It is said that the car market will be difficult in 2021, which is true. But who is the hardest car market in 2021? I'm afraid I can't tell the difference between high and low, isn't there such a sentence: Happy people are equally happy, and unfortunate people have their own misfortunes.
In the 2021 car market, in fact, not only those ordinary brands are living hard, but even luxury brands are the same. Although the surface is glossy, the survival pressure behind it is even greater. Today, let's take stock of the sales of luxury brands in 2021 and see how big the gap is between the same luxury brands.
BBA: BMW is firmly in the first place, and Audi has fallen significantly
When it comes to luxury brands, it is impossible to avoid BBA. In fact, the first echelon of each year is nothing more than Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. However, with the continuous changes in the car market and the change of consumer demand, the three BBA companies can also be regarded as feng shui rotation. Taking 2021 as a point of view, according to the currently known information, BMW should be firmly seated at the top of this year's BBA.
Although among the three BBA companies, only BMW has not yet released sales data in China in 2021. However, according to the data of the other two, it is good to infer that Mercedes-Benz will sell 758863 vehicles in China in 2021, while Audi will sell 700088 vehicles in China in 2021. As for BMW, according to the known results of 669637 vehicles in the first three quarters, BMW with obvious growth in the second half of the year is obviously easy to reach the top, so the 2021 luxury brand sales champion in China can basically be determined to be BMW.
To interject a digression, in terms of global sales, the BMW brand is also quite strong. According to overseas media reports, BMW's single brand will sell more than 2.2 million cars worldwide in 2021 (excluding rolls-Royce and MINI brand sales under the BMW Group). The news was subsequently confirmed by a BMW Group spokesperson. In contrast, the old rival Mercedes-Benz delivered 2.093 million vehicles worldwide. This also means that after five years, BMW surpasses Mercedes-Benz to become the global champion in luxury car sales.
Objectively speaking, this is indeed the first time since 2016 that BMW has returned to the first place in global sales, and looking at the domestic market, Mercedes-Benz's performance in recent years is indeed strong enough, why will it be surpassed by BMW in 2021? Objectively speaking, the author believes that there are two main reasons. First of all, the Mercedes-Benz brand has been strong since 2016, the products are getting better and better to sell, the price is getting harder and harder, and some products have become unwritten rules. In contrast, BMW is slightly better in this regard, and there is indeed a certain price difference between the same level of products for a long time, and in the context of the overall economic downturn, it is natural to choose a more affordable BMW.
Secondly, the second point is Mercedes-Benz's official statement: lack of core. Objectively speaking, the lack of core is not limited to domestic, but global. Therefore, the difficulty of luxury cars is more obvious in imported models. But it can also be seen that BMW's supply chain system is indeed more solid, in short, more cars, naturally sell well.
In contrast, Audi appears to be the one most affected by the chip crisis. Especially since the second half of the year, several brand pillar models have declined, especially models represented by A6L and A4L, which have led to price increases due to lack of cores, which has directly affected sales.
Second-tier luxury: Some of the performance is eye-catching, and the watershed is becoming more and more obvious
According to our conventional division, except for BBA, they are all second-tier luxury brands. In fact, it is also true, from the perspective of volume, BBA has indeed opened up the gap with other luxury brands. However, the performance of these luxury brands is still remarkable. In the case of Cadillac, although the base is not as good as the BBA, it set a new record for sales in China in 2021. According to the data, the cumulative sales of the Cadillac brand in the whole year 233117 vehicles, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year. It is worth noting that the models that have become the pillar of sales are the new products that Cadillac has launched in recent years, such as the CT5, which has achieved a sales growth of 37.9% year-on-year. The XT6, on the other hand, also had a 43.1% year-on-year increase. This fully demonstrates Cadillac's current precise control of the market, of course, in addition to the brilliant products and affordable prices.
In contrast, Lexus, which was touted excessively, performed mediocrely in 2021, with lexus selling more than 200,000 units in 2021, according to the data. However, this has made a lot of money for the pure import lexus. After all, many of its models not only have no preferential treatment, but even need to increase the price of sales, bicycle profits may be several times more than others, and the small days are naturally moist.
Also growing is Volvo, a luxury brand from Northern Europe. According to the data, volvo cars' total sales in China in 2021 reached 171393 units, an increase of 3.1% year-on-year. Among them, the top beam column is undoubtedly XC60, and the annual sales reached 65,036 vehicles, an increase of 6% year-on-year. The flagship SUV product, XC90, also has a 16% year-on-year increase. Of course, in addition to fuel vehicles, Volvo's RECHARGE models are also indispensable, achieving a 96% increase in the whole year.
Of course, those who eat meat drink soup, and those who drink soup are hungry. For example, the same Japanese luxury brand, Lexus eats meat, while Infiniti is somewhat lonely, according to data, Infiniti's total sales in 2021 is about 8,000 vehicles. Therefore, not long ago, Infiniti officially announced that it was officially merged into dongfeng Nissan's management system as an independent business unit, officially becoming the third brand of Dongfeng Nissan, which may be the best way out for Infiniti.
Conclusion: Through the inventory, it is not difficult to see that although some brands in the second-tier camp are also continuing to exert their strength, there is a big gap with the first echelon. At least in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, the BBA still firmly holds the right to speak. However, with the gradual mainstream of new energy, and now the major luxury brands have also laid out the new energy market in a timely manner, what kind of ranking will appear in the future on this new track, it is still very worth looking forward to.