Jiefang Daily reporter Wu Danlu
    Before and after the Spring Festival is the traditional off-season of Shanghai’s automobile market consumption. In the past, many 4S stores closed for rest during the Spring Festival holiday, but now, most new energy automobile brands that like to open stores in shopping malls choose to operate normally.
    In Zhiji Changtai Plaza Store, in order to receive customers who are looking at cars and buying cars, the store arranges more than three employees to take turns on duty during the holidays every day, which can receive more than 10 groups of customers every day, and with the opening of the return peak in Shanghai, the passenger flow is gradually increasing. Hu Bin, the manager of Zhiji Changtai Plaza Store, told the reporter that generally speaking, January and February are the low sales period, but compared with the store’s performance last year, the sales volume in the same period has increased by more than ten times.
    Hu Bin’s store’s sales increased, mainly because of the large volume of the latest model, Zhiji LS6. A few days ago, the sales data released by SAIC showed that in January, the sales volume of SAIC’s new energy vehicles was 64,000, and the retail sales exceeded 90,000, which doubled year-on-year. In particular, Zhiji LS6 performed well, selling 4,766 vehicles in a single month, winning the sales champion of "medium and large pure electric SUV" for the third consecutive month, and becoming a dark horse in the auto market around the end of the year. For SAIC’s new energy transformation, Zhiji’s hot sale against the trend is a positive signal.
    Before the holiday, the sales volume of Zhiji "broke through"
    Compared with being on duty during the Spring Festival, Hu Bin was more impressed by the car sales before the holiday. Generally speaking, a few months before the Spring Festival is the peak period of promotion and consumption in Shanghai auto market. During that time, Hu Bin and the shop assistants hardly had any rest. They arrived at their posts at 7: 30 in the morning and got off work at 12: 00 in the evening, receiving customers all day. Taking the sales volume in the two months at the end of 2023 as an example, Zhiji Changtai Plaza Store sold over 400 cars and became the "sales crown" of Zhiji’s national stores.
    The data shows that Zhiji LS6 was listed in October 2023, with a sales volume of 3,627 vehicles in the first month, while sales in November and December climbed to 8,156 vehicles and 9,878 vehicles, ranking first in the sales of "medium and large pure electric SUVs". Relying on the year-end efforts of Zhiji LS6, the overall sales volume of Zhiji brand reached 38,200 vehicles in 2023.
    It is a "threshold" that the monthly sales of new energy vehicles reach 10,000. For the market, LS6 is close to crossing this "threshold". For Zhiji itself, this is also the best achievement achieved by its brand since its establishment more than three years ago.
    Established in 2020, Zhiji brand is a high-end electric vehicle brand jointly established by SAIC, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech and Alibaba. In April 2022 and February 2023, Zhiji successively released two models, L7 and LS7, both of which were priced at more than 300,000 yuan, anchoring the high-end market of Zhijia, but it has not been able to enter the first echelon, and the sales volume of a single model has been hovering around 1,000 vehicles for a long time.
    What did Zhizhi do right when he was able to "break through" the mainstream market this time? Front-line sales staff told reporters that the high cost performance is the key reason why Zhiji LS6 is concerned by consumers.
    In terms of configuration, high-level intelligent driving ability has always been the main selling point of Zhiji LS6. Lu Da, executive director of Zhiji Automobile Communication Division, introduced that in December last year, this model has realized the opening of national high-speed NOA, that is, navigation-assisted driving. On January 23rd, Zhiji LS6 took the lead in pushing the NOA function of the city in Shanghai, and users can basically realize the whole process of intelligent navigation-assisted driving in the main roads of the city. In 2024, Zhiji will accelerate the opening of the city NOA, and strive to achieve the advanced version of commuting mode covering 100 cities across the country during the year.
    An industry insider said that at present, Tucki is the most advanced intelligent driving technology in China. However, a number of car companies have announced the plan to open the city NOA, and 2024 may be the first year for the popularization of intelligent driving technology in China. At the media communication meeting before the release of LS6, Tamia Liu, co-CEO of Zhiji Automobile, also expressed similar views. He said that the intelligent driving level of Zhiji LS6 is about 2-mdash behind the most advanced level in the industry; 6 months, but its core technology is completely self-researched, and it has a strong late-comer advantage. It will quickly promote the landing of intelligent driving technology through subsequent OTA (remote update).
    In the market, Zhiji is stepping up its marketing efforts. For today’s Zhiji, high-end is very important, and it is more important to take out the explosion. It is widely believed that SAIC has reached a critical moment in shaping new advantages and transitioning from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles. It will be crucial for SAIC’s future transformation and development to exchange scale for experience and accumulate experience in electric vehicle products from brands such as Zhiji.
    SAIC pushes "explosive" cars.
    The strategy of creating explosions is not limited to Zhiji. In the SAIC system, Feifan, Roewe and MG all push explosive products in their respective price ranges. For example, Roewe also released the first product of a brand-new series of "D Family" in November last year, Roewe D7, with a listed equity price of 121,800 yuan. After preferential treatment, the price of the entry-level model D7 DMH can reach 109,800 yuan, focusing on "the space, value and price of B-class cars" and entering the B-class car market.
    Roewe has high hopes for this model. In addition to offering the most competitive price, Roewe is also promoting the transformation of sales system and service system to new energy. Luo Fancheng, deputy director of the marketing department of Roewe Brand Division, said: "Many of our dealers sell fuel vehicles, but the sales methods of new energy vehicles are different from those of fuel vehicles, and the focus of users’ concern is different, so it took us a long time to polish the whole marketing system to new energy." Since the launch, the new style of play has achieved initial results, and the market share of Roewe D7 DMH has also increased against the trend. In January, the sales volume increased by 29% month-on-month, ranking among the top three in the medium-sized hybrid car market.
    SAIC’s new energy strategy is accelerating. From the perspective of the industry, the automobile market as a whole is now in a critical period of transition from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles. As the largest fuel vehicle sales enterprise in China, SAIC is bound to bear enormous transformation pressure. In fact, SAIC began to explore electrification and intelligent technology nearly ten years ago. Counting joint venture brands, SAIC’s sales of new energy vehicles have been among the best among domestic car companies in recent years. However, in order to complete the relay of new and old kinetic energy, in the current high-end pure tram market with the fiercest market competition and the most recognized reputation, SAIC needs more explosive models to help its own brands accumulate the operating experience of intelligent electric products and boost the overall intelligent electric transformation.
    Of course, the downward price probe will inevitably bring greater cost pressure. Guo Huaiyi, an auto industry analyst, said that the price war is still the mainstream of the market this year, and everyone is fighting for the price. SAIC recognizes the current style of play and must also bear the corresponding profit pressure. But at the same time, he also stressed that this is almost a necessary process for China automobile to build cars with new energy. Both the new forces and BYD started to build cars with money for a long time, so it is difficult to have both high growth and high profits in the current market environment.
    In response to the profit pressure, Tamia Liu once told reporters: "There will definitely be cost pressure, but relatively speaking, the cost supply chain is SAIC’s strength." He said that SAIC is one of the strongest players in China’s automobile industry chain, and with the same level of parts and technology, SAIC must have an advantage in terms of cost. Of course, the cost is also directly related to the scale, so Zhiji hopes to increase the sales volume through the LS6 and the fourth car to be released soon, thus further exerting the cost advantage.