Source: Brand front page
Recently, the most beautiful boy in the entire car circle is none other than Xiaomi Auto. Especially since the press conference, you can see the hot search of Xiaomi cars almost every day.
In the face of such a huge amount of traffic, in addition to the anchors from all walks of life who want to get a piece of the pie, even their peers can't bear to let go, including the new energy vehicle brand "Zhiji" under SAIC.
● Source: Liu Tao Weibo
On the evening of April 8th, at the Zhiji press conference, CEO Liu Tao output to Xiaomi from the beginning of the appearance design, and played the suffering card on the grounds that employees worked too hard to miss the birth of their children.
The remarks immediately caused an uproar on the Internet, and even the corporate culture of Zhiji Auto began to be questioned.
Then, Zhiji Automobile was "hammered" by its brother Roewe, which also belongs to SAIC.
The wise self who sang the praises of suffering was "fired" by his own brother
I believe many people still remember the "love and hate" between Zhiji Auto and Xiaomi some time ago.
After the press conference of Xiaomi Automobile, on April 8, in order to benchmark Xiaomi SU7, Zhiji also released its strategic model L6. Perhaps it is to catch up with the popularity of Xiaomi cars, Zhiji CEO Liu Tao sneered at Xiaomi cars during the press conference, and even made a table to prove that Zhiji L6 front and rear silicon carbide motors, while Xiaomi only has one.
● Source: Liu Tao Weibo
Pulling peers in the business war is not a very popular choice in itself, and it is surprising that many of the data released by Zhiji Auto at the press conference were confirmed to be misinformation.
Everyone knows what happened later, Xiaomi Auto took out legal weapons to protect its own rights and interests, and Zhiji Auto issued a series of apology letters at midnight.
This is not over, what makes the majority of netizens even more angry is that Zhiji Automobile frantically sang the suffering at the press conference, "The team partners will miss the birth of their own children in order to build a car", "There are also friends who are still on the front line of work after 4 consecutive days in a short period of time" and so on, when the controversy reached its peak, Zhiji even wrote a report letter saying that he was subjected to cyberbullying.
What is surprising is that this kind of behavior of singing the praises of suffering even Roewe Automobile, another independent brand of SAIC Group, can't stand it.
● Source: Roewe's official Weibo
On April 10, Roewe Automobile released two posters to promote corporate culture, "Do not encourage overtime, nor prevent everyone's love for making cars", "Traffic is not equal to the truth, building a good car is the last word", a few words were interpreted by the outside world as in Yin and Yang Zhiji Automobile.
The same brothers who belong to the same school under SAIC Motor directly put the infighting on the surface, and it is no wonder that the people who eat melons are suddenly interested.
On social media platforms, "Roewe is ruthless, even his brothers fight", "Zhiji was actually shot by his own brother, I never expected", "Roewe Auto backstabbed Zhiji Auto", related comments are endless.
Brand infighting is just a microcosm
Although this is an infighting between fellow brothers, it is difficult to say what the final result will be for the time being, but it should be noted that SAIC, the parent company of the two major brands, Guiwei Zhiji and Roewe, has really had a hard time in the past two years.
According to the financial report disclosed at the end of March, SAIC's annual revenue in 2023 will be 744.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.09%, and its net profit will be 14.11 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 12.48%. Revenue stagnant and net profit fell sharply, such a report card is obviously not ideal.
Not only that, some time ago, SAIC Motor also released a production and sales report for March 2024, with a total sales volume of 834,200 units in the first three months, a year-on-year decrease of 6.4%.
●Source: SAIC Motor released its official Weibo
A series of data are really showing that as the "first brother of car companies" currently recognized in China, SAIC is obviously going downhill.
It is worth noting that in the past five years, SAIC has experienced a decline in net profit in four years, which has been "cut in half" compared with the heyday.
With the continuous development of new energy vehicles such as BYD and other brands, the gap between SAIC and the new forces in terms of profitability is also getting wider and wider. Not only is the profitability less than half of BYD's, but even the ideal net profit is only 2.4 billion more than the so-called niche car companies.
As a car company giant with annual sales of more than 5 million units, why has it failed again and again in terms of performance and profits?
●Source: SAIC Motor released its official Weibo
As we all know, SAIC has "three major carriages", namely new energy, overseas and independent, and joint ventures are still the core business of SAIC from the perspective of the whole.
It's a pity that in 2023, the net profit of the joint venture represented by SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM will be 6.6 billion, a decrease of 58.11% compared with the same period last year, which has seriously dragged down the overall performance of SAIC Group.
The most obvious reason is naturally the extreme involution between domestic car companies.
SAIC has a long road to transformation
"It is the general trend for new energy vehicles to replace traditional fuel vehicles, and now the entire automobile market is in the process of accelerating the discharge", in the face of the dilemma of the car giant SAIC, some industry insiders said.
Indeed, in fact, most of the traditional car companies that can stabilize their sales without declining or even have a slight increase are concentrated in luxury brands.
After all, traditional luxury brands such as BBA have no influence and brand awareness that new car-making forces can compete with, and most places have a higher degree of recognition.
However, for SAIC, most of its brands belong to the volume models that are positioned as family cars, and they will be easily replaced in the face of the tide of new energy.
●Source: SAIC Motor released its official Weibo
In the face of various difficulties, SAIC is also actively seeking a path of transformation, first of all, in the overseas market. In 2023, SAIC Motor sold 1.208 million units overseas, up 18.8% year-on-year, and has also ranked first in the domestic industry in vehicle exports for eight consecutive years.
The second is SAIC's layout in new energy vehicles. In fact, as early as 2017, SAIC began to try the transformation of new energy vehicles, through the Baojun E100 launched by SAIC-GM-Wuling and the pure electric models launched by SAIC Roewe, and then two independent new energy vehicle brands were established respectively.
● Source: Liu Tao Weibo
However, at present, the overall situation of SAIC's transformation in new energy is not optimistic.
This may also be the reason why different brands dare to "shoot" each other, after all, everyone is responsible for the future of their respective brands.
Under the coercion of the times, established car companies have to take the initiative to deal with the challenges of rising stars. But without a clear and long-term plan, it may be difficult to turn the elephant around.