news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

The "boxy" SUV market is hot nowadays, but do new brands still have a chance? This question is also difficult to answer for the newly established 212 brand.

On August 22, the 212 T01, built by 212 Off-Road Vehicle Co., Ltd., controlled by Shandong Weiqiao Venture Group, was officially launched. The new car has three models, with a price range of 139,900-172,900 yuan. The new car is positioned as a compact hard-core SUV.

In addition to the boxy shape, the new car also focuses on its off-road performance. The new car is equipped with a time-sharing four-wheel drive system, and provides front and rear axle differential locks and an off-road-specific OFFROAD mode. In addition, the new car will also be equipped with a steep slope descent function and a disconnectable anti-roll bar. In terms of power, the new car is equipped with a 2.0T engine and an 8AT transmission power combination.

However, as the first product of a new brand, whether the 212 T01 can gain a foothold in the market cannot be determined by how high the configuration is or how low the price is. It mainly depends on whether there is technical endorsement, brand accumulation and reliability. After all, current consumers are more rational. It is not that just relying on a "square box" appearance can make consumers vote. How is the off-road performance and whether the reliability can be guaranteed are also the focus of consumers.

Although the 212 model is a historically significant model and has become a memory for several generations. However, with the development of the automobile industry, the upgrading of technology and electrification, the 212 model is obviously no longer a product of the current era. Many consumers call it "industrial garbage." And this model does not have much favorability for young people today. It is not easy to impress these consumers with the sentiment of the 212.

In addition, the 212 brand was officially launched in June this year, and it was also officially independent from a previous model. However, after the brand was launched, a "clarification statement" from Beijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd. also attracted the attention of the industry.

The statement mentioned: Beijing Automotive Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a private enterprise with its main production base in Qingdao, Shandong, and has no equity or property rights relationship with BAIC Group. Please ask the general public, media friends and consumers to carefully identify the quality of its products. BAIC Group does not assume any responsibility for the after-sales and service of related products.

In fact, to put it simply, the 212 model that people were familiar with before has already been transferred and sold to Weiqiao Group, which is different from the BAIC Group that produces the BJ series of models. From this point of view, the 212 brand does not have much technical background and is very different from the BAIC Group that produces the BJ series of models.

Although it is not difficult to build a car in the Internet car manufacturing environment, all major supply chains have been opened up. However, it is not easy to build a "good car", especially a hard-core off-road SUV equipped with a traditional fuel engine and transmission, which may be much more difficult than building an electric car.

After all, this involves the coordination of the engine and transmission, the tuning of the chassis, the performance of the four-wheel drive system, etc., which will determine whether this hard-core SUV can take you far away or leave you behind halfway.

In the hardcore off-road market, the Tank brand has become a "phenomenal" brand, and the Tank 300 has been able to continuously sell over 10,000 units per month, and has even become a "net-famous" car in overseas markets. This is mainly because Great Wall Motors has been deeply involved in the off-road SUV market for many years, especially in the engine, transmission and chassis technologies, and has strong R&D capabilities, and has accumulated a very good reputation in this market, which is also the key to its success.

Although the price of 212 T01 is much lower than that of Tank 300, the sales of BJ40, which is in the same price range as 212 T01, are not that good. Previously, facing the dismal sales of Fangcheng Baobao 5, it had to reduce its price by 50,000 yuan to grab the market. It can be seen that the temptation of the "square box" hard-core SUV market is indeed great, but it is quite difficult to get a share of it.

Final Thoughts

Nowadays, the domestic automobile market is becoming more and more "involuted". Under the general trend of new energy, many joint venture brands are also facing huge pressure. If the newly launched 212 T01 wants to survive, it is obviously not enough to rely on sentiment alone. Sentiment is just the memory of consumers of the past automobile era. Facing the future, how the 212 brand can show its own advantages is obviously the first question that Lu Yunran, the head of the 212 brand, considers, which will also determine how far the 212 brand can go.