AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/14 Report--

The 2020 China Automobile Chongqing Forum was held at Chongqing Yuelai International Conference Center on June 13. At the meeting, Wu Song, member of the party committee and executive deputy general manager of GAC GROUP, said that in the face of the new challenges brought by the automobile industry, independent brands should seize this new development opportunity. Wu Song believes that independent brands should make efforts from four aspects: unswervingly promote brands upward, brands do not go up, independent brands can not go far; unswervingly promote technological innovation; pay close attention to hybrid transformation and gradually launch HEV products; and focus on intelligent network-connected new energy vehicles.

Domestic passenger car sales rose 8.9 per cent to 1.674 million in May and fell 27.4 per cent to 6.109 million from January to May, according to the China Automobile Association.

In May, the sales of China's own-brand car companies are growing steadily. Although the sales volume of the domestic passenger car market has changed from negative to positive, the declining trend of Chinese brand passenger car market share has further intensified. Sales of Chinese brand passenger cars rose 0.4 per cent to 571000 in May, accounting for 34.1 per cent of the passenger car market share, down 2.2 per cent from a year earlier and a six-year low. In the previous month, sales of China's own-brand passenger cars fell 32.5 per cent to 2.264 million, accounting for 37.1 per cent of the passenger car market share, down 2.8 per cent from a year earlier and still below the 40 per cent red line.

According to Wu Song's view, under the general trend of continuous negative growth in the market as a whole, luxury brands rely on their brand advantages to meet the demand for luxury brands in different levels of consumer markets through falling prices and promotional concessions, constantly occupying market space and increasing sales. At the same time, the market share of American, Korean and French brands has declined, German and Japanese brands have risen rapidly, and the market share of Chinese brand passenger cars has also dropped from 43.9% in 2017 to 39.2% in 2019. Therefore, if independent brands want to gain a foothold in the market, they must accelerate the upward development of their brands.

In recent years, independent brands have adopted multi-brand strategies to occupy market share. Chery has four brands: Chery, Kaiyi, Jetta and Starway, Great Wall has WEY, Euler, Great Wall Gun and Harvard, while Geely owns Geely, Lecker, Geometry, Proton, Lutes and Maple Leaf. At present, including Baojun, Geely, BYD, Red Flag, Pentium, Roewe, Wuling and other brands are preparing for the brand upward, so that the brand more competitive, tide flu and upward development ability.

Wu Song said that after more than ten years of development, some excellent Chinese brands have outperformed second-tier joint venture brands in terms of technology, performance and quality, but it is still difficult to improve the brand, coupled with changes in the domestic environment. As a result, the development of independent brands is faced with great challenges.

In the context of the downward trend of China's auto market, a polarized situation has been gradually formed. As far as Chinese independent brands are concerned, first-tier independent brands led by Geely, Great Wall, Chang'an and Wuling are widening the gap with other car companies, while marginal car companies such as Lifan, Zhongtai, Huatai, Cheetah and Haimai are at risk of delisting.

With the decline of the market share of Chinese brands and the intensification of the competitive environment, independent brands have entered the new energy vehicle mode of "corner overtaking". Although China is the largest new energy vehicle market in the world, which has created conditions for the rise of independent brands, since the decline of new energy subsidized vehicles, China's new energy vehicle market has stagnated and further dealt a blow to the development of independent brands.

In fact, if Chinese brands want to achieve high-end, it is not easy to achieve brand upward. Some of the advantageous markets of independent brands are occupied by joint venture brands, and the multi-brand strategy also increases the competitive pressure on the market. Inaccurate positioning of their own brands will also cause fights with each other. Therefore, Chinese brands rely on excellent technology and R & D capabilities to promote brand strength, rather than relying on brands to achieve "pseudo-high-end".

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