxi said that the vehicle had an electric drive controller failure and suddenly did not go during driving, resulting in normal use. In addition, Landu FREE also has problems such as mileage discrepancies with advertised and windshield leakage.
In the outlet of the outbreak of new energy vehicles, high-end is not shouting slogans to catch up with fashion, and Lantu urgently needs to clarify its own positioning and consolidate the technical foundation. However, the Dongfeng Group behind Lantu, instead of helping Lantu break through the ideal ONE performance benchmark, may hinder the brand image of Lantu Automobile.
Insufficient content of "autonomous" color
For Dongfeng, out of the comfort zone of relying on joint ventures, occupying a place in its own high-end brands, choosing new energy is the right way.
Dongfeng Motor is one of the earliest enterprises in China to carry out the research and development of new energy vehicles, and as early as 2005, Dongfeng Motor has been laying out this field. Unfortunately, Dongfeng Motor, which started early, does not have a deep technical background in the field of electric vehicles to this day.
Lantu has been emphasizing that its back is backed by Dongfeng, with 50 years of accumulated strong car-making strength, 19 years of technical strength in the field of new energy and "three electricity" as an endorsement, these are only superficial articles. Dongfeng has been facing the embarrassing situation of strong joint ventures and weak autonomy, and the research and development strength of Dongfeng's own brands has also been questioned, and as Dongfeng's Lantu brand, its research and development, technical strength, may "know Lantu through Dongfeng".
In 2016, the Dongfeng A9 was launched, and the significance of this flagship model is extraordinary, according to Dongfeng's words, the car represents the highest manufacturing level of Dongfeng, and has also invested years of energy and funds. However, everyone knows that Dongfeng A9 is not completely independent research and development, but a product created in cooperation with PSA, and the final market sales are also dismal.
△ Dongfeng A9
Back to Lantu, gathered a number of senior executives of Dongfeng Group, Lantu itself is also positioned as "new strength of car manufacturing", but when the first model Landu FREE was launched, it was pointed out by the media as "wearing new shoes and walking the old road". In terms of important range extender powertrains, it is "parasitic" to other companies.
Deep dive atom flipped through a number of reports at the beginning of the listing of Landu FREE, although land map free and Cyrus SF5 are different levels, but land map free uses the power technology "born" from the Golden Concellies SF5. The Economic Observer mentioned in the report, "The relevant senior management of Lantu Automobile replied to the Economic Observer that the cooperation between Lantu and Jinkang New Energy belongs to the internal arrangement of the group, and it is not convenient to publish information to the outside world." ”
This is not difficult to understand, after all, the use of a range extender power system similar to a model with extremely low sales on the market does have the high-end name of the negative Lantu. Admitting to buying a complete set of solutions is tantamount to "punching the face" of Lantu, who holds high the banner of autonomy. The most ironic thing about this matter is that the Cyris SF5 is not concerned about the technology equipped with this car, but the automatic driving function derived from Huawei. Well, the Zotye leather ruler is also the size of Porsche, who is also a tribute to the Highlander chassis.
"Backed by the support of Dongfeng", Lantu likes to use such words to cheer himself up, but Dongfeng Motor, which is not strong in self-made cars, will not bring much substantial help to recreate an independent brand Ofu. As netizens said: Having a strong map does not necessarily create a great cause.
FREE loses, can the dreamers do it
At present, the monthly sales of Lantu FREE are hovering around a thousand vehicles. For a car company that has been on the market for more than half a year, this is a very dangerous signal.
At the end of March this year, Lei Xin, lantu's chief brand officer (CBO), who had served in the Dongfeng department for more than a decade, had been transferred, and his position was temporarily taken over by Lu Fang, CEO and CTO of Lantu. Perhaps the sharp decline in sales in 2022 caused too much difference from expectations is one of the important reasons why Lei Xin was transferred as the direct person in charge of market branding, sales, innovation ecology and product planning.
△ The second from the left is Lu Fang, and the first on the right is Lei Xin
However, Lantu's footsteps did not stop, and on April 28, the "world's first electric luxury flagship MPV" Lantu Dreamer officially rolled off the production line. Lantu Dreamer will be officially launched on May 7, with deliveries starting as soon as the third quarter.
After the sales of Lando FREE were folded, Landu Dreamer took over Landu's dreams and hopes like a baton. After the official release of the Guangzhou Auto Show last year, according to official news, Dreamer opened pre-sale orders in 30 minutes to break 1,000, and the 3-day order volume exceeded 3,000. Zhang Chaoyang, chairman of Sohu, said at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show that if the final price of this car does not exceed 800,000, he will blindly book one.
From the perspective of product strength, the size is large enough, even larger than the Buick GL8 and Toyota Syna; secondly, the interior, the configuration is also luxurious enough, Alpha has it, Alpha does not have it; finally, the power is strong, the chassis is comfortable, the motor drive, the air suspension does not fall.
But it is still the old problem, after watching so many car critics test drive, the dreamer left me with the impression that there are still no shortcomings and no highlights. After the MPV models of denting and extreme krypton brands followed, why did consumers choose Lantu and choose Dreamers?
For a new brand, a brief decline in sales or even the success or failure of the first car does not matter. However, if Lantu still uses the thinking of traditional car companies to compare size to configuration to look at today's situation, it is really a sword. Aiming to impact the high-end Lantu and the Dongfeng Group behind it, even if you invest more money, I am afraid that it will still drift.