Recently visited Zhihu, saw a very interesting question: why is the domestic Weilai car so expensive?
It's like suddenly someone asks "Why is the English name weilai not WeiLai, but NIO", and it takes a brain teaser...
Back to the point.
The questioner also said: Recently watched Tesla and Weilai, I can't understand why the domestic Weilai car is so expensive, where is the price?
For this question, I feel that it will be understood as a two-fold meaning: First, why do domestic cars sell so expensive? Second, why is Weilai so expensive?
If it is the first one.
Then I think that domestic cars should not be put on the "cheap and cheap" hat by death, even if most Chinese car companies have started from the low end, but who stipulates that domestic cars cannot be sold expensive?
Of course, the expensive mentioned here is relative, depending on who is compared. If you compare Weilai with Rolls-Royce, it will not be expensive.
And the definition of expensive is also vague, is the pricing higher than BBA even if it is expensive? Is it expensive to exceed the budget? It's possible.
Once an apple advertisement said: expensive is not its shortcomings, but your shortcomings.
Although this sentence makes me very unhappy... But there seems to be no reason to refute it...
Through the question, I guess the questioner compared the Model Y and the Nio ES6 and the like, after all, the price is closer.
Here is also a digression, Weilai can actually be cheaper than Tesla.
For example, the latest Weilai ET5, choosing the BaaS battery rental program, the starting price can also be reduced to 258,000, which is cheaper than the 265,652 million that the domestic Model 3 started...
And I saw the answer below the question and found that everyone actually pays more attention to the second meaning:
Why is WEILAI selling so expensive?
First put aside the statement that it is not expensive, try to find the answer in another way: the current domestic brand Weilai pricing 328,000-62.4 million this range, in the end is it feasible?
If you look at it from the perspective of the pure tram market, I think it is no problem.
A simple screening, the current domestic sales of 30-60 million pure trams, covering domestic and foreign brands, there are only 39 cars, while there are 274 cars below 300,000.
That is to say, as a new power brand, Weilai originally chose high-end positioning for a reason, after all, the competition below 300,000 is quite fierce, and the chance of winning is a little bigger when moving closer to the less competitive market.
Then in a series of responses, one of them sparked a heated debate.
The respondent listed some of Weilai's suppliers, and then some people seemed to suddenly "understand"!
Because in this part of the suppliers, there are many from overseas brands, such as the exterior mirrors are made of Mekron, the wipers are all used by Bosch and so on.
The point of contention is: is it that the domestic brand Weilai is so expensive to sell, because of "de-localization"?
People who stand on this point of view feel that Weilai is because it uses more international brand suppliers, so the higher cost of parts is stacked up, which makes the price of the car more expensive, in fact, Weilai can choose a cheaper supplier brand, and then suppress the price.
In fact, no brand can produce any parts of a car by itself, and then complete the assembly of the whole vehicle and so on.
Even if they could, it is estimated that no one would be willing to do so.
After all, a car needs a lot of accessories, to produce all their own how many fields must be involved, manpower and material resources consume a huge amount.
In the industrial age, everyone pursues efficiency, globalizes the industrial chain, and cooperates with suppliers. To put it bluntly, who knows who to do, has money to earn together.
However, most people who stand on this point of view believe that since Weilai is a domestic brand, is it not necessary to improve the localization rate of parts?
There are even people who are flattered: so buying Tesla is to support domestic production, buying Weilai is not the opposite.
This sentence is not unreasonable, after all, in 2021, there is news that the localization rate of Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory has basically reached 90%...
To be honest, Tesla can achieve a localization rate of 90%, which is higher than some domestic brands...
Of course, there are reasons for the agreement between Tesla and the Shanghai government, such as increasing the localization rate and driving the development of the domestic industrial chain.
In short, this part of the respondents is very firm in the view that "Weilai can further increase the localization rate".
Another point of view in the comment area: Nio decided to enter the high-end market at the beginning, so it used more expensive parts to ensure products.
Regarding this opposition, I try to describe it with this diagram... The results reflected in the two equations are actually not the same.
The former can be called "stacking price", and the latter can be called "value for money".
It mainly depends on what you think.
In addition, there is another thing called BOM cost, which can also be considered, such as this picture that is also circulating on Zhihu. (Illustration only, authenticity to be confirmed)
BOM cost can be understood as the sum of the cost of all parts, this chart gives Tesla, Weilai, ideal three BOM cost comparison.
However, the authenticity of this picture has yet to be confirmed, and at most it can only be seen.
Of course, we are eager for bom cost disclosure, just like going to the 4S shop to repair the car, eager to check the price of all the parts to see how much money they have been pitted.
WEILAI did not disclose it, but GAC NIO did.
BOM cost can be said to be the secret of car companies, at least not many people are willing to disclose, and GAC Weilai is the first. In 2020, GAC Weilai will "unreservedly" disclose its boM list and costs to the public.
The cost of this material adds up to 300024 yuan, more than 300,000 yuan. At the same time, GAC Weilai also said that the comprehensive net profit margin of hardware is not higher than 1%.
Of course, GAC Weilai can not be equated with Weilai to see, I mainly want to say that the pricing of a car and the BOM cost also have a lot to do with it. (However, weilai's bom cost in the early stage is not particularly well controlled)
And those who support the "value for money" view will say:
"A battery of about 10W+, an all-aluminum body of 4W+, the supply chain is a first-line supplier, and the cost of single-vehicle materials is close to 30W." Coupled with various marketing costs and so on, taking the Weilai ES8 as an example, the cost of bicycles will be 45W+"...
Of course, those who support the "stacked price increase" view also fight back:
"I saw a post in the rear of the other car is plastic plus electroplating, the cost of 5 mao, Weilai is the overall aluminum block cutting, the cost of 500 pieces. I don't know what other people think, but if I were the owner, I wouldn't really be willing to pay for these senseless costs. ”
In short, only to discuss the problem of "why does Weilai sell so expensive", you and I may have different ideas, and we do not say that anyone must be wrong, after all, everyone's starting point is different.
Let's take a look at Weilai's recent revenue, among which, Weilai's gross profit margin has turned from negative to positive since the second quarter of 2020. In 2021, the gross profit margin of NIO's vehicle sales in the second quarter was 20.3%, and the gross profit margin of vehicle sales in the third quarter was 18.0%.
However, NIO's net loss in the third quarter of 2021 was RMB830 million, an increase of RMB243 million compared to a net loss of RMB587 million in the second quarter.
Gross profit is positive, but net profit is negative? That is to say, the cars sold by Weilai may have made money, but the entire brand is at a loss. For example, the net profit should be included in the 1.19 billion yuan spent by Weilai in research and development in the same period.
So weilai sells expensive?
It's more about whether it's worth it or not and how much it costs. For example, spending 400,000 yuan to buy a 1.5T Mercedes-Benz, some people feel fragrant, some people feel stupid.
Aside from the cost factor, Weilai's services and power exchanges have also been discussed by everyone. Of course, there are also two factions...
One party: I spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy Weilai, in addition to the configuration of high materials, what I bought is the service!
The other side: do not deny that Weilai's service is good, but Weilai is not stupid, the wool is out of the sheep, you think that the good service has been reflected in the car price, and the money has long been collected.
Therefore, WRAI is expensive depends on whether you recognize its product strength and practices, for example, for people who buy BBA level, if you can buy NIO with better texture and better service, it is of course worth it, and vice versa.
The truth is like the difference between luxury brands and ordinary brands.
A T-shirt hanging a luxury brand LOGO will sell for tens of thousands of yuan, and people will say how our materials are and how our store services are. Being spat on is a common thing, but it does not affect the person who buys it.
In the end, the car is always a commodity, expensive or not expensive, buy or not buy their own words~