July 2021, Porsche Experience Centre Shanghai. A brand launch was held as scheduled.
The protagonist of the stage is not a Porsche sports car, nor a handsome man or a beautiful woman, but a two-wheeled electric vehicle.
The brand called VFLY sounds strange, but the price definitely refreshes the perception of the audience.
The price of the newly released 5 two-wheeled electric vehicles ranges from 6999 yuan to 19800 yuan.
What the hell is VFLY that dares to sell for such a high price?
It all started 20 years ago.
VFLY
In 2001, Dong Jinggui, a 31-year-old motorcycle factory owner, and his wife, Qian Jinghong, made a decision to change their names.
Dong's car industry, which has been established for four years, was renamed Yadi Technology, and the name is more foreign, but the business is still motorcycle manufacturing.
Around 2004, "no motorcycles" and "limited motorcycles" measures were introduced throughout the country, and Yadi's motorcycle sales were greatly affected.
Dong Jinggui realized that he had to find another way out.
The Road Traffic Safety Law, promulgated in 2004, brings electric bicycles under the management of non-motor vehicles.
A two-wheeled electric vehicle that can be driven on the road without a driver's license has entered Dong Jinggui's line of sight.
Coupled with the breakthrough in key components such as batteries, motors, controllers and other technologies, Dong Jinggui decisively shut down the motorcycle production line and introduced automated production lines from Japan, and Yadi transformed into the electric vehicle industry.
The transformation turned in time, Dong Jinggui stood at the mouth of the industry, and in just a few years, Yadi's annual production and sales have exceeded 700,000 vehicles.
Yadi boss Dong Jinggui
At that time, Yadi's production base was in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, which could radiate east China. The basic bicycle industry in northern China is in Tianjin.
Dong Jinggui is not satisfied with a corner of the security, but also sees the inevitable trend of bicycle upgrading in the north.
Yadi went north to establish a base in Tianjin. At the same time, in line with the difference in north-south consumption, electric two-wheelers are divided into two directions, the luxury type of motorcycle and the simple type of partial bicycle, forming a product line from single to multi.
After 2009, China's electric two-wheelers entered a phase of explosive growth. From upstream raw materials to midstream production to downstream sales, there has been an influx of players.
To what extent the industry is fiercely competitive, in 2009, there were more than 2,600 enterprises that held electric bicycle production licenses.
The entry threshold is low, the product is homogenized, the quality is not guaranteed, and in the long period of several years, who sells cheap will have a market.
The result of bad money expelling good money is that the entire industry chain almost does not make money.
Compared with making money, Dong Jinggui is more troubled by two things.
First, from the south to the north, the Yadi base has not been built less, and the product development has followed closely, but it has not been able to achieve the first sales volume in the industry.
Second, due to the higher production costs, compared with the lower prices of friends, Yadi can only be tired in the price war.
Although everyone knows that there is never a tomorrow and a future in the price war.
But no one knows where to go next.
Dare to ask where the road is, the road is under your feet.
Since 2014, Dong Jinggui has led Yadi to start a difficult transformation from "grassroots" to "high-end".
Dong Jinggui's three-plate axe first swung at the model, took the initiative to abandon tricycles and other models, and concentrated on high-end two-wheeler products.
Behind the two words of high-end, it is actually the production standard from bicycle to motorcycle.
After all, there is a natural chain of contempt between the two. Yadi started as a motorcycle and has high-end genes.
But this also puts forward higher requirements for Yadi's original suppliers.
At that time, the mainstream demand in the market was 1800 yuan to 2500 yuan, and suppliers judged that the demand for high-end products would not be so high.
If you want to supply Yadi, you must adopt the production standards of motorcycle parts, which directly leads to the production equipment of some suppliers can not meet the needs of Yadi.
Yadi's approach is not only to borrow money to help suppliers purchase equipment, but also to increase the cost of purchasing parts.
Yadi production line
The more high-end electric vehicle is Dong Jinggui's new positioning of Yadi. His second axe was cut to marketing.
He needs to find a spokesperson for Yadi who fits the tone.
At that time, the Hallyu was in full swing, and Lee Min-ho, who wanted to have acting skills and good looks, became the first Korean artist to appear on stage at the Spring Festival Gala.
That's him.
In 2014, Yadi hired Lee Min-ho as the brand ambassador, which perfectly interpreted the high-end brand temperament of Yadi.
Lee Min-ho endorses Yadi
Yadi's advertisements focus on mainstream channels such as CCTV and Hunan Satellite TV for high-frequency delivery.
Dong Jinggui's transformation of the Yadi channel is also carried out in this context.
Yadi abandons the taxi promotion method of "price reduction, buying and giving, and exchanging", but adopts high-end promotional activities such as model display, urban flash mob, and test drive experience.
Compared with their peers, customers can immediately feel the difference in Yadi's electric vehicle products.
In the past, Yadi's distribution storefront was relatively old, and Dong Jinggui asked dealers to upgrade the image of the terminal store in a unified manner.
Customers suddenly felt like they were going from a roadside stall to a Shopping Mall.
Yadi boutique
Transformation is not a dinner party, and Dong Jinggui's road to upgrading is not smooth.
If the high-end road is so easy to go, the old giants who started earlier than Yadi have a better chance of success.
In fact, if the boss figures it out, it does not mean that the employees of the managers under him can understand and execute.
At the time of transformation, the most important thing for Dong Jinggui is to let Yadi have one heart.
Dong Jinggui said harsh words to the executives: "The previous way is not feasible, I believe this road, if you can't figure it out, we won't do it, I'd rather close it." ”
See the boss's determination to transform, coupled with frequent communication and meetings. Executives are gradually embracing this shift.
Everyone gradually realized that there was no other way to go, and the upper and lower levels reached an agreement.
Around the road of higher-end transformation, the various lines of Yadi's production, products, brands and after-sales service began to bite together like gears.
In the second half of 2015, the overall sales volume of China's electric vehicle industry fell by 20%, Yadi's annual sales increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, and the sales of mid-to-high-end models increased by 80% year-on-year.
Yadi's transformation was initially successful.
In May 2016, Yadi was listed in Hong Kong as the first listed company in China's electric vehicle industry.
Listed on the Yadi Port Stock Exchange
Going public is not the end, it's more like the starting point of a new track.
Back at the origin of manufacturing, Dong Jinggui began to seek to transform Yadi's entire supply chain.
Yadi's method is very simple, that is, "find a benchmark company, learn from Honda's internationalization, learn Huawei's operation management, and learn Toyota's lean production."
In the past, China's electric vehicle industry, the production capacity of a production line was about 400 units a day, requiring 50-60 workers.
After the transformation, Yadi can achieve 800 units in eight hours, and the efficiency is double that of the past.
In the past, the production was to produce a thousand units, and a thousand sets of materials were transported to the production site. Now it is to feed, a hundred sets of a hundred units.
The support of high-end is a solid manufacturing upgrade.
Behind the upward breakthrough of brand and price is the improvement of all-round industrial efficiency.
So is Apple, and so is Tesla.
In 2017, the industry reshuffle began, and some electric vehicle brands have collapsed, but Yadi's annual sales have exceeded 4 million.
The first time I rushed to the first place in the industry, I never came down again.
In 2019, Yadi released the new lithium battery G5, inviting van Diesel, the protagonist of "Fast and Furious", as a global brand ambassador.
That's right, the bald man who drove the car as a plane.
Tough guy endorsements
Yadi has no opponents in the domestic electric vehicle industry, and the G5 of 7999 yuan is one of the answers that Dong Jinggui and Yadi answered how to maintain a higher end.
The high end 5 years ago began with benchmark motorcycles.
After 5 years, the high-end is the benchmark car.
The G5 is technically in line with Tesla, the benchmark for electric vehicles, and uses Tesla's same Panasonic power cell and battery management technology.
Performance locks in top standards, and craftsmanship, design, and materials are comparable to luxury car brands.
Keyless start, automatic unlocking within 3m range, electronic anti-theft and other functions only available in high-end cars are all configured in place.
In 2021, 20 years after the establishment of Yadi, Yadi's high-end brand VFLY was officially released.
In addition to the Porsche Design Studio design and various hardware stacking, VFLY products are different from other Yadi products, that is, the comprehensive coverage of the in-vehicle intelligent system.
From smart APP unlocking to voiceprint unlocking, voice control, and even the traditional power display display has also been made into a tablet.
More high-end Yadi electric vehicles
Do you smell some smart cars?
In 2021, Yadi's other news is that annual sales exceeded 13.8 million units, setting a new record for five consecutive years.
Looking at the world, Dong Jinggui, who is alone in two-wheeled electric vehicles, will he enter the four-wheel market next?
There are also objects to refer to, and the price of the Wuling Hongguang MINI that exploded in 2020 is only twice that of VFLY's top products.
Wuling Hongguang MINI EV
Don't dare to think, the market value of Wuling Automobile is less than 4 billion, and the market value of Yadi is 30 billion.
40,000 electric motorcycles are destined to be the only product of the exhibition, and 40,000 electric vehicles are real hits.
Do you think that the national scooter will have the figure of Yadi?