Remember the Chengdu Auto Show 4 months ago, surrounded by spectators of the "domestic Senna"?
Today, it's cold!
At the end of October, GAC Toyota announced that the "domestic Sena" - Xena SIENNA was officially listed, priced at 309,800 yuan to 405,800 yuan. Subsequently, the official released a promotional poster showing that the car exceeded 10,000 orders within a month of pre-sale, and used copywriting such as "inevitable, setting off a new trend of mid-to-high-end MPV" to cheer for itself.
The crazy momentum of manufacturers and media has made this MPV receive unprecedented attention, and the 4S store responsible for sales has keenly smelled the "business opportunity to make money". According to Toyota's usual method, the tried-and-true method of selling at a higher price has once again been "sacrificed".
"Domestic Senna" has not yet been listed, the news of the price increase has been overwhelming, and even the "unspoken rule" of less than 60,000 cars has been reached in the market. At the beginning of the listing, this atmosphere reached its peak, even if the entry-level models in the early 300,000 were in the 4S store, they needed to install nearly 100,000 yuan of decoration in the 4S store, and the sales could barely agree to the year-end car.
Looking at its decoration details, it is even more outrageous, what 8,000 yuan of front film, 30,000 yuan of electric pedals, 20,000 yuan of whole car plating, 5,000 yuan of driving recorder ... · · The "strange goods can be lived" is vividly interpreted.
But the punch in the face came so quickly.
In the November 2021 MPV sales ranking released by the Association, GAC Toyota Xena SIENNA did not appear in the list. And some media dug up the number of new car insurance for this car, and it was even less than 600 units, which made people extremely sad.
What about the good monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles?
According to the sales of a gagac Toyota 4S store in a certain place, the car's current price increase system is also on the verge of collapse, from the previous price increase of 60,000-100,000, to the price increase of 40,000 in November, and then to the current price increase of 20,000, still failed to stimulate the sales of Xena SIENNA.
In fact, the problem is very simple, from the data released by the Association of Passenger Transport, it can be seen that the MPV market segment itself belongs to the relatively unpopular positioning, and on the Wuling Hongguang and Buick GL8 two cars are supporting the head sales. Among them, Wuling Hongguang positioned the low end, and the Buick GL8 positioned the business, coupled with the filling of other models for the central part, it can be said that the Chinese MPV market has not had much cake to the Sena SIENNA with such a low cost performance.
Another point is the issue of capacity. Behind Toyota's previous price increase strategy is actually a serious shortage of production capacity or supply, extremely high demand encounters extremely low supply, and the price of products rises sharply under the squeeze of both sides.
As for the domestic Senna, there is no such problem at all, the initial GAC Toyota Xena SIENNA production capacity is about 6000 units / month, and according to the Pacific Auto Network, in September 2022 FAW Toyota version of the domestic Senna will also get 5320 units / month production capacity, combined north and south Toyota production capacity will reach 102,600 units / year, basically in the PPV sales list TOP 3 position.
Such a high capacity supply, but also want to control the market, is tantamount to a fool's dream, according to this trend of development, at the end of 2022, domestic Senna discount of 3-5 million yuan is not impossible.
Returning to the question about the positioning of the "domestic Senna", according to the current vision, this car does have certain advantages over competitors in terms of practicality, power, and fuel economy. However, its disadvantages are also obvious, that is, the initial design is too biased towards the US market, so the workmanship materials are relatively rough, which does not meet the expectations of domestic consumers at this price.
In the future, after the market stabilizes, it should be below the Buick GL8 above the Odyssey, and the real market transaction price should be the same.
Therefore, from the failure of the "domestic Senna" price increase strategy, we can see that the concept of car purchase of Chinese consumers is becoming more and more rational. And China's auto market is not a "leek garden" that people can slaughter at will.