However, after the whole press conference, we can't help but have a question. At present, Geely has laid out a number of new energy brands such as Polaris, Geometry, Krypton and Sharp Blue. So what's the significance of launching another "Galaxy" new energy brand at this time? Looking at a longer time line, the summary of Geely's new energy development road is "slogan should be loud, action should be soft".
"Operation Blue Geely" has become a laughing stock in the industry.
In 20 15, Geely Automobile decided to enter the field of new energy vehicles on a large scale, and ambitiously released "Blue Geely Action", making a five-year plan for itself. Specifically, by 2020, the sales of new energy vehicles will account for more than 90% of Geely's overall sales, of which plug-in hybrid and hybrid vehicles will account for 65% and pure electric vehicles will account for 35%. At that time, everyone was convinced of Geely Automobile's determination to transform, and it was expected that the brand would become the leader of the domestic new energy vehicle market in five years.
In everyone's expectation, then what? You can say no, and then ... five years is fleeting. In the last year of "Blue Geely Action", Geely released the sales data of 20 19, and the annual sales volume exceeded1360,000, but the sales volume of new energy vehicles was only13000, accounting for less than 10% of the total sales volume, which was the agreed sales volume.
In fact, in the two years after Geely released the "Blue Geely Action", the brand did not make any achievements in the field of new energy vehicles. You know, from 20 16-20 17, the domestic new energy vehicle market began to usher in explosive growth. At that time, the small and micro electric vehicles on the market showed a thriving scene. It is in this excellent situation that Geely only released two products, Emgrand EV 300 and Emgrand PHEV, which wrongly targeted the mainstream car market, and the final result was that BYD and BAIC were far behind. With the loss of key market competition in the early stage, Geely is getting farther and farther away from its own sales target, and the "Blue Geely Action" has been declared a complete failure. However, instead of turning it into motivation, Mr. Xie has become a laughing stock in the industry.
Geometric car lost to Maicheng again.
When talking about the "Blue Geely" strategy, Li Shufu once said in an internal conversation that failure is not a strategic issue, but an immature historical opportunity. In 20 19, the production and sales of new energy vehicles broke through10.2 million, and the industry developed well. Li Shufu said that a good opportunity has come. On April 1 1 day, 2009, Geely completely got rid of the shadow of the failure of the "Blue Geely Plan" and was full of ambitions again. It officially released Geely's high-end new energy brand "Geometry" in the scenic Singapore, and shouted the slogan of "Committed to becoming the first choice brand for pure electric travel for users all over the world".
In this way, the brand tonality has been raised, but the old problem of "shouting slogans loudly and not acting effectively" has not been cured. 20 19 in the whole geometric brand, only one model of Geometry A is supporting the facade, and by 2020, only one more Geometry C will help out. There are few models, expensive cars and hasty system transformation, which makes geometric models lack sound volume in the new energy vehicle market, and the overall competitiveness of products is not as good as that of competitors at the same level.
According to the data released by the Federation before, as of June 2020, 1 1, the cumulative sales volume of geometric vehicles was only 89 1 1. This performance is not only far from other competitors, but also decreased by 26.8% compared with 1 1592 vehicles in the same period of 20 19, which is completely contrary to the rising trend of the total number of new energy vehicles in 2020.
The geometric car made the same mistake again for obvious reasons. Geely Automobile basically has no "family background" in new energy vehicle technology. Anyone with a discerning eye will know at a glance that the model brought by the brand is simply "oil to electricity", which has no competitive advantage compared with the exclusive platform for new energy developed by competitors. The market is the best touchstone. After years of development in the domestic automobile market, consumers are no longer "Amon". When choosing products, they will vote with their feet, not to say how loud the slogan is, and how loud the voice is, consumers will follow it stupidly. Times have changed!
Another "Wolf Coming" Story of Geely Galaxy
Whether Geely announced its future development plan or launched a new brand of new energy, it shouted "never play" in a high-profile way and its rhetoric was "stirring". The listener's blood is boiling, but the result is cold inside. This inevitably reminds people of the familiar story of "wolf coming" when they were young, which gives people hope again and again and makes people feel tired after failure again and again.
This time, the "Geely Galaxy" is even bigger. In addition to Geely executives "singing on stage", friends circle is also a variety of screens, which has aroused widespread concern inside and outside the industry. However, I believe that after the first few waves of tossing, I am afraid that this time everyone's heart strength is gone. The launch of the Galaxy brand gives people a strong feeling of "eager to launch". Judging from the previous publicity and promotion, it took Geely only a short month to release the news of "promoting high-end new energy series" for the first time. This "efficiency" is inevitably frightening.
According to the timeline, Geely officially announced that it will launch a high-end new energy series during the Spring Festival. Two weeks later, Gan Jiayu, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, announced at the internal annual business meeting that Geely brand will officially release the "Geely brand new energy strategy" at the main venue of Hangzhou Asian Games on February 23rd. On the day of the event, Geely announced that it will launch seven new cars to the market within two years, including pure electric and hybrid.
Looking at the whole conference, it can be concluded that it has brought a new model of "deja vu" and a prototype suspected of plagiarism to a hastily launched new brand. When everyone saw the Galaxy L7, the remaining expectations in their hearts were ruthlessly punctured. What is this? Friends who are familiar with Geely models will know at a glance that this Galaxy L7 is not a plug-in hybrid version of Job L! Except that the grille is closed, the headlights are split, and they are all the same. No wonder some people say that Galaxy L7 is the "beauty version" of Job L.
The prototype "The Light of the Galaxy" launched by Geely Galaxy is not much better. The moment it debuted was so amazing, but after careful study, I felt something was wrong! This shape is too much like Chang 'an Deep Blue SL03. It is no exaggeration to say that it covers the logo, which makes people look silly and confused from the front of the car. At the same time, Geely Galaxy prototype and Changan VISION-V concept car have some similarities in taillight and front design. In this regard, Changan Automobile has sent a lawyer's letter to Geely, pointing out that the "Galaxy Light" concept car at Geely Galaxy Conference is very similar to the concept car and production car before Changan. Changan Automobile believes that Geely is suspected of infringement and demands to stop the infringement.
In the face of the lawyer's letter issued by Changan Automobile, the official of Geely Automobile Group also responded in time. Geely said that Geely Galaxy Light was originally designed by Geely, and there was no plagiarism or infringement of other people's intellectual property rights. I believe Geely knows the situation best. Moreover, we saw two models at the brand launch conference. Galaxy L7 is the "same body" of Job L, and "Galaxy Light" is also suspected of plagiarism, which shows how hastily the new brand of Galaxy landed. It can only be said that in the face of the continuous wave of electrification and the all-round rise of new energy vehicle companies, the former absolute boss was really anxious this time.
Reading at home can hardly help Geely's new energy road.
We know that Geely has been struggling on the new energy track. After becoming CEO of Geely Automobile Group, Yan Jiayu naturally looked in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. He hopes to make achievements for the group in such an important position to prove his ability. Judging from his resume, Gan Jiayu joined Geely in 2003, and this year is exactly 20 years. He started from the basic position of warehouse management and then climbed up step by step. He used to be a member of the Management Committee of Geely Automobile Group, a senior management director and a group finance minister. Since June 2020, he has served as the vice president of Geely Automobile Group, responsible for group procurement. On March 25th, 20021,Gan Jiayu succeeded An Conghui and officially became CEO of Geely Automobile Group. Then, as the post-80s head nurse hand-picked by Li Shufu, she pays attention to enterprise management, but lacks experience in product development and marketing. In the face of the current complicated new energy market, can he lead enterprises out of the thorns and go forward bravely? On the whole, it is basically impossible. Let's analyze why it is difficult for Gan Jiayue to help Geely's new energy road.
First of all, Geely Automobile Group's own reasons. As we said above, Geely started the new energy industry very early, but the failure of "Geely Blue Action" on 20 15 has made enterprises miss the best window for developing new energy. In the early days, in order to seize the market quickly, Geely even skipped the key step of technology research and development and relied too much on the new energy layout of "oil to electricity". The so-called "oil to electricity" mode is to remove all the traditional power devices such as engines and fuel tanks and replace them with batteries, motors and other parts without changing the main structure of the car body. In this way, products can be quickly introduced to the market, creating opportunities.
However, while Geely is immersed in the short-term happiness brought by "changing oil to electricity", other domestic automobile manufacturers have begun to bury their heads in developing pure electric platforms. The temporary good sales performance made Geely seriously misjudge its development strategy in the following years. Instead of focusing on the research and development of pure electric technology, the company devoted a lot of energy to the hopeless "oil to electricity". Geometric A, Maple Leaf and other new energy vehicles based on the "oil-to-electricity" model were not recognized by consumers after they were put on the market, and their sales fell sharply, eventually losing their status as "independent brothers".
Therefore, from a macro perspective, it is difficult for Gan Jiayue to get rid of the "stubborn disease" of the enterprise itself for many years after taking over Geely. Without excellent technical support and excellent vehicle products, developing Geely new energy is like building a castle in the air, which can't stand the test of the market.
Secondly, Geely Automobile's new energy transformation speed lags far behind the current automobile industry. Facing the surging wave of new energy, Geely, once an "independent brother", is becoming an underachiever in the new era because of its short-sighted behavior. When new energy car companies are striding towards pure electrification, Geely is still drinking hard for its hybrid car at the moment, which shows that it has fallen by more than one position on the new energy track.
It is not difficult to find that the "online" of the Galaxy brand has the meaning of "driving ducks to the shelves". It takes a month to go to market. I believe it's more of a feeling of being forced to read, and finally I returned to the old road of failure before Geely. At present, what Geely needs more is to integrate the strength of the group to upgrade its technical reserves, which really requires a lot of money, manpower and time. But once technological innovation and breakthrough are formed in the industry, it will bring strong competitiveness to the products put on the market in the later period. Geely did not choose the latter, mainly because it felt the pressure from the market and felt that there was not much time left for it.
The sales volume of new energy vehicles has increased year by year, and the traditional car companies have also ushered in sales growth after the transformation. Among independent brands, new models such as BYD, Changan Automobile and Guangzhou Automobile Ai 'an are constantly being introduced to the market; Tesla lowered the price of the main model to the mid-end market of about 200,000 yuan through price reduction; The new force of building cars is the rising backbone, which subverts our understanding of new energy vehicles. In today's white-hot new energy market, Geely, which doesn't have much technical reserves, basically can't see the way out, so the arrival of the Galaxy brand is not worth the candle.
Third, return to the question of whether Geely's multi-brand strategy is good or not. At the group level, more than a dozen brands tied to Geely develop independently, and limited resources are dispersed, making it difficult to form a joint force. Now that there are more Galaxy brands, it is bound to invest in brand technology research and development, publicity and promotion, and channel construction. , making limited funds more dispersed. Judging from Geely's financial situation, the krypton space loss in the first half of 2022 was 760 million yuan, while the net profit of Geely Automobile in the same period was 65.438+0.55 billion yuan. Moreover, if you invest in Galaxy series products on a large scale this year, the net profit will be further eroded. On the other hand, if part of the expenditure of new brands is invested in weak technology research and development, it will inject more power into Geely Group in the long run, improve the overall product performance of its models and take the initiative in the fierce market competition.
At the brand level, Geely's different brands of the same price models will be crowded into the same market segment, resulting in mutual pull and conflict. After the Galaxy series comes out, it will focus on the price range of1500,000-300,000 yuan. Judging from this price range, Lectra's position is extremely embarrassing. At present, except for the flagship 09, other new energy vehicles under the brand are in the range of 65,438+05-300,000 yuan. It is also distributed in this interval.
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