Text | Travel Online, Author | Wang Huiying, Editor | Zhou Xiaoqi
“Hengchi 5 is the best pure electric SUV within 300,000 yuan.” At the launch of the new car, Liu Yongzhuo, president of Hengchi New Energy Automobile Group, mentioned this sentence many times.
Such propaganda phrases are frequently staged at the press conferences of new energy vehicle companies. In the past, Li Xiang shouted that “the ideal L9 is the best SUV within 5 million yuan”, and later Yu Chengdong declared that “Wenjie M7 is the best SUV within one million yuan”.
The purpose of publicity and marketing is nothing more than sales. On July 20, at the first Hengchi Festival, the number of reservations displayed on the large screen in real time reached 37,300 at 19:00. Liu Yongzhuo said bluntly, “Hengchi’s big sale is a foregone conclusion.”
But such an order seems to come from a mandatory task dispatched by Evergrande Group. According to Jiemian News, Evergrande distributed the sales assessment tasks of Hengchi 5 to all members of the property group. The assessment tasks are subdivided from major regions to each project, and the specific sales assessment indicators will be determined according to the number of owners in the community. For example, most of the orders for Hengchi 5 in Shanghai come from the owners of Evergrande.
As early as this year’s “May Day” period, orders for Hengchi 5 models reached as high as 50,000 within 10 hours after the “blind order”, which was once questioned by the outside world for the large amount of order data.
In addition to the high moisture content of order data, the market is also concerned about the strength of Hengchi 5?
Tuyuan Hengchi Official Weibo
An obvious feature is that compared with the new car-making forces that pay attention to self-research, Hengchi 5 does not focus on this, but mainly finds suppliers for cooperation. Shortly after the launch of the conference, Liu Yongzhuo emphasized that Hengchi is “cooperating with the world’s top parts suppliers”.
Resource integration has always been Evergrande’s way of doing things. Xu Jiayin once summed up Evergrande’s car-building route into five words: “buy, buy, buy, combine, circle, big, good, good”. He believes that all technologies and companies that can be bought should be bought, and those that cannot be bought should be cooperated.
As we all know, car manufacturing is an industry with a high capital threshold, and this threshold is becoming higher and higher. “Don’t build a car if you don’t have 20 billion yuan.” Li Bin, the founder of Weilai , said a few years ago, and now it has been changed to “you may not be able to do it without 40 billion yuan.”
This is precisely stepping on the “life gate” of Evergrande Group. It is an open secret that Evergrande Group’s financial situation is worrying, and Evergrande Motor’s stock is also suspended. As the first mass-produced car, Hengchi 5 shoulders the heavy responsibility of Evergrande to raise its share price and stimulate the capital market.
However, under the situation that the new energy vehicle market is becoming more and more introverted, Hengchi 5 has a long way to go to take on the mission of “savior”.
01 Learning Yu Chengdong and Li want to do marketing, Hengchi also wants to step on BBA?
The “difficult labor” Hengchi 5 finally held a serious pre-sale conference.
At the beginning of the press conference, Liu Yongzhuo came to the public in a Hengchi 5. “We want to build the best pure electric SUV within 300,000 yuan.”
Tuyuan Hengchi 5 conference
In fact, such a slogan-like scene is not unfamiliar at the press conference of new energy vehicle companies.
The ideal L9 launch conference in June and the Wenjie M7 launch conference in July, “the best within XX million” and “exceeding the XX million experience” have allowed the outside world to see the marketing tactics of car companies.
Earlier, Li Bin, founder of Weilai , called out “ES7 is the ceiling of 500,000 medium and large SUVs”; He Xiaopeng, founder of Xiaopeng Motors, described Xiaopeng G9 as “the best SUV within 500,000”; Nezha CEO Zhang Yong said It means “Nezha S is the best coupe within 1 million yuan”…
The unanimous operation of new energy vehicle companies has made the marketing slogans louder and louder.
Another obvious feature is that any new energy vehicle with luxury words seems to have to compete with BBA.
Taking the Hengchi 5 as an example, when introducing the size of the body, Liu Yongzhuo said that the size of the Hengchi 5 far exceeds that of the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, and is even on par with the higher-level BMW X3 and Audi Q5L.
When Li Xiang introduced the ideal L9, he also compared the model with BMW X7, Mercedes-Benz GLS and even Rolls-Royce Cullinan many times. In order to show that the ideal L9 has the strength to be a “replacement” for luxury cars, Li Xiang directly said, “Compared with Cullinan, the ideal L9 is not afraid.”
Huawei Yu Chengdong also compared the Wenjie M7 with BMW X7, Mercedes-Benz GLS and Audi Q7 to highlight the better utilization of the interior space of the Wenjie M7. He said bluntly before: “With the launch of more higher-level models in the future, the space for Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi 300,000 to 500,000 models will be wiped out.”
It seems that for a while, the press conference of new energy vehicle companies has become a trend to step on BBA. The reason why it has become a trend is because such a push can successfully create a topic, so that the new cars released by new energy vehicle companies quickly become the focus of the market.
Along with online marketing, it is not uncommon for founders to speak out amazing words and the stories of the industry torn apart.
In the publicity of new energy car companies, Yu Chengdong, the executive director of Huawei, is a person who has to be mentioned. Yu Chengdong was dubbed “Yu Dazui” because he often made surprising speeches at press conferences.
In fact, as early as after taking over Huawei’s consumer business, Yu Chengdong has been a favorite “Yu Dazui” in the technology circle. For example, in November 2015, after the Mate 8 conference, Yu Chengdong said in an interview: “Our (mobile phone) sales will surpass Apple in one or two years, at the latest two years.”
Now, when it comes to the rim, Yu Chengdong has used the style of “Yu Dazui”. From the rhetoric of “selling 300,000 cars a year” at the end of 2021 to this year’s statement that “the M7 will not lose to a million-dollar luxury car”, Yu Chengdong’s marketing approach has become more and more bold.
Tuyuan Wenjie M7 conference
It is worth mentioning that the propaganda style of the founder will inevitably lead to a war of words.
Recently, Yu Chengdong and Weipai CEO Li Ruifeng’s speeches about “is the program extension a backward technology” are well known in the industry. Li Ruifeng said, “Forging iron requires its own strength. It is an industry consensus that the program-added hybrid technology is backward. No matter how big your mouth is, you can’t make a lot of nonsense.” Due to the smell of gunpowder, “Wei brand CEO tearing Huawei Yu Chengdong” quickly became a hot search.
Going back to Evergrande, the current marketing methods are the same as those of other new energy vehicle companies. Evergrande wants to build momentum for the Hengchi 5 at a glance. But it must be understood that, as a car of more than 100,000 yuan, learning this marketing routine is not necessarily effective.
On the one hand, BBA has a history of 100 years since its establishment. After years of experience accumulation, BBA has taken a dominant position in the global luxury car track.
On the other hand, the luxury brand image of traditional BBA has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. New energy vehicle companies such as Hengchi have just established their own brands to cultivate users’ minds and educate the market. This is not overnight.
More importantly, the real BBA group may not look at the price of the Hengchi 5. If the Hengchi 5 wants to gain consumers and sales, the key depends on the competitiveness of the product.
02 Can Hengchi 5 be the best pure electric SUV within 300,000 yuan?
“The pre-sale price of the Hengchi 5 luxury version is 179,000 yuan, which is full of sincerity.” Liu Yongzhuo said at the Hengchi 5 pre-sale conference.
But building a car, price is one thing, performance is another. Want to be the best pure electric SUV within 300,000 yuan, is Evergrande ready?
Hengchi 5 is positioned as a compact SUV, with a length, width and height of 4725/1925/1676mm and a wheelbase of 2780mm. According to Liu Yongzhuo’s words, this size far exceeds the BMW X1 and Audi Q3 of the same level, and is on par with the higher-level BMW X3 and Audi Q5L. In fact, from this point of view, the Hengchi 5 is indeed large enough, close to mid-sized SUVs such as Tesla Model Y and Leapmotor C11.
The consensus of the industry is that a large body does not mean a large interior space, it is a technical activity. Taking Wenjie M7 as an example, although it is compact in shape, it has a large internal space. This is due to the integration of the powertrain, which is also an important point for Yu Chengdong to compare Wenjie M7 with BBA.
In terms of appearance, the overall design of the Hengchi 5 conforms to the mainstream trend of new energy vehicles, and was designed by Shiro Nakamura, the former vice president and design director of Nissan. In terms of interior, the front row of Hengchi 5 has an embracing 3D curved triple screen – a 10.25-inch LCD instrument screen, a 14.6-inch central control screen, and a 10.25-inch passenger screen, which are 1.2 meters wide.
Tuyuan Hengchi Official Weibo
Although Liu Yongzhuo said that the three-screen screen equipped with Hengchi 5 is comparable to the million-level Mercedes-Benz EQS in terms of texture and operational sensitivity, the bigger and bigger screen in the car is not a new thing in new energy car companies. It is not uncommon for the first design to appear on models such as Ideal ONE and Leapmotor C11.
For new energy vehicles, “how many kilometers to run with full electricity” is often a question that customers ask when they walk into a new energy vehicle store. Endurance has always been the key to the competition of new energy vehicle companies.
Hengchi 5 is equipped with a 72.8-degree lithium iron phosphate battery of CATL, with a cruising range of 602 kilometers.
In the entire new energy compact SUV model, the battery life advantage is not obvious. The maximum cruising range of Nezha U and GAC AION Y has also exceeded 600 kilometers, and the cruising range of Xpeng G3, Leapmotor C11 and other models has also reached about 550 kilometers.
In terms of dynamic performance, the biggest feature of the tram is the fast start. Hengchi 5 is equipped with a single motor with a maximum power of 150KW and an acceleration of 100 kilometers in 7.8 seconds. In contrast, the zero-run C11 performance version can reach 4.6 seconds, and the fastest GAC Aeon V PLUS can reach 7.6 seconds. The performance of the Hengchi 5 can only be said to be quite satisfactory.
On the whole, the impression of Hengchi 5 on the outside world is “big”, which is still far from the luxury of BBA, and has little advantages compared with other new energy vehicles.
In addition to hardware and appearance, intelligence is the story that new energy vehicle companies are most willing to tell, and it is also the most violent field, and it is also an aspect that consumers value very much.
However, the performance of Hengchi 5 in intelligence is lackluster.
According to public information, Hengchi 5 has L2-level automatic assisted driving capabilities. In contrast, Xiaopeng G3 took “smart driving” as its killer when it was launched, equipped with XPILOT 2.5 automatic driving system, with L2.5-level visual + ultrasonic fusion automatic parking function, and equipped with self-developed self-driving cars. Xmart OS intelligent connected system.
Weilai , which also started earlier, is equipped with the NIO Pilot automatic driving assistance system in the ES6 model, which supports more than 20 assisted driving functions. Even if it is a little behind the ideal, the latest ideal L9 is also equipped with a full-stack self-developed intelligent driving system – ideal AD Max.
It is worth mentioning that Hengchi 5 claims to be able to achieve 19 functions such as forward and lateral automatic reversing, lateral traffic automatic emergency braking, and full-speed adaptive cruise. Supporting these functions are a Mobileye vision chip, a monocular camera, a front-mounted millimeter-wave radar, 4 corner millimeter-wave radars, 4 surround-view cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors.
But you must know that Mobileye’s black box delivery model has gradually fallen behind in the autonomous driving circle, and new car-making forces such as “Wei Xiaoli” have already set their sights on the NVIDIA platform.
In addition to the lack of advantages in the model itself, Hengchi’s research and development capabilities are also weak.
When other players are emphasizing self-developed strength, Hengchi 5 is almost all supplied by external suppliers, which means that Evergrande only needs to assemble Hengchi 5.
As Liu Yongzhuo emphasized many times at the press conference, Hengchi is “cooperating with the world’s top parts suppliers”. This also means that from the battery, to the chip, to the ecology of the car, Hengchi 5 has adopted the “use doctrine”.
Tuyuan Hengchi 5 conference
After all, none of these technologies comes from Evergrande itself. Evergrande, which lacks core strength, will greatly increase the risk of building a car if its cooperation with suppliers is not smooth.
But Evergrande has great ambitions to build cars. The official website wrote: “By 2025, the annual production and sales will exceed 1 million vehicles, and by 2035, the annual production and sales will exceed 5 million vehicles, and strive to become the world’s largest and most powerful new energy vehicle group.”
Dreams are just dreams after all, and ultimately we have to talk about sales.
03 Can Hengchi 5 undertake the mission of “Savior”?
To the surprise of the outside world, a few days after the press conference, Liu Yongzhuo said in an interview with the media, “After the pre-sale press conference on July 6, the market responded very well, even better than expected. , Hengchi’s big sale is a foregone conclusion.”
Behind what he said, as of July 20, the pre-sale order of Hengchi 5 was close to 40,000. When emphasizing cost performance and pre-sale volume, Evergrande still faces a challenge – mass production. To achieve mass production, it is bound to burn money, which is the most difficult problem for Evergrande at present.
In November 2019, Xu Jiayin, chairman of Evergrande Group, announced that he would invest 45 billion yuan to build cars in the future, including 20 billion yuan in 2019, 15 billion yuan in 2020, and 10 billion yuan in 2021.
A month later, at the signing ceremony of Evergrande Auto’s global strategic cooperation, Xu Jiayin called for 206 auto industry leaders and more than 1,100 auto industry chain executives. The high-profile start is destined to be a money-burning game for Evergrande to build a car.
After the announcement of car building, Xu Jiayin led Evergrande to start the “buy, buy, buy” model. In the following year, Evergrande Automobile invested real money into all walks of life in automobile manufacturing. Evergrande has successively invested heavily in national electric vehicles, Swedish supercar company Koenigsegg, Shanghai Carnegie New Energy, German automotive power engineering company hofer, in-wheel motor company Dutch e-Traction and British Protean and other related companies. Evergrande’s car-making tentacles continue to expand, and it also builds production bases and lays out sales channels.
At the 2020 performance conference of Evergrande Automobile, Evergrande Automobile disclosed that it has invested a total of 47.4 billion yuan in the new energy vehicle industry, including 24.9 billion yuan in vehicle R&D and design, and 22.5 billion yuan in car factory construction. In the first half of 2021, Evergrande has “burned” more than 50 billion yuan in sales and administrative expenses in the new energy vehicle business.
By 2021, the parent company Evergrande Group has encountered waves of debt crises. The high-cost car manufacturing industry and the parent company’s predicament meet, and Evergrande Auto is stretched. According to Evergrande Auto’s profit warning announcement for the first half of 2021, it recorded a net loss of 4.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2021. Since the debut of Hengchi in 2019, as of the first half of 2021, its accumulated losses have reached 17.4 billion yuan.
With the financial difficulties, the road to mass production of Hengchi 5 has also been twists and turns. In October last year, the slogan of “Work hard for three months, the first car of the Tianjin factory Hengchi rolls off the assembly line” was just shouted. Two days later, according to a late LatePost report, Evergrande Auto owed money to equipment suppliers, which led to the production line renovation project at the Tianjin factory. stagnant.
In March of this year, Xu Jiayin also said that “after three months of hard work, the mass production of Hengchi 5 must be realized on June 22.” However, due to the impact of the epidemic, the mass production time of Hengchi 5 was postponed to September 20. Today, it is only two months left for Evergrande.
The real money went down, and it did not allow Evergrande to overtake in a corner, but instead pushed the mass production time of Hengchi 5 again and again.
In fact, after the original real estate business was hit hard, the automobile business is what Xu Jiayin wants to do most. As the first mass-produced car of Evergrande, Hengchi 5 assumes the role of “savior”.
On the one hand, new energy car manufacturing is already at the forefront. If the market performance of Hengchi 5 is good, Evergrande will undoubtedly get the support of the capital market, and the financing channels will be broadened, which will naturally be good for the parent company Evergrande Group. On the other hand, the real estate business is on the decline. If car manufacturing becomes the second growth curve of Evergrande Group, it may also alleviate the urgent needs of Evergrande Group.
But the road is bound to be difficult.
Even if Evergrande fully maintains mass production, the pressure after mass production will undoubtedly be greater. How to sell becomes the key.
At 520 two months ago, Hengchi 5 has already started a wave of pre-sale. At that time, according to the report of Future Auto Daily, Hengchi held a number of “owners’ internal tasting sessions” in Guangzhou, and Hengchi 5 was toured to various Hengda buildings in Guangzhou. At the same time as full-staff marketing and eyeing the owners, Evergrande once again turned its attention to the agents. Such a routine coincides with the sale of the house back then.
Only, will the owner pay for Evergrande? According to Jiemian News, the sales consultant of Evergrande said that the owners were quite supportive during the exhibition tour of the Evergrande building, and there were a lot of orders.
But there are still a few owners who dare to pay for Evergrande Auto. The reason is the same. After experiencing the unfinished end of some real estate businesses, Evergrande’s brand power has been greatly reduced, and the owner is most worried about the “unfinished end” of Hengchi 5. From this point of view, Evergrande needs to work hard to regain market confidence.
In April 2022, Xu Jiayin and his management team showed up at Guangzhou Evergrande Center to experience the appearance and interior of Hengchi 5. At the scene, he opened the car door and clicked “Wait” through the voice assistant.
Tuyuan Hengchi Official Weibo
To pave the way for building and selling cars, Hengchi 5 is a desperate attempt of Evergrande Group, and it is also a last-ditch battle. Under the banner of luxury, how many cakes Hengchi 5 can win in the end depends on its own product strength. And if he wants to see the results, all Xu Jiayin can do now is to wait.
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