The "national team" of automobile enterprises to explore the brand ceiling again, this time the opponent changed into a new car-making forces

December 18, Dongfeng's high-end new energy brand Lantu's first model? Lantu FREE made its global debut, and the high-end new energy automobile brand of the "national team" of the automobile enterprise has made another step forward.

Dongfeng is not the only one to launch a new high-end new energy brand of traditional car companies. The country's new energy vehicles for a series of policies to encourage, so that almost all mainstream domestic independent car companies are eager to try. Their biggest rivals on this new battlefield are the new car-making forces that are making a big splash in a life-and-death struggle.

New battles

The veterans of domestic autonomous brands are launching an attack on the new battlefield. In addition to Arcfox, Changan announced that it will work with Huawei and Ningde Times*** to build a high-end smart car brand; SAIC announced that its new smart EV brand will be called "Zhi Ji" and will be positioned higher than its previously released R brand; Great Wall will build a new smart EV brand code-named SL; and BAIC completed the first model of its high-end brand, arcfox, in October. arcfox's first model, the αT, was launched in October.

The Arcfox and ZhiGi are carrying the dream of "brand upward mobility" for independent automakers.

In the field of traditional fuel vehicles, independent brands have been working hard for decades to bring the price range of their products closer to 200,000 yuan. But in the face of multinational brands of products suppression, independent brands over the years relatively solidified brand image, as well as in the product, technical strength gap, become difficult to break the ceiling.

In contrast, the tide of automotive electrification and intelligence, giving the independent brand new opportunities. On the one hand, in the field of electric vehicles, the technology gap between independent and multinational car companies is far less obvious than in the field of fuel vehicles; on the other hand, China's massive Internet population has created a strong local Internet companies, which has become a huge advantage for independent brands of cars on the road to intelligence.

This time, the independent brand's upward battle, the will to win.

New rivals

Compared with the multinational brands, the wave of independent brand operation undoubtedly has a clear first-mover advantage, electric, high-end, independently operated product strategy, not only can take full advantage of the policy advantages and technological advantages, but also cut with the original brand image. However, in this new track, the old independent brands are also facing strong rivals, the main force is no longer a multinational brand, but a number of new car-making forces.

Since the beginning of this year, the new car-making forces represented by Azure, Ideal and Xiaopeng have ushered in a high moment, both in the capital market and terminal sales.

Azalea in the "out of the ICU" all the way soaring, market value directly beyond BMW; ideal ONE in only one model, and the price reached more than 300,000 yuan, in one fell swoop to take the first 11 months of the cumulative sales of new energy SUV champion; peng will be the technology geeks to play to the extreme, and Tesla and the air mutual dislike of the bottom of the air is very strong. The car is not a good choice.

The dream of "overtaking the car by curving the road" that automakers have been working on for years is being realized by the new car makers. Because of this, the "national team" of automobile enterprises will also directly target new brands and new car-making forces.

Taking Lantu as an example, the pure electric version of Lantu FREE is aimed at Azera ES8, while the extended-range electric version is a direct counterpart to Ideal ONE. Of course, in terms of product strategy, the same independent brand is best at high configuration, low price. With an all-aluminum body, elevated center console, air suspension, more powerful range extender, faster zero hundred acceleration, and a price that hasn't risen much, coupled with big-spending marketing and PR communication tactics, this model, which won't be available until nearly a year from now, seems to be a lock to win.

New challenges

It is undeniable that this round of high-end autonomous new energy vehicles, product parameters and configuration is indeed no lack of highlights, but for the traditional autonomous car companies in this wave of high-end new energy car-making, I'm afraid that is far from the time to draw conclusions. The new track is not suitable for the old way of playing, in addition to the new challenges in addition to the product, may be the winner of the battle.

First of all, we don't doubt for a second that Dongfeng, SAIC, Changan and Great Wall have deep skills and long-term accumulation in automotive hardware. Only, in this car from the tool to become a service platform, by the software definition of the car era, software service capabilities are becoming more and more important, and this is precisely the weakness of the traditional car companies.

To give a simple example, the same networked car, the same navigation applications, the experience in different cars is a world of difference. Even if you work with the same Internet company, the final result will be very different based on the differences in the understanding of user needs by different car companies and the internal product debugging and launching rhythm of the car companies.

Whether they can fully understand users' needs, whether they can effectively optimize based on users' pain points, whether they can quickly put this optimization on line, and whether they can always maintain this pace of continuous improvement, traditional car companies need to face these four questions and deliver satisfactory answers.

Secondly, the automotive industry has formed a complete industry chain ecosystem and sales and service system in its long-term development. These systems, which have proved effective over the past hundred years, are facing challenges and reconstruction.

FOTA breaks the original product iteration cycle, the direct sales model changes the long-established multi-level distribution network, and the entry of new players on the Internet flattens the hierarchical supplier system. We can see that traditional car companies are actively embracing all kinds of changes, but to adapt to these new things still need a process. The new car-making forces have long accumulated rich experience in the life and death of the past few years. In this new track, they compared to traditional car companies, but has more rich combat experience, and even in some areas can complete the downward strike.

Once again, in this decentralized era where everyone is a member of the media, the marketing of automotive products is no longer a matter of a few product launches and public opinion monitoring and maintenance. How to let users build awareness and gradually generate goodwill is the problem in front of every enterprise.

Whether it's Azera's strength in favoring its fans or Li Xiang's bold and outspoken words, it embodies a meticulous user operation idea and means. We can see the determination of traditional car companies to break through and seek change in the details of the LanTu launch, but it will take more than a day to truly overcome the inertia and style of thinking that has developed over a long period of time.

Lastly, the surviving players in the new track, the survivors of these new forces, all of them are not backwater, in the "ICU" to experience the life and death test. If you don't succeed, you're dead, and that kind of desperate struggle for survival, and the insistence on throwing yourself on the line, I'm afraid that the traditional car companies with the golden key of the new brand managers can't imagine, and have never experienced.

The parent company's wealth and solid family background is the backbone, but also a stumbling block to the struggle. This subtle difference in mindset is like a lever that multiplies advantages and disadvantages.

How should we look at the car "national team" in the new energy field of "second business"? I think, rather than deliberately create the praise in the sound of being killed, it is better to really put down the stature, to maintain a zero mentality to move forward, perhaps really as Li Want in the microblogging Lan Tu's blessing in this new market, "together with the Chinese brand bigger", *** with the achievement of the Chinese brand amount of the upward road.

This article comes from the author of the automobile home car, does not represent the views of the automobile home position.