After decades of development, China's independent car brands have become very mature, and many independent brand models do have excellent performance.
However, although there is support in words, in fact, many consumers will switch to the joint venture camp when they turn the idea of buying a car into practical action.
But what the professor wants to tell you today is that it is now 2022, and independent brands and joint venture brands have long been on an equal footing! In some market segments, independent brands are even better than joint venture brands!
To say that independent brands are better than joint venture brands, the first thing to mention is definitely a mini car.
As the lowest priced and most grounded type of model in the market, mini cars are also the earliest market segments that many independent brands have been involved in when they were founded.
BYD F0, Chery QQ and other models have become a generation of classics with their low prices, but when it comes to styling design and comprehensive product strength, these early independent brand mini cars are always more mature joint venture competitors.
But in the era of new energy, the situation has changed.
Preferential measures to promote the development of new energy vehicles have allowed many independent brands to participate in the mini car market again, and because the demand of consumers in the domestic market is no longer as simple as "being able to run" in the past, independent brands need to work harder to make new energy micro vehicles that are affordable, reliable in quality, fashionable and practical.
And the most successful works, of course, are indispensable to Wuling Hongguang MINIEV.
With a variety of styles, cheap prices and low cost of use, it is simply an excellent choice for urban transportation.
Nowadays, this humble car is the best-selling new energy vehicle in the domestic market, with monthly sales of 20,000 or 30,000 units, relying on unimaginable low prices and Wuling's popularity and good reputation as a domestic veteran car manufacturer.
If you want to be pragmatic, there is also the Changan Ben Ben E-Star, based on the mature model that has been working hard in the market for many years; although the design is not very imaginative, it can always provide five doors and more practical rear seats, which is better to use than the two-door Wuling Hongguang MINIEV.
Of course, you may say: when it comes to making mini cars, overseas car companies are more proficient!
Europe has a longer history of car development, and Japan also has k Car full of space design wisdom, rich variety and complete functions!
But have you ever thought that the fragrant overseas cars in the eyes of these fans are not grounded at all.
A Fiat 500e starts at 33,210 euros, which translates to more than 230,000 yuan.
A beggar version of the Honda N-BOX starts at 1,448,700 yen and costs 74,500 yuan.
But the pure electric mini-cars of independent brands are generally sold as long as 30,000 or 40,000! What a price that is affordable.
And don't complain that the mileage of these pure electric mini cars is short, after all, they are short-distance commuter cars with the city as the main use scenario, and there is not much need for long-distance travel.
And the product is constantly evolving, once only able to run 120-170km Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, now after the launch of a new upgrade of GAMGBOY version, the endurance increased to 200-300km, the practicality has increased greatly.
Changan Ben E-Star also has a 301-310km endurance performance, which can basically meet the needs of a week-long commute in the city.
Ultra-cost-effective and increasingly progressive product power have enabled independent brand mini-cars to "squeeze out" the joint venture brand out of this market segment, and even the boss of Daihatsu, one of Japan's largest K Car manufacturers, has said that he feels the pressure from Chinese products.
Small cars can also "close their eyes and buy their own brands".
This is also the result of the collective efforts of domestic independent brands in new energy small vehicles in recent years.
In the past, the small car market has actually been the world of joint venture brands, and classic joint venture models such as Honda Fit, Toyota YARiS L Zhixuan, and Volkswagen Polo occupy half of this market segment.
Due to the lack of investment in cars in the early days of independent brands, there is no good enough product; so even if the joint venture models are not replaced for a long time, the technology is gradually outdated, and consumers have no better and more mature choices than them.
However, as the demand for exquisite small cars among young people rises, the new energy era has given independent brands the opportunity to surpass joint ventures. With the rich technology and market experience gained in recent years, it is handy for independent brands to build new energy cars.
Great Wall Motor created a new Euler brand, first opening the market with the mini car Euler R1 (now the black cat), and impressed many young female consumers with its round and simple cute image.
Then successively expand the product line, replaced by a little tacky, but for the promotion of popularity but has an excellent effect on the "cat" series name, successfully in just two or three years into a well-known electric car brand.
In particular, the flagship model good cat, in the current small car market, there are not many models that can achieve such a good design of unisex.
In this daily scooter market where consumers have low expectations for space, Euler Good Cat can attract a group of young customers who pursue personalized fashion with only one face; and as an independent brand model, it is indeed more "trendy" than some joint venture rivals in terms of design.
AND BYD's dolphins are even better.
The mouse-like single-compartment shape is cute, and the new interior styling design is also different from any previous BYD model, giving people a different sense of fashion and refinement.
But the image is not the key, the real key is that it can give enough rich comfort and convenience and technology-assisted configuration in the price range of 10.28-130,800 to get rid of the image of the "rough house" for this level of small cars.
The technical advantages of BYD in the field of new energy can not be ignored, the market recognition of blade batteries is not blown out, and the longest cruising range of 405km is enough to meet the demand.
When it comes to new energy technology, TOD today is indeed in the first echelon of the world's new energy vehicle industry.
The joint venture small car that used to live a moist life, now the biggest advantage is only the fuel engine without endurance anxiety.
But for these small car users who rarely drive far, this does not seem to be an overwhelming advantage that can completely cover the excellent design and rich configuration of their own brand models.
So we saw the decline in sales of small cars under the joint venture brand, and saw byddie Dolphin reach the top of the sales rankings in this segment.
However, the most unexpected thing is that medium and large SUVs can also be preferred for their own brands.
After all, in this level, many models are flagship products of joint venture brands, such as Volkswagen's Tuon, ID.6 X, Ford Lingyu, Buick Encore Flag and so on.
You can even see joint venture luxury brand models like the Cadillac XT6 and Lincoln Aviator.
It is reasonable to say that consumers should choose joint venture products out of the importance of the brand, but the recent sales data shows that ideal ONE as a product launched by China's new car brand with more than 10,000 monthly sales of more than 10,000 joint venture products, topped the sales list of medium and large SUVs.
What is it that makes this nascent brand defeat a bunch of old fritters in the car world with only one model? The professor believes that the reason is actually very simple - "the right medicine".
The ideal ONE can be said to understand the most real car needs of domestic consumers.
When home users need to buy a new car, they will need a square car, which is more convenient for loading luggage.
They will also need a more practical three-row layout, after all, multi-person travel is a normal demand for such consumers to go out and relax in their leisure time.
In this segment of the market, where the price is certainly not too cheap, most of these consumers in the city also need a new energy power system that can get rid of the license restrictions, but they cannot bring about the problem of battery life anxiety due to the difficulty of charging.
As a young family in the new era, they need to be equipped with advanced and rich car entertainment functions on the car, one is to keep up with the trend of the times, and the other is that these intelligent configurations can indeed make the car more interesting.
The above points, the ideal ONE has all done, and done a relatively good job.
Although the ideal is a nascent Chinese car brand, but it understands consumers too well, the three advantages of large space, electric + no anxiety directly hit the pain point, which is the so-called "right medicine".
Therefore, even if the ideal ONE has imperfections such as low feeder fuel consumption, it still cannot stop thousands of consumers from spending more than 300,000 yuan to buy it every month.
The same goes for the upcoming flagship large SUV Ideal L9.
5.2 meters long, 3.1 meters wheelbase, three-row seat layout, extended-range electric system... It has all the advantages of attracting practical consumers as much as the ideal ONE.
On this basis, it also added a large roof rotating TV, a two-row small table board and a Xiaoice box that can be heated and cooled to the rear passengers, all of which are prepared to enhance the convenience of home use, and also aim at the higher requirements of Chinese families for three-row family cars after entering the three-child era.
Write at the end
Unlike foreign auto brands that need to comprehensively consider the preferences of consumers in different countries and regions, Chinese independent brands are more focused on serving Chinese consumers, and they can naturally focus more on meeting the needs of domestic consumers when creating products.
In the past, we always said that The German manufacturers who are good at lengthening the back row "understand Chinese consumers", but now it seems that the best understanding of Chinese consumers is always China's own car brand.
In the segments of the market such as mini cars, small cars, and medium and large SUVs, the products of China's own brands have achieved market surpassing of overseas joint venture brands; and with the passage of time, the days when Chinese cars have fully surpassed the joint ventures may not be far away.