2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 1064 A Fatal Blow to Dizi

One after another, Exeed Wish vehicles were delivered to users. In the first month after its launch, 20,000 vehicles were delivered. The Exeed team was all smiles, and they were about to receive a lot of bonuses this year.

It's worth mentioning that this year's Exeed series has also expanded its dealer network. The newly added dealer stores have boosted Exeed's sales to some extent. However, relying solely on self-operation would be too costly to create a blockbuster model.

Joining the dealer network can reduce the cost of opening a store in Weilai, and also allow Weilai to quickly expand its sales channels and enter the lower-tier market by utilizing the dealer's existing stores.

Today, Weilai Auto also has two sales networks: high-end brands operate on its own, while popular models are sold through dealerships, following the same sales model as Yuechi Auto.

"Let's also make arrangements for the export plan."

The person in charge of the Star Wish project had previously switched from Volkswagen ZG and had considerable experience in both localization and globalization. Small cars are far more popular than large cars worldwide, including in Europe.

Both of Exeed's models are well-suited for global export. With this year's global strategy, Exeed also needs to consider export issues. It can't just compete in the domestic market; it also needs to earn money from overseas users.

The network has been established in Australia and the Middle East. The Qilin pickup truck, which is registered in Australia, was also shipped to Australia and the Middle East this month and has established contact with local dealers. Yuechi's Yuechi and Xinghe series are also being tentatively launched in South American regions such as Mexico and Brazil.

This year, Weilai is pursuing a comprehensive export strategy, focusing on the global market and striving for a 5% global market share. Diversification has become the best model, and Xingtu is the final link in the brand's overseas expansion plan.

From January to April this year, driven by its diversified development strategy, Weilai's exports surged, achieving export sales of 12 vehicles in four months, ranking fourth in domestic exports after Tesla.

The Zhidou Rainbow made a significant contribution to this. However, its performance in the domestic A00-class sedan market was not particularly good, with annual cumulative sales of approximately 1.5 units, barely maintaining an average of around 4000 units per month.

In the A00 segment, Wuling Hongguang has a clear advantage. However, due to its performance in overseas markets, the Zhidou brand, although not yet profitable, is doing well and its financial situation is expected to improve further with the launch of new models.

5 month 15 day.

Weilai quietly pushed out an OTA update to the intelligent driving system of the E-series and L-series. This update has a major change: the Weilai intelligent driving system will no longer rely on high-precision maps.

The city NOA function, which does not rely on high-precision maps, is being rolled out for internal testing and is planned to be rolled out to 100 cities by the end of the year. Its technical approach is based on real-time perception and vehicle-side computing feature networks.

"This is the second intelligent driving solution to undergo internal testing without visual aids. Xiaopeng, you need to work hard!"

While Weilai did not widely publicize its latest version of intelligent driving solution, it still sparked a discussion on the Internet. In the competition of imageless driving, Chrysanthemum, Xiaopeng and Weilai are the three most aggressive players.

Among the three companies, Chrysanthemum's ADS2.0 is slightly ahead in terms of rollout, having pushed out NCA (Neural Code Assessment) for map-free urban areas to some users first. Weilai followed closely with its internal testing, and Xiaopeng Motors conducted its internal testing, indicating that all three companies have reached a point of technological maturity.

"Breaking free from the limitations of high-precision maps is the only way to achieve widespread adoption, and the curtain is rising on a major transformation in the intelligent driving industry."

Like Chrysanthemum, Weilai currently only offers this feature to a limited number of users. When asked why it was launched quietly, Li Xiang's response on Weibo was somewhat unexpected.

"The image-free system is currently in the internal testing phase. The core functions are only in the usable stage. The truly mature technology will not be realized until next year. Between usable and easy to use, Weilai has decided to wait until it is easy to use before vigorously promoting it."

This contrasts sharply with Li Xiang's high-profile announcement a few days ago that the L series would see both increased sales volume and price, but it has also been interpreted by some media outlets as a veiled criticism of Chrysanthemum's overwhelming lead.

With the unveiling of three range-extended electric vehicle models and a product portfolio that resembles a set of identical designs, covering the price range of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, the L series achieved monthly sales of over 20,000 units for the first time in March of this year after completing the ramp-up of production capacity across the entire series.

According to the Q1 financial report of Weilai, the L series generated revenue of RMB 187.9 billion in just one quarter, with vehicle sales revenue reaching RMB 183.3 billion, and the gross profit margin returning to a healthy level of 20%.

From relying on a single model to a perfect combination of three models, Weilai's range-extended electric vehicles have taken the lead in designing a product matrix within the Weilai system, and have also completed the first stage of range-extended electric vehicle development.

The L series will now enter a period of refinement, with optimization of models and continued R&D investment to provide users with higher-quality products and services.

From January to April, the L series delivered more than 7.8 vehicles, attracting attention from the market.

The perfect start has transformed the range-extended electric vehicle technology route, which was ridiculed by major automakers, into a profit driver for leading automakers, a textbook example of success.

In contrast to the L series' rapid progress, another high-end range-extended electric vehicle brand, Seres Hongtu, is mired in a slump, struggling to adapt after its market launch. The two brands are worlds apart in their performance.

From January to April, under the price reduction strategy of the three giants, Hongtu's sales suffered a fatal blow, with a total of only 1.62 vehicles delivered in four months, nearly five times less than the L series.

The X5 was completely blocked by the Maodou Y, which diverted a large number of customers. Meanwhile, the high-end X7, with its new L6 and L9 versions, was almost a tailor-made sniper for the X7. In terms of space, configuration and design concept, it is more in line with the expectations of family users, further squeezing Hongtu's living space.

Over-reliance on the brand halo means that when product capabilities falter, the halo effect will quickly fade. In addition, the company's reiteration at the end of March that it would not manufacture cars and would restrict the use of its brand logo caused market confusion in the short term and further affected consumer confidence.

However, Seres still has a core customer base. As long as they retain their brand fans, they won't have to worry about sales. The only thing they need to change is to improve product quality. The new X7 will be launched within the year, marking the beginning of Seres' counterattack.

As a phenomenal national enterprise, Weilai was on a roll in the first quarter. It was difficult for any other company to gain the upper hand in public opinion. If it weren't for the impact of the MINI ice cream incident in April, Weilai would have been invincible this year.

Although the MINI ice cream incident was misled by some media outlets and businesses and had a certain impact, it's hard to say whether Weilai's lightning-fast public relations strategy, its positive brand promotion model using the incident, and its tangible benefits are a blessing or a curse.

Of course, the most crucial point is that today's consumers are much more discerning than in the past. When public opinion leads to "online attacks" against a brand, today's onlookers are no longer blindly following the trend, but rather making their own judgments.

"The strategy for dealing with chrysanthemums has begun to show results."

"As long as we don't fall into our opponent's rhythm, we will always be in the lead."

In terms of technical approach, Li Xiang, who is in charge of the L series, and Yu Dazui are allies. Both are advocates of range-extended electric vehicles and jointly oppose the doubts about pure circuit lines. However, Tan Jincheng, who is in charge of Weilai, prefers to make a fortune in silence, and Li Xiang must obey the company's strategy.

Both are top marketing masters. Li Xiang is more accustomed to the thinking of a science student, using data and logic to convince people, while Da Zui has the thinking of a liberal arts student, attracting people with momentum and vision. The difference in style made their previous dialogues very interesting and also brought more attention to Seres.

However, under Tan Jincheng's influence, Wei Lai Shang Xia stopped responding to Da Zui's veiled sarcasm in various public occasions starting last year, which made Da Zui feel like he was punching cotton.

Every piece of good news from the L series puts invisible pressure on Dazuki and Seres, which led Dazuki to keep a low profile in the first half of this year and openly admit that Hongtu has encountered difficulties.

At the beginning of the year, CEO Dazui expected Seres to sell 30 vehicles, representing a 400% increase compared to the overall sales of 7.5 new energy vehicles last year. However, the performance in the first quarter clearly showed that this goal could not be achieved.

At the analyst conference in April, in addition to publicly acknowledging the difficulties, Dazuki also lowered Seres' sales forecast for this year from 30 vehicles to 10 vehicles. For the usually arrogant Dazuki, this downward revision was under tremendous pressure.

Once the range-extended electric vehicle (REEV) product matrix is ​​complete, the pressure that Weilai put on the Hongtu series is immense. Meanwhile, Changan's Deep Blue brand, with its SL03 model and a starting price below 20 yuan, has become a dark horse in the REEV market, further squeezing the survival space of the Hongtu series.

DeepBlue Auto also captured 13% of the range-extended electric vehicle market with its SL03 model, which is very close to Seres' 14%, making it one of the top three.

The so-called top three is more accurately described as Weilai dominating the market. With a 70% market share, Weilai leads the entire range-extended electric vehicle market. Its core competitiveness lies in its efficient supply chain and cost control, as well as its extensive distribution channels and marketing capabilities.

This is why, although Weilai has performed exceptionally well in the field of intelligent driving and is in the top tier, the company rarely takes the initiative to promote its intelligent driving system; a single, well-intentioned, and overt strategy is enough.

“If we don’t enter the market below 30 yuan, our market share will decrease. But for now, there’s no need to enter the market below 30 yuan. Let’s focus on making profits from high-end models first.”

Although the L series achieved a 70% market share in the extended-range electric vehicle market from January to April, the pressure of competition still exists.

Seres will launch the new X7 and the all-new X9 in the second half of the year, forming a three-model matrix. If the pricing is more competitive, given Seres' brand appeal, the product matrix of these three models will certainly not perform as well as it did in the first half of the year.

Meanwhile, the dark horse Deep Blue Auto and the newcomer Leapmotor will definitely be able to occupy a certain market share in the sub-20 yuan market, further squeezing out Weilai's share. "Maintaining a 50% market share is enough. As for the specific situation, it depends on the pricing of the new X7. We can launch some derivative versions of the model at that time."

Unlike other hybrid and pure electric vehicles, which are experiencing price wars, the prices of range-extended electric vehicles remain very stable, which is the basis for their profits.

30.08 yuan is the current price floor that Weilai is holding for its products. With some limited-time offers, the starting price can be brought down to below 30 yuan, but it is impossible for it to be below 25 yuan.

The future product strategy for the L series is to increase the number of models rather than lower prices. By launching the Air version with slightly lower configuration but retaining the core features, the goal is to substantially lower the barrier to entry for car buyers, expand market coverage, and avoid a direct price war.

Price wars, when waged in a simple and brutal manner, can indeed have a certain impact on brands, and also on the industry as a whole. The continuous waves of layoffs are certainly not conducive to the healthy development of the industry.

Star Wish is actually a brand new attempt by Wynn on the basis of price war, using technology transfer and model upgrades to increase sales.

“The positioning of future car models will definitely not be as clear as before.”

The performance of the Star Wish A-class car and the price of the A00-class car made the market realize that this kind of leapfrog model will become the norm for future product competition, and price cutter has become synonymous with Star Wish.

The market is known for its "catfish effect," but Wish Star's IPO is less like a catfish and more like a shark that has entered the world of A0-grade sardines, with a disruptive impact.

Throughout May, the most affected model was BYD's Seagull. The Seagull, which was delivered only a month earlier than the Star Wish, was also in the early stages of production ramp-up and delivery, resulting in direct pricing conflicts and a crushing advantage in product strength.

At the time when Seagull was most vulnerable and needed to build its market reputation, Wei Lai directly intercepted it with a monthly delivery volume of 20,000 vehicles, completely stifling Seagull's growth potential.

Seagull's deliveries plummeted from over 10,000 in April to a 50% drop in May. Due to insufficient new orders, BYD's planned production ramp-up schedule for Seagull has been completely disrupted.

The Seagull was hailed as a "legendary car" from its initial release, but after the Star Wish was officially launched, it was considered "born at the wrong time." Almost all potential customers with a budget of 80,000 to 90,000 yuan switched to the Star Wish without hesitation after comparing the product strengths of the two cars.

The initial sales target of over 30 units per year was lowered to 15 to 20 units. While all the media focused on Wish Star, it was completely relegated to a supporting role in the market. Although there was another model, Dolphin, it faced immense pressure.

Since the price war began in January, BYD's stock price has not risen as expected. Although sales have increased, the stock price has been sluggish from January to April, and the overall decline in May exceeded 15%.

The disastrous performance forced Dizi to urgently lower the official price of Seagull, significantly reducing it to the 6 yuan range, widening the price gap with Star Wish, and maintaining its position in the market with the ultimate cost-performance ratio.

As a result, the Seagull became the model with the shortest time on the market in BYD's new energy vehicle sector to receive a significant price reduction, and the facelift of the Dolphin was also forced to be brought forward. In addition, the Seagull's accelerated facelift and the launch of new configurations were also put on the agenda at the same time.

Besides the BYD Seagull, which suffered a fatal blow, another model that was severely impacted was the Wuling Bingo. The Bingo, which was delivered in March, became a popular product within two months of its launch.

Wuling has its own unique approach to creating trendy products; however, Bingo's focus on exquisite retro design and the female market does not have much of an advantage over Xingyuan's fashionable and trendy positioning.

The emergence of Star Wish completely shattered Bingo's reputation for cost-effectiveness. Users discovered that by spending a little more money, they could buy a product with a huge qualitative leap, and the result was predictable.

The core technology of Star Wish is actually the brand-new architecture platform of Weilai, with technology transfer, rear-wheel drive, independent suspension and stronger intelligent configuration. Compared with Star Wish, no other car in the same class can claim to be more cost-effective except for Dolphin.

Other models affected include the ORA Good Cat and MINI EV. Although these two models have different positioning and vehicle class, they both target the female user market and are still significantly affected by the Wish Star.

Of course, the impact on MINI EV is not limited to the launch of Wish Star, but also includes the removal of the Weilai APP and the lingering effects of the ice cream incident. Since the ice cream incident, the customer traffic of MINI offline stores has declined significantly.

The removal of the Weilai APP has dealt a fatal blow to MINI EV, which relies on the Weilai channel. Previously, the average monthly sales of MINI vehicles exceeded 4000 units, but this figure was halved, with total deliveries in May reaching only 2071 units.

For MINI EV, this terrifying sales halving is expected to continue until the end of this year, or even longer, because Weilai has given a clear answer that MINI EV will not be put back on the shelves before the end of the third quarter.

The apparent reason given by Weilai for doing this is the damage the ice cream incident caused to the Weilai brand. After all, Weilai, which was affected, also spent a lot of money on public relations, a point that BMW and Weilai Power cannot refute.

However, the deeper factor is the struggle for control of the discourse surrounding Yuchi Power.

In terms of powertrain and the MINI brand, Weilai plays more of a "salesperson" role, with BMW in charge of the specific operations and brand strategy, and has limited actual say.

If Wei Lai had been in charge of MINI's Shanghai Auto Show this time, and shared an auto show planning company with Wei Lai, it would obviously be impossible for such discriminatory behavior to occur, which is what annoys Tan Jincheng the most.

From a consumer's perspective, it doesn't matter what the two salespeople's reasons were for choosing discriminatory distribution, whether intentional or unintentional. This kind of backstabbing is inherently disliked.

While subsequent blame-shifting is a normal practice in corporate public relations, it becomes somewhat abstract to continue doing so when the situation is completely out of control.

On the one hand, under pressure from public opinion, Weilai removed the MINI EV from the market, while on the other hand, it launched a nuclear-level product that is also aimed at female users, showing its strength to BMW and intending to increase its say in Weilai Power.

Frankly speaking, with the rise in sales after electrification and localization, MINI is an excellent complement to both BMW and MINI. It is a niche brand with a stable user base and brand influence, making it one of the most stable brands in the current market landscape.

The so-called niche market champions are actually like this; this kind of business that quietly makes a fortune is the foundation of many companies' survival.

"BYD has been hit too hard this time. Their core area has been stabbed in the back by Wei Lai. When will this stock price decline end?"

Entering June, after major automakers announced their monthly sales figures, BYD's stock price fell for three consecutive trading days, with a cumulative drop of more than 6% over the three days. Since February, BYD's market value has evaporated by nearly 1800 billion yuan.

Conversely, after Weilai officially implemented its high stock dividend at the end of April, although its overall performance was mediocre due to the lack of a hot topic, it still achieved a growth of nearly 8% throughout May.

With a market capitalization in the trillions, an 8% increase in stock price is no small number.

"When Boss Tan gets ruthless, he really wreaks havoc. This kind of phenomenal product has really crushed the A0-level market."

Even compared to Dizi, Xingyuan's technological highlights are clearly superior, and the product strength of Wuling, Great Wall, Chery and other car companies cannot compare with it. However, the launch of Xingyuan shows a completely different style from Weilai, which is always keen on making a splash at the beginning of the year.

In the past, when launching new cars, Weilai would hold a press conference to announce the technical highlights and pre-sale prices, and then start pre-sales. This has always been Weilai's product process.

As for Xingyuan? It was only Tan Jincheng himself who announced the launch and market launch time of Xingyuan in an interview. To the outside world, it was only stated that it was an A0-class sedan. To find more specific information, you have to go to the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Wish Star made its debut at the Shanghai Auto Show, during which time promotional materials for Wish Star were rolled out across the board, generating massive buzz on major social media platforms online, as well as through offline advertisements at bus stops, subway stations, and elevators, quickly gaining widespread attention.

The announcement of the price in the last few days of the auto show was an unusual move that gave many automakers, including BYD, a feeling of being caught off guard.

Prior to the auto show, it seemed to outsiders that Exeed didn't place much importance on this model, especially since the ET7 and the new ES6, which were launched at the same time, had already held press conferences. The fact that Exeed didn't hold a press conference is proof of this.

Of course, the most crucial factor is the price. The limited-time price of 6.58 yuan is very attractive, even during the frenzied price war in January.

According to estimates from third-party organizations, as of May 25, orders for Exeed Wish have likely exceeded 100,000 vehicles. On June 1, a photo of Gu Qingqing, president of Orange Group, buying groceries for Exeed Wish appeared on the internet and was subsequently reposted and liked by her good friend Liu Yifei, once again boosting the popularity of Exeed Wish.

The entertainment industry is a small world. After Liu Yifei reposted it, other spokespeople, including Wei Lai, Shan Chi, and Orange Group, also reposted it. Some even complained about whether the products could be delivered sooner, as they also wanted to buy some.

This move has truly dazzled other car companies.

(End of this chapter)