With the "price war" in the auto market entering the normalization stage, the "war of words" between various car companies has also become commonplace. Unconsciously, the marketing method of "not surprising and endless" is flooding the automotive industry, and everyone seems to be louder than who, because this can be more out of the circle on the Internet and win traffic and attention.
However, there is a way to do it is always more important than to say, compared to the popularity on the Internet, the real sales data in reality is always the most convincing.
For example, Chery Group, which often presents itself as a "science and engineering man", sold a total of 529,604 new vehicles in the first quarter of this year, with a year-on-year growth rate of 60.3%. In the highly competitive and complex auto market environment, Chery Group still maintains a high-speed growth trend and can be described as a real winner.
It is worth mentioning that in the first quarter, Chery Group's sales of new energy vehicles reached 60,133, with a year-on-year growth rate of 124.3%, which shows that Chery has taken a solid step in the transformation of new energy.
Seeing this series of data, many netizens asked, how did Chery Group achieve sales soaring against the trend? In the face of 2024, when the challenge coefficient is more difficult, how will Chery Group respond? What kind of technical dry goods does Chery have in the field of new energy? How will Chery maintain its advantage in going overseas? With various questions, Automotive Intelligence New Media had an in-depth exchange with Chery Group executives, and the following are the answers to many questions.
Chery's "you're welcome", what is the confidence?
The industry's impressed by Chery's actions in the field of new energy has to be at Chery Technology DAY last year, when Chairman Yin Tongyue mentioned that Chery will be polite in the field of new energy in 2024, and it was once on the hot search. Since then, everyone has been curious about how Chery is going to fight this tough battle?
Based on this, Chery will make efforts in three aspects: "Yaoguang 2025 Strategy Upgrade", "Accelerated Implementation of New Energy Strategy" and "Comprehensive Electric Hybridization of Brands and Products" to explain how it is "welcome".
First of all, under the guidance of the "Yaoguang 2025" strategy, Chery brings together high-end technical talents from all over the world to continue to make efforts in the five major fields of Mars architecture, Kunpeng Power, Lion Intelligent Cabin, Dazhuo Intelligent Driving, and Galaxy Ecology, so as to drive change with science and technology and start leapfrog development.
Secondly, in terms of accelerating the implementation of the new energy strategy, Chery has formed a development strategy of simultaneous development of multiple technical routes such as hybrid, extended range, pure electric and hydrogen energy, and formed a "four vertical and three horizontal" R&D core layout with batteries, motors and electronic controls, fully implemented the "combination punch" of new energy strategic development, and fully regenerated the products in production and follow-up.
In terms of brand, Chery's new energy advancement speed has leaped forward in an all-round way. For example, Chery brand has released a new energy brand sequence - Fengyun, which redefines the new technical standard of the hybrid market, Xingtu brand Star Era sequence has provoked the beam of high-end intelligent electrification, Jietu brand has released a new new energy series Shanhai, and Chery's first new energy electric brand iCAR has continuously brought surprises to users who are keen on fun and chasing new things. The four major brands formed a joint force to open Chery's "acceleration" in the new energy era.
In terms of corresponding products, Chery plans to expand to 24 new super hybrid 3.0 and 15 new E0X high-end electric products within two years. Among them, new energy models such as Chery Fengyun A8, Fengyun T9, Xingyuan ES, Xingtu Yaoguang C-DM, Shanhai L9, Jietu Traveler C-DM, and iCAR 03 fully meet the needs of users.
In the era of intelligence, what is Chery's technological "moat"?
As we all know, in the era of traditional fuel vehicles, Chery has set up the label of technology, and now in the new track of new energy vehicles, the competition of performance has shifted from electrification to intelligence.
Perhaps the "science and engineering man" has an inexplicable obsession with technology, when it comes to the technical layout in the field of intelligence, the chatterbox can't be closed after it is opened, and a lot of technical dry goods are told.
Chery talked about the need to make every effort to overcome major "bottleneck" technical problems such as platform architecture, three electrics, intelligent driving, intelligent cloud platform, and ecological partners, relying on the "Yaoguang 2025" forward-looking science and technology strategy, focusing on the five core areas of "Mars architecture, Kunpeng power, Lion intelligent cabin, Dazhuo intelligent driving, and Galaxy ecology".
There are several sets of data that can illustrate the technical skills of "science and engineering men". That is, up to now, Chery has set up a total of 50 R&D technical committees, 12 manufacturing technical committees, 140+ Yaoguang laboratories built or under construction, and 160+ Yaoguang laboratories under planning, accumulating a number of core technologies such as intelligent hybrid architecture, high-end pure electric E0X platform, third-generation hybrid technology, battery technology, electric drive technology, CHERY-OS, Lion Zhiyun 6.0 intelligent cockpit technology, intelligent driving technology, etc., and building a technological innovation chain for the new era.
At the same time, Chery has realized a number of core technology upgrades and technological achievements such as intelligent driving, intelligent interaction, and ecological partners, such as ChatGPT on the car, L4 driverless taxis, and car sharing metaverse, demonstrating Chery's progress in intelligence and ecology.
This is not the end, in the next 5 years, Chery will continue to invest more than 100 billion yuan in technology research and development under the guidance of the "Yaoguang 2025" forward-looking science and technology strategy, and build 300+ Yaoguang laboratories around the world. At the same time, it plans to train 25,000 R&D talents within two years, support interdisciplinary and cross-border technology research, and realize the upgrading of 19 core technologies including platform architecture, chips, high-efficiency hybrid engines, hydrogen energy, electric drives, batteries, intelligent interaction, unmanned driving, and intelligent cloud platforms, and create five world-class technical advantages of "safety, energy consumption, space, intelligent cabin, and intelligent driving".
In the future, Chery will continue to improve its product strength through technological innovation, especially in terms of new energy and intelligence, launch more new energy models, including hybrid and pure electric vehicles, and continue to enrich its new energy product portfolio.
Take the user as the teacher and create a "general student" of "rationality + sensibility"
The above article devotes a lot of space to introduce the various dry goods of the "science and engineering man" in the field of technological innovation, which is dizzying. However, in the past interview with Chery Group, it was mentioned that Chery should not only be a "science student", but also a "liberal arts student", and should have a business heart and a user heart. Judging from the actual effect in 2023, this transformation is still quite in place, and it is precisely because of this that Chery will continue this transformation in 2024?
In this regard, Chery talked about the need to pay more attention to the needs and feelings of users in products, marketing, services and other links, re-understand the relationship between enterprises and users, and transform into a user-oriented enterprise. That is, to focus on the needs of users, continue to be friends with users, and worship users as teachers.
Specifically, Chery will focus more on "youthfulness", fully embrace younger user groups, let the marketing team, product development team, and styling team face users, understand the needs of young user groups through more interactive communication, and constantly adjust products to quickly iterate more new products that meet the needs of contemporary consumers.
At the marketing level, we will be committed to creating a "rational + emotional" image of "general students", and combine social hotspots to innovate marketing methods. For example, the "baking" of Jinzi is widely praised by the industry, the friendly match of the Hong Kong star football team, and the strategic cooperation with Guizhou Village Chao.
Adhere to the four principles to make China's automobile truly from big to strong
Judging from the sales volume of nearly 530,000 units in the first quarter of this year, the overseas market accounted for almost half of the country. Among many domestic brands, this can be regarded as a unique existence. Now, with all major car companies focusing on overseas markets, how will Chery maintain its advantages?
In fact, in the process of continuously promoting industrial globalization and going global, Chery has always adhered to four principles. The first is to insist on self-discipline and cherish word of mouth. Today's "Made in China" in the global market has gradually bid farewell to the label of low quality and cheapness, and this image is not easy to come by. Chinese car companies must continue to polish the golden sign of "Made in China", keep the bottom line, and fulfill their commitments to users' safety, quality, and service.
The second is to change the way of thinking and the brand is up. Chinese auto brands entering overseas markets should not rely on the "price war" of vicious competition, but on the "value innovation war". Through technological innovation, category innovation, and ecological innovation, we will "add" Chinese brands, increase the gold content of the brand, and promote the brand.
Then there is the first to give and then take, to contribute value. Before entering an overseas market, you should first think about what you can bring to the local area and what value you can create, rather than thinking about what you can get and how many cars you can sell.
The fourth is openness and cooperation, and the sharing of results. In the past cooperation model, it was mainly us who introduced foreign products, brands and technologies, and now many times it is foreign parties who introduce our technology, brand, management and culture to achieve a new joint venture model of "reverse output". Chinese car companies can seize this opportunity to change the single trade form of "Made in China, Overseas Sales", cooperate with foreign brands in the whole value chain such as talent chain, innovation chain, industrial chain, supply chain, etc., and explore the localized business model of "Created in China, Made Overseas and Sold Overseas", so as to achieve business entanglement and sharing of results. This is also conducive to accelerating the upgrading of "Made in China" to "Created in China" and climbing to the high-end of the global automotive industry value chain.
For the future, China's auto market should not only pursue quantity, but also pursue the world's first brand, quality, reputation and profitability. Only by changing the track and ranking method can Chinese cars really become stronger.
At the moment of the sudden rise of new energy, many people in the industry were worried that the auto market would fall into a situation of "one super and many strong". But Chery's strong rise has prevented such a situation from happening. For consumers, this is undoubtedly a fortunate thing, because only when a domestic light like Chery grows, can the balance be balanced, and consumers can buy better value models at the lowest possible price.
It is worth mentioning that, judging from the above content, Chery seems to be fully prepared for the battlefield in 2024, not only in the field of new energy, but also in technology, products, user services, and overseas and other fields. Looking forward to this, maybe by the end of the year, we will take stock again, Chery may be able to win the first place in independence, let's wait and see, everything is possible.