Author | Wei Qiyang
Source | Insights New Research Press
At the launch conference, brand executives confidently stated that "we want to be the best SUV in every era."
45 days after its launch, this new car saw the 10,000th vehicle roll off the assembly line.
Three months after its launch, the influence of the new car continues to spread, and the concept of "four-wheel drive equal rights" is accepted by more and more users...
Yes, this is the Haval Xiaolong.
As "Haval's strategic model for transformation into new energy", Xiaolong is responsible for the important task of brand transformation internally, and externally it has to compete head-on with BYD Song, which sells over 30,000 yuan a month.
The two tasks come together in one place. Can Xiaolong continue to write Harvard's legend?
01 Haval has enough experience to create popular products
The reason why there are such doubts is mainly because before Xiaolong, Haval's growth history was so glorious that almost no Chinese brands could copy it.
21 years ago, Great Wall opened the door to the SUV market, which was still in a chaotic stage, with an SUV named Safer. The emergence of Safer not only lowered the price of a compact SUV to less than 100,000, but also It provides Chinese consumers with a new car-using life, a new choice beyond joint venture brands.
Safer is undoubtedly a success. It has given Great Wall, which has transformed from a pickup truck to a commercial vehicle, a foothold, and it has also established Great Wall's tough guy image in the SUV market.
The subsequent story is that Seve grew into HOVER, and HOVER continued to grow into HAVAL.
In 2005, the Haval SUV was born, and Haval’s name appeared for the first time in the Chinese automobile industry. From Haval H3 to Haval H5, and then to Haval H6, which only came off the production line in 2011, a legend continued by Haval. begin.
At that time, the main sales forces on the market were the booming Tiguan and CR-V. However, in the first year of its launch, the Haval H6 topped the SUV sales list with 146,600 units, rewriting the landscape and staying there for 10 years.
In the history of China's automobile development, there has never been a car like the Haval H6, which has won the SUV sales championship for 101 months in total. The cumulative sales in 10 years have exceeded 3.6 million units, and the highest single-month sales volume has reached an unprecedented 80,495 units.
The success of Haval H6 has created the glory of the Haval brand. With the help of other series of models, the Haval brand has won the titles of "No. 1 in sales of Chinese brand SUVs", "Synonymous with global SUV experts", "Global sales exceeding 8 million in 12 years", etc. tags.
In fact, since Haval launched the H8 in 2015 and directed competition against a joint venture brand for the first time, in 2020 it built the third-generation Haval H6 based on the Lemon platform, and then to the second-generation Big Dog that opened up the dog category market space, and then to With the launch of the Xiaolong series this time, it is competing with New Energy and BYD...
Everything is as Wei Jianjun said, "Haval should not only be the leader of China's SUVs, but also be the pathfinder for going global."
Taking the above case as an example, I just want to point out that the Haval brand has enough successful experience in creating hot products.
02 Become a hit, Xiaolong has obvious potential
Back to the Haval Xiaolong series itself, it adopts the product combination of Xiaolong and Xiaolong MAX, one high and one low, directly benchmarking BYD Song PLUS New Energy and Song Pro New Energy.
The pricing strategy of the Xiaolong series is very pragmatic. The price range of the Xiaolong series is 139,800 yuan to 156,800 yuan. Just like the previous H6, it further lowers the price threshold of compact new energy SUVs; the price range of the Xiaolong MAX is 159,800-179,800 yuan, responsible for maintaining the brand premium of the Xiaolong series.
Xiaolong has made a layout that can be attacked and defended in terms of price, but if the market wants to pay for it, it ultimately comes down to the technical capabilities and experience of the product.
Xiaolong uses Lemon DHT smart technology that has been widely verified by various brands of Great Wall cars. It is adapted to two-speed hybrid DHT. The maximum comprehensive power of the system is 185kW and the maximum torque is 375N·m.
In terms of battery life, Haval’s NEDC pure electric battery has a battery life of more than 110 kilometers and a comprehensive battery life of more than 1,000 kilometers. It also offers a short-range model of 52 kilometers to choose from.
In terms of charging, both 33kW super fast charging and 6.6kW AC slow charging are equipped, and fast charging from 30% to 80% only takes 26 minutes.
As for the intelligent assisted driving system, it has many functions. Judging from the literal data, it is a qualified new energy SUV. If you consider the price of less than 150,000, you can immediately feel the competition from Xiaolong. The power has been raised to another level.
Let’s talk about the Xiaolong MAX. This is the debut of Great Wall’s intelligent four-wheel drive electric hybrid technology Hi4. The new car is also equipped with a new generation of Coffee OS intelligent cockpit system.
For this Hi4 four-wheel drive hybrid system, Haval describes it as "the price of two-wheel drive, the fuel consumption of two-wheel drive, and the performance of four-wheel drive."
Specifically, Hi4 separates the generator and drive motor of traditional two-wheel drive models, and adopts a configuration with three power sources distributed on two axes, that is, a series-parallel electric four-wheel drive configuration with dual motors on the front and rear axles.
The Hi4 four-wheel drive hybrid system combines intelligent energy management and intelligent torque vectoring control systems to accurately identify real-time road conditions and realize intelligent dynamic switching of 3 engines and 9 modes.
Compared with other dual-motor series-parallel configurations, the new hybrid architecture Hi4 adds pure electric four-wheel drive, parallel four-wheel drive and dual-axis energy recovery modes, which can flexibly match the optimal working mode in any travel scenario. The WLTC comprehensive fuel consumption is 1.78L/100km, and the WLTC feed fuel consumption can reach 5.5L/100km.
In general, Xiaolong MAX uses a solution that basically does not increase the cost to achieve a four-wheel drive experience, and proposes the concept of "equal rights to four-wheel drive technology", following the past strategy of using big to defeat small, using high dimensions to defeat low dimensions. It is a competitive strategy. When you only need to buy a four-wheel drive car for the price of two-wheel drive, after the price advantage is reflected, it goes without saying how users will choose.
03 Continuing the legend, the mission of Haval Xiaolong
Mu Feng, President of Great Wall Motors, said at the Intelligent New Energy Conference at the beginning of the year that "we should not only make Great Wall new energy sources, but also make Great Wall new energy sources." This mirrors the Haval Xiaolong, which is not just about "selling well." It is so simple, but it is also necessary to reshape the image of the Haval brand in the new energy era.
At Xiaolong’s press conference, Haval responded with “new sequences, new channels, new technologies, and new products.”
In the new sequence, the new Haval Xiaolong series will cover new energy products, and the urban SUV and light off-road SUV categories will mainly undertake fuel models;
New channels, accelerating the construction of new energy channels, and independent sales through the two major channels of "Fuel Network + Haval New Energy Network";
New technologies, Great Wall Motors' new intelligent four-wheel drive electric hybrid technology Hi4, a new generation of Coffee OS intelligent cockpit system, coffee intelligent driving system and other cutting-edge technologies will be the first to be installed on Haval brand new energy products;
New products: New energy sources will account for 70% of the Haval brand’s new models and facelifted models in 2023.
Judging from the technical configuration and actual experience of the Xiaolong series, it will not be surprising to see huge sales in the future.
In another dimension, from H6 to Great Wall guns to tanks, Great Wall has used countless cases to prove that it has a unique understanding of developing category markets. Based on this, we look forward to Xiaolong creating its own segment in the new energy era. legend.