Whether it is less than 500,000 yuan, less than 5 million yuan, or less than 10 million yuan, the highest point of off-road SUV is always the tank. Gu Yukun, executive deputy general manager of the tank brand, made a bold statement at the press conference.
In recent years, new energy hard-core off-road vehicles are becoming the main topic of major car companies. The change in users' demand for hard-core off-road vehicles is also an important factor for many domestic brands to promote hard-core off-road vehicles in the niche market to the mass market.
I think that when Great Wall entered the hard-core off-road SUV market, in fact, industry insiders were generally not very optimistic about it. After all, the domestic hard-core off-road SUV has a high threshold, and in the traditional concept, the entry must be the Jeep Wrangler, and then there are million-level products such as Toyota Land Patrol and Land Rover Defender.
However, time has passed, and everyone has also seen that the Tank 300 has become popular in the market segment of hard-core off-road SUVs, and it has taken more than a year to occupy more than half of the domestic off-road SUV share.
It has to be said that the tank brand is one of the few sub-brands of Great Wall Motors that still has "dominance" in the market segment in recent years. But for the million-dollar luxury market, the Great Wall or the tank brand still hasn't shown enough dominance.
Thanks to the success of the Tank 300, the Tank series may gradually become a key chess piece for the Great Wall to sprint to the high-end of new energy.
A few days ago, the tank 700 Hi4-T was officially launched, and a total of 3 models were launched for the new car, leaving aside the limited edition of 700,000 yuan; The guide price of the Extreme Edition model is 4680,000 yuan, the pre-sale price of the extreme version model is 4280,000 yuan. Highlights include a large-displacement hybrid system, professional off-road equipment, active suspension for improved comfort, and a luxurious and comfortable interior experience.
And the official positioning of the tank 700 Hi4-T is: "The all-round king of the tank family, the real flagship of China's luxury off-road." ”
As before, the Tank 700 Hi4-T Limited Edition shocked the four seats at the Guangzhou Auto Show with 700,000 **, at least from the perspective of market perception, the Tank 700 Hi4-T has obviously successfully locked its luxury off-road market positioning in the early stage of brand promotion. And this also makes many industry insiders estimate that the main model of the tank 700 Hi4-T will be set at 500,000 yuan. And the final price of the tank 700 Hi4-T that night was 40,000 lower than the pre-sale price, which really surprised many people.
So, is it expensive to successfully explore the domestic luxury hard-core off-road market to the tank 700 Hi4-T within 500,000 yuan?
In the past off-road market, the high-end longitudinal power structure layout patent has been blocked by top foreign off-road manufacturers for a long time, coupled with the breakable balance bar, three locks and other configurations, creating a high-quality situation in the Chinese off-road market for brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover.
Data shows that in 2023, Land Rover's market share in China's high-end luxury SUV market will be as high as 331%。Although models such as the Tank 300 have gained a firm foothold in the Chinese off-road market through outstanding performance, the influence of domestic brands in the high-end off-road market is still insufficient.
However, this time the tank 700 Hi4-T is undoubtedly rushing for a million-level configuration. From a product point of view, compared to the tanks 500 Hi4-T and 400 Hi4-T of the same series, the tank 700 Hi4-T spares no effort in terms of power. 3.The combination of the 0T V6 engine and the P2 electric motor, together with a 9-speed automatic transmission, allows it to deliver a maximum of 385 kW of power and 800 Nm of torque, and even 850 Nm in the Limited Edition.
Despite the curb weight of more than 31 ton, but it accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 56 seconds. For reference, ** is 8280,000 yuan Land Rover Defender 110 adopted 30T power, the corresponding performance indicators are 294 kW, 550 N·m and 6., respectively1 second.
Equipped with a comprehensive four-wheel drive structure based on mechanical four-wheel drive + three locks and 12 driving all-terrain modes, this car not only takes into account the power output, but also improves the off-road adaptability. The Tank 700 Hi4-T is not only equipped with an electronic disconnectable stabilizer bar, but also has air springs and CDC electromagnetic shock absorbers with adjustable vehicle height and suspension soft and hard functions, making it one of the few models with a first-class suspension system among its own brands, which can maintain a high level of driving comfort whether driving on the road or on unpaved roads.
As a luxury off-road vehicle, the Tank 700 Hi4-T adopts a trapezoidal frame with the largest cross-section in the industry in terms of safety, with a high-strength steel ratio of 99% and a torsional rigidity of up to 8000 N·m DEG. The proportion of high-strength steel in the body frame reaches 83%, and the torsional rigidity reaches 30,122 N·m deg. Compared with the torsional rigidity of the Mercedes-Benz Big G, which is only 10,162 N·m deg, the tank 700 Hi4-T can indeed be called a "hardcore".
In addition, the body size of the Tank 700 Hi4-T is full and sefound, from the front of the Bromo Volcano Eye headlights to the shaping of the contour lines, it highlights its powerful and design-oriented image. Inside the car, its first ultra-wide-angle fiber cloud bed chair can achieve 141° backrest reclining and 10-point airbag massage function. It also features a 16-speaker Harman Kardon sound system and full-speed mute engineering, which provides Hi-Fi level sound resolution through Harman QuantumLogic surround sound processing and Harman VNC speed compensation.
Among the current products of the Great Wall family, the tank 700 Hi4-T 42The starting price of 80,000 yuan undoubtedly broke the ceiling of pricing, and some netizens even ridiculed its limited edition of 700,000 yuan, "If you don't work hard, you can only buy BBA".
StillFrom the horizontal comparison of off-road performance, comfort and luxury, intelligent and other configurations, the tank 700 Hi4-T, which has stepped into the high-end threshold on the first, actually still has the Great Wall's idea of focusing on "cost performance".
But judging by the positioning, the situation of the tank 700 Hi4-T seems to be slightly awkward.
In fact, when the tank 500 Hi4-T was launched before, the official used the dual context of "luxury" and "off-road". You know, when the tank built the tank 500 Hi4-T, the goal was to be more luxurious, while the tank 700 Hi4-T was positioned more off-road. However, in practice, the tank 700 Hi4-T was equally inclined to the luxury category, putting the two in conflict with each other's positioning. At first glance, the Tank 700 Hi4-T is just a "large" tank 500 Hi4-T with improved cross-country performance.
The relationship between the tank 700 Hi4-T and the tank 500 Hi4-T should be more like that of Toyota Land Patrol and Toyota Prado, but the tank is not as clear as Toyota in terms of the strategy of dividing the two.
Perhaps due to the popularity of the tank 300, the tank 500 Hi4-T and 400 Hi4-T have been launched one after another in the past two years, and the ** of the tank brand has also risen. It is a normal business strategy for tanks to desire to create greater profit margins, but for tank brands and even Great Wall, it is not difficult to do a good job in the word "off-road", but the difficult thing is the word "luxury".
Will consumers pay for a luxury tank? In fact, looking at the performance of the tank 500 Hi4-T, it is not difficult to find that 5045 units were sold in January, which is already very good. But if it is only a "large" tank 500 Hi4-T, but it will have to increase its price by nearly 100,000, I am afraid it will be difficult to surpass the sales results of the tank 500.
It is true that the Tank 700 Hi4-T does have certain advantages in hard-core off-road performance, but it is obviously a bit too idealistic for ordinary consumers to spend more than 400,000 yuan to buy an off-road vehicle. In the high-end market, the brand power of the tank cannot be compared with Land Rover and the Big G, and the real rich class is likely to look down on the 400,000 tank 700 Hi4-T.
In this regard, Liu Yanzhao, CEO of the tank brand, also said frankly at the communication meeting after the meeting: "I think the problem of feelings cannot be solved in one or two sentences, feelings, stories, and heritage, which need to be taken step by step." "In off-road products, there is still a need for precipitation in culture. Tank has been working hard to build a club and do off-road culture, which is to let the owner drive together to influence the surrounding people, so that everyone will have a recognition of the brand.
It is precisely this "awkward" market positioning of the Tank 700 Hi4-T that has created the status quo that it looks "expensive" but "not expensive". In other words, the product power is okay, but there is still a gap between the brand premium and the traditional million-level hard-core off-road.
This time, there was another very interesting phenomenon at the press conference, a group of Arabs wearing white veils experienced the tank 700 Hi4-T on the spot, which attracted the attention of the people at the scene. It is reported that they are investors from Dubai.
Official image gallery of the event.
The only choice for the tank is to be tough with the world's first-line off-road brands! According to Liu Yanzhao, the tank brand has landed in 30 overseas countries and regions, with overseas sales accounting for more than 20%, and the cumulative global sales volume in 2023 will exceed 160,000, ranking first in China's off-road overseas sales.
This set of figures may mean that Great Wall Motor's right to speak on low-end hard off-road is slowly extending from the domestic market to overseas markets.
In the communication meeting after the press conference, Liu Yanzhao publicly said, "The Tank 700 is priced from a global perspective, not simply in the Chinese market." Compared with million-level cars, they have them, and the tank 700 also has them. If the technical strength of the tank 700 is benchmarked horizontally, then the price of this car is not only 1 million, but probably 2 million. ”
Not to mention, how much exaggeration there is in these 2 million, at least from the perspective of the market space of the tank 700 Hi4-T, this time the tank will not only compete for the domestic high-end off-road market, but also a test for Great Wall Motors to participate in global competition on its own most advantageous track.
Liu Yanzhao hopes that the Tank 700 can compete with the Land Rover Defender and the Mercedes-Benz Big G in the global market. In fact, from the hot sales of the Tank 300, this emerging brand from the Wei brand gradually gained a firm foothold in the domestic hard-core off-road track, and the subsequent Tank 400 500 Hi4-T also pushed the tank to a broader market.
Liu Yanzhao, CEO of the tank brand.
You must know that before this, the high-end image of the Great Wall brand has always been borne by the Wei brand. But who wants to be pinned on the Wei brand, for various reasons, failed to become the hope of the Great Wall Motors. On the contrary, the tank brand that mainly targets the niche market is an instant hit, and now this task may fall on the tank brand.
Although, in the past two years, there has been no shortage of tank brands in various off-road holy places in China. But compared to two years ago, the opponents of the tank brand are also showing a growing trend. Equation Leopard, ICAR, Jietu and even Yangwang and Mengshi, the main new energy off-road products cover the whole section from 100,000 yuan to 1 million yuan. In such a niche market as off-road vehicles, so many new products have emerged, and the intensity of competition can be seen.
Interestingly, this year, two foreign heavyweight products - the new Toyota Prado and Ford Bulco bronco have also broken the news that they will "return" to China. Once upon a time, the Prado, an off-road god car, was discontinued in China, and it just gave way to the tank to the market. Now, the return of Prado and Ford Horse, whether it is the domestic or global hardcore off-road market, will usher in a more fierce battle.
In fact, in recent years, Great Wall Motor's pursuit of the word "high-end" can be said to be undisguised.
At this stage, it is also a smart strategy to use brands that have proven success to strive for high-end. However, although the hard-core off-road vehicle is good, it is a niche market after all, and if you want to enter the mainstream mass market, you may have to return to the home of the Wei brand.
It is reported that Great Wall Motor plans to hit the sales target of 1.9 million yuan in 2024 and achieve a net profit of 7.2 billion yuan. To this end, the Haval brand needs to contribute 50%-60% of the share, and the WEY brand plans to achieve the sales target of 100,000-200,000. And the sales volume of WEY brand in 2023 will be 4With 160,000 units, it is not easy to double the growth.
In this regard, it was reported a few days ago that Great Wall plans to integrate the salon project into the WEY brand and expand the WEY brand's product line. The first product of the salon brand, the mecha dragon, will be released in the second half of the year as the first sedan under the Wei brand, and the restarted mecha dragon will be mass-produced at the Xushui factory in Baoding, and try to adopt a direct sales model.
Intuitively, the salon brand that has been bounced for a long time has not been abandoned by Great Wall Motors, which many people did not expect. With the merger of the salon into the Wei brand, the Great Wall also has more grippers in the 300,000 ** range and the sedan market. At that time, combined with the "foreshadowing" of the tank 700 Hi4-T, perhaps the Great Wall brand's road to high this year will really have different changes.
(This article was first published in the titanium **app, the author is Chang Xiao, and the editor is Zhang Min).