Introduction: In the era of Lin Jieshi, Geely Geometry seems to have chosen to fully embrace the C-end market, which is also his expertise coming from the traditional oil vehicle market. In the long run, there is no problem with this direction for Geely Geometry, but currently it is a more difficult road. Hopefully, Lin Jie can hold on until that day.
A few years ago, Chinese domestic brands launched new energy vehicle sub-brands in response to the impact of new forces. However, now the differentiation is becoming greater.
On June 23, AION S Plus was officially launched. At this point, GAC Aion, once criticized as a taxi brand, launched another attack on the 2C market after AION Y. Considering the popularity of AION Y, GAC Aion has full confidence in AION S Plus.
Once it seizes the 2C market, it means that GAC Aion will completely transform into an outstanding new energy vehicle brand in terms of sales scale and quality, and its journey towards becoming a high-quality brand will be more solid.
Compared with GAC Aion’s progress, Geely Geometry, which started at the same time with the same mission, is still struggling in the trough.
On April 16, EDrive reported on the news that Liu Zhifeng, the second general manager of Geely Geometry, was dismissed. As two general managers were dismissed in succession, Geely has lost confidence in introducing external talent to manage Geely Geometry, and transferred management to Lin Jie, who grew up in Geely.
On April 19, the mid-term facelift model of Geely A’s first car, Geely A Pro, was launched. This was the first battle that Lin Jie led for Geely Geometry. From the data of insured vehicles, there was growth, but it still looked very bad compared with competitors.
The insured vehicle data shows that in April of this year, Geely A sold 140 units, and in May it rose to 244 units, achieving a slight increase, but the base number is still very low. In comparison, Aion S sold as many as 6764 units in May.
Looking at the brand level, Geely Geometry sold a total of 1072 units in April and 1321 units in May, both of which showed slight growth but still insufficient overall. The second half of the year has begun. Will Lin Jie produce a better answer? It is difficult to say, and it is no longer important, because in Geely’s new energy vehicle layout, Geely Geometry is no longer important. Jikr is the focus. According to Lin Jie, in the future, Geely Geometry may be incorporated into Jikr.
A is no match for S.
In April 2019, the Geely Geometry brand conference was held in Singapore. An Conghui, the president of Geely, said that the reason why the conference was held abroad was because Geely has positioned Geely Geometry as a global high-end new energy vehicle brand from the beginning.The slogan of Geometry A at that time also indicates this point. Due to their confidence in the product, Geometry A was even declared as “the best pure electric vehicle in the eastern hemisphere” which touched the restrictions of advertising law.
However, facts have repeatedly proven that the louder the slogan, the more painful the backlash.
Official data shows that since its launch in April 2019, Geometry A’s sales volume was 12,000 units in 2019. Even by April this year, the cumulative sales volume of Geometry A did not exceed 20,000 units, which basically declared it a failure.
In fact, the reason why Geometry A was labeled as a failure is due to both its low sales volume and poor quality.
On July 2, 2020, a promotion event for Geely Geometry A taxi industry took place at the West Lake Villa under the theme “Hangzhou’s own taxi”. This is a reflection of Geometry A’s inability to sell and the forced entry into the taxi market.
Although Geometry A sold slightly more than 10,000 units, most of them went to the taxi market, which was also owned by Geely’s subsidiary Cao Cao car. In other words, Geometry A’s so-called sales volume was mostly domestic sales, which needs further discount.
From making global declarations to internal competition with Cao Cao taxis, Geometry A’s life resembles a tragicomedy.
Like Geometry A, GAC Aion S also faced a similar situation in the taxi market. However, due to its large sales volume, the overall sales performance in the 2C market is still impressive.
According to electric power calculation, the 2C proportion of Aion S is about 20-30%. Considering the current monthly sales of about 6,000 units, the demand for the C-end market is still 1-2 thousand units, which is quite impressive.
Moreover, looking at the launch of AION S Plus, GAC Aion S is indeed striving for excellence, although the C-end market is difficult to conquer, they have taken a decisive step to launch a new series of vehicles.
As industry observers, we are pleased to see such active measures taken by GAC Aion. As for Geometry, we hope that they can make more effective changes.
Compared with the old version, the new version of Geometry A Pro has improved the endurance and the guidance price has been reduced, which significantly enhances its product competitiveness. In addition, the marketing strategy focuses on real endurance, which makes it easier for consumers to have a good impression of the brand.
After making some adjustments, Geometry has walked on the right path, only time will tell whether they will be given the opportunity to succeed.
Zheng Zhuang and Liu Zhifeng’s resignation was inevitable.
Looking back on the development of the Geometry brand, apart from the high-profile launch in Singapore, there was no further momentum. Although there were some fluctuations, they quickly died down, just like a downward parabolic curve.
In order to develop the Geometry electric car brand, Geely spent a lot of money to poach Zheng Zhuang from BYD, but he was abruptly dismissed after only one year. The successor is another person who is not from the Geely system, Liu Zhifeng.Compared to Zheng Zhuang, Liu Zhifeng has a better reputation in the industry and is also effective in geometry surgery. Looking back on Liu Zhifeng’s performance, Lin Jie said he made significant progress in promoting geometry to key customers. However, Liu Zhifeng couldn’t avoid becoming the next Zheng Zhuang, and he left after less than a year.
Two general managers were removed in just one year, which is another pain point for the Geometry brand. The internal struggle reflected by this makes the future of Geometry seem bleak.
As for why two consecutive general managers left, the industry is not clear and not many people have delved into it. However, with the arrival of Geometry’s third leader, Lin Jie, the answer seems to be emerging.
Lin Jie disclosed that Geometry has reflected on the past two years of development and has taken action for the future, one of which is to break down departmental barriers, center on users, and build a flat management structure.
Centering on users is now a light phrase commonly used in the industry because everyone is doing it. In fact, two years ago when Geometry was launched, An Conghui also had a similar declaration, but Lin Jie still repeats it now with a few more earnestness.
This also reflects that, before Lin Jie took the lead in Geometry, the company did not center on users during the time of Zheng Zhuang and Liu Zhifeng, although there may be varying degrees. As for why An Conghui’s idea was not fully implemented, it may be the departmental barriers mentioned by Lin Jie.
Therefore, the truth is roughly this: outsiders Zheng Zhuang and Liu Zhifeng were unable to fully coordinate between departments, and internal and external promotion was slow, so choosing to leave was inevitable.
From this logical perspective, Geometry led by Lin Jie seems to have some potential because he knows where Geometry’s ills lie. Therefore, the core action after he took the lead was to break down departmental barriers.
Internal harmony is a prerequisite for external harmony. Geometry’s tragedy seems to be inevitable because of its lack of internal unity. So, where did Geely go wrong in this step?
Perhaps it was not firm enough.
Compared with Guangqi Aion, which was launched at the same time, the answer is not difficult to find. First of all, in terms of naming, although they are both new brands, Aion has always put Guangqi in the front, while Geometry is just Geometry.
On the occasion of Geometry’s second anniversary, a reader of a certain electric car app asked the heartless question, “Who is Geometry?”
In addition, although Guangqi Aion has Guangqi in its name, it is actually a company with an independent legal entity (Feng Xingya). But Geometry is not. It is just a new energy brand under Geely, not an independently operated subsidiary.
There are also obvious differences in the way the two brands operate in the new energy market. The former is more resolute, while the latter, due to frequent changes in leadership, shows a lack of strategic consistency.
The main models of the two brands are both aimed at the low-end but mainstream market segment of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, but Guangqi Aion can cover both the BC ends, while Geometry focused on the B end during the time of Zheng Zhuang and then changed to focus on the C end during Liu Zhifeng’s time.It is well known that the mid-end market, which is currently at a historical low, requires a balance between B2B and B2C. Simply leaning too far to either end is not ideal. Being too B2B would result in lack of face-value, thus harming the brandimage. On the other hand, being too B2C would result in lack of support, which could question the survival of the brand.
Therefore, from the results perspective, Guangqi is undoubtedly better at promoting the new energy vehicles than Geometry. Nowadays, Guangqi Aion is on the rise while Geometry is declining. The latter should reflect on the past, on why such a good branding was turned out like this.
Lin Jie’s Geometry seems to have chosen to completely embrace the C-end market. As he is from the oil car market, this is also an area in which he excels. In the long run, this is not a problem for Geometry. However, at present, it is a more difficult path to take, and we hope Lin Jie can survive until that day.
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.