Coquettish Rebirth

In Jia Hongjian's hands, there is a copy of GM's financial report for the first quarter of 2008, which contains sales data of sub-brands such as Saab.According to the data, Saab's cars reached the highest sales in history in 2006 with the help of GM's system-annual sales of 13!Such a number is quite a lot!We must know that thanks to the financial crisis caused by the subprime mortgage crisis in 2010, the scale of China's auto market officially surpassed that of the United States and became the largest single auto market in the world.For example, in 2012, the annual sales volume of passenger cars in China was only 1550 million.What is a passenger car?Passenger cars include ordinary cars, SUVs, commercial vans (MPVs), and minibuses such as Wuling Hongguang, also known as vans.Adding these types together, China, the world's largest auto market, sold 1550 million vehicles a year, and Saab sold 13 vehicles a year, which is definitely a very good result.

If you want to compare the sales of a certain model in the Chinese market, it is Ford's Focus.In 2012, Focus sedans sold 12 units in the Chinese market, and Focus hatchbacks sold 13 units!So if you think about it, you will know that this Saab really entered the ranks of life winners in 06. It is definitely a best-selling car type-you must know that although this Saab entered the Chinese market through GM, it is actually because of Due to publicity and other reasons, brand recognition and sales in China are very poor!And Saab also has high-end SUVs like the Saab 9-3, which are priced at 40 to 50 yuan. Under such circumstances, their global sales can reach a maximum of 13 vehicles, which is really good!

To be honest, the Saab brand still has potential - Saab was merged by Scania and Swedish Aircraft Co., Ltd. The original aircraft company's Swedish abbreviation was SAAB, and it was later used as the company's car logo.So in fact, the earliest Saab company made cars and fighter jets at the same time!Like the JAS-39 Griffin fighter used by the Swedish Air Force, it is actually produced by Saab Aircraft Company!The full name of SAAB is the name of the Swedish aircraft company.It also shows what this company did in the first place—it has always been a plane maker!For example, during World War II, the Swedish fighter jets were made by Saab.Later, after World War II, the demand for military aircraft was greatly reduced, and it was impossible for Saab to survive on such a small order.And seriously.Although Sweden was standing in the same trench as the United States at the time, they had no way to sell their planes to their European allies-the Americans still count on selling planes to make money, can it be the Swedes' turn to make money?

In desperation, the Swedish aircraft company merged with Scanvia, a domestic manufacturer of trucks, and began to enter the automotive field.And the experience in design and manufacture in the aircraft field began to be applied to automobile manufacturing.Even Saab's first civilian car launched after World War II was designed by a group of aircraft designers in their company, and the design style and ideas were full of aircraft design ideas-the overall emphasis on lightweight, and then to The structure is stable and safe, and at the same time, it must meet aerodynamics and have a streamlined body!Even such a technology that is flooding in later generations like turbocharging technology was first pioneered by Saab!They were the first to transplant the turbocharging device on the propeller engine of the fighter jet to the car engine for the first time!

Then in the 70s, when the global oil crisis led to a sharp decline in car sales, the Swedish Saab car shined in Europe and became a rising star-reliable performance.The structure is safe, economical and fuel-efficient. This is the same reason why Japanese cars such as Toyota and Honda were able to rise in the past. When the sales of other companies dropped sharply, their sales increased instead.But after all, Saab did not become a large automobile group like Toyota and Honda. They encountered a business crisis in the 80s and began to seek capital injection. In the 90s, GM came to inject capital and bought part of their shares.Later, in 2000, he simply married into GM and began to use GM's global sales system to develop a brand like Saab.

It can be said that without the subprime mortgage crisis that started in the United States in 07, Saab might not be able to do so after years of cultivation and assistance from GM.Then it can really become a brand similar to Volkswagen's Audi!You must know that the Audi brand is actually bought by the public!Audi was originally the Audi car company. Later, in the 20s, it merged with three other car companies, and the company name was changed to "Auto Union" or "auto-union", which produced Audi cars. This is why it is now Audi's ad is also "DAS-AUTO" for a reason.Although the German meaning of this sentence is "this is the car".Later, in 66, Volkswagen fully purchased the shares of the "Auto Union" marked by the four rings, and then turned the four rings and Audi into a sub-brand. After that, the name "Auto Union" ceased to exist. .

Volkswagen can make Audi a mid-to-high-end car brand, so why can't GM make Saab like this?In fact, the future is quite good, but it is a pity that the subprime mortgage crisis caused by the American financiers!The loan crisis allowed Saab to reach the peak of sales in 06, but it began to decline in 07.According to the data in the financial report, Saab sold 06 cars in 13, but only sold 07 cars in 9!But in the first quarter of 08, it seems that the estimated sales data for the whole year is even worse than that of 07, and it may only be maintained at a scale of 6 to 7 vehicles!Sales cut in half in two years!It can be said that Saab immediately felt the pain of those competitors in the 70s... No!The current Sabona is no longer owned by the Swedish Aircraft Company, it is owned by GM, so GM has experienced another big sales decline similar to the oil crisis in the 70s!

For GM, a sub-brand with an annual sales volume of 13 vehicles worldwide is really a small brand.Take Ford's Focus as an example, the hatchback in one model of the Focus can sell 13 vehicles a year in a single market in China!If you count the sedan, then the Fox model has sold 25 units in China!This is a car model, not a sub-brand!If you really count the annual sales of the entire Ford brand in China, it is estimated to be close to one million!If it is placed globally, let alone the sales volume of tens of millions, the sales volume of 300 million vehicles is the same as that of the game, right?This is the strength of the big brands that other auto giants value!Therefore, when GM encounters a crisis like Saab, it must be sold for money!

At the same time, on the other hand, in this crisis, Saab has indeed played the main role of losing money-this is fun to say. During the last oil crisis, Saab was not affected at all, but became a As a rising star, Sabo has become the culprit in this crisis!Why did Saab become the culprit?First of all, after GM took control of Saab, because it followed the trend, it adopted platform-based development and modular development.Although this platform-based modularization sounds like the right path, after all, many models can be produced just by skinning, but the problem lies in how to implement platformization and modularization, which is to cross the river by feeling the stones!

At the beginning of the 21st century, the large American automobile groups were pushing platform and modular development. After all, the Ford Motor Company in the United States was the first to build an automobile assembly line, making the United States the country with the largest automobile production in the world. of!Americans are quite persistent and adventurous about the improvement of production methods.But the problem is that it's good to be adventurous, but adventure doesn't necessarily lead to treasure every time!For example, at the beginning of platformization and modularization, GM and Ford went the wrong way-they chose a strategy that allows each sub-brand to have several platforms!For example, Saab selected two platforms, 9-3 and 9-5, for development.But the problem is, in fact, the development of each platform costs a lot of money!Because each platform must consider the adaptability, and consider that this platform will produce many kinds of cars in the future, so it will inevitably take more energy and money than the development of a single model!

A lot of money has been invested in the development of the platform first. It will take two years to know how the sales will be!This stuff is risky!If you really want to be thick-skinned just to make money, you should minimize the number of platforms. Several sub-brands share one platform, just like what GM did in later generations. What Chevrolet cars are actually the platforms of other sub-brand cars, change Put it on the face, pull the skin, put it in South Korea for production, put the Chevrolet brand on it and sell it for money, so as to reduce risks and lower costs to make money!Sometimes it's not a good thing to do business too honestly!A lot of money has been spent on two platforms for Saab and two or three platforms for Chevrolet. When the economic crisis hits, the sales of sub-brands plummet.I can't earn it back!Is this not due to grandma's house?

This is a bit like a Hollywood film company investing 21 to 1 million U.S. dollars to make a blockbuster movie. What kind of crisis has caused the film market to shrink greatly, and the box office of the ten films produced is extremely unsatisfactory after the release, so the film company is going to lose money and have to be pawned?

And having said that, from Jia Hongjian's point of view, if ordinary people really bought the Saab brand, they might not be able to make money for him!It may not be possible to turn a loss into a profit! (~^~)