New Year's Day car buying boom New energy vehicles sing the protagonist

Wearing a mask to visit the auto show (file photo) Xinhua News Agency

Text/Yangcheng Evening News reporter Zhang Aili

On New Year's Day this year, Guangzhou's new energy vehicle sales ushered in a wave of small peaks. Due to the lack of stock in the car market, this holiday did not have the large cash promotions during the previous holidays. On January 3, a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News visited the Guangzhou Auto Market and found that there were many consumers who took advantage of the New Year's Day holiday to buy a car, most of them in order to buy a new car before the Spring Festival.

It is worth mentioning that many car dealers said that due to less than a month left from this year's Spring Festival, coupled with the shortage of chips and the shortage of goods, even if you order cars now, some models cannot be delivered before the Spring Festival. "However, there are also some models that are booked now, and the car can be delivered before the Spring Festival, and it is recommended that consumers do not get together to pursue popular models when purchasing." A self-owned brand car dealer said.

The number of car buyers has increased

A number of car dealers said in an interview with reporters that consumers have a strong intention to buy cars during New Year's Day this year, and the flow of people watching cars on the three days of the New Year's Day holiday has increased significantly compared with previous years.

The sales staff of a new energy brand car store in Panyu said that the New Year's Day holiday was busy for three days, "the traffic to the store on January 1 was twice as high as on weekday weekends." Miss Li, a salesperson at the store, said that sales also increased considerably compared with the same period last year. Mr. Yang, sales director of a joint venture brand store in Haizhu District, told reporters: "The passenger flow has increased by 20% compared with last month, and 30 or 40 batches of guests arrive at the store every day during the New Year's Day holiday, and the order volume in three days exceeds 30 units. ”

With the current expansion of the new car purchase population, the sales of 200,000-400,000 yuan of high-end models have also increased significantly. In the three German and Japanese luxury car stores near the Olympic Sports, consumers who take advantage of the holiday to buy cars are endless, and many car dealers said: "The New Year's Day holiday has sold about 10 more units than in previous years. ”

For the boom in new cars on New Year's Day in 2022, the reporter noted that in addition to the expectation of "buying a car before the New Year", the New Year's preferential activities launched by 4S stores during New Year's Day are also an important factor in attracting consumers to buy cars. Although there are few large cash promotions on the market at present, some practical gift packages such as free maintenance, 0 interest and low down payment are still expected. Some car dealers have launched interesting "blind boxes" and golden egg smashing activities for the New Year's Day holiday, so that car buyers have the opportunity to get more benefits. Mr. Li, a citizen who came to see the car, told reporters that buying a car on New Year's Day is a "just right" time point for him, "both time to choose, and there are discounts to enjoy, today is to order!" ”

Buying is strategic

The reporter also found that the current hot models of many car brands are in a state of tight supply, and it takes half a month to wait for the car to be picked up, or even longer. If you pick "slowly and leisurely", it may be difficult to mention the new car before the Spring Festival.

Mr. Yang of the above-mentioned joint venture brand store said: "Due to the obvious interest of users in large models years ago, coupled with chips and other issues, the supply of large vehicles has been very tight, some cars now need to wait two to four weeks, and some models need to wait for two months. Miss Zeng, a luxury brand car dealer, also revealed to reporters that many large cars are not in stock, it takes 1 and a half months to pick up cars, and some small cars need about 10 days to pick up cars. A sales staff of a Japanese brand store also told reporters that only some models can be ordered before the Spring Festival. Car dealers have said that before the Spring Festival has always been the peak sales season of the car market, since last year, affected by chips, many new car production capacity is relatively tight.

Mr. Yang suggested that when buying a car before the Spring Festival, "we should order it as soon as possible and ask for a clear delivery time." At the same time, car dealers also said that for consumers who want to buy and change cars years ago, there is no need to pursue popular models or popular configurations, and rational use of financial solutions can make the choice of car purchases more extensive.

"Green car" is popular

"Green cars" without lottery numbers are very popular during the New Year's Day holiday. On January 3, the reporter saw in a new energy vehicle brand store in Guangzhou that the popularity was very strong, and a pure electric vehicle with a long endurance of 1008 kilometers attracted the attention of consumers. "Many of the people who buy pure electric vehicles are post-90s, and there are family needs and personal daily commuting needs." Miss Wu, a salesperson at the store, said that compared with the same period in previous years, the number of customers who came to buy new energy vehicles increased by more than 50%.

The reporter noted that the current consumer group of the new energy vehicle market is changing. According to data from the China Passenger Car Market Information Association (hereinafter referred to as the "China Passenger Car Market Information Association"), from January to November 2021, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 2.514 million units, an increase of 178.3% year-on-year.

The reporter learned from the interview that although many models are currently in short supply, car companies and stores have launched various financial programs and other promotional packages to attract customers in order to obtain more orders before the Spring Festival. "Since December last year, the sales staff has sent private messages every three to five minutes to ask me to go to the test drive. New Year's Day also pushed me a new preferential policy, calculated to almost 10,000 yuan of preferential treatment. Mr. Wang, a citizen, was recently looking at a new energy SUV, and although the price of the car did not drop, the maintenance and original interior accessories promised by the sales staff still made him move. According to the data of the Association, from January to November 2021, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 13.9%, which was significantly higher than the penetration rate of 5.8% in the previous year.

Source: Yangcheng Evening News