According to the data of the Association, in November, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV achieved the single model sales in the global new energy market for 15 consecutive months with sales of 45,576 units; BYD continued to rank first among global new energy vehicle companies with 90,142 units of sales. A number of new domestic car-making forces, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideals, have also broken through 10,000 monthly sales.
In stark contrast, the traditional giants represented by the BBA, whether it is in the domestic new energy market or the new energy market around the world, the performance of the BBA is not to say that it is influential, and even the sense of existence seems to be impossible to talk about.
The Mercedes-Benz EQC sold only 4863 domestic units in the first 10 months of this year, while the BMW iX3 sold a total of 16157 units and the Audi e-tron with 1377 units. Even if the global sales of three luxury brand new energy vehicles are added together, it cannot match one BYD.
Once the hegemon of the traditional fuel vehicle market, why can't he play new energy after several years?
First of all, the BBA misjudged the situation and missed the best time to enter the market is undoubtedly a well-known reason. In fact, if you talk about history, BBA has long tried in the field of pure electricity. For example, the prototype of BMW electric vehicles can be traced back to 1972, and the BMW i3 launched in 2014 was BMW's first mass-produced pure electric vehicle, and Tesla at that time was just emerging.
However, the BBA's attempt at new energy at that time was not the best time, and the pure electric vehicle created with traditional mechanical engineering thinking in addition to using the battery as the power source, inside and out is almost the same as the traditional fuel vehicle. There is no subversive design and use experience, no more powerful batteries, and no convenient and efficient charging conditions. Coupled with the high price, this also leads to a lack of market acceptance.
Tesla is precisely relying on the design, experience and customization of the battery, coupled with the layout of the supercharge pile, to take the lead in standing at the head of the new energy market. It can be said that consumers' cognition of new energy vehicles first comes from Tesla, and then a number of domestic new energy vehicles and new car-making forces have cultivated the new energy market, allowing users to begin to form an inherent cognition and consumption habits of new energy vehicles.
In this process, BBA did not take advantage of the opportunity to quickly enter the new energy market, but always wavered and maintained a wait-and-see attitude. I think that I wait until the first batch of new energy vehicle companies have cultivated the market almost completely, and then rely on the strong brand appeal in the field of fuel vehicles to reap the profits, so as to achieve the latecomers to catch up. As everyone knows, users in the new energy vehicle market already have their own set of judgment standards, and they are not sensitive to the difference between high and low brands, but pay more attention to design, technology and experience.
This is very similar to the scene when the mobile phone changed from the era of Nokia's feature phone to the era of Apple's smartphone. Nokia's failure lies not in technology at all, but in the fact that users did not become a leader when they migrated to smart phones. When users get used to Apple's mobile phones, even if Nokia also launches Android smartphones, it can no longer please users.
Although BBA has a deep car-making background, the rigorous attitude of traditional car companies to automotive products and technologies is also doomed to BBA being far less radical in technological advancement than that of new energy vehicle companies.
On the one hand, the upgrading of traditional fuel vehicles in the past in terms of functional configuration adopts the speed of "squeezing toothpaste", while today's new energy vehicle companies have reached the point of fanaticism. In terms of car-making ideas, new energy vehicle companies follow the ideas of the technology industry, pay attention to the rapid iteration of technology, even if it is not 100% perfect technology will take the lead in the market, and then continue to upgrade and optimize through OTA.
When the cruising range of domestic new energy vehicles has begun to move towards 1000km, the cruising range of Mercedes-Benz EQC, Audi e-tron, BMW iX3 and other "oil to electricity" models is still stuck at 400-500 kilometers. And like L2 or even L3 level intelligent assisted driving, even in terms of practicality and safety is still controversial, domestic new energy vehicles are also on the order.
On the other hand, the advantages of domestic mobile Internet have made many functions with a wide range of application scenarios in China have been copied to new energy vehicles by new energy vehicle companies. Intelligent speech recognition, map navigation, scan code payment, and even K songs, games, vibrato, etc., are close to our usual experience of using mobile phones. As an international manufacturer, BBA still maintains its own closed system, and it is difficult to develop a set of application experiences that meet the domestic scenes and usage habits for the Chinese people.
In marketing, it is even more revealing the arrogance of the BBA.
Tesla has created a direct sales cost pricing method and direct sales model in the automotive industry, opening direct stores into the business circle, and car buyers have placed orders on the official website. At the same time, costs are reduced with the efficient production methods of the Gigafactory. Whether it is the new forces of car manufacturing or the traditional car companies that follow up later, they have also learned a lot. The new car-making forces have almost all adopted the direct operation model, some car companies have also played a BOM pricing method in order to bo gimmicks, and there are car companies like Weilai that will achieve the ultimate user service.
So far, BBA has followed the marketing model of traditional car companies, and when pricing products, it attaches too much value to the brand premium. This has led to a batch of new energy vehicles like Mercedes-Benz EQC, BMW iX3, audi e-tron, the price is more than 400,000-500,000 yuan, but on the performance, endurance, configuration, experience in all aspects is only the level of domestic 200,000. Today's younger generation of consumers is obviously no longer interested in this routine.
In fact, users who can consume BBA are not sensitive to price, they are more concerned about whether they can get a product experience that meets this price after paying money, BBA obviously has not grasped the preferences of new energy vehicle users.
Although it has been a few years since BBA shouted about a full electrification transition, the determination shown is indeed great. But after a few years, it is still in a backward situation, and even the gap is still widening. Times are different, it is not easy to catch up, success or failure, first of all, to see whether the BBA can really put down the traditional luxury brand, reverse the past thinking, and then launch products in line with the Chinese market. If it is just a lip service, the body is still old, even if there is a glorious history, the BBA may eventually be abandoned by the times.
Do you think BBA can still maintain the status of luxury brands in the new energy era, you may wish to express your views in the comments. (Text/UVIS Auto Old Cannon)
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