Author: Three hours of fish head soup
Recently, according to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" report, Xiaopeng Automobile announced the price of the latest subsidies for all models. The highest increase was 5900 yuan, and the highest price of Xiaopeng P7 reached 409,900 yuan. In the context of this price increase, Xiaopeng Automobile only adjusted the price, and the configuration parameters of the car did not change at all.
But Xiaopeng is not the first car company to raise the price of its products, Tesla's rise is even greater and earlier, and it began to raise the price of Model 3 and Model Y on December 31, with the highest increase of 21,000 yuan. The price of FAW-Volkswagen's two new energy vehicles has also been raised, and the two pure electric models of ID.6 CROZZ and ID.4 CROZZ will increase by 5400 yuan as a whole.
According to industry analysts, this wave of price increases is mainly caused by car companies responding to problems such as the decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles and the increase in exclusive car insurance rates for new energy vehicles, and many new energy vehicle companies are planning to raise manufacturer guidance prices.
At this time, many netizens who want to buy a car said that they regretted not "getting on the car" earlier; some netizens said that the price of new energy vehicles was increased by what, and the price after the price increase was not as good as buying a fuel car. Overall, most netizens believe that they have been "cut leeks", and the cost of subsidies has been passed on to themselves. However, industry insiders pointed out that it is expected that the impact of subsidy decline is very slight and short-lived, and the loss of subsidies to consumers is generally around 5,000 yuan, which is not a very drastic range, and the non-financial subsidy policy is expected to continue to increase, such as new energy vehicle parking fee reduction. At the same time, with the advancement of technology, the performance of new energy vehicles is expected to improve again.
However, what car companies see here is not such a "superficial" situation, and car companies hope to distinguish who is the best-selling high-end brand in new energy vehicles in this wave of small price increases, and who will gradually disappear in the long river of history.
Fame, the high-end of a lifetime
If you look at the sales report card of "Wei Xiaoli", the representative of the new force of car manufacturing, in 2021, it is undoubtedly Xiaopeng who is the most beautiful. The total delivery of Xiaopeng Automobile in the whole year reached 98,155 units, and WEILAI delivered 91,429 new cars, with an ideal delivery of 90,491 units. However, it is worth noting that the ideal one model alone has reached the same sales performance of Xiaopeng and Weilai, and its product positioning is terrifying.
The growth rate of "Wei Xiaoli" is extremely fast, but they are not the fastest growing car companies in this market. Whether it is Xiaopeng, Weilai or Ideal, they are all facing challenges from various forces. On the one hand, a variety of new brands are emerging in an endless stream, on the other hand, traditional car companies still have a strength that cannot be underestimated in the market.
As the most vocal new energy vehicle player in China, BYD sold more than 580,000 new energy vehicles in 2021, an increase of 221%; SAIC-GM-Wuling ranked second with a retail sales performance of more than 430,000 vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 177.3% year-on-year, of which Hongguang MINI accounted for more than 90% of the sales; Nezha, as the main brand of Hezhong Automobile, ranked 14th with 69,674 vehicles sold in the whole year, but the year-on-year growth rate reached a staggering 361.7%.
Image source: Multiplying Association
The situation wei Xiaoli is facing can be described as having a tiger before and a wolf after it, but what they are practicing is "knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, and preferring to go to the tiger mountains." Each of them hopes to base themselves on the middle and high end and become the BBA of the future. But the competitors on this road are very strong.
Regardless of byddir Qin, BYD Han and Tesla Model 3, Xiaopeng P7's annual sales are more than 60,000 units, which is nearly 2 months less than the 73,000 units of GAC Ayan S; although the ideal ONE has become the fifth place in the high-end SUV retail list in 2021, second only to the Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz GLC, there is still a huge difference compared with the sales of the first Tesla Model Y. Although "Wei Xiaoli" hopes to become the three small strengths of high-end models in the future, the situation they are facing now is actually more complicated.
However, there is no certain strength who dares to say that they can become the future BBA. Li Bin said at the annual NIO Day some time ago that he hopes to turn the BBA into the NBA in the future. I guess he may not mean to change one of the Bs and replace it with Weilai, he may mean that he hopes that Weilai can become the best choice for high-end cars in the hearts of the Chinese people. However, a number of different surveys show that in the mid-range models of 200,000 to 400,000 yuan, consumers will still be more inclined to choose fuel vehicles.
Look at the protagonists of the new car-making forces.
Xiaopeng Automobile's best-selling model is now the P7, with a price of 220,000 yuan and a maximum cruising range of 706km. Xiaopeng Automobile focuses on its own Xpilot intelligent driving system, as well as the "cool" appearance. The design of Xiaopeng P7 is indeed very technological, whether it is the shape of the sports feeling or the front and back through the lights, it is very distinctive. However, there are still many people who criticize the mileage of Xiaopeng Car as discounted, the control is not neat enough, and the details need to be improved.
NIO is one of the most talked about car brands in 2021. Its main products ES8, ES6, EC6 have very similar characteristics, international avant-garde design modeling, unique BaaS service and power exchange system, excellent service, so that Weilai in the tone of the first voice. The ET5 and ET7 released by Weilai will compete with Tesla, Krypton, Xiaopeng, and even Audi and BMW in cars. However, some accidents in Weilai in 2021 also make people realize that intelligent driving is not foolproof, and pure electric SUVs have brought a lot of mileage anxiety to some consumers, and the people with higher product prices are more free for car purchase choices.
The ideal ONE is indeed a god car, whether in terms of product strength or cost performance, it is difficult for consumers to refuse. But the disadvantage is that the ideal car is only one model, to go further, it must not be "one trick to eat all over the sky", and there is no "eat all over the sky". Around 300,000, some car owners can choose a more space-sized Volkswagen Tuang, while others think that Highlander is more stable. Even in new energy vehicles, although the ideal ONE is very "family", it is still lacking in high-end, especially in terms of noise control. Another point is that as a "golden oil" product under the technical iteration in the next 10 years, it is difficult to say how far it can go. But a car of 300,000 is not easy to do this, so the ideal ONE is indeed a more successful product.
But back to the high-end, the most important thing is the sense of experience. If the endurance is not done, the intelligence mentioned is not intelligent, the service is not thoughtful, the experience is like that, the so-called high-end sense will no longer exist, and the product power will be greatly reduced. As a representative of the new forces of car manufacturing, there is still a direction that can be worked on and improved in the future.
End
New energy vehicles already have a completely different logic from fuel vehicles. Everyone hopes to become the "BBA" of the future, and everyone hopes that their products can develop by leaps and bounds and continue to sell well. Therefore, no matter when, as long as there is a systemic risk in the automotive market, whether the risk is large or small, car companies hope to seize the opportunity during this time to beat their competitors.
In an era of rising together, if you want to stand out, you must be able to fight a good battle, but at the same time, you also need not forget your original intention and plan for the future. A company's own strategy, if aggressive, is bound to adversely affect some stakeholders, so balance is extremely important.
As a new force in car manufacturing, "Wei Xiaoli" has a group of consumers with higher acceptance, these consumers do not regard the brand and traditional brands as a tangled point, they also have the premise and era of telling their own stories. To truly base on mid-to-high-end cars, many models still have to learn more from some Western brands, who have told their own stories, and they still retain the proud cultural symbols that can be passed on. Under the existing level of science and technology, China's domestic brands should have broader prospects for development. As a contender for high-end car brands, "Wei Xiaoli" is not enough to just pile materials at high prices, but also needs to think of high-end feelings, achieve high-end experience, and let car owners enjoy the power of the brand, which is the direction that high-end new energy vehicles should look for.