Great Wall Motors Abandons Passenger Cars

Great Wall Motors "Death to protect the car" willful or helpless

Yesterday, at the Shanghai Auto Show, Great Wall Motor President Wang Fengying said in an interview with the media that Great Wall Motors is currently in a period of product strategic adjustment, will temporarily give up the car business, no more cars will be launched within two years.

Last year, Great Wall Motor’s car brand sales reached 87,400 units, a year-on-year decrease of 57.42%, while SUV sales were 532,200 units, an increase of 24.48% year-on-year. The sedan project eventually became a burden, causing Great Wall Motors to abandon its cars and specialize in the SUV market.

Product strategy adjustment

For the temporary renunciation of the car business, Great Wall Motors stated that Great Wall Motors is currently in a period of strategic adjustment and must focus its limited resources on the SUV category and narrow its products. Great Wall Motor should not only let Haval become the world's largest SUV brand, but also become the "most earning money, can earn the dollar" SUV brand.

At this year's Shanghai Auto Show, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that Great Wall Motors only exhibited with the Haver brand. The participating models were all Harvard's SUVs, and Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, stated that focusing on Harvard is a strategic policy of Great Wall Motor, Great Wall Motors. In the future, we will continue to adhere to the focus of SUV strategy, not "small and all" or "big and full," but to "small and refined", the pursuit of market segmentation, and strive to first become stronger and bigger.

Currently, there are two types of cars sold by Great Wall Motor: Great Wall C30 and C50. The predecessor of the Great Wall C30, the Tengyi C30, went public in May 2010. The predecessor of the C50, the Tengyi C50, was listed in November 2011. Great Wall Motors has made little progress in the car business in recent years.

One leg business is at risk

According to Jia Xinguang, an automotive analyst, Great Wall Motors has concentrated its resources on developing SUVs and ignoring the business of cars. This is an “open secret”, but the separate display of the Haver brand at the Shanghai Auto Show means that Great Wall Motors has strengthened its dual-brand strategy. The Haval brand began to dilute the Great Wall sedan brand.

In the past two years, Great Wall Motor has achieved a growth rate of more than 20% in its overall sales volume. The vast majority of the increase is due to the strong performance in the SUV market. The Harvard brand in the domestic SUV segment is even more long-term occupation. Top sales.

Statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, China's SUV market achieved a rapid growth of 48.8%, of which self-owned brand SUVs sold a total of 727,000 vehicles, which accounted for 56.4% of the market share, higher than the joint venture car prices.

Industry analysts believe that, with the success of the Haval brand in the SUV market, Great Wall Motors, which has fallen into a market crisis, will shift its product strategy layout to SUV models, but with the joint venture brand increasing its emphasis on the growing SUV market, prices will be explored. When seizing market share, the market performance of self-owned brands will also repeat the dilemma of the sedan market.

Where does the car brand go?

In fact, Wei Jianjun once revealed that the Great Wall sedan in the future must be a high-tech product with a strong sense of fashion, technology, and dynamic. It must be an internationally competitive car brand. However, after giving up on the sedan project, Great Wall Motors has focused its research and development on the SUV model.

However, Great Wall Motors has a similar development experience with the self-owned car market on the road to the success of the Haval brand. Initially, they all focused on low prices and cost-effectiveness. They staggered their joint venture products and chose to work in the middle and low-end markets. A lot of hardships.

As the Great Wall Motor attempted to break through the 200,000 yuan mark, Haval H8 was placed in high hopes. Some insiders even jokingly said, "The Great Wall has almost put the profits of vehicle builders over the past few years here." However, H8 was postponed twice last year for technical reasons and was not officially listed at the Shanghai Auto Show.

Jia Xinguang believes that the H8's tortuous listing shows that there is still a gap between domestic leading independent brand R&D strength and first-rate foreign companies, and it also reflects the difficulties of high-end brands with their own brand models. Great Wall Motor’s investment in the SUV market is too large. The increasing neglect of cars is also the most worrying issue. From the current point of view, if the SUV brand is successful, the promotion of the car brand will also be limited. Two years after Great Wall Motor’s suspension of the car business, the accumulation of car brands will also be abandoned. In the future, when it restarts the car business, it must start from scratch.