After a year, I set foot on the land of Chengdu again. After taking a deep breath, I found that it was still the same familiar smell. After half a day of searching for memories of the past, I suddenly felt that I still love this city. deep. What remains unchanged is that the shops in Taikoo Li are still crowded with people, the food street at the north gate of Sichuan University is still full of fireworks, and the tavern at the end of Yulin Road has not changed, just standing there quietly.
Everything seemed so peaceful and beautiful, just like what was sung in the song "Chengdu", "In that rainy little town, I never forgot you. The only thing Chengdu can't take away is You. "Indeed, here I not only gained friendship and deepened my love, but more importantly, I also learned to cherish everything I have and continue to work hard for future goals. So under the overflowing emotions, I am extremely grateful for it.
After that, he got back to business. After graduation, he has become an automotive media editor. The main purpose of this trip is actually to participate in the 2020 Chengdu International Auto Show. It is undeniable that the "black swan" transit caused by the epidemic has shrouded the entire world in an atmosphere of darkness and sadness. Although the country has benefited from the effective fight against the epidemic and all walks of life are continuing to recover, the heavy losses suffered by certain segments will be difficult to heal in a short period of time, and the automobile market is one of them.
So as the first large-scale event after the epidemic dissipates, the 2020 Chengdu International Auto Show shoulders the role of boosting the confidence of the market and OEMs. During a visit to the auto show the day before the opening of the auto show, it can be seen that the participating brands have brought almost all their "family assets" to the stage in an attempt to sweep away the decline in the first half of the year. Among them, especially the new forces that are still at the forefront of building cars, bringing brand-new products, they are also telling the outside world that "some people continue to move up, and some people fall into the abyss." It is not only the second half of the sentence that is coming true.
After visiting the museum, I was sitting in an online car-hailing car back to the city. While chatting with the driver, I found that the people of Chengdu are much more accepting of electric vehicles than imagined. The laying rate of charging infrastructure is much lower than that of Shanghai. Super first-tier cities such as Beijing and Beijing are not inferior. Looking out the car window again, Tesla, Xpeng, Weilai, Ideal and even Xinte, the new power models passing by from time to time seem to give people an illusion that the "Bath-friendly" Chengdu has become a city to which they are quite accustomed. gathering place.
Therefore, only by going to the field to find out the truth can we verify whether the above conclusion is right or wrong.
The happy NIO house
The first stop is the NIO house located on Tianfu Avenue. There is no surprise. From the perspective of scale and external design, the first impression the former brings to consumers is that this new start-up has an momentum and style that is not inferior to luxury brands such as BBA. When you step into the store, the NIO fellow who comes to you will use a calm tone to make you feel a kind and thoughtful service. What’s even more rare and valuable is that this experience is maintained at a high level in any NIO store.
After expressing his intention to come, the fellow who received me chose to patiently introduce NIO’s situation in Chengdu, “Currently we have one NIO house and three NIO spaces in this city, and a battery swap station. There are four cars in the urban area, and they all have 5 batteries, ensuring that there is a reserve of 20 yuan for car owners to use at all times. "It must be admitted that in April, the country officially included the battery swap model into the new energy promotion method. Finally, it can be said that it gave Weilai a free "soft advertisement".
In just a short while, users who came to view the car learned that a big factor that prompted them to choose ES6 or ES8 was the free lifetime battery replacement policy for the first owner. At noon on July 23, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that it would vigorously promote the construction of battery swap infrastructure and encourage companies to develop battery swap model models. As soon as this news came out, it once again proved the correctness of Weilai's bet on the "power swap model" five years ago.
At the same time, NIO will also bring its third mass-produced model, the EC6, to this auto show. From store fellows, we learned that the potential car owners of this model are younger. In addition to the coupe-SUV styling, the details of EC6 have also been improved compared to ES6. Therefore, when the price is officially announced and pre-sale begins, the terminal performance will be exciting enough.
Regardless of how much additional sales EC6 can achieve in the future, it is reported that the delivery volume of new cars in one city in Chengdu last month reached about 140. Although it is not as eye-catching as Beijing and Shanghai, it is enough to prove the city's acceptance and recognition of NIO. In addition, I would like to share a small detail that I witnessed. A female Weilai car owner who just mentioned the new ES8 still can’t use the rear window wiper after driving for a week. But her fellow immediately wiped the rear window after she arrived at the store. Go to the vehicle and teach her how to use it. Sometimes we always say, "Details determine success or failure." So the reason for Weilai's success must be deeply related to its consistent high service quality.
However, it must be admitted that as the number of Weilai car owners grows, how to ensure that the service quality for new car owners will not decline without over-expanding the service team has become a thorny issue. Negative gross profit margins and net losses still exist, and both cannot be avoided.
At the end of leaving the store, I suddenly looked up and saw that Li Bin and Qin Lihong suddenly appeared and walked into the store. They nodded to all the clerks and car owners, including me.
After asking, I learned that a Chengdu car owner meeting will be held here. “User first” may already be engraved in the bones of NIO people.
Xiaopeng seeking change
The second stop was to the Xiaopeng store located in Raffles City, Wuhou District. Compared with NIOhouse, which has a more luxurious exterior design, Xiaopeng store is more "simple". At first glance, apart from the huge logo that attracts people’s attention, there aren’t many highlights. Perhaps due to epidemic prevention and control, this store located on the first floor of the mall has only opened its internal entrance.
After entering, I found that there were already two groups of young users looking at cars. The salesperson immediately came to inquire about my needs after seeing me. After learning that there was a potential willingness to buy a car, he began to introduce me. Xpeng P7 related products have just been delivered. To be fair, the P7, as Xpeng’s second mass-produced model, has been significantly improved compared to the G3 in terms of battery life, driving quality, and appearance design, and the former also carries the important responsibility of the Xpeng brand.
Therefore, since we have peeked into the "cake" of the mid-to-high-end pure electric market, for Xiaopeng, in addition to products, we also need to keep up with the marketing level. But the current situation is that in just a few minutes, front-line marketers, in addition to introducing the advantages of the P7, spent the rest of the time introducing the disadvantages of the competing model Tesla's domestic Model 3. Even wherever you look, there are posters comparing some of the configurations and product capabilities of the two.
Here, I am not saying that such marketing methods are undesirable. I just think that it may be effective for "newbies", but for those users who already know a little about the market and understand the overall pattern, "belittle others and elevate others". "Myself" seems a little inferior or even clumsy.
However, we can be sure that starting from the P7, we have indeed seen Xiaopeng’s determination to "seek change", and at the national delivery ceremony of the model a few days ago, every detail can also reflect this. Brands are eager to advance to high-end. On July 20, 2020, Beijing time, it officially announced that it had officially completed the C+ round of financing of nearly US$500 million. Under the favorable circumstances, Xpeng Motors may move up faster after improving some of its shortcomings.
An alternative ideal
The third stop is the ideal display store located in the Taikoo Li business district in the center of Chengdu. In fact, before going there, I had always had questions in my mind: Why did all the leading new forces choose to participate in this auto show, but this brand was the only one absent? After entering the store, I raised this question directly to the salesperson who received me.
“As a product-first car company, Ideal doesn’t actually care about the amount of exposure it can provide at auto shows, but it is about doing every detail of the model to ensure delivery.” To be honest, listen to This answer always seems to have two meanings. First, indeed the Ideal ONE, as the brand's first mid- to large-range extended-range SUV, has achieved good terminal results since its delivery in December last year, so it does not need to be promoted through auto shows again.
Secondly, it reflects that since the launch of the Ideal ONE, according to its CEO Li Xiang, the product strength of this model will only be improved through continuous OTA upgrades in the next three years, and new launches will be put behind it. I wonder if this means that Ideal, which has only one car, the Ideal ONE, will hardly participate in auto shows in the next three years.
As for this offline store whose decoration style is close to that of Taikoo Li and opened in the "downtown area", it must be admitted that it has indeed won enough attention for the brand. During the conversation with sales, I learned that if you want to test drive the Ideal ONE in Chengdu, you need to make an appointment in advance and queue up. Last month, the entire store delivered 150 new cars.
It can also be learned from the posters posted on the wall that Ideal ONE has obtained retail sales data of 9,666 units from January to June, becoming the first choice in China’s new energy medium and large SUV market (including hybrid, plug-in Hybrid, pure electric, extended-range electric) leader.
However, what cannot be ignored is that the ideal of intersecting NIO and Xpeng to expand the range always seems so alternative. There will be no new product launches in the future, and it will be difficult to continue to seize the market with only one model of Ideal ONE. Against the background of the increasing number of competing models, it will be difficult. In addition, the constraints brought about by the lack of offline marketing channels can be seen from the month-on-month decline in terminal delivery results in June. At the end of this month, the brand will officially launch its IPO on the U.S. stock market, becoming the second new car manufacturer to successfully go public since Weilai. However, the prospects are still unknown.
The Explosion of Tesla
Lu Xun once said, “If you don’t explode in silence, you will perish in silence.” At this moment, the first half of the sentence is applied to Tesla, a new American company. In terms of power, it seems quite appropriate. On the way to explore the museum, when several nearby car companies’ booths heard the noise of rehearsals from time to time, their booths only quietly displayed three “old cars”: Model S, Model X, and Model 3. Lots of decorations, a "nothing to do with yourself" attitude.
In sharp contrast, the Tesla store, located only 200 meters opposite the Taikoo Li Lideal Auto Experience Store, is already overcrowded at the moment, with an endless stream of potential users coming to see the car. After entering the store and talking to the salesperson, I learned that "Tesla's domestic Model 3 is currently selling very hotly in the Chengdu area. Although the specific delivery figures cannot be disclosed, if you place an order immediately, the waiting time for picking up the car will be about two months."
“And it is not recommended to choose it at present, because it will also lengthen the pick-up period.
At the same time, since the subsidy threshold of 300,000 yuan was officially implemented on July 23, Tesla’s domestic Model 3 is recommended to only choose either wheels or special paint, because the new energy subsidy of more than 20,000 yuan will be selected for both. Can't enjoy it. "After listening to the introduction, there is always a feeling that NIO has opened the "door" to users and the market through services, and Tesla is like Apple's mobile phone, winning people's hearts with the ultimate technological experience.
Just like store users, most of them are young people aged 20-30. They are highly receptive to new things and front-end functional experiences. At the same time, the lack of details in the vehicle itself can often be ignored. Regardless, this also explains why Tesla can achieve outstanding sales results despite such "rough" details.
Just earlier, its Q2 financial report was officially released. It shows that revenue in the last quarter was US$6.04 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5%; net profit was US$104 million, compared with a net loss of US$408 million in the same period last year, achieving a turnaround. This is Tesla's fourth consecutive quarter of profitability. .
As the global automobile market continues to decline, it is not easy to achieve such results. Looking at the Chinese market, Tesla, which broke out in silence, has quietly crushed all of China with its strong terminal performance. New power car companies. However, despite their reputation, their crises are slowly emerging.
In short, after visiting several leading new power companies in a short period of time, we can find that they are in Chengdu. , the situation is relatively optimistic, but in the context of the transition from the "subsidy era" to the "market era", "crisis" and "opportunity" often coexist. For these temporary leaders, they will still fall behind if they are not careful.
文/Cui Liwen
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This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.