Deep blue car, high opening and low walking, lost 6 billion in two years.

Source: International Investment Bank Research Report

Text | Dong Wuying

Editor | Zhang Jiaru

Recently, Deep Blue G318, the first off-road SUV of Deep Blue Auto, was officially launched, which quickly attracted the attention of consumers. According to the official data of Deep Blue Auto, the order of Deep Blue G318 exceeded 10,000 in 70 hours and reached 14,126 in 5 days.

This order data is hot. You should know that the dark blue G318 is a smaller off-road SUV, and it is remarkable to get such an order.

Deep blue car isAs a holding subsidiary, Deep Blue brand is positioned in the mid-range new energy vehicle market.Before G318, Deep Blue Automobile had successively launched the middle-class car Deep Blue SL03 and the middle-class SUV Deep Blue S7, but neither of these two models became the explosion of monthly sales exceeding 10,000.

How long can consumers’ enthusiasm for paying for the hot G318 this time? Can it help Deep Blue achieve sales breakthrough?

Extended-range off-road SUV, starting at less than 180 thousand

A few years ago, when the concept of new consumption was hot, some founders shouted that "all industries are worth doing again". In the new energy vehicle market in recent years, the phenomenon that "all models are worth doing again with hybrid (including extended range)" is happening.

In addition to A00 and A0 class cars below 100,000 yuan, which are still pure electric home, there are hybrid and extended-range models with excellent market performance in the automobile market of 100,000-500,000 yuan. Even the niche off-road SUV track has begun to appear frequently with hybrid and extended-range vehicles.

For example, Equation Panther 5, Tank 400, Tank 500, Tank 700 and Haval Raptors all have hybrid models, and looking up at U8, Polar Stone 01 and Warrior 917 are all extended-range models.

The recently launched Deep Blue G318 is also an extended-range off-road SUV, with an order volume exceeding 14,000 units within 5 days.

Deep Blue G318 is the first off-road SUV of Deep Blue Automobile, which was officially launched on June 13th. The car has launched a total of six models, and the price range of three two-wheel drive models is 17.59-19.99 million yuan. Among the three four-wheel drive models, the four-wheel drive comfort version and the four-wheel drive suspension version are priced at 199,900 yuan and 229,900 yuan respectively; The top-of-the-line worry-free version is priced at 318,000 yuan, and the pre-sale is expected to start in early 2025.

The dark blue G318 model is positioned as a hard-core SUV with a tough appearance. In terms of power, it is equipped with the super extended range 2.0 system under the new Blue Whale power platform, which consists of a 1.5T range finder and a high-performance motor, and the fuel consumption of power feed is as low as 6.1L/100km. The battery capacity of the entry-level two-drive standard version is small, and the pure electric cruising range (under CLTC working condition) is 77km, so it does not have fast charging function. Other models have a pure electric cruising range of 172km-190km, with fast charging function.

Among the five scheduled start-up models, three two-wheel drive models focus on daily mode. The two four-wheel drive models are mainly off-road, with terrain modes such as wading, snow, rugged terrain, mud and sand. They can turn around in situ and crawl off-road. They are equipped with a special central stepless differential lock for off-road, a magnetic mechanical differential lock for rear axle and a wading radar, with a 1.6T qualification towing hook. Except for the entry-level two-wheel drive standard version, all other models have V2V fast discharge function.

In terms of intelligent driving, all five models have L2-level auxiliary driving function, which can realize speed limit recognition, lane keeping assistance, AEB automatic emergency braking and other functions, among which two-wheel drive suspension and four-wheel drive suspension are higher in configuration, with blind spot monitoring, lane changing assistance, reversing lateral emergency braking and other functions.

After the launch of this off-road SUV in deep blue, the order performance is very hot. Can this hard-core off-road SUV drive the sales of deep blue cars to increase?

"Dark Horse" dark blue car, sales go high and low.

With the accelerated transformation in recent years, three smart electric brands, Aouita, Deep Blue Auto and Changan Qiyuan, have been formed under the Changan Automobile System. Among them, Aouita focuses on the high-end market, by Changan Automobile,Cooperate with Huawei. Deep Blue Automobile is a holding subsidiary of Changan Automobile, focusing on the mid-to-high-end market and targeting younger groups. Changan Qiyuan belongs to a brand-new product sequence of Changan Automobile, which is aimed at more mainstream consumers.

As you can see,Deep blue automobile is responsible for the high-end transformation of Changan Automobile. However, since the first car went on the market, the sales of deep blue cars have appeared "high opening and low going".

Deep Blue Automobile was established in April 2022. Three months later, the first strategic model SL03 was released. The entry-level extended-range model was priced at 168,900 yuan, and the entry-level pure electric model was priced at 183,900 yuan. After 33 minutes of listing, the order exceeded 10,000 yuan.In December, 2022, Deep Blue Auto delivered over 10,000 yuan in a single month, which was the fastest electric vehicle brand to deliver over 10,000 yuan, and became a "dark horse in the new energy automobile industry".

Under the strong performance of Deep Blue SL03, Deep Blue Auto has set a sales target of 400,000 vehicles for 2023. However, after entering 2023, the sales volume of Deep Blue SL03 began to decline, and the delivery volume in May 2023 was 7021 vehicles.

On June 25th, 2023, the second strategic model S7 of Deep Blue was launched. With the help of the two models, the sales performance of Deep Blue brand in the second half of 2023 was excellent, and the delivery peak of 18,338 vehicles was created in December.However, throughout 2023, the dark blue brand delivered a total of 136,900 vehicles, only completing one-third of the sales target.

At the end of 2023, the CEO of Deep Blue Automobile announced that the global sales target of Deep Blue Team in 2024 was set at 450,000 vehicles. But then, Changan Automobile announced the sales target of the group, and finally set the annual sales target of Deep Blue Automobile at 280,000 vehicles.

In 2024, the overall delivery volume of Deep Blue brand declined. In the first five months, 67,200 vehicles were delivered, only about 24% of the sales target was achieved.

In the past three months, the retail sales of Deep Blue SL03 were 4,311, 4,524 and 5,303 respectively, and the retail sales of Deep Blue S7 were 5,705, 5,492 and 5,977 respectively. In the sales rankings of medium-sized cars and medium-sized SUVs, the two models of Deep Blue SL03 and Deep Blue S7 are both ranked around 15th.

In the past two years, Deep Blue has suffered a large loss. According to Changan Automobile Annual Report, in 2022, the revenue of Deep Blue Automobile, formerly known as Chongqing Changan New Energy Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., was 15.678 billion yuan and its net profit was-3.197 billion yuan. In 2023, the revenue of Deep Blue Automobile increased to 25.883 billion yuan and the net profit was-2.999 billion yuan.In two years, the accumulated loss of Deep Blue Automobile exceeded 6 billion yuan.

Hard-core cross-country, is Deep Blue on the right track?

Deep blue G318 orders are hot, largely because of its high cost performance.

Generally speaking, off-road vehicles need larger ones.Therefore, fuel vehicles are often used, and even diesel is chosen as the power type. However, the high fuel consumption brought by high power, at the same time, most off-road SUV consumers are not heavy off-road enthusiasts, and the use scenarios are mostly daily mode. "Light off-road" and "urban off-road" are more common, so the fuel consumption performance of off-road SUVs is even more important.

According to the official information of Deep Blue, the fuel consumption of Deep Blue G318 per 100 kilometers is 6L, while the fuel consumption of Equation Leopard 5, Haval Raptor and Tank 400 all exceeds 7L.

In addition, due to the larger size and the load-bearing body, the interior space of the dark blue G318 is larger, and the trunk space reaches 818L. At the same time, with non-loaded body and air suspension, Deep Blue G318 is more comfortable in driving and rear row.

However, although the orders for Deep Blue G318 are hot, it is equally challenging to drive Deep Blue to achieve its sales target.

On the one hand, off-road SUV itself is a smaller track, and the market volume is difficult to compare with mainstream models.In March-May this year, the sales volume of Jietu travelers with the best performance of off-road SUVs were 9219, 10049 and 6819 respectively. For example, the sales of star models such as Tank 300 and Haval Dog are only around 5,000-6,000, and the sales of other off-road SUV models are mostly below 4,000.

In this case, the ceiling faced by Deep Blue G318 itself is not high, and it remains to be seen whether it can drive the sales of Deep Blue cars to make a big breakthrough.

On the other hand, Deep Blue G318 is the first off-road SUV of Deep Blue Automobile, and it is also the only off-road SUV of Changan Automobile at present, and its actual competitiveness still needs market verification.At the same time, although Deep Blue G318 has certain advantages, at the price of 100,000-200,000 yuan, G318 still needs to deal with fuel vehicles such as Jetway Traveler, Tank 300 and Haval Dog, as well as new energy vehicles such as iCAR03, Jetway Shanhai T2 and Haval Raptors, and the difficulty of seizing the market can be imagined.

At present, although Deep Blue has failed to continue its high-gloss performance when it was first listed, it has gained a firm foothold in the automobile industry with its superior shape design and strong cost performance. The current deep blue car needs an explosive model to further open its popularity. Whether the deep blue G318 can undertake this important task still needs market verification.

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