Recently, Skyworth Auto released three latest models at the 2023 Huanxin Upgrade Conference. Although many people's impression of Skyworth is still in the concept of TV, but in fact, this king of color TV has manufactured cross-border new energy vehicles as early as 13 years ago, and the sales of pure electric buses of its subsidiaries have been ranked among the top three in China for years. .
With its mature experience in building commercial vehicles and the comprehensive empowerment of Skyworth Group, Skyworth has now started to sprint for passenger vehicles. In the fierce melee in the new energy vehicle market, can Skyworth Auto break out of the encirclement?
Thirteen years of car manufacturing, from commercial vehicles to passenger cars
At the public level, people are familiar with Skyworth TV, but they are relatively unfamiliar with Skyworth Automobile, but in fact, Skyworth Automobile is not a new force in car manufacturing. Up to now, Skyworth, the king of color TV, has crossed the border into the field of new energy vehicles, and it has been 13 years. , can be said to be a relatively experienced player.
As early as 2005, Huang Hongsheng, the founder of Skyworth Group, "felt that the automobile is a big industry that must be developed." At that time, Skyworth had already started to make automotive electronic products such as rearview mirrors. In 2010, Huang Hongsheng was keenly aware of the huge market potential of new energy vehicles. In that year, he established Kaiwo Automobile Co., Ltd. in Nanjing. Through the acquisition and reorganization of Nanjing Jinlong, he quickly entered the field of new energy commercial vehicles and fully involved in complete vehicles and core vehicles. Production, sales, research and development, service of parts and components.
The reason why Skyworth chose to enter the market from commercial vehicles with B-end attributes is mainly because of policy influence. In order to promote new energy vehicles, the government chose to start with B-end operating vehicles that are more concentrated and easier to guide to form a demonstration effect, and finally penetrate into passenger vehicles through policy guidance.
Judging from the time of entry, Kaiwo stepped on the pace of the country's promotion of new energy vehicles. With the help of the subsidy policy, Kaiwo Automobile skyrocketed and soon became the forefront of pure electric bus sales, and has maintained its leading position for many years.
In the field of new energy, Skyworth does have significant advantages. When traditional car companies enter the market for new energy vehicles, they generally hold the attitude of testing the water at the beginning, and because the new energy business has a substitute relationship with the original business, brand positioning and product positioning may be blurred. Although the new car-making forces do not have the problem of "turning around" for traditional car companies, they can travel lightly and focus on technological innovation, but they are relatively weak in terms of car-making qualifications.
In contrast, Skyworth has entered the game from the beginning with new energy vehicles. It not only has certain advantages in terms of vehicle manufacturing technology and supply chain control, but also has a complete production base, technology, pure electric, and hybrid qualifications. Based on these characteristics, Skyworth can bring some surprises to the market. For example, the HT-i super hybrid SUV model launched by Skyworth in 2022 is called BYD's replacement because it adopts BYD DM-i technology, and is sought after by the market. .
These are all powerful means for Skyworth to further enter the passenger car battlefield. The ever-changing situation of Skyworth Group has also prompted Skyworth to launch an assault on passenger cars.
First of all, as the home appliance market enters the era of stocks, many traditional electrical appliances companies are forced to transform, and Skyworth is also continuing to explore new growth points. Secondly, although the new energy commercial vehicle segment is growing steadily, the commercial vehicle market space is limited. In this situation, the new energy passenger vehicle market, which still has a huge market space, naturally has high hopes from Skyworth. However, in the current situation where the passenger car market is in a red sea, how can Skyworth break through?
Skyworth Group is fully empowered, and passenger cars are expected to take off
At the end of 2019, Tianmei Automobile was established, which is the predecessor of Skyworth Automobile and belongs to Kaiwo Automobile, the main body of Skyworth's new energy commercial vehicle segment. However, although with the help of the parent company Kaiwo Automobile's accumulation for many years, Tianmei Automobile has made a strong move. It has launched the first pure electric SUV model to the market only one month after its establishment, and announced that it will release 4 new models in the next 5 years. smart technology. However, in the past two years since then, as a new brand, Tianmei Automobile has never gained popularity.
In 2021, Skyworth decided to personally end the game and fully empower Tianmei Automobile. First, in March, Skyworth Group authorized the brand trademark to Kaiwo Automobile, and then in April, it further directly changed the name of Tianmei Automobile to Skyworth Automobile, hoping to use Skyworth’s name to open up the situation for its passenger cars in terms of brand reputation. This marks Skyworth's strong increase in the passenger car business, and it is the beginning of Skyworth's comprehensive empowerment of the passenger car sector.
Since then, after two years of continuous trial and iteration, Skyworth Automobile has seen a significant improvement in brand awareness and sales. Skyworth Group's performance report shows that Skyworth Automobile will deliver a total of 3,116 units in December 2022 and export 1,098 units overseas. The total sales volume in 2022 will be 21,916 units, a year-on-year increase of 255.72%. From July to December, the sales volume broke through again, achieving six consecutive increases.
Being able to quickly open up the situation in two years, in addition to the basic technical strength, the differences in its product concept and channel expansion have further helped it increase its competitive advantage, and finally formed a joint force to promote the popularity and sales of Skyworth Automobile.
In terms of product concept, Skyworth Automobile has put forward a unique concept of "health". Recently, the three models released at the Skyworth Auto Renewal and Upgrade Conference - Skyworth HT-i Ⅱ, Skyworth EV6 Ⅱ and 2023 SKYWELL EU 620 Exclusive, in addition to the improvement in interaction and interior, still continue the Skyworth The consistent style of the car - the main concept of "health".
Huang Hongsheng, the founder of Skyworth Group, put forward that "health is 1, and others are 0", "the automobile industry is changing from the 'new four modernizations' (electrification, intelligence, networking, sharing) to the 'new five modernizations' (Electrification, intelligence, networking, sharing, and health) march forward".
According to the press conference, the "health" advertised by Skyworth Automobile is embodied in: jointly with the China Academy of Aerospace Science and Technology to create a vehicle-mounted music rhythm seat, a "health monitoring system" that can monitor the blood pressure, heart rate and other data of people on board, etc. .
Of course, almost every new energy vehicle brand has its own productism. Taking "Wei Xiaoli", the three new car-making forces as an example, Xiaopeng Motors focuses on intelligence, chooses to benchmark against Tesla, builds a huge autonomous driving team, and "death" the autonomous driving technology; although the ideal car is called "ideal ", but more show pragmatism, closely follow the market demand, and design different types of products according to different consumer groups, such as launching a "baby car" for multi-child families; NIO is benchmarking against BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi).
In contrast, Skyworth Automobile's focus on "health" seems a little strange, but after the domestic new energy passenger car market is in a red sea and almost all related concepts have been hyped, it is also a kind of focus on the concept of health. The path of differentiated competition, and this is also in line with Skyworth TV's deeply rooted slogan "A TV that does not flash is healthy".
In addition, on this basis, with the help of Skyworth Group's accumulation in the field of home appliance manufacturing over the years, Skyworth Auto also brings intelligent ecological components such as Skyworth VR glasses and Skyworth smart health watches into the cockpit. These have also formed a better differentiated competitive advantage, reflecting the strength of Skyworth as a veteran of home appliances.
In the same important channel link, we can also see that Skyworth Automobile has been empowered by Skyworth Group. Behind the rapid growth of Skyworth's car sales in 2022, the unique selection of sales channels will contribute a lot. Huang Hongsheng's channel strategy for Skyworth Auto is essentially an agency system, aiming to balance cost and efficiency by finding localized dealers.
Specifically, Skyworth Auto dealers are mostly located in low-tier cities, and they also open stores, but mainly through the development of brokers and the introduction of acquaintances to promote sales. This channel selection is completely different from mainstream new energy brands. According to the research report of Changjiang Securities, Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal and other new car-making forces have fierce store competition and focus on first-tier cities. The average number of stores of the four major brands in first-tier cities is 17.8, 17.5, 19.8, and 8.5, respectively. , accounting for 71%, 59%, 62%, and 53% of the total number of average stores. However, the third- and fourth-tier cities are still depressions for the layout of new car-making forces, and the average number of stores of new car-making forces is less than one.
Therefore, it is not difficult to see that Skyworth Automobile also shows obvious differences in channel development, which is quite like "surrounding cities from rural areas". This channel strategy, on the one hand, is because Skyworth Automobile is more suitable for the needs of low-tier consumers in terms of various performances; Fighting undoubtedly requires more resource input, and the effect may not be good.
The benefits of this market expansion strategy are also very intuitive. Compared with the direct-sale store model where new car-making forces devoured most of the profits, Skyworth Automobile adopted the broker model in the early stage, which took into account cost and efficiency well. For example, judging from the situation in 2022, these local broker teams have absorbed retirees and entrepreneurial losers. Among them, the sales volume of a broker in Jiangsu reached 27 cars in two months.
It is worth mentioning that Skyworth Group has approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Skyworth home appliance stores, of which more than 20,000 are in townships, another 2,000 are in county-level administrative regions, and there are only about 300 in city-level administrative regions. In the future, it is expected to develop car sales channels according to the situation, reflecting the scene of smart home appliances and car interconnection.
In general, with more than ten years of accumulation in the field of new energy commercial vehicles, after Skyworth Group has fully empowered the passenger vehicle sector, based on the highly differentiated product strategy and channel selection that have already taken shape, Skyworth Auto The future promises to take off fast. This time, three new cars were unveiled at the 2023 Huanxin Upgrade Conference, and the unbounded space full-scenario solution and super fast charging technology were released, which also marked that the rejuvenation iteration of Skyworth Automobile has switched to the acceleration gear, and the breakout journey has officially started. open.
Author: Jianbai
Source: Songuo Finance