Source: Visual China
Author | Chen Fuye
Edit | Yang Pudding
Produced | Prism Tencent Xiaoman Studio
The popularity of the appearance of "Galaxy" has not yet receded, and a lawyer's letter has pushed Geely to the hot search list, and the lawyer's letter is issued by the "old fellow" Changan Automobile.
On February 28, the lawyer's letter began to circulate online, and Changan Automobile said that Geely's "Galaxy Light" prototype car had a lot of similarities with Changan Automobile's concept car and production car, and was suspected of infringing its intellectual property rights. Subsequently, Geely Automobile issued a statement denying plagiarism and infringement, insisting that the "Galaxy Light" was Geely's original design.
Five days before this war of words, Geely just held a huge press conference at the main venue of the Hangzhou Asian Games, officially launching their mid-to-high-end new energy series - Geely Galaxy, and the prototype of "Galaxy Light" was also unveiled at this press conference.
Chen Zheng, Vice President of Geely Automobile Group, who was previously the global design director of Changan Automobile Group, explained "Galaxy Light". Source: Galaxy press conference scene pictures
In this round of lawyer letter turmoil, Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, responded intriguingly. He wrote on Weibo: "We must compete benignly, do not engage in infighting; It is necessary to transform and develop, not to fight in the same room: we must be united, not divided and smeared. ”
In the era of fuel vehicles, Changan and Geely are both market leaders, Changan's annual sales once exceeded 3 million units, and Geely has become the "China's own brand sales champion" for five consecutive years. But in the current new energy era, the limelight of these two car companies has been overshadowed by BYD and Tesla, and at the same time, they are also facing challenges from new forces.
"Be united, not divide and smear." What is Yang Xueliang's response implying, who are they going to unanimously deal with? What impact can "Galaxy" have on Geely Automobile's new energy strategy?
Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, responded to a screenshot on Weibo
It's a "collection", not a brand
"Having more children is good to fight" is Geely's usual market strategy, but the release of Galaxy makes people smell different.
Geely Holding Group is the parent company of "Geely Series", and in the automotive field, it has subsidiaries such as Geely Automobile Group, Zeekr Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Lotus Group, Volvo Group, Geely New Energy Commercial Vehicle Group, London Electric Vehicle Company, Radar New Energy Vehicle Company, etc., and each subsidiary has one or more brands below.
According to the statistics of Geely Holding's official website, the entire "Geely series" has a total of 14 car brands, such as Geely, Geometry, Lynk & Co, Extreme Krypton, Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart, Radar, Long-range, etc., some of which are self-produced, and some are obtained through acquisition and shareholding. Geely and Volkswagen are also the two car companies with the most brands.
"Galaxy" debuted through a huge press conference, making many people mistakenly think that this will be a new car brand of "Geely series", but this is not the case.
"Galaxy is not an independent brand, it is Geely's mid-to-high-end new energy product series." In conversations with a number of media including Prism, Lin Jie, senior vice president of Geely Automobile Group, said that Geely Automobile Group is the owner of Galaxy.
According to the official website of Geely Holding, Geely Automobile Group has four major brands, Geely, Lynk & Co, Geometry and Proton, which are also the basic sales of "Geely". Under the Geely brand, there are many "series" such as China Star Series, Boyue Family, Emgrand Family, Shuangbin Series, etc., and with the release of "Galaxy", the Geely brand also has an additional "car series".
"The reason why it is a series, not a brand, is because we want to stay focused, focus on one Geely, and make the parent brand bigger and stronger." Lin Jie explained that they hope to further label Geely's new energy vehicles through the "Galaxy" series, and when people talk about Geely Galaxy, they are talking about Geely's new energy vehicles.
Is it a series, or a brand? This issue has not only caused confusion to the outside world, but also has been hotly debated within Geely.
Geely Automobile Group CEO Jia Yue talked about these debates in a media interview at the press conference. He believes that new energy vehicles are already running fast, and the Geely automobile brand should be comprehensively new. After several years of accumulation, they have already had the ecological foundation for transformation, and Galaxy is the fundamental point of Geely Automobile's brand to a new level.
Geely's Boyue family and Emgrand family have all launched new energy models, but because these vehicles come from traditional fuel vehicles, the Geely brand has never been able to remove the labels of "fuel vehicles" and "oil to electricity".
For Geely, the parent brand, they urgently need a new energy vehicle line without historical baggage to participate in this competition.
As Geely Automobile's new energy vehicle series, Galaxy focuses on the price range of 150,000-300,000. At the press conference, Galaxy launched 7 models in one go, namely L9, L7, L6, L5, E8, E7 and E6, of which E represents pure electric, L represents hybrid, odd models represent SUVs, and even-numbered models represent sedans.
It is said that these models will be launched in two years, and the first model, the Galaxy L7, has also begun to accept pre-orders.
At the press conference, Galaxy launched 7 cars. Source: Galaxy press conference scene pictures
"Scaled-down" BYD?
"We can always hear the voice of users, why did you buy a green car but have a face of an oil car?" At the Galaxy press conference, Jia Yue mentioned this problem.
At that time, several unnamed models appeared on the big screen of the press conference, all of which had a "oil car face", obvious exhaust vents, and sporadic laughter from the audience. Moreover, these models look like BYD's dynasty series, and Geely also seems to be "connotating" its old rivals.
According to Jia Yue's introduction, Galaxy adopts three-layer water cooling technology, and thanks to the Raytheon electric hybrid system, the heat dissipation safety problem caused by the closed front window has been solved, so the Galaxy model will have a smooth "tram face".
In fact, from the beginning of the "galaxy" warm-up, Geely was "interacting" with BYD.
In January this year, BYD released its high-end brand "Yangwang", which is priced at the million-level; "Galaxy" was also defined by Geely as a mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle when it was released, and many people thought that Galaxy was looking up to the benchmark and would also be Geely's million-level luxury car, but in the end, Galaxy's pricing was far lower than expected by the outside world.
During the warm-up, Galaxy once released a promotional poster, the text of which was "Milky Way, the starry sky that everyone looks up to"; BYD responded quickly, releasing a poster with a similar style, with the text "Reach out and pick the stars, dare to cross the galaxy."
Changan Automobile was not idle, they joined in with a poster "Looking up at the Milky Way, it is a touch of deep blue", "Deep Blue" is Changan's new energy vehicle brand. So much so that when Changan sent a lawyer's letter to Geely, some people thought it was also a wave of hype.
At this press conference, Geely launched 7 models in one go, such a "big deal" is rare whether it is among new forces or traditional car companies. Many car companies are released one by one, especially new forces, and it is often difficult to release a new car every year.
This allows the outside world to see Geely's determination to transform to new energy, but it also allows many people to see the shadow of BYD - the 7 models of Galaxy are like a smaller version of the BYD dynasty series.
For a long time, BYD has insisted on hybrid and pure electric walking on two legs, and Han, Song, Qin, Tang and other cars have developed two versions respectively, which allows them to meet the needs of more consumers.
At this press conference, Geely also released Aegis battery safety system, Raytheon electric hybrid 8848 and Galaxy N OS intelligent system, the accumulation of new energy technology over the years, so that Geely also has the ability to walk on two legs of hybrid and pure electric, and Galaxy's 7 models also cover the four major fields of hybrid, pure electric, sedan and SUV.
In particular, the first production car, the Galaxy L7, is regarded as a model that directly benchmarks the BYD Song DM-i. This is an A-class hybrid SUV, with an acceleration of 6.9 seconds per 100 km, a CLTC comprehensive cruising range of 1370KM, and a fuel consumption of 5.23L per 100 km, which is not much different from the Song DM-i.
Song is BYD's sales responsibility, data shows that last year's sales of 478811 vehicles, accounting for 26% of BYD's all sales, which also made it surpass the Model Y to become the sales champion of SUVs that year, of which Song DM-i sales were 360,000 units.
If the L7 can replicate the success of the Song DM-i, it will undoubtedly be a good start for Galaxy and Geely.
The challenge of "small horse-drawn carts"
For Geely Automobile Group, the release of "Galaxy" gives them a real new energy series that comes from their own and belongs to them.
Some industry insiders believe that China Star Series, Boyue Family, Emgrand Family, Lynk & Co, etc. still have to undertake the historical mission of fuel vehicles to ensure that sales will not decline when Geely transforms to new energy; Although Geometry is a new energy brand, it was once not part of Geely Automobile Group, but an independent brand, and only returned to Geely Automobile Group last year.
Geometric cars were once highly anticipated by Geely. When it was released in April 2019, Geely shouted slogans such as "global electric vehicle brand leader" and "building the world's best electric vehicles", but four years later, these goals have not been achieved. Today, in the brand territory of Geely Automobile Group, geometry is positioned to focus on the new energy vehicle market below 150,000 yuan.
In an interview, Lin Jie said that geometry + galaxy will cover 65% of the new energy vehicle market in the future.
Lynk & Co, a subsidiary of Geely Automobile Group, currently has both fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, priced between 150,000 and 400,000, and after the release of Galaxy, it may compete head-on with Lynk & Co. In this regard, Lin Jie's explanation is that Lynk & Co is a high-end brand jointly created by Geely and Volvo for the world, which is more personalized and sporty in shape, and there are many differences from Galaxy.
In addition, under the parent company Geely Holdings, there is also Zeekr this new energy vehicle brand. This is an independent brand, comparable to the status of Geely Automobile Group, which focuses on the new energy vehicle market of 300,000-600,000 yuan.
After the release of Galaxy, Geely filled the gap in the new energy vehicle market of 150,000-300,000 yuan.
However, compared with polar krypton and geometry, as a new energy series, not a brand, Galaxy may not be able to mobilize as many resources within Geely as the first two, and it has to represent Geely to fight the most competitive market, so what are the odds of winning the situation of "small horse-drawn carts"?
According to Lin Jie, Geely Galaxy's sales target in 2023 is to enter the top three of each product segment. In terms of sales channels, they will innovate, adopt two models, direct stores and agents, and establish user centers in first- and second-tier cities to create a "user space" that can provide users with a richer interactive experience.
In addition, Galaxy cars will also be ordered through the APP, the price is transparent, the whole country is unified, such a sales model is not much different from the new forces. They hope to change Geely's sales channels and models with the help of Galaxy.
Fan Junyi, general manager of Geely Automobile Sales Company, said in an interview that Geely Galaxy has planned a total of 650 offline stores, and this year's goal is to build 350 to 400 first.
According to Lin Jie's introduction, at present, Geely Automobile Group has established Jixing Fuel Division and Galaxy New Energy Business Department, the former is responsible for the sales of fuel vehicles, and the latter is responsible for the sales of Galaxy series. In addition, they retained Geometry's sales force, which was responsible for the sales of Geometry cars.
"It is necessary to continue the advantages of fuel vehicles, but also to strengthen the performance of new energy one step further." Lin Jie said.
Is it really "no opponent"?
"After the breakthrough of Extreme Krypton, the entire Geely is to be fully new, and the release of Galaxy means that Geely has begun to comprehensively move to the new and accelerate the transformation to new energy." During the press conference, Jia Yue told the media, including Prism.
In November 2015, Geely released the "Blue Geely" action plan, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. In 2020, the sales of new energy vehicles in the entire Geely series were 61,800 units, accounting for only 5.15% of the total sales, far lower than the original expectation of 90%.
Since then, Geely has proposed a new "Blue Geely" action, and at this time, the domestic new energy vehicle market has also undergone earth-shaking changes, thanks to this, Geely's new energy sales have also improved in 2022. This year, their new energy vehicle sales were 328727, with a penetration rate of about 23%, which tripled from 2021.
But compared with the overall level of the industry, this achievement is not outstanding. According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainland China will be 25.6% in 2022.
The market is running out of time for Geely. For this giant in the era of fuel vehicles, they urgently need to come up with competitive products in the new energy era.
In March 2021, Geely's veteran An Conghui became the CEO of Zeekr, focusing on this new brand that undertakes Geely's historical mission of high-end electrification; At the same time, the "young strong school" Jia Yue, who was cultivated by Geely, took over from An Conghui and began to take charge of Geely Automobile Group.
According to Jiajiayue, in 2023, Geely aims to increase its new energy vehicle market by more than 100% compared with 2022.
However, this goal is not easy to achieve. In January this year, Tesla reduced the starting price of the domestic Model 3 to 229,900 yuan, and the starting price of the Model Y to 259,900 yuan, since then, Xiaopeng, NIO, Nezha, BYD and other car companies began to reduce prices or cut prices in disguise.
The 150,000-300,000 yuan market entered by Galaxy is the most cruel competition zone, with BYD and Tesla, two masters, as well as traditional car companies such as Chery, Trumpchi, Changan, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
In an interview, Jia Yue said that the competition between enterprises is product competition, and the competition between products is cost competition, and for them, only by making full efforts in technology and innovation can they seize the opportunity in this round of competition. In his opinion, today's new energy vehicles have entered a new stage of development, and intelligence + technology is the two keywords in this stage.
In this new stage, intelligence is also an important new weapon that Geely has come up with.
In October 2021, the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy was officially released, which clearly proposed the layout of "one network and three systems", "three systems" refers to intelligent manufacturing system, intelligent service system, and intelligent energy system, and "one network" refers to a "smart Geely technology ecological network". Jia Yue said that Galaxy is fulfilling this strategy.
At the Galaxy press conference, Jia Yue looked full of confidence and mentioned the concept of "no opponent" many times. However, it is inevitable that a strong enemy in reality will be a forest.
"Who is your biggest rival?" The author threw the question to an insider at Geely Auto Group.
"My answer, you may think that I am perfunctory to you, but this is really what we really think." "Our biggest opponent is actually ourselves," the person said. ”
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