Chery, which has always done more and said less, is more concerned about spending its main energy on enriching products, upgrading technology, increasing sales, enhancing brands, and focusing on efficiency.
For a long time, Chery has given the outside world the impression of a down-to-earth, steady, and researched "technical man" persona, which is a bit similar to the inherent label of Mazda's "science and engineering man" in Japan, but Chery is not a niche brand, and the sales volume is a proper big brand layout.
On March 2, Chery Holding Group released data showing that 143155 cars were sold in February, a year-on-year increase of 378%；From January to February, a total of 348019 cars were sold, a year-on-year increase of 695%。
Among them, Chery brand sold 97,562 vehicles in February, a year-on-year increase of 41%, and 232692 vehicles were sold from January to February, a year-on-year increase of 671%；Xingtu brand sales were 7,910 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 564%, 16,840 units were sold from January to February, a year-on-year increase of 717%；The sales volume of the Jietu brand was 29,017 units, a year-on-year increase of 766%, sales from January to February were 71,973 units, a year-on-year increase of 1219%；The iCar 03, the brand's first product, received 16,728 orders during pre-sales and went global on February 28.
In February, the auto market weakened seasonally due to the Spring Festival holiday, and the retail sales of narrow passenger cars fell by 15 year-on-year7%, down 435%。In other words, Chery has not only not been affected by the negative growth trend of the industry, but has also risen against the wind, maintaining the growth trend of "sprinting at the start" since 2024.
In 2023, Chery Group achieved 12 consecutive sales increases, with cumulative sales of 1,881,316 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 526%, running out of the "acceleration" that far exceeded the growth rate of the industry, and the annual revenue, sales volume, and exports created "three record highs".
Lin Yan thinks that the top three star car companies that were the most dazzling in China's auto market last year, in addition to BYD, only Chery and Li Auto seem to be worthy of it. You must know that the sales of independent brands such as BYD, Chery, and Ideal continue to set new records and surprise the industry, and they are indeed outstanding representatives of many excellent car companies. The data shows that Chery has ranked first since 2022.
Fourth, the seventh in the industry, climbed to the first place in 2023.
Second, the third in the industry.
It is worth mentioning that Chery's sales growth in 2023 is to achieve rapid growth by relying only on the traditional fuel vehicle market without relying too much on new energy vehicles, which is a must-have in today's new energy vehicle market, and the development momentum cannot be underestimated.
However, the development of new energy is the trend of the times after all, and Chery is also well aware that new energy vehicles are the shortcomings of its own development. It must be said that Chery Automobile has been out of touch with the new energy market, especially in the mid-to-high-end field, for some time, even if it has considerable combat power in the field of fuel vehicles, but it does not have much influence in the field of new energy. Especially for Chery New Energy, which relies heavily on micro pure electric models, its voice in the mid-to-high-end market is indeed scarce.
For example. In the third quarter of 2023, while Chery's overall sales made a breakthrough, it was found that Chery's new energy vehicle sales in the first three quarters were 73,805 units, compared with 138316 units in the same period in 2022, almost halved, with a decrease of as much as 466%。In the same period of 2022, many brands such as Volkswagen, Changan, Xiaopeng, Nezha, Ideal, Weilai, Leap, Geely, etc., which are still behind Chery's Xinyuan car sales, will all catch up with Chery in 2023, and even Changan's sales in the first three quarters of 2023 are twice that of Chery, and the ideal is more than 3 times that of Chery.
In the face of the anxiety and embarrassment of far lagging behind the sales proportion of new energy vehicles in the field of new energy vehicles, Chery learned from the pain and realized that it could not be dragged on like this.
At the 2023 Chery Technology Day, Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery, publicly said, "We got up early in the morning and caught up late in the new energy industry, but we now want to be the latecomer." We are ready in terms of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, so next year we are very confident that we will not be so polite in the new energy industry ranking this year, and we will definitely enter the top position in the country. Of course, we are by no means relying on losses in the field of new energy in exchange for sales, which is what we do not do. ”
According to the plan, in 2024, Chery Group's four major brands, Chery, Jietu, Xingtu and ICAR, will launch more than 10 new energy models, including Fengyun A8 and Fengyun A8 Pro, Fengyun T6, Fengyun T9, Fengyun T11, Xingtu Xingtu Epoch ET, Jietu Shanhai L6, ICAR GT, etc. By the end of 2025, Chery will launch 5-6 models to create a more comprehensive iCar brand. In addition, in the extended range market, Chery Xingtuxing Era ET models will also participate in the competition between the world and the ideal, and will be in full swing on the electrification technology route.
On February 28, Chery Group's new energy electric brand icar, the first product of the "all-aluminum electric four-wheel drive" SUV trendsetter, iCAR 03, was launched. On February 29, the Jietu brand ushered in the launch of the X70 C-DM, a wide-body 7-seater super-hybrid SUV. The Xingtu Yaoguang C-DM, the "ultra-comfortable electric hybrid flagship SUV" of the Xingtu brand, also opened pre-sales on February 26. As the first model of the Xingtu M3X super-hybrid platform, the Xingtu Yaoguang C-DM adopts three-speed super hybrid DHT technology, with excellent power performance and a comprehensive cruising range of more than 1300+km.
In just four days, from February 26 to February 29, Chery successively opened the pre-sale of Yaoguang C-DM, and the launch of Jietu X70 C-DM and ICAR03. In other words, more than 20 new energy vehicles are expected to be unveiled or launched within two years, and the new energy segment is becoming a new sales growth point for Chery after fuel vehicles and exports. It can be seen that Chery Group has accelerated its attack and "innovation" in new energy products, and has built a rich matrix of high-performance hybrid + pure electric products, which will continue to increase its competitiveness and influence in the new energy market.
If BYD is a banner for Chinese car companies in 2023, then Chery can definitely be called a dark horse in the Chinese auto market. History has repeatedly proved that it is almost difficult for many silent domestic car companies to turn over, but Chery can jump to the forefront again after diving at the trough and re-stand at the forefront of China's independent brand car companies, which is really not many.
Compared with the "soaring" and aggressive sales targets set by new power car companies, Chery and other traditional car companies are more pragmatic in setting sales targets in 2024. In 2023, Chery Group will achieve annual sales of 18810,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 526%。Yin Tongyue, chairman of Chery Group, said that the target for 2024 is to exceed the industry by 10-20 percentage points in sales growth rate.
Perhaps the outside world thinks that it has been fully deployed in the field of new energy, and will achieve a sales increase of 52% in 20236% of Chery, why is it abnormal, the sales target is too conservative, is it not a lack of confidence and confidence?In this regard, Yin Tongyue believes that the situation will be more severe in 2024 and is expected to grow at a low level. In this way, it is not difficult to understand that Chery's sales target is so cautious.
Although no clear sales target for this year has been announced, it does not mean that Chery does not have such a target internally, and there is a high probability that there will be a setting of "striving for goals" and "securing goals". Chery, which has always done more and said less, is more concerned about spending its main energy on enriching products, upgrading technology, increasing sales, improving brands, and focusing on efficiency. Perhaps, Chery's style of doing things prefers to surprise the outside world, rather than "putting satellites" and "drawing pies" at the beginning like some car companies, and the result is smiling and generous, and it can't be closed.
In Lin Yan's view, Chery, which has developed by leaps and bounds in the past two years, is strong as if it is open, and Chery, which will continue to make efforts and increase new energy, should no longer be "polite", nor will it be "soft", after all, the next medium and long-term goal to catch up can only be BYD, and only by catching up with BYD, Chery's future will have the significance of transcendence and success.