AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/14 Report--

On March 13, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, sent an email to senior executives of the company. The content of the email was not long, with only four short sentences:

1, the recent online controversy about who is the Chinese brand and SUV sales first, the brand and marketing department need to treat calmly, all staff, especially the marketing section, keep modest and strive, wolf nature work hard.

2. Keep in mind the core of entrepreneurial transformation and build an "intelligent low-carbon travel technology company". The journey is still in its infancy, and do not focus on temporary sales achievements.

3. The real serious challenge for Chinese brands is the strong joint venture brand and the difficult strategic transformation, rather than the struggle between one and two.

4. Chinese brand cars go hand in hand, win-win development, only have the potential of Chinese brands, is the great luck of Chinese brands.

I believe everyone has heard of the reason why Zhu Huarong released the email. In February this year, the sales rankings of the three major domestic independent brands Geely, Great Wall and Chang'an changed greatly. According to FIFA data, in February 2021, the retail volume of narrow passenger cars of Changan Automobile was 97300, while that of Geely and Great Wall were 69900 and 69100 respectively. Changan Automobile led Geely and Great Wall in sales, becoming the highest-selling independent car brand in February.

What is more noteworthy is that the dominant position of Harvard H6 in the SUV market is "terminated" by the Changan CS75 series. According to the Federation of passengers, the retail volume of Changan CS75 in February was 32365 and Harvard H6 was 31066, which is the first time that Harvard H6 has been overtaken in recent years.

Great Wall seemed unwilling to accept the honor of "coming to an end", so it released another set of data. According to the data, the insured volume of the Harvard H6 was 24788 in February, while that of the Changan CS75 was 20939, meaning that the H6 remained the top seller of the month, ranking first in China's SUV sales for a total of 93 months.

The same is true on the official Weibo of the two car companies, which seems to attach great importance to who is the Chinese brand / the top seller of SUV in China. Changan Automobile said, "Changan Automobile won the first place in China's brand passenger car sales, CS75 won the first place in SUV sales, and Yitou won the first place in China's brand car sales!" Great Wall Harvard said, "China has been the top seller of SUV for a total of 93 months!" After giving way to all the competitors, you continue to cheer on! "

In fact, due to the different statistical paths of the data, the final statistical data must be different. At present, domestic car sales mainly have three statistical paths: wholesale volume, retail volume and insured volume, of which the "gold content" of the insured amount is the highest, and the data source is the new car risk volume; the second is the retail sales volume, that is, the total amount of cars eventually sold by the sales volume; finally, the wholesale sales volume, which is generally announced by the manufacturers, that is, the total amount of bulk shipments from manufacturers to dealers.

In response to this situation, Zhu Huarong released the email to the senior management of the company, the content is not much, but the attitude is very clear. Zhu Huarong said that it does not matter who is the Chinese brand and the number one sales of SUV in China. The important thing is to keep modesty and forge ahead instead of focusing on temporary achievements. It also said that the most serious challenges for Chinese brands are joint venture brands and strategic transformation, and Chinese brands need to go hand in hand in order to achieve win-win development.

There is no doubt that under the influence of stock competition in the domestic market, independent brands such as Geely, Changan, Great Wall and Wuling are developing rapidly, and the sales performance reflected in the market is indeed better than that of some joint venture brands. however, Chinese brands should always be vigilant that the current situation of independent brands is not optimistic, especially in the three major pieces and terminal after-sales, consumers still do not recognize the status of independent brands. Independent car companies want to catch up with joint venture brands, not only in terms of sales, but also in technology, services and products. At present, independent brands still have a long way to go.

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