Zhiji Automobile's annual sales target completion rate is less than 30%, and only 71 units of L7 are sold in a single month, and the core parts have been discontinued

Yangtze River Business Daily News ● Yangtze River Business Daily reporter Huang Cong

Regardless of the statistical method, the sales of Zhiji cars are not performing well.

Recently, SAIC Motor (600104. SH) announced that Zhiji Auto sold 4,597 vehicles in August, a year-on-year increase of 154.96%. According to the official website of Zhiji Automobile, the company delivered 6,117 units in August, a year-on-year increase of 239%.

Although there are differences in delivery volume and sales volume due to different statistical calibers, Zhiji Auto is still "not in the stream" among many new energy vehicle companies.

Liu Tao, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, previously said that the annual sales target of Zhiji in 2024 is 120,000 to 130,000 units.

In terms of sales data, Zhiji Auto has achieved 26% of the minimum target of 120,000 units in the first eight months of 2024; In terms of deliveries, 29.5% of the minimum target was achieved.

It is worth mentioning that there are reports that after the Zhiji L7 was launched in April 2022, it has only been two and a half years since the core accessories have been discontinued.

The average monthly sales volume is only 3,904 units

Founded on December 25, 2020, Zhiji Auto is a high-end pure electric vehicle brand jointly created by SAIC, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba.

Zhiji Automobile was chaired by Wang Xiaoqiu, who was also the president of SAIC at the time. Within SAIC, Zhiji has also been named "Project No. 1" and intends to build it into "China's Tesla".

Today, Wang Xiaoqiu has become the chairman of SAIC, and the status of Zhiji Automobile can be described as "rising tides".

On June 18, 2022, as the first product of the "rising star" Zhiji Automobile, the L7 officially started nationwide delivery, and then successively brought two models, Zhiji LS7 and Zhiji LS6, which became the key models discussed in the market.

Since July 2022, SAIC Motor has included the sales volume of Zhiji Automobile in its production and sales report, and its full-year sales in 2022 are 5,000 units.

In 2023, the company aims to sell 45,000 units, and by 2025, it aims to achieve production and sales of 200,000 to 300,000 units.

In fact, in 2023, the sales volume of Zhiji Automobile will reach 38,300 units, a year-on-year increase of 665.06%, but it still has not achieved the target.

Moreover, the average monthly sales of Zhiji Automobile in 2023 will only be about 3,200 units, and it can only bow down in the face of a number of new car-making forces.

Recently, SAIC Motor released a production and sales express report for August 2024, showing that the sales of SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, SAIC Passenger Vehicle and SAIC-GM-Wuling in the first eight months were 678,100, 256,400, 426,900 and 730,000 respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 4.81%, 58.92%, 23.51% and 2.85% respectively.

Compared with the decline in sales of the above-mentioned car companies, the sales of Zhiji Automobile in the first eight months increased by 134.54%. However, the total sales volume of Zhiji Automobile in the first eight months was only 31,200 units, with a monthly average of 3,904 units, and its high growth rate is more due to the low base.

It is no longer possible to achieve the full-year target

In fact, Zhiji Auto also has its own method of "sales" statistics.

According to the official website of Zhiji Auto, in August, the company delivered 6,117 units, a year-on-year increase of 239%. Since the beginning of this year, Zhiji Auto has delivered more than 6,000 units for three consecutive months, and maintained a year-on-year growth of more than 200%. Among them, the Zhiji LS6 continues to lead the "medium and large pure electric SUV" track when the model is sold out. Zhiji L6 steadily occupies the top three sales of 200,000 yuan "medium and large pure electric cars".

According to the announcement of SAIC, the sales volume of Zhiji Automobile in August reached 4,597 units, a year-on-year increase of 154.96%.

In general, the volume of deliveries? What does it mean? Vehicle manufacturer or? After the dealer delivers the vehicle to the customer, all the transaction procedures and payment procedures have been completed. Sales? It refers to the number of vehicles sold within a certain time range, which is simply understood as the number of signed orders. The delivery volume is not equal to the sales volume, because the delivery volume is the actual delivery to the user, and the sales volume includes the data of the user's signed order.

In other words, sales volume refers to the number of cars sold to dealerships, while deliveries refer to the number of vehicles that are plated. There is a time lag between production and delivery to consumers, which leads to differences in production, sales, and deliveries.

According to the data released by Zhiji Auto, the company's deliveries in the first eight months reached 35,400 units, about 4,200 units more than the sales announced by SAIC Motor.

In the ranking of deliveries of new car-making forces led by Li Auto, Zhiji Automobile only ranked 14th in terms of delivery volume in August, which was at the bottom.

Liu Tao previously said that the annual sales target of Zhiji in 2024 is 120,000 to 130,000 units.

In terms of sales data, Zhiji Auto has achieved 26% of the minimum target of 120,000 units in the first eight months of 2024; In terms of deliveries, 29.5% of the minimum target was achieved.

Obviously, no matter which data is used, the sales volume of Zhiji cars is not ideal, and it is impossible to achieve the full-year target.

The popularity is not high, and it is out of the circle because of marketing events

On September 12, Zhiji Auto announced that the all-new Zhiji LS6 will be officially launched on September 26 and will be delivered immediately after launch. The all-new Zhiji LS6 will be available in five configurations, with a pre-sale price of CNY 229,900 to CNY 299,900.

The new welcomes the old and the old is abandoned. According to reports, a Mr. Li in Wenzhou was one of the first owners to order a Zhiji L7, but recently encountered a trouble. In May this year, his vehicle needed to replace the power battery due to a chassis bump, but after the battery arrived, it was found that it was not original, and the new battery had obvious traces of restructuring, which was finally confirmed to be transformed from the power battery of Zhiji LS7.

According to a "battery description" issued by SAIC Times, a manufacturer of Zhiji automotive batteries, provided by Mr. Li, there are currently no new manufactured products for the EP33L-400V battery for the Zhiji L7 for 18 months, and there is no corresponding inventory, and the after-sales demand is all restructured from the LS7-S11L-400V product on the same platform. In other words, after the Zhiji L7 was launched in April 2022, it has only been two and a half years since then, and the core accessories have been discontinued.

Although it is uncertain whether the core parts of the Zhiji L7 have been discontinued, its delivery volume is indeed poor.

According to the first statistical comparison, the delivery of the Zhiji L7 reached 816 units in July 2022, and only 71 units remained in August 2024.

However, deliveries of other models of Zhiji Automobile are slowly increasing, with deliveries of the Zhiji LS7 reaching 229 units in January 2023 and 356 units in August 2024. Deliveries of the LS6 reached 1,220 units in September 2023 and increased to 2,677 units in August 2024. Deliveries of the Zhiji L6 reached 1,291 units in April 2024 and increased to 3,013 units in August 2024.

Even so, in the domestic auto market, the popularity of Zhiji Automobile is not high enough, and the company has been out of the circle many times due to marketing incidents, but it has affected the brand image. Previously, at the first press conference of Zhiji L6, Liu Tao frequently mentioned Xiaomi SU7, hoping to open the market with the help of the latter's traffic, but marked the key parameters of Xiaomi SU7 incorrectly, causing a public relations crisis. Subsequently, at the request of Xiaomi, Zhiji Auto apologized three times through Liu Tao and the official Weibo.

Nowadays, under the pattern of asking the world and Xiaomi to "kill all sides", and Ideal and GAC Aion are among the best, how much room is there for Zhiji Automobile, and how to keep up with the development momentum of the new energy industry is the current problem faced by the company.