Left Hand Zhiji Right Hand R: How About SAIC'S Independent High-Altitude Attack?

SAIC's latest high-end brand l project, which was exposed a month ago, was officially released. On November 26, SAIC Group announced that the l-project was jointly built by SAIC Group, Pudong New Area and Alibaba group. It is China's first founding round, i.e., an automobile science and technology innovation company with a scale of 10 billion, which is oriented to the high-end intelligent pure electric market. It is said that SAIC and Shanghai Pudong New Area share 72%, Alibaba 18%, and 10% are jointly owned by employees and users.

At the same time, an industrial fund specially set up for Zhiji Automobile Co., Ltd. On November 26, SAIC Group announced that it would jointly set up a fund with Zhangjiang hi tech and SAIC Hengxu investment to invest in the high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle project built by SAIC Group. The amount of capital subscribed by the above funds was 7.2 billion yuan, including 5.4 billion yuan from SAIC and 5.4 billion yuan from SAIC Hengxu and 1.8 billion yuan from Zhangjiang high tech.

The release of Zhiji automobile means that SAIC Group has formed a new independent brand structure -- Zhiji automobile, R automobile, Roewe, Mg mingjue and SAIC Maxus.

Of course, Zhiji is different from other brands. Other brands are wholly owned by SAIC and incubated by itself. Zhiji may be a breakthrough and attempt of SAIC to impact the high-end new energy vehicle market.

SAIC Ali's second cooperation

It is understood that the project has been prepared since 2018 and is regarded as a "No. 1 project" within SAIC. It is led by Chen Hong, chairman of SAIC Group, and Wang Xiaoqiu, President of SAIC Group, as the commander-in-chief, trying to build "Tesla of China". This means that the positioning of Zhiji automobile is equal to that of SAIC. However, due to the introduction of foreign capital into the equity structure, the two are quite different in nature.

From the composition of shareholders, Zhiji automobile relies on strong resources. According to the press release, "Pudong New Area will take advantage of Zhangjiang High-tech Industrial Cluster ecology and AI, chip and other technical resources; Alibaba will use the user's big data, the latest technology of Damo Institute, and the collaborative advantages of Alibaba cloud and other ecological circles to comprehensively empower Zhiji automobile and help it seize the first mover heights in the global intelligent automobile field."

At present, there are more than 200 people in Zhiji automobile project group, half of which are from SAIC Group, and the total number is expected to reach 300 by the end of the year. According to the plan, Zhiji's first model is a sedan. It is expected to start the winter test at the end of this year, and will be released at CES in Shanghai, London and North America at the beginning of next year. In 2022, Zhiji automobile will successively launch SUV, concept car and other products.

"SAIC launched Zhiji to create a more independent and high-end brand through the Internet. After all, the R brand was born out of the Roewe brand in the early stage. At present, the Internet + company has a strong rise, and the valuation of new power car companies is high. SAIC may want to use the Internet to strengthen it." On November 30, Zhang Junyi, Executive Committee of Ping An Group, deputy general manager and chief operating officer of Ping an intelligent enterprise, said in an interview with the reporter of 21st century economic report.

It is worth noting that Zhiji automobile has become an important fall in Alibaba's auto industry layout. This is not the first time that SAIC and Alibaba have joined hands. In 2016, the two sides jointly invested in the establishment of zebra network, and the Roewe rx5, the "world's first mass production Internet car", and Roewe rx5 max, the intelligent cockpit model, once became popular models. But later, the game between the two giants made the zebra "in a dilemma" and the system update was blocked. In August 2019, SAIC Group and Alibaba announced the strategic restructuring of zebra network and yunos. The two sides expanded their cooperation fields to automobile travel platform, automatic driving, automobile industry cloud and other fields. Ali became the largest shareholder of zebra network.

"It's still difficult for car companies to cooperate with Internet companies. Sometimes they are in a constant state. It's hard to break in between the two. How to cut interests? How to be an independent company? These are challenges. The performance of the new car manufacturing force itself has not been fully reflected, but the speculative mentality of the capital market is very strong. Can the companies cooperated by SAIC and Ali get money from mainstream Internet and financial investment institutions in the later stage? "

According to Zhang Junyi, "strictly speaking, this is an investment with challenges and needs internal coordination. SAIC has invested in Weima, has many joint ventures and is building high-end brands. In fact, as a whole, SAIC still needs a comprehensive strategy to show how to do it. According to the current setting, SAIC is the leading Party, but Ali is a relatively strong company. SAIC has invested a lot of resources to build a software center (zero bundle). If you use Ali's system, it will be very troublesome. If you don't use Ali's system, where is the so-called Internet reflected? "

In the face of increasingly fierce competition in China's automobile market, the deepening trend of electrification and intelligence, and the market share of independent brands has repeatedly fallen below the red line, Chinese automobile enterprises have begun to take advantage of the brand-new track, the high-end new energy market with broad growth space in the future, to launch a attack on the high-end brand.

According to the data, in the first 10 months of this year, the sales volume of self owned brand passenger cars was only about 5.752 million, a year-on-year decrease of 14.1%, and the share of passenger cars decreased by 1.8 percentage points compared with the same period of last year, leaving only 37.1%, a new low in recent years. Correspondingly, in the first three quarters of this year, the cumulative retail sales volume of domestic luxury car market was about 1.7879 million, with a year-on-year increase of 10.9%. It is the only market in the three major market segments to maintain positive growth.

Prior to this, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the national passenger vehicle information association, pointed out at the "2020 China Automobile Industry Summit" that the differentiation of high and low-end passenger car market this year is particularly obvious. Among them, luxury cars showed a stronger high growth feature after the epidemic, and the luxury car retail sales increased by more than 30% year-on-year in October.

"The core reason for the differentiation is not that the manufacturers themselves have been differentiated, but that the manufacturers have changed dramatically due to the influence of demand. The traditional car market with a price of less than 80000 yuan has shrunk sharply, and the market of more than 250000 yuan has shown a high growth. The growth rate is better than the average price of the industry below 80000 yuan. In recent three years, manufacturers only account for about 10%, while luxury cars account for more than 80% Cui Dongshu said, "the positioning of automobile enterprises and products determines the survival opportunities of enterprises. If they do not sell high priced cars, they will be killed if they try hard."

However, it is not a day's work for the brand to go up. In addition to breaking through the price ceiling, independent brands also have to face the fierce competition in the middle and high-end market segments: Tesla's strong performance, the strong rise of new automobile manufacturing forces, the acceleration of electrification of luxury brands, and the accelerated layout of joint venture brands will usher in a fierce battle in the middle and high-end new energy market.

Not for the first time

Under the downward pressure of automobile market, it is the only way for independent brands to expand market share by impacting on high-end market. On the one hand, thanks to the favorable policies, the state has continued to increase support for new energy vehicles; on the other hand, players from new forces such as Weilai, idealist and Xiaopeng have emerged in the middle and high-end market, which has injected confidence into the high-end industry through new energy.

For a time, the "national teams" of automobile enterprises have entered the Bureau, and the high-end new energy market is becoming more and more lively: Dongfeng and BAIC respectively fall into Lando and arcfox, while Changan and GAC have launched high-end brands. The former will jointly build a new high-end intelligent car brand with Huawei and Ningde Shidai, while the latter will make the new energy vehicle brand AIAN independent.

As the first automobile enterprise in China to propose the transformation to the new four modernizations, SAIC has finally launched a brand new brand for the high-end new energy market - Zhiji automobile. It is worth mentioning that before Zhiji automobile came to the surface, SAIC Group had already released the R brand to face the medium and high-end new energy market. During the Guangzhou auto show not long ago, the R brand appeared as an independent stand, and SAIC Group's determination to impact the high-end development of new energy is self-evident.

This is not the first time that SAIC has "rushed higher". In 2007, the first Roewe model 750 was launched, and the price of RMB 231800 was directly cut into the high-end market segment. After that, Roewe 950 and Roewe W5 were launched. However, the real hot selling model was the Roewe 350 with a price of 70000-140000 yuan. In 2018, SAIC released the pure electric intelligent SUV Roewe Marvel x, which benchmarked with luxury brands. However, the sales volume of Marvel X was lower than expected after its listing. According to the data of the Travel Association, the cumulative sales volume of Marvel X in 2019 is only 2186 vehicles, and the average monthly sales volume is less than 200 vehicles.

However, Rongwei's upward road has not stopped. In May this year, SAIC Group officially launched the double standard strategy, using R standard and brand-new lion standard. Among them, R standard represents SAIC Roewe's medium and high-end new energy products, focusing on pure electric vehicles; after the replacement, the lion standard will continue to implement the networking and rejuvenation strategy. During the Guangzhou auto show, R brand, which was originally set up under Rongwei, announced its formal independent operation. From the birth of R standard to the independence of R brand, R brand has completed the new car listing, organizational structure adjustment and service system construction within 195 days.

According to the plan, R brand has Marvel series, er series and SUV es series. In August, the first model er6 of R brand came into the market, and the sales volume reached 1124 in October, which became the sales responsibility of 150000-200000 pure electric car segment market, and the cumulative sales volume has exceeded 2000; at the Guangzhou auto show, the second intelligent electric SUV Marvell r of R brand was officially put into pre-sale, with the pre-sale price of 220000 yuan. In addition, the r-aura concept concept car also appeared at the auto show. Previously, the official has disclosed that the products of R automobile in the next three years have been prepared, all of which come from the brand-new pure electric platform of SAIC passenger cars.

Yu Jingmin, deputy general manager of SAIC Group's passenger car company, said in an interview with the reporter of 21st century economic report that "R automobile, Roewe and Mg constitute the three major brands of SAIC passenger cars, and R automobile will undertake higher tasks. Simply speaking, R car will not have models less than 150000 yuan. R automobile is a new force of the national team, undertaking the mission of new energy and intelligent breakthrough development. "

Talking about how to distinguish the R brand facing the middle and high-end market from the high-end Zhiji brand, Zhang Junyi told reporters, "Zhiji brand and R brand may only be separated by platform pricing. If the price of Zhiji brand is not high, there are also problems. SAIC and Weilai have historical origins and disputes. Many of the employees of Weilai are also from SAIC. In addition, Gaohe, a senior manager of SAIC, is also making high-end brands. To some extent, this is a psychological factor for SAIC to be a high-end brand. "

Rongwei's future

With the independence of R automobile and the introduction of Zhiji automobile, SAIC passenger cars have formed a pattern of parallel development of five major brands - R automobile is oriented to the middle and high-end new energy market with a price of more than 150000 yuan, which is different from Zhiji automobile with more high-end positioning; Rongwei and Mg mingjue mainly take root in the fuel vehicle market, taking into account new energy vehicles; SAIC Datong focuses on customization.

Before the launch of R automobile, Roewe brand was the main brand of SAIC passenger cars, but in recent years, it has faced problems such as the decline of product competitiveness and the failure of high-end flagship models. It is worth mentioning that at this Guangzhou auto show, Rongwei imax8 was officially delivered to the first batch of Guangzhou car owners, and the Roewe rx5 Max supreme was also listed.

At present, the automobile market has turned into stock competition. Platform and modularization have become important means for automobile enterprises to seize the opportunity and improve the efficiency of product upgrading. In addition to "Chonggao", independent automobile enterprises have also made efforts to layout in the field of architecture. The term "architecture" is heating up: Geely launched CMA super parent architecture, Chery released m3x Mars architecture, and Chang'an built Chang'an uni-t product series based on a new architecture. In contrast, SAIC passenger car performance is relatively low-key.

"SAIC has been working on the structure of passenger cars, but there was no publicity before." Cui Weiguo, deputy general manager of the passenger car company of Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd., said that at present, SAIC has launched a new global intelligent modular platform sigma, which has two large platforms, a and B, covering SUV, MPV, A-class vehicles, B-class vehicles, etc., and Roewe imax8 is the first model of sigma structure.

"For SAIC, building a car is not a sudden realization, but is born with it. We started to contact cars with the architecture." Yu Jingmin said that some of the staff of SAIC's passenger cars came from SAIC General Motors and SAIC Volkswagen, and they began to deal with the structure at the beginning.

It is understood that in the future, SAIC will launch a new electronic architecture, a new electrical architecture and a smart cabin. "SAIC Group has set up zero bundle company, specializing in electronic architecture platform, and 80% - 90% of its business mainly supplies SAIC passenger cars. In the future, automobiles emphasize intelligence, so we will launch a new electronic architecture based on all domain controllers and Internet. In addition, in terms of electrification, SAIC will have its own platform for electric vehicles, and there is more room for better development of electric vehicles. Based on this platform, we will realize the imagination of vehicle power separation and power exchange in the future. " Cui Weiguo revealed.

In addition to the technical level, Roewe also carries out brand renewal in marketing. At present, Roewe brand has nearly 2 million users, with SAIC Roewe app, wechat public account and official platform. How to import users into private domain flow pool and improve user stickiness through these platforms will be the focus of Rongwei brand's exploration in marketing channels.

Wang Jianfeng, director of brand marketing and director of marketing and public relations of Rongwei, a passenger car company of Shanghai Automotive Group Co., Ltd., said in an interview, "whether it is online or offline activities, the connotation of Rongwei brand has not changed. We insist on taking users as the center, quickly build up a brand-new retail service system, create communication contact points with users and create them together with users The goal of Rongwei brand is to create more convenient, safer and more convenient travel tools for users. "

How does r brand do?

As a matter of fact, the sudden epidemic situation superimposes on the downward trend of the automobile market. For SAIC, which has gone through a "throbbing period", the pressure of transformation and the need to break the situation are imminent.

According to the data of China Automobile Association, among the top ten Chinese brand automobile sales enterprises from January to October, although SAIC ranked first, it still faced the challenge of negative sales growth. According to the production and sales express of SAIC Group, the sales volume of SAIC passenger cars was 70400, up 16.29% year-on-year; the cumulative sales volume from January to October was 473600, a year-on-year decrease of 11.02%. Solving the sales decline and boosting the independent brand has become the top priority of SAIC.

"Brand does not belong to OEM, but belongs to everyone who loves it. We should build brand together with users. R represents a new idea for us Yu Jingmin told the 21st century economic reporter that the new force has strong Internet gene, personal IP and new business model. R car, which claims to be the "new force of the national team", will take a unique road, and the word "user" has been mentioned repeatedly.

First of all, R automobile will build a team IP, users become a part of it. Users are the partners of R automobile. They not only drive products and enjoy travel services, but also participate in the construction of R automobile. "The whole marketing service is not only a starting point but also a closed loop. The key is to have technical support and users' love, so as to realize the imagination of science and technology, and let users from love to trust in the process of experiencing travel service. This is the reason why we launched r car." Yu said.

Secondly, R automobile mainly focuses on electric intelligence, and the current popular new retail mode will be adopted in future sales. "About what is new retail? Li Bin and I had an in-depth discussion, and finally came to the same conclusion: all the contacts of customers, including service points and communication points, should be integrated into the whole social resources within the brand planning, so the new retail service mode will be more and more open. The brand should control the contact point with the user, not to build a car behind closed doors, let alone do service behind closed doors. "

Jiang Hui, chief operating officer of R automobile, called it "unbounded new retail". "In addition to the online orders that young people are familiar with, for older or more busy users, we drive the car to the user's home or unit, and let the user experience help the user to order. We can also take the document to complete the offline ordering. How convenient the users are, how can we come here. "

Jiang Hui revealed that Marvell r will be delivered by the end of December or early January next year. All models will be equipped with 5g chips, and subsequent new cars will be equipped with 93kwh battery pack, which can achieve a range of about 700km. It is worth mentioning that in terms of charging, R car has access to 300000 charging point data.

Talking about the auto market next year, Yu Jingmin is optimistic. He expects the overall market growth rate to be between 5% and 10% next year. As for the future development of R automobile, Yu Jingmin said, "next year, our sales target is 30000 vehicles. Instead of pursuing excessive sales, we should pay attention to the quality of each service. We should consider how to let users become our partners, love the brand, and build the brand together with us." According to its disclosure, before next year's Shanghai auto show, R automobile will release two concept cars. In addition to the r-aura concept, the concept car of Guangzhou auto show, the three models in the future will be put into mass production.