The legendary car is no longer popular, SAIC-GM-Wuling is facing a cold winter

In the past, SAIC-GM-Wuling relied on its price advantage and its annual sales through low-end sales channels to exceed 2 million vehicles. Its Wuling and Baojun brands were even called "magic cars."

But in 2018, SAIC-GM-Wuling's market performance was poor.

In 2010, SAIC-GM-Wuling's annual sales volume was less than 80,000 vehicles. Seven years later, SAIC-GM-Wuling's annual sales volume has exceeded 2 million vehicles, and the market size has increased by more than 25 times in seven years.

In July this year, SAIC-GM-Wuling sold a total of 99,000 new vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 13.71% and a month-on-month decrease of 17.33%. SAIC-GM-Wuling has seen a month-on-month decline in monthly sales for four consecutive months.

The main reason for the decline is Baojun 510. After creating a peak monthly sales figure of 58,000 units in January this year, Baojun 510's sales fell to around 40,000 units in the following two months, and then took a sharp turn for the worse, falling rapidly by about 20%. In July this year, Baojun 510's sales fell to 17,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 48.55%.

Baojun 730 sold only 3,400 units in July. In December last year, the number was 32,000 units, a drop of nearly 90%. All Wuling brand models in traditional advantage areas have seen a month-on-month drop of more than 20%.

Although SAIC-GM-Wuling has created a market miracle by using the cost-effective route, this is closely related to the surge in demand in the domestic automobile market. From 2010 to 2017, the country was in a period of rapid growth in automobiles, especially the SUV market.

Whenever SAIC-GM-Wuling launches a new product, it will have an impact on the original products. This phenomenon of mutual internal friction and loss of one's own will be concealed in the context of a rapidly growing market, but once the market situation declines, the problem will become prominent.

The product cycle of SAIC-GM-Wuling is getting shorter and shorter, and it is increasingly showing a lack of competitiveness. Only one and a half years have passed since the Baojun 510 was launched, but its market performance is much worse than before, while the life cycle of the earliest Baojun 560 is more than two years. The product competitiveness of SAIC-GM-Wuling is gradually declining.

SAIC-GM-Wuling also needs to face huge pressure from the environmental protection aspect. According to the statistics for the whole year of 2017, although SAIC-GM-Wuling had positive numbers in both points, the surplus was not much.

The National VI emission standard is being implemented at an accelerated pace across the country, but this is not good news for SAIC-GM-Wuling, which is severely restricted in technology and cost.

Even if SAIC-GM-Wuling finally develops a powertrain that meets the National VI standard and fuel efficiency restrictions, the cost will be spread over each vehicle and the price will increase by 5,000 yuan. For Wuling, which pursues a cost-effective route, 5,000 yuan may already be about 5-10% of the price of a vehicle, and this part of consumers is more sensitive to price.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.