First Disclosure of Jeep Channel Planning

On May 6th, Eastern Time, the first five-year plan and target release after the establishment of the FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) Group was undoubtedly the most prominent concern. The Jeep brand was tied with the Fiat brand and became the main force of the FCA. Source of sales.

The rapid growth plan in the Asia-Pacific region has become the main market that supports this goal. For the Chinese market, people are more concerned about the ambitions of Malchone. How will the Jeep and Fiat brands in the new plan go in the Chinese market? In particular, how will the “Jeep localization” problem that has recently become hot, landed in this plan?

In fact, according to this detailed plan, especially the decomposition of the Jeep brand's target tasks in the Chinese market, the answers to these questions have become obvious.

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On May 7, local time, the FCA also announced the APCA (Asia-Pacific) plan at the group level, the first of which was China. Especially the channel construction of a brand in the Chinese market, the FCA also put forward detailed figures.

According to official sources, FCA has established 13 subareas in 6 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The major markets are China and India. It is worth noting that Chrysler and Jeep and Dodge did not enter the Indian market.

The node of FCA's five-year plan is 2018. Malchone put forward a detailed target decomposition of Chinese business to 2018, including the products, production capacity, sales volume and number of employees of each joint venture company, especially the joint venture of GAC Fiat. Undoubtedly, it will undertake the core production and sales tasks in the future.

From these specific figures, it can be seen that whether the entire Asia-Pacific region or China, the core of FCA's "big show" is still the same as the global market, focusing on two brands: Jeep and Fiat.

Jeep domestic channel model debate

Whether it is in Guangzhou or Changsha, Jeep domestically has been nailed. But the core question that ensues is that after Jeep's localization, who will lead the sales, what will be the arrangements for the channels?

There is no doubt that both FCA and GAC hope to maximize their profits. How to balance the demands of both parties to achieve a win-win result depends on further consultations between the two sides.

At present, it can be confirmed that the Jeep models that produce the CUSW platform in Changsha will produce two other products in Guangzhou using GAC Passenger Vehicle's “sites”. This will not only effectively use GAC Fiat's factories and production resources, but also further integrate Guangzhou Automobile's transmission.祺 Supply chain and optimize resource use. This approach can also balance the development demands of local governments to a certain extent.

Judging from the GAC Group's previous joint venture experience, it will not easily give up Jeep's localization of good opportunities, but only satisfied with becoming a Jeep brand foundry. For GAC Group, there is also a background that cannot be ignored. It has always hoped to get rid of the “severe” layout of relying on Japanese joint ventures to obtain profits. It is only by the current conditions of GAC Fiat and GAC Chuanqi that it is obviously far from this goal. animal.

FCA's attempt to expand in the Asia Pacific region will inevitably require the integration of front-end and back-end resources. In addition to integrating supply chain and production resources to reduce costs, channel resources are also the key to expanding sales.

According to Jeep's special channel expansion plan, the number of dealers worldwide will increase from 4,706 to 6,023 in five years. The increase will come mainly from Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. The number of dealers in the Asia Pacific region is expected to reach 1,270 by 2018, an increase of 221%. At present, FCA has 396 dealers in the Asia Pacific region, which means that it needs to add 874 dealers in the next five years.

At present, Chrysler has 188 distributors in China (displayed by FCA data), accounting for about 47% of dealers in the Asia-Pacific region, while the Jeep brand put forward a growth rate of 221% for dealers in the Asia Pacific region by 2018. If the growth rate of Chinese outlets reaches this average, the number of Jeep brands from Chinese distributors in 2018 should reach 415. According to Jeep's realization of domestic production in 2015, it means that the Jeep brand will need to increase about 76 dealers each year in China. This increase will make it easier to integrate the channels of GAC Fiat.

Considering that the Fiat brand is currently domestically established and has established a sales network in China, the possible combinations and patterns of sales-led and channel-integrated analysis are as follows:

In fact, the integration of imported and domestic "two nets" has already reached a relatively universal consensus in the industry. Take the Mercedes-Benz brand as an example, two networks, import and domestic, will form some degree of internal friction in the channel. Therefore, regardless of who will lead the sales in the future, the integration of Jeep and GAC Fiat will become inevitable. At least, dealer resources will be shared to some extent.

It can be foreseen that with the Jeep brand made in China, the result of its channel integration must be a balanced one. If Jeep's domestic production is led by the Chrysler China team, FCA may “compensate” GAC in other ways, such as strengthening technical support for Guangzhou Automobile, Chrysler. The brand was handed over to GAC Fiat for production and operation, the introduction of Lancia brand to Fiat Channel, and the independent Alpha Romeo brand for the introduction of the Steam Fiat.

Fiat Global "sole" B-Class

The Fiat brand's planning for the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) uses the Chinese language as "it is difficult to make predictions, especially regarding the future" in the official data. Although entering the largest A-Class market segment, compared with Guangzhou Automobile Honda, which released four domestically produced new models a year, the new-generation GAC Fiat-made domestic products are still insufficient, so it is still difficult to rapidly increase sales growth.

According to the plan, although the Fiat brand will definitely be based on small cars, considering the special nature of the Asia-Pacific market, it will release a B-class car in 2016 (see here for details). The Fiat brand does not actually have related Class B products. In the markets outside the Asia-Pacific region, there is not even a B-Class launch plan.

According to the Chrysler product launch plan, it will launch the new Class B Chrysler 200 in 2014. It is reported that the model is also based on the CUSW platform, competing for Mondeo, Mai Rui Bao, Camry, Mai Rui Bao and other models. Taking into account the new plan, GAC Fiat still has only one vehicle platform in 2018, so it is certain that the Fiat-branded B-Class car in China in 2016 will be based on the same CUSW platform as the Chrysler 200.

Similar to the previously launched A-class vehicle, Feixiang, its B-Class segment has entered the Chinese market in full. Therefore, how to speed up product launch and make the product comply with the requirements of the Chinese market, and provide more rapid and accurate technical support for GAC Fiat, will become the key to the growth of sales of GAC Fiat.

In addition, two of Fiat's products, Pou Yue and Feiyue, will cease to operate in 2014 and 2016, respectively, and domestic Fiat 500x models (500x will also be based on the CUSW platform) will not be available until 2018. The two factories of GAC Fiat will then be There are 4 models of 8 products that produce 2 platforms, which are GAC Fiat brands. This is probably not good news for GAC Fiat, which is not rich in products.

In the end, the FCA announced its branding plans with an amazing level of detail, and it can be said that it has completed the repositioning and grooming of its brands. This series of actions is very reminiscent of GM's various brands. Echelon positioning, so it may wish to do a simple "opposition seats", perhaps more helpful to understand the thinking of this new plan of Malchow.