From product lines to independent brands, it is not uncommon in the automotive industry. On July 8, Jietu Automobile officially announced its brand independence, which means that Jietu Automobile is parallel to Chery Automobile, Kaiyi Automobile and Xingtu Automobile. On the brand night, Jietu Automobile also released a new brand LOGO and a new "Kunlun" architecture, and showed the first model from this architecture, the Jietu X-1 concept car.
It is not easy to enhance brand power and image
The reason for the independence of Jietu may be because it wants to create a more distinctive Jietu style and enhance brand power, which can be explored from the technical route it releases.
It is reported that Jietu Automobile will take "new system, new structure, new layout" as a new way of playing. On the technical route, we will create "Kunpeng Power" and "Kunlun" architectures for travel + to cover L5 level automatic driving, etc., so as to make future travel a smart travel.
This may be one of the keys to the future development of Jietu, but if you think about it, you will find some strange points. At present, major automobile brands are moving closer to the platform and architecture, and it seems that a brand without a platform architecture cannot talk about technology. This is true, but not entirely, and not all of them are great, after all, not all architectures perform well.
What's more, the current field of automatic driving is particularly sensitive, on the one hand, the immaturity of safety technology has caused a storm, on the other hand, automatic driving has not been perfected in terms of regulations. In addition, as far as the current model positioning of Jietu Automobile is concerned, its claimed L5 level automatic driving may only be a future development direction or gimmick, and its feasibility is self-evident.
In fact, once a brand is labeled as "cheap", it is actually difficult to raise the brand height. The layout of Jietu Automobile in the technical route is obviously to enhance the brand power, but Jietu Automobile may still be labeled as a "cheap car".
The strength is not particularly strong, but the goal is very large
Of course, the fact that Jetway Auto can be independent is also related to its development speed in recent years. In 2018, when the automotive industry is down, there is a shortcut. It was not born at the right time, it did not have a very good performance, but in the past three years, there have been almost 100,000 vehicles per year in the market, which can also be regarded as a foothold in the market.
The cumulative sales of Jietu in 2019 were 138,032 vehicles; the cumulative sales of 126,595 vehicles in 2020; and the cumulative sales of Jietu in the first half of this year reached 76,453 vehicles, an increase of 111.38% year-on-year.
Although such a performance is not to blame for Jietu, it is not very brilliant from a macro point of view. Moreover, the low positioning of Jietu's models, the advantages of close price and large space have indeed attracted some consumers, and at the same time, there are many derivative models such as Jietu X70 and X95, and it is not difficult to understand that such achievements can be achieved.
But unexpectedly, Jietu Auto announced sales targets on the brand's Independence Night. Jietu said that by 2026, it will achieve the goal of annual sales of 1 million vehicles, of which domestic sales account for 70% and overseas sales account for 30%.
All the sales support comes from the product. Being able to set this goal, Jietu definitely has a layout in product planning. It is reported that Jietu will launch 4 SUV series, 3 cross-border products, N hybrid models in the future, in addition to the launch of Jetour pickup trucks, MPVs and other products.
But even so, the annual sales target of 1 million is still very far away. Let's take a rough calculation, even if the sales volume of Jietu can reach 150,000 units this year, assuming an annual sales increase of 50%, it will sell 225,000 units in 2022, 337,500 units in 2023, 506,300 units in 2024, 759,500 units in 2025, and 1,139,300 units in 2026.
In other words, Jetway's annual sales will increase by 50% year-on-year to reach one million units in 2026. As an emerging brand, it is good to have a goal, but the market is ever-changing, who can guarantee that annual sales can achieve year-on-year growth? Moreover, according to the development of Jietu in previous years, it has not been able to achieve an annual sales increase of 50% year-on-year. Therefore, to complete the million sales volume of Jietu Automobile, there is still a long way to go.
The lessons of the past will not repeat the mistakes of the past
In fact, it is not difficult to sell hot, just like the previous shortcut with low prices, it can attract many consumers, but for a long time to sell prices or discounts as a selling point, this practice of exchanging price for volume, the damage to the brand, is immeasurable.
What's more, brand independence may not be a good thing, the pros and cons are always two-way, and it may be bumpy to grasp it badly. Such as the Jetta brand, Baojun and Venucia, etc., after independence, the status and sales volume may not necessarily be greatly improved, and even sales may decline.
Of course, this cannot kill a boat of people with a bamboo pole, but even if this is not discussed for the time being. So for Jietu Automobile, how to solve the low price strategy? How to enhance brand power? How to change consumer stereotypes about brands? These are the most important questions at the moment, if it is still the same as in the past three years, how many chances of winning can reach the annual sales of one million vehicles? Obviously, this is a question worth pondering for Jietu Automobile.
Auto Network Review: The challenges ahead of the Jietu brand are greater than the opportunities
It is undeniable that Jietu has gradually gained a foothold in the market since its emergence, but many of its models have sold about 100,000 vehicles a year, and the results are obviously not eye-catching enough. Nowadays, Jietu Automobile is independent, has a new system, a new architecture, and a new layout, and the future product matrix is more comprehensive and more perfect, and there are opportunities, but it cannot be ignored that the challenges also exist, and from the current point of view, it is obvious that the challenges are greater than the opportunities. So, how will Jietu Auto respond? Wait and see.