In April 2019, in the expectation of Dongfeng Group, an automobile brand named "VOYAH" was founded.
At that time, new energy vehicles were just emerging, and the debut of VOYAH was highly anticipated in order to seize this special market.
After releasing the first car, the VOYAH Free, CEO Lu Fang set ambitious goals for it.
The sales volume in 2022 is set at 46,000 units, and the price positioning is directly aimed at the high-end market, with a starting price of 310,000 yuan.
However, reality is often tinged with irony. Although the VOYAH FREE is good in terms of technology and configuration, its sales performance did not meet expectations.
In the following two years, despite many adjustments and efforts, many models were released, but monthly sales only remained at 4,500 to 5,000 units.
It is also strange to say, obviously from the perspective of configuration and mechanical quality, VOYAH's cars are not bad, and at the same time, there is also the endorsement of large manufacturers, and the powerful channel system is at the bottom.
How can its sales increase in general?
I exchanged views with many peers and agreed that the 3 major reasons are too real and need to be improved!
First of all, the brand positioning is not clear.
Although VOYAH has been established for 5 years, I still don't know how to define VOYAH and its cars - whether they are "safe", "smart", or "tech"...
Either way, there doesn't seem to be a matching attribute.
Although opening the official website of VOYAH, slogan seems to be very clear that this is a "high-end smart new energy brand"!
But the problem is that high-end smart new energy can only be regarded as a development direction, not a positioning.
To put it bluntly, consumers buy cars with active power, either because of safety, or because of intelligent driving, or because of service...
No consumer will say that I want to buy a "high-end smart new energy vehicle", after all, this is too abstract.
On the contrary, how Li Auto does it, "creating a mobile home", defined as a home, is naturally labeled as a "daddy car"; How ZEEKR cars are done, defined in "safety and performance", emphasizing handling attributes and passenger protection...
Putting aside the brands with their own traffic, it is often found that all car brands that are emerging in the market are extremely clear about their own positioning, and they are also strengthening this in their publicity.
But in the case of VOYAH, this is missing, and the result is that "there are few potential users".
In the era of "traffic equals sales", compared with other car brands, this directly lacks a "traffic pipe", how can sales be strong!
Secondly, the design style is not young enough.
In the era of oil trucks, this may not be a disadvantage, or even a plus, in a sense, because consumers are used to this feeling.
But in the field of new energy, it is the opposite!
Because standing at this point in time, users who can accept new energy and pay hundreds of thousands of cars are either young people or have a "young mentality".
As a result, you offer them a very conservative, solemn plan, the interior style of the gasoline era - do you think it will pay? It's simply impossible!
However, from the perspective of the overall design style of VOYAH, this problem has arisen, and the design language and style are too "oil-oriented", which is out of place in the mainstream new energy vehicle market.
For example, with the same green exterior and orange interior, compared with the ideal L7 and Xpeng g9, the feeling of VOYAH FREE looks very "retro", and it is difficult to love it from the perspective of young people.
In addition, the "refrigerator color TV sofa" featured by Li Auto has been imitated by many car companies today, and has achieved good results.
From Lantu's point of view, why not follow up, this is also quite fascinating.
Perhaps, as they themselves mentioned, the previous focus was on "toB", thinking about what is good for suppliers and how to integrate them - there is little insight into the market to analyze what consumers want.
The final product is not bad, but it is not what consumers need, so it is naturally a bit difficult.
Finally, there is not enough investment in "software development".
Maybe it is difficult for everyone to understand, because the most important attribute of the car is not "mechanical quality"? Software is a thing that can be used.
But to think so, it would be a big mistake!
Because the control system of traditional automobiles is discrete, separate, and does not interfere with each other, but in the new energy era, it must be integrated due to the requirements of "central decision-making" and "integrated management".
It requires the vehicle's power control system, safety control system, body control system, intelligent vehicle, chassis control system... can be integrated for a high degree of synergy.
As a result, the vehicle is more intelligent and has a wider range of adjustable parameters.
To put it simply, if you want the vehicle to be easy to use, you need to have a very powerful intelligent system, intelligent driving system, voice interaction system, and software, which needs to be highly integrated.
But in the case of VOYANT, this aspect may not be enough.
From the circle of car friends who understand Chedi "VOYAH Free", you will find that there are really a lot of bad experiences affected by software. Some car owners even directly complained that "don't buy industrial garbage Lantu, regret it to death".
Why is this so?
Because the software is not good, the scope of the impact is too wide, not only will the car machine freeze, crash, and even lead to the inability to unlock the door, automatically open the trunk and so on.
If this aspect is not effective, consumers are naturally reluctant to pay.
Of course, this is not a problem of the VOYAH family, in terms of software, because of the late start, the sub-brands of traditional car companies are more or less imperfect in this regard.
In general, due to brand positioning and thinking inertia, VOYAH has not yet embarked on the "fast lane".
But I personally am still more optimistic about VOYAH Automobile, after all, its years of accumulation here, software problems will always depend on time to catch up.
The key is to adjust the mentality and do a good job of user-centricity, which is what VOYAH has recently emphasized, to do a good job of "toC".