As the end of the year approaches, Autohome Space Station has officially completed its offline layout for 20 cities nationwide in 2023, achieving a comprehensive strategic upgrade of brand, business, and stores. As one of the important strategic projects, the 20th store of Autohome Space Station - Beijing Station - has officially settled in the Beijing Automotive Museum.
Yang Song, Senior Vice President of Autohome and Chairman of Tiantian Paiche, stated that in the past year, Autohome Space Station has continuously accelerated its offline layout, while also making efforts in market breadth and sinking depth. In addition to first tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, it has also settled in second tier cities such as Kunming, Guiyang, and Haikou, while also deeply cultivating prefecture level markets such as Leshan in Sichuan and Zhaoqing in Guangzhou. By continuously expanding the scope of layout, we aim to explore new opportunities for the constantly changing automotive consumer market.
Complete offline deployment in 20 cities
As the first offline experience center for new energy vehicles created by Autohome, what innovative experiences will Autohome Space Station bring to consumers? Compared to other sales models, what new changes can it bring to the industry?
Yang Song told reporters that the layout strategy of Autohome Space Station varies in different cities. In first and second tier cities, most host manufacturers have the ability to deliver on their own. But in deeper cities, the biggest problem is losing money when local basic sales are insufficient. As a multi brand collection store, the space station can play a role in helping host factories reduce costs and sink in third - and fourth tier cities.
"The positioning of the Autohome space station is to connect consumers and OEMs, in first and second tier cities where OEMs have a complete sales network. After consumers place orders, we will transfer them to the brand's stores in the city where they are located. The brand's stores are responsible for the subsequent delivery, after-sales maintenance, and upkeep," Yang Song said, The Autohome Space Station will also strengthen its order delivery capabilities and services for used cars in third - and fourth tier cities. Many prefecture level cities do not yet have mature second-hand car trading markets like Huaxiang, which suffer from information asymmetry and distrust between buyers and sellers. The emergence of the Autohome space station can regulate the local second-hand car market.
The Securities Daily reporter noticed that the significance of the Autohome space station lies not only in connecting OEMs, dealers, and consumers, but also in continuously expanding boundaries, integrating resources from a wider ecosystem, and supporting the innovative development of the automotive industry.
It is reported that Autohome has officially reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Beijing Automotive Museum, proposing that both sides will jointly promote the dissemination of automotive culture and the positive development of the automotive industry. It is clear that the first Autohome space station in Beijing will be built on the first floor of the Beijing Automotive Museum. "This strategic cooperation is a good opportunity for both sides to achieve complementary advantages and coordinated development in culture, science popularization, new technology, and other aspects," said Zhou You, Vice President of Autohome.
Zhou You believes that the new retail business model of the Autohome space station relies on the brand appeal of Autohome, offline lead advantages, and deep data accumulation at three levels, representing the possible future development direction of the automotive consumption industry. In fact, new retail is also a new challenge for Autohome. We need to consider whether consumers like Autohome, whether investors are willing to choose Autohome, whether we can achieve economic breakeven and even profitability in the end, and so on. However, currently, the monthly operating data of Autohome stores is 5 to 10 times the industry average monthly sales volume of car dealerships. Autohome's model has been verified by the market "The identification of the certificate and investors."
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. In the future, Autohome Space Station plans to further explore overseas business to help domestic host manufacturers take the first step towards going global.
The market potential for new energy and used cars is enormous
Since the beginning of this year, domestic automobile consumption has continued to recover, with a good growth momentum in automobile production and sales, and the performance of new energy vehicles is particularly impressive. According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of automobiles from January to October this year were 24.016 million and 23.967 million, respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 8% and 9.1%. Among them, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 7.352 million and 7.28 million, respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 33.9% and 37.8%, and a market share of 30.4%.
The automotive industry has become one of the most promising tracks for the development of the Chinese economy. In order to seize the opportunities brought by the development and changes in the industry, Autohome is continuously expanding its business layout in the new energy vehicle and second-hand car markets.
According to the financial report released by Autohome in early November, the total revenue of Autohome in the third quarter was 1.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%; After adjustment, the net profit attributable to the parent company was 604 million yuan, and both total revenue and net profit achieved year-on-year growth for five consecutive quarters; The adjusted net profit margin reached 31.7%. In the third quarter, the company continuously expanded its cooperation with new energy vehicle companies, and the revenue from new energy brands increased by nearly 70% year-on-year.
When it comes to the medium - and short-term development forecast of China's car market, Zhou You Analysis states that there will be three changes in the future development of the Chinese car market. Firstly, the overall growth of new car sales will gradually flatten, with new energy vehicles expected to grow rapidly; Secondly, the domestic second-hand car market has very good growth expectations in the future; Thirdly, China will gradually develop from a rapidly growing new car market to a stock based market.
"These three parts are not only the main potential for our future user growth, but also the main potential for our future performance growth," said Zhou You.
When asked about the business situation of second-hand new energy vehicles, Yang Song said that the outbreak of new energy vehicles in China only began in the second half of 2021, and most new energy vehicles have not yet entered the second-hand car stage. There are now over 200 million gasoline powered vehicles in the Chinese market, and selling fuel to buy electricity will become the biggest demand in the future.
Yang Song told reporters that two kilometers diagonally opposite the Beijing Space Station is the largest store of Tiantian Car in Beijing, and nearby is the second-hand market in Huaxiang. "We have this consideration in our location selection here, where consumers can easily complete a one-stop service experience of selling used cars, buying used cars, and buying new energy vehicles."