Author | Caijing New Media Ming Hao Editor | Jiang Shizhou
Entering 2022, as various luxury brands have successively announced sales results, the pattern of China's luxury car market in 2021 has gradually become clear. Although in the past year, the epidemic, lack of cores, insufficient supply of accessories and other issues still affect the entire automobile market, but according to the data of the Association, china's luxury car market still maintained a year-on-year growth rate of 4.9% in 2021, harvesting cumulative sales of 2.652 million vehicles. Compared with the overall 4.4% year-on-year growth rate of the passenger car market, the growth momentum of luxury cars still outperformed the market.
However, the data of the association does not count imported brands such as Porsche and Bentley, nor does it count other new car-making forces other than Tesla. Therefore, if we zoom in and look farther, we can find many new trends and changes in the luxury car market, and these changes may change the pattern of the entire luxury car market in the future.
The top of the list is still the top three of the Ashkenazi, and you chase me to continue the situation
In China, the BBA has been leading the entire luxury brand for many years, and 2021 is no exception. These three German luxury car companies, from Europa To North America, came to the land of China and still did not give up the rhythm of you chasing me.
In China, 2021 still seems to be BMW's top pick. This is the third consecutive year that BMW has won the first sales crown in the luxury car market in China, and as for the old rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi, they have encountered some troubles and can only be relegated to second and third respectively.
In 2021, bmw and MINI brands delivered a total of 846,000 new vehicles in the Chinese market, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year, breaking sales records since entering China in 1994 and becoming the only BBA brand to achieve positive growth. Mercedes-Benz and Audi have cumulatively sold 759,000 and 700,000 units in China in the past year, down 2.0% and 3.6% year-on-year, respectively.
Perhaps more pleasing to BMW than to winning first place and continuing to extend its lead with its old rivals. In 2021, BMW's advantage over Mercedes-Benz increased from 2,997 vehicles last year to 87,000 vehicles, 146,000 more than the third place Audi, winning the throne of China's luxury brand sales champion.
The strength of the Chinese market has also driven BMW's global sales. In 2021, the BMW Group (BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands) delivered a total of 2.522 million new cars worldwide, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year, and BMW's single brand exceeded 2.2 million units, surpassing Mercedes-Benz after five years to become the global luxury car sales champion. As the world's largest single market, which accounts for more than 1/3 of the world, the Chinese market is indispensable.
Despite the momentum, BMW still has concerns about the future. Although it started earlier in the field of new energy, as of now, BMW has not been able to come up with a real fist product in the terminal market, the sales volume of 21,800 units of iX3 in the whole year is not as good as the single-month sales of Model Y in recent months, and the iX that has just been launched cannot support the sales of new energy series in a short period of time because of the higher price. At the same time, several recalls within a year of the launch of iX3 have also made many consumers doubt the stability of its new energy products.
At the same time, among the three BBA companies, BMW is currently the only manufacturer that insists on using a universal platform that supports fuel and new energy at the same time, and has not launched a pure electric platform, how to let consumers understand the value and advantages of the cross-energy universal platform will be a big problem in front of BMW. For BMW, if it wants to hold the championship in the era of electrification and transformation, it still needs to fight one hard battle after another.
The past year has obviously been a bit depressing for Mercedes. I wanted to catch up in 2021 and take back the lost crown, but I was affected by the epidemic and lack of core. In particular, the lack of cores has seriously affected the production and delivery of Mercedes-Benz products. In addition, frequent product recalls also have a certain negative impact on The brand image of Mercedes-Benz, in 2021 Mercedes-Benz recalled a total of 17 times, the cumulative number of recalls reached 2.78 million, and the recalled vehicles cover almost all the models sold by Mercedes-Benz in China. In addition, Mercedes-Benz's existing domestic models have generally entered the late stage of product life, and the competition with BMW and Audi's new products is relatively weak. The combination of a variety of factors has led to the first negative growth of Mercedes-Benz in the Chinese market in nearly a decade.
Entering 2022, with the launch of the EQ series of new energy products and the consistent strong performance of imported models, Mercedes-Benz's sales performance in China may change.
Among the three BBA companies, Audi is undoubtedly the one who is most deeply injured by the lack of core. Audi, which is plagued by chip supply problems, has unfortunately failed to maintain its growth momentum in the past year. However, thanks to the power of SUV products such as Q5L, Q3, and Q2L, Audi still held the mark of 700,000 vehicles in 2021 and did not fall behind in the competition of the three BBA companies.
With the gradual easing of the lack of core since entering the fourth quarter, Audi has gradually found its rhythm in the terminal market, and sales in December last year increased by more than 30% year-on-year. In addition, Audi also performed well in new energy vehicles and imported models, and the sales of e-tron models in China increased by 68.7% year-on-year, making a good start for subsequent new energy products. Coupled with the landing of SAIC Audi and the gradual entry of products such as A7L into the delivery stage, it is believed that Audi sales in China still have room to rise in the future.
In China's luxury car market, the annual sales of the German "Big Three" have exceeded 700,000 vehicles, which has been more than one position away from the catch-up behind. In the foreseeable future, the situation of the "Big Three" occupying the top of the list should not change much, but the market share between BBA and the competition for the annual sales crown will continue to heat up.
The new person on the old god "fell", and the second-line luxury pattern changed
Unlike BBA, the top three in the luxury car market that does not move and takes turns to sit on the throne, the pattern of second-tier luxury brands is undergoing obvious changes in recent years with the intensification of market competition.
In 2021, the most surprising change for second-tier luxury brands is that Lexus has seen a decline in sales, with sales of 219,100 units falling by 6.9% year-on-year, but also failing to keep up with the growth momentum of the Japanese camp. As a luxury car brand with imported models in all series, the impact of the epidemic and lack of core on Lexus is not small, which also makes the already tight supply of vehicles even more insufficient. Coupled with the frequent emergence of new cars, Lexus is not too much in terms of product update frequency or the number of new energy vehicles, and the weakening of product competitiveness is also an important reason for its sales decline.
If you count the red flag, it must be the most proud second-tier luxury brand last year. In 2021, Hongqi's cumulative sales exceeded 300,000 vehicles, although it did not achieve the original goal of "doubling again", but compared with the annual sales of 200,000 vehicles in 2020, Hongqi still achieved a year-on-year increase of 50.1%.
However, Hongqi still relies on the volume of two relatively low-priced compact cars such as H5 and HS5, and the H9 and E-HS9, which symbolize the brand's flagship, have annual sales of 40,000 and 5,400 vehicles respectively, which is still a certain gap with traditional luxury brands. In addition, Hongqi's inventory backlog is also relatively high, which may become a major obstacle to its annual sales of 400,000 vehicles in 2022.
Cadillac has maintained a good sales performance in the past year, with annual sales of 233,100 units, but only a slight increase of 1.4% year-on-year, which may have something to do with the fact that its products have begun to enter the late life cycle. It can also be seen from the monthly sales that since entering the second half of 2021, Cadillac's sales have gradually declined year-on-year. However, Cadillac is also aware of the risk of declining product competitiveness and will launch a new electric vehicle LYRIQ in 2022, which may further open up the market.
Volvo's situation is quite similar to that of Cadillac, with annual sales of 171,300 vehicles, up 3.1% year-on-year, down a lot from the previous year's 7.6% year-on-year growth. The main reason for this is that the XC40 model has a significant "dragging its legs" phenomenon, and the annual performance of 15,713 units fell by 32.4% year-on-year. Due to the decline in product competitiveness, the XC40 can only rely on price reductions to maintain sales, which further affects the brand image. In addition to consolidating the sales of existing models, Volvo may need to further increase the sales share of electrified models in the future to cope with increasing competition.
Among the remaining second-tier luxury brands, Jaguar Land Rover's sales of 103,800 vehicles and a year-on-year increase of 6.9% are good performance, but the gap with the previous brands has gradually widened. Lincoln, which sold 91,500 vehicles in the whole year and rose by 48.2% year-on-year, was a big surprise, mainly due to the initial results of Lincoln's localization strategy. The annual sales of Acura and Infiniti have been as low as 4 figures, Infiniti has changed from an independent business unit to a management system integrated into Dongfeng Nissan, and Acura has gradually lost its presence in the market. As for the DS that once played the banner of "French luxury", how many people can still remember it?
With the development of China's luxury car market and the further improvement of luxury car penetration, the pattern of second-tier luxury brands will continue to change. The huge impact brought about by the continuous expansion of the new energy vehicle market may bring about more violent changes in the industry.
New energy vehicles are gradually becoming mainstream, and the luxury market may change dramatically
There is no doubt that the automobile industry is experiencing major changes unprecedented in a century, and the new wave of intelligent, electrified, networked, and shared cars has gradually changed the overall pattern of the automobile market, and the luxury car market is naturally no exception. Traditional luxury brands have made efforts to promote new energy models, and vigorously promoting the landing of new energy technologies is the best proof.
However, compared with the "elephant turn" of traditional luxury brands, the new forces of car-making without brand baggage are obviously faster and earlier in the field of new energy, and through more novel technology and user thinking, they are promoting great changes in the industry and gaining the favor of a considerable number of consumers.
We can see this from the fact that Tesla Model Y has sold 169,800 units, becoming the number one in the sales list of high-end SUVs, and the fact that models such as the NIO ES6 and the Ideal ONE have appeared in the sales list of high-end SUVs. Not to mention that in 2021, Tesla Model 3 once equaled BMW 3 Series sales in the luxury car market in a single month, and Weilai ES6, ES8 and Ideal ONE also snatched up many customers who once belonged to BMW X3 and Audi Q5L.
Looking back at the entire 2021, the new car-making forces led by Tesla have been marching all the way, gradually bringing some pressure to traditional luxury brands. Tesla sold more than 322,300 new energy vehicles in China last year, and China has become half of Tesla's country. Followed by Weilai and Ideal, sales have also exceeded 90,000 vehicles, close to the 100,000 mark.
These new electric forces are gradually becoming strong competitors for traditional luxury brands, encroaching on the market share that once belonged to second-tier and even first-tier luxury brands. Perhaps the BBA, which has a relatively strong ability to resist pressure, has not felt the pressure, but the loss of market share of second- and third-tier luxury brands is an indisputable fact.
But compared with the loss of market share, the reshaping of discourse power may make traditional luxury brands panic even more. After all, if consumers' perceptions of luxury cars change, the storytelling style of traditional luxury brands may be difficult to resonate with the new generation of consumers.
As a result, we can see that traditional luxury brands have launched new electrified models and announced their own electrification transformation plans. BMW launched a new i-series electric car, Mercedes-Benz released the EQ series, Audi's MEB platform and e-tron series have been emerging one by one, not to mention Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and even Lexus have released plans for the full electrification of the brand, and some have given a clear timetable.
In the proposition of intelligent electrified vehicles, the future is for traditional luxury brands to catch up and continue to dominate; or new power brands will catch up and reshape the right to speak, and it will take time and the market to give us answers. However, it is foreseeable that the competition in the luxury new energy market will become more and more intense.