Crack the puzzle of domestic MPV market
Domestic MPV prices are generally high and it is difficult to meet the needs of the domestic market
Domestic MPVs are not without market, and they are not without suitable products. The key is the dislocation of manufacturers' products and prices.
The new year is approaching, but there are almost no movements in the two domestic branded MPVs that have been “preheated†on the domestic market for a long time. As early as the beginning of the year, there was news that the two MPVs debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show this year and the Beijing Auto Show last year will be available at the end of this year.
"It's not the manufacturers who are not in a hurry. Maybe it's not transparent or invisible to the domestic MPV market," said a longtime observer of the auto market.
Indeed, the domestic MPV market is a rather special market. There are multiple puzzles that need to be cracked.
Focus: Crack the market share puzzle
Cakes in the domestic MPV market have been growing, with a 28.1% market share growth in the first 11 months of this year. At the same time, the influx of new companies and new products has hardly changed the inherent pattern of this market.
According to statistics from the MPV industry, as of November, sales of JAC Refine, Guangzhou Honda Odyssey, and Shanghai General Motors GL8 all exceeded 20,000 units, firmly occupying the top 3 in the industry, and Dongfeng Liuqi popular and Hainan Mazda Purima selling. Also more than 10,000 vehicles. Of these five companies, the largest market share was 23.6%, and the lowest was 10.8%, with an accumulation of 86.1%.
In contrast, the subsequent market share of the enterprise is still limited. On technology, on bloodline, on quality, after the listing of MPV products have many bright spots, but almost without exception, it is difficult to achieve market success.
When answering questions from the “First Financial Dailyâ€, Wang Chaoyun, deputy general manager of Jianghuai Ruifeng Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd., believes that the domestic MPV market has its own particularities. Enterprises need to concentrate and invest a lot of time and energy. It is not a matter of overnight. .
Indeed, at the enterprise level, Jianghuai Refine and Dongfeng are all focused on the MPV market. Prima is the earliest leading product of Hainan Mazda. Shanghai GM and Guangzhou Honda not only launched MPV products earlier, but also attached great importance to this market. Change types, change funds continuously.
As for several newcomers, either the king in the car market, such as the North and South public; or win in the light passenger market, such as Shenyang Brilliance, Southeast Automotive ... MPV products in the company's position has been insignificant, if the company's lack of confidence Or if the will is not firm enough, the market will be difficult to go up. In the past, other companies did not dare to launch MPV projects easily.
Positioning: Cracking the Puzzle of Product Sales
Last weekend, in a 4S shop in Beijing, a 30-year-old male customer lingered next to a domestic MPV. When a reporter asked him if he was ready to sell? He shook his head regretfully: like to like it, it is a bit priceless to accept.
MPV (Multi-PurposeVehicle), meaning "multi-Purpose Vehicle" in Chinese, is popular because it incorporates a variety of functions such as cars, station wagons, and commercial vehicles.
Domestic MPV models have sedan-type MPVs, such as GL8, Odyssey, Premarin, etc.; as well as passenger models MPV, such as Ruifeng, popular and so on. The former emphasizes handling and comfort, while the latter pays more attention to practicability and economy, which directly leads to different positioning of the two.
The first is the positioning of products. The domestic MPV market is still confined to the areas of official vehicles and commercial vehicles. To achieve a breakthrough, it must be suitable for private cars.
The sights of high-end official vehicles customers are mainly concentrated on the GL8; most of the high-end official and business users are optimistic about the refinery, while the general SMEs use cars to buy more popular.
Although the Odyssey and Premarin are suitable for private cars, the Odyssey price is still high, and there are still many unit users; while Premar's space is not big enough and the style is a little old, it fails to win more private car users.
Similarly, several of the later MPV products belonged to the sedan-type MPV, which should have been biased towards private cars. However, they also emphasized official business and emphasized the use of all-purpose vehicles, which led to deviations in positioning. At the same time, because the private home MPV market has yet to be developed and its capacity is limited, it is difficult to become a climate.
Followed by price positioning, domestic MPV prices are based on the GL8 and are generally high. Especially car-type MPV, it is difficult to meet the private car market needs.
About 6 years ago, the GL8 was launched on the basis of the Buick 3.0 sedan platform, and its price cannot but refer to the price of mid- to high-end cars at that time. Since then, due to the intensification of competition, the prices of domestically produced MPV products have been constantly dipping, and the drop of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan is staggering.
In the current market, on the one hand, the prices of sedan-type MPVs that are suitable for private homes are high; on the other hand, despite the reasonable price of the passenger vehicle models MPV, the “heads†are slightly larger, and households use them daily, regardless of space or fuel consumption. Some luxury.
Obviously, domestic MPVs are not without markets, and they are not without suitable products. The key is the dislocation of manufacturers' products and prices.
Speed: Crack the Puzzle of Corporate Competition
In Guangzhou, a reporter’s colleague drove an imported car-type MPV. "The price is not expensive, space is not small, performance is good." He commented.
In the Asian Games Village automobile market in Beijing, two MPV products imported from Korea attracted attention. One is modern Mega, and the other is Kia's music. The former is a 5-litre MPV with a 1.8-liter engine, and the market price is about 130,000 yuan; while the latter is a 2.0-liter engine, an automatic transmission, and a standard 7-seat MPV priced at more than 150,000 yuan. Obviously, both cars are coming to the domestic private home MPV market. It is not only South Korean companies that are involved in this market. Since this year, Dai-Ke, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, and Nissan have successively introduced MPV products to the country.
This fully shows that, unlike cars or other passenger vehicles, domestic MPV companies are also facing pressure from foreign competitors due to product, price, service, and other reasons. "If there is no advantage compared with imported cars, even if it is a joint venture or the introduction of products, it will be even less competitive!" said one veteran of the automotive industry.
At present, the "five golden flowers" that monopolize the MPV market also have their own problems. For example, the top priority of relative commonality is the replacement of models. Faced with aging models, some changes can only be "old bottles of new wine"; some are not able to change as soon as possible, can only reach out to the partners; some unable to develop new cars, may not yet know where the next model ... ...
Similarly, several other companies have problems with vehicle models, as well as issues such as controlling costs and integrating channels. The key is speed of development. For example, Guangzhou Honda has already tasted the benefits of changing Odyssey. Although the outside world has some discussions about the shape of the car, Guangzhou Honda has already jumped to the stage of selling 3,000 cars a month, winning the second place in the MPV industry.
Competition from another level has begun to appear, and that is based on MPVs for minivans. Although some people are unwilling to admit that this is an MPV product, Changan Automobile has made a bold attempt. Their self-developed CM8 received certain market recognition, and has sold about 15,000 vehicles this year. A few years ago, when Wuling introduced a "bullet head" from Japan's Daihatsu, and when Chang Dougou Doosan went public, its various functions were also called by industry insiders as micro-MPV products. After all, it was acceptable to ordinary people. the price of.
For competition, people often say that not only "big fish eat small fish", but also "fast fish eat slow fish", so does the domestic MPV market! (Reporter Zhang Yuxing)
MPV's personality age
This year's MPV market presents three characteristics: MPV's increase exceeds the passenger vehicle market's year-on-year increase; last year's sales champion Buick GL8 retired to third; personalized, stylish MPVs began to occupy an important market share
The year 2005 is nearing completion. The Chinese auto market began to climb slowly this year after falling into a trough last year. Sales from January to November increased by more than 20% year-on-year, which was a drop from last year's growth. Since the beginning of this year, some new market changes have begun to appear, among which the turmoil in the MPV market is even greater.
The MPV market this year has presented three distinctive features. First of all, MPV's increase exceeded the passenger car market's YoY growth rate, and a considerable share of them was captured from the declining light bus market. Second, last year's sales champion Buick GL8 was defeated by Guangzhou Honda Odyssey and JAC Refine; in addition, personalization. The fashionable MPV began to occupy an important market share.
MPV continues to erode the market of light passengers
Statistics from January to November showed that the cumulative sales volume of the MPV market reached 127,700 units, an increase of 28.1% over the same period of last year. It was the largest market segment among passenger cars, MPVs, and SUVs in the passenger car market. The overall increase in the passenger car market during the same period was around 20%.
Contrast with the increase in the MPV market, the increase in the light passenger market continues to decline. The increase in the number of young customers visiting the market exceeded 10%, but it is certainly lower than 10% this year. "Most of the lost market share has been snatched away by the MPV market, especially low-end models such as Ruifeng and Popularity," said Anpu Consulting analyst Li An.
The MPV and sedan market has grown rapidly since 1999. The introduction of this brand-new MPV model has led some wealthy consumers to abandon the use of uncomfortable passenger cars and switch to buy MPVs. In addition, the increase in purchasing power is the rapid development of the MPV market. s reason.
On the other hand, foreign experience shows that mature car market MPV and SUV products account for about 50% of the passenger car market share, and the current Chinese market is less than 15% (excluding pickup modification), the market is very large.
Odyssey and Swiss Wind rise suddenly
According to the statistics of sub-models, sales of JAC Refine in January and November this year reached 28,978 units, an increase of 31.7% year-on-year; sales of the Guangzhou Honda Odyssey from January to November were 24,279 units, a year-on-year increase of astonishing 63.2%; Shanghai GM Buick GL81~11 The sales volume for the month was 22,291 units, a decrease of 8.9% year-on-year.
If nothing else happens, Rui Feng wins this year's MPV market sales championship is almost a foregone conclusion, but from the sales point of view, the Odyssey just listed in March will undoubtedly climb the sales championship. Odyssey, which has only 10 months of actual sales this year, is the biggest winner in the MPV market this year. Since the new reorganization of the stock market in March, Odyssey has taken the lead in occupying the MPV market that was previously targeted by the commercial vehicle model with its new look and new positioning.
It is a pity that the veteran champion Shanghai GM Buick GL8 lost the championship. Since this year was the Shanghai General Motors MPV adjustment year, the old Buick GL8 was discontinued and converted to Shenyang, and the new Buick GL8 model was gradually enriched until the end of the year. Prior to this, Buick GL8's MPV market has been eroded by downstream Ruifeng and Kia K. Wah. Upstream parts have been plundered by the imported car market. After the Odyssey variant, some commercial vehicle market was snatched away. The Buick GL8 lost a lot of years to the MPV Championship. .
In addition, with the advent of the personalized consumption era of China's auto consumption, some new changes have begun to emerge in the MPV market, which has entered the business model. Odyssey quickly came from behind and defeated Shanghai GM Buick GL8 to win the mid-to-high end market championship. In the imported car market, the imported high-end MPV Quest has also made rapid progress in the imported car market. The sales volume and the former king of the MPV market Chrysler Grand Rapids And Toyota bully is almost the same.
Personalized MPV dominates the future
In addition, in the MPV market, from the beginning to simply focus on the business functions of MPV to the development of the personalized and fashionable features of MPV now, some MPVs with a single appearance and rough interior have been gradually abandoned by the market.
It is reported that in the North American and Japanese markets where the automotive market is very mature, more than 30% of MPV users are private users. In the European market, personalized MPVs such as the popular Kaidi and Renault landscapes increasingly occupy the leading position in the market. The MPV design in these markets has also experienced an increasingly fashionable process from the conservative to the present. Therefore, the manager of Nissan China Investment Co., Ltd. Yukihisa Kojima said in an interview with reporters that they are very optimistic about the prospects for such personalized MPV development.
The target consumers of your company are also different from the specific consumer groups of the traditional Chinese MPV market. Nissan positioned its users as a new generation of smart business people, targeting returnees of private individuals and private and small and medium-sized enterprises as the target consumers. Under the background of the development of the private economy in China, the number of these people began to gradually increase. Their consumer behavior and ideas are different from traditional business people. This position has been confirmed in the sales market of Guishi. At present, the response of the Guilds in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen is very promising, and at the same time, it confirms the trend of MPV's home use in China. (Reporter Wei Jinqiao)