The efforts in 2023 have not been exchanged for the expected results, and in the face of 2024, Nezha Automobile still has set a rather aggressive sales target.
In Capital, Karl Marx said, "If there is a 20% profit, capital will be ready to move; If there is a 50% profit, the capital will risk ......”
Putting this argument in today's society, this is the case with the new energy vehicle industry, which is still thriving. What can be seen is that even if the policy dividend is gradually declining and the internal and external competition is intensifying, the car companies that are already in it would rather work hard to support than leave the market in style, and the companies outside are also quite flocking.
Especially in 2023, although the overall production and sales of new energy vehicles will still show a year-on-year growth trend of nearly 40%, in terms of a more specific market environment, the so-called recovery is not realistic; On the contrary, a series of first-class battles have dealt a big blow to the revenue and profits of car companies.
At the same time, there are many remarks that in 2024, new energy vehicle companies will face a real crisis, and some new forces will bear the brunt.
When WM Motor, a smash hit brand with tens of billions of financing in the past, announced bankruptcy reorganization, Gaohe Automobile stopped work after the New Year, it is reported that it was affected by relevant regulations, it is difficult to achieve the U.S. stock market listing like the past "Wei Xiaoli", although it has tried to seek new financing channels, but in the end the capital chain collapsed, and there are countless arrears to the first business.
At present, among the five new car-making forces that are still surviving - NIO, Ideal, Xpeng, Leap and Nezha, Nezha Automobile is the only car company that has not yet achieved an IPO.
With a loss of more than 10 billion yuan, as the "worst new car-making force in 2023", Nezha Automobile has gradually entered people's field of vision.
[Sales suddenly declined, and marketing was difficult to treat].
Released in 2018, Nezha Automobile (Neta), its parent company Hezhong New Energy Automobile *** referred to as Hezhong New Energy) was actually established as early as 2014 and belongs to the earliest batch of new automobile companies - which also means that today, Hezhong New Energy has gone through a mileage of about ten years.
It is undeniable that Nezha Automobile in 2022 did deliver a pretty good answer. On the one hand, the annual cumulative delivery of 152,073 units has reached the established target of 150,000 units, and the brand represented by Nezha S has accelerated its implementation; On the other hand, it stems from good performance, which brings a lot of capital favor to the brand.
Achieve high-quality development in 2023 and live better", this was the expectation given by Nezha Automobile, but it backfired - according to official data, in 2023, Nezha Automobile delivered 127,496 new cars throughout the year, a year-on-year decrease of 16%.
Compared with the performance of new forces such as Ideal, NIO, and Xiaopeng in the same period, the brand's ranking has dropped from first to fifth in 2022, and at the same time, it is also the only new power brand that showed a decline in sales last year.
Daniel Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Nezha Automobile, publicly explained the reasons for "not doing well in 23 years" as "new and old products are not well connected", "new product launch pricing is too high", "old communication methods", etc., and criticized "marketing headquarters centralized power and weak management".
It is worth noting that in the eyes of many industry insiders, the internal marketing problems of Nezha Automobile are not new diseases, but old diseases.
In the initial period of time, Nezha Automobile took the "U+V" two products as the main sales force, and successfully attracted a group of consumer groups with its cost-effective route, which is undeniable for a new brand to seize market share.
However, when the cost-effective product label is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, the brand's vision of trying to attack the mid-to-high-end market through models such as Nezha S and Nezha GT has also become bumpy. Some people in the industry commented that "the method is right, and the goal is fine, but there are many difficulties in the more specific implementation process, and it cannot be effectively implemented." ”
There is a point of view that "a car like GT has a cool appearance, and the ** has also come down, and the attention and traffic are usually relatively high, but when consumers are asked to pay real money**, they will find that (because of practicality) The demand is not so great." There is also a view that "Nezha GT is not a sports car in the strict sense, but with the advantages of electric vehicle technology, it has reached the performance parameters that a two-door coupe should have." ”
The renaming of the main two-car is another **. From "V" to "AYA", from "U" to "X", although this can be said to be Nezha's efforts to get rid of the cost-effective label and try to draw a line with the past.
However, just as the controversy caused by the replacement of the ideal ONE under Li Auto to L8 at that time, Nezha's renaming of the main model also has the same drawbacks. One is the reduction of the residual value of used cars, and the other is the ambiguity of consumers' naming of vehicles, which also means that the brand's earlier promotion of the "V+U" model has turned into sunk costs.
In addition, some analysts in the industry pointed out that when Nezha Automobile reached a cooperation with 360 Company in the early years, it had the opportunity to transform the brand label into the direction of "security", after all, the latter has a good reputation in the field of domestic network security, but in terms of the actual situation, (Nezha) has not been put into action.
If on the one hand, the brand label does not fit into the existing product matrix, then on the other hand, it lies in various controversies caused by improper marketing, such as the bottomless marketing of artists surnamed Wu in the early years, or the false promotion of automobile products by Nezha Automobile's affiliated companies, etc., all of which have had a negative impact on the brand.
Since marketing is to blame for the poor work in 2023, it is only natural that someone needs to be held accountable for it. As Daniel Zhang said, "the marketing system all stood up and returned to work", and at the end of last year, on December 29, Nezha Automobile issued a decision to adjust the positions of personnel, involving a total of 13 people.
In addition to Daniel Zhang himself, who personally went down to grasp marketing and concurrently served as the president of the marketing company, the positions of executive vice president and executive vice president of the marketing company were replaced, with Zhou Jiang and Hu Enping concurrently serving as concurrently, and the rest of the marketing, sales, service and other departments also had new appointments.
There is no doubt that this is a manifestation of Daniel Zhang's determination to reform.
In fact, Nezha Automobile's reform is somewhat similar to the organizational structure adjustment made by Xiaopeng Motors affected by the defeat of G9 earlier, and the crux of the problem is the chaos of the marketing system.
The difference is that He Xiaopeng exists as the general person in charge in the adjustment of the organizational structure, while the marketing sector is integrated by Wang Fengying, who is known as the iron lady of the car rim, which can be described as "a professional person handling professional things"; In Nezha Automobile, it is presented as a part-time marketing for senior management, and there is no external involvement.
On the bright side, Nezha Automobile's team structure is stable, without airborne leaders, and can form a reasonable and efficient teamwork faster; On the other hand, stability is also a disadvantage, industry insiders pointed out, "without the addition of fresh blood, it is easy to solidify ideas." ”
Daniel Zhang, born in 1975, holds an Executive MBA from Tsinghua University. In the early years (2008-2010), he served as the general manager of Beiqi Foton Commercial Vehicle Sales Company, transferred to Chery New Energy from 2010 to 2014, and then returned to BAIC as Deputy General Manager and General Manager of the Marketing Company of BAIC New Energy, creating a breakthrough in annual sales of 100,000 units (2017).
At the beginning of 2018, Daniel Zhang joined Nezha Auto and has served as co-founder and CEO, fully responsible for the company's strategic operation and management. Judging from his past experience, it is undeniable that he has rich experience in marketing management, but considering that one person plays multiple roles, it is easy to form a picture of "one word".
At the same time, "long-term illness is difficult to treat", and the same is true for Nezha Automobile. Especially in the context of the current fierce market competition in the new energy vehicle industry, can Nezha, which is lagging behind due to marketing problems, complete the reform as soon as possible, avoid falling behind step by step, and catch up? In the face of this more critical moment of life and death in 2024, Nezha Automobile is still facing the test of "survival".
"Nezha Automobile|Marketing failed, sales declined, where did Daniel Zhang go at the helm? (Below)" will be released in the near future, so stay tuned.