The hidden danger behind the extremely high sales volume

As a new energy brand that Geely has high hopes for, TechWeb Auto has a higher starting point than most new power brands. The first model, Jikrypton 001, adopts the vast SEA architecture that Geely spent five years and invested more than 20 billion yuan in research and development. It also won the world premiere of Kirin batteries in the CATL era. Geely has provided great support in Jikrypton R&D, production and many other aspects. Full support.

Jikrypton has indeed delivered a pretty good report card. With the single model of Jikrypton 001, Jikrypton has delivered a total of more than 71,000 vehicles in 2022, exceeding the 70,000 vehicles customized at the beginning of the year. Target. In addition, the average order amount of Ji Krypton 001 exceeds 336,000 yuan, which has exceeded the average price of the BMW 3 Series. This is also very rare among domestic independent brands. In mid-February, Jikrypton announced the completion of Series A financing of US$750 million, with a valuation reaching US$13 billion, surpassing Xpeng, which is currently valued at US$8 billion.

However, I don’t know if it’s because of being complacent about the results achieved, but Jikrypton’s attitude towards old car owners is extremely arrogant. Even during the face-to-face live broadcast of Jikrypton car owners, many car owners raised their opinions. Being banned or even kicked out of the live broadcast room made many old car owners feel speechless. In addition, Jikrypton has also faced a lot of doubts from consumers recently. Problems such as car system bugs and manufacturers unilaterally tampering with the content of the car purchase agreement have topped the list of complaints platforms in a short period of time.

JiKr was accused of unilaterally tampering with the content of the car purchase agreement and has long been on the complaint list

At the beginning of this year, "JiKr manufacturer secretly altered the contract to conceal relevant information", "JiKr manufacturer unilaterally tampered with A large number of issues such as "Content of Car Purchase Agreement" appeared on the complaint platform. According to observations, the number of complaints about Jikrypton 001 in January exceeded 350.

The reason is that on January 1, the 2023 Ji Krypton 001 was launched. Although the price of the new model increased by 1,000 yuan, it added silent electric suction doors, smart sensor automatic door sets, air-conditioning sets, and electric main driver 12 It also includes comfort configurations such as directional adjustment and smart massage seat comfort kits, and these configurations are optional on the 2022 model.

In addition, compared with the "lifetime warranty" user rights of the 2022 models, the user rights of the 2023 models have been increased to "6-year, 150,000-kilometer vehicle warranty and Sanden Lifetime Warranty". Spending an extra 1,000 yuan, and the configuration and user rights are fully upgraded, then consumers will naturally know that buying the latest model is more worthwhile.

However, according to a user’s complaint information, Jikrypton’s sales promotion will be determined before the end of the year to lock in the lifetime warranty and national subsidy rights for the entire Jikrypton 001 series. If Jikrypton launches new models in the future, you can also use the above rights. But the order must be locked before December 31st. Out of love and trust for the brand, the user paid the deposit online and locked the order.

Subsequently, without any contact with the user, Jikrypton claimed to launch the 2023 model 001 through an announcement, and forced users to choose the 2022 model before March 31 to retain the above rights. Or if you choose the 2023 model, you will only lose the above rights. Due to Jikrypton's overbearing terms, the user was forced to choose the 2023 model before 9 o'clock on January 6.

But at the last moment, Ji Krypton Motors issued a supplementary announcement, canceling the requirement to select a model year within a limited time, and the requirement that the 2022 model must be launched before March 31, and the time is to be determined.

According to the complaint information posted by another user, the purchase agreement of Jikrypton Motors clearly states that "when the vehicle you ordered faces major changes such as model iteration, configuration adjustment, parts supply shortage or production stoppage, "Jikrypton Motors will notify you in advance to try to avoid any major adverse impact on your order." However, Jikrypton Motors did not notify users in advance of this model upgrade, causing users to suffer certain economic losses.

Jikrypton’s approach of forcing car owners to “choose one of the two” has made many people say it is unacceptable and believe that Jikrypton has no integrity at all.

Facing a decline in word-of-mouth, Jikrypton has finally announced recently that Jikrypton 001 orders placed before 9:00 on January 1, 2023 (exclusive) and not yet scheduled for production can apply for cancellation.

In addition, Jikrypton also stated that for users who wish to retain orders for 2022 models, Jikrypton will continue to arrange the production and delivery of vehicles; for users who choose 2023 models, Jikrypton will continue to open the order switching channel. The announcement date is March 9, which is the eve of March 15. The time chosen is also very interesting.

In addition to these problems, car owners also complain from time to time about quality issues such as bulging seats and abnormal noise from wipers. Last year, Jikrypton 001's sales plummeted due to the problem of car system lag. In the end, it spent 300 million yuan to upgrade the Qualcomm 8155 chip for free for old car owners to restore its reputation.

The sales volume of Jikrypton 009 did not meet expectations. There is a hidden crisis behind the success

Perhaps due to this impact, Jikrypton’s sales fell sharply in January. The sales volume has exceeded the previous three consecutive months. The sales volume dropped to 3,116 units. Although it rebounded slightly to 5,455 units in February, it was only about half of the sales volume at the end of last year.

What is even more worrying is that judging from the upper limit data, the actual delivery volume of Jikrypton 009 in February was only about 200 vehicles. In other words, Jikrypton’s current sales are basically supported by one model, Jikrypton 001.

Jikrypton 009 is the second model of Jikrypton. It is positioned as a luxury pure electric MPV with a price starting from 499,000 yuan. It has been delivered since the beginning of this year, but it does not seem to have been recognized by the market so far. For comparison, the sales volume of Denza D9, which is also a new energy MPV model, reached 7,325 units in February.

Jikrypton’s sales target this year is to double that of 2022 and deliver 140,000 vehicles. Judging from the current situation, it is not easy for Jikrypton to achieve the goal.

From the financial report data, in 2021, Jikrypton’s revenue was 2.868 billion yuan, with a net loss of 1.01 billion yuan; in the first half of 2022, Jikrypton’s revenue was 8.828 billion yuan, with a net loss of 759 million Yuan.

In the first half of 2022, Ji Krypton’s gross profit margin is only 5. In the same period, NIO’s gross profit margin is 13.8, Xpeng’s gross profit margin is 11.5, Ideal’s gross profit margin is 22, and BYD’s is 13.51. Tesla is as high as 27.16.

Jikrypton’s losses are also reflected in Geely Group’s financial report data. In the first half of 2022, Geely’s revenue was 58.2 billion yuan and net profit was 1.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35%. Geely clearly wrote that Ji Krypton’s losses led to a decrease in group profits of 406 million yuan.

In order to fully support the development of Jikrypton, in the first half of 2022, Geely's sales expenses increased by 29% year-on-year; the product research and development costs in research and development expenses increased by 173% year-on-year, and the administrative expenses to pay R&D personnel also increased by 43.6% year-on-year.

Conclusion

Jikrypton was undoubtedly successful last year, but it was limited to the success of Jikrypton 001 in the market segment. The sales volume of Jikrypton 009, which had high hopes, was far from reaching It is expected that the third model Jikrypton X to be released next will be the key to whether Jikrypton can make further progress this year.

Beyond the product level, Jikrypton should also change its marketing thinking and learn from new power brands how to establish more direct communication channels with users. As Jikrypton CEO An Conghui said in the 2023 New Year internal letter: "We are not afraid of users complaining, but we are afraid of users being silent. We should clear the channels for users to complain and put negative reviews on the table."

This article comes from TechWeb, the author of Yichehao. The copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's opinion and has nothing to do with Bitauto