Bitauto Original Recently, Geely brand's mid-to-high-end new energy series "Galaxy" made its debut, announcing the launch of 7 new cars within 2 years.
The last time the automotive industry was so loud was when Toyota released 15 new electric models in one go, as well as six Hengchi models.
Geely, like its big brother Toyota in the fuel era, has the word "worry" written on its face. But it seems that Toyota has not caused much splash so far. What will happen to Geely's Galaxy?
How much does Geely need Galaxy?
As the first new car in this series, the Galaxy L7 was the focus of the conference night. It is equipped with Thor electric hybrid 8848, Aegis battery safety system, operating system Galaxy N OS and other technical selling points. In terms of gimmicks, it is not inferior to the Ideal L7 and Zhiji L7 with the same name but different surnames.
Of course, its real rival is not the Ideal L7 or the Zhiji L7, but BYD's Song PLUS. Last year, Song PLUS sold a total of 329,939 new cars, making it the second best-selling model in the domestic new energy SUV market and BYD's largest sales force.
On the other hand, the biggest sales sources of Geely brands are Emgrand, Xingyue L, Xingrui, Binyue, etc., and their presence in the market segment of 150,000-200,000 yuan is not strong compared to BYD. Then the Milky Way has the meaning of existence.
The first step in the Galaxy series is to launch a strong counterattack against Song PLUS and BYD through the Galaxy L7, which focuses on "family smart travel".
For example, the Galaxy L7 has added a passenger queen seat that allows 1.8-meter-long legs to lie flat, a four-screen intelligent interaction of 10.25-inch instrument screen + 13.2-inch central control screen + 16.2-inch passenger screen + 25.6-inch AR HUD... …
In addition to the Galaxy L7, Geely also released a series of strategic planning information that night, including the launch of a new logo, channels, etc., which shows Geely Automobile’s determination to make a desperate move in the mid-to-high-end market.
China's new energy vehicle market has developed into a "dumbbell-shaped" structure, which means that the most sold are micro electric vehicles and high-end smart electric vehicles, such as Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, Tesla Model 3, etc.
As the market matures, the new energy vehicle market has entered a healthier "spindle" market structure, that is, smart electric vehicles worth 150,000-250,000 yuan have become the largest growth point. BYD's success has undoubtedly verified this trend .
In addition to the Song PLUS mentioned earlier, BYD's Han, Tang, and Seal have also become sales trump cards with monthly sales easily exceeding 10,000 yuan. At the same time, they have also broken through the traditional ceiling of 200,000 yuan for Chinese brands, further increasing their sales. Average unit price and premium capabilities.
Whether it is its own sales structure or BYD’sThe threats and market dividends are forcing Geely to "look up" to the Galaxy.
Is it still messy if you keep cutting multiple brands?
Before and after the launch of the Galaxy, many people were wondering why Geely launched so many series and brands, making it easy for consumers to be confused. There is no doubt that Geely is the Chinese car company with the most brands currently, but these brands are not very good in the new energy field.
In the past year, the Geely brand has successively launched the Xingyue L Thor Hi·F, the Xingyue L extended-range electric version and the Emgrand L Hi-P. Sales have not been as good as expected, and they are still unable to assume the important role of the main force.
Geometry Automobile and Jikrypton Automobile will only gradually start to grow in 2022. The former relies heavily on C-end users, while the latter is still waiting to continue to explode. However, Lynk & Co's electric vehicle product line was taken away by Ji Krypton, and the conversion of gasoline vehicles to hybrid vehicles was not particularly smooth.
In the period of rapid growth of new energy vehicles, Geely lacks hot products to drive sales soaring, and its multi-brand strategy that is simply divided according to energy forms has failed. These are the two major sticking points for this car company.
After the release of the Galaxy series, Geely Auto also took advantage of the situation to sort out a new matrix:
1. The Geometry brand returns to the Geely brand, focusing on popular pure electric product series below 150,000 yuan;
2. China Star, Bo series, Bin series and Emgrand series will form the "Jixing" product series, responsible for stabilizing the existing basic advantages;
3. The Galaxy series focuses on the mid-to-high-end new energy market worth 150,000-300,000 yuan, opening up new market segments.
To date, Geely Automobile’s brand matrix has become relatively clear. For prices below RMB 300,000, there are the popular Geely brand and the youthful Lynk & Co brand. Above RMB 300,000, there are Jikrypton and Volvo, and above that, there are overseas brands. Market and luxury level Polestar and Lotus.
The resulting series of problems include overlapping selling points, complex product lines, scattered resources, etc. For example, Galaxy and Lynk & Co both focus on the price range of 150,000-300,000 yuan, and also provide plug-in hybrid versions. There is bound to be some overlap.
How to avoid internal friction within the group and reduce the difficulty of coordination? How to help consumers build awareness? These are the first problems that must be solved after the Galaxy series is established.
Recapture the "Independence Brother"
As early as 2015, Geely proposed "Blue Action", aiming to have new energy sales account for 90% of the overall sales by 2020, of which hybrids account for 65% and pure electrics account for 35%.
In the early stages of the goal, Geely launched several "oil-to-electric" models, but did not successfully open up the market. It was not until the SEA vast architecture invested 18 billion yuan in 2020 and the release of Thor Power in 2021 that it rekindled the new market. hope.
By 2022, Geely’s new energy vehicle penetration rate will only reach 27.9%, which is in line with the “Blue Action” targetThe original goal is still far away. Seeing that "Operation Blue" failed, Geely proposed the "Smart Geely 2025" strategy in 2021, pointing out that in 2025 it plans to achieve the group's total sales of 3.65 million vehicles, including 900,000 new energy vehicles.
But in 2022, BYD won the title of "Independent Brother" and new energy overlord with sales of more than 1.86 million new energy vehicles. The overall sales volume of new energy is five times that of Geely. Qin PLUS can almost surpass Geely's entire group's new energy vehicle sales on its own.
Obviously, Geely has completely become a follower in the field of new energy, and it was caught off guard by all this.
Along with the poor sales of new energy vehicles, there is also a chain reaction of declining profitability. On the one hand, the initial research and development costs of technologies such as SEA architecture are huge. On the other hand, many brands have failed to achieve rapid and large-scale volume expansion and have slow blood-building results. As a result, Geely Automobile's net profit continued to plummet from 12.55 billion to 4.847 billion from 2018 to 2021.
Next, it will be particularly important for Geely to regain its title of "Independent Brother" with Galaxy and complete its counterattack.
Write at the end
It is not difficult to simply launch a new brand or new series. It is nothing more than burning money to hold a press conference. The difficulty lies in how to successfully establish new brand recognition and value recognition through the operation of new brands and new product sequences, thereby leveraging the sales of the entire Geely Group. Fortunately, Geely does not lack experience.
What’s even more valuable is that Geely has advantages in capital operation and pattern vision. Compared to creating a new Galaxy series, the author admires Geely’s boldness in breaking into inaccessible tracks such as methanol cars and satellites.
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