Chery is going to introduce its high-end brand EXEED to the North American market. Do you think they can succeed?

If you have paid attention to the development trajectory of independent brands in the past 20 years, you will find that almost everyone is following two obvious rules, that is, high-end and export. In the years when the domestic auto market was booming, in order to get rid of the title of cheap products and attract higher-level consumer groups, Great Wall launched WEY, and Geely and Volvo jointly launched Lynk & Co. However, they had a premonition that domestic production capacity was overcapacity and the market was close to saturation. After the situation, Great Wall built factories in Russia and India. GAC Trumpchi tentatively displayed some new cars at the North American Auto Show early last year and proposed a plan to enter the North American market.

Although these three independent brands have maintained a very high exposure rate in recent years, Chery, as a "veteran independent brand", is obviously not convinced - recently, a company named HAAH? Automotive? Holdings' company has released a new SUV called Vantas, and judging from the official pictures, this is almost a rebranded version of the domestic EXEEX Xingtu TXL. According to HAAH Automotive Holdings spokesman Chris Hosford, Vantas will be assembled and produced in the United States using SKD and will be launched from late 2021 to early 2022.

Although the editor cannot confirm the connection between EXEED Xingtu and Vantas, it is obvious that Chery is already preparing to enter the North American market. But for most people, why should Chery choose the most competitive one? What about the North American market? Could it be that EXEED Xingtu can directly challenge the most mature automobile market in the world?

Why North America?

When they heard about entering the North American market, many people's reaction was "Chery is exaggerated" because they had the impression that even if the quality was better, EXEED Xingtu was still an independent brand after all, so instead of testing it, Picky North American consumers might as well be more pragmatic and strive for broader markets in third world countries. Wouldn't that be safer?

Let the editor answer the first question here, why is it the North American market. In fact, Chery can be said to be one of the first domestic independent brands to enter overseas markets. As early as 2001, Chery Fengyun had entered the Middle East market in the form of export. After that, Chery, Jietu, Qoros, etc. Brand models have also been exported to various countries in the Middle East, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia, and even Europe. It can be said that in addition to the North American market, Chery Automobile is present in several continents around the world.

Although we all think that North American consumers are very picky, North America has always been one of the largest automobile consumer markets in the world, which means that it contains huge business opportunities. Chery had two opportunities to hit the high-end market. The first was Riich and the second was Qoros, but they both failed in the end. Therefore, as its third high-end brand, EXEED faces natural pressure. It goes without saying that if it can be successfully accepted by North American consumers, then EXEED will be able to secure its brand image and product quality that it has paved the way for so long, and enjoy huge market dividends. This can be said to be a challenge with high risks, but the rewards are equally rich.

What are the risks?

EXEED’s biggest risk lies in its ability to adapt to the needs of North American consumers. To a certain extent, the car purchasing concepts of Chinese consumers and North American consumers are closer. Everyone likes models with large space, grand appearance and comfortable ride. However, on this basis, the latter have higher requirements for powertrain. , not only must the power parameters be high, but also must be smooth enough-for example, Volkswagen has to replace the manual transmission provided by Aisin in the North American market, and the engine itself must also start with a large-displacement V6 self-priming; in comparison Under the circumstances, the EXEED models currently on sale in China only provide "small displacement" turbocharged engines and dual-clutch gearboxes. If they are directly exported to North America, they will definitely be laughed at by the locals.

On the other hand is the establishment of a dealer network. At the North American Auto Show early last year, participating GAC Trumpchi stated that they planned to cooperate with some local dealers and use the latter's sales network to display and sell some models - for EXEED Xingtu, building dealers from scratch The network is obviously too time-consuming and labor-intensive, so it will be more effective to refer to GAC Trumpchi's solution.

Can it succeed?

According to foreign media reports, they have locked the competing models of Vantas at Honda Passport (a Honda mid-size SUV, there were rumors that it will be introduced into China) and Nissan Murano (that is, the domestic Nissan Loulan ) as the representative of the mid-size SUV field, so if it is not fully prepared, the editor does not think that Chery can successfully introduce EXEED Xingtu into the North American market; but relatively speaking, what if Chery is already ready? If this is true, then Chery's position among independent brands will undergo a major reversal.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.