Recently, the 20th space station of Autohome has settled in the Beijing Automotive Museum. Autohome stated that in 2023, the Autohome space station completed its offline layout in 20 cities across the country. Next year, the Autohome space station will continue to expand its layout nationwide, with plans to complete the offline layout of 50 cities and 100 cities by the end of 2025.
As the offline retail business entity of Autohome, the main business of Autohome Space Station includes one-stop selection services for new energy vehicles and one-stop services for second-hand car buying and selling. In terms of new energy vehicle business, Autohome Space Station has numerous new energy vehicle brands and models, and consumers can simultaneously learn about the condition of multiple models and make comparative purchases in the store.
Regarding the role of space stations in the automotive distribution system, Senior Vice President of Autohome Yang Song, Chairman of Tiantian Paiche, said, "The core value of the Autohome Space Station lies in building a bridge connecting consumers, OEMs, and dealers, bringing together convenient one-stop automotive lifestyle services, efficient marketing and sales paradigms, real consumer needs, and innovative user experiences in the same space."
Selling Cars on Automotive Platforms
It is not common for car platforms to sell cars offline, and the Autohome space station, as a new retail model, has attracted much attention.
The Time Weekly reporter learned that the main products on the space station are various brands of new energy vehicles. By promoting pre-sales marketing and service work, consumers are encouraged to submit car purchase orders. Essentially, the space station does not sell vehicles to consumers, but rather delivers products and provides after-sales support from corresponding car companies or dealers.
"The Autohome space station hands over the screened and confirmed orders to the OEMs or stores, who will pay the agreed prices." Yang Song told Time Weekly reporters, "This way we can help OEMs and dealers reduce unnecessary intermediate links."
In summary, the space station is mainly responsible for processing consumer leads into orders and providing them to the host factory or store. In addition, after the space station provides orders, the delivery and after-sales work of the vehicles still need to be completed by the corresponding dealers.
"We have only evolved from a lead delivery model to an order delivery model. We deliver orders, and the car companies or dealers give us rewards." Yang Song said, "The rest of the work is still done by the dealers."
Before launching the space station, Autohome had two main business models: on the one hand, there was a large amount of advertising cooperation between Autohome and host manufacturers, selling advertisements to businesses through the Autohome platform; On the other hand, Autohome will provide consumer leads to sales stores.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the business model of Autohome Space Station can be seen as the evolution and upgrading of the latter business model mentioned above. However, fundamentally, the space station still serves as an intermediary platform.
"The role played by Autohome Space Station and Autohome Online App is the same, both serving as platforms connecting OEMs, 4S stores, and used car dealers. Autohome Space Station provides consumers with an offline hub and platform that connects them with local 4S stores and used car dealers of major OEMs." Yang Song explained the positioning of the Space Station.
Backed by security, with obvious information advantages
Compared to traditional car dealership systems, Autohome Space Station has significant information advantages.
According to Yang Song, Autohome Space Station has multiple unique advantages in the offline automotive retail market. The most prominent aspect is in terms of price, Yang Song said that the Autohome Space Station has the lowest transaction price for local car models, which can provide consumers with more favorable purchasing information.
The above transaction price information is sourced from Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance, a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance in China. According to public information, in June 2016, Ping An Investment in China invested $1.6 billion to acquire shares of Autohome and became its controlling shareholder. According to the 2022 annual report of Autohome, China Ping An subsidiary Yunchen Capital owns 45.6% of its shares.
In addition, in November this year, Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance announced that from November 13, 2023, Long Quan, former Chairman and CEO of Autohome, will officially serve as Chairman and CEO of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance. Subsequently, Autohome announced that Longquan had resigned as CEO and retained the position of Chairman. The new CEO of Autohome is Wu Tao, who previously served as the Deputy General Manager of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance.
Autohome stated that under the leadership of Longquan and Wu Tao, Autohome will accelerate its integration into the automotive ecosystem of Ping An Group and strengthen the integration of internal resources within the group.
At the opening of the Beijing Space Station, Yang Song stated that the space station has taken advantage of Ping An Property Insurance to obtain the latest transaction prices for local new energy vehicles, and 80% of the online passenger flow of the space station comes from Ping An Property Insurance channels. It is reported that Ping An Property Insurance is one of the top car insurance companies in China. In the first three quarters of this year, the premium income of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance's car insurance business was 154.661 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%.
Industry insiders told Time Weekly reporters that property and casualty insurance companies can obtain the actual transaction prices of regional vehicles through car insurance insurance business, which may provide more accurate price references for space stations.
In addition to having transaction prices for all local new energy vehicles, Yang Song said that the Autohome Space Station also has real driving data for all new energy vehicle models, such as range, charging speed, electricity consumption, etc., which can present consumers with the most authentic driving situation. However, he did not further disclose the source of the above data.
Are you enemies or friends with distributors?
The arrival of the Autohome space station has sparked two major reflections.
One is the relationship between the space station and traditional distributors, whether it is competitive substitution or complementary cooperation.
Regarding this, Yang Song stated that the Autohome space station has a cooperative relationship with car companies and dealers, rather than a competitive relationship. "We have only evolved from a lead delivery model to an order delivery model, and the rest of the work is still done by distributors. We are not in a substitute relationship with distributors, we are in an empowering relationship," he told Time Weekly reporters.
In addition, the original negotiation between dealers and consumers has turned into a tripartite cooperation, how can their respective interests be balanced?
Zhou You, Vice President of Autohome, explained that Autohome's mission is to reduce decision-making and transaction costs in the automotive industry. Autohome's space station can increase profits and reduce costs by changing sales methods.
"The increase in sales conversion rate can increase profits. In addition, we will also innovate our models to minimize additional marketing costs, including online advertising, offline flyers, in store services, and labor," said Zhou You.
Yang Song added that for host manufacturers and distributors, space stations can reduce the single unit sales costs of past advertising and sales lead purchase models. For consumers, the space station can disclose transaction prices, financial service fees, and other information to them through Ping An Property Insurance. "We will not deliberately lower the prices of our dealers' stores, but instead prioritize recommending the most cost-effective stores to consumers, so that consumers and dealers can achieve a win-win situation."
Autohome revealed that the offline passenger flow of the existing space station is very considerable, with an NPS (Net User Recommendation) of 73%, far higher than the industry average. In terms of car sales, Autohome claims to be able to achieve 5-10 times the sales of local single brand stores in any city.
Industry insiders believe that in the current stage of accelerated transformation in the domestic automotive industry, new business models may bring more inspiration to the industry, which is conducive to improving the operational efficiency of the industry.
"The automotive circulation industry and dealers need to adopt more flexible and innovative business models to boost current demand in the automotive market and accelerate the flow of new and used car markets," said Wang Du, assistant to the President of the China Automobile Circulation Association. In his view, the Autohome space station has a positive significance in promoting the circulation of the automotive market.
At present, Autohome has set up Autohome space stations in Shanghai, Haikou, Chengdu, Chongqing and other places. According to Yang Song, the Autohome space station will continue to expand its layout nationwide, with plans to complete the offline layout of 50 cities by the end of 2024 and 100 cities by the end of 2025.