□ Dahe Daily Yu video reporter Jieminggang Qi Yi
"The auto market is very involuted, and competition is intensifying...... How does Great Wall Motors achieve growth", "The layout of pure electric vehicles, the past two years have not felt particularly positive to the market, and even think that the window period for the development of pure electric vehicles has been missed, how to make up for this?" On May 10, at the on-site exchange meeting of the 2024 Great Wall Motors Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Wei Jianjun, Chairman of Great Wall Motors, Mu Feng, President, Li Ruifeng, CTO, Wang Yuanli, CTO, Li Hongshui, CFO, Wu Huixiao, Vice President of Intelligence, Shi Qingke, Vice President, Liu Bao, Deputy General Manager and other senior management teams responded to these questions in an unprecedented live broadcast.
The Great Wall, which "won't sell cars", is back on track
"WEY brand's product strength has not been bad, especially last year, relying on hybrid and intelligent resources, WEY brand's current competitiveness in the same level of market is at the first-class level." Wei Jianjun said that tracing back to the roots, the current problem of the Great Wall is that it is not very good at buying cars.
But what kind of results has this company that doesn't sell cars achieved?
According to Great Wall Motor's 2023 annual report, the independent car company achieved a total operating income of 173.212 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year increase of 26.12%, a record high;
In the first quarter of this year, Great Wall Motors handed over a brilliant financial report in the increasingly involuted Chinese auto market.
According to the financial report for the first quarter of 2024 released by Great Wall, Great Wall Motor's operating income in the quarter was 42.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.6%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 3.228 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 18 times year-on-year.
In terms of sales, 275,300 new vehicles were sold in the first quarter, an increase of 25.1% year-on-year. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 59,200, doubling the sales volume of the same period last year, and overseas sales reached 92,800 units, a year-on-year increase of 78.51%.
In just one year, both financial and sales performance are back on track, Wei Jianjun said at the shareholder communication meeting, this is the result of Great Wall's adherence to long-termism. Among them, there is a reform within the organizational structure, and there is also a change in the business model to "build on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses".
Wei Jianjun pointed out that in the face of general industry losses, the Great Wall has done something and has not done anything, long-termism, the bottom line is compliance, and enterprises must have their own hematopoietic ability to create social value. For different models and brands, if the loss is particularly serious, the Great Wall will moderately reduce sales, and if there is no loss or a slight loss or the profit is relatively high, the Great Wall will play a long board and vigorously promote.
Facing the future, Wei Jianjun believes: "In the three years from 2024 to 2026, the competition intensity of the automotive industry will not decrease, and Great Wall Motors must adhere to the long-term development strategy to face the future." ”
"Female Mixed Wild Mo" is the moat of the Great Wall
Regarding the competition strategy of Great Wall Motors in the future, Wei Jianjun said: The big principle Great Wall Motors will still stick to the bottom line, long-termism, give full play to the long board, and pursue a quality market share, the loss of the car in 2023 will increase, Great Wall Motors will adjust the product strategy in a timely manner, pay attention to the profit and loss of the enterprise, and the enterprise is to have its own hematopoietic ability and give full play to the advantages of long boards such as pickups and tanks. Overseas business continues to make efforts, this year to ensure 400,000, strive for 500,000 sales, Haval accounted for the main proportion of exports. In addition, the Ora brand will also consider profit and loss, and at present, it can still ensure that the loss is small, and plans to launch a facelifted model of the Lightning Cat in the second half of this year.
Li Ruifeng said that the Great Wall has been fully rolled out on the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) route, and has formed a product matrix supported by hybrid four-wheel drive Hi4 and Hi4-T technologies, which have been fully applied to brands such as Haval, WEY and Tank, and have been initially recognized by the market.
For Great Wall, it is the primary purpose of the company to demonstrate the group's adherence to the pure electric vehicle (BEV) route, and to strengthen user perception with a distinctive brand label. According to the plan, this year, the ORA brand will launch three new models of A0-class, A-class and C-class on the basis of the existing product camp, and iteratively update models such as Good Cat.
In the face of everyone's concern about the development trend of tank brands and Great Wall off-road vehicles, Wei Jianjun gave his own interpretation. In the eyes of the Great Wall helmsman, the "square box" does not represent an off-road vehicle. In the development of the off-road vehicle market, although Great Wall has started the boom of square box shape, it pays more attention to the development of technology.
The success of the tank series has also allowed the industry to see the potential of subdivided categories, such as BYD, Chery, BAIC and other car companies have also launched "hard-core off-road" models.
Li Ruifeng said, "The tank keeps them following, but it will never be surpassed." Li Ruifeng pointed out that since the launch of the tank in 2020, there have been a total of 400,000 customer groups, and the market share of the entire sub-category was 55% last year. In addition, in terms of product matrix, various power and models cover the price range of 200,000 to 500,000, and the flagship model Tank 800 will also be unveiled soon.
Wei Jianjun pointed out that Great Wall will adhere to technological innovation in the pure off-road and pan-off-road markets. For example, in order to make up for the weak low-speed torque of pure electric off-road vehicles, the Hi4-T technology created by Great Wall for the tank series can make up for the shortcomings of electric off-road vehicles through strong low-torque performance. At present, based on Great Wall's insistence on technology through long-termism, the tank off-road brand covers a comprehensive market, with power specifications from 2.0T to 3.0T, and then to the price range of 200,000 to 500,000 levels, and the tank off-road brand has shown a strong appeal.
Wu Huixiao, vice president of product intelligence, said that Great Wall has also achieved a breakthrough in intelligent technology. For example, the new generation of coffee OS3 has been installed in the Blue Mountain Intelligent Driving Edition model. At the same time, in the intelligent system of coffee AI, the puzzle of intelligent cockpit and intelligent driving is completed, and it is expected to continue to create a high-quality product experience for users through technological innovation.
Wei Jianjun also talked about motorcycles, "At my age, most people can ride motorcycles. I started riding a motorcycle in 1984, which was a bit of a luxury at the time. I have to tell you the truth, making motorcycles, I do have feelings. Even if I don't make motorcycles, I have a lot of motorcycles. We also have a bunch of motorcycle enthusiasts in our company. To be honest, it was a bit of a fake feeling, and everyone decided to do it together. Anyway, no one in China has done it yet, and we just happen to have the ability. At that time, we also wanted to make a car that could be written into the annals of history and represent the latest technology and the best in China. We are very lucky to make cars. When it comes to making motorcycles, there are indeed emotion-driven factors. On May 17th, we will participate in the Beijing International Motorcycle Show, and I hope that motorcycle enthusiasts can participate. I hope to do my best to balance feelings and make money. ”
"Great Wall and I want to be a high-quality Internet celebrity"
"The future of live streaming is like eating, you can broadcast it if you want to." Talking about live broadcasting, Wei Jianjun said, "The Internet pursues a truth, and Great Wall is a very transparent and very simple company. ”
At present, Wei Jianjun has registered accounts on multiple social platforms, and the frequency of updates is very high, he said: "I want to become a high-quality Internet celebrity, this is the development needs of the industry'involution', the communication of the new era needs this form, and we must pay attention to the quality of the content, don't have high fans, but the content is very empty, and we must reflect our own value." In the future, I will broadcast live, just like eating, and broadcast as much as I want, so as to shorten the distance between the Great Wall and users and consumers. ”
Wei Jianjun said that in the face of the change of the "Internet celebrity wave", the opening of marketing is a normal trend. But at the same time, Wei Jianjun also believes that influencer marketing also needs to adhere to the bottom line. For example, in the recent automobile network marketing, there are always some cases of traffic but no quality, and this is what Great Wall will not do.
With Wei Jianjun facing consumers directly, Great Wall Motor's biggest channel change this year is the establishment of the "Great Wall Smart Selection" direct sales model.
"Our distribution model and direct sales model are a channel form that complements each other. For the direct sales model of Great Wall Zhixuan, because the entire automobile industry, including some forms of consumers, after the change of marketing forms, if you rely solely on dealers to change at the front end and try to fight alone, it is impossible to complete this overall change, so Great Wall Smart Selection should be used as a direct sales model, down to the terminal and directly connected with customers. Li Ruifeng said, "So it is a training ground, a test field, and a benchmark for our overall marketing model." We will also set up a delivery center, and in the future, we will also assume a pre-warehouse and reserve function to reduce the pressure on dealers' inventory. We will also set up a user experience center, which will also become a systematic place for the region to do in-depth and thorough work and interact with users. ”