Autobots China brand changed lanes and ran wildly.

The barriers formed by traditional vehicle companies around crude oil technology and industrial ecology are being broken down one by one under the impact of new technologies. Differentiated competition through intelligent electrification has become a new choice for local brands in China. This time, can they seize the opportunity?

Text/Autobots? Sharla Cheung

China brand once again launched an impact on the high-end.

After the revival of FAW's high-end independent brand Hongqi is in full swing and the C+ luxury car Hongqi H9 goes offline, the Chinese name and Logo of Dongfeng's brand-new high-end electric brand will also be released in a few days.

Not long ago, Changan Weilai New Energy Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. made industrial and commercial changes, and its registered capital increased from 98 million yuan to 654.38+88 million yuan, an increase of 92%. It is reported that Changan Weilai will launch high-end brand new energy vehicles based on Changan R&D system.

Not only the three central enterprises, but also local state-owned enterprises are also strategizing. SAIC has been exposed that it is planning to build a brand-new high-end brand M. Jianghuai Automobile has also been exposed to build a high-end brand of new energy ... Previously, BAIC Group has taken the lead in launching the ARCFOX brand.

All have a common feature: focusing on new energy to achieve high-end brand breaking, and most of them are concentrated in state-owned enterprises. This is in line with the national strategy of transformation and upgrading of China's automobile industry. When the automobile industry enters a new stage of high-quality development led by intelligence, the barriers formed by traditional automobile enterprises around crude oil technology and industrial ecology are being broken down one by one under the impact of new technologies.

Differentiated competition through intelligent electrification has become a new choice for local brands in China. This time, can they seize the opportunity?

Why do you keep going up?

Market is the best catalyst. Since April this year, due to the rapid recovery of commercial vehicles and luxury cars, the situation of the automobile industry has improved, but the market share of China brand began to decline sharply in April.

The Matthew effect of the market is getting more and more serious. Although the market share of China brands declined, the market share of German and Japanese brands increased in the first half of the year.

When the data came out in May, Autobots predicted that 34. 1% would not be the lowest brand market share in China.

The latest data released by the Federation proves this. In June, the share of independent brands shrank to 32%, a record low in recent years. The independent brands of traditional cars and new energy vehicles are in jeopardy. For China brands, only by "surviving" can they survive in the competition.

Of course, continuing the trend in May, the brand performance of Head China is still excellent. In June this year, head brands such as Geely and Changan, which are in the first camp of China brands, achieved good results, and the fully revived Hongqi brand grew strongly.

At the same time, joint ventures and luxury achieved a strong recovery. In June, the retail sales of luxury cars increased by 27% year-on-year and 9% quarter-on-quarter, and the market share reached a record high 14.9%. Among them, BMW Brilliance and Beijing Benz increased by 49% and 20% respectively, and rose to 1 1 and 12 in the sales ranking of car companies.

The performance of luxury brands in the new energy market is also worthy of attention. Driven by high-end new energy vehicles represented by Tesla, in June, new energy passenger cars increased by 20. 1%.

The data shows that in June, Tesla's sales reached 65,438+04,954 vehicles, an increase of 35% from the previous month. Models? Sales volume is second only to BMW 3 Series, ranking second. In addition to Tesla, Weilai also sold 9,470 vehicles in June, and the recognition and acceptance of high-end new energy vehicles are constantly improving.

This stems from the high-end redemption demand of consumption upgrading and the downward exploration of the discount price of luxury models, which brings price advantage and quickly leads the market segment to pick up. This makes the road of China brand upward more urgent.

To achieve high-end automobile brands in China, on the one hand, the strength should truly reach the "high-end" level, allowing users to take the initiative to choose; On the other hand, it is the promotion of consumption upgrading, and consumers have the economic ability to consume high-end products.

At present, these two conditions have been basically met. More than ten years ago, the initial stage of China brand coincided with the first wave of consumption in the automobile industry. The automobile market was in an unprecedented blowout stage, and China brand occupied the low-end entry-level market.

With the continuous improvement of the technical quality of China brand and the consumption power of China automobile market, most consumers pay more and more attention to comfort, brand power and product quality when buying a car, and the "upward" of independent brands also meets the needs of market development.

Especially in the era of stock competition, the price reduction of luxury cars squeezed the market share of joint venture brands, and the ultimate pressure fell on China brands.

In the increasingly fierce market competition, the guarantee of brand and product competitiveness allows consumers to actively choose products with big brands and stronger technical strength.

This situation is more obvious after the epidemic. Compared with joint venture brands, the biggest shortcoming of China brand is brand competitiveness. China brand must go head-on and firmly enhance its brand power. Mainstream China brands are trying to make up for their shortcomings. Whether it is Geely, Chang 'an or Great Wall, they are all strengthening brand strategy and achieving brand advancement.

Empowering the brand with new energy and intelligence has become a new choice for China brands.

Why new energy?

In fact, with the help of new energy, China brand is not completely confined to state-owned enterprises. In May of this year, Geometric Cars under Geely Group updated its brand development goal-to become an interesting pure electric brand on the Internet, and officially released the world's first technology travel idea * * * to enjoy the station "Geometry+",reshaping the logic of making cars.

In addition, in the domestic automobile market, new vehicle power is the main provider of new energy products. Among them, a series of car companies such as Weilai and Tucki have gradually gained a foothold in the high-end market.

Whether it is a traditional car company or a new car-making force, why do you put the brand high-end on new energy? Among autobots, there are two reasons; One is the need for self-development, and the other is based on policy guidance.

As we all know, the promotion of China brand's "high-end road" is not smooth. As early as around 2008, China brands have focused on high-end breakthroughs, and many high-end models have been introduced, but they have not succeeded due to the limitations of technology and manufacturing level.

Subsequently, over the years, China brand car companies launched an impact on the "ceiling" again and again, but failed many times. Until 20 17, GAC Chuanqi, which started in the middle and high end, launched large and medium-sized SUVs. As a medium-sized SUV, the price range of GS8 is 163800-259800 yuan, which is a bold attempt for domestic brands. The price of the high-end version of GS8 is similar to that of Highlander. Chuanqi GS8 has reached the peak of China brand, no matter from the brand or the product itself.

But unfortunately, in the last year or two, Chuanqi GS8, which once sold nearly 10,000 yuan a month, did not continue to sell well.

In the past year or two, Great Wall, Geely, Chery and other car companies have started to find another way and achieved high-end "evolution". They either launched their own high-end flagship models or started a new stove to build their own brand-new high-end brands. The brand LECK launched by Geely with the help of Volvo's technology and brand endorsement, as well as the new products of independent high-end brands such as Great Wall WEY and Qiruixingtu, have formed a certain product matrix, but at present, only Great Wall WEY brand and Geely LECK have broken through the ceiling of "200,000" in China. Among them, the WEY brand market is no longer as hot as in the previous two years, and it has dropped significantly compared with the peak period.

Comparatively speaking, the independent development of several major state-owned car companies, such as Dongfeng and Chang 'an, has been suffering from brand shackles and has not achieved a breakthrough in high-end brands for many years.

Dongfeng Company owns four brands of passenger cars in China. Fengshen, scenery, fashion and Qichen products are mostly concentrated in the low-end market. With the upgrading of consumption, consumer demand is concentrated on high-end products, which is one of the original intentions of Dongfeng Company to launch a brand-new high-end brand.

Changan automobile uses products to push up the brand. Changan Ruicheng and CS95 were launched before, but the market response was not good. Zhu Huarong, Changan Automobile, said that what Changan Automobile has been pursuing is the continuous breakthrough of China brand. Where is the hope of breakthrough? It's about young people.

In March this year, Changan Automobile launched a brand-new product sequence-UNI-T, hoping to communicate with young consumers with a brand-new design language and a brand-new intelligent in-vehicle system, thus driving the brand up. This is the first step for Changan Automobile to go high-end.

Both Dongfeng and Changan executives realize that there are not many opportunities to launch brand-new brands in the traditional automobile field. With the automobile industry entering the key node of transformation and upgrading, new energy vehicles have become a national strategy, and the road to self-improvement has also turned to new energy.

With a letter from Zhu Yanfeng, Chairman and Party Secretary of Dongfeng Company, to Dongfeng H Division, the long-hidden H Division revealed its true colors.

For its high-end positioning, You Zheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Company and deputy general manager in charge of Dongfeng H Division, said in an interview with the media that on the one hand, the launch of H brand is based on the demand of market consumption upgrading, on the other hand, only the mid-to high-end market can undertake the carrier of Dongfeng Motor's new technology in the future.

Dongfeng officials believe that the trend of lightweight, electrification, intelligence, networking and enjoyment of the automobile industry is unstoppable, and the automobile industry and the Internet will be highly integrated. Dongfeng Company aims to take the responsibility of "vanguard", strengthen the route of new energy vehicles, and strive to promote the transformation of traditional fuel vehicles into new energy vehicles. Division H is the undertaker, practitioner and pioneer of this task.

This shows the original intention of state-owned automobile brands to develop new energy and promote industrial transformation. As the first high-end electric brand of central enterprises, the H brand will be officially released in July this year, and the new car will be unveiled as soon as next year.

Only four days after H Division announced, SAIC Roewe officially released a new R standard as the exclusive logo of Roewe's high-end new energy vehicles, aiming at promoting brand transformation and upgrading with high-end new energy. The brand-new electric vehicle brand that SAIC will launch will be unveiled in parallel with Roewe and MG.

Judging from the high-end brand path to be launched by the above-mentioned enterprises, considering the national new energy strategy, the rising trend of China brands, the market trend of high-end electric vehicles, consumer demand and other factors, the chances of success are greater.

Possibility of new path

In the traditional field, few independent brands have successfully knocked on the door of high-end brands, but after changing the runway, the new energy field has provided more possibilities for high-end brands.

At the same time, due to the combination of multiple factors such as the transformation and upgrading of consumption structure and the changes driven by new technologies, China's automobile industry is also in a period of great adjustment. With the rapid development of 5G, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, human society has ushered in a new round of scientific and technological revolution, which will reconstruct the automobile industry format, industrial layout and industrial structure, and also provide a broad space for the upward development of China brand.

A new era of automobile new energy in China has arrived. Taking electric vehicles as an example, with the upgrading of domestic consumption and the gradual improvement of marketization, consumers have higher requirements for pure electric vehicles in terms of cruising range, technology and brand.

The long-planned joint venture brand has come with dignity under the mature market cultivation and full competition. The localization of Tesla, which enjoys super-national treatment, has begun to harvest the market. When the China automobile market enters the stock competition and demand upgrading at a high point, more mature technical products will be put into the market, and the high-end market of new energy will usher in a rising era.

This is an opportunity for China brand. Those enterprises with strong product strength and R&D strength will show their value because of the arrival of Tesla. With Guangzhou Automobile New Energy AION? AION？ LX, for example, has become a high-end product and has the strength to compete with joint ventures.

In the eyes of the industry, new energy vehicles have the conditions of high-end models. Unlike traditional cars that gradually climb from the low-end market to the high-end market, new energy products generally start from high-end cars. Batteries and smart configuration are almost basic elements, and the high cost brought by new energy has to break through the price ceiling.

The fast, quiet and intelligent elements of new energy vehicles mean scientific and technological innovation, a large number of forward-looking technologies are adopted, and new technologies are leading to some extent.

In the field of traditional fuel vehicles, the shortcomings of China automobile industry are obvious, and the core technologies are difficult to break through. Different from the traditional technology, the "three electricity" technology of domestic new energy vehicles has achieved remarkable results. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, it is not so difficult for high-end new energy vehicles with independent brands to succeed. "New energy vehicles can be better combined with intelligent networking technology, which is more acceptable to consumers." Wu Songquan, chief expert of China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd. said.

Electrification+intelligence has become an important weight for China brand to leap to the high end. Coupled with the service experience and innovative business model, it is entirely possible for China brand to go high-end in the field of new energy vehicles.

The question is, who will pay for the high-end cars of China brand? If high technology is also a luxury and high-end, it will be a luxury recognized by a new generation of consumers.

He may be a B-class car owner who is worried about the traditional BBA, or a luxury car owner who wants more passionate and technological products to prove his taste. Of course, there are also young strugglers who look up at the stars and long for a luxury car to reward their talents and efforts, but they don't want to pay only for a logo.

With the arrival of the critical period of a new round of technical competition among global automobile enterprises, Matthew effect will be further revealed, and head enterprises will occupy a larger market. For China brand, this is the moment to strive for strength and technology, and it is also an opportunity to achieve brand upward.

Recently, China Ordnance Equipment Group, China FAW, Dongfeng Company, Changan Automobile and Nanjing Jiangning Economic Development Technology Co., Ltd. plan to build a super intelligent new energy technology platform within five years, focusing on the research and development of intelligent electric chassis, hydrogen fuel power and intelligent networked vehicles. This also provides technical support for the three central enterprises to achieve brand promotion through new energy. (Text/"Autobots"? Sharla Cheung, this article was originally published in the July 2020 issue of China Automobile Industry Magazine) Copyright statement This article is an exclusive original manuscript of Autobots Media, and the copyright belongs to Autobots Media.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.