As we all know, electrification is the future of the automotive industry.
In the face of industry changes, in the face of the sweep of the wave of electrification, coupled with a number of new forces to build cars and cross-border car manufacturing strongly broke into the track, so that the traditional giants who are seeking transformation, but also accelerated the pace of transformation. Therefore, at the Guangzhou Auto Show at the end of last year, we were able to witness the spectacle of a leading independent car company launching a high-end independent operation of new energy vehicle brands.
SAIC also embraced the trend at this coinciding time node and officially released a new R brand with the positioning of "focusing on the mid-to-high-end new energy market", which also means the official independence of the R brand.
Strictly speaking, as early as may 10 last year, at the China Brand Day, the concept of R brand "technology to cash in the imagination" was mentioned, not so much that the R brand was born of the trend, but that it preceded the trend, and has long been in front of the Red Sea of the times. The independence of a number of traditional car companies' new energy brands, including the R brand, represents the collective promotion of the high-end of the entire independent brand, which not only shoulders the heavy responsibility of their own long-term development, but also the historical mission of helping the independent brand upward.
After a year, these independently operated high-end new energy brands are fighting and plundering in their respective battlefields, and the road of the new energy market, and even every corner, has gradually left the historical wheel mark they have driven, jointly promoting China's new energy market to move forward in a faster and more surprising direction. This scene is a heart-warming moment, it seems to continue to drive the R brand, after the dormancy is the time to usher in their own era.
As a result, the R brand ushered in its own Chinese name in the established development route - Feifan Automobile.
This name does not hide SAIC's new energy ideals and development beliefs rooted in its heart. The heroism it exudes from the inside out, and the determination to explore a new way for its own brand to attack the mainstream market, is born from the moment the brand operates independently.
It is a historical mission for independent brands to impact the mainstream
The reason why I feel that the brand independence gives Feifan Automobile a heroic spirit is because for more than ten years, countless people inside and outside the industry have seen the difficulty of independent brands impacting high-end routes and attacking the mainstream market. However, upward leapfrogging is a process that independent brands must go through, and at the moment when joint ventures are under pressure and new energy is eating away, independent brands must break through the cheap defense line and fully penetrate into high-value products and high-value markets.
But that kind of difficulty, that kind of discomfort, like the flowers in the greenhouse suddenly meet the cold wind in shuobei, is a bloom that is destined to wither.
Pushing the hand of time back ten years, Chery and other independent brands have already impacted the high-end market, with little effect. In recent years, there have also been many independent brands trying to move forward in the past high-end, and then impacting the mainstream market, although they have been trying to attack the city in the forward movement of the car market, but it is also a fact that it is difficult and difficult to break through.
Among them, the relatively successful ones can be said to be Geely Lynk & Co and Great Wall WEY, although they are still facing huge challenges such as the price ceiling is difficult to further break through, but at present, the two major brands have anchored their mainstream position in the independent high-end with five years. The same independent head, the same determination to rush the brand, what is the reason for their different fates?
Yes, it's the disagreement over whether to operate independently that has taken them a different path. In the past, the difficult high-end and mainstream road of independent brands was more product-oriented, sharing brands, sharing channels, and the biggest difference between each other was price and product, and did not make a completely independent operation cut. This is not wrong in itself, however, once the product upgrade of the original brand and the concept of the new brand overlap, it will cause trouble to the development of the new brand, such as the new product can not get rid of the old brand image and channel constraints, even if the competitiveness of the latter product itself is better.
On the other hand, Lynk & Co and WEY, as a whole, have got rid of the brand influence of Geely and the Great Wall, relying on independent channel networks, facing new consumer groups with the new brand image and culture they have created, and then accurately positioning user portraits and their own development routes, in the true sense of the brand to find users, users to repair the brand win-win situation.
Times have moved, and the city has changed.
When the tide of electrification swoops in, those independent brands that aim to achieve overtaking in the electrification track must also make greater progress, because from the performance and market share of independent brands, there is still a lot of room for improvement, and when the country's strong and independent brands usher in a new sense of identity, independent brands must seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The new momentum of development characterized by electric intelligence is building a new track of a new round of industrial competition, the industrial boundary is facing reshaping, and the industrial value chain is facing reshaping. Only by accelerating the pace of transformation can we accumulate more confidence to compete with joint ventures and foreign brands, and through the independence of high-end new energy brands, it is undoubtedly the only way to achieve brand leapfrogging.
At this time, the independence of the brand is like a beacon on the sea, illuminating those who are confused about the way forward, and those who are doing so can not be excluded.
How could Feifan Automobile and even SAIC Motor not know this truth? At the key node of industrial development, SAIC Motor officially announced that the R brand will be renamed Feifan Automobile, realizing the independent operation of the brand and fully opening a new round of upward attack.
The "Feifan Solution" given by the brand independently
For its own development, brand independence will give Feifan Automobile more strategic deployment rights and decision-making power, and it is very important to better participate in market competition.
Based on this, Feifan Automobile can also continue to rely on SAIC's strong strength in core technology research and development, supply chain management, intelligent manufacturing, quality assurance and other fields, and has more independent choices in management decisions. In addition, it is precisely because SAIC has a wide range of contacts in the system, and Feifan Automobile can mobilize the group's high-quality resources for executives and talent exchanges.
For SAIC, the independent operation of Feifan Automobile will become a new driving force for SAIC Group's development and expansion of new energy, and is an important measure for SAIC motor to innovate and transform from a traditional old-school automobile company to a "user-oriented high-tech company" with technological upgrading, business globalization, brand premiumization and experience maximization.
At the same time, the emergence, development and growth of Feifan Automobile can also completely separate from the two major brands of ROECO and MG under SAIC Passenger Vehicles, a family, a sport, and a new energy high-end market, which can provide consumers with exclusive services more targetedly, and further accelerate the layout of new retail channel networks, data operations, user operations and fission services, and draw an exponential growth curve.
With the announcement of the Chinese name and the complete independent operation of the brand, the brand positioning of Feifan Automobile is also clearer and the brand image is sharper. From the beginning of the R brand to the dust of the name of Feifan Automobile, its positioning as a "user-oriented data-driven technology company" has never changed, and some are just more determined.
"User-oriented data-driven technology companies", split, the so-called user-oriented spiritual core, is to put the user experience in the first place, to provide users with software and hardware options of customized products, to better meet the differentiated needs of users; data-driven means to build a new ecology, to build a user-centered data-driven "people", "cars" and "services" digital new ecology, so as to achieve the whole life cycle value mining.
Implemented in the product is equipped with "perception fusion + super computing power" of high-level intelligent driving solutions, "fast charging, fast replacement, upgradeable" high-security batteries and a new generation of high-performance electric drive system, and to provide users with a sound energy supply ecology. The innovative online direct connection and offline activity experience provide users with value-added services such as hardware + software + services.
This era has abandoned tradition, and only Feifan can define the extraordinary.
Sitting on the forefront of new energy and the city with the highest penetration rate of new energy, Feifan Automobile uses user-defined products to build a new ecology, explore new retail, and is committed to creating a high-end new energy intelligent mobile space, with more decision-making power and discourse power in subsequent development, and can boldly establish a new system and explore new models.
At the same time, it responds more flexibly and quickly to the personalized and differentiated needs of users, and explores the "Feifan Solution" for the innovation and transformation of SAIC.
With the trump card in hand, the heart is not panicked
If the independent car companies choose to promote high-end and impact the mainstream market, which is the driving force from the market pressure and the guidance of market opportunities, then its confidence comes from the continuous breakthrough and increasing maturity in the technical level such as platform research and development.
The source of The bottom line of Feifan Automobile is multi-dimensional and comprehensive, which without exception supports Feifan Automobile to cross the level.
The first is the platform architecture. The importance of platform architecture to automakers is self-evident, such as Toyota's TNGA, Volkswagen's MEB, GAC Group's GPMA, Geely's CMA... It plays an indispensable role in its brand scale, quality assurance and cost control.
In the investment in the new technology brand, Feifan Automobile lasted 5 years and invested 20 billion yuan to create a new technology brand "R-TECH high-energy intelligent body", which can realize the hardware "pluggable and replaceable", the software "can be bought and sold and defined", the battery "rechargeable and replaceable and upgradable", and can continue to tap the value of data, giving smart cars the ability to continuously evolve.
In addition, intelligent driving technology is supported. In today's computing power, only higher-specification perception hardware and perception system can make the brand drive to the era of intelligent driving.
Feifan Automobile's world-first high-level intelligent driving solution PP-CEMTM, which integrates perception hardware such as lidar, 4D imaging radar, high-precision map, visual camera, ultrasonic radar, etc., to build a "six-fold fusion" perception system of "all-weather, over-the-horizon, multi-dimensional", which is the industry's first mass-produced high-order intelligent driving solution that can achieve "five fears", and improves the technical energy level and safety of intelligent driving to a new height.
In terms of intelligent space technology, under the empowerment of SAIC's zero-beam SOA cloud tube terminal full-stack solution, Feifan Automobile's model ES33 can realize the global integration of "cloud, mobile phone, car, and intelligent hardware", evolve into a "modular intelligent space" that links everything and continues to evolve, and truly realize "data determines experience, software-defined car".
From the new technology brand to the intelligent driving technology to the intelligent space technology, these technologies that support the product itself from the actual point of view have solved the worries of developing sequence products for the independent operation of Feifan Automobile.
At the Guangzhou Auto Show a year ago, R brand took "science and technology to honor the imagination" as the starting point and actively moved towards a high-end independent new energy brand.
Since its establishment more than a year ago, it has continued to exert efforts in many fields such as technological innovation, product iteration, new retail channel network layout, user service, and user operation around user needs, and has gained more than 10,000 seed users and 2 million fans in the intelligent electric vehicle market, initially forming a certain scale effect and brand reputation impacting the mainstream market.
Today, a year later, from the R brand to Feifan Automobile, it has officially realized the independent operation of the brand, which is also the starting point for it to take the next step.
Shouldering the heavy responsibility of leading SAIC to directly connect users to intelligent and electrification, combining the profound heritage and technical strength of mature enterprises with the user thinking of emerging enterprises, these make Feifan Automobile more likely to rank among the domestic high-end intelligent electric vehicle head camp and mainstream camp in the future, from Feifan to extraordinary.
With the end of October, the annual Guangzhou Auto Show is also coming. At that time, after the first anniversary of its establishment, Feifan Automobile, which has achieved independent operation, can bring what kind of surprises to users and the market, which is really expected, and looking back on the achievements of Feifan Automobile this year, we also have good reasons to look forward to it.