Get up early and catch up late to set up Chery to make up lessons New Energy

Chery Automobile, which "grew savagely" in overseas markets, finally remembered the last bus of "new energy". On October 16, at Chery 2023 Science and Technology Day, Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Holding Group, reflected that "Chery has' got up early and caught up with a late gathering 'in terms of new energy vehicles, but now it wants to be the latecomer." He said: "It is expected to launch 24 super hybrid models and 15 E0X pure electric platform models in two years."

The market forces Yin Tongyue's reflection and Chery's efforts. Both domestic and foreign car enterprises are standing at the intersection of electrification transformation. As one of the domestic "electric shock" old players, Chery once enjoyed the dividends brought by the early stage of the domestic new energy vehicle market, but now Chery's voice in the new energy vehicle market is obviously insufficient. Relying on the earlier "sea going" adventure, Chery avoided the inner volume of the car market by "blooming outside the wall". However, when competitors such as BYD, Geely, Great Wall, Chang'an and so on are strengthening the domestic market and expanding the overseas market, Chery's "lagging behind" problem in the field of new energy vehicles is becoming increasingly obvious. "The investment in R&D in the next five years will exceed 100 billion yuan." Chery offered a price for "remedial" new energy. Yin Tongyue said bluntly: "You won't be as polite as before." And he set a goal: "Next year, new energy vehicles will definitely enter the forefront of the country."

In the future, it is unknown whether Chery can be polite in the scuffle market of new energy vehicles, but its competitors must be polite.

"Car Sea" Tactical Launch

Since this year, Chery's layout on new energy vehicles has suddenly accelerated. At the end of February, Chery Automobile released the Mars architecture - super hybrid platform; During the Shanghai Auto Show in April, Chery Group released its new energy strategy, announced that all its brands were fully new energy oriented, took the road of hybrid power, extended range, pure electricity, hydrogen energy and other technologies simultaneously, and released its first new energy electric brand iCAR. At the same time, Xingtu brand also released a new new energy series - Xingtu and the first model STERRA ES; In September, Chery Automobile announced that it would release a new new energy product series - Chery Fengyun and the first new car under the new series - Fengyun A9.

Gao Xinhua, executive vice general manager of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. and president of the General Institute of Automotive Engineering Technology Research and Development, said that Chery Automobile would take the route of "comprehensive new energy" and "global intelligence". According to Chery's plan, five super hybrid models and four pure electric vehicles based on the E0X platform will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. Within two years, it is expected to launch 24 super hybrid models and 15 E0X platform models. "The layout of multiple models in the fourth quarter is to compete for the end of this year, and on the other hand, it is also to pave the way for the first quarter of next year." Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Circulation Association, believes that the plan to launch 39 models in two years also shows that Chery is comprehensively accelerating the layout of the new energy vehicle market.

It is reported that Qiruixing Epoch ES will carry the 4C Shenxing rechargeable battery of Ningde Era. "The Shenxing rechargeable battery has landed in the era of Qiruixing Tuxing, and the strategic cooperation between the two sides has been further deepened." Relevant people from Ningde Times said that they also plan to promote Shenxing rechargeable battery models in overseas markets simultaneously with Chery, and expand the markets in Europe, the Middle East, ASEAN and North America.

Export soared and new energy lagged behind

Behind the "sea of cars" strategy, Chery urgently needs to solve the dilemma of falling behind in the domestic new energy vehicle market.

Last year, Chery sold 220000 new energy vehicles, ranking sixth in China. However, since this year, Chery has rarely released sales data of new energy vehicles. However, according to the data disclosed by the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference, the wholesale volume of Chery's new energy vehicles in the first three quarters of this year was only 82100, while the sales volume of Chery's new energy vehicles in the first seven months of last year exceeded 130000.

As early as 2016, Chery had obtained the production qualification of pure electric passenger vehicles approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, and launched Chery Ant in 2017. However, as for Chery's performance in the new energy vehicle market, Yin Tongyue also admitted: "I got up early and caught up with the late market."

From the perspective of time, Chery, as an earlier group of new energy vehicle players, has also launched a number of products, but has always focused on the mini car market for many years. At the initial stage of the promotion of domestic new energy vehicles, AO and AOO class models once enjoyed market dividends, and Chery also launched models such as Xiaoant, which were well received by the market. However, with the change in the demand structure of domestic new energy models, the sales of micro electric vehicles continue to shrink, but the main new energy models of Chery are still QQ ice cream and Chery Ant, which accounted for more than 80% of the sales last year. "The decline in the market share of micro electric vehicles is related to the saturation of consumer demand, but there are also some factors of consumption upgrading." Cui Dongshu, the secretary-general of the Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference, believes that the market is speeding up the reshuffle, and products that lack competitiveness will gradually be eliminated.

On the one hand, Chery failed to keep up with the changes in the demand for new energy models in the domestic market, and on the other hand, it came from the "comfort zone" created by overseas markets for Chery. Data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, Chery sold more than 1.25 million vehicles, up 40.2% year on year. Among them, the export sales volume reached 648000, with a year-on-year growth of more than 110%. Thanks to fuel vehicles, Chery's sales volume in overseas markets is half the sky. Thanks to the surge in exports, Chery's revenue last year exceeded 200 billion yuan.

Relying on overseas markets, Chery holds the key to growth, but at present, Chery is not the only one "looking for gold overseas". Data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, the export volume of domestic automobiles reached 3.388 million, up 60% year on year. From the perspective of growth rate, in the first three quarters, BYD grew 5.2 times year-on-year, and Great Wall Motors grew 89.4% year-on-year. Competitors are accelerating to share Chery's overseas share cake. At the same time, in the domestic new energy vehicle market, BYD, Geely, Chang'an and other car companies also continue to seize the share, while Chery has insufficient voice.

The odds of winning by joining the "Inner Volume"

Chery is "anxious" when its rivals in the overseas market are killed and the domestic market faces many strong rivals. However, it is not easy to break through the encirclement only by the "vehicle sea" tactics.

The reporter of Beijing Business Daily learned that on the Science and Technology Day, Chery displayed black technologies such as L4 driverless RoboTaxi, LION AI big model boarding, car sharing the universe, Chery ultra-low wind resistance concept car and so on. Chery related people said that Chery S2ma - expandable intelligent Mars architecture, upgraded the full line control chassis, CTC batteries, intelligent distributed drive and pluggable EEA6.0 architecture, to achieve a comprehensive upgrade of the Mars architecture.

Chery hopes to complement its shortcomings with the help of technology and models. Yin Tongyue also said: "Through resource cooperation and collaboration, the new energy vehicle industry will certainly enter the top position in the country next year." Data shows that in the first three quarters of this year, the sales volume of GAC Ai'an, the third largest new energy vehicle manufacturer, was 357000 units, while the sales volume of Geely, the fifth largest, was 286000 units, far exceeding Chery.

At the same time, whether automatic driving or hybrid platform, the development of new energy vehicle market has crossed the initial stage of development. From the perspective of brands, BYD, Geely, Great Wall and Chang'an, as national teams, are not only transforming their own brand new energy vehicles, but also incubating multiple "small cars", whose products range from pure electric to hybrid and cover multiple price ranges. In addition, the new car making forces also experienced multiple rounds of elimination, and the surviving enterprises also formed scale and brand effect. Technically, from the large model to the platform computing power to the self research of the whole stack, the research and development of various car enterprises have also been on the road. Seen from the outside world, the car market is now rolling in, and Chery is rapidly laying out its layout. At the same time, its competitors are not slowing down. Chery is surrounded by powerful enemies.

key word: new energy Model New energy vehicles market