Landmap, a homophonic "blueprint", symbolizes a beautiful plan and prospects. But since it announced its independence on June 26, 2021, Dongfeng’s high-end brand of new energy vehicles, "Landmap", is experiencing the transfer of the No. 3 person after 18 months in office, and sales continue to decline. It has even announced a high-profile learning of the direct-operated + experience store model of Tesla, NIO, etc., and is also transforming into a dealer franchise model. Since its establishment one year ago, Landmap has no "blueprint"?
As a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor Group, Lantu announced its entry into the high-end new energy vehicle market in 2020, targeting Tesla, NIO, Ideal and other brands. But after experiencing a significant increase in sales in the second half of last year, it seemed to be lackluster, and it encountered Waterloo in the first quarter of this year.
Lantu Experience Store (Zhiliao Car Shooting)
In terms of sales, in the first two months of this year, Lantu’s month-on-month decline has maintained a continuous decline of more than 50%, and the company’s management has also changed. Lantu, which once insisted on "living for users", has now become a sales-only theory. This new energy brand under Dongfeng may have stood at the crossroads of high-end new energy vehicles, and the situation is quite embarrassing.
"Number Three" was transferred after 18 months.
In 32 years, the minister of the Dongfeng system left sadly
According to sources familiar with the matter, Lei Xin, the chief brand officer (CBO) of Lantu, who had served in the Dongfeng department for more than ten years, has been transferred at the end of March this year, and his position has been temporarily taken over by Lantu CEO and CTO Lu Fang.
Lei Xin’s departure, even within the company, seemed very sudden. "It was quite sudden and unexpected," a person familiar with the matter said. "The day before, Lei always had a meeting and deployed relevant work until late at night, and there was no abnormality."
Zhiliao Automotive found that this is another change of position since Lei’s new appointment at Lantu, only about 18 months apart from the last one.
Landmap executive team members: Dongfeng Company Deputy General Manager, Landmap Chairperson You Zheng (third from left), Landmap CEO and CTO Lu Fang (second from right), Chief Brand Officer Lei Xin (first from right), chief operating officer Jiang Tao (first from left) and Chief Financial Officer Shen Jun (second from left)
On July 17, 2020, Lantu held a press conference in Wuhan to announce the launch of the "Lantu" brand and enter the high-end new energy vehicle market. At this press conference, Lantu’s executive team also made its debut to the outside world. This time Lei Xin appeared as the chief brand officer of Lantu for the first time.
Zhiliao Automobile found that whether it was from this press conference or subsequent activities of Landmap, Lei Xin was ranked after You Zheng and Lu Fang, and could be called the "No. 3 person" of Landmap.
This executive, who is so important to Landmap, is a veteran with more than 30 years of experience in Dongfeng. As early as 1990, Lei Xin joined Dongfeng Motor Company as an engineer. Since then, Lei Xin has successively served as the head of the strategic planning department, general manager, and executive deputy general manager of Dongfeng Motor, Shenlong Motor, Dongfeng Infiniti and other companies. As of March 2022, Lei Xin has been working in Dongfeng for 32 years, which can be regarded as witnessing the rise and fall of an automobile manufacturing company.
According to Tianyancha data, from March 23 to April 2 this year, Lei Xin has stepped down from the positions of heads of seven companies, including "Landmap Sales and Service Co., Ltd. Chengdu Branch".
Perhaps one of the main reasons why it has not been widely reported in the industry is that Lei Xin currently has many related connections with Landmap. According to Tianyancha information, Lei Xin also holds important positions in 56 other companies, all of which are related to Landmap.
But it cannot be ignored that the sudden transfer of Lei Xin may be directly related to the dismal sales of Lantu in the first quarter of this year.
It has fallen by more than 50% for two consecutive months.
Only 8% of the annual target was achieved.
Or the main reason for the adjustment
According to the statistics of China Automobile, in the first two months of this year, the sales of Lantu increased by -53.36% and -52.35% respectively. Especially in February, the sales volume of the month was only 740 units, which was the second-to-last result after the mass production of its models, only better than the sales volume in the first month of August last year.
Landscape’s sales growth trend since August last year (Zhiliao Automotive Drawing)
It was not until March this year that Lantu’s sales resumed to more than 1,000 units, but this achievement was also unsatisfactory.
Data from the China Automobile Association shows that Landmap ranked only 13th in the sales of large SUVs in March, not only falling behind the ideal and NIO, but also losing the top 10 last year.
In 2022, Lantu called out the goal of "sales 46,000, production 48,000", which is even more than 3 times that of last year (13,000), but as of the first quarter of this year, the production and sales of Lantu’s first model, Lantu FREE, were 6044 and 3693 respectively, and the completion of production and sales was only 12.59% and 8.03% of this year’s target.
This is a very obvious gap with direct competitors NIO ES6 and Ideal ONE. In the first quarter of this year, NIO ES6 sales were 5064 units, and Ideal ONE sales reached 11,034 units. The sales volume of Lantu FREE in the first quarter is less than the sales volume of the two direct competitors in March.
It can be said that Lantu is gradually falling behind in the domestic mid-to-large SUV market with fierce competition. This may also be one of the important reasons why Lei Xin, as the direct person in charge of market brand, sales, innovation ecology and commodity planning, failed to achieve the expected goals in the first quarter and was transferred away.
The growing gap in sales with its rivals has forced Lantu to transfer executives. This may just be a trigger for Lantu’s strategic adjustment, or a microcosm of the continuous struggles of this new energy brand owned by Dongfeng.
Direct sales to franchise,
Is "living for users" a slogan or a real innovation?
According to Zhimiao Automotive, Lantu is currently recruiting franchisees, trying to share its huge marketing costs in the way of franchises, and quickly expand its channels. This seems to be another major adjustment in Lantu’s strategy along with Lei Xin’s transfer.
Lantu Beijing Experience Store
(Located in Taiyanggong Kaide Mall, Chaoyang District, Beijing, photographed by Zhiliao Automobile)
"Dongfeng Motor has no shortage of funds. What it lacks is top-level design, strategic determination and the determination of leaders. The system and mechanism have not been properly managed, so whether it is fuel vehicles or new energy, Dongfeng Motor cannot do it," the media quoted senior Dongfeng officials as saying.
Behind the personnel turmoil and the adjustment of the direct sales model, it seems that Dongfeng has compromised with Lantu in the embarrassing situation of continuous decline in sales, but this cannot help but raise doubts: Lantu, which "lives for users", is an empty slogan or a real innovation?
At the beginning of its establishment, Lantu claimed to "live for users", positioning "to provide users with a high-end smart electric experience with zero anxiety".
However, whether it is the official launch of Lantu or its product performance over the past year, it seems that there is a lack of innovation, but it is mainly based on following the trend.
According to some media, at the July 2020 press conference, Landmap announced that it would adopt an innovative business model and organizational mechanism to address the six major anxieties of users about electric vehicles, but how to innovate the business model and organizational mechanism and how to solve the anxiety of users were not introduced.
And when Ideal, NIO and other new domestic car-making forces are showing their leading three-electric technology and driverless strength to users, Lantu can only shout "user-centered", and use "new car-making strength" to Pengci "new car-making forces" in words and words.
In the product design of Landscape, there is also a lack of sufficient sincerity to impress users. The first car Landscape FREE actually has a very similar design and positioning to the ideal ONE, but Landscape FREE is not only released more than two years later than its competitors, but also has a more obvious gap in various configurations (for example, the ideal ONE body is larger, the pure electric battery life is 48 kilometers longer than Landscape FREE, and the battery is also higher), while the price of the two cars is almost the same (the ideal ONE starts at only 10,000 more expensive than Landscape FREE).
From positioning to product design, Lantu’s sales decline is no accident. Behind it is the clumsiness and rigidity of a state-owned auto giant’s transformation into an automotive technology company. It also appears to be reflected in Lantu’s executive style.
You Zheng, Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Company and Chairperson of Lantu
According to the data, the senior management team of Lantu and the deputy general manager of Dongfeng Motor in charge of Lantu, You Zheng, all have obvious professional backgrounds in FAW Group or state-owned enterprises.
"From the perspective of the executive team, the first is very traditional, there are no talents from internet companies and technology companies. The second is that most of them are back-office managers and have no experience as traders," said one securities firm analyst. "[Landmap] is more like a technology company on the surface."
And Lei Xin, who had experienced many Dongfeng companies and was a "generalist" in marketing, sales and strategy, was now transferred, which seemed even more surprising. "How does it feel that the person who really does things has become the blame man," an insider lamented to Zhiliao Auto.
At present, the biggest problem facing Landscape is how to increase sales, but if you give up users and innovation for sales, this may be the practice of "losing watermelon and finding sesame seeds".
