In the field of new energy vehicles, the high-end trend is becoming more and more obvious. Major traditional car enterprises have launched their own high-end car brands one after another, hoping to take the lead in the fields of electrification, networking and intelligence in the future.
As a Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) high-end brand of Feifan automobile, on February 22, 2022, on a day called “super love day”, Feifan R7 was officially opened for reservation.
However, just before the launch of Feifan R7, Feifan automobile fell into a public opinion storm of “embezzling the car purchase deposit and canceling the user’s order” disclosed by the customer.
It happened in Nanchang Chaoyangzhou Tianhong experience center of Feifan automobile. The customer ordered “Feifan er6” for 5000 yuan on the Feifan automobile app on December 2, 2021. Originally, he wanted to go to the experience center to pay the balance in January this year. However, when logging in the app again on January 16, 2022, he found that the original order had been deleted. Afterwards, the experience center did not return the relevant deposit, nor did it give a reasonable explanation for this event.
In this regard, the reporter of business school sent an interview letter to Feifan automobile. Feifan automobile responded that the customer placed an order at that time was a “deposit”. After negotiation, the two sides have reached a consensus and the problem has been properly solved.
However, as a leader in the transformation of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) to high-end, the sales performance of Feifan in the first year is not satisfactory. Before the formal independence of Feifan automobile, Yu Jingmin, former deputy general manager of SAIC passenger car company, once proposed that the annual sales target of Feifan automobile in 2021 was 30000 vehicles. In 2021, the new car delivery volume of the brand was 18436, which failed to achieve the target of 30000. In 2022, as a high-end brand, what new attempts and changes will Feifan make in product layout and marketing strategy?
misappropriation of “deposit” storm?
“Deposit” has legal effect, while “deposit” has no legal effect. Once the deposit is paid, it will play the function of punishing the defaulting party and compensating the observant party. Deposit refers to the way in which one party pays a certain amount of money to the other party in advance as a guarantee for the realization of contractual creditor’s rights.
A storm of “misappropriation of deposit” due to customer disclosure made Feifan car, a new player on the new energy vehicle track, enter the public view again.
Recently, a customer disclosed that Feifan car “embezzled the car purchase deposit and cancelled the user’s order without permission”. The party concerned went to “March 15” to complain with relevant departments. The occurrence of this incident has made many netizens question the brand mission of “user is partner” of Feifan automobile.
For the relevant information about this matter, Feifan automobile responded to the reporter of business school, saying that in December 2021, the customer ordered a “Feifan er6” at the Tianhong experience center in Chaoyangzhou, Nanchang, and paid a large deposit of 5000 yuan. Later, the customer’s willingness to buy a car changed, applied for a refund, and asked Nanchang Chaoyang Zhou Tianhong experience center to return a deposit of 5000 yuan. According to the business policy of Feifan automobile, unless it does not have the qualification of purchasing new energy vehicles due to personal credit problems, Feifan automobile will not return the deposit if big customers apply for cancellation. The customer also agreed to use the deposit for subsequent car purchase, but later had a misunderstanding with the experience center.
Recently, the reporter of business school found on the car purchase page of Feifan auto app that the payment in the reservation information is indeed a “deposit”. Feifan automobile said that the system of the app was upgraded in February 2022. Before the upgrade, that is, this event, the customer purchased the car in December 2021. At that time, the reservation information page was “deposit”. Considering the customer service and the communication cost caused by the communication and confirmation with the customer, the system was upgraded, Changed to the “deposit” page seen by the reporter now. The other party said that such an upgrade is mainly to better serve customers. After the deposit, the customer is given 72 hours to consider. If you don’t want to buy a car, you can unsubscribe within 72 hours. If you don’t cancel the order, it will turn into a “deposit”. The reporter failed to contact the customer through microblog, Zhihu and Feifan auto app. At present, there is no further information and controversy about the customer.
For the handling results of this incident, Feifan automobile said that the customer’s family thought that the space of Feifan automobile was still a little small and could not meet their family needs, so the customer proposed to cancel the order. Now Feifan has returned the 5000 yuan deposit to the customer according to the “order” after the system upgrade, and the customer will no longer buy Feifan.
[source: Feifan auto app]
“Deposit” or “deposit”? What is the difference in the legal definition of the storm caused by this word difference? In this regard, Xu Hao of Jingshi law firm said that the deposit has the nature of guarantee, which is a legal concept; The deposit has no guarantee nature and is not a legal concept. The two have the same pronunciation, but in the legal sense, the two can not be confused. “Deposit” is part of the price paid in advance and does not have the nature of guarantee; The “deposit” is a certain amount of money paid by one party to the other party in order to ensure the performance of the contract. It has the function of guarantee and proving the establishment of the contract. For the “deposit”, if the party receiving the deposit fails to perform the agreement, the party delivering the deposit can only ask for the return of the deposit rather than double the return. In other words, “deposit” has legal effect, while “deposit” does not have legal effect. Once the deposit is paid, it will play the function of punishing the defaulting party and compensating the observant party. Deposit refers to the way in which one party pays a certain amount of money to the other party in advance as a guarantee for the realization of contractual creditor’s rights.
Bai Yiyang, manager of the international research department of China Merchants Bank, said that the current channel of Feifan automobile is still dominated by the traditional distribution mode, and the problem of deposit orders is still at the dealer side, mainly due to some problems in channel management. At present, almost all car companies have mentioned the core position of users in the whole product life cycle, but there are many details to be solved at the specific operation level. The problem of this deposit reflects the gap between Feifan’s dealer management ability and brand image positioning.
So, behind the storm, what is the market performance of Feifan automobile when it first entered the competition field?
“enemy on both sides”? Sales volume not up to standard
The price increase is not novel. Tesla also increases its price, but it still sells well. Feifan should be more targeted at just in need consumers or mid-range income groups. There may be some differences with the current population positioning of Tesla and “Wei Xiaoli”. These consumers may be more sensitive to prices and may affect consumers’ purchase choices and decisions.
In October 2021, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) announced that it plans to invest in the establishment of Feifan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Feifan automobile”) and separate the R brand of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) passenger car company, which will be operated by Feifan automobile in a market-oriented manner.
Wu Bing, CEO of SAIC mobile travel strategic brand “enjoy road travel”, served as CEO of Feifan automobile.
[source: cninfo]
Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) pointed out in the announcement that the company will conduct market-oriented operation of R brand through Feifan automobile in the way of independent brand and independent company, and explore a new model of data-driven and industrial co creation, which will help to accelerate the development of medium and high-end intelligent electric vehicle market. Feifan automobile is positioned as a “user-oriented data-driven technology company”. With the brand proposition of “science and technology realizes imagination”, by improving the “automobile intelligent experience and user scene mining ability”, and exploring the use of innovative company operation mode, business operation mode and market-oriented incentive and restraint mechanism, Feifan automobile can realize independent operation and be responsible for its own profits and losses, Strive to become a new engine for SAIC’s innovation, transformation and development, help the sales growth of new energy vehicles and promote the brand upward.
[source: Enterprise Investigation]
According to the official website, before the official acceptance of the reservation of Feifan R7, there were two models of Feifan car in sales, namely Marvel R and er6. Not long ago, the official announcement of Feifan car increased the price of brand models by 1000-2000 yuan on the premise of unchanged configuration. After adjustment, the official guidance price of er6 was 155800-201800 yuan, and the official guidance price of Marvel r was 219800-261800 yuan. Up to now, a total of 50 Feifan automobile experience centers have been put into operation, covering 36 cities in China.
The establishment of Feifan automobile means that R brand will directly belong to Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , which is at the same level as SAIC passenger cars and separated from Roewe’s organizational structure, management system and channel marketing. However, as a high-end brand that SAIC placed high hopes on, Feifan didn’t hand in a beautiful report card at the beginning.
According to the data, the new car delivery volume of the brand in 2021 was 18436, which is far from the initially expected sales target of 30000 vehicles.
[source: The Pacific Securities Co.Ltd(601099) car]
On the current sales situation, Feifan automobile responded that Feifan automobile was officially established in November 2021 and started independent operation. The relevant management system, system, organizational structure and mechanism need some time to sort out, build and improve.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the automotive industry innovation research center of Northern University of technology, said that the external reason for the poor sales of Feifan cars is the current fierce market competition environment and too many brands. For example, the popularity of Lingke launched by Geely and wey launched by great wall is higher than that of Feifan automobile. However, Feifan automobile was launched later and the market publicity is not very strong. From the perspective of internal reasons, the marketing budget is too small. If the budget is increased, such as asking for online live broadcasting to bring goods, the popularity will be improved accordingly. Qiu Kai, Deputy Secretary General of the industrial coordinated development Working Committee of China Automobile Circulation Association, also believes that the main reason is the weak product competitiveness and consumer perception. Mainstream new power brands include Tesla and “Wei Xiaoli”, as well as traditional enterprises such as Byd Company Limited(002594) and ai’an. Feifan is easy to be submerged in the competition, and the brand’s popularity and influence are not as good as the previous r brand.
Bai Yiyang, manager of CMB international research department, said that the poor sales of Feifan in 2021 was due to the relatively few models. At present, there are only er6 and marvel R. Second, in terms of level positioning, consumers with a price of 150000-250000 yuan have far less preference for pure electricity than consumers with a price of less than 100000 yuan and more than 300000 yuan, so they need to spend more time and money to cultivate the market.
Feifan automobile said that recently, affected by the decline of new energy subsidies and the sharp rise in the price of basic resources such as lithium ore, the selling prices of Feifan er6 and Feifan Marvel r were adjusted as appropriate. Among them, except for the entry-level model of Marvel R, the price of other models increased by 2000 yuan, while the price of er6 model increased by 1000 yuan. After adjustment, the price of Marvel r was 219800 yuan – 261800 yuan, while the price of er6 model changed to 156800 yuan – 201800 yuan. Then, with the increase of users’ purchase cost, will it further affect the sales volume of Feifan?
Bai Yiyang believes that for strong enterprises such as Byd Company Limited(002594) , due to the large backlog of orders, the price increase will not affect short-term delivery, and the potential impact of the price increase can be digested in a few months. But for Feifan, the price rise must have an impact on short-term sales. If you see the continuous impact, you will generally attract consumers through other ways, such as giving accessories, interest subsidies and so on.
Qiu Kai believes that the price increase is not novel, and Tesla also increases the price, but it still sells well. Feifan should be more targeted at just in need consumers or mid-range income groups. There may be some differences in the current population positioning with Tesla and Wei Xiaoli. These consumers may be more sensitive to prices and may affect consumers’ purchase choices and decisions.
Feifan automobile said that after the price adjustment, for the marvel R model, it launched a limited time preferential [five vs. lunbi] huge benefit package, including interest free 3 years, free 3-year flow, free 2-year charging or home charging pile and installation service (one out of two), lifelong vehicle, three electricity warranty and free basic maintenance. It is recommended that motorists can get 10000 points to buy a car. For er6 models, users can enjoy multiple rights and interests such as lifelong three electricity warranty, lifelong vehicle warranty, lifelong free basic maintenance and lifelong free basic traffic, so as to attract consumers.
back to SAIC and “compete with Zhiji”?
Zhiji automobile is positioned as high-end and has the nature of capital market financing. In the future, it will attract more investors and tend to be diversified; Feifan automobile is positioned as a medium and high-end company, which is 100% controlled by SAIC.
On February 22, 2022, the first flagship model R7 of Feifan automobile was officially launched. As a brand newly independent in November 2021, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) said that the company will conduct market-oriented operation of R brand through Feifan automobile in the way of independent brand and independent company, operate independently and be responsible for its own profits and losses. It is worth noting that in May 2020, Yang Xiaodong, vice president of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) and general manager of SAIC passenger cars, announced that R brand is no longer the logo of Rongwei high-end new energy vehicles, but is independent from Rongwei and becomes the third independent brand of SAIC passenger cars. Now, in just over a year, Feifan automobile is facing the market again as an independent brand.
In fact, the high-end brand built by SAIC is not only Feifan automobile, but also Zhiji automobile brand. In November 2020, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) announced that in order to accelerate the building of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) independent high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle brand, the company plans to jointly invest with Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park Development Co.Ltd(600895) and Hengxu capital to establish “Shanghai Yuanjie intelligent technology equity investment fund partnership (limited partnership)” to invest in high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle projects. The fund plans to specially invest in the high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle project with Alibaba (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd., which is now Zhiji automobile.
In terms of capital contribution structure, among the total subscribed capital contribution of 7.2 billion yuan of Zhiji automobile, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) subscribed capital contribution of 5.399 billion yuan, accounting for 74.986%, Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park Development Co.Ltd(600895) subscribed capital contribution of 1.8 billion yuan, accounting for 25%, and Hengxu capital subscribed capital contribution of 01 million yuan, accounting for 0.014%. Zhiji automobile also carries the important mission of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) high-end.
A year later, SAIC launched Feifan automobile again. Then, how to differentiate between Zhiji automobile and Feifan automobile, which are also SAIC’s brands?
In this regard, Bai Yiyang believes that from Rongwei to R standard and then to Feifan, this is almost the same strain.
So far, Feifan has undertaken the high-end and upward task of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) new energy era. From the perspective of positioning, Feifan is also a light asset company, which makes full use of the resources of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) brother company and is built with the strength of the whole group. At present, SAIC is under great pressure in terms of points and new energy breakthrough. Although it has accumulated certain technology and funds, there is no good breakthrough in the field of new energy. After leaving Hongguang miniev, it is losing its market share as a whole.
Bai Yiyang further pointed out that about Feifan and Zhiji, it can be said that Feifan kisses his son and Zhiji is a dry son. In terms of differentiated positioning, Zhiji’s customer base will be higher than Feifan as a whole. At present, SAIC has not seen the internal horse racing mechanism, because Feifan theoretically needs the help of brother companies. Cooperation is greater than competition, which is different from the model of one brand and one team of great wall. Feifan and Zhiji build their brand image from scratch. They can concentrate on the initial brand positioning and let the first batch of users pay the bill, so as to establish the brand and lay a foundation for subsequent user operations.
Zhong Shi, a well-known commentator in the automotive industry, also said that with the continuous development of the new energy market, the automotive industry as a whole has made efforts in the field of new energy. Many traditional enterprises have also directly independent their own high-end intelligent electric vehicle brands, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) following the trend, it is bound to need to separate themselves from traditional fuel vehicle brands, Make a fresh start in the field of intelligent electrification and attract users with a brand-new brand.
As for Zhiji automobile and Feifan automobile, Mr. Zhong said that Zhiji automobile is positioned as high-end and has the nature of capital market financing. In the future, it will attract more investors and tend to be diversified; Feifan automobile is positioned as a medium and high-end company, which is 100% controlled by SAIC. At present, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) explores which one can better meet the needs of the market through two different modes: Zhiji automobile and Feifan automobile, rather than putting eggs in the same basket. However, due to the different product positioning of Zhiji automobile and Feifan automobile, although there is a little intersection in price, they will not form a lot of competition. The most important thing is the competition with the external market.
In today’s increasingly fierce competition for high-end brands, is it better to break into stones or clench into fists? Ren Wanfu, a well-known analyst in the automotive industry, believes that at present, traditional auto enterprises basically adopt the way of multi head attack in the process of transformation, trying to get through the road of transformation through joint venture cooperation and internal reform. Feifan and Zhiji are different attempts of SAIC on the road of transformation.
Ren Wanfu believes that Feifan automobile is the embodiment of SAIC’s innovation and transformation relying on itself. It has both the steadiness of traditional automobile enterprises and the passion of new forces, and the mechanism is more flexible.
However, as Zhong said, although relying on SAIC, the brand competitiveness of Feifan still depends on itself. So, in the face of today’s fierce competition, how can Feifan automobile create extraordinary performance?
2022 how to create extraordinary performance?
Feifan automobile mainly concentrates the internal resources of SAIC and relies on the solutions of brother companies in SAIC system in the fields of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, but at the same time, the disadvantage is that the long board is not prominent. At present, the competition of new energy models has changed from avoiding short board to highlighting long board. Feifan currently lacks a brand selling point.
In 2021, China’s automobile production and sales showed a year-on-year growth trend, ending the decline for three consecutive years since 2018. Among them, new energy vehicles have become the biggest bright spot, with annual sales of more than 3.5 million vehicles, and the market share has increased to 13.4%, further indicating that the new energy vehicle market has shifted from policy driven to market driven; China’s total automobile production and sales has ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years, and has made great progress in “electrification, networking and intelligence”.
For Feifan automobile, the pressure of internal and external attack cannot be underestimated when entering the track of high-end brand at this time.
With the continuous prosperity of the new energy vehicle market, traditional car companies have laid out their own high-end brands. FAW has built FAW red flag with the strength of the whole group and has entered the field of luxury cars; The first model of BAIC high-end new energy brand Jihu α T was officially launched in August 2020. On the eve of Shanghai International Auto Show in 2021, Jihu released its second model α S. Among them, the price is between 388900 yuan and 429900 yuan α S Huawei hi version has attracted the most attention; GAC ea’an is a high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand under GAC. At present, aion s, aion V, aion LX and other models have been launched. Aion s is often in the top 15 of the new energy sales list of the passenger Association; Dongfeng lantu and Geely krypton are also well-known in Feifan cars. At the same time, Weilai, ideal and Xiaopeng, the new forces of automobile manufacturing starting from new energy, are also strong competitors of Feifan automobile.
In the face of the dual competition between traditional automobile enterprises and new energy automobile brands, Qiu Kai believes that the sales volume of ai’an is good, lantu is also very developed, and Feifan’s back to SAIC should be the best foundation. As Zhong said, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) can provide financial, technical and channel support for Feifan. For example, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) dealer channels all over the country can help Feifan develop the market.
Qiu Kai also said that the development momentum of Feifan automobile has not been fully demonstrated compared with other brands, and the development prospect is not as clear as other brands. In terms of products, channels and internal organizational structure, there is still the shadow of SAIC passenger cars, a traditional automobile enterprise in the past. Rongwei brand also affects consumers’ cognition of Feifan.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the automotive industry innovation research center of Northern University of technology, said that the homogenization of automotive products focusing on high-end brands is very serious. In the current new brands, only a few head enterprises have obvious advantages and have their own characteristics, such as Tesla’s super charging network, Xiaopeng’s automatic driving technology, Weilai’s power exchange technology, etc. The products of other car companies are similar, which are nothing more than intelligent Internet connection, automatic driving, long mileage and so on. In this case, Zhong Shi said that the key of Feifan is to form the advantage of differentiated competition in the field of intelligence, so as to better attract users and improve the user experience.
Zhang Xiang further pointed out that the characteristics of Feifan automobile are: first, it is invested by Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , which is one of the largest traditional automobile enterprises in China; Second, Feifan is also the first 5g model in the morning. At present, the vehicle networking system of most models is still 4G network, but Feifan claims to have been equipped with 5g network, which is a leader in China; In addition, it is claimed that the function of vehicle road coordination can be realized, that is, vehicle and road can communicate. However, vehicle road collaboration is still in the stage of R & D, testing and demonstration operation. There is no commercial application. Feifan automobile can not experience this function, but can only do advertising gimmicks to attract users.
High end brands of traditional car enterprises have come one after another, and Weilai, ideal and Xiaopeng, the new forces of car manufacturing, have also occupied a favorable position. How can we achieve “the latecomer takes the lead”. In this regard, Ren Wanfu said that in the past two years, traditional car enterprises have made great efforts in electrification, and the historical opportunities brought by the reform of the automobile industry coexist with the challenges brought by fierce market competition, No new brand is 100% sure to break out of the siege, and SAIC is no exception.
How will Feifan auto make extraordinary achievements in 2022?
In this regard, Zhang Xiang pointed out that if Feifan wants to open the market, it is still necessary to focus on the current new retail and direct selling methods, increase the number of users and increase the popularity of fans, which is the basic method. At present, the general leaders and CEOs of car enterprises are also online celebrities. They can bring goods and develop in this regard. At the same time, they can increase the number of experience stores and sales networks, find online celebrities as spokesmen, and pay attention to product quality.
Bai Yiyang believes that Feifan mainly concentrates the internal resources of SAIC and relies on the solutions of brother companies in SAIC system in the field of intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit, but at the same time, the disadvantage is that the long board is not prominent. At present, the competition of new energy models has changed from avoiding short board to highlighting long board. Feifan currently lacks a brand selling point. R7 will be launched in 2022, targeting medium and high-end. After independent operation at the end of 2021, there may be more attempts in terms of brand this year. Both CEO and coo have marketing backgrounds. This year, they may focus more on digital marketing and make efforts in data accumulation, user portrait, private domain operation and so on.
Feifan automobile said that it would be listed and delivered to Feifan R7 in the second half of 2022 At the marketing level, a series of layouts have been made around Feifan R7. Around the heavy product Feifan R7, preparations for product development, new retail, user development, user operation and other dimensions are being stepped up.
Zhong Shi admitted that the formation of high-end brands needs to be cultivated slowly. This process should not be in a hurry. We should not be eager for success in order to sell. At present, Feifan automobile belongs to the brand cultivation stage, and the sales volume is natural. When the brand reputation is accumulated and the user trust and satisfaction are improved, the sales volume will naturally accumulate. In this process, in addition to the most basic product quality and user service, in the case of more and more diversified user choices, the key is to do a good job in product differentiation, attract users through distinctive intelligent experience, and have corresponding brand culture and circle culture to improve user stickiness.
Open the front page of Feifan auto app and the slogan “make me extraordinary” comes into view. As a newborn of high-end brand, can Feifan auto make its own extraordinary journey? In this process, what new energy can it bring to the high-end layout of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) ? Business school will continue to pay attention.
