Foreword: After five years of perseverance, Xingtu finally ushered in a bumper harvest in 2023, and Xingtu's performance in 2023 is a successful interpretation of long-termism and a model of high-quality development.
Sales will double in 2023
With sales reaching 14,169 units in December 2023 and a cumulative annual sales volume of 125,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 134.9%, Xingtu has made a perfect end to 2023. Standing on the achievement of 51,000 units in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 37.6%, Xingtu has set a sales target of 80,000 units for itself in 2023, and the current performance of Xingtu has exceeded this goal.
In terms of growth rate, Xingtu's performance will surpass most domestic brands and the industry market in 2023. In 2023, the cumulative wholesale sales of domestic passenger cars will reach 25.531 million units, a year-on-year increase of 10%.
The explosive growth of Xingtu in 2023 will start from the listing of Xingtu Yaoguang, the pioneering work of Xingtu 2.0 stage in February last year. As the first model of the Xingtu 2.0 stage, the car integrates the culmination of Chery's car manufacturing technology, and it is not empty talk to achieve a 400,000-level experience at a price of 200,000 yuan, which has become the basis for its hot sales.
Throughout the year, Xingtu Yaoguang has maintained the basic market of 5,000+ units per month, accounting for more than 40% of Xingtu's total sales. With the contribution of Xingtu Yaoguang's sales, starting from July 2023, Xingtu's monthly sales volume began to normalize to exceed 10,000, and continued to end 2023, crossing the first threshold of brand scale.
In 2023, the share of the domestic fuel vehicle market will shrink further, and relevant data show that the sales of fuel vehicles in 2023 will be 13.82 million, a year-on-year decrease of 2.4%. The achievements made in the face of the continuous encroachment of domestic new energy vehicles on the market share of fuel vehicles demonstrate the gold content of Xingtu's achievements.
Regarding this achievement, Huang Zhaogen, assistant general manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center, also admitted in an interview with the media that the inner pressure is huge, and he also said that Xingtu's annual sales of 100,000+, which is only a phased victory of long-termism, is far from allowing us to reach the level of complacency.
Join the mainstream independent high-end camp
In terms of growth rate/scale, Lynk & Co will sell 220,000 vehicles in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 22.27%, Wei brand sales will be 41,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 14.35%, and Hongqi sales will be 370,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 29.5%.
At the same time, from the perspective of the main indicators that measure the health of brand development, for example, in the price of bicycles that represent the brand's premium ability, Xingtu is increasing step by step, with the average price of its bicycles being 172,000 yuan in 2023, compared with 159,000 yuan in 2022 and 139,000 yuan in 2021. This has been at the forefront of independent high-end brands, and ahead of traditional joint venture brands such as Volkswagen and Nissan.
Geely's 2022 financial report shows that the average selling price of Lynk & Co bicycles in 2022 is about 150,200 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that under the price war, according to the report of the well-known automobile consulting agency Geraint, in 2023, the average price of bicycles in the overall market will decline for the first time in five years.
The persistence of long-termism is the key factor in the growth of Xingtu, and Huang Zhaogen once interpreted long-termism as follows, "We must do a good job in the basic work and do it little by little, so that we can have a chance, and high-end customers have higher requirements and higher requirements for experience." Compared with the century-old accumulation of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, we are insignificant, the gap is very large, only hard work, only innovation, only good service users, we have the opportunity. ”
Inherited from Chery's low-key and pragmatic brand spirit, Xingtu may not be the fastest-growing independent high-end brand, but every step of Xingtu is firm and steadfast, and it has the current outbreak.
On the other hand, Xingtu's achievements in 2023 are inseparable from the support of users, through the all-in-one high-end services including the Six One Service Commitment, the "Dual Network Training" worry-free service network plan, Quality Lunch 2.0, exquisite car wash service, Starlight Club, etc., Xingtu will continue to improve the satisfaction of users entering the store in 2023, and has been praised by users, making it attract a large number of high-net-worth users.
Among the car owners of Xingtu, 66% of them are exchanged for purchases, 57% are converted into joint venture customers, and at the same time, teachers, doctors, and civil servants also account for 36%.
Cracking the "inner volume" with the "outer volume"
Another key word of Xingtu in 2023 is the simultaneous development at home and abroad, which is a microcosm of its high-quality development, and the continuous "involution" in the domestic market is not worthy of praise. Xingtu has become one of the representatives of domestic brands' active "outward rolling".
In some overseas markets such as Russia, the Xingtu brand is a luxury brand called BBE (EXEED) along with Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and its products are sold at a double premium, of which the monthly price of Xingtu is as high as 600,000 yuan.
"The Epoch ES, including ET, is built in accordance with global car standards, and at the 2023 Geneva Motor Show, some Middle Eastern bigwigs and tyrants will first feel that this car will be sold for 1 million, and random interviews are all priced at 70,000 euros. According to a relevant person from Chery.
Thanks to Chery Group's forward-looking layout in overseas markets, Chery has formed a mature and effective operation system overseas. Chery, which has been exporting since 2001, will export 937,000 vehicles in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 101.1%, ranking first in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 21 consecutive years, which further demonstrates the value of Chery's long-termism.
So far, Chery has 3.55 million overseas users, and Xingtu, backed by Chery Group, can make full use of Chery's global resources to participate in the competition in overseas markets, and Chery's 3.55 million overseas users have also formed the most solid foundation for Xingtu to enter the overseas market.
For overseas markets, Yin Tongyue, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Chery Group, has always attached great importance to it, "Strong exports are a sign that China is moving from a big automobile country to an automobile power, and the vast overseas market contains huge opportunities for Chinese automobile brands." "This means that exports are strong, and for a car brand, it is a sign of its strength.
Adhering to the simultaneous high-quality development at home and abroad is also one of the key factors for the success of Xingtu in 2023.
Star Era ES fired the first shot of transformation
In 2024, Xingtu's goal is to strive to move towards the goal of annual sales of 300,000 units and achieve the scale of second-tier luxury. From the perspective of Xingtu planning, seizing the opportunity of new energy is an important part of Xingtu to achieve its goals. At present, the domestic new energy transformation is in full swing, with the cumulative sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China reaching 8.864 million units in 2023, and the market penetration rate has reached 34.7%, an increase of 6.6 percentage points from 28.1% in 2022.
Although the Xingtu brand has only been established for 6 years, Xingtu is backed by Chery Group and has the group's empowerment in new energy technology. At present, Xingtu has formed a comprehensive layout of the three mainstream new energy technology routes including pure electric, plug-in hybrid and extended range, and has launched the M3X platform for native hybrid and the E0X platform specially developed for electric vehicles, as well as cutting-edge technologies such as Lion Zhiyun and Galaxy Ecology, creating its own differentiated competitiveness.
Among them, the first model based on the E0X platform, the Star Era ES has been officially launched on December 20, 2023, and the car is the only model in China with a 200,000-level standard air suspension. Previously, in the official order data released by Xingtu, the cumulative orders of the Star Era ES have exceeded 20,000 units.
Some industry experts have said, "China's independent high-end brands represented by Xingtu are accelerating, and the low energy consumption and ultra-comfort of the E0X platform will become a new industry benchmark and will create a new situation for the high-quality development of China's automobiles." ”
In addition to the Epoch ES, in the first quarter of 2024, Xingtu will also launch a number of new energy vehicles such as Yaoguang C-DM and Epoch ET, including the extended-range model in the fourth quarter. Among them, the plug-in hybrid field that Yaoguang C-DM will enter is the market with the most growth potential in the domestic market, and industry data in 2023 shows that the annual sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles will reach 2.75 million units, a year-on-year increase of 85.1%.
According to the plan, Xingtu has broken down the sales target in 2024 into a "343" structure, that is, fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles and pure electric vehicles account for 30%, 40% and 30% of the total sales respectively. Based on a more complete technical route and model layout, in the future, Xingtu has great potential in the field of high-end new energy.