In 2023, GAC Ai'an will sell 480,000 units annually, a year-on-year increase of 77%, although it has not reached the goal of "500,000 units and 600,000 units", but it is second only to BYD and Tesla in the domestic new energy vehicle sales ranking, ranking third.
However, even though Aion's sales are very high, in terms of brand volume, not to mention that compared with the first two, it is much worse than many new car-making forces, and even a little "small transparent".
In 2022, GAC Aion will start the road of high-end, launching its high-end brand Haobo at the same time, it also brings the "China's No. 1 supercar" Hyper SSR, even earlier than BYD's Yangwang U9.
However, so far, the Haobo brand has not carried the banner of Aion's high-end transformation, not only has no star model come out so far, but the performance in the market is also very bleak, it can be said that the first battle of the Haobo brand ended in failure.
The low end has never lost, the high end has not won
In fact, GAC Aion is one of the earliest car companies in China to transform into new energy, formerly known as GAC New Energy, which was spun off from GAC Group's new energy vehicle business in July 2017; In 2018, GAC New Energy launched the Aion brand; In 2020, GAC New Energy changed its name to GAC Aion New Energy Vehicle, and Aion officially became an independent brand operation of GAC New Energy Vehicle.
In 2022, GAC Aion's cumulative sales will reach 2710,000 units; In 2023, the total annual sales will come to 480,000 units. It is worth mentioning that GAC Aion completed the 1 million vehicles off the assembly line on December 28 last year, becoming the world's fastest car brand to break one million units in 4 years and 8 months.
However, a considerable part of the Aion's car buying group comes from online ride-hailing drivers. According to the statistics of the Electric Car Association, 43% of Aion's total sales in 2021 will come from the B-end sales market, and the sales ratio of the main sales model AION S in the B-end market will reach 6301%, the proportion of AION Y has also reached 2033%。Even now, these two models are still Aion's most popular models.
In terms of sales in November 2023, the sales of the two models were 12,195 and 22,711 units, respectively, while the sales of the rest of the models totaled 6,661 units. Among them, the starting price of the AION S is within 140,000 yuan, and the starting price of the AION Y is within 120,000 yuan, which means that the current sales composition of the Aion brand is mainly dominated by low-end models, while the sales of the two models of AION V and AION LX, which are priced higher and positioned higher, are low.
In order to tear off the label of "online car-hailing", GAC Aion launched a high-end luxury electric vehicle brand - Hyper in September 2022, and released a supercar model with a price of more than one million, Haobo SSR, but so far the official has not announced the specific sales volume. According to industry insiders, from listing to discontinuation, Haobo SSR may have sales of about 300 units.
In July 2023, the second model of the Haobo brand, the Haobo GT, was officially launched, with an official price range of 21990,000-33990,000 yuan, benchmarking against Tesla Model Y. However, the market performance after the listing was not satisfactory. According to the data of the passenger association, the sales of Haobo GT exceeded 2,000 units in the first month of listing, and the sales volume from August to November were 710, 706, 506 and 100 respectively, and the sales were very bleak.
In November 2023, the third model, Haobo HT, was officially launched, with an official price of 21390,000-32990,000 yuan, the data shows that only 1,910 vehicles were delivered in the first month of listing, and I don't know if the follow-up sales can hold up.
Lack of key technologies, no obvious advantages in product strength
Compared with the high-end brands launched by traditional car companies, the average monthly sales of ZEEKR in 2023 are close to the level of 10,000 units, and even the up-and-coming VOYAH sales exceeded the 10,000 mark for the first time in the past December. In 2023, the cumulative sales of the Haobo brand will only be 8,087 units, and GAC Aion's high-end transformation is quite a failure.
In fact, GAC Aion also had high hopes for the Haobo brand at the beginning, and at the beginning of the brand's release, it launched the first domestic supercar SSR positioned at the million-level level, and put all its latest technology on the model. The car is equipped with three high-performance motors, and the acceleration to 100 kilometers is only 19S, at the same time, there are 900V silicon carbide chips, as well as the technology and material blessing jointly created with China Aerospace, but in the end it did not cause any splash.
It is understandable that the sales volume is poor, because at present, domestic users who buy supercars care more about the brand and the added value it brings, and the Haobo brand obviously does not have this attribute. Secondly, in addition to the acceleration performance, the Haobo SSR does not have much commendable advanced technology, and the acceleration performance is very "cheap" for the current electric vehicles.
In contrast, BYD's Yangwang brand has come up with a number of top technologies, including Yi Sifang four-motor drive technology and Yunyuan body control system. It is also a million-level supercar model, looking up at the U9 can achieve difficult actions such as turning around on the spot, driving smoothly on three wheels, and "bouncing" on the spot, which has never been seen by other models before, which is impressive, and it is also discussed enough, and it has always had a high degree of popularity on the Internet.
Therefore, BYD's high-end transformation has been successful, looking up to the brand in December to hand over 1,593 good results, you must know that more than 1,500 domestic cars sold in a month with a price of more than one million, which was unimaginable before.
After the supercar SSR, the Haobo brand has also successively launched the Haobo GT, which is benchmarked against Tesla's Model Y, and the Haobo HT, a medium and large SUV, but unfortunately, the sales volume is still not improving.
On the one hand, because in the price range of 20-300,000 yuan, the competition is quite fierce, these two models have no obvious advantages in performance and function, and at the same time, the appearance is too mediocre and lacks recognition. In terms of intelligent driving, the progress of the Haobo brand is also relatively backward, and it is still in the verification stage, and it will take some time to open the high-speed and urban NOA.
On the other hand, due to GAC Aion's long-term focus on the low-end market, this has also led to the lack of brand voice of the Haobo brand in the high-end market and the lack of brand recognition in the eyes of consumers. You must know that in this price segment, there are not only Tesla, but also many brands of models such as "Wei Xiaoli", Zeekr, and Denza.
Since 2022, GAC Aion has been preparing for the IPO, and the valuation once exceeded 100 billion after the A round of financing, but there is no follow-up action at present. In the critical period of impacting the IPO, the success of Aion's high-end transformation is very crucial. In 2024, the Haobo brand must fight.