"We really hope to make the Epoch a brand similar to Audi!" On April 15, after the Epoch ET pre-sale press conference, Gao Xinhua, deputy general manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., president of the General Research Institute of Automotive Engineering Technology, and general manager of the Xingtu brand, said in an interview with the media that whether it is the first or second line, the "luxury" of Xingtu should be in awe of the public.
From the entire Chery group to the Xingtu brand itself. Since the beginning of the brand's establishment, the Star Era has been the dazzling pearl in the process of climbing the pyramid of the Xingtu brand.
As Chery's high-end new energy sequence, Xingtu Star Era has gradually entered and integrated into the mainstream automobile consumer market in less than half a year from the launch of the first ES model on December 20 last year to the launch of the second ET model on April 15 this year.
During the whole exchange process, it can be clearly felt that Xingtu is constantly releasing information in the process of climbing upward, that is, how to build its own luxury attributes and how to consolidate its position in overseas markets in the future?
The core of Xingtu luxury: the brand and users build a mental connection point
With the acceleration of the transformation of new energy vehicles, independent brands are rewriting the history of "big but not strong" in the past. When it comes to the word "luxury", it used to be a well-known label for joint venture brands, while domestic brands seem to be rarely touched.
In the long history of automobile development, any car company will create its own category when shaping luxury attributes, and differentiate itself into first-line luxury, second-tier luxury, American luxury, German luxury and other echelons.
"As for the understanding of luxury, the interior put forward a lot of opinions at the beginning, and finally we chose to benchmark the Audi Q5L. At the press conference on the same day, Gao Xinhua explained the new car, talking about the Star Era ET and Audi Q5 L made a configuration comparison, in the media link, he explained the reason for benchmarking this model, "We are not malicious comparison, but full of respect, benchmarking itself is not a bad thing."
Chery Group has said on many occasions that Xingtu is a high-end high-end, and it is Chery's Audi, so it is reasonable to choose to benchmark Audi Q5L; Among them, the Q5L itself performed well in hard indicators such as battery life, handling, safety, and comfort, while the average sales volume in the first few months exceeded 11,000 units.
Indeed, throughout the entire new energy vehicle market, there are many independent brands that want to be labeled as "luxury" or "high-end", but there are not many that can really achieve the goal and be widely recognized by the masses.
In the view of Jin Xin, executive deputy general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center, it is meaningless to talk about brands, and the core lies in the connection between brands and users. If there is no user mental strategy, there is no value in talking about technical routes or brands.
This also explains that in the process of shaping the "luxury" label, the Xingtu brand puts the psychological appeal of touching the "user" in the first place, and the homeopathic trend is to strengthen the technical label.
Huang Zhaogen, assistant general manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and general manager of Xingtu Marketing Center, summarized the consumers of the Xingtu brand into three categories: users who want to buy luxury electric vehicles but must rely on large manufacturers to be reliable, have extremely high requirements for car comfort, and customers who used to buy "150,000-250,000" joint venture brands are more inclined to choose Chery.
According to the official survey of the Xingtu brand, the third type of consumer group is the most typical, accounting for 50% of the sales of the Xingtu brand. Nationwide, the ratio of range extension to pure electric is about 60:40. In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, pure electric vehicles account for 60%, and range extension accounts for more than 30%, while in the second- and third-tier markets, range extension accounts for 80%, and pure electric vehicles account for only 20%.
"In the past year, we found that 63% of Xingtu's users are teachers, doctors, and civil servants. As a result, our customers are tech-savvy, performance-conscious, low-key people. ”
In the field of technology, the Xingtu brand also strives to help users achieve the desire of "equal rights in science and technology". The all-new Star Era ET can not only upgrade the new air-suspended CDC for free, but also match the whole series with silicon carbide. At the same time, the new car is also equipped with CATL's Shenxing battery, which has attracted the attention of the industry with its strong performance of "charging for 10 minutes and a range of 400 kilometers".
As mentioned above, behind this series of actions of the Xingtu brand, the core point is "creating a mental connection point", that is, focusing on the experience of people and car scenes, and the brand tonality touches the details of every tiny individual, transforming from the previous functional feelings to emotional feelings, "This may also be the future brand building path of the Star Era".
Xingtu focuses on overseas intelligent high-end, showing a leader's attitude
Looking back at the current situation of the domestic auto market in recent years, on the one hand, car companies are involuting each other, and on the other hand, this trend is rolling overseas. The word "going to sea" has become the main theme of the current car circle.
Recently, there have been rumors that Chery is going to enter the European market. Although Chery's export business is mainly concentrated in Central Asia, South America and the Middle East, the capture of the European continent also proves Chery's confidence in its own technology and products.
Jochen Tueting, general manager of Chery Europe, once said bluntly: "We are exploring different possibilities in Europe and looking for potential opportunities to build factories there in the future. Several alternative sites are being explored, but specific information cannot be disclosed. ”
As a high-end sub-brand of Chery Group, it is difficult for us to give an answer as to whether Xingtu will keep up with its footsteps. However, for the challenges that the European market may face, Xingtu has given an answer.
In response to the local charging problem in Europe, the Xingtu team admitted that "the infrastructure in Europe is actually very poor". The new car of the Star Era has an electric volt of 800, and it is difficult to have charging piles in Europe that can match such a large energy speed, let alone achieve such a dense network as in China. Gao Xinhua said that European users and Chinese users have different feelings about trams. In China, electricity is much cheaper than gas, while in Europe there is not much difference between the two, with the former being only slightly cheaper than the latter. Therefore, strategically in Europe, Xingtu temporarily uses 400 volts in Spain.
In the second half of intelligence, for Chery Group and even Xingtu, whether it is continuing to deepen the domestic new energy vehicle market or setting its sights on the long-term overseas market, the brand is sparing no effort to complete the identity transformation from a chaser to a leader by creating the ultimate product.
Gu Junli, Director of Chery's Autonomous Driving Technology Committee and CEO of Dazhuo Intelligence, summarized it into three points:
With the help of ecological power, products can be developed quickly. Instead of focusing on full-stack self-development, it is self-developed and controllable, realizing platformization, amplifying its own market-driving advantages, and completing the whole chain closed-loop from product definition to product platform to technology R&D and integration, which can be shared in the future, whether it is algorithms, maps, and computing platforms.
"God has left a unique track for Chery, which is to go international. Gu Junli said frankly that in the field of intelligent high-end, at present, the sensitivity and demand of international users to intelligence are about 3-4 years behind that of domestic users, and it is also the window for Xingtu to make efforts.
In response to the sales performance of the Epoch ET after its launch, Huang Zhaogen said that the entire team will take ES and ET "monthly sales of 10,000 units" as the goal. ET achieved monthly sales of 5,000 units in the first half of the year. Taking root in the extended-range automobile market is not only in line with Chery users' understanding of new energy, but also meets Chery users' needs for new energy. At the same time, he also said that the realization of the goal should be based on product power, price power, marketing power, and communication power.