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According to media reports on October 12, SAIC is working on a new electric smart vehicle brand project codenamed "L", which will be led by SAIC Chairman Chen Hong, with President Wang Xiaoqiu as commander-in-chief. A month later, the project has made the latest progress.

On November 26th, SAIC announced that the SAIC "L" project, officially named "Zhiji Automobile", is a joint venture between SAIC, Shanghai Pudong New area and Alibaba. The initial round financing of the project is 10 billion yuan, of which SAIC holds 54%. Pudong New area and Ali each own 18%, and the others account for 10%.

"Zhiji Automobile" is not a new car-building force in the real sense. Although "Zhiji Automobile" is a brand-new automobile brand and will adopt a new structure and operation model, the brand is guided by SAIC, not by Internet companies. From a management point of view, "Zhiji Automobile" should be parallel to SAIC passenger cars, SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC General Motors, and be positioned higher than the previously issued SAIC R standard.

According to the plan, the first product of Zhiji Automobile is a car model, which will be launched synchronously in Shanghai, London and CES in North America in January 2021, and SUV and concept cars will be launched one after another in 2022.

With regard to the emergence of "Zhiji cars," Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the passenger Association, believes that without the effective launch of joint venture brand new energy high-end cars, the high-end new energy of independent brands is still relatively favorable, and it is a development opportunity for independent brands. Compared with overseas brands, independent high-end new energy brands have strong local advantages of location and traditional industrial chain, but have disadvantages in technology and intelligence.

For independent brands, the upward road of brands is imperative. In May this year, SAIC Roewe officially launched a new R standard for positioning middle-and high-end new energy, and the first car, the ER6, was launched on August 13. At the 2020 Guangzhou Motor Show, the new R mark was displayed in an independent pavilion, and a large number of "R" logos were used, which clearly distinguished Roewe and Mingjue brands.

In addition to SAIC, Changan and Dongfeng are also planning their high-end new energy brands. On August 3, 2016, BAIC New Energy ARCFOX brand launched its first mass production SUV ARCFOX α T in October; on July 17, 2020, Dongfeng launched its new high-end electric brand, which is called "Lantu" in Chinese; on November 14, Changan Automobile said it was working with Huawei and Ningde era to build a new high-end smart car brand; at Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Eian announced its independent operation.

However, for the arrival of these new brands, it is certain that the development of these brands in the high-end market of new energy will not be very smooth. On the one hand, the sales of car brands such as NIO, ideal and Xiaopeng continue to rise, Tesla's localization goes deep into Model 3 and continues to reduce prices, and Volkswagen's domestic ID.4 is menacing, the difficulty of these traditional car enterprises is obvious. In addition, with the landing of high-end new energy brands such as SAIC, Dongfeng and Changan, they will compete on the same stage in the future. it is also doubtful what differentiation advantages these brands will have.

In the case of increasing competition in the automobile market, independent car enterprises are facing greater market problems and are under more and more pressure from joint venture car companies to reduce prices. On the whole, a number of traditional car companies have launched new new energy brands, hoping to get rid of the predicament of low-end product positioning. But will these high-end brands survive? Will it fall into the dilemma of traditional independent brands again? Maybe only time will prove it. Some people in the industry have said that it is too difficult for Chinese local car companies to try to break through by building new independent high-end brands, and products, technology, design and corporate image are insurmountable dilemmas.

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