In January-November 2016, China’s domestic car market only saw a slight growth in sales. The 200-billion-yuan ($28.74 billion) market’s expansion slowed down, while players sought to make breakthroughs as well as changes. New technologies and ideas in the internet big data information age were injected into the car market, which quietly changed traditional business models and led the industry’s transformation toward a big-data-driven “intelligent car industry”. Under such trends, the user-centered customer-to-business (C2B) practice of intelligent mass customization using big data became one of the directions for intelligent car manufacturing.

In December, SAIC Maxus held its annual marketing conference in Hainan province. At the meeting, Maxus made a presentation of its achievements in the one-year implementation of the C2B strategy, and announced pricing details of its first C2B recreational vehicle RV80 and T60 line-up, the “epoch-making” pickup truck built based on the C2B customization concept.

Price list for RV80

 

Price list for T60 diesel 4WD with high ground clearance

Note: The following prices are for China-V models, and those for China-IV models are 8,000 yuan lower each.

 

Price list for T60 diesel 2WD with high ground clearance

Note: The following prices are for China-V models, and those for China-IV models are 8,000 yuan lower each.

 

Price list for T60 diesel 2WD with low ground clearance

Note: The following prices are for China-V models, and those for China-IV models are 8,000 yuan lower each.

 

So far, Maxus has formed a C2B product matrix comprising SUV D90, pickup T60 and RV80y, providing users with customized and diversified products that bring more joy and value. It is a step forward for Maxus from the B2C model and will also lead to changes in the car industry. 

C2B strategy

Under the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), SAIC stresses innovation-driven transformation and upgrading while implementing the strategy of “new energy + Internet + X”. Maxus has echoed SAIC’s strategy and transformed from a commercial vehicle company in the traditional sense to a digital C2B crossover carmaker working toward C2B intelligent mass customization. Maxus began to implement the C2B strategy in 2016, which led to all new developments. At the Beijing motor show in April 2016, Maxus debuted its first C2B customized SUV D90. One year before this full-size SUV with seven to nine seats hit showrooms, users were allowed to participate in six phases of its development – definition, development, verification, pricing, configuration and improvement. At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2016, Maxus presented T60, which boasts advantages including global leading technology, A-NCAP five-star crash safety ratings, excellent driving and ride experience and Internet-based intelligent experiences. Moreover, users can choose their desired color and configuration and don’t have to pay for what they don’t need. During the Hainan conference, Maxus unveiled the C2B customized RV80, a perfect integration of RVs’ personalization with C2B intelligent customization.

At the RV Night held during the annual dealerships meeting, Maxus announced its plans besides making high-quality RVs – it will tap the RV leasing business by planning leasing routes and tourism platform services. In addition, the company will bring suppliers, car modification services, core users and other partners together to jointly build the RV ecosystem. As for T60, Maxus announced the prices of the pickup lineup, paving the way for its official launch in early 2017.  With the C2B product matrix hitting the market, the company’s goal for 2017 in this sector will be attainable.

Maxus made a top-down design for the implementation of C2B customization which is centered on users and aimed to bring more joy and value to them. Take the SUV D90 for example. In the definition phase, Maxus focused on 18 points of the definition of the D90, conducted offline surveys on more than 1,000 users, interacted with 31,125 users on online platforms and received more than 30,000 pieces of advice in total. In the development phase, Maxus gave a detailed list of components, opened 60-plus design points, and displayed at the Guangzhou auto show D90 models designed through users’ participation, including the wheel hub, key, front grills and the shift knob. In the verification stage, Maxus invited users to a show of its engineering prototypes, the first domestic carmaker to do so one year prior to its launch. In January 2017, Maxus will invite users to a road testing event in Golmud of Qinghai province, the first time for a carmaker to allow users participate in on-the-spot testing and tuning, which involved aerodynamic tuning, suspension and handling. Next, Maxus will invite users to testing fields across the world, where the vehicle’s durability, powertrain and mechanics will be tested, and the engineering prototype will be tuned and optimized based on users’ feedback. Through in-depth communication with users, Maxus received orders from more than 5,000 users for the C2B customized SUV, indicating their trust toward Maxus and endorsement of the C2B concept.

 

Furthermore, Maxus has built a self-owned platform, c2b.saicmaxus.com, which is capable of communicating with more than 1 million users simultaneously and has collected data from more than 200,000 users. In the age of Internet and big data, C2B represents the global trends of personalization and diversification in car making. Europe’s three major carmakers – BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen – also have proposed C2B as the future direction of car making and are making relevant plans.

Rapid growth

While pushing forward C2B programs in 2016, Maxus continued to see robust growth on the traditional market, achieving good results both home and abroad.

In November 2016, Maxus sold 5,168 vehicles, up 29 percent from the same period of 2015. January-November sales totaled 42,280 units, up 32 percent year-on-year. V80 sales totaled 25,496 units, accounting for 19.6 percent of the domestic wide-body light vans market. Among the China-V vehicles market backed by the most advanced technology, V80 took the first position, with a share of 76 percent, and was one of the leading brands for European-style China-V light vans for two consecutive years. On the MPV front, G10 sales totaled 16,748 units, accounting for nearly 30 percent of medium and high-end MPVs priced between 150,000 to 250,000 yuan, which put an end to a past when there were no Chinese brands in this segment of the MPV market. 

Despite Chinese auto exports fell 5.1 percent year-on-year in January-November, with exports of commercial vehicles down 22.4 percent, Maxus sold 6,183 units in the same period, an increase of 43 percent year-on-year, making developed markets the main contributor to its sales. In Australia, Maxus took the top position among all Chinese brands, and sales are likely to exceed 10,000 units in 2018. In New Zealand, Maxus had a share of about 17 percent and V80 overtook Ford Transit to become No 2. In Europe, Maxus delivered 3,000 vehicles to the UK, exhibited its models at the Birmingham motor show, and delivered a total of more than 300 vehicles. Maxus was the only Chinese brand that exported lights vans on a large scale to Europe, secured a large number of government procurements from Europe and made it into law enforcement agencies of European governments.

Relying on its high quality worldwide, Maxus has won favor from the world’s top-level meetings as well as ordinary users. In 2016, Maxus vehicles served the Hangzhou G20 Summit and the APEC Summit, and gained a good reputation in many countries and regions. In New Zealand, Dave Hall at the New Zealand Herald had driven a total of 26 transport vehicles during his 30-year work as a delivery man, and eventually set his sights on Maxus because of its high-quality and cost-effective vans. He purchased three V80s one after another for his company, which traveled for a total of 1 million kilometers without any major repairs. In Australia, a family with quintuplets chose a Maxus van because it was able to meet the travel needs of the nine-member family thanks to its spacious room, comfort and cost-effectiveness. In Ireland, to win vehicle procurements from An Post, the national postal service, which set strict criteria on bidders, Maxus engaged in fierce competition with international auto giants and eventually scored first in all 14 evalsuation indicators.

Backed by SAIC’s strategy, Maxus has been growing rapidly on domestic and overseas markets in the past five years to become a segment leader. In the future, the company will continue to make innovations and endeavor to lead future motor life.