In 2023, Changan New Energy will act in a hurry.
On June 25, Chang'an New Energy threw down a hand of Wang Fried, priced at about 200,000 yuan of its own brand Deep Blue SL03, and the paper product force directly killed its peers.
Only one day later, the new energy parent-child series that has been warmed up in the industry for a long time - Kaizen series was officially unveiled, and the first model Qiyuan A07 was unveiled at the same time.
When the time came to the Guangzhou Auto Show, Changan released the battery brand Golden Bell Jar, officially entering the new energy power battery industry, and developed the core technology of the whole stack.
and then to the major personnel changes at the end of the year, the chairman of AVATR Technology will be personally led by Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, and Tan Benhong will return to Changan Group.
This is almost a complete innovation from brand, technology to personnel structure, the attack and defense are compact and ferocious, and the knife technique is extremely ruthless.
In 2023, which has crossed the crazy involution, this year's new energy melee has long been not a battle of victory and defeat, but a battle of life and death.
As an independent leader, what kind of product moves does Changan New Energy hold back in 2024?How do the three new energy corps of Qiyuan, Deep Blue, and AVATR deploy their formations and coordinate their attacks?
Before analyzing the 2024 product plan, it is necessary for us to sort out the respective positioning of Changan New Energy's troika.
Among them, AVATR is relatively clear, focusing on the high-end intelligent electric market of more than 300,000;Deep Blue focuses on scientific and technological attributes, and the user base is mainly young people, between 10-200,000.
The recently released Qiyuan series, the planned product coverage will be more mainstream, is the last piece of the puzzle for Changan to enter the new energy vehicle market.
It is worth mentioning that among the three new brand series, AVATR and Deep Blue are operated independently, and only Qiyuan, as a new series, is still under the Chang'an brand, but it has entered the game with a new team and new channels to complete the transformation of Chang'an New Energy's oil and electricity.
The reason is very simple, the impression of new energy potential customers on Changan, Geely, Great Wall, etc., is still "selling oil cars", if new energy vehicles are still added in the old channels, potential customers still have no cognition, will not enter the store, and terminal sales are also distressed, because the sales logic of oil cars and trams is different.
Then, it is easier to open up the situation by entering the game with new channels and giving some power to operate independently, just like Chang'an Qiyuan.
After all, everyone wants to become BYD, but BYD's oil cars have a small burden, and most of their own brand oil cars sell well, so they don't have to rush to cut off their right arm.
Let's get back to business and talk about Kaizen's product planning.
Changan Qiyuan currently has 3 models: A05, A07 and Q05, of which Q05 was launched in the near future (December 12) with a starting price of 11990,000 yuan.
It is reported that in 2024, Kaizen will mass-produce and launch a new car with the internal code name CD701, which will be built on Changan's latest SDA platform for the first time and become the first model of Kaizen's E0 series.
Combined with the current public information, CD701 has several points worth paying attention to:
1. The appearance of the crossover, the official said that it can realize the form switch from SUV to pickup, which is very cyberpunk recognizable;
2. The total computing power of more than 1000tops of the cockpit and the car integration computing platform, which means that the interconnection between people and vehicles will be completely opened, the function and service can be flexibly configured, and the scene mode can be customized
3. It is equipped with on-board satellite communication technology for the first time, and can achieve global coverage and networking at any time through low-orbit satellites.
For Qiyuan CD701, intelligence is obviously the key product point of Changan's main attack, and the new car will also shoulder the burden of the entire Qiyuan.
And choosing a relatively unique product cut, the competitive environment is also relatively easy.
This is more than a sedan, to roll up the Krypton 007, Xiaomi SU7, Model 3 and other powerful players at the same time, as well as an SUV, squeezed into the crowded track full of players such as Xpeng G6 G9, Song L, and Ideal L7, perhaps, there is a chance to be surprised.
But more importantly, the Kaizen CD701 will carry more design concepts in it, telling the outside world about Chang'an's technical thinking. Setting a benchmark and shaping the image is like a key starting point.
In contrast, AVATAR, which will be on the track in 2021, now needs more solid sales to support its high-end road, and the wind of extended range has quietly blown here.
According to AVATAR's official disclosure, two new cars will be launched in 2024, with the internal code names E15 and E16 respectively, and at the same time, there will be 4 products with extended range power to supplement the product line.
In view of the existing AVATR 11 and AVATR 12, this means that the full range of AVATR products will be supplemented with 4 products.
Nowadays, there is not much information about the two new cars, and we can only reasonably speculate based on AVATAR's existing product matrix that the E15 and E16 may be positioned lower than 11 and 12, focusing on the 200,000-300,000 yuan ** range.
In addition, it is reported that AVATR will directly use the super hybrid of Deep Blue, that is, the extended range version of E16 or will be produced on the same line as Deep Blue SL03, then E15 will most likely correspond to Deep Blue S7, through the "dual route" of pure electric + extended range, with Huawei ADS and Hongmeng cockpit, to enter the mainstream new energy market.
After establishing the brand with two ** double flagships, AVATR needs a popular model to fill sales, and the benefits of extending the range are obvious, the volume can be walked, and the cost is more controllable.
According to the current market pricing, the extended-range version can generally be at least 1-20,000 yuan lower than the pure electric version, coupled with the use scenarios of oil and electricity, it is the only rule for almost all pure electric brands to quickly open up the sales situation.
The other carriage is the fastest-growing Deep Blue car.
Nearly 60,000 units of the first model, the SL03, have already been delivered. The sales volume of the dark blue brand reached 1830,000 units, of which the first SUV model, the S7, sold more than 10,000 units in a month in just three months.
According to the plan, Deep Blue will launch 4 new cars from 2024 to 2025, including Deep Blue SL05 sedan, station wagon, Deep Blue S9 medium and large SUV and hard off-road SUV, and at least two will be launched in 2024.
Judging from the road test dynamics, the first to be launched should be dark blue C318 (internal codename).
The new car is positioned as a compact extended-range hard-core SUV, with a body size of 4750 1959 1820mm and a wheelbase of 2880mm, matched with a dual-motor four-wheel drive system, and is expected to be equipped with 15t Blue Whale engine, providing 184kwh and 35There are two capacities of 1kWh batteries, corresponding to short-range and long-range models.
In terms of price, the dark blue C318 is expected to benchmark against popular off-road SUV models such as the Haval Raptor, Jet Traveler and Tank 300, between 150,000 and 250,000 yuan.
As the fuel hard SUV gradually reveals the problem of high daily use cost, and the market has become saturated, the combination of new energy power and hard SUV has become a new solution to the problem.
In 2023, this wave has just been opened by the Formula Leopard Leopard 5 and Yangwang U8 and other sporadic cars delivered at the end of the year, so the new energy off-road tuyere has just begun to blow, and it has not yet broken out, in this context, the emergence of Changan C318 can be called the emergence of the times, and it is expected to complete the occupation in the blue ocean market ahead of schedule.
In 2017, Changan released the Shangri-La plan, with the main goal of building three dedicated platforms for new energy vehicles by 2020 and stopping the sale of all traditional fuel vehicles by 2025.
In August 2018, Changan Automobile released its intelligent strategy, the Beidou Tianshu Plan, which aims to transform from a traditional automobile manufacturer to an intelligent travel technology company.
You know, five years ago, BYD was still crawling in fuel vehicles, Geely New Energy was just starting, and Changan Automobile was already making great noise, preparing for the next game of new energy chess.
However, there is one thing to say, the products launched by Changan New Energy in the early stage have not caused much splash in the terminal market.
In the past few years, fuel vehicles still account for the majority of Changan's automobile sales. According to the data, Changan Automobile sold a total of 2.55 million cars last year. Among them, Changan Automobile's own brand new energy vehicles sold a total of 470,000 units, accounting for 18%.
In addition, as most car companies do, they have not yet established pure electric platform technology and are transitioning to "oil to electricity".
At the time when Changan Automobile had not yet consolidated its direct management of Changan New Energy, Changan New Energy's main sales models were CS55 pure electric, CS15 e-Pro, eMotion EV460 and Benben e-star.
In 2021, the cumulative annual sales of Changan Automobile's own brand new energy passenger vehicles reached 7650,000 units, of which more than 90% of the sales are contributed by Benben e-star.
It is far from enough to shuttle only in the low-price market, the bubble will be punctured, and the more urgent thing is to reverse the user's inertial perception of Chang'an New Energy. Who said that Chang'an can only make low-end?
Since 2021, AVATR has come, followed by Deep Blue's independence, and Chang'an Qiyuan has opened a new chapter.
Layout in a wider track and get more market opportunities is the basis for almost all car companies to tap their sales potential.
Of course, the multi-brand strategy is also a great test of the company's system strength and strategic differentiation, how to twist into a force, bayonet outward, rather than collective internal friction, is Chang'an New Energy must think about the far-reaching serious topic.
For example, Kaizen A07 and Navy SL03 are both B-class fastback sedans, both are built on the EPA1 platform, and even use the same engine.
In addition, if AVATR also uses the range extension and the dark blue hybrid technology, then in the 200,000-level ** range, how to tell a good story of differentiation is also a challenge.
Of course, the potential of Chang'an New Energy is far from being fully unleashed.
At last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, Changan Automobile entered the self-developed battery track with the Golden Bell Jar, and gradually mastered the core technology of the three electric vehicles in its own hands, which also means that it can have better cost control capabilities, thereby bringing more competitive product pricing.
At the same time, Changan once again joined hands with NIO to reach a cooperation agreement on battery swap business, including the construction and sharing of battery swap networks and the research and development of battery swap models, to jointly promote the establishment of battery swap standards.
Battery swapping may become the second sharp edge of Changan New Energy in the future after fast charging.
According to the plan, facing the future, Changan Automobile plans to achieve global sales of 5 million vehicles by 2030, with new energy accounting for 60%.
It is not difficult to see that after the hesitation, Chang'an New Energy Transformation has shown more thorough determination and strength.
After Tesla's market value surpassed that of Toyota + Volkswagen + Dahlam + Ford, this rather magical reality taught global car companies a lesson.
New energy is in a rapid upward channel, and the depth and thickness of a traditional automobile company's electric shock directly determine whether it has sustainable development in the future.
It is worth looking forward to the fact that Changan Automobile is standing at a critical crossroads, under the pressure of its own comprehensive transformation of electrification, looking for a new breakthrough to meet the intensified involution in 2024.