Indeed, in this era of increasingly fierce competition and extremely serious involution, it is not easy to succeed by hard work without background and resources. With so much money, will you be born?
Not really. Take the new energy vehicle market in recent years as an example. Wei Xiaoli, who was born in a "poor family", gained a firm foothold on the express train of new energy in just a few years. On the contrary, many car companies with excellent resources, capital and background have stumbled in the new energy vehicle market, such as Zhiji Automobile, which we are going to talk about today.
Born into a rich family, even sales should be injected?
From June 5438 to February 2020, the registered capital reached10 billion yuan, and the confidant car jointly built by SAIC, Ali Group and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech was formally established. Looking at the entire domestic new energy vehicle market, there are really few car companies that can surpass smart cars by relying on so many "giants".
Although there are so many well-known manufacturers endorsing Zhizao, after the official opening of the vehicle delivery, the transcripts handed over by Zhizao Automobile are not so bright. Specifically, the first model of Smart Car, Smart Machine L7, has been delivered since the middle of 2022, with a cumulative sales volume of less than 6,000 vehicles, and the monthly sales volume at the peak is only 1000 vehicles.
If the smart machine L7, as a stepping stone, mainly promotes the brand rather than the sales volume, then the sales volume of the second model of smart machine LS7 will be very embarrassing. According to the official announcement of Zhizao Automobile, within one hour after opening the blind booking pre-sale on February 20, 2022, Zhizao LS7 harvested more than 3,000 blind booking orders. As of February 2023, 65,438+0, the cumulative order volume of this brand-new model with a starting price of 309,800 yuan has exceeded 65,438+00000.
It stands to reason that such a blind order volume, combined with the capacity of 45JPH (about 45 units/hour) of SAIC Lingang Factory previously disclosed by Zhizhuang Automobile, should start the "crazy delivery" mode in February 2023, and the sales volume should also skyrocket. According to statistics, the cumulative sales volume of Zhiji LS7 in February 2023 was only 65,438+0,009 vehicles, which was the same as the previously published data.
In fact, the sales of the smart machine LS7 have been stranded for a long time. As early as when Smart Car announced that the number of LS7 blind orders exceeded 1 10,000, a large number of users transferred LS7 orders on a second-hand trading platform, and the number of users selling Smart Car LS7 blind orders was increasing.
According to the actual understanding, among the users who sell blind orders, there are even many sellers holding multiple orders, and some people who claim to be employees who know the machine. Such a situation inevitably makes people wonder how much water has been injected into the so-called blind subscription of Zhiji LS7? With the background of SAIC, Ali and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech, the "son of a giant" will also use this means to cover up his unfavorable start?
Sit back and relax, CEO will only talk nonsense?
In today's era, whether a brand's products can achieve good sales is only part of the influencing factors. Product marketing and brand impression also play a very important role. However, at this level, the performance of Smart Car is also worrying.
Tamia Liu, who joined SAIC from 1997, once served as product manager, product planning director of passenger car branch, Roewe market operation director and deputy general manager of quality and economic operation department, and was appointed as co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile in 2022. As the CEO of the brand, Tamia Liu often shares the online and offline details of the confidant car on personal social platforms.
However, it is such a knowledgeable brand CEO with more than 20 years of experience in the automotive industry. However, at the end of 2022, in order to bring the so-called "immersive super-running experience" to netizens, he conducted a vehicle test on public transport roads and was suspected of dangerous driving.
According to the video at that time, Tamia Liu drove a Zhiji L7 and directly parked the vehicle in the emergency lane of a public road to shoot and explain the vehicle. In the case that there were still many vehicles speeding by on the main road, Tamia Liu directly cut the floor oil from the emergency lane into the main road without turning on the turn signal, and at the same time directly pressed the solid line below the probe to change lanes. According to the reference in the video, Tamia Liu's top speed when driving this car to test the acceleration performance reached at least 160km/h, far exceeding the speed limit of 120km/h on the expressway.
In short, in just a few minutes, Tamia Liu violated the rules no less than five times in order to publicize the performance of brand products. Ironically, the video is also marked with the words "This video was shot in an environment that ensures road safety".
When Tamia Liu himself had a major accident in Tesla, he often made some "just" remarks on the Internet. Now, it seems that he is quite a little slap in the face.
In addition to this outrageous "immersive experience", Tamia Liu's speeches in public places and some media exchange meetings also ruined many "road popularity". For example, in September, 2022, at the media communication meeting of Zhizao L7, Tamia Liu publicly said: In fact, I think the users who spend 400,000 yuan on fuel vehicles are very helpless, or miserable. This remark is basically the same as Li Bin's quip that "the tanker can smell gasoline, but nothing else is useful", which is tantamount to directly and openly causing opposition between the tanker and the new energy vehicle.
When talking about friends, Tamia Liu's performance did not disappoint everyone. When asked by the media, he publicly stated that the ideal L9 drivers, like the old GL8 and Zhiji L7, are better than Weilai ET7 in terms of products. I believe everyone in front of the screen has a good understanding of the products, so I won't compare them here. The obvious fact is that the ideal L9, which was trampled on by Tamia Liu, has achieved great success in the market, and its sales volume far exceeds the sum of the smart machine brands. Let's talk about this behavior itself. Do you think it is reasonable for a CEO of a car brand from a big factory to openly step on one hand and hold it in the other, belittle others and raise himself?
Perhaps it is because of the background of giants and manufacturers, or perhaps it is because he has been in a high position for a long time and has no worries. Tamia Liu's personal abilities in public places and social platforms in recent years will only make people feel that he is like a spoiled "young master" who only takes everything for granted and doesn't even consider the most direct influence. With such "guards" leading troops to fight, the road ahead of smart cars is naturally confused.
Fighting behind closed doors, chaos will only add fuel to the fire?
In everyone's opinion, SAIC has invested so much manpower and material resources in smart cars that it definitely attaches great importance to this brand, but it actually does. The confidant car is not the only seed of SAIC's new energy strategy. In addition to confidant cars, SAIC has another independent brand of new energy vehicles-Fan Fei Auto.
Many friends may think that although Zhiji Automobile and Fan Fei Automobile are both high-end new energy automobile brands, their product positioning is different, which does not constitute a direct conflict. But the fact is that two new energy brands from the same source overlap in product pricing, and at the same time, as brands that also need SAIC blood transfusion, there are more or less disputes between Chi Machine and Fan Fei.
The wave of new energy vehicles has swept for many years. Since 2023, the stimulus at the consumption level is far less turbulent than in previous years. At this point, SAIC Group is eager to gain a foothold in the high-end new energy market and launch two new energy brands with high similarity. It's hard to gain popularity, let alone gain a foothold. As far as the current situation is concerned, the sales volume of smart cars has not improved, and the sales volume of Fan Fei R7, a subsidiary of Fan Fei Automobile, was only 200 in February. After spending a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources, SAIC's left and right protectors are dragging their feet and the brand's stamina is worrying.
At the end of 2022, it was revealed that the general manager of Fan Fei Automobile will be the general manager of SAIC passenger cars on the basis of retaining his original position. In this case, Smart Machine, which has two co-CEOs at the same time, seems to have lost directly to Fan Fei Automobile to a great extent. I wonder what impact this situation will have on the follow-up relationship between the two brands.
Write it at the end
Due to the increasing saturation of market demand and the gradual decline of people's willingness to consume, the heat of the entire automobile market in 2023 decreased significantly compared with previous years. At present, China automobile market has entered the era of stock competition. In this context, consumers will only become more rational when buying a car, and impulsive consumption will only become less and less. It can be seen that it is difficult for emerging automobile brands to make a breakthrough without their previous reputation.
However, under the condition of relying on the "Big Three" and enjoying unique resources, the smart car from a rich family chose to rest on its laurels. "When the CEO opened his mouth, the sales volume was still overwhelming, and the employees of the whole enterprise broke their legs." Perhaps this kind of Zhiji car should be regarded as the villain of the rich family?
This article is from Che Yi 1 Che Meng, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author in any form. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.