I believe many of you would have a lot of questions after the Geely Galaxy launch event. The co-founder of the Garage immediately had an interview with Geely’s top-level management after the event and discussed many interesting topics. Let’s take a look.
Q: Why did Geely name their first Galaxy car L7?
Lin Jie: We believe new energy products should be simpler, pure electric just needs to be represented as E, even numbers represent sedans and odd numbers represent SUVs, so users don’t need to remember too much. This time we launched it under the Galaxy series name, which can create a sense of overall momentum and consistency in our brand image.
Q: Geely Galaxy is Geely’s new series, but a brand new logo was also launched, how should this be viewed in the overall strategic layout?
Lin Jie: Geely has been preparing for a comprehensive transformation to new energy for a long time, but we have not been as effective as fuel cars in the field of new energy. We want to make Geely’s new energy products more recognizable, and Geely Galaxy represents new energy, not traditional fuel cars. We made slight changes to the logo, expanding it into a shield.
Q: How is Geely Galaxy positioned?
Lin Jie: Galaxy is not an independent brand, it is Geely’s new energy product series. Our respective brands have clear positioning and division of labor in their own segmented markets. Zeekr mainly targets the market for over RMB 300,000, Galaxy targets the market for RMB 150,000 to 300,000, and Geometry focuses on the new energy market under RMB 150,000.
Q: How is the distribution channel of Geely Galaxy planned?
From the perspective of user needs, customers require a pleasant buying experience and more efficient buying environment. Therefore, the most important point of channel innovation is that we need to make our advantages play out and satisfy the changes and demands of some users in the distribution end.
First, we will establish brand centers in several active first- and second-tier cities, build offline communication channels between brands and users, and be responsible for regional user activities.
Second, we will move the sales model online. In the future, all Galaxy products will be ordered through the app, and we will combine sales and agents. In cities with high sales volumes, we will use the dealership system. There will be some dealers in fourth- and fifth-tier cities, but the overall user experience standards will be fully unified and promote the channels of the entire Geely system.
Third, we will decouple the 4S stores and establish user experience centers at convenient store locations, and then activate all of our distribution channels’ after-sales service resources. The cost of 4S store operations is currently quite high, so we can integrate the after-sales service function with all the existing Geely distribution channels and upgrade them comprehensively.## New energy stores can’t sell gasoline cars. Gasoline car stores have new energy cars as an accessory. So we still need to focus on specialization and division of channels.
Meanwhile, the organization within Geely has also been restructured. We have established the Ji Xing gasoline business unit, which is responsible for the sales of all Geely brand gasoline cars. At the same time, we have established the Galaxy new energy business unit and retained the team of Geometry pure electric brand.
Q: How do you explain that the first new product released today isn’t as impressive?
Lin Jie: Galaxy is built based on the e-CMA architecture, and its safety genes are inherited from both gasoline and new energy vehicles. Galaxy NOS is a brand-new generation of car machine system, with “N” representing new generation. We have recently conducted internal testing for the car machine system, aiming to turn the shortcomings into highlights. We hope that after the media experience, they can evaluate us. Currently, nearly 300 users have participated in the internal testing of our operating system.
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.