“This year, the goal of the whole overseas market is to exceed 800000 vehicles. Among them, the European market will be fully developed. The sales volume of independent brands mg and Maxus in Europe is expected to reach 120000 vehicles. Europe will take the lead in upgrading to SAIC’s first ‘100000 vehicle’ overseas regional market.” Yu De, assistant president of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) general manager of international business department and general manager of SAIC international, smiled confidently when talking about the market layout to Nanfang + reporters.
The continuous rise of SAIC’s overseas market is actually an epitome of China’s automobile export: after years of layout, seizing the new opportunities of electrification and intelligence, the market has ushered in rapid growth. According to the latest data, in the case of doubling exports last year, China’s automobile exports maintained a high momentum in January, with the export volume reaching 231000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 87.7%. Among them, 56000 new energy vehicles were exported, a year-on-year increase of 5.4 times.
In fact, the effective development of SAIC’s overseas market is backed by a systematic, planned and organic “going global” and has established an automobile industry chain facing the global market integrating R & D, marketing, logistics, parts, manufacturing, finance and used cars. This will provide more references for Chinese brands to go to sea in the future. With a strong supply chain as the support, we will pay attention to services, gain public praise and create a new image of China’s intelligent manufacturing.
breaking the core: 120000 in Europe this year
Data show that in 2021, China exported 2.015 million complete vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.0 times. In terms of models, the export of passenger cars was 1.614 million, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times; The export of new energy vehicles was 310000, a year-on-year increase of 3.0 times.
Why can Chinese brands break through the bottleneck for many years in just one year, and the export scale jumped from 1 million to 2 million?
The key link behind this is that after years of water testing, Chinese brands have gained a firm foothold in mature markets such as Europe, Australia and New Zealand, began to show competitiveness, and formed benign interaction with markets such as Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Taking SAIC as an example, it has formed six 50000 markets in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, the Americas, the Middle East, ASEAN and South Asia. “Especially in Europe, last year, SAIC’s own brands mg and Maxus sold 73000 vehicles in developed countries such as the UK, France, Germany and Sweden (including more than 40000 new energy vehicles). Among them, the sales of Mg in continental Europe (excluding the UK) in 2021 tripled compared with that in 2020.” Yu de said that after several years of early market development, the layout of Western Europe, Central Europe, southern Europe and Northern Europe has basically ended, and the most difficult time has passed. We hope to see better business results in Europe this year.
More importantly, while breaking the key markets in Europe, other regions also show the characteristics of “each has its own advantages”. SAIC has entered the top ten in the Australian market; The sales volume of independent brands in the American market reached 71000; Mg in the Middle East market ranks among the top six, behind Toyota and Hyundai, etc.
“Therefore, the goal of the whole overseas this year, from the group level, the goal of the whole Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) this year is to exceed 800000 vehicles, of which mg strives for 500000 to 600000 vehicles or even higher.” Yu de said.
system: the whole industrial chain goes to sea collectively
“Our development is inseparable from the strong supply chain guarantee. The overseas layout of Anji logistics has been carried out in an orderly manner in recent years. At present, China’s distribution covers more than 600 cities and 100 overseas; there are both complete vehicles and parts.” Yu De also explained the reasons for the rapid development of SAIC’s overseas market.
This is a different sea going mode from the traditional one, which shows that SAIC has a systematic, planned and organic “going out”. At present, SAIC has established an automobile industry chain facing the global market integrating R & D, marketing, logistics, parts, manufacturing, finance and used cars, with products and services in more than 80 countries and regions around the world.
At the product level, SAIC has also taken a key step, focusing on the needs of overseas markets for “localization” development. It is revealed that based on China’s leading overseas market scale and the world’s most complete new energy product type spectrum, SAIC will build the first “global car” – mg EH32.
“European safety is not just the technical standard of double five-star safety emphasized by HS in the past. Recently, Europe has a large number of global leading requirements on safety, such as side column collision. These requirements will not be designed and considered in China’s non global models. For EH32, we fully meet European standards based on European standards.” Said Zhang Liang, deputy general manager of data business department and chief digital officer of SAIC passenger cars.
At present, SAIC’s European parent company has five subsidiaries and two parts centers. Mg covers 16 countries in the European continent.
heavy reputation: service should keep pace
In fact, Chinese brands have been unable to open up in overseas markets before, which is closely related to service. However, this passive situation is also changing, and China’s intelligent manufacturing services are beginning to be recognized by different markets around the world.
\u3000\u3000 “Last year, we found that near the German French border, the vehicles broke down after not using for a period of time, and the number showed an upward trend. What was the reason for the local situation? Later, after layers of investigation, the number of radio stations in this area exceeded 250, there was a problem with the storage of digital radio, and the software mismatch led to the crash of the radio in the vehicle and the failure of the vehicle Sleep, leading to constant power consumption and eventually problems. Later, we solved the problem through software upgrade, and the local customers were very satisfied. ” Liu Xinyu, deputy general manager of SAIC International Europe, said in an interview with Nanfang + that since entering the European market in 2018, we rely on excellent reputation and the accumulation of word-of-mouth effect, which is also an attitude to convey Chinese brands.
At present, in order to better serve customers, SAIC has developed very rapidly in European channels. This year, the whole European continent + UK will have a sales channel target of more than 1200. “In the past two years, we have developed a dealer almost every three days. We have covered the whole Europe faster than many people think.” Liu Xinyu said.
At present, affected by the global epidemic, although the overseas operation of Chinese auto enterprises has encountered a series of challenges such as rising raw material prices, shortage of parts supply, tight transportation capacity and rising freight rates, SAIC has still made profits in many key regional markets such as Europe. It can be predicted that in the future, with the acceleration of popular models and the continuous improvement of logistics, channels and after-sales system, China’s overseas auto sales are expected to continue to grow at a high speed.
