As the most controversial new MPV car in 2021, GAC Toyota's flagship MPV Xena has always been regarded by the industry as the key model that is most likely to impact the high-end MPV market hegemony Buick GL8.
The reason for its popularity is that since the official listing of Sai Na in October last year, it has often increased the price of tens of thousands of yuan to pick up the car and the hot selling atmosphere of short supply, stimulating the desire of Chinese consumers to buy.
After all, we've seen this "Veblen effect" in "Toyotas" like the Highlander, Lexus ES, and Alpha (the Veblen effect: the degree of consumer demand for a commodity increases because its list price is higher than lower).
According to the sales data in December 2021, the retail sales volume of the Xena terminal is only 931 vehicles, which is not even in the sales list of the MPV segment.
A stone stirs up a thousand layers of waves. "The mark-up car finally doesn't work?" "Sai Na high open low go?" ...... For a time, such sounds kept coming. It was not until the beginning of February this year, when GAC Toyota officially announced the data of 5,399 new cars sold in January, that these doubts were finally broken.
GAC Toyota officially said: "The 'Toyota Global Flagship MPV' was officially delivered in early January, with the first full monthly terminal sales of 5399 units, of which the top platinum version accounted for 40%. ”
This statement also indirectly responds to the previous sales of 931 units. In this sense, that is, last December may only be a small-scale delivery, and January this year is the "normal level" of full delivery after Xena's listing. Admittedly, given the capacity problems caused by chip shortage and supply chain instability, this also explains the reason.
After all, since the second half of last year, Toyota has carried out many production cuts due to the shortage of parts, and Toyota's two joint venture car companies in China have a different decline from the conventional in August and October 2021, which is a good illustration.
Continuing back to Sai Na's performance of 5399 vehicles in January, how much is the "gold content" of Sai Na's sales data?
In fact, in the mid-to-high-end MPV market, although the current sales data such as Alissen and Buick GL8 have not yet released January 2022 sales data, according to the data of December 2021 as a comparison, Xena's performance can almost rank among the top three.
It is worth noting that this achievement is still achieved in the context of relatively limited production capacity, long pick-up cycle and price increase of existing cars. We also learned from a dealer in the Chongqing area of GAC Toyota that there are not many vehicles in Sai Na now, the quota of no more than 10 units per month, and they are all predetermined models, and the time for affordable cars to be picked up is not fixed for more than half a year, and 40,000-50,000 decorations need to be selected for cash out.
From this sales background, this also proves to some extent that Xena's "high value theory" has been recognized by the end market.
It is reported that at present, most of the customers who come to the store to consult Xena are mainly to change cars or buy more, and most of the user groups are also self-employed with relatively good economic conditions, and the proportion of household demand is high. In the proportion of model sales, the top version can basically account for 50%, while the other part is mainly based on the sub-top and high-end versions.
Therefore, even though the sales of Xena are still in their infancy, and there is still a long way to go before the Monthly Sales of the Buick GL8 has exceeded 20,000 units, in the home MPV market, Xena has already started the name of "high value". In the context of the upgrading of the consumption structure and the rare number of competitors of the same level who can compete with Xena, the prospects of Xena are still relatively clear.
It is worth noting that the challenges faced by Xena are not small. As we all know, the size of the MPV market has not been similar to that of cars and SUVs. According to the data of the Association of Passenger Vehicles, the annual sales volume of the MPV market in 2021 will be 1.079 million units, accounting for only 5.3% of the entire passenger car market. In the high-end MPV market, only buick GL's August sales have always remained above 10,000 units.
In the new round of product planning of many car companies, including Weipai, Ideal, Hongqi, and Extreme Krypton, there are new product plans for high-end MPV, and Lantu has also appeared in the field of new energy, and at the same time, FAW Toyota will also launch high-end MPV models. In the context of the limited consumption potential of the MPV market, the competitive pressure of Xena is not small.
But fortunately, at present, Xena has gradually entered the right track, and the first full delivery month to achieve more than 5,000 vehicles is a good start. In the new product cycle, Xena is also expected to continue to attract more user groups.
According to the above-mentioned surveyed dealers, Toyota's production capacity is much better now, basically there is no shortage of cars, and the Current Leiling and C-HR in the library are still relatively sufficient.
According to GAC Toyota's plan, gaga motor Toyota will sprint to the sales target of 1 million vehicles this year. From the perspective of product structure, although Xena has limited scale contribution rate, it will also open up a new growth engine for GAC Toyota in the MPV market. As for whether the follow-up sales will be like the "opening red" in January, it may be interesting to wait and see.