Text | Li Yang
Editor | Shi Zhiliang
After the rocket soars to a certain stage, the device that once provided assistance becomes some kind of resistance. It needs to gradually shed its shell to reduce the burden to achieve faster flight speed. The same is true for enterprise development. GAC New Energy is in such a process of transformation.
On November 20th, 2020 Guangzhou International Auto Show Media Day, the "GAC Ion" brand officially announced its independent operation. At the same time, "GAC New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd." was also renamed "GAC Ion New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd." "GAC Aeon" will be positioned as a "high-end smart electric vehicle brand" with a new LOGO.
Regarding the choice to be independent at this time, GAC New Energy General Manager Gu Huinanxiang (ID: carcaijing) said, “Three years ago, the new energy automobile industry was in its infancy, and it was still difficult to estimate the speed and space for future development. The decision to be independent now is because the development of GAC Aeon has been very good in the past three years, and even exceeded expectations. Now independence is a good time." After the news of the independence of the Z2z
Aon brand was announced, the shares of GAC Group were also released on November 20. The daily limit was up, and the A-share market related to power batteries and lithium cobalt ore raw materials and other stocks also rose to varying degrees. In this regard, Guotai Junan Securities analyzed that the independent operation of new energy brands has catalyzed the market's revaluation of the company's new energy business. Since 2020, the market value of new-power car companies has continued to rise, and the market has placed higher expectations on independent new energy car companies.
GAC Aian’s "triple jump"
is hard to imagine. Aian, the sub-brand of GAC’s new energy vehicle family that is less than two years old, has become a subsidiary of GAC Group overnight, standing side by side with GAC passenger cars. Subsidiary. But looking back at the new energy vehicle business of GAC Group, it has undergone three major organizational adjustments.
The history of GAC Aian can be traced back to December 2015. At that time, the new energy passenger car market was still in its infancy. GAC Passenger Cars formally established a new energy branch to integrate its own complex new energy vehicle-related technologies into a system. Gather together to deal with the huge wave of car electrification.
In July 2017, the new energy independent business of GAC Group experienced a second drastic change. GAC Passenger Vehicle New Energy Branch formally became independent and became a subsidiary of GAC Group and parallel to GAC Passenger Vehicles. Energy-related models are transferred to the new company.
At that time, the main models of GAC New Energy were the hybrid version of GS4, the hybrid version of GE3 and the pure electric version of GE3. Almost all of them were developed and produced on the basis of Trumpchi models, both in terms of product strength and market share. Compared with BYD and BAIC New Energy, which are already well-known in the new energy vehicle market, it is extremely weak, even compared with Changan and SAIC.
However, when the reporter visited the GAC Research Institute in 2017, GAC Group was confident in itself and informed the reporter that it would usher in the new year of its products in two years. “B-class cars are mainly hybrid, and A-class cars are pure electric. Mainly".
In April 2019, the first model of GAC New Energy’s AION series, AION S, was officially released. The futuristic technology and styling, the L2 level of autopilot, and the endurance far surpassing the same level at that time made AION S become a fine product. According to market focus, GAC New Energy's industry status has also risen.
Just six months after the release of AION S, GAC New Energy ushered in the second model, AION LX, which is the first mass-produced model of L3 autonomous driving in China. The launch of the
model has made the industry re-recognize GAC New Energy, or the frontier technologies such as the three-electric system, intelligent network connection, and autonomous driving behind it have surfaced, making this new model that was only independent for two years. Energy car companies have become the biggest dark horse for new energy car companies. Based on Aian’s best-selling, GAC New Energy sold 7,106 new cars this year, an increase of 1.4% from the previous month. Sales exceeded 7,000 for two consecutive months. From January to October, cumulative sales reached 45,797. Among them, AION S has a cumulative sales of 35,000 in the first ten months. Among all new energy vehicle products, it is second only to Tesla Model 3 and Hongguang MINI, ranking third; in the field of medium and high-end smart cars, it ranks first. Ean is just over a year old, Has become the leading brand in China's new energy market.
"If China's auto industry can't produce a brand to compete with Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, etc., it will be a tragedy for us Chinese Autobots. Especially in such an era of great changes and opportunities." Gu Huinan once said.
Since then, GAC New Energy has begun its third transformation. GAC Ion has gone solo, and it has risen from its model series to an independent car brand, and GAC New Energy has also been named after Ion. "We can also host a brand night." General Manager Gu Huinan of GAC New Energy said.
There is no doubt that the biggest significance of this independence is that Aian has completely got rid of Trumpchi's shadow. Gu Huinan said to a traveler (ID: carcaijing), “Recalling that GAC New Energy has been successful in the past three years, it has also encountered bottlenecks in its development until now. The relationship between Aian and Trumpchi is somewhat in the market. It is vague and easy to confuse consumers. After the independence of the Aian brand, this problem will be solved."
inherited from Trumpchi and created the rapid rise of Aian; but it is possible to become a new legend after getting rid of Trumpchi. After Z2z
Ian became independent, the heated discussion that followed focused on whether it should be listed independently. GAC Ian’s executives were silent about this, saying that GAC Ian would not be listed for the sake of listing, but it did not deny the possibility of independent listing.
According to the "14th Five-Year Plan" of GAC Group, GAC New Energy will sell 700,000 vehicles in 2025, more than half of which will be borne by Aian. Gu Huinan said that in the future, GAC Aian will launch at least one new car every year to strive for In 2025, autopilot models above the L4 level will be launched and put into operation.
GAC Ai'an wants to be a cheap high-end brand
. If you want to use one word to describe GAC's first half, the most accurate one is probably "late start first." As for the second half, it just started. In terms of positioning, GAC Aeon has positioned itself as a high-end brand of smart electric vehicles, and “high-end” is the main development direction of new energy vehicles in the future, and it is also a fierce competition for all car companies. However, Gu Huinan told a traveler (ID: carcaijing) that “Aian will not rashly sell the price high.” The low-cost high-end brand of
may have broken the recognition of many people, but in the view of GAC Aian , High-end does not mean that you must be a luxury car brand. In this regard, Gu Huinan also said with a smile, "The history of a luxury brand is a history of being acquired." In Gu Huinan's view, the so-called high-end refers to the fact that every car produced is better than its peers. Competitors create high-end brand images through advanced, fun, trendy, and high-quality products and services. Gu Huinan hopes that the first reaction to mentioning Aian is a great car brand and a very trustworthy brand.
In other words, the extension of Aian’s high-end is the innovative ability of brand marketing and the spirit of enterprise and humanity. The foundation is the quality assurance ability of product manufacturing, and the core is originality, exclusivity, and leadership.
In July this year, on the annual "GAC Science and Technology Day", GAC Group communicated advanced technology to the outside world, and GAC Aian's technical reserves also opened the tip of the iceberg.
For example, the world's first graphene super fast-charge battery, silicon anode high-energy density battery technology (up to 1,000 kilometers), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and so on. In addition, GAC Aian has also stocked many dry goods such as L4 autonomous driving models, the world's first 5G car, and the world's leading intelligent and healthy cockpit technology.
Gu Hui Nanxiang Traveler (ID: carcaijing) said, “Now is the era of software-defined cars. Software is very important. But many people ignore that software operates on the basis of hardware. The importance of hardware is absolutely Not under the software, the hardware currently ignored by the industry is one of the advantages of GAC Ion."
Although GAC Ion has demonstrated many advanced and forward-looking technologies since the Guangzhou Automobile Technology Day, it still needs to be high-end. Let the market speak. In the historical process of automobile development, it is easy to call high-end, but it is always more difficult to achieve high-end.
For high-end smart electric car brands, an opponent that will never be able to bypass is Tesla. Up to now, Tesla has been the leader in sales of new energy vehicles.
In fact, in the past few years, Tesla has ushered in countless challengers, Jaguar I-PACE, Audi e-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC, etc., but without exception have become Tesla's background wall. It is worth looking forward to whether GAC Ian, which has achieved positive profits after three years of establishment, will become the challenger.
At this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, GAC Ion also showed a "sharp" to Tesla, AION Y. This is a pure electric vehicle that GAC Aeon has clearly placed high hopes on. It will shoulder the heavy responsibility of confronting fuel vehicles and facing the Tesla Model 3.
It is worth noting that Dongfeng Lantu, BAIC ARCFOX, and SAIC Zhiji have made frequent moves recently. As described in Variables, "The veteran is not dead, but just put on a new outfit. Jedi in a place where no one notices. Strike back." Those traditional state-owned auto companies that were once considered abandoned by the times have changed and are at the forefront of the changes in the auto era. Z2z
has entered Tesla’s “rearview mirror”. Although the result of its high-end breakthrough is still unknown, it is foreseeable that the field of high-end smart electric vehicles will become more and more lively in the future, and there will eventually be a trend At the peak, there is finally a way to change travel.
