In view of the current situation in the Chinese auto market, many entry-level luxury brands seem to be not living very well, from the BBA entry products, the best sales audi A3 after a new generation, the overall sales are the best, and only 60281 vehicles of the annual performance.
As the hegemon of the A-class car market that year, A3's achievements are enough to show that in the 200,000 family car market, there are already models with more value than such products, such as hybrid models of domestic brands.
Of course, there are many worse than A3, such as the product power due to the BBA's Cadillac CT4, which also suffered Waterloo.
I remember a few years ago, an advertisement of "no back-drive, not luxury" was brushed, and the driving force behind it was Cadillac from SAIC-GM, and since then, Cadillac's CT series has successfully entered people's field of vision.
In the Car play culture in the Chinese market, the rear drive seems to have been given more mystery, so when many friends think that within 300,000 people can only choose the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ, Cadillac unexpectedly launched a cheaper CT4.
The Cadillac CT4, launched in April 2020, sold 16,000 vehicles for the whole year, which is a fairly good result, but after 2021, CT4 only delivered less than 15,000 vehicles, which is undoubtedly on the decline.
As an entry-level luxury brand, it can use the sincerity of the back drive to open the user's wallet, in fact, Cadillac has made a lot of efforts, but the performance reflected in the sales volume does not seem to be so satisfactory.
Why is this situation, is cadillac's rear-drive car in the market of 200,000 not fragrant?
To find the answer we must find the answer through a variety of ways, because from the perspective of product strength alone, cadillac CT4 is not so bad, from the design point of view CT4 is not lost to any opponent of the same level, this is from the Bottom of the American car, and in the configuration of the car, there is no sign of backwardness.
The 2.0T engine is the most sincere in the same class, the BBA is a small displacement engine, and the front drive + dual clutch transmission is the majority, CT4 can directly give 200 + horsepower + 8AT + rear drive combination, in essence, has been on top of the BBA.
So why is the CT4, which is so invincible in terms of product strength, not reflected in sales?
The only thing I can think of is brand power.
In the early stage of competition in the BBA, Cadillac's product strength has been relatively old, most of them are mainly imported products, and product names are difficult to remember, although these are old things in the past, but in cadillac's most critical years, it did not grasp the pulse of the market, resulting in a serious decline in brand power.
With that, Cadillac's products have been tepid in the market, because it is difficult to find a breakthrough from it, and even the current product force such as CT4 has never been able to enter people's hearts.
The retention rate is actually an important reference standard for people to choose a car at present, with the increase of young user groups, the frequency of everyone changing cars has also increased, which is a huge test for American cars with a three-year retention rate of less than 70%.
Therefore, even if the product force, configuration, and design can grasp people's psychology, it is impossible to surpass the opponent in terms of comprehensive strength, but it is a big problem.
Finally, in fact, the author also wants to say that in the current Chinese market, electrified mid-range products have become a new choice for many users, and they are also concentrated in the price range of about 200,000, which also leads to people ignoring the products of traditional brands, which is also one of the reasons for the decline in sales of entry-level models of luxury brands such as BBA.
From the perspective of the longitudinal axis of time, the speed of Cadillac is always a beat slower, the speed of renaming and replacing is actually only after the full popularization of electrification products, and Cadillac's electrification products are only just debuting, so this is not only the time that is delayed, but also the sales of Cadillac in the market.