For a long time in the past, Toyota Alpha dominated the Hong Kong community. In this piece of land, MPV is favored by Hong Kong families, to meet the travel needs of more family members, not only the "nanny car" of wealthy families, for ordinary families, MPV with business temperament also takes into account the dual responsibilities of self-use and operation.
In July this year, less than 3 months after entering Hong Kong, SAIC MAXUS entered Hong Kong for less than 3 months, and the world's first "full-size luxury intelligent pure electric MPV" sold more than 500 units, and soon won the "Hong Kong's first electric seven-seater MPV, leading the Hong Kong MPV new car registration list, leading the Hong Kong MPV market single model" and many other excellent results, surpassing Toyota Alpha and other luxury models, becoming the biggest dark horse in the Hong Kong MPV market. And everyone 9 belongs to the "luxury MPV" camp in the Hong Kong market, with a price of more than 500,000 Hong Kong dollars, and high quality.
Not only that, SAIC MAXUS has also won the favor of celebrity car owners such as Hong Kong host Wang Zulan, well-known artist Chen Baixiang, and TVB TV emperor Chen Hao, which can be described as the most popular "star nanny car" in Hong Kong. At the 2023 Guangzhou Auto Show, the famous Hong Kong actor and singer Sun Yaowei also visited the SAIC Maxus booth and praised the "Everyone" series "Monkey Sailei" again and again.
And this is just a microcosm of the success of the "Everybody" series in developed markets. In addition to Hong Kong, China, in the European market, the American market, Australia and New Zealand market, the market performance of Everybody 9 is also outstanding, it also represents the first time that China's luxury pure electric MPV goes overseas, and takes the lead in winning the "pass" of the two global high-end automobile markets in Europe and Australia, realizing the "first" of a Chinese brand.
This is just a corner of SAIC Maxus's overseas expansion and rapid development. As early as 2011, when SAIC Maxus was born, the first wide-body light bus model V80 was launched and aimed at overseas markets. Over the past 12 years, SAIC MAXUS has made efforts in the two major sectors of overseas traditional energy and new energy, simultaneously entered the two major fields of commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles, comprehensively conquered light buses, pickup trucks, SUVs, MPVs and other categories, and gradually included Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South America, Europe and the Middle East into the "10,000-unit market" camp.
Up to now, SAIC MAXUS products have been sold to 73 countries and regions around the world, and the cumulative overseas sales have exceeded 300,000 mark, and overseas sales account for nearly 50% of the total sales, and the sales of developed countries and markets account for more than 90%, and it has become a leading enterprise in the industry.
Firmly stand in high-end developed markets
In recent years, under the transformation and upgrading of the "New Four Modernizations", Chinese car companies have gradually overtaken in corners and "increased the accelerator" to go global. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to October this year, China's cumulative automobile exports reached 3.9 million units, a rapid year-on-year growth. According to reports, if the remaining two months of exports remain at the level of October, China's cumulative exports for the whole year of 2023 are expected to surpass Japan's, and it will become the world's largest auto exporter for the first time.
Ten years ago, China's automobile exports were also booming, but at that time, the main force of China's automobile exports was commercial vehicles, and the export destinations were mainly developing countries and emerging markets such as "Asia, Africa and Latin America". China Automotive Research Institute has also said that since the export of automobiles in the last century, China's automobile exports have gone through three stages: before 2004, it belongs to the initial period, and at this stage, China's automobile exports are small, the added value is low, and the brand power is weak;From 2005 to 2020, it belongs to the initial development period, in this stage, China's automobile exports are still dominated by medium and low products, but the export volume has gradually increased to the level of 1 million vehicles, and the industry has been looking for the right time and breakthrough point;Since 2021, it has entered a period of explosive growth.
At this stage, from the perspective of strategy, scale, sales area, brand, subdivided products, and enterprise level, the connotation of China's automobile going overseas is constantly enriched. China's automobile exports will reach a new level, the export growth rate will continue to maintain a high growth trend, products and models will be further enriched, and new energy vehicles will promote Chinese enterprises to further expand the markets of developed countries. A relevant person from the China Automotive Research Institute added.
Nowadays, China's automobile going overseas has entered a new stage from "quantitative change" to "qualitative change", as the only way for the brand to go up, the expansion of overseas markets is indispensable. Some professionals pointed out that in recent years, the biggest highlight of the development of China's automobile industry is new energy vehicles, and it is expected that by 2030, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China will exceed 80%.
However, the lack of brand power is a major problem faced by Chinese car companies in overseas markets, especially in the high-end market, and many new car companies have encountered bottlenecks. High-end developed countries have always been "hard to bite", with a high threshold that is difficult to cross, for Chinese car companies, it is not easy to conquer high-end developed countries. Therefore, in the process of expanding overseas markets, some traditional car companies often follow the principle of "easy first and then difficult", and most of their products are exported to developing countries first, so as to quickly seize the local market share.
However, in the army of going overseas, there is a force to be reckoned with in the developed market, all the way to the victory, that is, SAIC Maxus. Born for the global market, SAIC MAXUS has been based on the global market since its birth, seizing overseas opportunities while making efforts in the high-end of products, from the beginning of research and development to the landing of products, every link is based on the most stringent world-class standards. In just 12 years, SAIC MAXUS has a good reputation in the world, especially in developed markets, and has also established a high-end brand image of "high quality", and the brand power created under the "Maxus speed" has been far ahead.
It is worth noting that Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas are the world's three major high-end developed automobile markets, and SAIC Maxus has already gnawed these three "hard bones".
Recently, according to ** reports, China replaced South Korea for the first time and became the third largest country in Australia with new cars. Since 2017, the sales of Chinese cars have shown a first-class increase, and as of September this year, Australians have purchased more than 1450,000 Chinese cars, a 75% increase from last year. John Conomos, a 40-year veteran of the Australian car industry, believes that it is only a matter of time before China challenges Japan to become Australia's largest imported car market, and that the rise of Chinese cars in Australia is "inevitable", but this progress is faster than anyone expected.
As the first developed market conquered by SAIC Maxus, Australia is one of the markets with the world's most stringent automotive entry thresholds and standards, and at the same time, in the Australian market, Japan, South Korea and other car series are "preconceived", and a number of international brand giants coexist, and the fierce competition has discouraged many "foreign warriors". SAIC MAXUS has been deeply involved in Australia for more than ten years, and has seized the opportunity in the electric era when the "green wave" swept the Australian and New Zealand markets.
High-end pure electric MPV everyone 9 is the first to knock on the door of Australia's high-end pure electric MPV;The T90 EV electric pickup truck has also entered New Zealand, and after the New Zealand Minister of Transport personally tested it last year, it officially issued a letter of intent on behalf of the Ministry of Transportation, using the T90 EV as an iterative vehicle for New Zealand's official vehicles, which also means that SAIC Maxus's overseas "giant camp" circle of friends continues to expand. At present, SAIC Maxus G10 and other VAN models have long ranked among the top two in the Australian market share, surpassing Japanese and Korean brands, and V90 has ended the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in the Australian large VAN truck market for 23 consecutive years of dominance and became the leader, and everyone 9, G90, T90 EV, and EV90 have also become the first and leader in multiple segments.
In Europe, where new energy vehicles are developed, sedans and SUVs in the new energy camp are "piling up mountains and seas", and pure electric MPVs are developing slowly, and their electric performance brings environmental protection, a sense of science and technology, comfort, and a sense of tranquility that fuel MPVs can not reach, and the almost blank high-end luxury pure electric MPV market is ushering in a fierce battle. At the same time, under the trend of new energy, the European pickup truck market also has a strong tendency to electrify transformation.
At the right time, SAIC Maxus' high-end pure electric MPV Dajia 9 and pure electric pickup T90 EV came into being. As the first Chinese brand to launch pure electric high-end MPV and pure electric pickup products in Europe, SAIC Maxus has filled the gap in the two major blue ocean markets in Europe, and also impacted the position of Mercedes-Benz and other original market segment leaders. Today, SAIC Maxus EV series has led other brands in the market share of Norway, Spain, Sweden and other regions, and the "Everyone" series + pure electric pickup truck has also achieved a "zero breakthrough" in the market segment after its launch in Europe, successfully seizing the market share of European electric vehicles and becoming "a popular electric vehicle in the eyes of Europeans".
According to Lan Qingsong, vice president of SAIC, "our development speed in Europe is very fast, this year's sales increased by 60% year-on-year, the proportion of new energy models is still relatively high, new energy vehicles, traditional fuel vehicles in the European market have achieved relatively good results."
On the other side of the world, due to climate, terrain, culture and other factors to promote the Americas to have higher requirements for the passage of vehicles, it has become a place of "strong players" in pickup competition, and it has gathered many internationally renowned brands of Japan, South Korea, the United States, Britain and Germany very early, and Chile has as many as 24 internationally renowned pickup brands that have been entrenched here for a long time, including Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Ford and other Japanese and American pickup giants. However, SAIC MAXUS has never been afraid of challenges, and after the pickup truck family entered the American market, it took only two years to successfully seize market share on behalf of "Made in China" and quickly became the mainstream brand in the local pickup market.
So far, as a representative of Chinese auto brands, SAIC MAXUS has been going overseas for 12 years, not only with cumulative sales exceeding 300,000 units, but more importantly, it has been seizing the market share and head position of European, American, Japanese and Korean car companies in the global high-end developed markets, making Chinese cars stand out and have a place.
How to be "unique".
Under the globalization strategy, SAIC MAXUS has become a "two-legged" and most balanced car company at home and abroad. The data shows that since 2018, SAIC MAXUS's overseas sales have shown an astonishing multiple growth;The proportion of overseas sales has also been rising, until today, SAIC Maxus's overseas sales account for nearly 50% of the total sales, far exceeding the industry averageThe breakthrough rate of 100,000 units has also been accelerated, from one and a half years (100,000 units in April 2021 and 200,000 units in 2022) to one year.
It is worth noting that SAIC MAXUS has frequent successes overseas, not relying on the strategy of gaining market share at a lower price adopted by other car companies in the past, and many of SAIC MAXUS's products are priced higher than those in domestic markets in overseas markets, and even reached the level of luxury brands. For example, the price of the Dajia 9 (MIFA 9 overseas) listed in the UK and other places is almost 1 of the domestic price5 times.
We started selling fuel vehicles, and later focused on new energy, and in the overseas high-end developed new energy market, our products were released earlier and better performance than the main competitors, and they can also match or even surpass many international brands, achieving 'high quality and high sales', and gradually pulling the MAXUS brand image to a higher height in Europe. Hao Jingxian, general manager of SAIC Maxus, said.
Among many developed countries in Europe, the market share of SAIC MAXUS's new energy products often occupies a leading position, said Hua Jin, deputy general manager of SAIC MAXUS. Last year, the EV90 led the market share in Norway and the EV30 in Spain, and in the first half of this year, the EV90 in Italy, the EV30 and EV90 in Portugal, and the EV30 in Spain also took the lead in market share.
In addition to expanding its territory in overseas developed markets, SAIC MAXUS is also actively exploring new opportunities in other markets. In recent years, ASEAN countries such as Malaysia and Thailand have accelerated the transformation and development of vehicle electrification, which has also made the ASEAN market a popular destination for China's new energy vehicle exports. From January to October this year, SAIC MAXUS has reached a new high in wholesale sales in the ASEAN region, with more than 2,300 units sold. In Thailand alone, the company has exceeded the 1,500 unit mark in the first year of its launchAt the beginning of November, the Everybody 9 was officially launched in Malaysia, the third largest car market in the ASEAN region, becoming the first pure electric luxury MPV in the region. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim personally came to help everyone9, this is the first time he has come forward to promote an automobile brand, which is enough to see the brand power and influence of SAIC Maxus.
The value of "300,000 vehicles" is not the "most in the industry", but SAIC Maxus has the earliest to conquer developed countries, with a high proportion of sales in developed countries, rich product lines, wide population coverage, and a high degree of customization, which is of significance for Chinese auto brands to go overseas and the rise of Chinese brands in the world to lead the way in the "300,000 vehicles" itself.
These achievements are inseparable from SAIC MAXUS's original intention - since its establishment, it has focused on the standards of the target market and consumer needs to develop products, and benchmarked against the world's first-class standards and product development quality. At present, SAIC MAXUS has not only realized the Euro VI technical reserves and the world's leading new energy technology, but also built with international benchmarks and quality in the design and manufacturing concept, and its models have passed the Australian ADR certification, the European Union ECE certification, WVTA certification, the Gulf GCC certification and other international high standard certifications, and have the "qualification" to enter the ring.
From the 2017 pickup truck model T60 to receive ANCAP five-star safety certification, the SUV model D90 to ANCAP and C-NCAP (China Initial Car Evaluation Regulations) double five-star safety certification, to the 2019 SUV model D60 to obtain C-NCAP five-star safety certification, to the intelligent pure electric MPV Dajia 9 to win the new version of the Euro With the NCAP (European New Car Safety Assessment Association) and the new version of ANCAP double five-star certification, SAIC MAXUS has always defined the starting point of safety with five-star standards, leading the high-quality development of various market segments in 73 countries and regions around the world, helping "Made in China" become synonymous with high-end manufacturing in the new era, and making many consumers call "Five-star Maxus deserves its name".
In addition to hard-core safety assurance, high-quality products have always been the magic weapon of SAIC MAXUS. At the beginning of this year, the Norwegian Automobile Federation launched the 2023 winter test project for electric vehicle range, that is, after the new energy vehicle is fully charged, it will be driven on the same road section until it is completely consumed and cannot be moved. Based on the measured mileage data, compare whether the WLTP range advertised by the approved car company is accurate. The test attracted a lot of attention internationally, and finally the SAIC MAXUS everyone 6 from China led all other models by an absolute margin, including the three Tesla models. The Everybody 6 won first place with the closest actual mileage to the WLTP range.
Knowing that meeting the needs of users with differentiated and personalized products is the competition point of the company's future competition, SAIC MAXUS has always put user needs and user experience through all aspects of product development and car manufacturing. Through the empowerment of the C2B model, SAIC MAXUS has rapidly developed personalized and differentiated products that match the needs of overseas users according to market policies, environmental characteristics, consumer preferences and usage needs in different overseas regions, bringing customized commercial and travel solutions to overseas users, and boosting the hot sales of products in overseas markets such as Europe.
Taking the European market as an example, SAIC MAXUS has successively provided long-axle and short-axle versions of the EV30 and EV90 to the European market, as well as new energy-exclusive chassis and other models, to improve the driving experience based on the characteristics of European users as much as possible. At the same time, SAIC MAXUS also provides a "product configuration combination", that is, according to the user's needs for mileage, load, or both, to match the optimal solution, and strive to allow users to obtain the most suitable vehicle within the lowest comprehensive cost.
The advantages of customized production mode and excellent product strength have made SAIC MAXUS brand and products form a good user reputation in the world.
Lan Qingsong once stressed that SAIC Maxus should insist on doing "difficult but correct things". After 12 years of expedition, every step of SAIC MAXUS to go to sea has been extremely firm and solid. From a global vision to entering the overseas market, and then to steadily occupying the high-end market, SAIC Maxus, adhering to the idea of international development and insisting on helping Chinese brands to move upward, has embarked on its own overseas advancement road.
Born in the world, looking to the future, SAIC MAXUS has always been at the forefront of Chinese brands going overseas, and in today's leapfrog development of sales, market share and word of mouth, SAIC MAXUS is a well-deserved witness, companion and leader for the global development of Chinese car companies.