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at the 2024 chengdu auto show, the number of participating automakers has decreased, the number of press conferences has also shrunk, and even the number of advertising posters outside the venues is very small. because of this, as long as the automakers come to participate, their heavyweight models will not lack highlights.

coinciding with the personnel transfer of saic passenger vehicle's management, the return of yu jingmin, who has a natural flow of traffic among traditional car companies, has made saic passenger vehicle's popularity unprecedentedly high. take mg as an example. its new generation mg5 made its global debut at the 2024 chengdu auto show a few days ago. the addition of foreign car models also created a strong british atmosphere for the booth.

while almost all car companies are targeting the market above b-class cars, mg has turned its attention to the 100,000-class sedan market. the new generation mg5 also caused controversy after its release and was dubbed the "maserati alternative."

with these questions in mind, uncle zhong had the honor to interview yu jingmin, executive vice president of saic passenger vehicle, shao jingfeng, vice president and chief designer of saic group innovation research and development institute, and lu jiajun, general manager of saic mg brand. what new ideas will this new leadership team bring to mg?

rejecting “equal replacement”: the movement’s different paths lead to the same goal

first of all, as the chief designer of saic, shao jingfeng denied the "maserati replacement": "the new generation mg5 continues the mg brand's 'hunting eye' design language and is our original design."

in his opinion, mg is a brand full of sensuality and relaxation. many times, sports are a kind of relaxation for many people. when emphasizing sports, many brands will give priority to using vertical bars, a highly impactful design element, when designing the front face of their models.

for example, the bmw double kidney grille has small vertical bars. the jeep wrangler front grille has large vertical bars. let's look at the mg brand. which of the mgb and mga does not have vertical bars?

"i counted the years when the mg brand was founded. it was 1924, and the other party (maserati) was founded in 1914, a difference of ten years." in shao jingfeng's view, if every ten years is a cycle, each cycle is very close, and the designs are also very similar. if you want to stand out, you have to differentiate in emotional value.

"how can the rear end of this car look like a maserati? can you make such a beautiful rear end? how can i be a substitute for maserati?" yu jingmin said to a customer at the rear end of the new generation mg5 in the shanghai mg showroom during his first week back at mg. in his opinion, he would rather call the new generation mg5 the ceiling of a-class coupe under rmb 100,000.

the million-dollar maserati is certainly a good car, but its high price means it is destined to be a plaything for only a few people. as for why he specializes in the a-class car market of gasoline cars, yu jingmin gave the answer: "without the foundation of a-class cars, it is impossible to have the pricing of b-class cars."

yu jingmin believes that young people who don’t own a car should not wait until they are older to buy a car they like. even if it costs 100,000 yuan, there is no need to make compromises. mg’s models are all coupes. whether you are young or sporty, you can easily own an mg. this is the emotional value of running in both directions.

although there is still a demand of 4 million in the market below 100,000 yuan, if we further segment the market, the entire a-class fuel vehicle market may be around 500,000 vehicles. in lu jiajun's view, the "three aunts" and "three uncles" are becoming mediocre, and models like mg5, which can inspire more people to make their own choices and pursue their dreams, are confident that they will move closer to the top 3 in sales.

allowing more users to choose what they love and drive a coupe from the first car in their life, instead of confining themselves to a means of transportation, this is the meaning of the existence of the new generation mg5.

mg finds balance between domestic and overseas collaboration

the launch of the new generation mg5 has made mg's path clearer and more explicit. after returning from volkswagen, yu jingmin has a different idea of ​​re-examining saic mg. "my understanding of the mg brand is to continue to polish it and not surrender. just like when talking about mg, you must speak english, and when talking about roewe, you must speak shanghainese."

in his humorous remarks, yu jingmin hit the nail on the head and revealed mg's strategy. just as netizens joked about the relationship between maserati and the new generation mg5, the difference is that both are sports car brands with the same goal, while the new generation mg5 is a coupe that can be bought for only 100,000 yuan.

lu jiajun said at the press conference that the new generation mg5 can sell more than 5,000 units per month. yu jingmin believes that there is no reason why the sales of the new generation mg5, which is the ceiling of the a-class coupe, will not exceed 10,000 units. because in his eyes, people who know more about cars will choose performance cars. performance cars are refined into coupes, which are high-level emotional values ​​that integrate design, performance, quality, intelligence, and super control.

it is not difficult to see that mg is going to take a differentiated route and grab market share from the mediocre "three aunts" and "three uncles" in the a-class fuel vehicle market. of course, this differentiated competitive advantage is not limited to the chinese market, but also the competitiveness of mg in the world.

in today's extremely inward-looking chinese market, "going overseas" has become a highly unified path for domestic brands. in overseas markets, especially the european market, seven out of every ten chinese brand models sold in europe are mgs, which means that mg has to hold both the domestic and foreign markets at the same time.

if you study mg's product matrix in depth, you will find that the same mg model only sells for 10,000 to 20,000 euros in china, while it sells for more than 30,000 euros overseas. from this perspective, domestic and foreign competitors, users, and price segments are all different. how can we break through?

take the design as an example. the world does not know what new energy vehicles will look like, and all eyes are on china. yu jingmin believes that mg has an opportunity here, as it is a global brand independently controlled by the chinese. starting from china, art is interlinked.

another thing that zhong shujia believes is excellent quality and service. for example, mg has launched an unprecedented guarantee in the history of new energy vehicles, named "super safety chip commitment", which provides a lifetime warranty on the three-electric system for all car owners and mileage, and "a new car will be compensated if the car catches fire".

behind this is the fact that we have invested higher costs in concept, design, verification, production and power batteries, so that we can dare to make such a promise.

overall, new products such as the new generation mg5 continue to innovate user expectations and further increase mg's brand value. mg, which has mastered both domestic and overseas market strategies and even user accumulation, will have more exciting story lines to unfold one by one with the return of veterans and the leadership of new cp.