Wuling Motors is by no means a first-tier brand·Liuzhou Wuling dare not "go it alone"

"Wuling" is a controversial brand. Some car enthusiasts believe that it is an independent brand. Some opinions Consider it a joint venture brand. Why does Wuling, which is so popular in the van camp, cooperate with General Motors and give an American company 44% of its equity? This seems to be a bit like "making wedding clothes for others".

Here we must first understand a knowledge point, or two companies.

Guangxi Automobile Group is a large state-owned enterprise established with Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. as the main body. It is headquartered in Liuzhou. This enterprise is a member of the top 30 Chinese automobile industry, but its ranking is not high. , basically outside the 20th place; so there is no claim that Wuling is a first-tier brand, Wuling just makes vans that sell well.

However, the real hot sales of vans only started after the joint venture with SAIC and General Motors. Before that, the market performance of Liuzhou Wuling vans and micro trucks was not very satisfactory; Liuzhou Wuling also built mini cars, and their performance was It is also unsatisfactory. It seems that Wuling does not have much strength. So the Guangxi Automobile Group was actually not established until 2015, and there was a story before its establishment.

In 1988, an agreement was signed with Guilong and Xinxiang to formally establish the Sino-foreign joint venture Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. This shows that Wuling Automobile has been a Sino-foreign joint venture brand from the beginning.

In 1996, Wuling Automobile Enterprise Group Corporation merged with Liuzhou Machinery Factory and established Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd.; until 2007, Wuling Group entered into a joint venture with Wuling Automobile Group Holdings Co., Ltd. listed in Hong Kong. Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. was established at the same time. At this point, it is still a large-scale Sino-foreign joint venture. Do you think Wuling is considered an independent brand or a joint venture brand? In fact, strictly speaking, Liuzhou Machinery Factory is not the predecessor of Wuling. It is just that Liuzhou Mini Automobile Factory jointly established Wuling with a foreign company. At this time, Liuzhou Machinery Factory was no longer "Liuwei".

Another node was in 2001.

Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd. formed a strategic cooperative relationship with SAIC through asset transfer; the following year, it formed a strategic cooperative relationship with SAIC Industrial Group and General Motors. The company jointly established SAIC-GM-Wuling. At this time, the "Wuling" trademark was fully authorized to be used by SAIC-GM-Wuling, and Wuling became a complete joint venture brand.

So why does Wuling stick so closely to SAIC and GM? The answer is still the lack of core technology, and secondly, the need for qualifications and licenses to sell cars; in short, Wuling got involved in these two big players when it was not very "successful". Otherwise, it would not be the same as the commercial vehicles of Changan, FAW, Dongfeng and other brands in the same period. Competition means you will most likely be eliminated.

"GM" is not a simple noun or brand. Wuling Motors once regarded this brand as an absolute selling point; because GM is an American car company, "American technology is advanced technology", which can be said a lot Many times when I went to a Wuling or Baojun car dealer to pretend to be a novice to test the skills of the sales staff, these sales staff would use this phrase. Therefore, I actually don’t have any favorable impression of the Wuling brand. Even if it is a hot-selling brand, it will not have any positive effect on the rise of Chinese automobile brands. Its hot sales will only subsidize American automobile brands.

However, Wuling can only do this because it does not have the strength. Wuling Motors is still using the old L2B engine. With the increase in exhaust emission requirements, the power and torque of the engine are still gradually declining; build The LJO-1.5T engine is a multi-point electronic injection machine, and the 3.0T-V6 engine also uses this technology. If the power standard of a large displacement is a little lower, it will not be as good as the excellent 2.0T.

The transmission has no R&D results. MT/AMT/DCT use machines jointly developed by SAIC and other companies, and the vehicle chassis has no bright spots. What will happen if we "go it alone"?

Take Baojun as a reference. Baojun cars used to have very high sales. The 310, 510, 560, and 630 all performed well. Among them, the 510 once became the best-selling SUV; but now they have become unpopular cars or have been discontinued. Among the unpopular cars that have been replaced, some of the RS/RM series have monthly sales as low as single digits. Why is this? This is because Baojun overestimates its capabilities and uses the above-mentioned engine and transmission to build a car that is priced at the same price as competing products equipped with a high-performance engine and an excellent transmission. This is obviously not going to be a hot seller. Maybe Wuling thinks that its brand influence is strong enough, so it wants to push higher, but don't forget that Wuling's character is just a low-end van brand no matter how high its sales volume is.

Therefore, apart from building low-priced cars, Wuling Baojun has no other way out; the point is that the profit margins of low-priced cars are too small, and Wuling only has less than 6 shares in the three-party joint venture of SAIC-GM-Wuling. General Motors accounts for 44%, and SAIC accounts for the rest; therefore, manufacturing low-priced cars also requires strict cost control, and the quality of the vehicles is naturally very average. Objectively speaking, Wuling vans or mini-trucks are actually worse than many competing products. So if you want to stabilize sales even if the quality is not high enough, you cannot do without the "GM" card. Flaunting "American advanced technology" has almost become the only straw for SAIC-GM-Wuling.

In summary, it is up to you to judge whether Wuling is an independent brand. Wuling really does not have the strength to "go it alone"; assuming that Liuzhou Wuling wants to go it alone, will SAIC-GM's strength directly create How about positioning a car of comparable quality and then directly using a foreign car brand to benchmark against Wuling? If this scenario really occurs, Wuling's outcome will be difficult to predict. Therefore, Wuling still has to keep up with GM and GM, even if it is unwilling to do so.

However, even SAIC-GM-Wuling is under great pressure. Strict inspections on overcrowding and overloading of vans have gradually made this type of vehicle lose value. Of course, the constant mixing of passengers and cargo and overcrowding have indeed caused considerable social problems. Wuling is the first to bear the brunt of the problem; therefore, the sales of vans have been declining, and Wuling needs to find a new path.

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