2023 is a turning point in China's auto market, with the sales and market share of new energy vehicles achieving a historic breakthrough, surpassing traditional fuel vehicles and becoming the mainstream of the auto market. However, for new energy brands, only a handful of many car companies have completed their 2023 sales targets, and those that fail to complete account for eighty percent, among them, Zeekrypton is among these eighty percent. The cumulative sales volume from January to December was 11870,000 units, an increase of 65% over the same period last year, however, compared with the set sales target of 140,000 units, ZEEKR has achieved less than 70%.
ZEEKR is backed by the new energy brand of Geely Group, a traditional car manufacturer, and both the parent company and ZEEKR itself are hardly satisfied with the sales results in 2023. In 2024, ZEEKR plans to target 230,000 units, nearly twice as many as last year. Whether it is the consumer market or the capital market, ZEEKR urgently needs to prove itself in 2024.
The reputation of consumer joint rights protection has been damaged
China's new energy vehicle market has developed rapidly in recent years, and sales are becoming more and more gratifying. But behind the rapid development is the significant shortening of the product iteration cycle. In the era of fuel vehicles, the cycle from project approval to launch of a new car was 60 months, but in the era of new energy vehicles, it has been shortened to about 36 months.
The product iteration cycle has been greatly shortened, the product iteration has been quickly realized, and the purchase of the car has also been greatly discounted, but for the "old customers" who bought the first batch of cars, it seriously affects their interests, especially the consumers who have just bought the car, and the new car has not been driven for two months, it has shrunk by 10,000 yuan, and it is bound to complain about rights protection online.
On April 11, 2023, more than 300 owners of ZEEKR Motors publicly released a joint statement online, stating that ZEEKR Motors is unfair to their old customers of 2022 models for the 2023 ZEEKR 001 model for free installation and free configuration for a limited time, and they require ZEEKR Motors to make certain economic compensation to them.
Not only that, the more than 300 owners also said in the statement that they complained about the 2022 ZEEKR 001 model, not only the seats have fabric bulges, but also collapse problems. Some car owners have gone to a dealer to replace the seat padding, but the problem persists.
After this joint statement incident, ZEEKR's brand reputation plummeted.
The violent momentum ended in embarrassment
Due to the large number of new energy brands and fierce competition, ZEEKR focuses on manufacturing and building momentum, hoping to attract more consumers' attention. A few days ago, in order to celebrate the delivery of more than 200,000 units, ZEEKR official Weibo released a poster saying, "The fastest to break through 200,000, the world's only new energy zero spontaneous combustion record".
Generally speaking, it is very normal for car companies to build momentum for product promotion on their own social platforms, so that consumers can better understand their brands, but this wave of public relations of ZEEKR is high-profile and anxious, and while stepping on competitors, it has raised itself, and naturally some people can't stand it.
After ZEEKR released the poster, AVATR ** ZEEKR's Weibo and commented: "There is no investigation and no right to speak, the world's only new energy with zero spontaneous combustion, is it investigated?" ”
Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Group, commented on AVATAR's Weibo: "Serious enough, you can add chicken legs, but have you reported to the bosses before sending it?" ”
Subsequently, Li Pengcheng, vice president and chief CMO of AVATR Technology, replied to Yang Xueliang: It is true that it has not been reported, but AVATR has indeed not spontaneously combusted.
Yang Xueliang responded: "Okay, encourage me, I have asked ZEEKR to correct it next time." In the end, Yang Xueliang admitted his mistake on behalf of Extreme Krypton, and ended in embarrassment.
As AVATR questioned, according to the provisions of the Advertising Law, ZEEKR should provide survey data to support "the world's only" and "zero spontaneous combustion", simply to create a topic, eager to prove its product power, also because it needs sales too much.
Power system failures are frequent
The quality of the product plays a decisive role in sales, but after buying a car, ZEEKR owners found that their car is not only prone to small problems in the seat parts, but also the power system is not immune to failure.
A Mr. Wang from Beijing said that the ZEEKR 001 he bought had multiple power system failures. Mr. Wang complained: "When you drive a car, you suddenly can't move, you can't ** what scene will appear next time, it's too dangerous, it's easy to get into a car accident." ”
Mr. Wang communicated with the customer service of the ZEEKR manufacturer many times, and the staff said that the car would be restarted or inspected, but the problem was not fundamentally solved after Mr. Wang did so.
Another ZEEKR 001 car complained on the Internet that during the driving of his vehicle, the brakes became stiff, the single pedal failed, the kinetic energy ** failed, the ABS ESC was abnormal, the braking system failed, and the auxiliary driving system failed. And this is the second time this has happened, and I am very scared.
Summary:
Today's ZEEKR is no longer a brand that has just started, and whether ZEEKR can continue to gain a firm foothold in this highly competitive market and give consumers a reason to choose it, product reputation is very important. We'll see how we regain lost trust.