If it were you, how would you price the BMW i4?
The day before yesterday, February 22, 2022, a day full of "love (2)", BMW announced that its pure electric vehicle model innovation BMW i4 was officially listed in China, priced at 449,900 - 539,900 yuan.
Active or passive, BMW, which is in the middle of the fuel vehicle market, does not seem to have given up the acceleration of the electric offensive. The i4 is already BMW's second all-electric model to launch earlier this year, following the innovative BMW iX. It can be seen that BMW's sense of urgency for the new energy market and its confidence in the two new i-series models.
What may be contrary to BMW's expectations is that the listing of the i4 has not caused netizens to discuss the first pure electric four-door coupe of the BMW brand that highlights the pedigree, but more opinions point to the pricing of the i4 is too expensive, and the price is high enough to dissuade the fans of the BMW brand.
Is the pricing of the i4 really expensive?
From the market side, this pricing must be high, but it is not that BMW is not working hard enough, but combined with the current domestic pure electricity market environment, its efforts are difficult for consumers to perceive.
The first thing that needs to be clarified is that if you compare the electric models launched by BMW in the past, the price of the i4 actually has a certain sincerity. Perhaps a lesson has been learned from the iX3's sales rout, compared to the price gap between X3 and iX3, the premium from the 4 series to i4 is not so much higher. And at the same time, considering the continuous rise of battery raw materials in the past two years, the pricing of the BMW i4 listed in early 2022 does not have a lion's big opening. However, if the scope of its competitive models is expanded to the entire domestic new energy vehicle market, then the pricing of the BMW i4 is definitely too high.
BMW i4 listing price of 44.99-53.99 million yuan, this price can buy Weilai's high-end ES6, high-equipped ES8, ET7 premiere version; Zhiji L7 angel wheel version; Xiaopeng P7 scissors door version, and the top of the extreme krypton 001. In terms of class, more than half of these models are one level higher than the i4. Configuration not to mention, these new forces / new strength manufacturers launched high-end intelligent electric vehicles, basically are full of skill points, such as air suspension, rear wheel steering and other leapfrog configurations, as well as intelligent cockpit, pilot driving assistance and other scientific and technological dimensions of the experience, BMW i4 is currently not.
Yes, in addition to the appearance of the BMW i4 is similar to the 4 Series, the interior and configuration are almost the same as the fuel version of the 4 Series, only the LCD instrument and the central control screen are connected together, forming a rectangular double screen, as well as a small number of blue elements embellishment, the rest of the interior layout and system level, have not made a distinction.
BMW i4
BMW 4 Series
Compared to the competition, it is not only the gap in configuration and smart cockpit experience. AT present, BMW has not extensively laid out energy replenishment services in the domestic market, and it is more difficult to resist Tesla's overcharge and Weilai power exchange from the perspective of the all-use car scene. Based on this, the price-performance ratio of the BMW i4 will be more unbearable than the configuration of the individual competition, so in general, its pricing is indeed expensive.
There is another point of contention, including the i4, and all the current pure electric models of the BMW brand, that is, oil to electricity, which is an inescapable problem when comparing with competitors. As an automotive media person, I can fully imagine that in the comparison content disseminated by competitors in the future, they will definitely use the label of "oil to electricity" to press the BMW i4 to the ground and rub it.
But why do I think the oil to electricity change is only a controversy and not a complete drawback? Let's not forget that the i4 is still a BMW in the first place. Although BMW's pure electric platform will not wait until after 2025, the current pure electric vehicles are jointly developed with the CLAR platform (BMW fuel rear-drive platform). But this will make the current BMW pure electric model have the same mechanical qualities as the fuel car. Therefore, there is no need to doubt the chassis texture of the BMW i4 and the performance in driving control, although it has not yet been tested, but I believe that BMW's handling experience will be more enjoyable than most of the independent brands and new forces.
However, in the era of electric vehicles that are facing new forces beating teachers to death, how many people will be willing to pay for the control, or the feelings of traditional car brands?
On the one hand, electric vehicles have lowered the threshold of performance, and even diluted the pricing anchor point of traditional luxury brands in the past by dividing high and low models through power. The motor has made power and compliance seem so cheap, BMW wants to achieve performance advantages in the field of electric vehicles, and it is more difficult to distinguish it from other manufacturers.
On the other hand, consumers who currently choose electric vehicles are more early adopters who pay for new technologies, and they pay more attention to intelligent experiences, such as intelligent driving, intelligent cockpits, etc. On the contrary, it is gradually becoming less and less sensitive to the traditional driving control and mechanical quality of vehicles.
In the era of great changes in the automotive industry, the definition of the car is being subtly changed by the new forces. Maybe in bmw's concept, good driving and good handling is a good car. However, in the eyes of electric vehicle users, they have become accustomed to the price of pure electric products to benchmark Tesla and Wei Xiaoli, accustomed to pure electric products to see intelligent driving and three-electric related configurations, and also accustomed to pure electric products should have user services that are talked about all over the world. And what is the only product advantage that BMW i4 can talk about at present? It seems that the driving experience that I have been talking about for decades is really not very optimistic.
It's just that BMW also has its own unspeakable secrets, the price anchor point of the original traditional fuel luxury car market has been washed away, but it cannot be led by the new anchor point created by the new forces led by Tesla.
Let's assume that if the pricing of BMW i4 is price-effective with the hot-selling models of Tesla, Weilai and Xiaopeng, and sets the i4 to 300,000 or even 200,000 units, and sells 20,000 units a month, is BMW winning at this time? Not necessarily, because this will bury the luxury brand image and status accumulated by BMW for more than a hundred years, and even lose the space and possibility of making a comeback in the future, which is a complete failure.
And how to establish a new anchor in the electric vehicle market that is more rolled than Russian figure skating, not only BMW, but also traditional luxury brands should think about it.
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