Author: Cao Anxun.

In today's weather is good. Today's weather is good.

Recently, Guangdong Hongyuan's star player Zhou Qi's statement that he did not receive the sponsored Haobo prize car, has implicated Guangzhou Automobile Group's high-end new energy brand Haobo in a storm.

On June 23, Haobo responded that after the playoffs, the two sides kept in close communication and negotiated the time for reward delivery activities.

Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aion and Haobo's brand manager, also stated that the achievements of the Hongyuan basketball team in the 2023-2024 season have exceeded expectations. As a sponsor, Haobo thanks the team and players for their efforts and welcomes them to attend the vehicle delivery event.

Haobo's fate with Guangdong Hongyuan can be traced back to October 2023.

At that time, GAC Aion and Guangdong Hongyuan reached a strategic cooperation, and Haobo became the official sponsor of Guangdong Hongyuan for the 2023-2024 season, promising to reward outstanding players with Haobo autos.

Later, Guangdong Hongyuan's performance in CBA regular season, playoffs and other competitions has played a certain role in improving the visibility of the Haobo brand.

The cooperation with Guangdong Hongyuan is one of Haobo's countermeasures against the increasingly fierce competition in the high-end new energy track. According to data from DCD, in May, Haobo's monthly sales volume was 1443 autos.

Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, said that GAC Group's experience in car manufacturing and supply chain layout is helpful for Haobo's medium- and long-term development. Compared with new forces, Haobo's resources are better and experience is more abundant. However, Haobo started relatively late, and the market competition is more intense.

In order to increase sales as soon as possible, Haobo has taken action in various aspects such as product, channels, and going global since this year.

On the one hand, Haobo focuses on automatic driving. In June, Haobo GT global model became one of the first batch of models to obtain L3 autonomous driving admission pilot notice in the world. Industry insiders believe that this marks Haobo's entry into the L3 autonomous driving era.

On the other hand, according to Gu Huinan's recent introduction, Haobo is promoting the third marketing service reform and plans to build more than 100 brand flagship stores within the year, achieving full coverage of core landmarks and CBD business districts in first- and second-tier cities nationwide.

In addition, Haobo is also accelerating its pace of going global. At the end of July, Haobo SSR will be listed and delivered in Thailand. From August to December, Haobo HT will be gradually launched in Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and other places.

Gu Huinan said that after operating the Haobo brand for a period of time, the path to high-end of Haobo is clearer and it is laying out comprehensively through six core dimensions of "research and development innovation, intelligent manufacturing, industry chain integration, organizational culture construction, marketing services, international strategy," aiming to become a Chinese high-end brand recognized by the world.

As the pioneer of GAC Aion's high-end transformation, if Haobo can stand firm in the 200,000-300,000 yuan market, it can also make significant contributions to GAC Aion's sales.

In May, GAC Aion sold 40,073 autos, an increase of 42.5% month-on-month and a year-on-year decrease of 11%. From January to May, GAC Aion's sales performance was 142,339 units. GAC Aion needs to break through the encirclement in the increasingly white-hot market competition.

This is a battle in which you either advance or retreat. Gu Huinan has set a goal of "striving for 700,000 units" in annual sales. That is, aiming to increase sales by 60% compared with 2023. The twin-brand strategy of GAC Aion is pivotal to success.

Whether to reshape the glory of 2023 and regain the crown of new energy sales champion depends on the next few months.

Yin Tongyue, the chairman of Chery, believes that in the future, perhaps only five new energy vehicle companies will survive. Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei, also said that "the main players in China's auto industry in the future will not exceed five."

In the competition among major new energy vehicle companies, the ultimate showdown of new energy autos will also gradually reach its climax.