Whenever you think the world is magical enough, there are always people who turn somersaults and jump out to make a living.
At 6 p.m. on July 20, Hengchi Auto, a subsidiary of Evergrande New Energy Automobile Investment Holding Group, held the first “Hengchi Festival” online. In this so-called “User Festival”, three Hengchi 5 “booking users” (one of whom is also the host of the on-site salon session, well-known car critic Mr. Wu Pei) from a total of more than 37,000 car booking users, 10 winners were drawn.
These 10 people will receive a car purchase discount of 10,000 yuan for the second prize, 20,000 yuan for the first prize and 49,999 yuan for the special prize.
To be honest, the strength of the prizes in this lottery draw is so strong and the coverage is so wide that our “small and micro companies” are more like a Fortune 500 company than Evergrande Group. And the author couldn’t help but ask: Where did the third prize go?
In addition to the psychedelic lottery session, the most attention-grabbing event at this press conference was the “Hengchi 5 cumulative order volume” that kept jumping and rising above the big screen.
This string of numbers runs through every link of the press conference, making people think of the last time I saw a similar operation, it was the Double 11 Gala held by JD.com and Taobao a few years ago.
However, the author who has gone to offline stores to experience the sales process of Hengchi automobiles has deep doubts about this data:
Where did more than 37,000 people jump out and decide to buy a car like the Hengchi 5?
Sales prefer to play with mobile phones than to sell cars
Although all new car manufacturers and even some traditional car companies use online channels as an important tool to achieve sales, the critical moment when most consumers decide to buy a car happens in offline stores. This is why, even though Weilai, Ideal and Tesla, which have built industry ceiling-level mobile APPs, still spend a lot of resources on the construction, management and operation of offline stores.
However, on the afternoon of July 17 (Sunday), when I walked into the “Hengchi Auto Experience Center” near the Evergrande Huafu Community, outside the Fifth Ring Road in the northeast of Beijing, I couldn’t help feeling that the offline store of Hengchi Auto It’s so “different”.
After scanning the health code, a salesperson greeted the author. Although Evergrande positioned the “Hengchi 5” as a “global ultra-intelligent pure electric luxury SUV”, the salesperson told the author as soon as he opened his mouth, “Our car is mainly about cost performance.”
“Compared with Leapmotor C11, Hengchi 5 has a lower price and longer cruising range,” the salesperson said to the author. Although the pre-sale price of Hengchi 5,179,000 yuan is higher than that of the lowest-priced luxury version (179,800 yuan) of the Leapsport C11 series, it is true The price is more advantageous.
However, seeing a new car positioned as “luxury” compete with the “price butcher” in the market for cost-effectiveness, one can’t help but feel a bit disconnected.
However, it is not only the product positioning of Hengchi 5 that is split. When the author asked about other product and functional highlights of Hengchi 5, the salesman, in addition to the vehicle’s exterior design and the 21-inch large wheels (said to be optional) that are rarely seen on mid-size SUVs, has a wide range of features including voice/gesture recognition, Baidu ecological Product features such as application services, 256-color interior ambient lights, and triple-screen smart cockpit can only be introduced orally.
There’s no other reason: the car’s software system wasn’t finished at all, and it wasn’t powered up at all.
This can’t help but wonder: where did the female car booker at the live broadcast of the Hengchi Festival be shocked by the “three big screens”?
Attentive viewers may have discovered that everyone in the store is looking at their mobile phones except for the sales that accompany me
In fact, the sales staff of Hengchi 5 are not very confident about their own products. When the author asked about the details of the “free H-Pilot intelligent assisted driving package” in the top ten car buying rights, the salesman said bluntly: “The assisted driving software is not reliable.”
“Compared to these functions, I prefer to take the vehicle into my own hands,” the salesperson told me. Afterwards, the two of us also discussed the casualties caused by the assisted driving systems of smart cars such as Tesla, Weilai and Ideal, and shared the feeling that “advanced technology is not safe”.
When asked if a test drive could be made, the salesperson regretfully told the author: there is no test drive at present, and the vehicle will have to be delivered in August. At that time, all vehicle configurations will be available for user experience.
“But you have to pay the deposit as soon as possible.” The sales finally reminded, “After all, these rights are limited to the first 10,000 car buyers.” For this, the author nodded his thanks and said goodbye to him.
But writing here, the author suddenly recalled one thing: when he entered the store on July 17, there were less than 10,000 users of Hengchi 5 who paid deposits. How come on the day of Hengchi Festival on July 20, there are more than 27,000 car booking users?
However, there is support for this figure. During the live broadcast of the Hengchi Festival, which lasted less than an hour, the number of car booking users scrolling on its big screen increased by less than 300. If we calculate that there are 300 users booking cars every hour, there should indeed be 21,600 users who choose to order Hengchi 5 in a total of 72 hours from the afternoon of July 17th to the evening of July 20th. Of course, it is also reasonable to have more users paying deposits at a certain time. After all, the property stewards in the Hengda District have posted advertisements for Hengchi 5 in so many real estate projects across the country, and whoever places the order is not sure. But I still couldn’t help but ask:
In the past three days, what major events have happened that changed the perception of Chinese auto consumers?
Why was I the only customer who entered the store in the only Hengchi auto showroom in Beijing during the nearly 1 hour I watched the car offline?
Interestingly, there is such a saying on the Internet: Evergrande’s wealth management is in a storm, unable to redeem wealth management products, and inform customers that they can only use cars to pay off debts, either continue to wait, or replace wealth management with Hengchi cars.
It is difficult for us to verify the authenticity of the above statement, but Hengchi Auto has received a large number of orders in a short period of time, which is indeed suspicious.
Under the control of world-class quality, the seats of the show car are bulged
Of course, in addition to the lottery and counting, there are still some dry goods at the Hengchi Festival. In the salon session between users and Hengchi executives hosted by Mr. Wu Pei, Gao Jingshen, the executive deputy director of Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group and chairman of Guangdong Company, emphasized Hengchi’s determination to control product quality. The old auto person who has served as a senior executive at GAC Toyota for many years said that Hengchi Automobile has established a quality control system with world-class standards, “does not accept defective products, does not manufacture defective products, and does not export defective products.”
But on the Hengchi 5 show car, this rhetoric was obviously not fulfilled. When I got on the only Hengchi 5 show car in Beijing, I was surprised to find that the seat cushion of the main driver was actually “bulky”.
In fact, even in the show car on the main stage of the Hengchi Festival, there are unnatural folds on the back of the seat. Of course, this situation can also be interpreted as an illusion caused by the live lights.
Regarding the bulge of the seat, the sales staff explained to the author: this is a test car.
But generally speaking, all the show cars shipped by car companies to stores/auto shows/events must be the result of choosing the best of the best. At the very least, it can’t look like a problem. So this makes people think: If these show cars used as the “face” of the company are already in this state, what kind of tragic situation is the other cars coming off the production line of the Hengchi factory?
In fact, not only the quality management system advertised by Hengchi Automobile may have loopholes, but there are also visible problems in its sales system.
In almost any car brand’s 4S shop or direct sales showroom, there are standard procedures for sales reception to shop customers. Among them, the car owner’s car purchase budget, which competing cars are looking at at the same time, the main car usage scenarios, etc., are all questions that the salesperson must ask the customer. However, apart from competing cars, none of the sales I encountered with the above questions raised questions. In fact, in order to break the awkward silence, I took the initiative to ask the salesperson about these situations.
What surprised me was that even the sales staff couldn’t tell what the positioning of the Hengchi brand was. When the author asked what was the difference between Hengchi and Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, the sales staff answered directly: They didn’t know either.
What is even more ridiculous is that the cleanliness of the Hengchi 5 show car is actually unsatisfactory. The dark center control screen is covered with fingerprints, and the tires of the vehicle are covered with mud from previous outdoor driving. Walking to the rear of the vehicle, the trunk part of this Hengchi 5 exhibition car still has a layer of floating soil. Be aware that at most car brand stores, the cleaning of show cars is even done on an hourly basis. Brands that pay attention to some even wipe the screen of the car and the machine where it is easy to leave fingerprints after each user has experienced it.
In addition, one of the most important details completely established the author’s negative evaluation of Hengchi’s auto sales system. When leaving the showroom, the salesperson did not ask for the author’s contact information or hand over his business card. Even the product information color page leaflet of the vehicle is also requested by the author. You must know that “retaining capital” is basically a key action that all retail industries will emphasize on front-line sales staff. Even if you go to Uniqlo to buy clothes, the cashier will guide users to pay attention to the company’s official account and join the membership club when paying. It can be seen that the sales system of Hengchi Automobile can be described as “ridiculous”.
But we still have to admire, relying on such a simple sales system, Hengchi 5 still attracts more than 37,000 car booking users.
It’s an industry miracle.
Evergrande is also afraid of being regarded as a liar
With the pre-sale of Hengchi 5, Xu Jiayin and Evergrande Group, who have been busy recently “guaranteing the delivery of the building”, apparently added another “addition” to their debt black hole. The challenge this time is to “guarantee the delivery of the car”. Of course, this time, Boss Xu gave the car owner a reassurance in advance: the pre-sale deposit, subscription deposit and the final payment were all paid to the special account set up by the Tianjin Jinbin Notary Office and subject to the supervision of the notary office.
The money to buy a car is not given to the car company, but is directly credited to the account of the notary office, which can be regarded as a pioneering work in the automobile industry.
Seeing this, if any of our readers are still interested in Hengchi 5, there is no need to feel sorry for missing the first 10,000 deposit car purchase rights.
After all, at the time of writing, the following pages were still hanging on the homepage of Hengchi Auto’s official website:
Hashtag: Evergrande Auto Evergrande Xu Jiayin
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