When I was a child, the next room claimed to know a little about the I Ching Gossip, and Grandma Li, who was known as the Oriental Hundred Changeable Cherry Blossoms, once told me a wise saying left by an old ancestor: "A person with tigers, leopards and other beasts in his name must be hard, otherwise he will be eaten by the name." Looking at the beautiful leopard poster hanging on the wall of her house, my admiration for Grandma Li increased by one point.
On April 30, 2021, Cheetah Automobile applied for bankruptcy review at the Intermediate People's Court of Changsha City, Hunan Province, and Grandma Li's words unconsciously drifted through my mind.
In fact, this is not surprising, from 2020, When Cheetah Motors was taken in by one of the autonomous bigwigs, Geely, and took over cheetah Cars' production base in Changsha, Hunan Province, Cheetah has already stepped into the ghost gate with one leg. Most of today's young people have never heard of this name, to know that when it was hot, the current SUV sales boss Haval is still selling pickup trucks, how brilliant it was now.
Cheetah automobile is not a halfway out of the home of the independent brand, it came from a famous family, its parent company Changfeng Automobile predecessor is the Chinese People's Liberation Army 7319 unit, has a glorious history of 70 years, in 1984 Changfeng Cheetah from the traditional military products to the development of civilian products, at first to do is the car tire, and then with the Beijing Jeep BJ212 drawings began to build cars, this is the predecessor of Changfeng Cheetah.
The Cheetah automobile brand was born in 1996, and in the mid-1990s, it entered into a joint venture with Mitsubishi Motors to introduce Mitsubishi Pajero automobile technology. However, unlike other joint venture automobile factories, although it is a joint venture, it is its own brand that is produced, which is indeed at the forefront of all joint ventures.
In the early days, the most well-known Models such as The Strange Soldier and the Black King Kong were produced, which were actually the domestic version of the old Pajero. In particular, Black Kong, with its fierce shape, excellent off-road ability and Mitsubishi Leather's resistant engine, not only makes it a frequent visitor in TV dramas and other film and television works, but also often transforms into a righteous image carrying the car of the people's cadres and police and armed forces to fight criminals, and the reality is indeed the favorite of many military and police departments and government agencies. Spending less money to realize their "bobcat dream" was also the desire of many consumers at that time.
Perhaps it is the orders of the military and police departments and the market glory that made cheetah choose to "lie flat", and the follow-up products basically relied on the technology introduced by Mitsubishi, and did not invest in their own technology research and development while the iron was hot, and the variables appeared in 2009.
As early as 2005, the annual production capacity of Cheetah Automobile has reached 100,000 units, which was the largest SUV manufacturer at that time, but in view of its own aging technology and the decline of market discourse, in 2009, it chose to sell itself to introduce GAC Group, established GAC Changfeng, and shifted the development direction from SUVs to cars. But the market proved that this direction is to lift the stone and drop it on its own feet, and several car products launched have not attracted much attention. If we could continue to stick to the SUV route and introduce a large number of technical talents at that time, maybe there would be no Haval today.
This marriage has made Changfeng Cheetah lose high-quality resources such as the financing platform of listed companies and the Changsha vehicle production base, although in 2012, Changfeng Cheetah repurchased the production base and the ownership of the cheetah trademark returned to the vehicle business, but it has been seriously injured.
In 2017, Cheetah Cars sold 125,000 models, which is not bad for a niche self-owned brand model. Just when many people expect Cheetah to get back on its feet, I don't know if it is the recovery of sales that led to the radical decision-making, Cheetah Automobile began the controversial "channel change" in the same year, large-scale construction of factory direct stores, not only with the original dealers, but also consumed valuable cash flow.
I thought that the skinny camel was bigger than the horse, even if it was not good, the cumulative sales of Cheetah Cars in 2018 also had 86,402 vehicles. However, cheetahs did not show the miracle that everyone expected, and the subsequent development was still slow and slow to catch up, but was beaten in the face of intensified market competition.
By the beginning of 2019, Cheetah Motors recalled 140,000 vehicle models, and many complaints tore Cheetah Auto's military quality signboard to pieces, and sales fell to 32,541 units.
And 2020 is even more miserable, there are only 1045 vehicles left in the whole year, and the sluggish sales have almost reached the brink of delisting, and it is impossible to describe the situation of the cheetah with pity, which can be said to be unbearable.
On the one hand, the rise of new forces, Internet technology companies from all walks of life are crazy into the game, on the other hand, independent brands and joint ventures are catching up, electrification and intelligence have become the main theme of the automobile market. Cheetahs slowed down a bit in their inception, and it was impossible to accumulate thick hair later. In addition, the electrification technology is backward, the fuel engine is also equally old, it does not even have a model that meets the emissions of China VI, and the strict emission standards put a rope on the elderly leopard, which became the last straw that crushed the cheetah. However, the reason is the lack of core technology and the backwardness of technical reserves is the key to the market shuffling and elimination of cheetahs.
For Cheetah Car, there have been many opportunities, but it is too dependent on the early dividends and does not pay attention to the brand upwards, this brand that has left great achievements in the history of Chinese automobiles has officially died in the 21st year of the millennium, coinciding with the entry of Xiaomi car, this timing is like just wanting to sleep there is a pillow, Cheetah Car's car manufacturing qualification is urgently needed by Xiaomi, will Cheetah Car return to us as Xiaomi Car, or will there be another way out?