Great Wall Motor nimmt die Elektromobilität wieder auf: Es plant mehrere reine Elektro-SUVs und baut den Vertriebskanal neu auf, um sich von Haval zu trennen.

Once on the verge of being marginalized and even rumored to be abandoned, the Ora brand has seen a rapid turnaround in its fate. On June 20th, Great Wall Motor appointed a new general manager for the Ora brand. Previously, the Ora brand did not have a separately established general manager, and the position was concurrently held by an executive from the Haval brand.

We've exclusively learned that Ora also plans to rebuild an independent sales channel. Great Wall Motor has planned at least four new models for the Ora brand. The positioning and channel strategies of the new products are different from before. Currently, the main models of Haval, Tank, and Wei brands are leaning towards hybrid power. Ora, which is in the process of "revival," is the only brand under Great Wall that maintains a pure - electric positioning, and thus has a heavier responsibility.

01. Ora to Rebuild Its Independent Network

On June 20th, Ora issued an announcement appointing Lü Wenbin as the general manager of the Ora brand, who will comprehensively oversee the core work of the Ora brand, including strategic planning, product layout, marketing, and user operations.

Before Lü Wenbin took office, no new models of the Ora brand had been launched for more than two years, and its sales volume had been declining for 14 consecutive months. The latest monthly sales volume of the brand was only over a thousand units.

Since February this year, the position of the general manager of Ora has been concurrently held by Zhao Yongpo, the general manager of the Haval brand. In the previous few months, the sales and after - sales channels of Ora had been integrated into the Haval brand. The outside world speculated that Great Wall Motor, which values profitability, was likely to gradually abandon the marginalized Ora brand.

The turnaround came suddenly. On the same day when Ora's new personnel appointment announcement was released, Great Wall Motor held a mid - year strategic communication meeting for dealers in Baoding, the location of its headquarters. The "revival" of the Ora brand was one of the core topics at this communication meeting.

Auto Pixel has exclusively learned that Great Wall Motor conveyed to dealers the news that Ora will rebuild an independent sales channel. To boost dealers' investment confidence, Ora showcased four new models, including several SUVs and a new car in the form of a sedan - pickup. These are products that Ora has never tried before.

People close to Haval brand dealers revealed that Ora's future positioning will be more unique, emphasizing technology and being more hardcore. Compared with the previous Ora models, the new products will continue some family - style designs, but will no longer target the low - price car market and will not focus solely on the female market.

Rebuilding an independent sales channel is significantly difficult. Ora has been selling cars through the integrated network for nearly eight months. Auto Pixel has learned that there are currently only more than 400 Ora stores in all forms, and a considerable proportion of them are joint - venture stores. Many stores are located in non - core areas of lower - tier cities, which do not match Ora's new positioning.

Before Ora rebuilds its independent network, Great Wall Motor's sales channel management system is highly streamlined. There are only two networks: the Haval - Ora network and the Wei - Tank network. The management structure within the two networks is also simplified. We've learned that the Haval - Ora network is divided into five sales regions (east, west, south, north, and central) across the country, while the Wei - Tank network is only divided into four regions (east, west, south, and north). In contrast, Voyah, which sells less than 90,000 cars a year, has 11 regions across the country.

Great Wall Motor hopes to attract investors from the existing dealer network first to support the reconstruction of Ora's sales channel. The prerequisite for achieving this is to have high - quality products.

The Lightning Cat Travel Edition at the Shanghai Auto Show

Lü Wenbin is a senior technical executive at Great Wall Motor. Before taking charge of Ora, he served as the technical general manager of the Haval brand for five consecutive years. He is the only person with a technical background among the six leaders of Ora and perhaps the first person in charge who can have the right to define products.

People close to the central GTM (Go - To - Market) of Great Wall Motor told us that the senior management of Great Wall intends to connect the sales and product systems, enabling the closed - off product development team to directly receive market feedback and user opinions. Ora and the Wei brand were the first to make such an attempt. In May this year, the person in charge of Great Wall's direct - sales stores took up the position of CEO of the Wei brand.

02. Reborn from the Bottom

Ora represents a different voice in Great Wall Motor's brand matrix.

Since its establishment in 2018, Ora has been positioned as targeting small cars, women, and young people at different times. In contrast, the main models of Haval and the Wei brand are medium - and large - sized SUVs, and the Tank brand is more focused on hardcore off - road vehicles. Their target users are clearly men and families.

Ora can fill multiple gaps in Great Wall's product positioning, including sedans, performance cars, young users, and, most importantly, the pure - electric route. Currently, the main models of Haval, Tank, and the Wei brand are all moving towards plug - in hybrid and range - extender technologies. Ora can make up for the lack of pure - electric products in Great Wall's lineup.

However, it's not easy for Ora, which is in a deep trough, to clearly convey its new positioning to the outside world.

The Ora brand was launched in 2018, marking the starting point of Great Wall's new - energy transformation. Initially, it entered the market with small cars R1 and R2 priced below 100,000 yuan. Before 2020, Ora launched the Black Cat and White Cat models, targeting the small - car market priced between 60,000 and 90,000 yuan, which helped the brand gain popularity. In the following year, Ora's sales volume increased by 140%. In 2021, its annual sales volume reached 135,000 units, which is the peak for Ora so far.

At the beginning of 2022, Ora stopped producing the Black Cat and White Cat. In the official announcement, Ora admitted that although the cumulative sales volume of the Black Cat and White Cat had exceeded 173,000 units, it still couldn't solve the problem of losses through economies of scale. The loss per unit of the Black Cat exceeded 10,000 yuan. Also in 2022, Ora launched two models, the Ballet Cat and the Lightning Cat, in the 200,000 - yuan price range.

Ora White Cat

The discontinuation of the main models, the monthly sales volume of the Ballet Cat and Lightning Cat, which represent Ora's high - end strategy, lingering in the hundreds for a long time, and the setback in high - endization have pushed the Ora brand into a trough. Since 2023, Ora has not launched any truly new models and has been relying on the 100,000 - yuan - level Good Cat to maintain its sales volume.

During the Shanghai Auto Show this year, Ora unveiled the Lightning Cat Travel Edition. Starting from this, Ora will launch 1 - 2 new models every year.

Even though the product planning and brand positioning have been re - sorted out, it's still very difficult for the Ora brand to recover.

In May this year, Wei Jianjun, the chairman of Great Wall Motor, put forward his personal view to the outside world: "Hybrid power will definitely become the mainstream in the future, and electric vehicles won't."

Perhaps under this strategic guidance, Haval, the Wei brand, and Tank are fully focusing on hybrid power, while Ora, with its pure - electric positioning, will take a high - end and personalized route. However, whether this route can succeed depends not only on product positioning but also on breaking through Great Wall's traditional weaknesses in brand building and marketing capabilities.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Auto Pixel". Author: Xing Ruifang, Editor: Mao Shiyang. Republished by 36Kr with permission.