The Rise of Changan Automobile: From 0 to 1 to Over a Million

By: Wang Hui

“Territory is marked by the cutting edge.” In the first half of 2021, the Chinese automobile market witnessed the rise of Changan Auto, also known as the “Changan Moment.”

According to the latest sales data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Changan Auto sold 98,000 units of general passenger vehicles in May, a year-on-year increase of 34.1%, second only to FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen. From January to May 2021, Changan Auto’s cumulative sales of general passenger vehicles reached 581,000 units, an 88.1% increase year-on-year. Whether in terms of sales rankings or growth momentum, Changan Auto’s brand strength is steadily rising.

It’s worth noting that Changan Auto’s strong upward momentum is also evident from another set of data. From January to May, Changan Auto sold a total of 1,027,807 units, a year-on-year increase of 61.4%. This means that after winning the championship of domestic independent brand sales in the first quarter of this year, Changan Auto is still on the rise.

In just five months of 2021, Changan Auto crossed the milestone of selling one million units, whether in terms of wholesale or retail. This achievement has milestone significance for both Changan Auto itself and China’s independent automobile brands as a whole.

As American entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel said in his book “Zero to One,” going from 0 to 1 is hard enough, but going from 1 to 100 is even harder. Don’t just imitate, innovate by building on top of the 1. “Only those brands that choose their users will be chosen by users,” said Changan Auto Chairman Zhu Huarong.

What’s truly favored by the market is never left to luck. Like Changan Auto, it depends on the accumulated strength in brand and product over many years.

“Warmth” and “Attitude” Melt Together

This is an era where consumer upgrades and rational consumption coexist.

Consumers with a strong sense of attitude will choose products that meet their needs and interests, whether it’s a pack of tissues or a car. This choice not only includes product features but also the emotional value they weigh. For car manufacturers, it’s important to focus on values, reputation, service, culture, and other aspects that focus on users–everything stems from car owners and everything belongs to users.

This is a crucial factor for Changan Auto to build its brand.

However, in an era where brands are chasing after youthfulness, Changan Auto’s solution to youthfulness is not surface-level. Rather, it focuses on “people” by treating them as friends and communicating with them equally. By delving into the spiritual world of the younger generation, Changan Auto has truly reached their hearts.The author still remembers a group photo of 14 Changan executives in the style of a personal portrait from last year. Each person had a unique outfit that looked friendly and interesting, making it feel more like a gathering of young people. This year, Changan New Energy created a mysterious giant donut exhibition with the theme of “E-Star National Donut” that not only drew attention at the event, but also received attention on Weibo and Xiaohongshu, where young people shared their donut-inspired makeup looks and other tags, demonstrating the positive response and hype of the event.

Changan Motors’ pursuit of a “warm” brand is not just limited to events, but focuses on anticipating and meeting customers’ needs to provide them with the ultimate product experience.

In addition to products, with regards to services, Changan Motors provides customer service in real-time.

From the consumer demand perspective, “buying, selling, using, repairing, and services” are the most important aspects that consumers care about. Changan Motors has created various activities, including Zhiyin Partners, “Wait for You until 9 o’clock” delayed service, General Manager Service Day, and Workshop Open Day. It should be noted that Changan Motors’ Asian largest automobile testing ground is open to users, which directly allows them to experience Changan Motors’ research and development capabilities and deepen their understanding of the products.

It is in this series of warm brand shaping efforts that consumers choose to approach and trust Changan Motors. In May, a traditionally slow month for the domestic automobile market, Changan Motors sold 184,465 vehicles, a YoY increase of 5.9%, and the Changan series of Chinese brands sold 146,125 vehicles, a YoY increase of 16.4%.

Continuously Strengthening Technical Strength with the Long-Po Snow

To do a good job, one must first sharpen one’s tools.

The stock market guru Buffett once said, “Life is like a rolling snowball, the most important thing is to find the snowy and long slope.” Buffett used rolling snowballs to metaphorically describe the accumulation of wealth through the long-term effects of compound interest. However, for an enterprise, product strength and core technology are inevitably the foundation for winning the market.

Changan Motors’ ability to create brand loyalty and establish a strong brand influence is naturally inseparable from strong research and development capabilities and an enhanced overall system.

For example, when it comes to Changan Motors now, people first think of Blue Whale Power.

With this outstanding engine, consumers continue to buy Changan Motors’ vehicles. In terms of specific models, the “Blue Whale” family sold more than 80,000 units. Changan CS75 sold 23,047 units, while the Changan Eado sedan sold 13,172 units. In May, high-end products UNI-T and UNI-K sold 6,408 and 5,093 units respectively, with a total sales volume of more than 11,000 units.

Design details are the most touching aspects in addition to the core power source. For example, the UNI-K recently launched by Changan has become a popular model that everyone pays attention to. In addition to the blue whale power, the UNI-K’s technology smart cabin has a 3+1 four-screen interactive layout. It is worth noting that the position of the UNI-K instrument panel is higher than that of traditional car designs by 13° from the driver’s perspective. This means that the time the driver’s eyes leave the road surface to observe important vehicle information will be reduced by half, thus improving driving safety.

Behind the 13° is both the quality assurance of the product and the ultimate care for the user.

The popularity of multiple models cannot be achieved without the deep cultivation of Changan’s world-class R&D team. Currently, Changan has established “7 institutes, 2 branches, and 4 centers.” Over 10,000 engineering and technical personnel from 24 countries around the world are working on technology research and development in the areas of intelligent technology, new energy technology, and product experience design. Among them, nearly 6,000 research and development personnel are senior experts, ranking in the forefront of China’s automobile industry. As of May 31st, the Changan Global Research and Development Center has more than 1,100 core technologies and has applied for 14,746 patents.

In an interview, Zhu Huarong said that the Changan Global R&D Center was actually built not long ago, but now it is not enough.

This is a fortunate “trouble,” but also the foundation and mission of Changan’s continuous upward momentum.

Next, Potential Energy Upward and Kinetic Energy Forward

Under vigorous market growth, the capital market has also affirmed Changan’s achievements. According to Dongwu Securities, Changan’s third entrepreneurship has launched a new growth cycle, and its core competitiveness is mainly reflected in “comprehensive technology layout + strong product competition + continuous innovation in marketing” and other aspects.

Everything in the past is just a prelude. After the cumulative sales broke through one million from January to May, Changan needs to consider how to add new momentum to its upward trend.

With the integration of the automobile industry and the Internet, big technology, big data, and cloud computing are assigning new content and value to the automobile. Changan is also accelerating talent structure adjustment, forming a talent team of 3,000 people for software and intelligence and having an engineering and technical team of over 12,000 people from 27 countries around the world.Joining hands with more players is also the choice of Changan Automobile. Changan hopes to cooperate with Huawei and CATL to jointly create an international first-class intelligent electric networked vehicle platform-CHN. Based on the two architectures of Ark and CHN, Changan will also develop a brand new EPA0, EPA1, and EPA2 platform for new energy vehicles of different sizes.

These plans are being implemented one by one. At the recently ended Chongqing auto show, Changan Automobile officially released its Blue Whale iDD hybrid power system technology, mainly aimed at improving fuel economy, reducing the cost of vehicle use, and solving mileage anxiety for consumers, while also implementing the concept of low-carbon travel.

All these actions indicate that Changan Automobile intends to make more contributions to the fields of intelligence, new energy, and autonomous driving with Chinese wisdom and solutions. “For example, in-depth research on forward-looking common technologies. Chinese auto brands should have this kind of attitude and confidence,” said Wang Jun, President of Changan Automobile Co., Ltd.

A good chess player strategizes, and a good planner reaches far. Changan Automobile is constantly accumulating energy on the road to progress. With the steady landing of products and technologies, Changan’s performance in the second half of the year is still full of imagination.

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.