Charles Dickens once said: This is the worst of times, and the best of times. This sentence is very apt to describe the current Chinese auto market. Under the fierce market competition, some people withdraw, some fall, and some rely on price wars to maintain themselves, but in this vast and extremely cruel market, there is such a low-key but absolutely powerful player who cannot be underestimated: Chery Automobile. When it comes to Chery, everyone may first think of the "science and engineering man" who is immersed in technology, but in recent years, this "science and engineering man" is making great strides and gradually becoming a "full honor student". The following sets of data with extremely high gold content can reflect Chery's current market position:
1. With sales of 1.43 million units, Chery Automobile will become the global champion of Chinese SUVs in 2023;
2. With a sales volume of 940,000 units, Chery Tiggo will become the global sales champion of Chinese brand fuel SUVs in 2023;
3. In 2023, Chery Group exported 937,148 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 101.1%, ranking first in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 21 consecutive years;
4. In March 2024, Chery Group's sales reached 181,585 units, up 45.3% year-on-year, and 529,604 units in the first quarter, up 60.3% year-on-year, continuing to maintain a rapid growth trend. It is particularly noteworthy that in the first two months of 2024, Chery Group's sales growth rate will be 70%, far exceeding the industry growth rate of 11.1%, ranking first in the industry;
5. New energy is a must for all brands. In the first quarter of this year, Chery Group sold 60,133 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 124.3%, doubling the growth.
6. In addition to the contrarian take-off of the group's achievements, Chery's various brands also show a posture of a hundred flowers blooming:
Chery brand: Sales in March increased by 40.7% to 116,927 units, and 350,314 units in the first quarter, up 57.6% year-on-year. Behind Chery's rise is the strong support of the Tiggo SUV family from the people-friendly Tiggo 3x to the flagship Tiggo 9, from China to the world, the Tiggo SUV is Chery's well-deserved anchor and mainstay.
Xingtu brand: Adhering to the long-term approach, sales in March increased by 3% year-on-year to 6,653 units, and 23,493 units in January-March, up 44.4% year-on-year. Now it is steadily walking on the road of high-quality development.
Jietu brand: Sales in March were 35,503 units, up 82% y/y, and 107,476 units in January-March, up 106.9% y/y. Since its birth, the Jet Traveler has become a phenomenal product of the domestic square box light off-road SUV, with continuous monthly sales of more than 10,000 units. The upcoming Shanhai T2 adopts the CD-M hybrid architecture, with a pure electric range of 208km and an ultra-long range of 1,300km, and its competitive strength is very prominent.
iCAR brand: As an eclectic pure electric box SUV, the iCAR 03 has sold 5,487 units in March, and in the highly competitive 100,000-150,000 yuan pure electric vehicle market, iCAR 03 has proved its excellent strength with consumer recognition.
Marketing can be varied, but the numbers don't lie. In the face of solid sales figures, Chery handed in a confident answer to all friends who care about Chinese brands.
Chery's success is by no means accidental, but comes from the blossoming of deep cultivation of technology, and is the market return of Chery's insistence on "technology is king" and insisting on long-term independent research and development with a large amount of funds. So far, Chery has built 8 R&D centers in North America, Europe, and Shanghai around the world, with a total of 29,000 patent applications and more than 18,000 authorizations, of which invention patents account for 32%. At the same time, in the "2023 China New Car Quality StudySM (IQS)" released by J.D. Power, Chery won the first place in the quality of China's own brand new cars.
Under the leadership of the "old scalper" spirit of hard work, Chery Automobile has a complete development system and mastered the core technology, and has developed the first engine with completely independent intellectual property rights of a Chinese automobile brand, and has more than 20 years of technical accumulation. Chery's arsenal has core technologies and equipment such as Kunpeng Power, Mars Architecture, Lion Intelligence, and Galaxy Ecology, and has core technologies and voice rights in the fields of power, high-performance platform, intelligent cockpit, and Internet ecology, among which Kunpeng Power 1.6TGDI/2.0TGDI has not only won the top ten engines of "China Heart", but also won the unanimous recognition of global consumers, helping the Tiggo 8 Champion family and Chery Automobile to enter overseas markets with strong kinetic energy.
After reading two news articles, you will understand why Chery has achieved what it is today:
1. At the 2023 Chery Science and Technology Day, Yin Tongyue, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Chery Holding Group Co., Ltd., said with enthusiasm that Chery will rely on the "Yaoguang 2025" technology system to invest more than 100 billion yuan in research and development in the next five years, and invest 20 billion yuan in R&D every year, continue to learn from Apple, Huawei, and CATL, and boldly pursue disruptive innovation.
2. On March 4, Chery Group officially announced that its four major brands have a lifetime warranty for all models + second-hand cars. Since then, Chery has become the first automobile company in China's automotive industry to provide a lifetime warranty for all brands and models + used cars. Why Chery was able to make such a bold decision came from a clear understanding of its own technology and sufficient confidence in its own products. As a result, Chery Group has successfully created a value system covering the whole life chain of car purchase, car use and replacement, so as to provide consumers with a truly high-value product and service experience.
With a large investment in technology and a successful brand/model strategy, Chery today is based in China and going global. As Yin Tongyue said: "The future Chery is not only China's Chery, but also the world's Chery." "Strengthening the genes of Chery Technology and relying on the "Yaoguang 2025" strategy, Chery Automobile will give full play to its five world-class technological advantages of "safety, energy consumption, space, intelligent cabin and intelligent driving" in the future, leading Chery's entire product camp to continuously advance and reconstruct the definition of "new car".