Subversion and Outlet: the Future of "Smart Power" in Beijing Auto Show

At this year's Beijing Auto Show, intelligence and electrification are still the focus.

Wen San Zuo Mao Xuan

On September 26th, 2020 Auto China officially opened. As the only A-class auto show in the world in 2020, the Beijing Auto Show postponed to "Golden September and Silver 10" was successfully held, which injected a shot in the arm for the recovery of China auto market and provided a hard-won display window for auto companies.

Although nearly 100 car brands participated in the Beijing Auto Show, many car companies were absent. It includes not only Dongfeng Renault, which withdrew in the first half of the year, but also a number of third-line independent brands such as Lifan, Zotye, Haima, Hanteng, Landwind, Baowo, FAW Li Xia, BAIC India, Brilliance China, and a number of new car-making forces such as Baiteng, Singularity, Bojun, Future and Ideal.

In recent years, great changes have taken place in China automobile market. In the process of changing from high growth to downward adjustment, it has shown obvious characteristics of survival of the fittest. Gone are the days of surviving on market growth dividends. This year's epidemic has further intensified the reshuffle of the industry, and it is difficult for these marginal car companies to find opportunities to turn over.

Of course, first-tier car companies and second-tier car companies are also in completely different market environments. Judging from the market situation this year, the first-line car companies are less affected by the epidemic and the market recovers quickly. Luxury car companies represented by Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW have sold more cars in the first eight months than in the same period of last year, while the market share of Korean and French cars continues to decline.

Auto show is the industry vane. At this year's Beijing Auto Show, intelligentization and electrification are the focus of the audience. The industry changes brought by the two may bring a new round of market structure adjustment. Weilai and Tesla have become the highlights of the high-end market.

Industry reshuffle will continue. The continuous progress of intelligent and electrified technology may make some second-tier car companies seize the opportunity to break through, or it may widen the gap and accelerate their death.

Intensified differentiation

According to the data of the Federation, in the first eight months of this year, the cumulative sales volume of the domestic luxury car market was about 6.5438+0.53 million, an increase of 8% year-on-year, making it the only market in the three major market segments that maintained positive growth. Joint venture brands and independent brands decreased by 14% and 24% respectively.

China's own brands have suffered the most in the reshuffle of the auto market, which has also caused a number of marginal self-existence crises. However, within independent brands, the head independent market represented by Great Wall, Geely and Chang 'an is obviously superior to other brands.

"Luxury brands, joint venture brands and independent brands are obviously polarized among all brands. The first-line brands are very good, and the second-line brands are not very good. " On September 26, Li Feng, vice president of Hyundai Motor Group (China) and general manager of Dongfeng Da Yue Kia, said in an interview with think tank Jun.

Specifically, in the luxury car market, BBA occupies the absolute main force, and the performance of second-tier luxury cars such as Lexus and Volvo is also remarkable. However, Dongfeng Ying finidi and Guangzhou Automobile Acura, whose sales volume continues to decline, are facing severe market tests.

According to new car insurance data, in August this year, the sales of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi in China market reached 77,000, 74,000 and 69,000 respectively, up by 465,438+0.8%, 23.3% and 24.5% respectively, and the recovery momentum was relatively strong.

At the Beijing Auto Show, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi all re-emphasized the importance of China auto market. Although the heads of the three car companies failed to come to Beijing, they all expressed their attitude of continuously increasing investment in China through video.

"The BMW Group has a long-term and firm commitment to China, and we will continue to expand our investment in China. China will play a vital role in the transformation of personal travel. " Qi Puce, chairman of BMW Group, said.

BMW is fully committed to the new energy vehicle market in China. Is BMW a brand-new pure electric BMW? IX3, produced in China and sold worldwide. Audi is also accelerating its electrification strategy in China. The domestic Audi e-tron was imported last year and will be made in China this year. The domestic version of the Audi e-tron will also be exhibited at the Beijing Auto Show.

At this year's Beijing Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz brought a new generation of long-wheelbase E-Class cars. The biggest highlight of the new generation of E-class cars is that Mercedes-Benz is equipped with many new technologies such as intelligent configuration and assisted driving.

In the mainstream joint venture brand market segment, electrification and intelligence are also the focus of communication between Volkswagen and Toyota at this auto show.

Although Volkswagen's first electric vehicle, I.D4, based on the new MEB platform, was absent from the Beijing Auto Show, Feng, CEO of Volkswagen China, introduced the car at the auto show and revealed that Volkswagen ID.4 will be officially released in Shenzhen on June 54381October 22.

At the Toyota booth, Toyota exhibited the "e-Palette" real car and the first mass-produced pure electric vehicle C-HR of Toyota brand. EV/ yize? E-engine and new FCEV“MIRAI? Concept "and other electrified vehicles show Toyota's overall layout on various electrified technical routes.

In fact, in order to promote the development of China's "new four modernizations", Toyota actively cooperates with different enterprises in China. In the last year, Toyota cooperated with Baidu, Pony.ai and MOMENTA in the field of autonomous driving, and cooperated with Didi in the field of * * * *. In the field of electrification, we have cooperated with Yihuatong, Beiqi Futian, Reshaping, Jinlong, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. and BYD.

It can be seen that both the head enterprises in the luxury market and the mainstream joint venture market have increased their investment in the field of domestic intelligence and electrification, hoping to consolidate their market position. Compared with other car companies, their series of actions are more radical.

Why does head autonomy subvert itself?

At this year's Beijing Auto Show, Geely Automobile and Great Wall Motor are undoubtedly the two most concerned car companies. They are the champion and runner-up in the sales of independent automobile brands in China. Although it was hit to varying degrees in the first half of this year, it is generally better than other independent brands. However, at this auto show, both companies showed subversive changes, bringing brand-new technology brands and brand-new development ideas respectively.

In July this year, Great Wall Motor released the 30th anniversary feature film "Can Great Wall Motor survive next year? For self-reflection. At the same time, it released three major technology brands, namely lemon, tank and coffee, as well as a brand-new product system including personalized named models such as Big Dog and Tank 300, hoping to make the whole enterprise look brand-new and realize the transformation of Great Wall Motor from a traditional enterprise to a global technology travel company. Subsequently, Great Wall Motor also made a series of organizational restructuring.

"Starting from the basic layer of corporate organizational culture, which is the lifeblood of the enterprise, only by rebuilding the basic layer can Great Wall Motor become a more efficient, open and attractive platform-based organization." On September 26th, Meng, the rotating president of Great Wall Motor, said in an interview with think tank Jun.

According to the new organizational structure adjustment, Great Wall Motor hopes to realize two connections. First, brands, operating enterprises and R&D should be opened. In the stage of commodity planning, we should pay attention to competition, market and customers, provide information input for commodity planning with the participation of marketing and brand companies, and open up and connect the path from commodity planning to product development. The second is the opening of combat units. Through the process and digital transformation, strengthen the management of brand companies, so that all combat units of brand companies can reach users, and professional departments and functional departments provide resource support.

Meng told think tank Jun that Great Wall Motor has set up an enterprise digital center and a product digital center to empower products and markets. In addition, Great Wall Motor will speed up the mechanism innovation, and make constant changes in organizational governance, performance management, post compensation, and employing and educating people.

On the eve of the opening of the 2020 Beijing Auto Show, on September 23rd, Geely released a brand-new architecture-SEA "Vast". According to official data, the vast architecture is a pure electric architecture with intelligent evolution experience, and it is the "ultimate weapon" built by Geely in four years with an investment of 65.438+08 billion yuan.

The broad architecture carries the future ambition of Geely Automobile in the field of pure electric smart cars. A complete and even radical plan has been made on the hardware level, and the traditional hardware-based design system of automobile architecture has also been got rid of.

An Conghui, president of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Geely Automobile Group, told think tank Jun that vehicles based on vast architecture will realize fully automatic driving on open roads in 2025.

An Conghui said that although the huge structure has a large investment, it conforms to the trend. On the one hand, it is the trend of electrification, intelligence and networking in the automobile industry, and on the other hand, it is the adjustment trend of the automobile industry under the stock market. In the process of shuffling the whole industry, Geely will build a "fortress" for itself to settle down.

In the field of intelligence and electrification, Great Wall Motor and Geely Automobile have spent a lot of money, hoping to build their own strength in the future competition.

In the eyes of the industry, in the process of the development of the whole automobile to the new four modernizations, if the investment in related fields is not increased, the products may not keep up with the needs of the times. If the product gap is too big, I am afraid it is difficult to survive in the stock market.

Where is the outlet for the second-line joint venture?

The downward pressure of first-line car companies and the upward breakthrough of their heads have made the situation of second-line joint ventures even more embarrassing. In fact, in the past few years, joint venture car companies such as Shenlong Automobile, Changan Ford, and Beijing Hyundai have all faced challenges to varying degrees in China, bearing heavy burdens.

"Dongfeng Da Yue Kia is really in a difficult period now. Consumption upgrading and brand polarization are very difficult issues for brands. " Li Feng told think tank Jun.

In the more brutal market competition, how can second-tier joint ventures achieve market breakthrough? It can be seen that since last year, some joint venture car companies that have encountered development difficulties in the China market have obviously strengthened the communication between Chinese and foreign joint venture partners, and some second-tier brands have also put forward new development ideas. This year, they have also significantly accelerated the layout of electrification and intelligence.

At the same time, Changan Ford, Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Da Yue Kia all put forward plans for brand rejuvenation or brand value reconstruction at this auto show.

"Beijing Auto Show Ford brand four keywords: Ford's world's first pioneer pure electric SUV Mustang? Mach-E, pioneer innovation,' more Ford, more China' and intelligent high-end electrification are the core changes and achievements of Ford brand rejuvenation and business transformation. " On September 26th, Chen Anning, Vice President of Ford Motor Company Group and President and CEO of Ford Motor (China) Co., Ltd., accepted the statement of think tank Jun.

He told think tank Jun that Ford is accelerating the innovation of related businesses around the "new four modernizations" and is working with relevant partners to promote electrification, digitalization and intelligent business planning.

Beijing Hyundai and Dongfeng Da Yue Kia hope to rebuild their brands in China and return to the right track in the process of promoting the strategy of intelligence and electrification.

"Beijing Hyundai is entering a new stage of development, changing from' modern speed' to' modern technology', paying more attention to the shaping of the whole brand, technological breakthrough and sustainable high-quality growth." On September 26, Xiang Dongping, deputy general manager of Beijing Hyundai, said in an interview with think tank Jun.

It is understood that the tenth generation Sonata newly listed by Beijing Hyundai, the seventh generation Elantra pre-sold by Beijing Auto Show, and the fifth generation Tucson L to be listed next year were all born in the third generation technology platform i-GMP of Hyundai Motor. At the same time, it has impacted the latest automatic driving and intelligent related technologies of Beijing Hyundai. Beijing Hyundai hopes to gradually reshape the technology brand through new platforms, new technologies and new experiences.

In Li Feng's view, in today's market environment, the key behind brand building and brand building is differentiation. What Dongfeng Da Yue Kia needs to do now is to combine the original brand tonality of Kia brand to make the brand image clearer and more prominent.

"In addition to youth, the differentiation around youth also involves the degree, motivation and control of technology and intelligent networking, attracting young people with high technology or advanced innovation." Li Feng said.

The change of the automobile market structure in China has made some second-tier joint venture brands stand at the crossroads of life and death. Intelligence and electrification provide them with new market opportunities, but at the same time they also bring huge market challenges. Once we miss this opportunity, it will be difficult to make a breakthrough in the China market in the future.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.