China's automobile exports are ushering in a period of rapid growth. In 2021, China's auto exports doubled compared to 2020, and in the first three quarters of this year, they increased by 55% compared with the same period last year. The industry expects exports to reach 6 million units in 2025. So in this process, how can Chinese car companies deploy more quickly around the world? Which car companies are doing well in the export business? What are the opportunities and challenges in different markets? How to go from product output to brand output and even cultural output?
At the "China-ASEAN Automotive Industry Development Forum" on November 10, with "Chinese brands going global" as the core topic, experts in government, enterprises, academia and research discussed the globalization path of Chinese automobile brands, opportunities and challenges in ASEAN regional development and other topics. At the same time, Great Wall Motor shared its experience and thinking on "going out" and "going out" in the ASEAN region, especially in the Thai market.
Zhang Jiaming, Vice President of Great Wall Motor Group and President of ASEAN Region
Chinese car companies rush to ASEAN, and Great Wall Motor's "original ecological brand" is favored overseas
The ASEAN region, represented by Thailand, has now become an important option for Chinese car companies to export overseas. Up to now, domestic car companies such as Great Wall Motor, SAIC Motor and BYD have entered the ASEAN market.
Why are Chinese car companies rushing to seize ASEAN? There are roughly four reasons for this.
First, China and ASEAN have a high degree of intimacy. China and ASEAN have become more and more in-depth and extensive in political, economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation, and ASEAN and China have been the largest trading partners of both sides for many consecutive years.
Second, consumer demand for automobiles in this market is changing. The local market has always been dominated by Japanese brands, but now the trend of automobile consumption upgrading is becoming more and more obvious; While consumers pay attention to quality, they have increasingly strong demand for new energy, intelligence and personalization. This is not the strength of Japanese brands, but it is the advantage of Chinese car brands, providing opportunities for Chinese car companies to overtake in the ASEAN auto market.
Third, ASEAN automobile production and sales have reached a certain volume, which is a strategic market worth entering. According to public data, the total sales of new vehicles in the six ASEAN countries in 2021 reached 2.79 million units, up 14% year-on-year.
Fourth, the import tariffs on auto parts in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are being reduced, providing convenient conditions for Chinese car companies to localize production.
Although the conditions are favorable, the results obtained by car companies are obviously different when entering the local "posture".
Among them, some car companies have entered the local area by changing bids or acquiring local enterprises and then OEM them. For example, Geely developed locally under the "Proton" brand; SAIC Motor mainly relies on MG, a well-known old brand.
In the short term, opening up the market through partners changing to more familiar local brand names seems to be a very "shortcut" choice for automobile brands to go overseas, but long-term development considerations are not conducive to the going out of China's original ecological automobile brands. The scenario in which it is likely to happen is that 100,000 cars are sold locally, and locals don't even know it's a car brand from China.
However, Great Wall Motor resolutely chose the way of the original ecological brand to go overseas, and through new energy vehicles as the main incision, Great Wall Motor has achieved remarkable results in the layout of ASEAN in just over a year. Taking the core Thai market as an example, up to now, a total of 12,000 new energy vehicles have been delivered to Thai users, and the Haval H6 HEV has been the leading sales of C-class SUVs in Thailand for 13 months.
These figures are enough to show that the Thai market has given double recognition to Great Wall Motor's products and brands. Behind this is the support of Great Wall Motor's leading new energy technology and intelligent strength.
Great Wall Motor's 10,000th vehicle at its new energy plant in Rayong, Thailand, rolled off the production line
GWM brand keywords in ASEAN: "differentiation" and "user-centricity"
2022 is a key year for Great Wall Motor's globalization strategy, and it is also a key year for Great Wall Motor to bear fruit in the ASEAN market, and it is amazing that Great Wall Motor has gone from scratch to recognition, in less than two years. Since Great Wall Motor launched the GWM brand in Thailand in 2021, it has successively released the GWM brand in Brunei and Laos and achieved product launches. On July 5, 2022, Great Wall Motor Malaysia officially opened, followed by the official opening of Great Wall Motor and SQ Group Huihong Automobile on October 26, 2022, announcing that they will jointly explore the Philippine automotive market. Great Wall Motor is promoting the layout and implementation of the ASEAN strategy in a state of comprehensive acceleration, and also promotes the acceleration of Great Wall Motor's globalization strategy.
Although the layout is efficient and extensive, for Great Wall Motor, its goal is not only to "go global", but also to "go up" and "become a global automobile brand that truly cultivates the local market in the ASEAN market". How to go from "going out" to "going up"? Differentiation and user-centricity are the two keywords of Great Wall Motor's unique competitiveness.
In fact, at the beginning of its entry into Thailand, Great Wall Motor took the lead in brand renewal, released the "GWM" Great Wall Motor brand, and then quickly promoted brand standardization. In addition, Great Wall Motor has also strengthened its emotional communication with consumers, actively co-created with consumers with an open mind, and gradually created an international, young and dynamic brand image.
At the technical level, relying on lemon hybrid DHT technology, intelligent technology and Great Wall Motor's global layout of R&D system, it has enough technical advantages to be at the forefront of the industry.
In terms of sales model, Great Wall Motor has made bold innovations in the Thai market, creating a "direct + authorized hybrid network model" and introducing the concepts of "ONE Price" and "sales partner". In this new retail model of "online transaction and offline delivery", sales partners avoid inventory pressure in stores and competition between channels. They only need to focus on providing consumers with product test drives, deliveries and services, which greatly enhances the consumer car buying experience.
If channels and brands are "branches", then local manufacturing capabilities and vehicle infrastructure are the "trunks" of Great Wall Motor rooted in the local area. Only with a solid foundation can we provide enough nutrients for brand building and make the whole tree flourish. In this regard, Great Wall Motor has not only established a new energy vehicle production base in Rayong, but also introduced Great Wall Motor's parts enterprises to produce and operate locally. At present, its localization rate of parts in the Thai market has reached about 45%.
In terms of the infrastructure most needed to popularize new energy vehicles, Great Wall Motor built its first overseas "integrated photo-storage and charging" supercharger station in Bangkok this year. In addition, it has signed cooperation agreements with three power and energy institutions in Thailand to jointly promote the construction of electric vehicle infrastructure. At present, Great Wall Motor Charging Map has successfully connected to 5 charging operators and more than 700 charging stations, covering more than 80% of Thailand's public charging network.
It can be said that Great Wall Motor has advanced from products going overseas and brands going overseas to the ecological overseas of the entire industry chain.
Strong ecological support undoubtedly gives users a more secure sense of security for this Chinese brand. But in order to get closer to users, Great Wall Motor does much more than that. From the following figures, we can see Great Wall Motor's efforts in connecting users.
·“ 500": In the past 10 months, Great Wall Motor has conducted nearly 500 "GWM brand user activities" in Thailand.
·“ 40,000": Interact and share with nearly 40,000 users and fans during the brand event.
·“ 116,000": By the end of September this year, its app registered users reached 116,000, with a daily activity of more than 12%.
·“ 900,000": Great Wall Motor has nearly 900,000 followers on Thailand's official social platform.
Not only that, Great Wall Motor has also created the concept of "user committee" in the Thai market, so that every need of every user can truly influence and penetrate into business decisions.
Great Wall Motor's careful operation in the Thai market has undoubtedly received positive feedback, not only in the rising sales volume. In recent years, the supply chain shortages caused by the epidemic have made it difficult for many car companies to secure their own business, let alone expand overseas markets. And even if there is spare power to expand outward, some car companies are only stopping at product exports. Great Wall Motor knows that globalization is not a trade export, but takes root overseas. In addition to selling cars overseas and building sales networks, we also build factories and R&D centers, and fully interact with users.
Furthermore, the positive feedback brought by this all-round layout is not only conducive to the long-term development of Great Wall Motor, but also its successful experience in Thailand can be used as a reference for other Chinese brands, and also promotes the high-quality development of Chinese automobiles.
ASEAN is the epitome, and Great Wall Motor is accelerating its global layout
After decades of development, the manufacturing level and system capacity of China's automobile industry have reached or even exceeded the world's leading level; Electrification, networking, and intelligence have made Chinese auto brands change lanes and overtake like a tiger. The globalization of Chinese car brands is already an irreversible process.
For Great Wall Motor, ASEAN is just a microcosm of its global map. It has laid out production, marketing and research systems in many regions around the world.
In Europe, Great Wall Motor with its Wei brand Mocha PHEV (Coffee 01), Latte PHEV (Coffee 02), Ora Lightning Cat, Good Cat and other new energy models appeared at the Paris Motor Show, the appearance of this high-potential energy market in Europe will allow the world to further understand Great Wall Motor's new energy and intelligent strength, and accelerate the process of Great Wall Motor's new energy going overseas.
In the Brazilian market, Great Wall Motor held a lemon hybrid DHT technology salon, and the media participating online unanimously agreed that "lemon hybrid DHT" is highly suitable for the car scene of Brazilian users, not only to meet the daily commuting of Brazilian urban users, but also to meet the long-distance use of suburban and farm users for leisure vacation.
IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET, GREAT WALL MOTOR OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED THE GLOBAL NEW ENERGY MODELS HAVAL H6 HEV, HAVAL JOLION HEV. This is the first batch of new energy products launched by Great Wall Motor in South Africa, which will help the South African market accelerate into the new energy era.
These markets mean different things to Great Wall Motor. ASEAN is a close cooperation under the background of the "Belt and Road" and a fertile ground for Chinese car companies to go global. For the Brazilian and South African markets, Great Wall Motor's products can bring convenience to them, improve the level of car use, stimulate the vitality of the automobile market in these regions, and accelerate the transformation of local automobile generations. In the hinterland of Europe, a traditional automobile industry powerhouse, Great Wall Motor took the initiative to enter the "wolf pack". Relying on the advantages of new energy and intelligent technology, the seeds of "high quality" and "strong technology" have been planted in the hearts of European consumers.
From leading sales to technological transcendence, from emerging markets to high-potential energy markets, Great Wall Motor is blazing a path of "high quality and high price" brand upward in the global market.
Postscript:
Although the export volume of Chinese car companies has ushered in rapid growth, selling products does not mean that the brand goes out, and only by fully exporting the brand concept and high-quality impression overseas can it be regarded as truly taking root overseas. In this regard, Great Wall Motor clearly made a demonstration.
Numbers are the best argument. In October this year, Great Wall Motor sold 21,052 units overseas, a year-on-year increase of 49.58%; Overseas sales from January to October were 132,796 units, up 18.55% y/y.
For Chinese brands, there is no fixed model for globalization, and there is no ready-made reference on the way to sea, and it is not easy for Great Wall Motor to obtain such results. At the forum, a well-known Thai automotive industry opinion leader commented on Great Wall Motors: "The Thai electric vehicle market has just begun to develop, but I believe Great Wall Motor will continue to provide innovative products and services for the Thai market, and promote our full entry into the electric vehicle society in a stable and sustainable way." This heartfelt evaluation comes from Great Wall Motor's intimate operation in the local area, but this is obviously not the end.
At present, Great Wall Motor is constantly establishing a global R&D system, establishing factories and subsidiaries in various regions, and devoting itself to the research of user habits, sales models, and market environments in different markets. With a global layout and an impact on the apex of the automobile industry, Great Wall Motor has been moving forward.