300,000 SUVs have not yet sold well, how can Lantu sell 600,000 MPV?

Economic Observation Network reporter Wang Shuai Guo Lantu automobile is on the road to high-end "desperate bets", in the first car Lantu FREE is far from opening the market, and then launched the second car Lantu Dreamer.

Lando Dreamer is an MPV, and its pre-price is unexpected by many people. The pre-price of the seven-seat version is 380,000 yuan to 480,000 yuan, and the pre-price of the four-seat version is from 600,000 yuan. The new car is expected to be officially launched in the second quarter, with deliveries starting as soon as July.

Starting from 380,000 yuan, the highest is more than 600,000 yuan, and no self-owned brand model has ever been sold to such a high price range. What does Lantu rely on?

As we all know, Lantu's first car, Lantu FREE, is positioned in medium and large SUVs, which is a relatively popular market, but even so, Lantu FREE has not sold well.

In contrast, Lantu Dreamers face a narrower MPV market, and there are a large number of luxury, joint venture competitors competing for the market cake. In this context, can Lantu dreamers really "realize their dreams"?

The product route raises questions

Before dreamers, Lantu Automobile listed its first model, Lantu FREE, in June last year, which is positioned as a performance-level intelligent electric SUV with high-end configurations such as range extender power and air suspension, and is the first self-owned brand passenger car model priced at more than 300,000 yuan by Dongfeng Motor Group.

Lantu officials are full of confidence in the first car. However, the market performance of Landu FREE did not meet expectations, and soon after the listing, there was a continuous decline in sales. From December 2021 to February 2022, the delivery volume of Lantu Automobile fell from more than 3,000 to more than 700 vehicles. In March, Lantu automobile deliveries rebounded to 1,400 units. More than 4 months after listing, the cumulative delivery volume has barely exceeded 10,000 vehicles. In addition, Lantu has not yet released the April delivery data.

The reason is that Dongfeng Motor Group has always lacked the gene to build a high-end brand, coupled with the vague positioning of Lantu's own brand, so that Lantu FREE is cold in the popular SUV market. For comparison, the same extended-range electric SUV, the ideal ONE monthly delivery volume reached 10,000 units, and even the previously unpromising Cyrus sales exceeded 3,000 units in March and April. Landu FREE became the de facto "loser".

Just when the first model, Landu FREE, has not yet gained a foothold, Landu Automobile hastily entered the MPV field, which makes the industry question its product route. There is even a view that Lantu's move is to "change the track again".

In this regard, Lu, CEO and CTO of Lantu Automobile, replied on Weibo on the second day of Dreamer's pre-sale in early April, proposing that there are many pain points and needs in the current domestic MPV market, including consumers' high requirements for low-carbon travel and intelligence; consumption upgrades, the demand for multi-person travel brought about by changes in China's family structure; most of the MPV in the market Have safety hazards, and the comfort of the driver's seat and the second row is not enough.

Lu Fang said: "We are both enterprises and users, we understand these pain points and needs, and we want to provide solutions. ”

Lantu believes that the market needs a travel product that can not only reflect the corporate image, but also be comfortable and safe enough to meet the needs of reception, commuting and business trips, and provide a comfortable experience in all scenarios. However, in the current market, there is no MPV that is truly comfortable and safe, and even most MPV cannot even reach the passing line. An insider of Lantu Automobile said that at the same time, with the emergence of more and more two-child and three-child families, the requirements for vehicles for family travel are also getting higher and higher. However, when cars and SUVs have fully entered the era of intelligence and electrification, MPV still stays on the traditional fuel platform of the last century.

Based on this judgment, Lantu Dreamer positioned the audience as "a high-end business person who pursues low-carbon travel and a new backbone of the pursuit of technology and a comfortable family travel experience".

According to lantu official disclosure, lantu dreamer opened pre-sale on April 7, and as of April 9, the order has broken 300 units. Compared with Lantu FREE's 3689 fixed orders in 43 days, the development prospects of Dreamer seem to be better.

Some of the orders received so far have given Landu Auto a positive market expectation for Dreamers. "We are full of confidence in sales, at the same time, compared to sales, we also pay more attention to the user's experience, intelligent electric compared to the advantages of traditional fuel vehicles experience is not an era at all, we look forward to embracing intelligent electric technology consumers to develop, lead this consumer trend." The above-mentioned Lantu insider said.

Crowded MPV market

Whether the MPV market is a new blue ocean that is about to erupt, or whether the market is still a narrow marginal area, there has been controversy in this industry.

The development of the domestic MPV market has experienced a trough period in recent years. Public data shows that since 2017, domestic MPV sales have continued to decline, and by 2020, annual sales have only reached 1.054 million, only 40% of 2016.

This is not unrelated to the decline of the overall domestic automobile market. However, the continuous decline in young people's willingness to marry and have children has also become an important driver of the decline in sales of MPV models with large space and high fuel consumption. However, based on the rise of the domestic middle class and the emergence of consumption upgrades, as well as the introduction of the national "three-child policy", some industry insiders believe that the MPV market, especially the high-end MPV market, is about to explode.

Zhou Lijun, president and chief analyst of E-Car Research Institute, said that in 2020, the demand for additional purchases in the domestic automobile market has accounted for 60% of the total consumption, and this trend will accelerate next. Because the main group of people buying cars in the Chinese market is not young people, but middle-aged people with old and small people, especially those who have two children at home, they will be more suitable for buying MPV.

In 2021, there have indeed been several waves of MPV models in China. For example, at the Chengdu Auto Show held at the end of August of that year, GAC Toyota, Dongfeng Yueda Kia (now renamed Kia Motors) and Beijing Hyundai launched three fuel MPV models of Xena, Jiahua and Kustu; at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November, Lantu Dreamer, SAIC Maxus MIFA 9, and Hechuang Automobile Electric MPV Concept Concept Car Concept Concept were unveiled at the same time.

Boosted by these new models, domestic MPV model sales will stop falling and rebound in 2021. According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's MPV sales reached 1.055 million units in 2021, an increase of 0.09% year-on-year. However, the performance of more than 1 million vehicles accounts for only 4.02% of the total sales of automobiles in the country, and MPV is still on the edge of the automobile market.

From January to March this year, the cumulative sales of domestic MPV models were 204,000 units, down 7.8% year-on-year. Over the same period, sales of sedans and SUVs rose by 8.4% and 10.4% respectively year-on-year, and the MPV market did not seem to be about to explode. Some market participants said that in the case of the epidemic affecting the income of ordinary people, compact cars and SUVs are once again sought after by consumers, and the sales prospects of high-end cars and large cars are not ideal.

In the narrow MPV track, The Lantu dreamers want to kill a bloody road from the cracks of strong opponents such as Buick GL8 and Toyota Sai na, whether it is "courageous" or "reckless", the outside world is also full of controversy.

600,000 yuan worth of "fan confidence"

Over the years, the mainstream price range of independent brand models has been concentrated below 300,000 yuan, and more strictly speaking, less than 200,000 yuan is the mainstream price range of independent brands. However, in the past two years, with the upward movement of independent brands and the emergence of high-end brands of new energy, prices have gradually developed upwards.

For example, the mid-to-high-end brands represented by Geely Lynk & Co and Great Wall Wei brand have broken into the price range of more than 200,000 yuan. The new energy brands represented by Weilai and Ideal have further broken through the high-end market of more than 300,000. Some models are more than 500,000 yuan, such as weilai ES8 touched the high range of 600,000 yuan, and Lynk & Co 09 also reached the range of 400,000 yuan.

Lantu brand is also one of the new brands that follow the trend of independent brands to develop new energy and high-end, and it also has the impulse of brand upward and price upward. However, from the perspective of the pre-price of Lantu Dreamer, 380,000 yuan to 600,000 yuan, not only the price span itself is very large, compared with the price of Lantu FREE 313,600-373,600 yuan, it is almost "leapfrog up", and there is a huge price gap between the two. Therefore, what does Lantu Dreamer take to support his value of 600,000 yuan?

There is a view that the pre-sale of 600,000 yuan of Lantu Dreamer is only a symbolic significance, highlighting the height of the brand, and the real volume is still the model in the range of 400,000 yuan. But even so, it is still difficult for Lantu Dreamers to pay for convincing consumers. Its primary task is how to persuade consumers not to choose the Buick GL8, Toyota Syna, or Mercedes-Benz V, Lexus LM, but to choose an autonomous electric MPV.

From the perspective of product hard strength, the length, width and height of Lantu Dreamer are 5315mm, 1980mm, 1810mm, and the wheelbase is 3200mm. In contrast, the above 4 parameters of Buick GL8 ES Lu Zun are smaller than the Lantu Dreamer. Therefore, in terms of interior space, The Lantu Dreamer is slightly better. However, the larger size also increases the difficulty of operation of the Lantu Dreamer in terms of turning and parking.

In terms of power, The Lantu Dreamer, like The Landu FREE, adopts an extended range and pure electric dual-power layout, and the extended range version adopts a 1.5T four-cylinder extender internal combustion engine developed by Dongfeng, with a maximum power of 185 horsepower and a total power of 395 horsepower for the front and rear axle motors. The dual-motor all-electric version has a total power of 435 hp and accelerates 5.9 seconds from 100 km/h. The Buick GL8 ES luzun uses a 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder turbocharged engine with a maximum power of 237 horsepower. In comparison, the Lantu Dreamer power parameters comprehensively surpass the Buick GL8.

In terms of chassis performance, the Lantu Dreamer is equipped with an aluminum alloy front double wishbone, rear five linkages, and an adaptive air suspension chassis, while the 2022 Buick GL8 ES Lu Zun adopts a front enhanced McPherson suspension and a rear four-link independent suspension chassis system. In contrast, it is clear that the front and rear suspension configurations of the Lando Dreamer are better, and due to the presence of air suspension, the Lando Dreamer has better vehicle passability and easy access and disembarkation (the ground clearance of the vehicle chassis can be adjusted).

In terms of technology selling points, Lantu Dreamer focuses on air suspension, CDC (Continuous Shock Absorption Control System) and "Magic Carpet Function". Among them, the "magic carpet function" means that the vehicle can use intelligent technology to monitor and analyze the road conditions in advance, real-time feedback and adaptive cushioning and vibration absorption. Officially, this feature is "superior to luxury brand MPV models such as Lexus LM and Mercedes-Benz V-Class".

In addition, Lantu Dreamer also has zero gravity wide seats, three-zone intelligent air conditioners, baby-grade skin-friendly fabrics, Tanner audio systems and other configurations, 26 intelligent driver assistance functions, ECALL collision intelligent call system and vehicle OTA upgrade functions. In this regard, the 2022 Buick GL8 ES Lu Zun is also rich in configuration, and the two seem to be indistinguishable.

The above-mentioned Lantu Automobile insider told the Economic View Observation Network reporter that compared with the existing luxury MPV in the market, Lantu Dreamer has built its core competitiveness of "electrification" and "intelligence".

In terms of electrification, Lantu Dreamer is the world's first dual-power new energy MPV. Among them, the pure electric version solves the problem of listing in first-tier cities, and the super extended range version completely eliminates mileage anxiety while bringing a pure electric quiet experience and low fuel consumption. In terms of intelligence, Lantu Dreamer is based on ESSA's native intelligent electric architecture, the world's first Gigabit 5G in-vehicle network, and has L2+ level intelligent driving assistance capabilities.

On the whole, Lantu Dreamer, which has multiple advantages such as size, power and chassis configuration, has abandoned the low-price strategy used by its own brands in the MPV market and has adopted a breakthrough strategy of competing with luxury and joint venture models with the strength of the whole vehicle. In other words, Lantu wants to "redefine high-end luxury MPV".

But the problem is that the good reputation and inherent image accumulated by Models such as buick GL8 and Mercedes-Benz V-Class in the market for a long time are like a wall that is difficult to be overcome. It is no easy task for Lantu dreamers to bypass or break this wall.