"In the past 10 months of this year, Chinese automakers have exported more than 3 million vehicles, and exports for the whole of this year are likely to hit 5 million units. In the future, the export volume of Chinese auto companies is conservatively estimated at 10 million units, and may even reach 15 million units." This is the deputy general manager of Chery Automobile, the general manager of the marketing company, and the general manager of Jietu Automobile, Li Xueyong, for this year's automobile export market.
Such a ** coincides with the views of Li Jun, honorary chairman of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at the 2023 World New Energy Vehicle Conference - China's domestic automobile sales are expected to continue to grow in the near and medium term, and by 2030, the overall domestic automobile sales will exceed 30 million;It is estimated that by 2040, China's domestic automobile sales will reach a peak level of about 35 million to 40 million units (about 20 million units in the domestic market and about 15 million units in the international market).
Many people are happy that China is about to surpass Japan to become the world's largest automobile exporter, but Li Xueyong has a clearer understanding.
The first of our exports refers to CKD (production in China, parts export), and the second refers to CBU (production in China, export of finished vehicles). But we don't have real estate at all. Only about 40% of the volume of Japanese car companies is produced, sold locally, and exported locally, and 60% of the volume is produced and sold in local countries. So we can't say that Chinese cars are the most powerful in the world, we can only say that we still have a lot of room for improvement. According to Li Xueyong, to be a global automobile company, it is not only about how many cars are sold to overseas markets, but also about local manufacturing and sales.
Chery is currently the earliest domestic and overseas cultivation, the largest export volume of car companies, as Chery's executives, in a special interview held in Chengdu last week, for Chery's future development direction, he said: "From the perspective of play, it is to see who has a higher degree of internationalization. Chery Automobile is now operated by subsidiaries overseas, and we do not manufacture OEM, and we operate as subsidiaries in any country, and there will be many factories in the future. Therefore, in the future, we will have the ability and awareness of internationalization, and truly serve users and local society where they are located, which I think is the key. Now for the international market, we must not only go fast and steadily, but also have determination, and I must say that the competition in the international market is beyond our imagination, and it may be more volatile than the domestic market, and it will be the case in the next few years. ”
Seemingly simple "global localization" production, in fact, it is not so easy to do, and such an not easy thing, Chery Automobile has formed a clear way of playing from strategy, tactics to marketing - international Chery, user Chery, technology Chery.
Around the "three Chery", what is Chery going to do?
International Chery:
Define products based on the world and carry out power layout
Taking the new model Exploration 06 launched in China in August this year as an example, it is the first time that Chery Automobile has developed a car around the synchronization of left and right drive with domestic and high regulations and low regulations.
In countries that are already ready to be marketed, Saudi market cars have already arrived in stores. Since the start of sales in Russia last month, there have been nearly 20,000 units, "which can be the second place in the whole market this month."
In the right-hand drive market, the products produced in South Africa have been sent to Australia and New Zealand, and will enter the UK and even the entire EU market in June next year, which means that the exploration 06 product will be rolled out around the world next year. In the entire international market, the goal is to sell 20,000 bicycles a month.
The Exploration 06 Urban Edition, which was launched in Chengdu last week, was actually planned as early as the beginning of the listing in August and was listed overseas under the name of the international version. The response of the overseas market is relatively large, coupled with the current Chery fuel vehicles are sold in accordance with the C network and H network double network, the previously listed exploration 06 Yueye version focuses on four-wheel drive, placed in the H network, and the last urban version is placed on the C network, which is a two-wheel drive model, so that the two channels are respectively focused on the product, hoping to explore 06 This large single product, make a "1 + 1 greater than 2" market performance. The follow-up exploration 06 will also launch a new product every three months, and a standard modified version will be launched in March next year to improve playability.
It can be seen that Chery Automobile's synchronous R&D and production models at home and abroad are still dominated by fuel vehicles, and fuel models are the main power layout based on the global market. In Li Xueyong's view, the development of the global market is divided into echelons, and if Chinese auto companies want to be a global auto company, it must do a good job in the layout of the global market. For example, there is oil everywhere in the Middle East, and there is no need to buy trams;In Africa, the infrastructure is so backward that consumers are afraid to buy trams;In colder places, the battery drain pressure of the tram is also very high. Even if electric cars in Central and South America are selling very well, their electrification is not as fast as everyone thinks. Therefore, "if you want to become a global automobile company, you must have a strong competitiveness in the fuel market, and Chery Automobile will definitely maintain this competitiveness." Li Xueyong said.
So, how can Chery Automobile maintain this competitiveness?
Technology Chery:
The goal is to become the No. 1 fuel vehicle in the Chinese market
The core of fuel vehicles is the engine, gearbox, and chassis. In the era of fuel vehicles, Chery's construction of engine and transmission systems, as well as Chery's style of building cars in a solid and honest manner, have been recognized by users.
No matter what Chery does, its technical base is always Xiongshi Intelligent Cabin, Dazhuo Intelligent Driving, Galaxy Ecology, and Kunpeng Power. On top of the technical foundation, Chery Automobile adheres to an absolutely open attitude of inclusiveness, cooperation, and Xi learning. For example, the Xiongshi Smart Cabin is the in-depth cooperation between Chery Automobile and iFLYTEK, and now it has been iterated to 50；Another example is the Voyager's XWD, which is a technology jointly developed by Chery and BorgWarner, which can enter the off-road mode with one click, whether it is river sand, desert or climbing, it will automatically unlock and lock, automatically understand the needs of users, and intelligently realize mode switching. Not only does it not need a bulky differential lock, but also the working condition of XWD can be close to 50 kilometers per hour, and XWD can automatically respond when encountering water surface and slippery roads, automatically process torque, and automatically correct direction, which not only has a good experience, but also realizes the iteration and optimization of cost.
With Chery's continuous technological investment, iteration, openness and cooperation in the fuel vehicle market, fuel vehicle products can not only be better, richer and faster, but most importantly, cheaper. Such fuel vehicle products can have strong competitiveness in the global market.
Even by 2030, there will still be 30% of the market for fuel vehicles. Li Xueyong believes that in addition to the cascade of the global market, the love for fuel vehicles and the use of fuel power attributes in products such as hard off-road can support the existence of fuel vehicles, so Chery Automobile will not only not stop the research and development of fuel products, "but also to be the first in the fuel market."
Chery's emphasis on fuel vehicles does not mean that it does not make electric vehicles and does not attach importance to electric vehicles. Chery will next use Chery Fengyun, Jietu Shanhai, Xingtu Star Era, and ICAR to fully enter the new energy industry. In the next 2-3 years, there will be more than 40 models of cars to be launched, and Chery's perception of electric vehicles will not become the low point and low point of Chery's development.
Whether international or domestic, fuel or new energy, all R&D origins of Chery Automobile are still users. However, domestic users, overseas users, different regions, different environments, everyone's demands are different, how to achieve global integration of user co-creation?
User Chery:
Directly facing customers, directly connecting to customers, and comprehensive user evaluation
Whoever it is, I have to face the customer, connect with the customer, including myself. Li Xueyong's Douyin now has more than 100,000 followers, and they are basically all users. Users from all over the world will ask him all kinds of questions, including technical improvements, after-sales suggestions, strategic models, and even some users say "**Someone sprays Chery, you hurry up and fight back" and so on, all kinds of problems are being told to Li Xueyong. No matter how busy he is every day, he will reply to hundreds of messages on Douyin.
Dare to be friends with users, dare to add users' circle of friends, Chery as a mixed reform enterprise, for every employee is also 24 hours directly connected to customers, some employees feedback that there are customers to send messages to consult questions late at night, but there is no way, because once the user is contacted, the working time is 24 hours. Internally, I often talk about 200% working methods, set 200% goals, find 200% working methods, put in 200% effort, and give you 200% incentives. Li Xueyong revealed that the income of personnel in Chery Region this year is 1 percent of last year5 times - 25 times.
This year, after a series of adjustments, Chery Automobile's understanding of users has changed fundamentally after the implementation of direct user facing all employees. Including the internal development process, fully join the ecological confirmation, fully join the user confirmation, based on the international Chery, technology Chery, user Chery, continuous iteration and efforts. More diligent and stronger execution has reaped the growth rate of more than the industry: from January to November, Chery Group's sales reached 1665626 units, a year-on-year increase of 478%。
Driving value
It is less than a month before the end of 2023, and the "volume" of this year's market can only be described as red with bayonets. Just like Li Xueyong, a well-known "desperate San Lang" in the industry, repeatedly emphasized: work hard, the goal is 200%, you can sell 100 as you want to sell 200, don't explain the reason, I can only sell 100, there is no point. Because 200 is the demand for competition and survival, you can't survive if you don't do 200.
At a time when the new forces of car manufacturing continue to exert their efforts and cause tens of millions of damage to traditional car companies, due to various reasons and the continuous decline in the proportion of sales, some companies have reduced their investment in pure fuel vehicles, and some have even given up directly. But Chery apparently doesn't think so. With the layout and channel resources of the global market, the technical planning based on the global market for the layout of fuel, hybrid and electric routes, and the mature experience and development strength of overseas markets that other car companies do not have, in addition to playing with fate, more importantly, Chery can obviously walk out of the road of global transformation according to its own ideas.
"Three Chery" is Chery's positioning in the future, and it is also the core of its development. When Chinese auto companies have a global vision, when the entire Chinese economy has more open and cross-border possibilities, Chinese companies such as Chery Automobile can truly go to the world and become global enterprises, which will be the opportunities, challenges and pride given by the times.