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recently, a plan of chery to release new cars intensively was exposed, among which new energy models accounted for the majority, including tiggo 9 c-dm, tiggo 8 c-dm, tiggo 7 c-dm, arrizo 8 c-dm, etc.

in this era of inventory,chery is not the only one using the "sea of ​​cars" strategy. many traditional car companies are frequently launching new models in a short period of time in order to compete for dividends in the new energy market.

however, with the prevalence of new energy, the competition landscape of china's auto market has become very different from that of the fuel car era. faced with the "boutique strategy" of many new power brands such as ideal, wenjie and xiaomi, can the traditional auto companies' "have more children to compete" still come true?

relying on meng to build a car? having more "children" will not help

in the new energy arena where the strong prey on the weak, it is understandable that new energy vehicle companies want to increase sales by launching multiple models. after all, user needs are diverse.

but one thing needs to be clear,if a car company wants to maintain the frequent and intensive launch of more than a dozen new cars in the market every year, it will inevitably make some trade-offs.what you gain is the layout in multiple market segments, and what you give up is the energy and resources invested in product research and development.

in the view of lei jun, who spent three years making a car, this was not a serious product development, but a gamble, and the end result was "serious homogeneity."

looking back, the "sea of ​​cars" strategy is not a new phenomenon in the past two years. as early as the era of fuel vehicles, it was a competitive means favored by many traditional car companies. naturally, there are many models that were born based on this but eventually disappeared due to poor sales, such as geely borui, chery arrizo 7, byd s rui, etc.

nowadays,the causal effect caused by meng's car manufacturing has also been revealed in the new energy market.

several models, including the ora black cat/white cat, byd song new energy and byd e5, had continued to have sluggish sales due to their lack of design advantages compared to similar competing products, and were eventually discontinued.

image/eula black cat and white cat source/screenshot of internet new energy view

of course, more "homogeneous" models are tepid or even barely surviving. for example, from january to july this year, chery launched the fengyun t9, fengyun a8, and exploration 06 c-dm, but so far, there has been no hit model with monthly sales of over 10,000 units; although the two new energy brands feifan and zhiji under saic motor have launched a number of models since their launch, only a few of them can achieve monthly sales of 3,000 units.

zhou zhi (pseudonym), who was born in the 1990s, is considering changing his car. he told new energy outlook, "for my next new energy car, i will give priority to brands like ideal and tesla. after all, a car model can survive and sell well for so many years, it must have its unique advantages. at the same time, although such popular models will be regularly modified and upgraded, their appearance does not change much and is not easily outdated."

more than half of the dozens of new energy vehicle owners contacted by "new energy view" said that they would give priority to popular models when choosing a car.

therefore, whether it is the era of fuel vehicles or the era of new energy vehicles,it is not advisable for car companies to rely on blind guessing to create car models. it is a waste of resources and consumes the brand.if this continues, it will be difficult to achieve sustainable development and there is a risk of being eliminated by the market.

less is more, one model can also beat the others

indeed, for a new energy brand, having too many models will disperse the exposure of each model, making it difficult to form its own "label", be remembered by consumers, and even more difficult to gain market recognition.

looking at the overall auto market, it is not difficult to find thatthe "players" currently ranking at the top of the new energy brand sales rankings seem to have one thing in common - pursuing a "quality strategy."

specifically, wenjie is one of the "players" with the fewest models in the new energy market. currently, wenjie m7, m5 and m9 are on sale. obviously, each model is a hit in its own segment, especially wenjie m7. as of august 13, wenjie's new m7 has delivered more than 130,000 units in total, and naturally it is also the sales champion of new energy models in the first half of the year.

picture/annual cumulative delivery of wenjie new m7 exceeded 130,000 vehicles source/screenshot of aito official microblog new energy view

ideal l6 has achieved monthly sales of over 20,000 units for three consecutive months, helping ideal auto break through the 50,000-unit monthly sales mark and setting a record for the highest monthly delivery volume for china's emerging power brands.

since its establishment in 2003, tesla has launched five models, including cybertruck, which has been delivered in small quantities in the north american market. among them, model y is the "top seller" in the new energy market, with sales of 36,299 units in july.

they are also the few profitable ones among the new energy vehicle companies.the importance of popular car models to new energy vehicle companies is self-evident.

on the other hand, although xpeng motors is one of the first entrants in the new energy market and has a presence in the three major segments of sedans, suvs and mpvs, its sales performance has continued to decline. today, the combined monthly sales of all its models can only compete with the monthly sales of popular models such as xiaomi su7.

figure/sales volume of xiaopeng and xiaomi in august 2024 source/screenshot of zhang damiao’s new energy view

why is this so?

in terms of market positioning,the reason why these popular models can be successful is that they focus on user needs from the very beginning. the models they create will be more unique and differentiated, and easier to attract consumers' attention among many competing products of the same level.

in terms of product design, the energy and resources used by car companies to build three models in one year and to build one model in three years are bound to be unequal.the models that car companies have polished based on their accumulated technology are destined to be far superior in appearance, interior, quality and safety than those homogeneous models that are created with the mission of quickly filling the market.

mr. cheng (pseudonym), an owner of ideal l7, said frankly, "what impresses me most about ideal is its definition of home. the comfort level of l7 is very friendly to families with children like us."

tesla model 3 owner ms. wang (pseudonym) said, "everyone says tesla is lazy. over the years, the number of its models can be counted on one hand. but not only me, but also my friends think that buying a car should choose an 'ivy league' model, which is guaranteed in all aspects."

boutique strategy, the best solution for building a moat?

in this competitive new energy arena, it is difficult for automakers to successfully reach the final round by relying solely on the advantage of diversified products.the key to a brand’s success has never been how many products it has but whether it can be refined.

why do you say that?

going back to the source, the birth of a hit model can not only increase the brand's popularity in the market, but also bring exposure to other models of the same brand and promote their growth. at the same time, a diversified product layout means that car companies will invest more in research and development. in the long run, if car companies that rely on continuous new products to win the market do not have long-term popular products, their profits may be affected.

so, how can car companies "unlock" popular car models?

first of all, car companies must understand that any success achieved by blindly stacking product lines is doomed to be short-lived, and the "sea of ​​​​cars" strategy has little advantage in the face of absolute product strength.therefore, at present, the top priority for car companies is to learn to "give up", that is, to let go of the desire to quickly expand the territory, settle down and concentrate all resources on polishing an excellent product. you know, if you want to run before you have a steady footing, you will fall.

secondly, when creating products, car companies should focus on user needs, clarify the user group portrait of each product, and avoid in advance the positioning confusion that may arise in the market for many of their models.

finally, creating ultimate security never goes out of style.intelligence is the advantage of new energy vehicles, but relatively speaking, batteries are a shortcoming. as the main power source of a new energy vehicle, the quality of the battery determines the performance and safety of the vehicle. naturally, it is also one of the important factors that determine whether a model can become a hit.

it is not difficult to find that new energy brands such as wenjie, xiaomi, and zeekr, which have popular car models, have put a lot of effort in selecting on-board power batteries.

picture/2024 zeekr 001 source/internet new energy view screenshot

specifically, most of their models use batteries from catl. the batteries produced by this battery manufacturer have core r&d technologies in fireproof and heat-insulating materials, battery management systems, and structural designs, which can prevent vehicle fires or spontaneous combustion incidents to a greater extent.

also because of their leading position in safety, brands such as wenjie and zeekr have easily "unlocked" popular car models and won the lasting trust of consumers.

however, one point needs to be emphasized. in this era of technological equality, popular car models that cannot keep pace with the times cannot become the masterpieces of the era and will be eliminated over time.

in order to adapt to the market, many car companies such as tesla, ideal, and zeekr have successively modified and upgraded their popular models.

on august 26, the new m7 pro version was officially released. compared with the old model, the new car is equipped with the basic version of the ads system. the battery of the new car is still ningde times lithium iron phosphate battery. the 48-hour mass production exceeded 6,000 vehicles. in the future, what surprises will its performance bring us? let's look forward to it.

in general,whether in the past, present, or future, car companies that are good at "planning before taking action" and focusing on "few but good" in the automotive market are obviously more likely to win the hearts of consumers.however, while car companies are replicating the experiences of successful cases, they must also keep in mind that there are hit cars every year, but it is difficult to find an evergreen car.