From Baojun and Qichen, which once jointly owned independent brands, to Lynk & Co and Weipai, which are independent high-end brands, the road to premiumization of independent brands has never been an easy task. Independent brands have to escape the shadow of multinational brands, and long distance.
In the era of electric intelligence, independent car companies can randomly pick out any brand and model, which is high-end or luxury positioning. Such an unprecedented leap means that more time is needed to complete the brand precipitation.
To build a luxury car brand from scratch, Lexus owned by Toyota is undoubtedly one of the rare success examples in the industry, but we believe that the next Lexus may appear in the Chinese market.
As a latecomer in the automobile industry, Japan's three major automobile brands entered the US market and adopted completely different strategies from their global markets. The most famous operation was the launch of a new luxury brand.
Compared with Honda's Acura and Nissan's Infiniti, Toyota's Lexus is undoubtedly a representative of success. It has become a global luxury brand that can compete with Lincoln and Cadillac in the United States, as well as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz in Europe.
Thirty years after Toyota successfully entered the U.S. market, Lexus was launched in 1989. In just a dozen years, its sales in North America surpassed those of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, ranking first in U.S. luxury car sales for many years.
The success of Lexus obviously also demonstrates Toyota's leadership in the global automobile market. The failure of Acura and Infiniti in the Chinese market is not only due to their own reasons, but also to the sharp influence of their parent brands Honda and Nissan in the Chinese market. caused by decline.
Independent car companies are rushing into the new track to create new high-end and luxury brands and demonstrate their confidence and strength in leading the global auto market.
As a new car company that ranks third in new energy vehicles in the world and second in new energy vehicles in China, GAC Aion launched the high-end luxury brand-Haopin in September 2022. It has now launched three new models.
successively took over the former GAC FCA Guangzhou plant and the former GAC Mitsubishi Changsha plant. GAC Aian has achieved rapid growth in production capacity. It now has an annual standard production capacity of 400,000 vehicles and will grow to 600,000 vehicles next year.
Against the background of continuous improvement in production capacity and accelerated iteration of vehicle models, GAC Aian's sales volume has also continued to grow rapidly.
's sales in November 2023 were 41,567 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 45%, and the annual cumulative sales were 434,056 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 80%, far exceeding the full-year sales performance of 270,000 vehicles in 2022, firmly ranking among the top three in China's new energy vehicle market.
In less than 5 years since it was officially put into production in April 2019, GAC Aian’s cumulative production and sales are approaching 950,000 vehicles, and it is expected to exceed 1 million vehicles by the end of 2023. This will be the first time that new energy vehicles have reached a scale of one million vehicles. fast speed.
It took BYD 13 years and Tesla 12 years to go from the first new energy vehicle to the scale of 1 million vehicles.
Against the background of the rapid growth in sales of GAC Aian, Haopin, a high-end luxury brand, was born. It launched the Chinese electric supercar Haopin SSR and two luxury models - Haopin GT and Haopin HT.
For a brand with rapid growth in production and sales, launching a luxury brand in a new market is very similar to Toyota's script when it launched Lexus.
After the completion of Haobin's independent marketing system, GAC Aian's first factory, which is the location of the world's first electric supercar production line, will become the exclusive factory of Haobin brand in 2024. Haobin luxury brand will achieve manufacturing and Ecological closed loop of sales.
What does a luxury brand mean to users?
Haobin's answer is a technological work of art, and the most impressive thing is Haobin's "Door Factory" title.
Luxury is not only the driving performance and the texture of the cabin. From the butterfly wing doors of the Haobin SSR, to the rotor doors of the Haobin GT, to the gull-wing doors of the Haobin HT, Haobin allows users to have a clear and concrete understanding of luxury. chemical perception.
More importantly, Haopin is building a full-stack self-research ecosystem for electric smart cars, covering areas such as model design, power batteries, motors, smart cockpits and electric energy services.
As Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aian, said, we must firmly control the core technology in our own hands. This may be the key for Aian to respond quickly to market demand and win the future.
From the closed front design, the large central control screen, to the driving assistance system, electric smart cars are becoming the same and boring, and Haopin is using the title of "door factory" to break the sameness in the market.
Judging from the positive and negative examples of Lexus and Acura, the success of Haopin, a high-end luxury brand, is still based on the market appeal of GAC Aion built on the basis of the AION series models.
GAC Aion is promoting the AION series of models to go overseas. The first model is the AION Y Plus. After building the fourth factory in Thailand, Cambodia has become GAC Aion’s second overseas market.
A major feature of the electric smart car market is the rapid iteration of technology. New technologies such as ultra-fast charging technology and high-end autonomous driving systems will be fully popularized in 2024.
GAC Aion’s AION S, AION Y and AION V models will also be replaced in 2024, and their market influence and sales volume will usher in new development opportunities.
As for the Haopu brand, the five-seater luxury pure electric SUV Haobo HT will accelerate sales and help the rapid growth of the Haobo brand's sales, while the new six-seater SUV "AH8" will witness the new peak of GAC Aian time.
The next Lexus is in China, and it is Haopin, a subsidiary of GAC Aion. See you in 2024!
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