Wuling pursues the concept of "what the people need, Wuling will build", and has created many popular products based on this concept, including Hongguang MINIEV, Wuling Binguo, Wuling Xingguang and so on.
However, today's Wuling Motors is losing its status. The reason for this judgment is mainly because of the declining sales performance of Wuling Motors. In 2023, SAIC-GM-Wuling's annual sales will be 1.4 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 12.31%. 2017 was the highlight of SAIC-GM-Wuling, which sold 2.15 million vehicles that year, ranking first among independent passenger car companies. Since then, Wuling's sales have been declining, and from 2017 to 2023, SAIC-GM-Wuling's annual sales have dropped from 2.15 million to 1.4 million units, and sales have declined for six consecutive years.
In 2022, Hongguang MINIEV sold 554,000 units for the year, with an average monthly sales of 45,000 units, but in 2023, its annual sales fell 41.2% year-on-year to 237,863 units.
In addition, Wuling Motors has created a lot of god cars, in 2017, Wuling Motors' god car Baojun 510, sold 360,000 units in 2017, and sold 760,000 units on the second anniversary of the listing Baojun 510, which directly pulled the "national god car" Haval H6 off the altar.
The Baojun 730 sold 270,000 units in 2017, the Baojun 310 series sold 210,000 units, and the Baojun 560 sold 150,000 units in 2017.
Today's Baojun Automobile, the three best-selling models are all pure electric models, and the highest sales volume was only 739 units sold in March.
Wuling brand, Hongguang MINI EV sold 16,000 units in March, Wuling Binguo sold 11,000 units, these are the only two models that break 10,000 units, it seems, Wuling Motors' sales are not bad, but compared with their own peak, Wuling Motors no longer has a car that can be called a god car, horizontal comparison, in terms of independent brands, the monthly sales of many models of BYD have surpassed the highest sales models of Wuling Motors.
Wuling Motors, the brand that used to have the highest proportion of sales, Baojun Automobile, has gone from annual sales of one million units to annual sales of 50,000 units in only 6 years. Today's Baojun automobiles, even a model that sells thousands of units a month is difficult to appear, so the question is, how did the former god car manufacturer, Wuling Motors, get to this point?
The first reason is that the brand is up, or the price increase, in January 2019, the new Baojun was officially unveiled as a new sub-brand of SAIC-GM-Wuling, accompanied by the new brand LOGO is the price increase, RS-5, RC-5, RC-6 and RM-5 top models are priced at more than 100,000 yuan, which is undoubtedly a faint trick for Baojun, which was originally positioned as an entry-level model, for its audience, Baojun Automobile is the main sales of tens of thousands of models, and now after the price increase, the original audience will be more inclined to buy BYD, Geely, Chery and other brand models.
Moreover, the launch of the new Baojun has not brought new technology, the engine still uses the engine codenamed LJ0 and LAR, the engine is still CVT, which is equivalent to changing the soup without changing the medicine, only in terms of appearance, it is natural that consumers do not pay.
The second reason is quality problems, and Baojun Automobile has been exposed to quality problems many times. At the CCTV 315 party in 2020, the Baojun 560 was named and exposed due to gearbox failure. In July 2021, Baojun recalled nearly 325,000 vehicles, including Baojun 310, Baojun 310W, Baojun 510, Baojun 730, Baojun RC-5 and other models, involving engine oil consumption issues, and in 2022, 63,000 RM-5 vehicles were recalled due to poor lighting problems. For the whole of 2022, the number of recalled passenger cars of Wuling Motors reached 600,000 units, ranking second among all brands.
Third, the competitiveness of the new energy field has declined, and the former Wuling Motors has become an invincible player in the world with a Hongguang MINI EV, and has become a phenomenal hit item. However, in the past two years, many car companies have successively launched micro electric vehicles, such as Geely Panda MINI, Changan Lumin, Leap T03, Chery Little Ant, Baojun KiWiEV, etc., and with the trend of consumption upgrading, coupled with the continuous price war this year, Hongguang MINI EV has lost its core competitiveness in terms of price. Many consumers in the third and fourth tiers and rural markets will be more willing to choose a cheap fuel vehicle.
"Whatever the people need, Wuling will make. With such a slogan, Wuling Motors has created a variety of god cars, but today's Wuling Motors, its two brands, whether it is Wuling Motors or Baojun Motors, can no longer create a god car. Obviously, the era of the god car is gone, and the "post-god car era", where Wuling Motors will go, is still a difficult problem to be solved.