A few days ago, a set of new car design drawings officially released by Wuling Motors sparked heated discussions on the Internet, and this new car is the touring version of the Wuling Starlight that was launched not long ago and achieved good sales in the first month.
While Wuling officially released the Wuling Starlight Travel Edition and received a lot of attention, in fact, a number of Chinese independent car companies are also intensively planning the research and development and declaration of their station wagons. So today, the author will take stock of the travel hunting models that will be launched by various independent brands in the near future, and analyze the reasons behind them.
Car model: Wuling Starlight Touring Edition
After the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV became a phenomenal product and gave Wuling a solid foundation in the initial stage of new energy, Wuling Motors launched a mid-size car using a plug-in hybrid, the Wuling Xingguang PHEV, in December 2023. The sales volume of more than 10,000 in the first month also proves once again that as long as it is cheap enough and big enough, there is no car that cannot be sold.
As a derivative of the Wuling Starlight PHEV, the Wuling Starlight Touring Edition basically continues the setting of the sedan version in terms of product positioning and software and hardware configuration. In terms of appearance, elements such as through-type split headlights, borderless grilles, and through-type taillights are adopted, and the area behind the B-pillar adopts a station wagon line design with a certain slope, and the overall smoothness is relatively good.
The new model is expected to be launched in a PHEV version first, followed by a pure electric version. As for **, refer to Wuling Starlight PHEV 888-10.At 580,000 yuan, even if the subsequent price of Wuling Starlight Travel Edition increases, the range will be within a relatively reasonable range.
At present, everyone's evaluation of Wuling Starlight Travel Edition on the Internet actively occupies the majority. However, in the author's opinion, although the Wuling Starlight Travel Edition is now quite loud, this cannot be used as a basis for judging the subsequent market performance.
For this model, many netizens commented: As long as ** is similar to the sedan version, and with such a good look, it can basically be popular. In this regard, the author wants to say that Wuling has previously launched a number of affordable station wagons, the most classic of which is the Baojun Valli, which was equipped with 1The 5-ton engine is priced at only 798-10.The 580,000 station wagon has also been praised by netizens, but the fact is that it was not popular, and then it was hastily discontinued.
At present, the acceptance of station wagons by Chinese people has indeed improved, but for most consumers, station wagons can be an alternative, but they will not be the first choice.
The second is the appearance, through the design of the Wuling Starlight Travel Edition, the appearance of this car is indeed not low, but the author still has to give everyone "a basin of cold water", because this group of breakthroughs on the Wuling Starlight is equipped with a roof rack, and at the same time matched with large-size wheels, and reduced the effect of the body, naturally good-looking, the follow-up real car wants to achieve such a look, and the follow-up self-funded "beauty" is indispensable.
It can only be said that the low-price strategy of Wuling Starlight Travel Edition may have a certain effect, but it is still difficult to drive the trend of domestic travel hunting cars.
Car model: Nezha S Touring Edition
Long before the Wuling Starlight Touring Edition**, the Touring Edition model of Nezha S has already started road tests on the road. Judging from the spy photos currently leaked on the Internet, the Nezha S Touring Edition, which is a derivative of Nezha S, has not changed except for the design adjustment of the roof and rear part.
In the author's personal opinion, the design of Nezha S, a medium and large sedan, is relatively good, and after joining the touring model, the appearance will be improved to a certain extent. And it is worth mentioning that in the official spy photos given by Nezha Automobile, it can be found that the Nezha S travel version has a bulge in the roof part, and such a design is obviously to install auxiliary driving hardware such as lidar.
On the basis of the software and hardware of assisted driving at this stage, adding more hardware to match higher-level assisted driving will naturally lead to the rise of the first while boosting the product strength of the model itself. Based on such product information and Nezha S itself in the brand's positioning, the purpose of the launch of Nezha S Travel Edition is to raise the brand and "brighten muscles", but I have to say that the overall sales of the Nezha brand are not too good.
Model: BYD hunting station wagon (expected to be the DENZA brand).
A few days ago, a group of road test spy photos of BYD's medium and large heavy camouflage hunting station wagon were leaked on the Internet, and it was reported that this model will be equipped with a high-performance DM-P powertrain in the future, and this model will be released based on the Denza brand in the future.
Medium and large positioning, DM-P powertrain, shape similar to Paramela hunting suit, and DENZA brand as the carrier, combined with the above points, the subsequent price of this product will probably not be less than 300,000. And through this positioning, the audience of the follow-up model will also be consumers above the middle class, in terms of information at this stage, the explosive potential of this model is not large, the specific situation, after the follow-up more product information, the author will continue to follow up for you.
Model: ZEEKR 007 Touring Edition
As early as the release of ZEEKR 007 at the same time, ZEEKR officials have said that a travel version model based on ZEEKR 007 and codenamed CC1E will be launched in the future. Different from the previous positioning of the ZEEKR 001 crossover hunting model, the travel version of the ZEEKR 007 will be a serious station wagon.
In terms of product strength, we refer to the ZEEKR 007, which will be based on the 800V architecture in the future, and will be available in both single-motor and dual-motor versions, and the overall positioning will be similar to the ET5T released by NIO last year.
At this stage, the performance of ZEEKR, a mid-to-high-end new energy brand, in the market has generally been stable and rising, especially the ZEEKR 007 equipped with 800V architecture has received more than 50,000 orders within 40 days after its launch.
Based on such a brand status, if the ZEEKR 007 travel version can maintain the same price as the sedan version of the model, then the biggest headache should be the NIO ET5T that is also positioned as a medium-sized pure electric station wagon, a 200,000-level, a 300,000-level, the positioning is close, and the configuration can't pull away too much gap.
Write at the end
2024 has just begun, and so many independent car companies have begun to invest in the field of station wagons, and it is not difficult to see that in the current fierce competition in the automobile market, any new market segment, regardless of whether it was unpopular in the past or not, will become an area for car companies to compete for.
According to the pricing strategy of NIO's ET5T in 2023, the valus of domestic brands based on the existing sedan models will basically be consistent with the sedan models in terms of pricing, which is different from the luxury brand's strategy of "cheap sedan is expensive", and will play a more positive role in the subsequent development of the station wagon market.
I believe that after the birth of so many domestic affordable station wagons, this once unpopular market will gradually move towards the mainstream, so everyone in front of the screen thinks that the above station wagons, who can become the "first person to eat crabs"?