China auto market is welcoming the second wave of car-making craze.
In 20 14, many internet car-making companies, led by weilai automobile, set off a wave of "new cars" in China that continues to this day. Nowadays, the new force of making cars has become a pole that cannot be ignored in China automobile market.
In 2020, many changes have taken place.
For example, traditional car companies are building a new brand that integrates Internet genes and traditional ingenuity car genes. At this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Aian and SAIC R became independent one after another; Prior to this, Geely also officially separated the new energy vehicle business into geometric vehicles, and so on.
165438+ 10, the actions of traditional car companies in new energy continued to increase.
165438+1October14th, Zhu Huarong, Chairman of Changan Automobile, announced that Changan Automobile will jointly build a brand-new high-end smart car brand with Huawei and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., and announced that it will launch 105 models in the next five years, including 23 new energy vehicles.
165438+1On October 26th, the high-end brand "Smart Car" jointly invested by SAIC, Pudong New Area and Alibaba officially signed a contract, and the first round of financing reached10 billion RMB. This is also the first project of SAIC, which is the "L" car project reported by the media before.
If brands such as Geely Geometry, GAC Ai 'an and SAIC R are "new forces to build cars" formed after the new energy business of traditional car companies is split, then the nameless high-end brand of Chang 'an, SAIC's intelligent car, Dongfeng Lan Tu, which was unveiled before, and FAW Hongqi, which keeps attacking luxury brands, represent that the national automobile team has once again launched an impact on China's high-end brands.
This time, can China's high-end automobile brands usher in the "spring" of their own development?
One or twenty years, four stages of wind and rain.
265,438+20 years at the beginning of the 20th century, is the 20 years when China automobile brand became an army and rose again. Moreover, under the pressure of joint venture brands, China automobile brands have gone through four stages.
The first stage is the process of establishing its own brand matrix by acquiring foreign car companies. The representatives are SAIC and BAIC.
Roewe 750
In 2005, MG Rover, a century-old British automobile brand, went bankrupt, and Nanjing Automobile completed the acquisition for 53 million pounds. Just before Rover went bankrupt, SAIC bought the intellectual property rights of Rover 75 and 25 cars and a full range of engines for 67 million pounds, and then launched the Roewe brand accordingly.
The subsequent plot development is well known. In 2007, SAIC announced the full acquisition of Nanqi. At that time, the MG brand of Nanqi was also included in SAIC, forming a dual-brand matrix of high and low brands that is rare among domestic brands.
From June 5438 to February 2009, BAIC acquired part of Saab's assets and technologies (but not including Saab's brand management right) and built the Saab brand.
Looking back on history, this stage is more like the awakening of China's automobile brand concept: by acquiring mature automobile assets, it quickly established its own passenger car foundation, thus shaping its own automobile brand.
There is a saying in the automobile industry, "China's high-end brand started with Chery, and Chery's high-end brand started with self-awareness."
Guanzhi 3
This view is not completely unreasonable. In 2007, QOS Automobile, a joint venture between Chery Automobile and Israeli Quantum Capital, really kicked off the second stage of brand promotion of China Automobile.
At that time, China automobile brand had just started, and consumers' concept of China brand was not clear. As a result, the Qoros car, which was born earlier, was doomed to an untimely fate. Finally, I stumbled and was taken away by Baoneng Automobile.
Similarly, since then, the high-end brands —— Chery Rui Lin and Geely England, which were also hatched in the brand system, have also gone to the end of being merged or disappeared.
China automobile brand, which is committed to brand promotion, has not continued to sink in the blow.
On the contrary, Geely Automobile, a private car company that continued to survive in the market gap, adopted the acquisition method of state-owned car companies at the beginning of the century. On August 2, 20 10, it invested1800 million dollars to acquire 0/00% shares of Volvo Car/kloc-0, which initiated the acquisition of international luxury brands by China brand and also became the starting point of the third stage of the upward development of automobile brands in China.
If the first decade of 2 1 century is the basic decade for China automobile brands to become a military, then the decade of 20 10-2020 is the decade for China automobile brands to really rise.
In the past ten years, private car companies, state-owned car companies and newly-built car companies have all contributed to China's car brands. By infiltrating into various market segments, they have formed a matrix of high-end brands in China.
For example, Geely Automobile used the opportunity of acquiring Volvo to reorganize its brand system and return to a Geely brand. And while digesting advanced technology, it hatched a young high-end brand-Kelin.
At the same time, Great Wall Motor, which has enjoyed dividends in the SUV and pickup market for many years, also launched the WEY brand named after the founder's surname in the new stage of entrepreneurship. Chery Automobile, which is committed to brand promotion, launched the Star Way brand again after slimming down.
For another example, in the state-owned enterprise camp, FAW Group officially released a brand new red flag brand strategy on 20 1818. As we all know, the new Hongqi brand is by no means a general automobile brand for most people in China. Its revival represents that China automobile brands are marching into luxury brands.
The data shows that in 2020, 1 1? 1 month, FAW Hongqi * * * sold more than 25,000 new cars, up 100% year-on-year,11,and the cumulative sales reached 178 100. This sales base has become the second camp of luxury brands in China automobile market.
At this stage, the most striking thing is the new car-making camp headed by Wei Lai, Tucki and Ideality. From the beginning of its establishment, no one cares about it, to the confrontation with Tesla, to the average selling price of brand models such as Weilai and Ideality exceeding 300,000 yuan, and then to the range of the highest selling price of 800,000 yuan, the new car-making forces "changed lanes and overtook" in a way different from traditional car companies in technology, and successfully opened up the high-end new energy vehicle market in China.
Second, the depth of the fourth stage "torture"
China's new high-end brand plan, represented by "Smart Car", officially opened the fourth stage of automobile brand promotion in China.
This stage has undergone more profound changes than before.
For example, in product planning, relying on the development of new energy market in China in recent years, we pay more attention to new energy products. For example, in brand positioning, the high-end brands in the fourth stage pay more attention to the keyword "intelligence". Zhiji brand said that it will build a brand-new electronic and electrical architecture, open up ECU controllers highly related to driving experience from the bottom, and fully integrate customer scenes with car perception.
A key point that can't be ignored is that the National Automobile Team, which has been relatively mild for many years and doesn't shine in the independent passenger car market, has become the main body of brand upward planning this time. Moreover, cross-border cooperation with technology giants and local governments has become a new way of playing.
Then, in 2020, why will it become the starting point of the fourth stage? There are roughly four reasons.
First, after ten years of market and brand cultivation, China automobile enterprises have more experience and clearer brand goals in how to build high-end brands. And with the help of FAW, Geely, Great Wall and other car companies, the volume of high-end brands in China continues to expand. In this context, the entry of the national team is more like a strategic trend.
Source: Prospective Economist APP
Second, the SUV consumption boom since 20 15 has provided sufficient market dividends for the development of Chinese automobile brands. Correspondingly, it has also promoted the domestic consumers' cognition and consumption concept of product selection. Since then, although China's automobile market has experienced a historic year-on-year decline since 20 18, the wave of consumption upgrading still provided sufficient impetus for the development of China's automobile market and prepared good conditions for the birth of high-end brands in China.
Third, while consumption is upgrading, China's new energy market is also showing a good growth trend. Up to now, China's new energy market has accounted for 50% of the global new energy market. In addition, the American Energy for the Future Organization pointed out that the world's major automobile manufacturers plan to invest a total of $300 billion in R&D and electric vehicle production in the next five to 10 years, nearly half of which will be invested in the China market.
More importantly, around 2025, the life cycle use cost of traditional fuel vehicles with the same price may be the same as that of electric vehicles. This has set a subtle critical point for the transformation and evolution of the automobile industry. The year 2020 is precisely the key point of technological transformation and transition: as more traditional multinational automobile companies fully launch electric vehicle products, the speed of the industry reaching the balance point will be greatly accelerated, and even the cost balance point will move forward.
Dongfeng Lan Tu concept car
Therefore, in 2020, the national team will enter the market to aim at high-end smart brands, which can not only block the transformation position and reduce the risk of failure, but also use its own market scale to provide an endorsement for the benign development of the market, resist the all-round attack of international car companies, avoid the development of new forces in the past, and provide a demonstration role of "good money expelling bad money".
Fourthly, in the process of dynamic adjustment of China automobile market, especially in the cross competition between China brand and joint venture brand and luxury brand, the high-end and personalized market segments covered by brands like Mazda have gradually formed, and the price depression in the price range of 300,000 yuan and the swing range of brand and product selection have formed. Moreover, with the price attack of luxury brands and the encouragement of new forces to build cars, this market segment has a trend of gradual expansion. This also provides a good imagination for the birth and development of high-end brands in China.
On the other hand, China's high-end brands are not monolithic, keep pace with each other and have a unified strategy. For example, in the vision of Changan Automobile, the brand-new high-end brand is more like a comprehensive brand integrating fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, which is very similar to the positioning of FAW Hongqi; In the planning of Zhizao Automobile and Dongfeng Lan Tu, brand-new brands are more oriented to the production and sales of new energy vehicles, and more cutting-edge technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence are integrated.
More importantly, in the process of building high-end brands, Smart Car and Changan Automobile adopted the cross-industry deep strategic cooperation mode of traditional automobile enterprises+Internet dominant enterprises+battery suppliers or local governments. The benefits are obvious. In the automobile industry, which highly emphasizes the division of labor, especially at the juncture of the "new four modernizations" transformation, more collaborators in different fields can perform their respective duties, provide more professional and subversive ideas and games for vehicle research and development, and also get financial and policy support.
In addition, in China's current automobile market, emerging suppliers such as Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. have covered the automobile manufacturing and sales fields through investment and supply. Due to the scarcity of battery suppliers and the right to speak, the bundling of car companies and battery suppliers has become one of the choices to establish high-end car brands.
However, another problem about enterprise integration and route dispute is also very prominent.
"Two powerful enterprises, in a stable and profitable market, will cross-border strategic cooperation succeed? The answer is definitely: there are many successful cases. " He, the founder of Xpeng Automobile, commented on the national team that built high-end automobile brands. "If stability and profit are removed, will it be successful?" ? The answer seems to be: there seems to be no successful case in the domestic science and technology industry, and the differences in the implementation of the institutional cultural line brought about by the dispute of dominance are completely inevitable. "
In fact, before the smart car, SAIC and Ali also had deep cooperation on the zebra system project. However, with the increase of vehicle cooperation, the zebra system is getting bigger and bigger, and issues such as future development and even opening up have been put on the table of cooperation between the two sides, and the game between the two sides has been going on. As a result, SAIC withdrew from the zebra system and Ali took the lead in entering the zebra system.
Similar examples are torrent Alliance launched by Didi and Apollo System Alliance that Baidu has been promoting. In the case that car companies can't take the lead, cross-border cooperation seems to be an inevitable "no return".
This cooperation expectation inevitably casts an unpredictable "haze" on the establishment and development of high-end automobile brands. However, when the general trend of industrial transformation is rolling in, can the enthusiasm for the development of the new energy vehicle market blow away this layer of "smog"?
In any case, the answer is yes or no, which can't stop the arrival of high-end automobile brands in China.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.