Data from the China Passenger Car Association showed that in May 2022, China's new energy passenger car sales were 360,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 91.2%, becoming the main force driving the automobile industry out of the trough. At the same time, traditional manufacturers' transformation to new energy still seems not smooth enough. In addition to the BYD , which has completed a gorgeous turn, GAC Aion, the best performing, has only sold 21,000 vehicles per month.
Therefore, traditional car manufacturers need to work harder. On June 13, SAIC MG officially announced its new pure electric crossover MG MULAN, named "Mulan". This car is built on SAIC Nebula's exclusive architecture, and the attention is relatively high. So what can this car bring to SAIC's new energy?
New car and new platform
In recent years, MG Auto has become younger and more sporty in design, and has gradually embarked on a track different from the Roewe brand. The newly released MG MULAN also follows the same design philosophy.
Three-stage air intake, narrow and long headlight group, and crossover shape, the whole car looks like a small cannon. The body length of the 4287mm is not outstanding, but the wheelbase of the 2705mm is a surprise. In addition, the official claims that the car accelerates at only 3.8 seconds per 100 km. Judging from the book data, this is a pretty good pure electric model.
Compared with new cars, SAIC's official ink is more about Nebula pure electric exclusive architecture. This is a universal pure electric architecture that supports a variety of models from compact cars to large cars, from sedans to sports car , and supports battery swap, charging and dual high voltage platforms. Simply put, it basically supports the mainstream elements of the electric vehicle industry.
Good car, good platform, it seems that SAIC is quite well prepared in the new energy field. However, in the new energy sales ranking list, SAIC Group has not entered the mainstream market so far. So what problems did SAIC, which has entered the new energy market since 2012?
brands are dazzling and
It should be noted that what we are talking about now does not include the models of SAIC-GM-Wuling . Strictly speaking, the magic car Wuling Hongguang MINI EV is also owned by SAIC Group. This car is a miracle that even SAIC itself cannot copy. In terms of SVIC's size and vision, it is obviously impossible for it to rely on such low-end cars to realize its new energy dream. SAIC New Energy's hope is in Roewe, MG, Zhiji and Feifan.
At present, SAIC New Energy's ideas are very clear. Roewe and MG continue to explore in the shell of traditional manufacturers, and at the same time create independent sub-brands Zhiji and Feifan to specialize in new energy. This is also a common practice for many traditional manufacturers in the process of transformation to new energy. But there is an obvious problem with this approach: it is full of flowers and confusion.
As early as 2012, the Roewe brand officially entered the new energy market with an micro car E50; but by 2021, the most popular new energy model of the Roewe brand is the 60,000 yuan micro car CLEVER.
And those new energy vehicles that cannot be sold in Roewe are Ei5, i6MAX new energy, RX5 eMAX, etc. In the Chinese market, these models have an inelegant name: oil-to-electric . The same goes for MG brand. Before the emergence of MG MULAN, MG's new energy sector was all composed of oil-to-electric vehicles.
As for SAIC Zhiji and Feifan Automobile , the former is positioned in the high-end market above 300,000 yuan, while the latter is positioned slightly lower, trying to perform in the mid-range market of 150,000-300,000 yuan. Theoretically, the two brands can form a high degree of matching, but in fact the influence of both brands is relatively average. Not to mention that they don’t even have mass-produced cars yet.
oil-to-electric models cannot be lost. The micro-car market does not want to be released. Mid-range models must be fought for, and the high-end market must also be tested. SAIC Group still seems to be unable to forget that it is a domestic first-tier manufacturer. However, such attacks everywhere will make the entire new energy business at a loss. The more you spend, the more you will be confused, and the more you fight on multiple lines will inevitably lead to "preparation and strength points". So far, SAIC has not come up with an electric car that can be widely accepted by consumers. Of course, the exception is the Shenche Hongguang MINI EV.
Does not master core technology
In addition to the development strategy, SAIC's new energy business has another prominent problem, that is, it does not master core technology. Take the MG MULAN released this time as an example. The biggest highlight of this Nebula pure electric platform is that it uses CTP battery technology, but in fact, this technology was no longer new two years ago.
Of course, if you don’t master the core technology, this is not a problem for SAIC. It can be said that except for BYD, other domestic new energy manufacturers do not have many core technologies that can be shown. But the problem with SAIC is that it has put too much energy into the so-called intelligence and other directions.
In April 2021, SAIC held the world's first automotive SOA developer conference and officially launched the Zero Band Galaxy full-stack SOA software developer platform. To recommend concepts, this is true. The problem is that there is no "concept" of sales, it is always just a concept. The concepts such as software-defined cars emphasized by SAIC are far less realistic than the number of kilometers to run or how big the trunk is.
Facts in the past two years have proved that core technology is still the primary productivity of the new energy industry, and the most typical example is BYD. This is a manufacturer that neither emphasizes autonomous driving nor intelligence, but can compete with ten. The reason is very simple. Those are actually not urgent needs. Batteries and other things are what consumers care about the most.
at the end
The problem of SAIC New Energy is actually a problem with many traditional manufacturers. He has no core technology in his hands, but he is attacking from all directions and is at a loss in the direction of new energy. Fortunately, traditional manufacturers are a bad circle. SAIC still has time, but everyone knows that there is not much time left.
