From building a car by Baidu to holding hands with FF by Geely, it is too early to say that many news circulating in the automobile rivers and lakes are "officially announced".

A few days ago, the registration information of the State Intellectual Property Trademark Office showed that Great Wall Motor recently applied for a brand-new logo. The sign is printed with the letter "TANK", which translates to tank.

For a time, the voices of speculation such as "Great Wall Motor will launch a new brand", "Tank series will launch a new brand" and "Tank series will be separated from WEY system" come and go.

However, so far, Great Wall Motor officials have not made it clear that it is possible to make tanks independent.

There are many people who are red.

Behind every car brand "solo", there is a story of "material".

In the previous consistent planning of Great Wall Motor, Tank 300 was an important starting point for the rise of WEY brand.

The tank 300 also lived up to expectations, and received an order of 10,000 yuan when it was pre-sold. It is a phenomenal "network celebrity" product in the automobile market.

"Tank 300 has subverted the market structure of off-road vehicles, and its starting price of 1.7 million yuan has greatly reduced the price threshold of off-road vehicles of more than 400,000 yuan. At the same time, the naming of its' tank' and the official propaganda of' no way out' have invisibly attracted many new players with early adopters. " Some insiders pointed out.

The data shows that Tank 300 delivered a good report card in the first whole month after its listing, and the sales volume reached 60 18 in June and October, which is a figure that even Toyota Prado and Lu Xun have never got.

But perhaps the light is too shining, some of which exceed WEY's expectations, and the rumors of tanks "flying alone" have risen again.

Li Ruifeng, chief marketing officer of WEY brand, once bluntly pointed out, "Tank 300 is too strong, which leads to the weakening of WEY brand, just like Harvard doesn't know the Great Wall. When a single brand is strong enough, people tend to ignore parent brand. "

As soon as this statement came out, the speculation of tank independence was intensified.

As we all know, Haval's independence established Great Wall Motor as the first SUV in China.

20/kloc-in March, 2003, Haval announced its "independence", and Great Wall Motor entered the era of dual brands of Haval and Great Wall. Haval, which has been operating independently for nearly 8 years, has become the backbone of the domestic SUV market.

The latest data shows that in June this year, 5438+ 10, Haval brand * * * sold 94,474 new cars, up 6 1% year-on-year. Among them, the "National God Car" Haval H6 sold 46,368 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 76%, ranking first in SUV monthly sales for 92 consecutive months.

So the future of tanks may come down in one continuous line with Haval.

It is reported that after independence, the tank series will form a parallel relationship with WEY brand. An SUV product is responsible for the off-road direction, and an SUV product is responsible for the urban direction, and each has its own duties, but the positioning of the tank brand will be slightly lower than that of WEY brand, which will weaken the luxury attribute.

According to the previously released product plan, a medium-sized off-road vehicle tank 600, a medium-sized off-road vehicle tank 900 and a larger full-size pickup truck will be launched on the tank platform. In addition, Tank 300 will follow up the urban version equipped with timely four-wheel drive system to further enrich its selection range.

However, in the final analysis, the off-road market is a relatively small market segment. If the tank becomes an independent brand, can it be covered only by the volume income of the current domestic off-road market?

In fact, it may not be a good thing for WEY to leave the tank.

As we all know, WEY brand is a global high-end brand that Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, has to gamble on his surname. However, judging from the performance of WEY brand in recent years, it has not yet reached expectations.

The data shows that in 2020, the sales volume of WEY brand is 78,000 vehicles, down 2 1.53% year-on-year, which is the largest decline among the four sectors of the Great Wall. This is also the second consecutive year of decline after it reached the sales peak of 654.38+039 million vehicles in 2065.438+08. In contrast, Geely's high-end brand Keling is another scene. Last year, the sales volume of Lectra reached1750,000 units, an increase of about 37% year-on-year.

"In addition to external environmental factors, this situation is also inseparable from its chaotic product planning and serious internal friction at Harvard. At the same time, the competitiveness of core technologies is not enough to support the positioning of high-end luxury brands. "

In fact, although WEY is positioned at the high end, the sluggish sales volume makes it difficult for the price to break through the ceiling, and it is also difficult to form differentiated competition with Harvard, which also focuses on the SUV market.

The appearance of tank 300 broke the deadlock, and hard-core cross-country opened another market for it. The data shows that in June of this year, the sales volume of WEY brand exceeded 10,000, up 20% from the previous month and 88% from the same period last year, of which tanks contributed more than 50%.

In addition, the tank fever has also brushed a wave of traffic for the WEY brand, which is expected to further boost the quantity and brand of WEY.

At this time, the tank is independent, and there is no doubt that WEY, which lacks fist products, will return to the edge corner.

In addition, for the Great Wall, it is also a "burden".

So far, Great Wall Motor operates four brands: Haval, Euler, WEY and Great Wall pickup truck. If the tank is independent, it will become the fifth brand. In addition, Great Wall and BMW also set up a joint venture company, mainly engaged in the production and sales of electric MINI. At the same time, Sharon Zhixing, a high-end new energy brand exposed last year, will also operate as an independent company and brand to produce high-end electric vehicles.

This also means that Great Wall Motor will operate seven brands at the same time in the future.

"After each brand is independent, it is necessary to set up a separate sales network and operation team. This is a huge investment. For Great Wall Motor, which currently has a volume of about 65,438+065,438+million vehicles per year, it is still a huge challenge to operate seven brands at the same time. "

Moreover, under the sweeping wave of the new four modernizations, developing new energy is the most expensive project for every main engine factory, and the Great Wall must not fall. Therefore, the independent capital expenditure of tanks is debatable.

In fact, it is not necessary to be independent of a particular brand every time you enter a market segment. The products under the brand are too monotonous, and once the market heat and influence are gone, it will also bring a blow to the whole brand.

Blind independence, the ultimate "harvest" may be just a waste of resources.