The whole line fell sharply, and the sales volume fell continuously 15 months.
As the saying goes, "The higher you fly, the worse you fall." It is more appropriate to use this sentence to describe today's Jeep brand. According to the sales data released by GAC Fick Group, in 20 16 years, GAC Fick achieved a high sales volume of nearly 1800 vehicles, with an increase of 260%; In 20 17, the annual sales of GAC Fick reached 222,300 vehicles, up 23.6% year-on-year. However, this good momentum was reversed on 20 18.
In 20 18, the sales volume of GAC Fick dropped sharply, and the annual cumulative sales volume was less than130,000 vehicles, down 38.99% year-on-year. By March of 20 19+ 1 year, the cumulative sales volume was only 2 1 1,706 vehicles, down 4 1.32% year-on-year. This also means that as of March 20 19, the sales volume of GAC Fick has been declining continuously for 15 months.
Faced with the irresistible downward trend, this directly led to the resignation of Jie Zheng, the former president of GAC Fick Sales Company and the chief operating officer of Fick Group in China, who led the rapid development of Jeep brand twice. On April 29th, according to the official announcement of Fiat Chrysler Automobile Company (FCA), Jie Zheng, who has worked in Fick Group for more than ten years, has confirmed his resignation, and his position has been taken over by Max Te Lantini.
With high positioning, it is difficult to gain market recognition.
Consumers who know the Jeep brand know that the brand positioning in the American market, where it originated, is just like Toyota and Volkswagen. However, since entering the domestic market, Jeep has always intentionally or unintentionally raised its positioning and moved closer to luxury brands. Even after localization, the price of each Jeep model is higher than that of German and Japanese rivals at the same level.
But consumers have their own steelyard in their hearts, and officials don't believe anything. Moreover, after comparison at the same level, it is found that Jeep's products are not necessarily competitive, but there is a gap with competitors in terms of workmanship, space and fuel consumption.
The most typical example is Freeman, the interior is rough, the rear space of a small SUV, and the powertrain that I can't understand. Even so many models whose features are not easily accepted by ordinary consumers dare to price higher than their peers. This self-confidence comes from faith.
At first, faith can indeed bring considerable sales performance to Freeman, but after consuming these "believers", rational consumers don't buy it, and Freeman naturally loses the selling point of making a living.
Frequent failures make it difficult to guarantee the quality of products.
Looking at all JEEP domestic models, none of them are worry-free, either encountering "three major" failures or constantly having minor problems. Cousin still takes Freeman as an example. The main model 1.4T engine always encounters the problems of high temperature failure, abnormal jitter and insufficient power. The 7-speed dry power shift is even worse, with constant oil leakage, frustration, gear jump, abnormal noise, inability to shift gears, and inability to shift gears. Engine oil leakage for two or three years is rare in mainstream independent brands at present, but Freeman often happens.
Except for big pieces, other parts of Freeman's body don't seem to be able to jump out of the "quality curse", such as oil leakage from the transmission shaft, and a large area can't catch fire in winter. You know, Freeman has only been on the market for two or three years, which is not the state that a car should have in two or three years.
Jeep's domestic sales pillar, Free Light, has not been spared. In 20 18, the complaints of Free Light directly lowered its terminal sales and pushed away consumers who wanted to buy because of their feelings. Since 20 18, free light has been frequently exposed to quality problems, especially the problem of burning engine oil. It consumes 0.84 liter of engine oil per 1000 km, which is twice the manufacturer's engine oil consumption standard. This quality problem was even exposed by CCTV 3 15 on 20 18.
After-sales maintenance is expensive.
Finally, Jeep's embarrassing brand positioning caused a decline in sales. As we all know, Jeep herdsman is a benchmark in cross-country industry, but almost all domestic Jeep models are "brand new species", and some models are "specially supplied by China".
In this case, consumers and the second-hand market have no reference to judge. Naturally, there will be a vicious circle in which the price of new cars falls rapidly and the second-hand market is unstable. Coupled with frequent product quality problems and frequent failures, Jeep is naturally more and more unpleasant.
In addition, the high after-sales cost is also one of the chief culprits for the decline in Jeep sales. The maintenance cost of small SUV Freeman far exceeds that of Honda Binzhi and other joint venture small SUVs. The big commander is also much more expensive than Toyota Highlander. When countless car owners complain online, interested car owners naturally dare not take risks after learning about it. Moreover, an embarrassing brand like this can't be lower, and it costs about the same price as a luxury brand but gets a more exciting experience than a mainstream joint venture brand. Who wants to?
Final summary:
As Malchow, former CEO of Fiat Chrysler, said, FCA made strategic mistakes in China, especially Jeep. No, their products are not too hard and blindly self-confident pricing, which is now eroding consumers' confidence and interest in Jeep. Under the leadership of the new owner, it is still unknown whether the Jeep brand can meet the Jedi counterattack in China.