"Jiang Deyi Era" Of BAIC Group: Can Arcfox Carry Forward The Past And Open Up The Future?

The new high-end electric vehicle brand arcfox (Chinese Name: Jihu) built by BAIC group for four years is about to usher in the big test.

On October 24, the first new car of arcfox, α T, was officially launched. After subsidy, the price was 241900 yuan to 319900 yuan, and the driving range of NEDC was 480km and 653km respectively. From the perspective of new car positioning, mileage, price and other factors, arcfox will be completely different from the previous product line of BAIC new energy.

"BAIC has accumulated a lot in the past 60 years, but there are also some constraints. Sometimes, judging from the evaluation of some of our products, we should dare to step out and make up our mind to be a high-end brand."

On October 24, Yu Liguo, deputy general manager of BAIC new energy and President of arcfox Bu, said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter.

BAIC new energy, once in the forefront of the industry, has been the champion of domestic electric vehicle market for many years. However, since the second half of last year, affected by the sharp decline in subsidies, BAIC new energy has encountered unprecedented difficulties. At the same time, under the impact of Tesla, Weilai and Xiaopeng, BAIC new energy's product competitiveness is slightly insufficient. How to get rid of the dependence on subsidies and really enter the market-oriented stage is a problem that BAIC new energy has to face.

(new energy vehicles) industry has reached the dawn, there is a glimmer of light. In the future, new energy vehicles will definitely no longer rely on subsidies or policy drive, but on commodity nature and consumers' willingness to buy. " BAIC new energy general manager Liu Yu told reporters.

Can arcfox succeed before dawn? As the top priority of BAIC group's "comprehensive new energy" strategy, the success or failure of arcfox, the only high-end brand in BAIC's independent future, is not only related to the future of BAIC new energy, but also the only opportunity for BAIC group, which has been seeking upward breakthroughs in the independent automobile sector for many years.

This year, BAIC Group officially entered the "Jiang Deyi era", and arcfox was the last important project vigorously promoted by the group resources before Xu Heyi, the former chairman of BAIC group, left office.

During his term of office, Xu Heyi has been the platform of arcfox for many times. When he appears in public, he will vigorously introduce the progress and ideas of arcfox. However, Jiang Deyi, who has just been the chairman of BAIC group for less than half a year, did not appear at the press conference of arcfox's first new car on October 24.

In the early stage of power change, whether arcfox can develop as planned before and whether the group can continue to make full efforts to develop arcfox will determine the future development trend of BAIC group's independent plate.

Can it succeed?

As the pioneer of comprehensive new energy of BAIC group, BAIC new energy (BAIC Blue Valley, 600733. SH), born in 2009, was listed in 2018, which is the first stock of new energy vehicles in China.

Since its establishment, BAIC new energy has been the champion of domestic new energy vehicle market for several times. However, for a long time, BAIC new energy has been questioned by the outside world. It mainly focuses on low-end products, and its profit source mainly relies on government subsidies.

In fact, while relying on the volume of low-end models of A0 and A00, BAIC new energy is eager to have a more perfect product layout. At the same time, for BAIC, the acquisition of Saab platform in the field of fuel vehicles did not make Saab break through the brand upward. BAIC hopes to reorganize the brand structure with the help of comprehensive electrification. BAIC group hopes to switch to new energy and achieve brand upward.

For many years, BAIC's independent sector has never given up its brand, and now this important task is on arcfox. To a certain extent, the brand positioning of arcfox is similar to Geely's link and Great Wall's wey.

In fact, for arcfox, BAIC has been brewing for a long time. As early as 2016, BAIC new energy has launched the arcfox brand. According to the planning of BAIC new energy, the positioning of arcfox should be different from the existing products of BAIC new energy, such as EC, EU, etc., mainly to fill the gap in the range of more than 200000.

In June 2018, arcfox made substantial progress, and BAIC New Energy announced the establishment of a joint venture with magnada. Before that, a reporter from beige disclosed that it had been hard to negotiate with Magna for new energy for nearly two years. In terms of appearance design, arcfox has dug in the legendary master de Silva, who was responsible for the design of classic models of Volkswagen, Audi and other brands.

In addition, arcfox has also reached a deep cooperation with Huawei, trying to improve the intelligent level of products through the other party's software capabilities, so as to be able to compete with the new forces of car making with intelligence as the selling point.

In 2019, arcfox will finally unveil the true face of Lushan Mountain. In March of that year, arcfox brought its three brand-new models, arcfox-gt track version, arcfox-gt Street version and arcfox ECF concept, the first family concept car, to the stage of Geneva Motor Show.

Since the beginning of this year, how to warm up the cfox α model in the market. As early as April this year, arcfox α t has started blind pricing, and the pre-sale price was announced at the Beijing auto show in September. At the same time, arcfox also carries out a variety of offline preheating activities mainly in first tier cities, so as to enhance the brand's popularity.

In terms of brand building, arcfox calls itself "new force of car making 2.0". Liu Yu told the 21st century economic reporter that new forces such as Weilai are worth learning from arcfox in brand building and user experience.

For arcfox, BAIC's endorsement is an advantage, but it is also a disadvantage of its brand building. Compared with new brands such as Weilai, which have no foundation at all, BAIC's inherent brand image may make consumers in the high-end market worry when choosing. Therefore, arcfox chose to cooperate with Magna in manufacturing instead of relying on BAIC's original manufacturing system, and cooperated with Huawei to emphasize the advantages of intelligence.

Compared with the new forces of car making, arcfox is strongly supported by BAIC group, and the pressure on capital is much less. However, it does not frequently hold a grand conference with nearly 100 million yuan to attract public attention like Weilai.

Just like the arcfox day on October 24, the new car launch of arcfox is not different from that of traditional car companies, but arcfox also organizes a series of activities to attract ordinary consumers. To a certain extent, such a play is too conservative, but also in line with BAIC new energy as a state-owned enterprise.

Of course, the key to the success of arcfox lies in the market and word-of-mouth. After the new car comes into the market, the establishment of marketing system and the trend of product sales will determine what position arcfox can achieve.

Three tests

At this moment, for BAIC new energy in the trough, the arrival of arcfox is more like a new life. It is worth affirming that BAIC new energy has played a positive role in promoting the cultivation of the market in the initial stage of China's new energy automobile industry.

However, with the introduction of new energy products such as weipeng and weipeng, they are more competitive. According to the production and sales data released by BAIC bluevale, in the first nine months of this year, the sales volume of BAIC new energy was only 21000, a decrease of 78.57% year-on-year.

The industry is concerned about how BAIC new energy should go out under the development trend of new energy vehicle market, and whether it will change from "pioneer" to "martyr".

Yu Liguo said that the new energy vehicle market has shown two obvious trends this year. One is the development of high-end new energy vehicles represented by Tesla and Weilai, and the other is the national car market where Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is located.

To a certain extent, Tesla, Weilai and other brands have attracted a number of users in the high-end electric vehicle market, making this market one of the important options for consumers. Although Liu Yu stressed that arcfox, Weilai and Tesla are not competitors, their competitors are fuel vehicles. However, arcfox does have direct competition with Tesla and Weilai in terms of product price, positioning and many other aspects. Whether arcfox can win the cake from it is full of challenges.

Yu Liguo believes that arcfox will face three tests: first, how to make the brand volume and user interaction; second, in terms of software, it is necessary to test consumer feedback through OTA; third, service system.

We can clearly feel that arcfox knows where its weaknesses are compared with the new forces of Internet car making. However, to make up for these shortcomings, we need not only a lot of money, but also more bold innovation, rather than simply following. For a traditional state-owned automobile enterprise, it is not easy to get rid of the burden and make innovation different from the past.

Anyway, the sword is out of its sheath. With the listing of the first car arcfox α T, BAIC group has started again towards the high-end intelligent new energy vehicle market. Whether BAIC can usher in new development opportunities depends on time and market.