In 2022, 90% of the equity of the Denza brand returned to BYD, and on May 16, it released the D9 model with a maximum pre-sale price of 660,000 yuan and a new brand strategy.

's Denza brand was established 12 years ago and is a joint venture between BYD and Daimler . This brand, which was born with a "golden key", once started early, but stalled midway. In 2022, 90% of the equity of the Denza brand returned to BYD, and on May 16, it released the D9 model with a maximum pre-sale price of 660,000 yuan and a new brand strategy.

Denza D9 Picture source | Corporate official website

D9 is Denza's first MPV and has been released in 7 configurations with a price range of 335,000-660,000 yuan. Lian Yubo, president of BYD Automotive Engineering Research Institute, said at the press conference that Denza D9 has BYD e platform 3.0, DM-i super hybrid technology, "sandwich" structure blade battery technology and other blessings. Denza brand They will also enjoy the empowerment of BYD’s “big technology fish pond”.

Next, the Denza brand, controlled by BYD, will release a total of 3 new cars this year, all of which will be positioned as luxury. Denza told Shell Finance reporters that from the company’s perspective, , NIO, and Ideal are Denza’s competing products. Another luxury brand, Starry Sky, will also meet consumers in the second half of 2022. For BYD, 2022 is not only a big year for expanding production capacity, but also a big year for brand products.

Led by Zhao Changjiang, does the first product positioning MPV Denza have a chance to become a hit?

was once a joint venture between BYD and Daimler, but its overall development performance was poor. Compared with the joint venture's step-by-step approach, Denza has accelerated its actions after returning to BYD. Zhao Changjiang, former general manager of BYD Auto Sales Co., Ltd., takes charge and frequently interacts with consumers and media on Weibo .

According to BYD's 2021 financial report, Denza's positioning after returning to BYD will be between Dynasty, Ocean Network and the high-end brand Xingkong to be released in the second half of 2022.

Denza D9 pre-sale price and user rights Source | BYD official website

Denza’s new protagonist, the D9, is positioned as a new energy MPV, and its pre-sale price range reaches 335,000-660,000 yuan. Zhao Changjiang said that D9 received more than 5,600 orders within one day of pre-sale.

Zhao Changjiang mentioned at the press conference that in 2022, Denza will release a total of 3 new cars and deploy 200 offline stores in 68 cities. The offline stores will be Denza experience stores, Denza centers, and Denza MINI. Center and other various models.

In addition, Denza’s sales channels are currently moving online. Zhao Changjiang said that the Denza Auto WeChat applet is currently the only way to place orders and connect directly to customers. The brand will also launch the "Dengza Xingyuan Plan" online and build user communities such as car clubs offline.

"This series of combination punches has a sense of 'Internet-made cars' represented by Weilai Automobile . Denza is trying to establish more dimensional connections with users." Zhang Xiang, a distinguished expert at China Broadband Think Tank, told Shell Finance reporter said.

Some users also questioned whether the Denza brand could support the word "luxury" and how it would differentiate itself from another high-end brand "Starry Sky" in the future. "Technology is all BYD's foundation. What difference does Denzhao make?" asked a BYD car enthusiast.

Zhao Changjiang, general manager of Denza Sales Division, said that the Denza D9 hybrid version has a range of over 1,000km, and the pure electric version has a range of over 600km. In terms of charging, the D9 pure electric version can replenish energy for 150km in 10 minutes. Source | Corporate official website

Zhang Hong, Secretary General of the New Energy Vehicle Branch of the Circulation Association, told a reporter from Shell Finance that BYD has strong technical capabilities, such as blade batteries, DM-i hybrid system, e-platform 3.0, etc. These technical advantages can help BYD's conversion into sales performance may also bring considerable support to Denza.

Zhang Xiang also believes that Denza, BYD and Xingkong have different market positioning, and the multi-brand strategy is also a relatively mainstream "playing method" at present. Zhang Xiang mentioned that young users now prefer to buy products from brands that are independent and personalized. As a brand with a long history, Denza may perform well in the market. The high-end new energy MPV market is still a blue ocean, with many opportunities to gain momentum. Although the overall momentum of

is good, Zhang Xiang also mentioned that BYD and Denza still face huge initial expenditure pressure.Compared with models, platforms, and battery technology that can be shared, the construction of offline stores and brand promotion are separate expenditures. In the second half of the year, BYD will also release the Xingkong brand. BYD, whose profits will decline in 2021, may still have huge profits in 2022. pressure.

In addition, it is public information that BYD's own production capacity is insufficient and there is a large backlog of orders. How the Denza brand's product production will achieve sustainability is also worthy of attention.

12 ​​Years of Car Sea Ups and Downs Daimler-backed Dengshi once again embraces BYD

The story of Dengshi has been going on for 12 years. In the spring breeze of Stuttgart , BYD and Daimler jointly signed a memorandum of understanding in March 2010. , the two parties agreed to jointly invest in building a high-end new energy vehicle brand - the DENZA DENZA brand was born.

In 2010, China's annual sales of new energy vehicles were only 7,181; NIO founder Li Bin is still speaking out as a media founder; Tesla has just landed on Nasdaq under the leadership of Musk Gram ...

When the development of the new energy vehicle market was in the ascendant, with the combination of BYD's power battery technology and Daimler's car manufacturing heritage, Denza officially released its first product in 2014. However, due to various factors, the subsidy The product with a price of nearly 300,000 yuan has not become popular in the market. Public data shows that the total sales of the Denza brand from 2015 to 2019 exceeded 13,000 vehicles, with an average sales volume of 2,600 vehicles per year; the brand's cumulative losses exceeded 3.5 billion yuan. In addition, in addition to upgrading its first model, Denza officially launched its second product, Denza X, in 2019.

Denza EQ product matrix, the first domestic product EQC was also officially launched at the end of 2019.

For a time, there were many question marks on where to go.

On July 1, 2019, the Denza brand launched a new operating model. Its sales, marketing and other businesses were integrated into the Beijing Benz system. BYD no longer sells Denza brand products and is only responsible for the maintenance of old car owners.

A person related to BYD told a reporter from Shell Finance that during the cooperation between BYD and Mercedes-Benz to operate Denza, the company learned product design, chassis adjustment and even luxury brand marketing methods, which was quite rewarding.

However, public information shows that in January 2020, BYD and Daimler invested 700 million yuan in Denza. However, after the capital injection, Denza did not release much new news, and the brand sales were also embarrassing.

In December 2021, BYD and Daimler each increased their investment in Denza by 1 billion yuan, and then the two companies signed an equity transfer agreement on adjusting Denza's structure. After the transfer is completed, BYD and Daimler will respectively hold shares. There are 90% and 10% equity interests in Denshi.

After 12 years, BYD officially took back control of the Denza brand and made it an important part of BYD Auto's joint venture with Daimler to jointly deploy high-end new energy vehicles. What kind of answer sheet Denzhi can hand over next, and whether BYD can take a further step on the road to high-endization, still need to be answered by the market.

Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Bai Haotian

Editor Wang Yuchen

Proofreader Liu Baoqing Zhang Yanjun