In order to counteract the drop in sales and explore the low-end market, Weilai's new brand products are priced as low as 100,000?

As ​​we all know, NIO has always adhered to the high-end route since its birth, and the first mass-produced model ES8 launched has sold nearlyThe high price of 500,000 has not been available for domestic cars before this price.In the follow-up, Weilai has also launched other models, but the prices are basically above 300,000.

 

Although NIO has firmly established the image of a high-end brand in the hearts of the public, but relying solely on this brand that focuses on high-end positioningJiangshan is obviously a little powerless. After all, the audience in the high-end market is still relatively limited, and it is only suitable for building brand image and popularity.Including in the domestic auto market, most consumers are not very "obsessed" with high-end cars, especially in the field of new energy vehicles.On the contrary, the price of mainstream pure electric vehicles on the market is basically in the price range of 200,000 to 300,000. Because of this, Weilai, which has been firmly on the top of the new sales force since last year, has been repeatedly defeated by Nezha and Leipao in the latter echelon.They squeezed out of the top three positions in the new car-making forces, and the monthly delivery volume has also dropped significantly.

 

It is not difficult to see that in the face of market sales choices, NIO cannot insist on high-end; at the same time, in order to further expand the popular market,Weilai plans to launch a low-end brand. The information released by this sub-brand is very limited at present, only revealing that it will mainly impact the low-end car market below 200,000 yuan, and will adopt an independent operation model, and there will also be independentResponsible person and R&D system.

 

In fact, this is not the first sub-brand of NIO. In fact, NIO planned the second one as early as last year.A sub-brand, the internal code name is Alps.Alps mainly focuses on the price range of 200,000-300,000, and will achieve mass production in 2024.This "second child" has not yet been born, and Weilai has already prepared a "third child". Obviously, Weilai is not satisfied with the new energy market of 200,000-300,000 yuan, and wants to involve the low-end 100,000-200,000 yuanmarket, so there is this third sub-brand, which is indeed more down-to-earth in terms of price.

However, Li Bin, CEO of Weilai, has repeatedly emphasized that Weilai will not take the mid-to-low-end route, after all, the price is in the teensWan's new energy products Many domestic car brands have done well, and there is no shortage of NIO one; on the other hand, in the mainstream high-end car market, no domestic brand has established a foothold, which also confirms NIO's high-end routeDetermination.

 

But the high-end positioning means the price is too high, just like the price of NIO products is generally above 300,000, which leads toIf there is no problem of volume, then it is bound to lose the mainstream car-buying group below 300,000.If NIO wants to significantly increase sales, it must rely on more affordable products.If the model below 300,000 is launched directly, it will lower the brand image of Weilai and affect the brand value.So the best solution is to launch a lower-end sub-brand.

Introducing multiple brands to cover different price ranges is a common practice in the auto industry.After all, a brand can carry a limited price band. If you want to launch models that exceed your own brand positioning, you have to start anew and build a new sub-brand.It can have a more precise and clear product system.

 

 

 

The most typical and successful example is Toyota. In Toyota's architecture system, Toyota focuses on low-end ordinary family carsThe high-end luxury car market is borne by Lexus, which can not only avoid missing the other half of the market due to being too low-end or high-end, but also avoid the brand positioning span being too large, resulting in confusion in product lines and unclear brand positioning.

 

Obviously, Weilai also does not want to affect the high-end image of its own brand by launching a more down-to-earth model, imitating Toyota in different pricesIt is indeed safer to further divide the level into new brands.With the launch of multiple new brand matrices, Weilai has also begun to sort out R&D resources. For example, it will adopt a platform-based R&D strategy at the technical level, but at the same time, different brands have their own independent R&D systems and channels.

As ​​for this new brand with lower positioning, in addition to bringing more affordable products, will it continue NIO's "undersea"Issues such as "fishing" service, battery swapping technology, etc. are still unknown, so look forward to it.