"Now new energy vehicles are driven by the four major elements of national industrial policy, capital, science and technology, and market, and we will still maintain rapid growth." But in the past, it was about speed, and now it is "speed + quality" that has turned. We want to beat the trend, I want to be fast, I also want high quality. But to expand in the short term, we must make greater achievements in the brand, which is a driving force for our accumulation in recent years, and it is also a driving force for the future development of the industry and the survival of Aion. ”
On the first day of the Guangzhou Auto Show last year, in the face of exclusive interviews with the media, GAC AION's general manager looked proud. The confidence behind this is undoubtedly derived from the excellent sales volume that GAC AION harvested in 2022. According to GAC AION's official data, its cumulative sales from January to December were 271,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 126%, and set a new record for sales growth.
The car sells well, and the leader is naturally in a good mood. As a result, Gu Huinan set a hotly debated sales target for GAC A'an on the spot: 1.5 million units by 2030. Let's not talk about whether this sales target is realistic, let's assume that GAC AION can make rapid progress, but under GAC AION's exaggerated "speed", does it really maintain "quality" as Gu Huinan said? This question is probably worth thinking about by Gu Huinan.
"Lock electricity" God operation, the user disobedient to lock the car?
Realistically speaking, GAC AION's forward speed is indeed not slow. However, some mysterious and cover-up operations followed, and they were also one after another. Just like the hot word that circulated in the circle of Aion car friends last year: lock electricity.
"When I bought a car, I came with fast charging, long battery life and independent brands, but I didn't expect that now not only the charging is slow, the service is poor, and even the battery has begun to lock the battery." Mr. Xu, the owner of GAC AION LX, said helplessly to the media.
What is a lock power? In fact, to put it simply, under the premise that the battery itself does not have quality problems, the charging speed slows down and the usable capacity of the battery becomes lower. Or to put it bluntly, you spend so much money, but you don't enjoy the quality that the product should have.
According to a report by the Beijing News, most of the current users of the 2019 and 2022 GAC AION LX are suspected of being locked in power. As the charging screenshot provided by the owner Mr. Xu shows, the 2019 GAC AION LX 80 model he purchased has a cumulative charge of 87.53 kWh from 1% of the battery to jumping the gun. However, after checking the official website of GAC AION, the author found that the battery capacity of the Aion LX model is 93 kWh. Even if some reasonable power loss is subtracted, your car is also suspected of being "locked up".
Seeing this, you may have some questions, the battery capacity of the car is fixed, the owner has been using it personally after buying it home, why is it locked for no reason? In fact, this is very simple, if the car company deliberately does it, then only one OTA is required. And these AION users who are locked in electricity also think about this problem. Many AION LX riders have mentioned that it was only after a certain upgrade that the vehicle experienced a significant slowdown in charging. However, GAC Aion has never admitted this behavior. So the question is, if it is not the manufacturer's hands and feet, then is this a quality problem that can be divided into batteries?
Let's boldly assume that if we don't upgrade, won't we encounter problems like "lock power"? In theory, it is. But if you really think that as long as you drive and maintain your car well, there will be no problems, it can only mean that you are thinking too simply. In today's era of intelligent cars, users are "disobedient", and manufacturers have more methods, such as making your car instantly turn into a pile of scrap metal through remote means.
In December last year, an AION S user from Guangzhou broke the news on a social platform that his car was actually "locked" by the manufacturer. According to the owner's statement, the cause of the matter was that GAC AION's 4S shop contacted him to replace the battery at the store. However, due to the epidemic period in Guangzhou at that time, the user did not go to the 4S store in time to replace it. Unexpectedly, his car was locked like this, and although the four doors could still be opened normally, it was no longer possible to start normally. In this regard, the owner contacted the customer service of GAC AION, and the customer service said: "Because of your car battery failure".
For this explanation, the owner naturally cannot understand. However, through the text display of the dashboard, it is easy to see the problem. A striking line of text reads: "Startup function is prohibited", by whom? Who has this right to ban? GAC AION has not given a positive response to this problem.
Moreover, there are many details in this incident that are intriguing. For example, this locked AION S has a mileage of less than 30,000 kilometers and is still a quasi-new car, why do you need to change the battery? If it is a normal battery failure that needs to be recalled, why use a lock-up method to solve it? Is there a connection between this and the "lock power" problem mentioned above? What users are most concerned about is whether the manufacturer has the right to lock the car remotely? Does this behavior involve an invasion of user privacy? If so, who gave such power? In response to these problems, the author believes that Gu Huinan and GAC AION need to respond positively.
The industry has changed drastically, and the dream of sales may not come true
In addition to proposing a sales target of 1.5 million units in 2030, Gu Huinan set a sales target for GAC AION to ensure 500,000 units and rush 600,000 units for 2023. If you use the sales volume in 2022 as a reference, it means that GAC AION needs to at least double its sales this year to make Gu Huinan's dream come true.
However, the reality is not as rosy as Gu Huinan imagined. In January 2023, the sudden market pattern taught GAC AION a lesson. According to GAC AION's official data, its January sales were 10,206 units, down 36.3% year-on-year and 66% month-on-month.
Of course, if we look at the performance of the entire new energy market in January, there are indeed factors with a large environmental impact. Under the influence of the complete cancellation of new energy purchase subsidies, domestic new energy retail sales in January were only 332,000 units, a month-on-month decline of 48.3%.
With the overall calm market in February, GAC AION's sales finally picked up. According to its official data, GAC AION sold 30,086 units in February, a year-on-year increase of 253%. But behind the gratifying sales, is the dealer's "skin laughing meat does not smile"? Recently, when the author visited a local GAC Aion dealership, the person in charge of the store said helplessly:
"Our store did sell nearly 200 cars last month, but more than 70% of the sales came from ride-hailing, and the proportion of individual customers is not large, which also worries us."
However, this situation is by no means the case with this local distributor. If you carefully study the sales composition of GAC AION, you will find that the AION S and AION Y models account for a large part of the sales, while the higher-priced AION V and AION LX account for a pitiful proportion of sales. Friends in Guangdong Province should have a deep understanding of this. Most of the ride-hailing cars and taxis you can see on the street come from GAC AION. From this point of view, relying on the current situation of low-end models and ride-hailing market will increasingly plague GAC AION's sales increase and continuous upward pace.
As for the difficulty of GAC AION's high-end road, in essence, there is no substantial improvement. Judging from the products currently on sale by GAC AION, it seems that none of the models have undergone a real sense of replacement, but they have been reintroduced into the market under the name of "new models" by adding a "plus". Looking at Wei Xiaoli, who was pulled by Gu Huinan to compare with GAC AION, he has long made new breakthroughs in intelligence, platform and three electric technologies.
Looking at GAC AION, it has always been difficult to escape the suspicion of painting cakes for consumers. The graphene battery, which has been widely hyped before, officially said that its endurance can reach more than 1,000 kilometers. Actually? Only AION LX got a NEDC range of 1008km with a large battery pack, which is not a concept at all with the endurance of consumers who want to break 1,000. Another example is the so-called magazine battery, and the method of needle puncture test has also been complained by the industry. Under the premise that there has never been a substantial breakthrough in the technical end, coupled with multiple problems such as battery life false standards, "power locks", and faults constantly transmitted from the user side, the accumulation of various factors has led to GAC AION in the hearts of everyone, which has never been comparable to the real high-end, and the rush to the high will naturally be unable to achieve.
In addition to GAC AION's own problems, the market environment is also the key to restraining GAC AION's impact on sales targets. In the context of the withdrawal of new energy subsidies, many leading car companies led by Tesla have played the price reduction card, and the effect can be described as immediate. At the same time, traditional fuel vehicles are also striving for market share by reducing their prices. Today's automotive market is far more competitive than in 2022. Therefore, from any point of view, GAC AION's sales target of 500,000 units this year is quite challenging. Frequent quality problems and user complaints have made GAC AION full of uncertainty on the road to impact sales targets.
Conclusion: There is no doubt that even if this year's GAC AION can be as smooth as last year, it is very difficult to double its sales. And this point, Gu Huinan, as a veteran of the automotive industry, must have a clearer understanding than us. However, the words spoken are like splashed water, if GAC AION wants to go further, it must solve the current problems, otherwise it may only be a matter of time before there is a backlash.