Source: southern window.
"There is a new Great Wall in the north and BYD in the south." At the new car launch in 2022, Li Ruifeng, CGO of the Great Wall, still described the relationship between his family and his friends and businessmen as "North Qiao Feng, South Murong", just like appreciate each other between heroes.
But it didn’t arrive in a year, and North Qiao Feng gave South Murong a sneak attack.
On the morning of May 25th, Great Wall Motor issued a statement saying that it had submitted materials to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration of Markets, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and reported that BYD Qin PLUS DM-i and Song PLUS DM-i used atmospheric fuel tanks, which were suspected of failing to meet the emission standards of evaporative pollutants from the whole vehicle.
A few hours later, BYD made a statement saying that it resolutely opposed any form of unfair competition and reserved the right to legal proceedings. BYD said that the test vehicle submitted by Great Wall did not meet the requirements of the national standard, and that its test report was invalid.
One is the abdicated crown, and the other is the popular new king. The Great Wall’s tip-off letter to BYD, like a hero’s post widely distributed all over the world, made the auto market, which was already in dispute with blood and rain, stir up waves again.
Report what?
If you want to understand this matter deeply, you need to first interpret the core of the Great Wall report letter, that is, the problem that "the atmospheric oil tank is suspected of causing the evaporation pollutant discharge to fail to meet the standard".
Generally speaking, ordinary cars can use an atmospheric fuel tank. The fuel in the atmospheric fuel tank is controlled by atmospheric pressure and can be delivered to the engine by gravity or fuel pump.
This kind of oil tank is generally made of plastic and designed to work at atmospheric pressure. The internal and external environment are kept at the same pressure, and the positive pressure is 4~7Kpa.
However, for some hybrid vehicles, high-pressure fuel tanks are needed for the sake of emission standards.
Because compared with fuel vehicles, the engine of hybrid vehicles is not used frequently, and gasoline is very volatile. If it is not used often, it will accumulate a lot of oil and gas over time and easily escape.
Don’t underestimate these vaporized gasoline. The data show that fuel evaporation emissions account for about 20% of light vehicle emissions, which is one of the important sources of air pollution. The "National Six" emission standard has strict requirements on the fuel evaporation control system of automobiles, which makes hybrid vehicles need to solve this problem.
As a result, the high-pressure fuel tank came into being. In the high-pressure fuel tank which can bear pressure of 35~40Kpa, oil and gas will remain in the fuel tank under high pressure, and will enter the manifold through the carbon canister when the engine is running, thus reducing the emission of fuel evaporation.
BYD Qin PLUS DM-i and Song PLUS DM-i belong to hybrid vehicles. Facing the emission demand, high-pressure fuel tanks may be needed to prevent oil and gas from escaping.
After explaining the reporting point, let’s see if it is possible for BYD to use the atmospheric fuel tank.
According to common sense, Great Wall Motor obviously has some evidence in its hands when it reports with such fanfare. In BYD’s response, it did not deny the use of atmospheric fuel tanks, explaining that the mileage of the test vehicles that focused on the Great Wall was insufficient, and it was the point that the test report was invalid.
Due to the requirements of high-pressure fuel tanks for pressure resistance, the materials of such fuel tanks are mostly steel fuel tanks or encrypted plastics, and the matching fuel cap, fuel filling pipeline and evaporation pipeline also need to be specially made, and the cost is higher than that of atmospheric fuel tanks.
From the point of cost reduction, BYD does have the motivation to use atmospheric fuel tanks.
However, the hybrid vehicle using atmospheric fuel tank does not necessarily fail to meet the standard of fuel evaporative emission, which needs further testing and verification by relevant departments.
The reason why BYD played "3,000 kilometers" actually has a saying.
Qin PLUS DM-i and Song PLUS DM-i, as plug-in hybrid cars, have versions with a battery life of more than 100 kilometers. If you only run the "450-670 km" in BYD’s response, there is a high probability that a box of oil has not been run.
If a tank of oil is not run out, the frequency of natural internal combustion engine is not high. If it is left standing for a period of time and not kept and sent for inspection within the specified time, the test results may be biased and cannot objectively reflect the emission values of vehicles.
Therefore, just looking at the first round of confrontation, the Great Wall only hammered BYD’s "atmospheric fuel tank", but it was temporarily unable to hammer BYD’s emissions.
Why today?
There is an interesting detail in the tip-off. Great Wall reported BYD on April 11th, one and a half months earlier than May 25th.
Why is it so late? Is it because the two sides have communicated beforehand? Or did the Great Wall ever think about keeping a low profile?
Perhaps none of the above reasons, but more likely because BYD’s new car Song Pro DM-i Champion Edition is scheduled to be released on the afternoon of May 25th.
On the day when the car was replaced, it was "disgusting" to have friends and businessmen, and the "sneak attack" of the Great Wall was well prepared.
Hammer you, although it didn’t reach the so-called "filing" in the report letter, the invisible damage caused is really real. It will change consumers’ minds invisibly-that is, BYD’s products are controversial and may have the behavior of "cutting corners".
Even if these things are proved to be untrue in the end, this cognitive change has caused a negative impression.
It doesn’t matter if you have any questions. But it’s important for consumers to feel "you have a problem".
The so-called business war is to attack the minds of consumers.
Of course, BYD’s response is also very interesting.
The whole response, eight paragraphs, seven exclamation points, an average of nearly one paragraph. The last three paragraphs, or even a single sentence into paragraphs, each sentence has an exclamation point. Anger and grievances are almost overflowing.
The last sentence is even more straightforward. "I hope everyone will do more things that are beneficial to the industry and the China brand!"
The implication is that what Great Wall has done is harmful to both the industry and the China brand.
Since you attacked first, don’t blame me for being rude.
In the past, the hero cherished the hero’s "North-South Double Heroes", thus breaking away. This situation reminds people of the kind advice of a 69-year-old veteran comrade-Wulin should value peace, emphasize martial arts and not engage in infighting.
Frankly speaking, last year’s metaphor of the Great Wall actually raised its own worth and secretly degraded BYD.
Today’s China auto market is no longer the era when Haval H6 dominated the world. Although the Great Wall is still in the first echelon of auto companies, it is far behind by BYD.
In 2022, BYD sold 1,863,500 new cars, with an operating income of 424.061 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 96.2%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 16.622 billion, up 445.86% year-on-year.
In contrast, the Great Wall sold only 1,061,700 new cars last year, with a total operating income of 137.34 billion yuan, a slight increase of 0.69% year-on-year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 8.266 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.90%.
For BYD, 2022 is undoubtedly a bumper year. It has become the champion of its own brand, the champion of global new energy vehicles, and the champion of China automobile market, and it has won many "firsts".
The Great Wall is still in a difficult transition in the switch between the old and new markets. The sales target of "1.9 million vehicles" set in 2022 was less than 60%. The sales of Haval, Wei Pai, Euler and pickup trucks under its control fell across the board, while the sales of new energy vehicles declined from 139,000 to 132,000 compared with the previous year.
If you don’t want to describe them as Qiao Feng and Mu Rongfu, you have to change your position, and you have lost Mu Rongfu after Wang Yuyan.
What I did was big brother
Many people believe that BYD’s rise is based on new energy sources.
This sentence is correct, but it is not detailed enough.
Pure trams are new energy, and hybrid cars are also new energy. The most important thing about BYD’s strong rise in the past two years is that plug-in hybrid vehicles have gained wide market recognition.
In 2021, BYD successively launched three models: Qin PLUS DM-i, Song PLUS DM-i and Tang DM-i, which achieved the coverage of the mainstream price range of 100,000-200,000.
As a result, in the second year, sales broke out. BYD sold 946,200 hybrid cars, accounting for 50.94% of the total sales. The sales volume of BYD Song PLUS DM-i alone was as high as 380,000.
The same thing happened in the whole China market. In 2022, the sales growth rate of plug-in hybrid vehicles reached 150% year-on-year, and the growth rate of ultra-pure electric vehicles was 82%.
Plug-in hybrid cars with green license, exemption from purchase tax, subsidy and electricity saving are the "wealth code" of China auto market.
Great Wall Motor certainly saw through this. Although it started later than BYD, it soon joined the research and development of hybrid technology. In 2018, Great Wall Motor developed a new hybrid platform, which is now the lemon hybrid DHT system.
However, consumers who know that "the Great Wall is also very mixed" are far from knowing that "BYD is very mixed". The reason is that the "coffee series" of the Great Wall really sells badly.
On the one hand, the positioning of Macchiato DHT is slightly higher than that of Song PLUS DM-i, and the entry version is 20,000 yuan higher; On the other hand, the naming of "Macchiato" is controversial, which leads to its poor market recognition. In the end, due to the small sales volume, consumers can’t perceive the hybrid technology of the Great Wall, which makes the Great Wall lose its first-Mover advantage.
If this technology had been devolved to Haval H6 earlier, it is likely that the current SUV hybrid market is by no means a monopoly of Song Plus DM-I.
The former Haval H6, which has won the championship for 100 consecutive months, is a well-deserved "magic car" in China. Until January of 2022, Haval H6 was still the dominant player in SUV field.
Unfortunately, it was not until mid-August of 2022 that the mixed version of Haval H6 came late. At this time, the sales volume of H6 has fallen to the fifth place, and not only Song PLUS has surpassed it, but also Yuan PLUS has surpassed it.
The failure to grasp the mixed outlet is an important reason why the Great Wall is now trapped in transformation and its sales volume has fallen sharply. I want to make the brand high-end and new energy at the same time, and finally the Great Wall of "one fish and two meals" failed to do both things well. Looking back, this is undoubtedly a strategic mistake of the Great Wall.
Although there are many consumers who sing the Great Wall, from the market value point of view, Great Wall Motor with a volume of 210 billion+is still the "second brother" after BYD.
This time, the "second brother" challenged the "big brother". Although it is somewhat embarrassing, it is also the norm in business competition.
Aboveboard peer supervision also protects the interests of consumers to some extent. If there is unfair competition, I believe that the relevant institutions will eventually give the enterprise an innocence and give a statement after verification.
