Lantu gives Dongfeng a bright future.

Published: Jul 30, 2020 11:14

SMM News: Dongfeng company's high-end electric brand has finally revealed its true face. On July 29th, Dongfeng Company held a grand press conference on Lantu brand strategy in Wuhan, and its first concept car, VOYAH i-Land, was also publicly unveiled at this conference.

From a letter from Zhu Yanfeng, chairman and secretary of the party committee of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., to the small partner of the h business department in early May, to the official appearance of the Chinese name of the high-end new energy brand and its LOGO, and to the grand release of the brand strategy yesterday, every step taken by Lantu Automobile has attracted the attention of the industry and aroused people's curiosity and expectation.

At this brand strategy conference, Lantu Automobile CE0 and CT0 Lu Fang defined Lantu brand as China's "new car-building strength", that is, to explore a development model of the integration of "mature car enterprises and new car-building forces", "committed to providing zero-anxiety products and services for the new backbone of China."

Past experience and technical empowerment

Lantu, homophonic "blueprint", implies bright planning and prospects. Obviously, with Lantu as the fulcrum, Dongfeng Company intends to launch an impact again in the high-end direction of the brand. This time the brand is "going high", and Dongfeng Company has chosen to cut into the field of new energy. We might as well take a look at what achievements Dongfeng Company has made in the field of new energy in recent years.

As early as 2001, Dongfeng established an electric vehicle company, which is mainly engaged in the research and development of electric vehicles. In 2008, Dongfeng has made some achievements in the special platform and vehicle control of new energy vehicles. After 2016, it began to promote the industrialization of Sandian on a large scale.

As the core of Dongfeng's independent business, Dongfeng Fengshen bears the brand support of Dongfeng's march into the electrification field. Before 2018, Dongfeng Fengshen launched the electric car Fengshen E30, A60EV, E70 and so on, but these models are basically developed from the traditional fuel vehicle platform, that is, the so-called "oil to electricity". After 2018, in order to release the performance of electric vehicles and enhance the user experience, Dongfeng began to build a pure electric exclusive platform, the project code is S.

According to Dongfeng Automobile insiders, Dongfeng S platform is led by Dongfeng Group Technology Center, and various business plates in the group are jointly developed and built. The platform takes Sandian technology as the core, integrates Windlink 4.0,L3 and higher intelligent driving technology, and is the only exclusive pure electric platform under Dongfeng Group at this stage. The first model under this platform will be locked in the Lantu brand.

At yesterday's press conference, the most eye-catching was the VOYAH i-Land concept car in the middle of the stage. According to people familiar with the matter, this car should be the first model under the Dongfeng S platform. Lantu brand summarizes its overall styling design concept as "light, quiet and elegant". The vehicle electric architecture, based on the "five senses" goal, is the ESSA original smart electric architecture, which is also the first concept car under this framework.

In addition, according to Dongfeng Company, Dongfeng Company has established a 133-mu Dongfeng New Energy vehicle Industry Park in Wuhan. The three core components of new energy vehicles can be intensively produced here. At present, Park 2 is also under construction, and together with Park 1, it will form an annual production capacity of 800000 sets of electric controls, 230000 sets of electric drives, 200000 sets of battery systems and 150000 sets of flat wire motors.

Dongfeng Company's accumulation in the software and hardware of new energy vehicles provides a rich foundation for the birth of Lantu. Next, Lantu's mission is to lead the development trend of the new energy 3.0 era with a new organizational mechanism, a new business model and a new team on the basis of the accumulation of original experience and technology.

Dongfeng Company's Brand upward attempt again

After having the software and hardware foundation to enter the new energy market on a large scale, Dongfeng Company must also hold high the banner of brand upward. From the positioning of Lantu's "high-end new energy vehicle brand", it is undoubtedly another breakthrough for Dongfeng Company's brand.

In fact, looking at the current passenger car market, there are not a small number of independent car companies focusing on upward brands, from Chery, Great Wall, Geely to Changan, BAIC, SAIC, and a large number of new power brands aiming at the new energy market. It can be said that brand upward has become the collective "consciousness" of Chinese auto companies at the present stage.

The industry summarizes the process of independent brand impact on high-end into two trends. The representative car companies of the first wave were Chery, Changan and so on, but they failed because of the lack of product competitiveness. The second representative enterprises are Great Wall, Geely and so on. At present, Geely's Lecker market performs better. "this round of high-end transformation of independent brands appears to be more successful than last time, which also shows that Chinese consumers have reached the stage of accepting and recognizing their own high-end products." A senior person in the industry believes that.

In fact, Dongfeng Company has also tried its products in the process of high-end brand, and the most representative one is Dongfeng A9. In 2016, Dongfeng launched Dongfeng A9, an independent high-end car project developed by Dongfeng in 2012 with the help of PSA technology, aimed at standard Passat, Red Flag H7 and so on. However, due to the large interval between the product development time and the actual launch time, the technology and product power of Dongfeng A9 were relatively old after its launch, which deviated from the car preferences of consumers at that time, which forced the car to stop production after only two years of sale.

The pit that Dongfeng stepped on on the A9 may provide valuable experience for the launch of Lantu. Zhu Yanfeng, chairman and party secretary of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., said frankly at the Lantu brand conference: "We should provide users with a real product, which is the same as the four wheels of the car." it is the right thing to do to be responsible to the user. "

Lantu aims at the target users as the new backbone of China. The aim is to improve brand reputation, product charm index and user satisfaction, to achieve leadership in the brand, market and management, and finally become the leader of high-end new energy passenger cars.

Zhu Yanfeng revealed Lantu's development plans for the next three to five years at the press conference, saying that starting from 2021, Lantu will put no less than one new model on the market every year, and the future product layout will cover sedan, SUV, MPV, crossover cars, high-performance vehicles and other market segments.

Some analysts believe that in the process of Dongfeng holding up the "Lantu" to impact the high-end new energy vehicle market, the best reference is FAW Red Flag. In the past two years, FAW Group has concentrated all its superior resources to revive the Red Flag. At this stage, the market position of Red Flag has indeed improved a lot. If Dongfeng gathers the best resources to Lantu, I believe Lantu can also return to Dongfeng a brighter future.

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