If you didn’t tell me, you probably wouldn’t know that in the past March, Chery Group’s sales volume had reached the third place among independent brands, second only to BYD and Changan. Although there is a reason for this, Chery's export volume is larger, but Chery's momentum in the domestic market has begun to catch up with Great Wall.
If you think of independent brands, it is Geely, Great Wall, Changan, and BYD, then you are really out. According to the recently announced car sales in March, BYD not only surpassed the North and South Volkswagen combined, but also aspired to the top sales in the Chinese auto market. , and the sales volume of Chery Group has also quietly reached the top three of its own brands, surpassing Great Wall and Geely, and second only to BYD and Changan.
Why should Chery and BYD be singled out for discussion?
Even though exports account for 1/3 of Chery’s sales, it has to be said that in recent years, Chery has made frequent big moves. Not only is it huge, but Chery, like BYD, still has several important cards in hand. Not typed yet.
In addition to further enriching the model lineage of Dynasty.com and Haiyang.com, BYD's "Looking Up" brand gives people a sense of sight, and the soon-to-be-released F brand and Denza brand will also successively bring good results. increment.
As the former "Whampoa Military Academy" and the flag-bearer of its own brands, Chery has been "making a fortune silently" relying on its export business in the past few years. Seeing the help of its friends and new car-making forces in recent years, Chery After disrupting the situation, he achieved the 2025 sales target of new energy vehicles ahead of schedule. He felt that his opportunity had finally come, so at the Chery New Energy Night event held at the Water Cube in Beijing in early April, he finally launched a heavy weapon, which led to the group’s success. Powering All-in new energy, Xingtu’s high-end pure electric products, the Xingera STERRA series, also made their debut.
This time, the protagonist is finally iCAR, as Chery’s new entrant in the new energy vehicle market. The story of iCAR can actually be traced back to 2003 when its trademark was registered. Even the iPhone was unable to compete with it. It can be said that behind this foresight, it can be said that Chery is very advanced in its car-making concepts.
Of course, the emergence of the iCAR brand will inevitably raise questions: Does Chery need a new new energy brand? What is Chery planning to do about this new energy brand? But when all is said and done, in a cruel competitive environment and a highly involved auto market, the current situation faced by Chery reminds me of Qoros ten years ago, when he asked himself a thought-provoking sentence: "The world still needs a car company." A new car company? "Now, Chery has become the answer again, whether it is BYD as the leader, Geely, the former "big brother", or Changan, the leading state-owned enterprise, as well as Great Wall, which has been dubbed the "Yanzhao Knight" in the past, has completed multiple levels of layout in new energy brands.
So where are the opportunities for Chery?
The debate on whether a new brand is needed has actually been concluded since Chery launched iCAR. Whether it is the leader BYD, the former "big brother" Geely, or the followers Changan and Great Wall, they have already laid out their own new energy brands one after another. For example, in addition to its parent brand, BYD also has Zhanwang and F brands that have not yet been launched; Geely has Jikrypton and Galaxy; Great Wall has Euler and Weipai; Changan has Avita and Deep Blue, and there are others to be announced soon. The origin of.
In contrast, Chery is relatively slow in developing independent new energy brands - Chery New Energy is still using the Chery logo. Therefore, the release of iCAR this time can be regarded as Chery’s accumulation in the new energy market.
From the official statement, iCAR will use scene intelligence as its core value to empower users' car life. Everyone should pay attention to "scene intelligence" and should consider it in the future. Regarding the positioning of iCAR, within Chery It is a market that focuses on younger people, and is defined as "striving to be the popularizer of smart electric passenger cars." Of course, it is worth noting that in addition to its brand, iCAR is also an open, global innovation ecosystem in a broad sense, integrating traditional lines. The business under the brand is introduced online, comprehensive innovation is carried out in terms of channels and experience, and finally a comprehensive digital marketing and user ecology are to be realized. Tu focuses on diversity and cross-border.
It can be said that within the Chery system, iCAR has a clear strategic positioning. A flat logo, the "i" symbol is made up of jigsaw puzzles, which is very clever.
In terms of products, iCAR not only announced product plans for the next six models, but the two products debuted this time include an iCAR GT concept car and a hardcore electric car called iCAR 03. SUV models, followed by sedans, SUVs, MPVs and other models.
As for the application of logo, the design of headlights, wheels, taillights, etc. also has a good sense of integration, but the author hopes that this integration will reflect the "i" in the real core. Rather than form over content.
Of course, as a traditional large manufacturer, Chery will implement its new energy strategic transformation and rely more on its system capabilities to achieve overall promotion. In terms of technology, it is mainly represented by a platform strategy. iCAR not only shares technology Platforms, supplier resources, even manufacturing systems, and related electrification technologies. On the other hand, iCAR is positioned as a "popularizer of smart electric vehicles." As a new force among traditional car companies, iCAR is also a young brand, born with its own characteristics. Internet genes, stronger social attributes, integration of various whimsical ideas, and integration with the young people of "Generation Z".
Relying on the exclusive architecture derived from the E0X high-performance electromagnetic platform, iCAR CTO Shan Hongyan released the i-MS multi-cube new energy architecture and i-VA ecology.
With the support of the i-MS architecture, the platform bandwidth ranges from 4300mm to 5200mm, which can completely cover the body length of the current mainstream products in the industry; in terms of power versions, it provides rear-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, pure electric, and extended-wheel drive. process and other power forms; the voltage platform also has two configurations, 400V and 800V. Of course, what interests me most is the docking function. The bus and hardware are pre-embedded in advance, and it supports camera expansion, central cup holder expansion, and secondary instrumentation. expansion, trunk expansion, etc. This means that in response to various user scenarios, later modification and playability are greatly improved, allowing various brands and product peripherals to really have a place to play, and this will also bring more user topics, making APP no longer an empty shelf, UGC becoming more realistic possibilities, making online user ecology a new marketing driver, and helping manufacturers improve and enhance their products in the later stage. This is a sustainable forward business logic cycle.
iCAR, as a new car-making force incubated within traditional car companies, is different from the previous PPT car-making. It does not rely on the in-depth self-research capabilities of suppliers, helping companies to continuously improve and enhance user satisfaction. It has gained key positions in terms of technologies, such as intelligent heat pump system, all-in-one electric drive assembly, all-aluminum body and integrated die-casting technology, etc. In terms of electronic and electrical architecture, by using an architecture that separates the vehicle control domain and the cabin driving domain, the neural network of the entire vehicle is more developed. Not only can it have stronger perception, but it can also easily process massive data, improving driving safety and greater The surprise is also the official announcement that the iterative experience will be released on a monthly basis, which means that the vehicle experience will be as fresh as the current mobile phone.
In addition, Chery has accelerated its integration of the upstream industry in recent years, further enhanced its voice, achieved technological breakthroughs and broken energy bottlenecks. Chery's new battery brand ENER-Q will cover all-power Types, all material systems, all application scenarios, with high adaptability, high safety and price-performance ratio.
At the same time, as one of Chery's shareholders, CATL and Chery have also established a closer business and technical collaboration. CATL's sodium-ion batteries will be mass-produced in Chery models for the first time, which will mean that Chery's future models There will be greater room for cost reduction, especially for economical products, which may gain a key competitive advantage.
For a new brand, in addition to products and technology, channels are also a very important aspect, which means the shape of its marketing model. It is worth noting that although iCAR is not as innovative as the brand Although the new car forces are competing with each other, they did not blindly choose the direct sales model of the new forces. Instead, they still cooperate with large dealer groups. However, what may be different from traditional 4S stores is that iCAR’s marketing terminal will establish a new brand called i- Space’s retail channels are expected to expand to 600 outlets in the later stage after the initial launch of 200 outlets.
Of course, the expansion of channels also follows the pace of products. In addition to the iCAR GT concept car, the hardcore electric SUV code-named iCAR 03 is also defined by iCAR as an "AllRoad product in the new energy era." Although Mercedes-Benz brought the electric version of the big G-EQG to this Shanghai Auto Show, for ordinary people, there is no doubt that iCAR 03 is the one that can better realize more people's poetry and distant dreams.
Generally speaking, this is also a product that breaks the rules and is unconventional. First of all, the appearance design of the new car is square enough and hard-core off-road. Although it is still in the form of a concept car, it is not far away from mass production, echoing the Jietu Traveler released not long ago. The latter focuses on travel style, while the former adds a "cyberpunk" style to the tough styling, making it more suitable for traveling through the bustling traffic of the city.
The front face, which is close to a fully enclosed shape, brings out the "cold" feeling in the sci-fi design style. However, at the same time, the original spare tire position at the rear of the car has evolved into a square storage box, which is sufficient. It can be loaded with 2 sets of fishing gear and outdoor tents for a more intimate and scene-based experience.
From the perspective of the basic structure of the body, with the intelligent adaptive electric four-wheel drive, the power can be basically converted to a 2.5T fuel engine, which provides 10 driving modes. It has built-in all-aluminum beams to improve body rigidity. The 1630mm With a wide wheelbase, it will most likely be a "medium-sized SUV". The new car also has front hydraulic shock absorbers, rear all-aluminum H-arm suspension, intelligent distribution of front and rear axle torque, etc., all of which are full of Chery Ligong man's methods. Having said so many hard-core parameters, the hard-core off-road capability is not the most important selling point of this car. In contrast, the alienation effect brought by leisure entertainment and Internet celebrity effects may be the real needs of more people. .
Chery, which is heading towards its thirtieth year, is about to make great achievements. As the fourth brand of Chery, relying on Chery’s 25 years of car-making experience, iCAR has determined a product lineup of 6 models, covering light vehicles. It provides young consumers with hormone-stimulating products in various categories such as off-road vehicles, sedans, SUVs, and MPVs.
Although Luxshare Precision’s investment in the shares is of great significance for Chery to accelerate the transformation of smart manufacturing, and there are constant rumors that Chery will soon OEM Apple cars, but for Apple cars, which has always coveted the iCAR trademark , Chery iCAR, which takes the lead in launching the offensive, is bound to put great pressure on the former. No matter what, Chery firmly holds the initiative in its own hands.
This article comes from Che Jingshe, the author of Yichehao. The copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprinting. The content only represents the author's opinion and has nothing to do with Bitauto