The current marketing model of new cars in the automobile market is mainly divided into 2 types, one is direct sales, that is, car manufacturers establish online malls and offline physical stores, and sell cars directly to consumers, Tesla and Weilai are the most typical examples.
The second is the dealer model, which is what we often call the 4S store. Authorized by the main engine factory, the car is sold in the designated area and the corresponding after-sales service is provided. At present, some new car-making forces mainly use network direct sales, while more car companies are choosing dealer models.
Many people may be curious, the existence of 4S stores, not only will divide the profits of manufacturers, but also lead to consumers to buy cars at a higher price, why most car companies, or choose this sales method?
The choice is in the manufacturer
First of all, according to the provisions of the "Implementation Measures for the Administration of Automobile Brand Sales", if there are dealers in a region, car companies are not allowed to directly sell cars to users, but if there is no dealer in this area, manufacturers can choose direct sales, or they can choose to cooperate with dealers, and the choice is actually in the hands of manufacturers.
Inventory is the killer of profits
The reason why auto manufacturers are more inclined to cooperate with dealers is mainly because the cost of inventory is too high.
The production mode of traditional car companies is not to produce according to orders, because the entire cycle of a vehicle from receiving an order and then starting to prepare for procurement and processing, assembly testing, and then transportation delivery will be very long. Moreover, the production equipment of automobile factories cannot be produced without orders, and it is impossible to stop operation without orders. Therefore, manufacturers are using mass production, and there will be a large number of cars that are produced in large quantities and have not had time to sell, which is usually called commodity inventory.
Anyone who understands business operations knows that inventory is the biggest profit killer. For example, Corolla sells 1 million vehicles a year, and the price of each car is 100,000 yuan, and the scale of funds reaches hundreds of billions. If the car company adopts the direct sales model, once the sales volume fluctuates, the financial pressure of the company will be very large.
However, if you choose to cooperate with dealers and transfer the inventory pressure to countless dealers, the pressure of manufacturers will be gone in an instant. Dealers then take the certificate of conformity to the bank to apply for a mortgage loan, to alleviate their own pressure, wait for the owner to buy a car, and then return the funds, so that a cycle of capital use is formed.
The capital pressure of the main engine factory is small
In this model, the pressure of manufacturers is small, dealers can also make money, the only bad thing is that consumers must spend more money. This has also led to the fact that traditional car companies have been more cautious in price reduction promotions, because once the price has dropped, it is very difficult to go back again, but the financial pressure has always existed.
In the network direct sales model like Tesla, the price increase depends entirely on the financial pressure of the company. Recently, the cost has been reduced, the financial pressure is small, it will reduce a wave of prices, small profits and high sales; recently the introduction of new technologies has spent a lot of money, and the financial pressure has become larger, so it will rise a wave of prices to alleviate the pressure.
The biggest advantage of this model is that enterprises and users go forward and retreat together, and under the premise of ensuring the profit margin of bicycles, they can maximize the profits to consumers.
Dropshipping model The cost is too high
The new car-making forces chose the direct sales model, mainly because the sales volume is not high, Tesla delivered 936,100 vehicles worldwide in 2021, an increase of 87.4% year-on-year. Toyota's global sales exceeded 10 million, and Volkswagen also exceeded 8.88 million, which is still under the influence of the epidemic, after the decline in sales.
The cost of the direct operation model is actually very high, such as Weilai has more than 120 offline experience stores in the country, and the experience store in Wangfujing, Beijing, with a rent of 80 million yuan a year.
Xiaopeng Automobile was initially a direct operation model, and later because the cost was too high, it had to choose the dealer model, Nezha Automobile chose to do direct sales stores in first- and second-tier cities, and authorized stores in third- and fourth-tier cities.
When the sales volume reaches a certain volume, the online direct sales + offline authorized sales model has almost become inevitable, if the car company wants to control the cost, the maintenance cost of the direct store and the cost of capital occupation caused by inventory must be the first to be cut.
brief summary
Therefore, in essence, 4S stores are not to provide consumers with better services, but a means for car manufacturers to share the pressure of funds and dealers to make money. All these operating costs will eventually be converted to the selling price of a car and subsequent maintenance costs, which will be borne by the consumer.