Wuling's new round of transformation will start with a sedan product.
On December 6, Wuling brand's first super A-class new energy sedan product - Wuling Starlight was officially launched on the market, the early listing is a plug-in hybrid version (according to the plan, Starlight will also have a pure electric version) of the two models, CLTC working conditions under pure electric range of 70km and 150km respectively, the price range is 8880,000-10580,000 yuan.
Starlight, **Wuling Motors.
The new car is based on Wuling's native new energy architecture, equipped with two self-developed core technologies of "Wuling Lingxi Hybrid System" and "Shenlian Battery", although it will be officially launched in the last month of 2023, Starlight is still officially defined as a blockbuster of the year. Obviously, for this car, Wuling wants a lot, which will not only be a test of Wuling in the mainstream car market, but also undertake the electrification transformation of the Wuling brand and challenge the higher-end market.
In the past, Wuling was the "Autumn Famous Mountain Bike God" and the "National God Car", but whether it was Hongguang or Hongguang MINIEV, it failed to bring much profit margin. In fact, in the first half of this year, SAIC-GM-Wuling's net profit fell by nearly 90%. At this stage, Wuling urgently needs explosive products that can improve profitability, and the new car Starlight undoubtedly has to assume this responsibility.
But the question is, the sedan car market can be called the most fierce competition in the domestic market segment, can Starlight really achieve the expected results?
The current domestic sedan car market is very "volume".
The family car market is currently the most "volume" track in the domestic automobile market. The spirit of "those who get A-class cars win the world" has been implemented very thoroughly by Chinese and foreign car companies. Among the top 20 sedan sales list in October compiled by Gasgoo, 8 models are A-class family sedans, and 5 of them have monthly sales of more than 20,000 units.
BYD's Qin plus wants to "Qin dominates the world and subverts fuel";Sylphy is the last market pillar of Dongfeng Nissan, and "holding the position" is the most basic requirement;Lavida and Sutar are the "trump cards" of Volkswagen in the sedan market in the north and south respectively, and they cannot afford to lose. Coupled with Civic, Style, and products such as Emgrand, Arrizo 8 and Xingrui in the independent camp, the domestic sedan market has already been "congested" on this track.
As a latecomer, if you want to achieve results, you can only become more and more "rolled", and even everyone has begun to "roll" the definition of the model. An obvious signal is that the current car classification standards are becoming more and more unified.
In the past, the A-class cars we talked about were basically products with a length of no more than 4700mm and a wheelbase of around 2600mm (Japanese A-class cars generally have a longer wheelbase in order to highlight the space advantage, but basically it is about 2700mm). However, in the past two years, with the rise of the independent car market, the above body size and wheelbase have been "unable to wrap" the "bigger and stronger" heart of the independent A-class car, many cars with a length of nearly 4800mm and a wheelbase of 2800mm are still positioned as A-class cars.
Geely Xingrui is a very typical product. The interior and exterior design and configuration have also achieved the "top stream" in the market segment, coupled with the body size of the same level of products and a relatively competitive price, this car was unprecedentedly hot at the beginning of the market, and was given the important task of subverting the monopoly position of the joint venture car market. Although the follow-up due to the comprehensive new energy consumption of domestic automobiles, the oil car Xingrui did not really meet the market expectations, but the overall performance of this car has been remarkable, and the current monthly sales have basically stabilized at more than 10,000 units. Just a few days ago, the Xingrui series also launched a new petrol-electric dual-engine version of the model - Xingrui L, and the entire car series may be able to go further in market performance in the future.
Starlight's market "play" is very similar to Xingrui, which is also a star, and it also focuses on dislocation competition in product positioning. Starlight's official positioning is a super A-class family car, the wheelbase of the new car is 2800mm, and the length of the car has exceeded 4800mm, but it still does not directly define itself as a B-class car, after all, the ** interval does open a big gap with the B-class car. However, Starlight was reluctant to directly confuse it with A-class cars, so he created a concept of a super A-class family car.
The original intention of doing this was also explained by the official at Starlight's listing conference. According to Wuling's observation, at present, the products in the domestic traditional car market generally have the pain point of "the bigger the car, the more fuel is consumed or the bigger the car, the higher the price", and the main force of the car, which is regarded as the "fuel-saving benchmark", has the problem of small space. Wuling's final conclusion is that the terminal market needs a family car product that can meet the requirements of large space without concerns about fuel consumption and cannot be too high.
Therefore, super A-level is a potential market.
Starlight, will it be Wuling's new hope?
Wuling official previously announced a set of data, a week after the Starlight opened pre-sale, the order has exceeded 5000 units, it can be preliminarily determined that the Wuling standard sedan is popular. It's just that this car will explode?
Whether it is due to forward-looking insight or pure "luck", the experience of the past years is enough to prove that Wuling is a brand that is good at seizing new market outlets. At the time of the rise in demand for IKEA, Wuling successfully transformed with the reputation accumulated in the micro-surface market, and took the lead in opening the domestic low-end MPV market by relying on the Hongguang series of models. When the tide of new energy is surging, Wuling has appeared "God Operation", avoiding the already slightly crowded mid-to-high-end electric vehicle market, and choosing to focus on the third- and fourth-tier markets and township markets, to serve the original electric two-wheelers, electric tricycles and low-speed electric vehicle users who are eager to achieve product upgrades, aiming at the low-end market (of course, the attributes of the low-end brand also limit the possibility of sprinting to the high-end at the beginning), and once again create a phenomenal explosion - Hongguang MINIEV, in the past two years or so, has led the consumption frenzy of domestic A00 electric cars.
Wuling brand and even SAIC-GM-Wuling, a car company, has indeed always had a tradition of creating explosive models in the low-end market, but it is difficult to rush high, and the new Baojun has had a precedent of not being very successful before, will Wuling Starlight be different this time?It is true that this new car is not a high-end positioning in the real sense, but after all, it has touched the red line of the 100,000-level market, and within Wuling, it is already really high.
What to rely on, Wuling actually thinks quite clearly, if it can really solve the pain points of some car users, there is indeed the possibility of becoming a new explosive model.
Wuling believes that the traditional sedan car is not atmospheric enough, the design is compact and short, and the tension is insufficient, so when designing Wuling Starlight, special attention is paid to the creation of aura. The posture should be slender enough, the front and rear light groups should be eye-catching, and the overall shape of the swooping front and large slip back should be more in line with the public's aesthetics. Realistically speaking, in recent years, many new cars launched by SAIC-GM-Wuling have been designed as a plus most of the time.
Starlight, **Wuling Motors.
The length of the car is 4835mm and the wheelbase is 2800mm, which ensures that Starlight has a good interior spaceThe combination of MacPherson independent front suspension and E-type multi-link independent rear suspension is also a relatively high specification of the chassis in the same class of productsIn terms of human-computer interaction, the Starlight high-end version is equipped with SAIC-GM-Wuling's current main Lingos system, which supports continuous dialogue within 20s, which can be said to be the mainstream level in the current domestic automobile market.
In terms of power, it is the highlight of Wuling Xingguang, and the paper data presented by the Lingxi hybrid system has many highlights. Wuling has developed a new hybrid engine platform with a maximum thermal efficiency of 432%, and then through the application of Atkinson cycle technology in the combustion system (155. Optimization of high compression ratio and low-pressure cooling EGR technology, etc.), low-friction system (including crankshaft offset technology, low-tension piston ring, roller rocker, low-viscosity oil, low-friction diamond-like coating, etc.), thermal management system (including cross-flow water jacket, electronic water pump, integrated exhaust manifold, cooling water diversion diaphragm and inter-cylinder punching process) ensure the fuel-saving efficiency of the whole hybrid system. Under the wltc working condition, Wuling Starlight can achieve 398L 100km fuel consumption.
In terms of battery, the Shenlian battery carried by Wuling Xingguang was measured by the China Automobile Center, the battery cell was squeezed and deformed by 40%, and the battery was charged and discharged normally after one-third of the depth of acupuncture, and the steel needle vertically pierced the battery cell without ** or ** phenomenon. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the first owner of Wuling Starlight can enjoy a lifetime warranty for the three-electric system.
On the whole, Starlight has the title of the first sedan chair of the Wuling brand, the design is passable, and the configuration is also the middle and upper level of products in the same level, and more importantly, the pricing advantage is obvious. Qin plus champion version of the plug-in hybrid car starting price to less than 100,000 yuan, Wuling Xingguang is a step further, the starting price has been less than 90,000 yuan, further reducing the purchase threshold of new energy sedan, the current new car has a good market heat.
However, it should be noted that the arrival of Starlight will not only enhance the competitive pressure in the market segment, but also inevitably transmit this pressure within the Wuling brand. The super A-class plug-in hybrid sedan Starlight is only 80,008, will the potential consumers of the small tram Binguo be tempted?SAIC-GM-Wuling's internal products have not been able to solve the problem of diverting customers from each other, will it appear again?
Hopefully, this time, it will end up being a good result.
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