In the context of the acceleration of the transformation of the global automobile industry to electrification, intelligence and greening, China's new energy vehicle industry has shown a vigorous development trend, and a number of outstanding enterprises have emerged. In recent years, with the continuous escalation of the fierce competition of domestic new energy vehicles, the market share has gradually concentrated to the head enterprises, and the survival of the fittest in the industry has accelerated.
As the bridgehead and vanguard of BAIC Group's new energy and intelligent development, how can ARCFOX Motors gain a firm foothold in the stock squeezing market competition and show strong development resilience? This is inseparable from its continuous cultivation and excellence in product matrix construction, brand innovation expression, user service quality and other aspects.
Through years of practice and exploration, ARCFOX Motors has embarked on a new path of high-end intelligent development and handed over a high-growth answer sheet.
Consumer-centric and personalized travel experiences
Every product of ARCFOX Motors is "from the user, to the user". While increasing investment in new products and new technologies, ARCFOX Motors has always adhered to the principle of "customer first", and has provided users with a more high-quality and personalized travel experience through in-depth understanding of users' all-scenario needs, so as to grow together with users.
Every new product release is ARCFOX Motors' response to consumer needs. From the parent-child design of the Koala model to the excellent driving performance of the Alpha T5, as well as the unique charm of the Alpha S/T Forest Edition PRO "Urban Oxygen Bar", to the intelligent driving experience provided by the ARCFOX Alpha S5, Xiangjie S9, and ARCFOX Alpha S Advanced Edition, ARCFOX Motors relies on the accurate grasp of user pain points such as fashion, personality, and space and the accurate judgment of the market environment, and promotes product innovation with the concept of "scenario-based car manufacturing", and further realizes the concept of sedans, SUVs, MPV product matrix coverage to meet a wider range of user needs.
With the continuous enrichment and improvement of the product lineage, ARCFOX Motors has achieved accurate user coverage, and its unique advantages such as healthy cockpit, safety protection, and Magna quality have also been highly recognized and selected by the market.
Following the sharp increase in sales in 2022, in 2023, Jihu Motors will continue its rapid growth trend of doubling, with the annual wholesale volume reaching 30,016 units, a year-on-year increase of 138%, outperforming the new energy market by 102 percentage points. The annual retail sales were 22,787 units, a year-on-year increase of 87%. In December 2023, ARCFOX reached a small peak, with 2,985 units in danger, almost reaching 3,000 units. The big strides forward have also increased the share of the JiHu brand in the entire pure electric market by 0.05%, ranking up 2 places.
Recently, ARCFOX Motors released a new architecture of Darwin 2.0 technology, a full-stack ecological self-evolution technology system, and comprehensively demonstrated the hard-core technology behind the quality of ARCFOX products. Based on the IMC architecture, ARCFOX Motors has made great efforts to create seven major technology sectors - "Jidun" safety, "Jijing" health, "Aurora" battery, "Jifeng" power, "Lingyun" chassis, "Lingzhi" OS and "Jixiang" cockpit, which have been successively implemented in new products such as Jihu Alpha S5 and Xiangjie S9, which will provide users with a pleasant experience in all scenarios and without dead ends.
ARCFOX believes that technology exists and evolves for protection, and these technological innovations and reserves are the first password and hard-core confidence for the ARCFOX brand to continue to protect users' better travel life.
One city, one policy, one car, one policy, to carry out refined marketing actions
In order to accurately locate different target customer groups in major cities, ARCFOX Motors has launched the measures of "one city, one policy" and "one car, one policy". For different models and different sales regions, ARCFOX will formulate and implement more refined marketing strategies, and use this "customized" service to directly hit the hearts of users and "make friends" with them.
Jihu Motors' efforts in refined marketing have been efficiently translated into actual sales. In terms of regional markets, ARCFOX maintained its position in its home base in Beijing, ranking 6th in BEV sales, up 2 places, and even surpassing auto brands such as GAC, BMW, Volkswagen, and Zeekr. In Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and other key cities with marketing efforts, the brand vitality of Jihu Motors has been significantly improved, with a year-on-year increase of more than 150%.
In this regard, Zhang Guofu, executive deputy general manager of BAIC BJEV, said, "'One car, one policy', it is necessary to clarify the characteristics of each product, make product labels thoroughly, and better output product value through linkage media platforms, so as to establish a closer connection with customer groups." The method of 'one city, one policy' has achieved certain results in Koala, such as the 'Ten Cities Cultural Modified Koala', which integrates urban characteristics, has won unanimous praise from users and the media. In the future, we will continue to do a good job of 'one city, one policy' and promote it to the promotion of more models." We will take the five cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Zheng as strategic cities, and use them as 'bases' to 'light up' more areas and stimulate the overall growth of surrounding cities. ”
In 2024, ARCFOX Motors will continue to focus on brand and technology, create a brand event of "technology leading, brand recognition", and boost user confidence. JiHu Motors will carry out various types of national activities around the topic of "good technology" manufacturing, so that consumers can intuitively feel the technical charm of ARCFOX Motors' intelligence, health, control and battery life, continue to build brand IP hotspots, and expand brand influence.
Zhang Guofu said, "ARCFOX Motors should seize the four good opportunities that have been formed, the first is that the new products of ARCFOX Motors have successively laid out 120,000-250,000 yuan in today's largest market of new energy capacity, with the blessing of the basic level of three-electric technology and intelligence, combined with the high quality and ceiling-level health and safety performance that ARCFOX Motors has always pursued, ARCFOX Motors will definitely become the most dazzling 'business card'; The high-performance pure electric coupe Alpha S5 will be launched soon, which means that the matrix composed of 6 ARCFOX products will be completely formed. Only by covering more market segments and meeting the needs of a wider range of users can brand sales be supported and our marketing work can be more targeted. BAIC Group has decided to focus on the ARCFOX sector in terms of resources, promote the long-term strategic development of ARCFOX Automobile through market-oriented operation, maximize the vitality of brand development, and create the 'double high-end' route of ARCFOX and Mercedes-Benz of BAIC Group. After years of development, the front-line basic sales capabilities and main dealer team of ARCFOX Motors have been gradually improved, and the sales and service capabilities will soon begin to be released. ”
Create high-quality services and achieve "powerful faction" in car manufacturing
At present, the fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market is escalating, and various configurations and parameters are dazzling. With this, there are a variety of automotive safety issues. To improve reputation and service first, Jihu Motors has started the road of soft power construction focusing on improving services while increasing technology research and development efforts to ensure the safety of users.
In 2023, the marketing capabilities of the JiHu brand will be steadily improved. In terms of channel development and terminal capacity building, the JiHu brand added 58 new channel outlets throughout the year, and the cumulative number of stores in operation reached 244. In addition, 2023 is also the first year for the JiHu brand to expand its overseas market. The ARCFOX brand has clarified its intention to act as an agent in 16 countries, and has successfully completed the EU certification of Alpha T and Alpha S, laying a solid foundation for its global market expansion.
At present, the number of after-sales service network of Jihu Motors has increased steadily, and now the number of service outlets has increased to 114, and it is still growing. JIHU Motors has completed the construction of the spare parts guarantee system of "2 central libraries + 3 regional libraries + 3 satellite libraries", and the one-time satisfaction rate of spare parts has reached 99.4% throughout the year. Relevant data shows that the complaint rate of 10,000 units of Jihu Motors has dropped from 45 units in 2022 to 33 units, and a total of 131734 service work orders have been completed throughout the year, including 5,945 door-to-door services, achieving a five-star praise of 4.99 points throughout the year, and users have published 6,197 posts on the Jihu APP, and the word-of-mouth foundation has been initially formed.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, ARCFOX Motors continued to accelerate the construction of ARCFOX Energy's charging network. JiHu Motors has shared 550,000 high-quality charging piles with 14 leading charging operators, and built 33 exclusive supercharging stations, covering 320 cities. According to the data, JiHu Motors has also opened up the Shell and Xiaoju super charging networks, and the Jihu aT/aS models are compatible with Tesla's charging network, and the access to public charging piles has reached 660,000+, covering 330+ cities. In addition, ARCFOX Motors has also opened up the data interface of "car-pile-mobile APP", which can intelligently realize functions such as reservation charging, intelligent navigation charging, and remote control charging of mobile APP.
At the same time, through the establishment of the management system and the improvement of the management and control mechanism, the indicators of Jihu Auto's energy business have also been greatly improved. The number of self-built supercharging stations has jumped from 96 in 2022 to 192, doubling within a year, allowing more and more users to enjoy the refreshment and convenience of the rapid energy replenishment of Jihu supercharging piles.
In addition, ARCFOX Motors also provides meticulous "five modernizations" services for users who have the conditions to install home charging piles, that is, "efficient docking and communication, maximized resource coordination, branding of construction services, worry-free daily charging, and heart-warming after-sales response", so that users can enjoy the convenient experience of home charging with peace of mind.
Based on its own technical accumulation in the field of new energy, superimposed on BAIC Group's 65-year car-making heritage and the blessing of the top "circle of friends", ARCFOX Motors continues to innovate and become a representative of the "powerful faction" of domestic car manufacturing, and dares to continue to compete in endurance and determination in the second half of the new energy vehicle competition. In the future, BAIC Group will also gather the best resources, the strongest manpower, and the best technology to promote ARCFOX Motors into a strong growth cycle. (Photo courtesy of the company)