January 5,The first pure electric model of the Galaxy series, the E8, was launched.
The listing of the new model did not stimulate the sluggish share price. On January 8, the share price fell 3.44% to close at 8.13 Hong Kong dollars per share.
Previously, Geely Automobile had announced sales for 2023Geely Automobile (including Geely, Lynk & Co,Ruilan brand) annual cumulative sales of 1.6865 million vehicles, an increase of about 18%. Among them,Car sales were 487,500, an increase of about 48% year-on-year. Cars accounted for 28.9% of Geely Automobile’s total sales in 2023. Although the proportion of model sales has increased, it is still slightly lower than the penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles in the entire car market.
Previously, Geely Automobile had ranked first in sales of its own brands in China for many consecutive years, but its sales in 2022 wereBeyond that, the gap between 2023 and 2023 has been further widened. In addition, Geely Automobile has also been surpassed by Chery, which has soared in overseas sales. In 2023, sales fell to the third place of autonomous passenger car companies.
The transformation of new energy vehicles has affected Geely’s ranking among its own brands.
Although Geely is the first domestic automaker to carry out new energy transformation, it first released the Blue Geely Action Plan in 2015, but the plan ended in failure. Subsequently, Geely released the Blue Geely Action Plan for the second time in 2021.
In 2023, Geely launched the new energy brand series Galaxy, and successively released two plug-in hybrid models, the L7 and L6. The Galaxy E8 is Geely Galaxy’s first pure electric model and has high hopes.
As a new starting point for Geely’s new energy transformation, the market performance of the Galaxy series also tests the quality of Geely’s new energy transformation. After many failures in the pure electric market, Geely Galaxy E8 is a key product for Geely’s new energy transformation. Once this model does not achieve the expected market effect, Geely may once again fall into a passive position in the competition with competitors in the pure electric market.
"Price War"
Geely Galaxy E8, positioned as a medium and large pure electric car, has an official guide price of 175,800 yuan.
From the perspective of product level and price range, Geely Galaxy E8’s main competitors include BYD Han EV, 007, etc. Another possible potential competitor is the upcoming Xiaomi SU7, which Geely hopes to enter the mainstream pure electric market.
fromLooking at it, Geely Galaxy E8 hopes to challenge the current best-selling self-branded model in this segment, the BYD Han EV, with a lower price. The Galaxy E8 configuration is not low, but the official price is lower than the Han EV that has been on the market for more than three years.
In the pure electric market, Geely has no pricing power yet. Facing BYD, which has higher consumer awareness, fighting a price war is the key for Geely to get a certain share of the market.
Although the price of the Galaxy E8 is not expensive in terms of other competitors in the same level of market, as far as the Geely brand is concerned, the starting price of a car close to 200,000 yuan is a height that Geely has never approached in the era of fuel vehicles.
In the era of fuel vehicles, Geely’s core market is 100,000 yuan-level low-end models.
However, due toThe cost is high, the same level, the current price of electric vehicles is still higher than the fuel vehicle, Geely brand, can support the price of nearly 200,000 yuan, Geely has to face the challenge.
Of course, it should be pointed out that behind the "price war" of car companies is a "cost war", especially for the mainstream market, whoever has a cost advantage means who has more room to reduce prices.
At present, BYD’s core advantage is the cost-sharing ability brought by the larger market size. Geely’s main advantage is the platform advantage. The Galaxy E8 is built on the vast architecture, which can take advantage of the synergy effect behind Geely to reduce costs.
However, overall, Geely’s current situation in the pure electric vehicle market remains relatively passive.
Due to the large base of the fuel vehicle market, Geely cannot throw away the burden and embrace the transformation like BYD, but needs to grasp the base of the transformation more steadily and keep its share. Therefore, Geely needs to maintain a long-term approach.
However, in the face of intensified market competition and competitors’ marketing strategies, Geely also emphasized the differences with its competitors on several occasions at the press conference, emphasizing the value it brings.
On the same day, at the press conference, Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, said that building a car without common sense would not be successful, and it would be unsustainable to build a car without longevity.
"Although many trams are getting more and more expensive, the showmanship of dancing and turning around doesn’t really bring high value to users," Mr. Gan said.
Previously, the models that focused on promoting the "tank turn-around" function included BYD Looking Up U8 and 001 FR. Among them, Looking Up is the positioning million-level superThere is no direct competition between the brand and the Geely brand.
However, Geely Galaxy’s new energy transformation is not easy, and there is still no Geely Galaxy that can be called a hitType.
The Galaxy brand entered the market last year. After the delivery of the Galaxy L7, although the sales volume in the first three months continued to grow and quickly exceeded 10,000 units, after digesting the previous orders, the Galaxy L7 has fallen below the monthly sales threshold of 10,000 units since October last year, and there has been a continuous decline, and the product competitiveness is slightly insufficient.
Compared with BYD’s plug-in hybrid models of the same level, there is still a certain gap between the Galaxy L7 and L6, and the Galaxy E8 is equally difficult to shake up BYD.
"Involution"
From price to product, Geely has made no secret of its attitude of "rolling" with competitors.
Although the main purpose of the Geely Galaxy E8 is to increase its sales in the pure electric market, the launch of the E8 will inevitably bring internal competition.
In the Geely Automobile map, Geely, Lynk & Co, and Extreme Krypton all have corresponding pure electric products, plus smart, Polaris, Volvo, Extreme and other brands that are also owned by Geely Holding Group. "Having more children is easy to fight" is an important strategy for Geely’s market competition.
However, too many brands and disorganized play will also bring "involution".
In the product matrix previously planned by Geely Automobile, the polar krypton brand focuses on the market of more than 300,000 yuan, the main product of the Lynk brand is 200,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan, the main product of Geely Galaxy is 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, and Geely Geometry is facing the lower price market.
However, the successive releases of Krypton 007 and E8 are obviously a departure from Geely’s previous seemingly clear plan.
The two cars are based on the vast architecture, positioning level is quite close, Galaxy E8 although the body is longer, but the wheelbase is shorter than the polar krypton 007. The price of Galaxy E8 is 175,800 – 228,800 yuan, the price of polar krypton 007 is 209,900 yuan – 299,900 yuan, the two prices have overlapped.
Geely claimed that Krypton was a brand, and the brand positioning between it and Geely Galaxy was different, and the target segments were also different. However, the product pricing that was being lowered to fight a price war was blurring the differences between the two brands. Moreover, the Lynk & Co brand also planned to launch pure electric products in the future, and the future positioning would also be very embarrassing.
Specifically, the Galaxy E8 launched two battery life versions of 550km and 665km, both of which use iron phosphateThe battery brands areAnd Quzhou Polar. And Polar Krypton 007 uses the rear-drive version of Quzhou Polar Iron Phosphate with a battery life of 688km, usingThe range of the Kirin version is 870km.
In addition, the entire range of Krypton 007 supports 800V architecture, while the E8 only supports 800V at the top, and the rest of the models are 400V. In terms of suspension, smart driving, and other configurations, the cost of Krypton 007 is higher than that of the E8.
From a certain perspective, the Galaxy E8 is more like a low-end version of "Extreme Krypton".
Although the positioning of the two cars is slightly different, the price difference between the two is not significant, and the target audience also partially overlaps.
However, whether for Geely Galaxy or Krypton, the Galaxy E8 and Krypton 007 are rather crucial products.
The Galaxy E8 is the first pure electric model of the Galaxy series, which will set the tone for Galaxy in the market competition. And the Krypton 007 is the key model for the Krypton brand to enter the mainstream market. Who can win or lose both? The market will give the answer.
