Is BYD's "Audi" stable?

Produced by丨Tiger Sniff Automobile Group

The author is thoughtful

Header picture丨Visual China

Movies that do not perform well during the Spring Festival have the operation of re-re-re-release. And now, there are also car companies looking for opportunities to start over for models that were not a hit at the beginning.

According to Caixin, Huawei is looking for an opportunity to re-release the Zhijie S7 at an appropriate time in the spring of 2024. This car was originally very popular after it was launched last year, but due to the difficulty of delivery caused by limited production capacity, a large number of users chose to cancel the subscription when they could not pick up the car in time. To this end, Huawei may adopt the strategy of "increasing the volume without increasing the price" for new cars to "turn over the salted fish".

The same line of thinking now seems to be adopted by DENZA. Also last year, Denza's first all-electric SUV, the N7, received a large number of orders after several rounds of warm-up. But similar to the Zhijie S7, this car also suffered from "production hell", and users need to wait for a month to pick up the car, which causes the N7's popularity to cool down in less than two months.

On February 26, @Zhao Changjiang, general manager of DENZA Sales Division, forwarded a 3D drawing rendered by @ramen master Design based on the announcement of the 2024 DENZA N7 on his official WeChat. According to the plan, DENZA will also release the new version of the N7 at the end of the first quarter, reorganizing the offensive of pure electric SUVs.

From a personal point of view, this is a lot more decent than the previous DENZA N7. Compared with the previous "family design" of "two whiskers that can shine", the entire front face looks more concise and bright, and it is more like an electric car of this era. On the current N7, the designers of DENZA originally wanted to adopt a similar family design to the brand's best-selling model, the DENZA D9.

However, it is clear that these elements are not suitable for the extension of SUVs with smaller front faces.

The current Denza N7

The current DENZA D9

For BYD, the importance of its first high-end brand, Denza, to itself can be compared to Audi's position in the Volkswagen Group. If the former aspires to become the world's largest auto group, then it must need a mainstream luxury brand that is popular and popular, providing itself with a high enough brand image and considerable profits.

From this point of view, if BYD wants to become bigger and stronger, it must do a good job in Denza.

DENZA needs the next big thing

How long does it take for a car to go from being released to becoming the best-selling car in its segment?

BYD's high-end brand Denza's answer is: less than two years. According to the data given by the sales ranking of the Chedi Emperor, the annual sales of the Denza D9 DM-i version in 2023 will be 111,560 units, surpassing the Buick GL8 to become the first MPV model sales in China in one fell swoop.

However, this is only the first full year of sales for the DENZA brand after its relaunch in mid-2022. From this point of view, the earliest high-end brand of BYD Group is obviously standing.

But from another point of view, the challenge of DENZA is still very large. In addition to the D9 DM-i, DENZA will also launch the hybrid mid-size SUV N8 and the all-electric mid-size SUV N7 in 2023. Among them, the N7, which was originally pinned on high hopes, will only sell a total of 6,437 units in 2023. Although deliveries of the car only began at the end of July, the results were clearly not satisfactory. The Denza N8, on the other hand, simply has no splash at all.

In the author's opinion, the biggest problem of DENZA now is that the brand lacks a popular model with monthly sales of more than 10,000 yuan in addition to the D9. Whether there are two popular models on sale determines whether DENZA can enter the first echelon of high-end new energy brands.

To this end, in addition to the aforementioned N7 facelift, the N8 will also be upgraded. Some media broke the news that the length of this car will be expanded to more than 5 meters on the basis of the existing 4949mm, or it will be benchmarked against the ideal L8.

In the author's opinion, the reason why the Denza N8 did not achieve big sales like the D9 before, in addition to the fierce competition in the medium and large SUV market segment, is mainly because this car has only undergone a certain degree of "fine decoration" on the exterior and interior, and has not formed a real differentiation with its "mother" - BYD Tang.

The side shape of the Denza N8 is quite ordinary

To put it bluntly, if you want users to let go of Tang DM-i and spend an extra 120,000 yuan to choose Denza N8, there must be a saying. Obviously, the new N8, which is more spacious, is much more convincing.

However, compared with car companies such as Ideal and Xpeng, which will focus on pure electric MPVs and SUVs in 2024, Denza's new cars this year are more in the sedan field. At present, there are three known models, namely a sports mid-size sedan benchmarked against the BMW 3 Series, a medium-sized and large-sized hunting sports car benchmarked against the Porsche Panamera, and a medium-sized and large-sized flagship sedan benchmarked against the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Spy photos of suspected DENZA medium and large hunting coupes

In the author's opinion, the pressure on these three cars is not small. On the one hand, opponents like ZEEKR 001 have completed the replacement, and after adding LiDAR, Yamaha audio and other configurations, the starting price is controlled at 269,000 yuan, which has become a banner for medium-sized luxury electric cars. On the other hand, the Honor version of BYD Han DM-i and EV is also about to be released, and its starting price is expected to be further reduced on the basis of the current 189,800 and 209,800 yuan.

But relatively speaking, the latter two medium-to-large hunting sports cars benchmarking against Panamera and medium-to-large flagship sedans benchmarking Mercedes-Benz S-class are more worth looking forward to. After all, among the luxury models, BYD Group has launched a large SUV looking up to the U8, as well as a supercar looking up to the U9. How it plays in the segment of medium and large luxury sedans is, to a certain extent, a sign of the next trend of the luxury model market of Chinese auto brands.

Of course, in addition to the model positioning, these cars have some certain news in terms of technological leadership. Zhao Changjiang, the chief co-creation officer of the DENZA brand and the head of the brand, revealed that they will achieve "vehicle intelligence" in this year's new cars. The author speculates that this should be the "Xuanji Architecture" released at the BYD Dream Day event on January 16. According to the information released at that time, this new architecture can realize the integration of the vehicle's three-electric domain, intelligent driving domain and intelligent cabin domain, and use a computing platform to achieve centralized computing.

Once this new architecture is mass-produced, the user value it brings is multifaceted. For example, the individual sensors, controllers, and actuators on the vehicle will be easier to call, the hardware costs of the individual modules will be reduced, and the software development cycle will be shortened.

In short, in terms of intelligence, DENZA will once again become an early adopter of intelligence in the entire BYD Group.

Zhao Changjiang, use NIO's method to do Denza?

If Yu Chengdong, who loves to talk big, is an "outlier" in the entire Huawei Group, then Zhao Changjiang, who was born in sales, can also be said to be the most different brand leader in the BYD Group. Compared with the relatively "decent" Equation Leopard and Yangwang in the leader's speech, Zhao Changjiang is much more active on Weibo.

After the release of the "unofficial" rendering of the N7, Zhao Changjiang directly launched a vote on his Weibo, saying, "If everyone thinks the new N7 looks good, I will perform and jump the Yangtze River!"

Of course, he is a little out of the line online, and he also frequently interacts with users offline. At a series of New Year gatherings of DENZA car clubs across the country at the end of the year, Zhao Changjiang attended them one by one as much as possible. He told me that he has participated in more than 100 events in total, and has communicated with riders from various provinces and cities, "as long as the row is open, I will try to go as much as I can."

In fact, at the annual banquet attended by the media and car owners, Zhao Changjiang took the initiative to come to every table to toast, and "did not refuse to come" to the president of each car club who came to toast. According to the observation of the author who was at the same table with him, no less than 5 waves of people came to toast in just 20 minutes after the banquet began. If you add the amount of 50 tables of media + car owners in the audience to calculate, Zhao Changjiang's amount of alcohol can't help but make the author sigh: "We Hunan people can drink." ”

From this point of view, Zhao Changjiang's insistence on personally meeting a large number of users face-to-face and making friends is very similar to the path of Li Bin, the founder, chairman and CEO of NIO. As far as the author knows, Li Bin spends a lot of time every year interacting with users online and offline. After these interactions, NIO's relevant product strategies and user operation policies will be adjusted according to the results of the communication. For example, NIO's policy of providing 1,000 kWh free charging credits in eight provinces/autonomous regions in the northern part of the mainland was formulated by Li Bin to encourage local car owners to drive electric vehicles in winter.

Li Bin previously participated in a face-to-face event for users

Zhao Changjiang does a similar thing before and after the annual DENZA User Communication Day, that is, after fully communicating with users around the world, he adjusts the product and user policies. For example, this year, DENZA has launched a series of benefits for users, including mall discounts, free testing, and free audio-visual entertainment traffic packages during the Chinese New Year travel period.

In addition, DENZA is also one of the few car companies that is willing to set up a link at the press conference to show its user image. At this year's communication meeting, the brand also invited user representatives to perform users' real-life experiences on stage in the form of dramas, similar to NIO, which broadcasts micro-films based on users' real stories at NIO Day every year.

Obviously, as a new brand, DENZA and NIO both choose to cut into the circle of friends of users with the strategy of pressure operation, so as to achieve the purpose of selling cars based on the fission of the user circle. However, compared with high-end pure electric vehicles with relatively more segmented market positioning, DENZA relies on the hybrid and pure electric approach to reach a wider range of user groups.

However, compared with NIO, which had a sufficient initial budget and played high, Denza and Zhao Changjiang were relatively more down-to-earth. For example, compared with the user representatives who prefer to play golf, camping and fitness in the NIO Car Club, there are more old buddies who serve as the "head of the family" in the DENZA Car Club. At the user dinner attended by the author, the New Year's greetings of the president of each provincial car club basically started with "raising a glass" and ended with "singing a song".

Of course, in this process, Zhao Changjiang and DENZA colleagues will seriously beat the clap offstage and interact with the stage.

Although all this does not seem to be as lofty as the middle-class life presented in the Xiaohongshu APP, I believe that most people will feel familiar with this expression full of fireworks. In fact, the author, who participated in the whole process, felt very much like attending the wedding of a relative in his hometown - focusing on an immersive experience of strong and passionate emotions by strangers.

Write at the end:

From the eyes of an observer like the author, the layout of various brands within the BYD Group is indeed becoming more and more like Volkswagen.

BYD's Dynasty and Ocean focus on mainstream market models of 7-250,000 yuan, which is equivalent to Volkswagen and Skoda of the Volkswagen Group. The equation Leopard and Lookup can be compared to Porsche and Lamborghini (referring to relative positioning, not selling price). BYD's positioning for Denza is Volkswagen's Audi.

In other words, the three goals of volume, making money and promoting the brand need to be achieved.

At present, DENZA has gone through the first stage of its own development with the help of the big sales of D9. With a large number of models on the market in 2024, the real challenge for the brand and Zhao Changjiang has only just begun.