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Earlier in June, there was news that Chery was going to set up a Zhijie sales company, and now there is the latest progress. Recently, a source reported that the Zhijie sales company was shelved.

To be honest, this news is quite surprising. Because on August 19, Seres Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. was renamed "Chongqing Wenjie Automobile Sales Co., Ltd." At that time, some people believed that Huawei wanted to delegate power to the end. Not only did it transfer the trademark and brand usage rights of the cooperative models to the cooperative companies, but it also explored more ways to "contact more automotive partners", such as introducing other car companies to invest in the company.

Chery has established the Zhijie Sales Company, which has all marketing functions including brand, public relations, channels, after-sales, training, etc. The new sales company is located under the Zhijie Business Unit.In addition to Hongmeng Intelligent Driving's channels, a sales and service network exclusively for Chery and a user center have been built. It can be said that this is a complete operating system.

However, Zhijie Sales Company was put on hold, and now things are getting weird, because on the other hand, Wenjie Sales Company was established.These are two completely opposite attitudes, which must be the result of Huawei's influence.

The question now is, what is the difference between the intelligent world and the questioning world that causes Huawei to behave so schizophrenicly?

There is a big gap in sales between the two

There are quite a few car companies cooperating with Huawei. So far, only Wenjie has achieved outstanding results in both sales and popularity.

In the first seven months of 2024, the cumulative delivery volume of Wenjie reached 223,000 vehicles. Wenjie M7 performed the best, with wholesale sales reaching 122,000 vehicles in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 1661%; from January to July this year, Wenjie M9 won the first place in the domestic luxury car market with sales of 71,786 units above 500,000 yuan.In early August 2024, according to Yu Chengdong, the M9 had sold more than 120,000 units within seven months of its launch.

The first model of the Zhijie brand, the S7, was first launched in November 2023, and its sales were not outstanding. Under such circumstances, the Zhijie S7 was launched for the second time in April this year, with upgraded configuration and lowered price. It can be said that it showed sincerity and the effect was immediately improved.Sales exceeded 5,000 units in the first month of its launch, and sales in May remained at over 5,000 units. After the climax, sales entered a period of calm in June and July, with sales of only 2,306 units in June and 1,541 units in July.

This may have a lot to do with the brand recognition of Zhijie. After all, as the first car brand supported by Huawei, Huawei has spared no effort in terms of resources invested and Yu Chengdong's support, which has made Zhijie gain unprecedented popularity.As the second brand, Zhijie also received the same support, but it still lacked the unique feeling and the communication effect was unsatisfactory.; Others believe that pure electric vehicles are not easy to sell, so it is understandable that the performance of Zhijie S7 is not ideal.

Huawei's attitude towards the Q-world and the Zhi-world is different in terms of market sales. In layman's terms, the Q-world has already graduated and can take charge of its own business, while the Zhi-world has just entered the market and has not yet grown its wings and is not yet capable of flying solo.

From this perspective, it seems to make sense for Huawei to support the question world and put aside the smart world.

In addition, this has a lot to do with the two partners. As a loyal brother of Huawei, SERES is fully cooperative, while Chery is confident and has its own ideas and opinions, and Huawei is used to being strong. The cooperation between these two strong players may not necessarily produce the effect of 1+1>2, on the contrary, it may be less than 2.

Cooperation is like this. On the surface, everything seems peaceful and everyone is celebrating together, but behind the scenes there are actually all kinds of fierce confrontations and games.

Smart brand is still in its infancy

It is understood that the promotion of Chery Zhijie Sales Company is led by Wang Lei, a veteran who has returned to Chery for the second time. Wang Lei joined Chery in 2013 and previously served as a senior executive of the Jietu Marketing Center, general manager of Jietu iCAR Eco Market, and general manager of Chery New Energy Automobile Sales Co., Ltd.During his tenure at Chery New Energy, Wang Lei led the collaboration between Chery Unlimited Pro and luxury brand GUCCI, which caused a sensation.

In May 2024, he left Chery and joined Zotye as vice president. More than a month later, Wang Lei returned to Chery and was responsible for the marketing of Zhijie, with the main task of setting up Zhijie Sales Company.

However, the current situation is that the establishment of Zhijie Sales Company has been shelved.The word "put on hold" is very particular. It does not mean to stop or delay the project. It still retains hope and may be restarted at any time. Some people interpret this as Wang Lei and Chery's failure in challenging Huawei, and Huawei still firmly holds the marketing discourse power of the Zhijie brand.

The author does not think so. Although there will be bargaining between the two sides during the cooperation process, the more core issue is that the intelligent world is not yet fully fledged and cannot fight independently. The reasons have been explained in the previous article.

From a product perspective, the Zhijie S7 is very competitive. It performs very well in terms of smart technology, safety configuration, and workmanship and materials, but this has not been converted into sales.The performance of Zhijie S7 was not good when it was first launched. Yu Chengdong said it was due to chip shortages and factory relocation. When it was launched for the second time, Yu Chengdong attributed it to poor marketing performance.

Zhijie's second product, R7, will be launched in September.It can be foreseen that Zhijie R7 will still be dominated by Huawei.Zhijie R7 is positioned as a coupe SUV, also a pure electric model. If nothing unexpected happens, this will be another opportunity for Yu Chengdong to burst out with golden words. What is more interesting is what level of Chery leader will be on the stage? Yin Tongyue or someone else?

No matter how the two sides compete, Huawei's influence on the intelligent world is huge.This means that if Zhijie wants to take off, Huawei is the decisive factor. Huawei is motivated to make the Zhijie brand a success. Only by doing a good job in this model room can it attract more partners. Of course, the method is not limited to creating a new brand, but also to attract investors.

Whether as a partner or a supplier, Huawei has a lot of room for imagination.

People's car review

It should be said that Zhijie R7 is the real key player, which determines the future development direction of the Zhijie brand, whether it will continue to develop or be as independent as Wenjie.

But in any case, it will take time to test.