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Hello everyone, I am the president of Electric Vehicle Commune. The 2020 Beijing Auto Show is destined to become an important page in the development of the industry. How different is this year’s auto show? If you observe carefully, you will find that every car company has begun to brew coffee and set up coffee bars. They will never invite leaders to read PPTs who can sing, dance and play. At the same time, they have also removed the ones that used to be held every year. In the "New Energy Pavilion", all brands are scattered and kneaded together.
What’s even more interesting is that almost all traditional brands are making real attempts at new energy transformation and intelligence. ?The key point I am talking about lies in the four words "real meaning". ?Because the products of many traditional car companies in the past simply transformed the original fuel vehicles into pure electric drives, and then had to mark an extremely high price due to limited production capacity. In the end, they became a bunch of products just for the sake of Products launched for launch. ?As the trend of electrification becomes more and more obvious, the brands that were originally carrying cars have really started to compete. ?For example, Volkswagen's ID series has begun delivery, BMW has launched iX3, Audi has launched the e-tron? 55 sinking model based on the e-tron, and so on. Among the traditional old car companies, today I want to talk to you about Volvo and the changes I have seen in it. I feel that this is the most distinctive feature among the traditional old car companies in the entire Beijing Auto Show.
(1) Electrification that was brewing 9 years ago
Volvo’s attempt at electrification was very early. As early as 2011, Volvo launched its own pure electric vehicle based on the C30 model and delivered 15 units to Shanghai for demonstration operations. Since it has not been officially put into the market, some people in the industry think that Volvo is just doing it casually. ?However, what everyone did not expect was that only one year after the launch of the C30 pure electric, on December 3, 2012, Volvo officially announced:? Its new vehicle platform SPA (Scalable Product Architecture Scalable Vehicle Platform Architecture) and VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture Volvo Engine Cluster) have completed the main research and development work and entered the operational stage of substantial product design and production facility upgrades.
Is it just a newly developed platform? Then you are naive.
In 2013, Volvo released the plug-in hybrid S60 developed based on the EUCD model platform. After starting the hybrid layout, the new SPA platform quickly followed. Although the SPA platform Most of them are still fuel vehicles, but Volvo had actually reserved space for the batteries and motors of the SPA platform back then. By 2017, Volvo decisively proposed its goal of full electrification.
It was preparing to end the era of a single pure internal combustion engine. At the time, it was the first luxury brand to be fully electrified. Even though many people didn't understand it at the time, and many people even thought it was radical, when we push back the time, what we see is that in the next few years, all Volvo's main sales models will cover new energy sources. Hybrid products. In addition to seeing Volvo's determination and practical actions, we have also seen the "comprehensive electrification" goal proposed by other brands. What is the concept of Volvo starting to get involved in electric vehicles in 2011? It is still 3 years before Musk brings his first mass-produced car to China for delivery, 2 years before BAIC launches EV150, and Li Bin has just launched Yiche 1 Years ago, Li Xiang’s Autohome was still immersed in internal battles and was still one year away from being launched in the United States...
At that time, there were only a few pure electric cars on the market, not to mention hybrid cars. . ?——While other brands were still studying the conversion of oil to electricity, Volvo was already preparing for future electrification on the newly developed platform!
(2) The first pure electric model is unveiled
This Nordic luxury brand known for its safety launched its first pure electric model XC40? RECHARGE at this Beijing Auto Show .
Just looking at the name of the car, you might think that this is an unoriginal gasoline-electric model.
After all, Volvo already has fuel and hybrid versions of the XC40, which are selling quite well.
?But in fact, the XC40 uses the CMA platform developed by Volvo very early. When this platform was developed, it was considered in advance to adapt to hybrid and pure electric models, and reserved space for the battery pack and motor. .
(The middle part in the picture is the battery that has been reserved for hybrid models) In terms of product positioning, XC40 RECHARGE has really filled the gap in the pure electric vehicle market. ?Nio ES6 and ES8 are positioned as medium and large pure electric SUVs respectively, while Tesla's model? In the market of medium-sized SUVs—compact pure electric SUVs from luxury brands, the XC40 should be the first. In terms of localization demand, domestic users have significantly higher requirements for cars and machines than overseas users.
This is also the reason why Tesla started to carry QQ Music and use Baidu Maps. After all, those ungrounded models will basically not be taken seriously by domestic users. Volvo also stated at the press conference that it would join forces with local technology giants iFlytek and Amap to create applications and services for Chinese consumers. At this technologically-rich press conference, even the vice presidents of the two technology giants Also came to the scene for this new station platform. From the perspective of user positioning, XC40 RECHARGE will be a good choice for those who want to experience electrified and intelligent products but cannot accept Tesla’s radicalness.
Of course, it is not suitable to talk about the quality of its product at this moment, because the performance parameters and configuration details of XC40? RECHARGE have not yet been announced. ?What’s more attractive than filling the market gap and analyzing product strength is that along with Volvo’s first pure electric vehicle, there is also its direct sales model. This is why the president believes that the brand significance of this car is actually far greater than the sales significance.
(3) Test the direct sales model
The attitude on the official website is clear: "One price for car purchase, online integration, one-to-one service" and "three ones" It directly hits the pain points of consumers buying cars.
Judging from the press conference, Volvo is very confident in its direct sales model.
After the meeting, I was fortunate enough to have an exclusive interview with Qin Peiji, President of Volvo Cars Greater China Sales Company. I threw this question directly to him. In his vision, the direct sales model that Volvo wants to do and There are certain differences in the direct sales of new forces. To put it simply, direct sales actually means "official online car sales." The store is officially opened, the people are officially employed, and the management is within the entire official system.
As for Volvo's direct sales, orders are placed online, and the store where the car is delivered is still run by the dealer, and the offline service people are still hired by the dealer. The difference lies in the dealer's responsibilities.
It turns out that selling a car is a one-time deal. Just sell the car, and the experience is not so important; but in the direct sales model, the dealer starts from the delivery of the car or test drives. Starting from driving, the goal is to make car buying smoother for consumers, which means the focus is on the product itself and serving consumers, rather than just selling cars. For Volvo, the advantages of the original system of more than 250 dealers across the country will be fully utilized, allowing consumers to avoid bad experiences (such as lowering prices, etc.).
This is actually more like a process of redistributing the interest chain. As long as the distribution is appropriate, this is indeed a good way to transform the relationship between traditional brands and users.
But this did cause me some thoughts and questions.
Volvo has bucked the trend and has been growing for 6 months despite the bad environment this year and the sharp decline in sales of other car companies. This sales performance has caused quite a stir in the entire industry. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the only one.
On the one hand, it may be that more people are paying more attention to health and safety issues during the epidemic. On the other hand, what I learned from sales friends is that Volvo has actually been thinking of ways to help dealers improve Abilities other than selling cars. So, I asked a more pointed question: "Wouldn't the direct sales model go against the previous phenomenon of helping each other in times of adversity?"
What I didn't expect was that Qin He is also a direct person, "The dealers probably want to ask this question but don't dare to ask it. We will not abandon our original partners."
We have more than 250 dealers in China. During the transformation, these dealers are not a burden. For Volvo, this is an advantage. "In his view, when new forces do direct sales, they need to spend a lot of energy on offline undertakings, but Volvo only needs to select dealers who can provide high-quality services among these 257 stores for offline undertakings. That's it.
Even the display car and test drive can be provided by the company, and the official will send direct sales consultants there, while other services will be provided by the dealers, each of which can leverage their respective strengths < /p>
(4) Try every means to solve “range anxiety”
In addition to the sales model, what everyone pays most attention to at the auto show is actually the battery life.
Although even now. , the official has not announced the specific performance parameters of Volvo XC40? RECHARGE, but according to the overseas version reference, the dual motor 408 horsepower brings an acceleration of 100 kilometers in 4.9 seconds, equipped with a 78 kWh battery, and the WTLP cruising range exceeds 400 kilometers. Converted to the NEDC battery life we ??are familiar with, it is about 450 kilometers or more. This battery life has actually caused some discussion.
One school of thought believes that in today's era, the battery life is often 500-600 kilometers. It is not enough and sincerity is not enough. There is also a school of thought that the cruising range of 450 kilometers can actually meet the living radius of most people. After all, few people will drive 400-500 kilometers continuously.
Regarding this issue, we are here. The scene was also very direct and sharp to Mr. Qin, but he told the truth in a few words:
The ones who really have "range anxiety" are not the owners of electric vehicles, but those who are still hesitating about whether to buy a car or not. Don’t buy it (except those with intercity needs). NIO Li Bin and Volvo Qin Peiji probably have the same idea, so NIO has built a car that can swap batteries, and battery swap stations are mainly located on highways. "Making charging as fast as refueling" really impressed many people, especially in order to boost sales, ?188's one-time battery exchange became "free for life when buying a car". In addition, with the increase in brand recognition, So what we saw was a significant increase in sales.
Earlier, the Electric Vehicle Corporation conducted a survey of 1,106 real car owners and found that 31% of them chose this brand because of battery replacement. Unexpected, but also reasonable.
In the articles two days ago, we also analyzed that battery replacement itself is a very good way, and lifetime free battery replacement can also boost sales. It is a good strategy to promote the brand, but it is actually a double-edged sword. As more and more people buy cars, there have been some uncontrollable changes in free battery swaps. Many car owners have reported that there are even battery swap stations in many cities. Going to swap the battery at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night still requires waiting for 1-3 people, which is equivalent to waiting for 20-30 minutes. This makes the battery swap experience a lot worse. Until a few days ago, Weilai finally suspended it. This policy once saved Weilai's sales in a sense.
So, what other methods can be used to solve the "range anxiety" of those who are still hesitant to switch to new energy sources. What's the solution?
Volvo's solution is also very simple and crude: free charging for the first owner's life, which is currently applicable to State Grid charging piles, and other brands of charging piles are also being expanded step by step. In the past, in the era of fuel vehicles, travel costs were high, with fuel costs ranging from 50 to 80 yuan per 100 kilometers. However, electric vehicles have directly reduced the cost by nearly two-thirds. But with this wave of operations by Volvo, consumers’ travel energy consumption costs will be directly reduced to 0. Accompanying this wave of "lifetime free charging" operations, there are also life-long free maintenance, life-time free traffic, life-time free warranty, and life-time free roadside assistance. At this Beijing Auto Show, Volvo also unexpectedly dropped a bomb: a blind order gift package. It includes one-click power-up in the first year, which is obviously aimed directly at those who have not bought a car yet and have range anxiety.
(5) Written at the end
In fact, the president has always believed that no matter how old a traditional OEM is, it still has a long way to go in this new era. It is not easy to transform the originally huge system, and the most critical thing is that the way of thinking needs to be changed. The launch of Volvo XC40? RECHARGE? is of greater significance not in sales volume, but in its significance to the entire Volvo brand.
?It has many firsts: it is Volvo’s first pure electric model; it is also the first truly new exploration in the sales model of Volvo and even traditional brands. Volvo has been doing explorations like this for the past 93 years:
In 1927, Volvo pioneered the automatic wiper glass. When it rains, there is no need to manually pull the wiper in panic. ;
In 1944, the laminated windshield and the first one-piece carriage were invented. When the body and chassis undergo a collision, the body will no longer separate, and the glass will not be blurred if the glass is hit by a stone;
In 1959, Volvo was equipped with a three-point seat belt for the first time. In order to achieve universal safety, this patent was disclosed for free, which has saved tens of millions of lives so far;
In 1964, Volvo Invented the rear-facing child safety seat, telling the world that a good car should also pay attention to your next generation;
In 1970, Volvo established the industry's first safety accident investigation team. After investigating tens of thousands of accidents, products were continuously improved based on data;
In 1976, Volvo became the first in the world to use a three-way catalytic converter with an oxygen sensor. Although it was only the size of a finger, it could Exhaust gas pollution has been reduced by more than 90%, and almost all fuel vehicles are now equipped with it;
In 2010, the application of a fully automatic pedestrian recognition system tells people that every pedestrian deserves to be protected;
< p>In 2017, it became the first luxury brand to propose full electrification.......
This brand, which has gone through 93 years of ups and downs, has been constantly conducting different explorations in the past 93 years, and has also continued to deliver answers that satisfy the world.
This year, it stands at a new starting point.
This time, it is accompanied by constant trial and error of a new business model and service method. It is trying to find a new path. No one knows what kind of answer Volvo will write after 1993. But perhaps, Volvo will become the first traditional brand to successfully transform by testing the waters with XC40? RECHARGE.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.