From bottom-line thinking to long-termism; From intelligent development to overseas strategy; From off-road, to product layout; The complete territory of Great Wall Motors is slowly unfolding in front of everyone.
On May 10, 2024, at the shareholders' meeting of Great Wall Motors, Wei Jianjun and a group of executives of Great Wall Motors opened a 2-hour enthusiastic Q&A:
What is the core of Great Wall Motor's development? How to lay out the domestic and foreign markets in the future? In the era of new energy vehicles, what does Great Wall Motors rely on to go further?
Since 2024, the price war has entered a white heat, and the prices of various models have fallen again and again. In order to better reach consumers, major car companies have tried their best to set off a "traffic war".
At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show not long ago, Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi's "huge momentum" is the epitome of this traffic war. However, it is obvious that for this kind of large-scale marketing campaign, players from across the border such as Xiaomi seem to have dealt a dimensionality reduction blow to the old car companies.
But there are always exceptions. For this "traffic battle", Great Wall Motors did not watch the fire from the other side, but actively participated in it.
Whether it is Wei Jianjun's personal entry into the game, his personal live broadcast, or the "roar of artillery fire" of the Great Wall artillery, it shows a "new" and "fierce" Great Wall Motor.
There are very few car companies that can compete with Xiaomi's car traffic, and Great Wall Motors is definitely one. As for the gradually emerging "Internet celebrity" effect, Wei Jianjun said:
"Now we are not Internet celebrities, our traffic is still very small, we strive to be a quality Internet celebrity."
In fact, not only the traffic, but also the choice of the market and the future development of Great Wall Motors require "high quality".
Give full play to the long board and pursue high-quality market share
The essence of the price war lies in the competition for market share, but in the view of Great Wall Motors, it is better to "pursue high-quality market share" than to "dry" without a bottom line. In short, Great Wall Motors is to give full play to the long board and adhere to the development strategy of "no loss".
We often say that the trend of the new energy vehicle era is unstoppable, and the future must be the world of new energy vehicles. But for a long time, the loss of electric vehicles has always been high, and everyone is selling cars at a loss.
The major new energy vehicle companies, on the one hand, the slogan is shocking, and on the other hand, "burning money" is addictive. In the face of such a fragmented market environment, Wei Jianjun said bluntly:
"We have counted it, especially the loss of electric vehicles, especially in 2023, the loss of the electric industry will increase. Great Wall Motors has done something and has not done something, the loss is particularly serious, we will moderately reduce sales, play our long board, do not lose or slight loss or the profit is relatively high, we will vigorously promote. ”
From the perspective of the general logic of the market, making money and market share are indeed on the opposite side. After all. When the development of the new energy vehicle market has entered a dead end, as long as car companies do not reduce prices, there is no way to attract enough consumers, and the market share will be further reduced, and finally a vicious circle will be formed.
How to break the game? Wei Jianjun gave the answer - "Give full play to our longboard, and the longboard is pickup trucks and tanks." ”
Great Wall Motors has been deeply involved in the automobile market for many years, and its five major brands are in their respective positions to go to the era of new energy vehicles. In the development process of Great Wall Motors, there will always be people who wonder why they have always "studied" into a track, SUV, off-road, pickup, and even become synonymous with Great Wall Motors.
The answer is very simple, Great Wall Motors always insists on playing a long board and always sticks to long-termism. In Wei Jianjun's view, in the face of increasingly fierce competition, Great Wall Motors needs to adhere to long-termism, and the bottom line of long-termism is compliance.
The long-term doctrine adhered to by Great Wall Motors is not a verbal scene, but a practical practice, and the biggest feature is that it does not lose money and has its own hematopoietic ability.
In short, deep cultivation of the SUV market, deep cultivation of the off-road market, and deep cultivation of the pickup market can provide a steady stream of blood for Great Wall Motors and bring greater profits.
Today, Great Wall Motor's "play the long board" has begun to show results. In the first quarter of this year, Great Wall Motor's operating income was 42.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47%; net profit was 3.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1752%.
The numbers are the most direct, and for Great Wall Motors, only the "blood" is thick enough to help Great Wall Motors face many uncertainties in today's new energy vehicle market; With the ability of "hematopoiesis", it can explain the healthy development of Great Wall Motors.
"Although the number of Blue Mountains is not large, Wei is not losing money now, and he can achieve a draw, which we think is also a change."
"We are basically selling more Ora cars now, and those with large sales lose less, and those with less sales lose more, and generally speaking, we lose less."
Steady and down-to-earth is the development proposition of Great Wall Motors, and the basic logic of "doing something and not doing something" and "pursuing high-quality market share" has allowed Great Wall Motors to continuously release potential energy and move forward in the transformation of the new energy vehicle era.
In the era of change, the Great Wall anchors the "brand power"
At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, the booths of the five major brands of Great Wall Motors were integrated and jointly played the loud slogans of "One Great Wall", "Off-road Great Wall", "Great Wall of Science and Technology" and "Global Great Wall".
Focusing on doing great things, Great Wall Motors continues to give full play to the advantages of longboards through the collaborative operations between various brands, leading the off-road market, deeply empowering new energy technology and intelligent technology, coupled with the comprehensive layout of domestic and foreign markets "a game of chess", to further anchor the "brand power" of Great Wall Motors.
The era of new energy vehicles is the great era of change, whether it is marketing methods, or channel layout, publicity methods, all of which focus on a "change" word. While sticking to long-termism, Great Wall Motors should change with the times. It's not just about adopting a more flexible approach to chasing traffic, it's about changing from the inside out.
"At the beginning of 2023, we announced that we proposed the 3.0 model architecture of small front office, large middle office and strong back office, but this time we made some adjustments in the organization of the previous one."
Li Ruifeng, Chief Growth Officer of Great Wall Motors, said:
"The middle platform has expanded by seven this time, and the focus on strengthening the seven middle platforms is the global commodity management middle platform, which is the local, domestic and local adaptive development and research and development work of the entire global category brand and product spectrum."
"One of the most important middle platforms is the public relations and communication center managed by Liu Xiangxiang, which combines the overall communication resources at home and abroad to carry out a unified summary, three horizontal and three vertical."
"One of the prominent middle platforms is about the new media live broadcast middle platform, and we are also determined to build a matrix of the entire official media, as well as the media matrix of terminal dealers."
Obviously, in the face of the era of change, Great Wall Motors is not only a top-down "self-revolution", but also a core iteration from the inside out. Great Wall Motors has never stuck to the rules, but actively responded to the uncertainty of the domestic and foreign markets.
"We have the most complete product matrix and the most advantageous, and this is one. The second is to distinguish between new energy is China's strategy, not the strategy of other countries, in fact, in the past two years of new energy exports, everyone is withdrawing from the circle. Like Australia, Australia's central government has no support policies for new energy at all, and Thailand has a little, but it is also declining rapidly. ”
When asked about Great Wall Motors going to sea, Wei Jianjun, who had nothing to say, once again stated his position:
"Generally speaking, our country attaches great importance to new energy, and we are a policy-driven market today. Therefore, it is very advantageous for our products to go out, and we are very confident. Whether it is emission safety standards or other standards for China's products, they are basically the top in the world, and the target market is now a dimensionality reduction attack. ”
In fact, in addition to its strong product strength and product matrix layout, Great Wall Motors is also constantly promoting the "ecological going overseas", focusing on the "international new four modernizations" of localized production capacity, localized operation, cross-brand culture and supply chain security, and promoting research, production, supply, sales and service to go overseas in an all-round way.
In the right direction, run wild. It is not difficult to see that Great Wall Motors is changing from "seeking progress in stability" to "forging ahead".
Perhaps, as Wei Jianjun said, "the Great Wall is particularly bad at propaganda". However, under the "willingness" strategy of "doing something and not doing something", the hard power of Great Wall Motors has been growing.
Needless to say, the unique Hi4 hybrid technology spans all scenarios, making it possible for cars to "electric four-wheel drive". It is understood that Great Wall Motor's 4C supercharging capacity battery cell has been developed, and is making an ultra-fast charging core with 6C rate; Coming soon, an 800-volt high-voltage electric drive all-in-one product; Self-developed 1200V silicon carbide module ......
More than 110 forward-looking technology R&D projects have been approved, covering power batteries, new energy, intelligent cockpits, autonomous driving, intelligent chassis and other fields. The name of the "Great Wall of Science and Technology" lives up to its name.
So far, a more comprehensive overall view, a more advanced organizational structure, a more perfect product layout, and a more reasonable technical blessing, Great Wall Motors, which has planned and then moved, has set up a unique banner in this magnificent era of change.
And Great Wall Motor's brand will also be imprinted in the hearts of all consumers over time.