Author |Chai Xuchen.
Edit |Zhou Zhiyu.
In the past three years, sales have soared, and Nezha Automobile was supposed to make a big fuss in the red sea of new energy, but its ruthlessness came to an abrupt end in the face of this year's ferocious "** war".
As of the end of November, Nezha's sales volume declined year-on-year for six consecutive months, and only 120,000 new vehicles. In the first 11 months, Nezha's total deliveries were 12240,000 units, down 15% year-on-year, becoming the only car company with a cumulative sales decline among the new forces with annual sales of 100,000 units. According to the sales target of 250,000 units set by Daniel Zhang, CEO of Nezha Automobile, its current sales achievement rate is only 49%, which is at the bottom of the new power head echelon.
Two years ago, Daniel Zhang said that there would be no 500,000 units before 2025, and no one should say that they would live. But perhaps he didn't expect that the myth of Nezha would be difficult to continue so soon.
In the past three years, Nezha Automobile has been a new car-making force in the market that cannot be ignored. From annual sales 150,000 to 1520,000 units, Nezha has achieved leapfrog growth from 2020 to 2022. Last year, it also increased by 118% year-on-year, becoming the first new power dark horse to deliver more than 150,000 units that year, and also became the most dazzling existence in the market.
The fierce "** battle" broke the ferocious momentum of Nezha Automobile. The loss of the main position of 50,000-150,000 yuan, the short-term resistance of the brand, plagued Nezha Automobile.
Nezha's counterattack last year relied on the strength of the two models of Nezha U V. Among them, Nezha V aims at the A0 market below 100,000 yuan, and takes the product route of "big cars hit small cars", contributing 65% of the share;Nezha U mainly targets the A-class SUV market of about 150,000 yuan, supporting 33% of Nezha's sales.
But the competition between these two markets has been extremely fierce this year, and Nezha Automobile has failed to stand out from them.
Nezha V's track has encountered headwinds this year. According to the data of the passenger association, in the first 11 months of this year, the market share in the range of 50,000-100,000 yuan increased from 19 last year8% to 159%。The addition of heavyweights such as BYD Seagull, Wuling Binguo, and Volkswagen ID3 has made Nezha V, which sold more than 10,000 units a month last year, less than 5,000 units per month this year.
Nezha U also faced a similar situation. BYD Yuan Plus, Aion Y and other models are stronger, and brands such as Leap and Deep Blue are also strong. Although Nezha U was lowered in disguise through a replacement in July this year, it failed to boost sales, and its average monthly sales this year were only about 3,000. In stark contrast, the rival Leapmotor, whose sales volume exceeded 10,000 in May and remained at 1 from October to November after the price reduction was launched in March this yearA high of more than 80,000 units.
Nezha once launched Nezha Aya and Nezha X in August and October to fill the position, and boosted overall sales through a strategy of low prices and even losses. But so far, it hasn't been the case.
At the same time as the main position was lost, Nezha's journey to the high ground also seemed extremely difficult.
The Nezha S, a sports technology coupe launched at the end of last year, and the Nezha GT, a two-door sports car released in April this year, pushed the price range of Nezha to 200,000-300,000 yuan. However, the market performance of both sports cars has been tepid, with monthly sales of around 1-2,000 units this year**.
After the price reduction of Nezha S in July, the sales volume still failed to break 3,000 units, which is not far from Daniel Zhang's "passing line" of 5,000 to 10,000 units per month.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the key to Nezha's high defeat lies in product positioning. Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Science and Technology Institute, pointed out that Nezha's original image was low-end and modest, and the intelligent technology was not prominent, which made it difficult to provide sufficient support for high-end brand building. Therefore, it wants to avoid the red sea of the highly competitive high-end family market, and plans to take advantage of the overtaking.
The problem is that the current market increment is dominated by family purchases, and the popularity of brands such as Wenjie and Ideal this year is anchored by this demand. Liu Jie, vice president of Ideal, told Wall Street that nearly 80% of car buyers in China's passenger car market are family users.
Daniel Zhang's choice to use performance labels to break through the young niche segment to reshape the brand tone seems out of place.
In the face of the sales dilemma, Daniel Zhang said that sales are not the primary goal pursued at present. He pointed out that the primary task this year is to complete the smooth replacement of products and polish the first-class chain and quality system of new products.
However, the intensification of losses and the decline in sales have put Nezha Automobile under a lot of pressure, and the market will not give Nezha too much time and space for rest and transition. According to the data disclosed by Nezha Automobile shareholder 360, from 2020 to 2022, Nezha has a cumulative loss of 1114.8 billion yuan, with a net loss of 69 percent last year alone$1.9 billion.
How to expand sales and reduce losses is a difficult problem that Daniel Zhang must solve.
In this regard, Daniel Zhang seems to have his own ideas. At the Nezha X press conference in October, he revealed that Nezha has prepared two vehicle platforms, "Shanhai" and "Yunhe", and in addition to the existing models, there will be 4 cars in the future.
Nezha's goal is to achieve annual sales of 1 million units in 2026, and the monthly sales of each of its models will exceed 10,000 units.
Overseas is also an important growth pole. Daniel Zhang proposed that in Nezha's million target, the overseas market should contribute 35%. According to the plan, Nezha will enter 50 countries and regions next year and complete the delivery of 100,000 new vehicles. In November, Nezha's first overseas factory in Thailand was put into operation.
It's just that in just three years, from "100,000 a year" to a million legions, such a leap faces many obstacles. Even Weilai, which has received tens of billions of aid from local tyrants in the Middle East, or Xiaopeng, which has joined forces with Volkswagen, are still on the way to leapfrogging.
In the face of stricter overseas market supervision policies, Nezha Automobile, which has a shallow foundation overseas, still has many problems to overcomeIn its own domestic main battlefield, Nezha has to work harder on models and product strength to reverse the decline, and Nezha, which is trapped in the low-end market, must also make more adjustments in production lines, first-class chains and marketing channels.
Scale is a hurdle that car companies can't get around, and this is also an important indicator for investors to look at Nezha Automobile. If you want to stage the legend of "my life is up to me" in the mythical story, Nezha Automobile has to show more excellent skills.