Author: Lingyun
The New Baojun, which has been fighting and losing repeatedly, still refuses to give up the domestic station wagon market.
“Europe is the paradise of station wagons, while China is the paradise of SUVs”… phrases like this have been popular in the domestic auto industry for a long time.
As of now, the Chinese auto market has been open for more than 40 years, becoming the world’s largest auto market. Sedans, SUVs, and MPVs have all opened up their own sub-markets, but only station wagons are still an “outlier” and have never taken root.
The fact is such that from Santana Station Wagon, Kai Yue Station Wagon, Buick Verano, to Baojun 310W and New Baojun RC-5W… many station wagons have come and gone, gone and come back, until their traces can no longer be found.
Faced with the domestic station wagon market that even the public Wei Ling and Audi A6 Avant cannot handle, and the luxury brand models, there is still one domestic brand that has not given up. That brand is New Baojun.
From the earliest small station wagon 310W, to the compact station wagon RC-5W after the name change, to the recently heavily marketed New Baojun Valli (Yearning), the New Baojun brand is “deeply obsessed” with station wagons.
New Baojun Valli is called the first “large flat all-terrain vehicle” under the New Baojun brand. On April 15, New Baojun Valli started pre-sales, offering a total of four models: 1.5T6MT Moganshan Valley/Elite version, 1.5T CVT Yili Ranch/Luxury version, 1.5T CVT Dali Sky/Exclusive version, and 1.5T CVT Naqu Star/Flagship version, with pre-sale prices of 82,800 yuan, 95,800 yuan, 102,800 yuan, and 108,800 yuan respectively.
It is rumored that New Baojun Valli will be launched on the market in the second quarter of this year, and from the recent frequent marketing activities of the car, its official launch may be approaching.
In the overall sluggish domestic station wagon market, and the failure of 310W and RC-5W, what kind of performance will New Baojun Valli have?
A “New wine in old bottles” new car
In early March of this year, the New Baojun brand announced that it would launch a brand new station wagon.
Looking at the real shot of the car model that was announced at the time, the new car has a more obvious shadow of the New Baojun RC-5W, so the industry also regards this car as the new replacement model of New Baojun RC-5W.On April 15th, the new travel car of New Baojun started pre-sale. Contrary to the industry’s initial expectations, the new car did not continue the naming of RC-5W, but was named New Baojun Valli. However, after seeing more detailed information about the new car, the industry does not agree with the description of “New Baojun Valli is a new travel car”.
In the industry’s view, New Baojun Valli is just a renamed car of RC-5W. In fact, the industry’s criticism of New Baojun Valli is not unfounded. Specifically, the front face of New Baojun Valli still uses the design language of the New Baojun brand, the side presents a sleek styling, the side skirt part adopts a smoked black trim design, and the logo on the lower right of the tailgate has been changed from “RC-5W” to “Valli”. In terms of the interior, its overall design still uses two full LCD screens, which match the two-spoke steering wheel and have no significant changes compared with the New Baojun RC-5W.
In other words, except for the name, paint color, and increased ride height, New Baojun Valli is almost identical to the discontinued New Baojun RC-5W in terms of exterior and interior design. Even the 1.5+CVT powertrain, which has always been criticized by consumers, has not been adjusted.
Public information shows that New Baojun RC-5W was launched in August 2020, with an official guide price of 72,800 yuan to 112,800 yuan and a discount of 10,000 yuan. In terms of power, New Baojun RC-5W has two powertrain options, a 99 horsepower 1.5L naturally aspirated engine + 6MT and a 147 horsepower 1.5T turbocharged engine + CVT.
New Baojun once called RC-5W “the first travel car for young people”, but the reality is not as good as the ideal. From its launch to its hasty departure, New Baojun RC-5W was only on the market for less than half a year.
For most car companies, after a model reaches the end of its life, they will not immediately launch a replacement model with a similar style. However, perhaps due to dissatisfaction with the failure of New Baojun RC-5W, the New Baojun brand did not follow the norm, and seamlessly launched New Baojun Valli.
However, based on RC-5W, Valli, despite a much easier-to-remember and more romantic name, has no substantial improvements in terms of appearance, configuration or even the three core components.## Can Valli make up for the past?
In the industry’s view, the all-new Baojun Valli, which has come back this time, is not without highlights.
Firstly, its model names, such as “Moganshan Valley”, “Yili Ranch”, “Dali Sky”, “Nagqu Stars”, and body colour names such as “Suhang Green”, “Xuexiang White”, “Ancient City Grey”, are innovative enough. In addition, its crossover cooperation with the British rock band Traveling has created a theme song “Yearning” for the new Baojun Valli. It can be said that in terms of marketing, the new Baojun Valli is obviously superior to the previous RC-5W.
Secondly, compared with the RC-5W, the new Baojun Valli has a stronger “jar taste”. The regular trunk volume of the new Baojun Valli (4685/1806/1485 mm in length, width, and height, respectively, and with a wheelbase of 2700 mm) is 536 L. When the rear seats are folded down, the volume can reach 1620 L, and the entire floor is very flat. At the same time, the vehicle also has original outdoor equipment such as a roof luggage box that can be optionally installed.
So, does this mean that the new Baojun Valli, which has started over under a new name, can really shake the sub-segment market of domestic travel vehicles and make up for the past shame of the new Baojun RC-5W?
The answer may be negative. Unlike the European and American markets, travel vehicles have not yet successfully opened up the market in China, and consumers’ recognition of such models is not high. This point is a typical example, such as FAW-Volkswagen’s T-ROC.
In October 2016, FAW-Volkswagen’s T-ROC cross-border travel vehicle was launched. Almost five years have passed since then, but the performance of T-ROC has not met expectations. Statistically, since 2019, T-ROC’s monthly sales have remained at around 2,000 units, and the cumulative sales in 2020 were only 3,988 units. Even more embarrassing is that since October 2020, FAW-Volkswagen has not announced T-ROC’s monthly sales data.
Can the new Baojun Valli, with weaker brand power and a similar appearance and interior design as the new Baojun RC-5W, convince consumers in terms of product strength? It is still unknown. The craftsmanship of the new Baojun Valli’s interior is not exquisite, and its power is not outstanding. Especially when compared with other domestic brand models at the same price, this issue is more prominent.In terms of price, the pre-sale price of the New Baojun Valli 1.5T 6MT Moganshan Valley/Elite is RMB 82,800, which is not only RMB 12,000 more expensive than the RC-5W 1.5L manual Zhiyao luxury model with a preferential price of RMB 70,800, but also has much fewer configurations than RC-5W. As for the automatic transmission models, the RC-5W starts at a preferential price of RMB 80,800, while the New Baojun Valli starts at RMB 95,800. Meanwhile, the pre-sale prices of two models of 1.5T CVT, Dali Sky/Zunxiang and Naqu Star/Flagship, are higher than the corresponding models of RC-5W.
For this kind of product that is “repackaged” without changing the content but still increases the price, it remains to be seen whether consumers will accept it or not.
Public information shows that currently, SAIC Roewe is the only independent brand that has introduced a travel car apart from New Baojun. In the future, if the travel car becomes popular in the domestic market, New Baojun will undoubtedly become the “leader” of domestic travel cars. However, when the dawn of the travel car market arrives and whether the New Baojun Valli can survive until then remains an unknown variable.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.