How fast the reshuffle in the field of new energy vehicles is, it is already clear to see the extent of the new forces of car manufacturing.
On January 3, 2021, NIO officially launched the official used car business NIO Certified. After a full year, on January 3, 2022, WEILAI used car experience store opened in Hangzhou Automobile City. Subsequently, NIO opened a second such store in Guangzhou on February 26.
Although it is better to understand the second-hand car market than to build mobile phones, weilai's motivation for choosing this road is clearer after a year.
The story of Weilai's used cars has made new progress
In the NIO App, users refer to the official used car of NIO as "official two". Since NIO's marketing service network is directly operated, and the official used cars are also directly operated, NIO's current used car business only earns, sells and supports the repurchase of NIO models.
Although NIO official second did not announce the transaction volume, according to the situation indicated in the official APP of NIO, as of February 26, a total of 164 used cars of NIO have been sold, and a total of 27 used cars are on sale, including ES8, ES6 and EC6.
On the official details page, you can see the starting price of the new car, vehicle configuration, pick-up location, factory time, first listing time, display mileage, vehicle historical maintenance records and other information.
As for the price and retention rate, taking a second-hand ES6 performance version officially released as an example, the car does not contain a power battery, the total price of the new car order is 528,400 yuan, the sale price is 439,800 yuan, and the transaction price of the second-hand car is 311,800 yuan. However, in view of the fact that the receiving price is not transparent, and the transaction price may be higher than the receiving price, it is difficult to directly calculate the retention rate.
However, in July last year, the "White Paper on china's Automobile Retention Rate in the First Half of 2021" released by the United States COX, China Automobile Dealers Association and other investments in Jingzhen Estimation Information Technology Co., Ltd. showed that the one-year retention rate of WEIO ES6 and ES8 was 78.12% and 68.59%, respectively.
As for EC6, there are also car owners who disclose the price, 10 months ago, it spent nearly 560,000 yuan to buy the Weilai EC6 vehicle, in the case of better car condition, the official car price is nearly 400,000 yuan, the residual value rate is nearly 70%.
In terms of one-year retention rate, it is not as good as fuel vehicles. However, the price and retention rate of WEIO's official used car are actually comparable to the price and retention rate of traditional used car platforms. And the "means" of using Weilai to circle fans is indeed better at attracting attention.
The second-hand car rights and interests given by Weilai, in addition to the policy of free testing, free refurbishment, and 30,000 kilometers a year warranty, include: giving away home charging piles; BaaS users free power exchange rights, that is, users who retain charging piles change power for the first 2 times a month for free, and give up charging piles for the first 3 times a month.
It is worth mentioning here that the difference between the official and the baaS used car users - the free power exchange rights owned by baaS used car users are not held by the used car users. In addition, the number of free battery replacements for BaaS users is also less than the 6 times of the first car owner; the battery pack can only be upgraded, not downgraded; can not have some of the rights and interests of the first car owner, such as lifetime warranty rights, can only buy WEILAI service worry-free package, etc. These are also the points that Weilai car owners pay attention to and are more controversial in the second-hand platform.
The best destination for BaaS users, only "official two"?
At present, of the 27 models on sale, there are 7 vehicles, and the rest are models without power batteries; among the 164 models sold, there are 92 vehicles, more than half of which are fully owned. If you only look at this data, the current sale of complete vehicles is slightly more than the second-hand rental electricity model, but the amount of income is similar. The official policy is good for Bass users, and it seems that it is also for longer-term considerations.
According to the policy formulated by NIO on battery rental services, it is the same as that of first-hand cars, choosing the BaaS model to purchase all nio models, the battery capacity of 70 degrees can be reduced by 70,000 yuan, and 100 degrees can be reduced by 128,000 yuan. However, at the same time, you need to submit a battery rental and battery guarantee fee. In terms of rental electricity prices, 70 degree batteries are 980 yuan per month, and 100 degree batteries are 1480 yuan per month.
By calculation, the purchase cost of this model of car will reach the purchase price of the whole vehicle in 5-6 years, that is, the critical point.
To rent a 70-degree battery, it costs 11,760 yuan per year; if you do not purchase a service package, you need to pay an additional 80 yuan per month for battery protection, 960 yuan a year. The two additional fees total 12,720 yuan a year, and by the 6th year, the cost will reach 76,320 yuan, which will exceed the 70,000 yuan due to the reduction of electricity rental. Obviously, baaS services are more suitable for consumers who change cars within 5-6 years.
At the same time, there is another problem, if you choose to rent a BaaS battery, in the end you can only choose to sell the car to Nio, or do not care about the loss and choose to keep it.
Compared with the official platform, there are fewer platforms willing to accept electric used models. Auto Headline learned from the customer service staff of a second-hand car platform that at present, due to the small number of users who choose electric vehicles, in general, the platform is more cautious about receiving new energy models.
In addition to the complex factors of battery leasing, the small number of users who choose to buy new energy used cars is the concern of general used car dealers. Perhaps for this reason, NIO directly incorporated the used car business into its huge "service Haidilao" plan, taking this opportunity to let the old owners sell the car to NIO as much as possible, and the used car buyers also try to buy WEILAI's official used cars.
However, while the traditional second-hand car platforms have shifted to the front, the official approach of car companies will inevitably have an impact on other second-hand car dealers. After all, the official used car policy is more flexible, the service method is more chic, and it is more favorable for buyers. But at the same time, for sellers, if Weilai's official recycling occupies the majority, it has also lost the market reference price to a certain extent.
The battle for Weilai's retention rate is only a microcosm
From the perspective of the models sold by Weilai, the number is not much, and there is a big controversy over the overall second-hand new energy vehicles, so why did Weilai choose to roll up?
According to Li Bin's original statement, "Weilai did the official second-hand car, and did not want to make a lot of money, but only wanted to make some small profits from it." What Weilai wants to do more is to better serve old users and give car sellers the greatest protection of interests through official second-hand car services. ”
The implication is that the starting point of Weilai to do second-hand cars is different, and it is not aimed at making money.
Judging from the action of Weilai used car to carry out offline experience stores, Hangzhou and Guangzhou experience stores are just the beginning, which should also be the first car company in China to choose to lay out electric second-hand car experience stores. At present, it is not for the purpose of making money in the short term or it is true, but it may not be true in the long run.
Although it is not the first new force in China to carry out the used car business, what Weilai wants to achieve is obviously to become a model.
First of all, retain users, in the face-to-face way that Weilai is good at, maintain the stickiness of users and maintain its service worry-free system. After all, car owner resources are NIO's current first advantage.
Judging from the opening of the store in Guangzhou, the second-hand car experience store is similar to NIO House, including display areas, rest areas, surrounding areas, etc., focusing on user experience and service. Judging from the pictures of the scene of the opening of the Guangzhou store, there are not a few car owners who are in the scene. It can be seen that Weilai hopes to let users realize that Weilai is pulling the specifications of the second-hand car service system to the level of new car sales services.
Secondly, the official direct operation to ensure the retention rate of Weilai's second-hand cars. This is the focus of retaining old car owners and eliminating the concerns of more potential owners, including used car owners and new users.
"At least the residual value of Weilai's second-hand car should be equivalent to the level of luxury fuel vehicles of the same level, if it is not reached, Weilai will pay for the 'bottom'." According to what Qin Lihong, president of Weilai Automobile, said before, the retention rate of Weilai is a key point that must also be mentioned when spending money.
In recent years, there has been no shortage of voices in the industry that "second-hand new energy vehicles have become hot potatoes", and macro data has also confirmed this dilemma. According to the "Retention Rate Research Report" released by the Automobile Dealers Association in September last year, the three-year retention rate of plug-in and hybrid models averaged 48.9%, and pure electric models averaged 39.1%. In the same period, the three-year retention rate of most fuel vehicles is between 60% and 70%. The gap between the two is about 15%-20%.
Recently, this situation has gradually improved. According to the "Retention Rate Research Report" released by the China Automobile Dealers Association in February, in January this year, the three-age retention rate of plug-in hybrid used cars increased from 52.1% to 62.5%, and the three-age retention rate of pure electric used cars increased from 42.9% to 49.5%. However, the China Automobile Circulation Association still bluntly said that the retention rate of traditional fuel vehicles with a three-year age should be about 65%, and the three-year retention rate of new energy vehicles is only about 43%, which is far lower than the former.
The low retention rate of electric vehicles has always been one of the important factors affecting the sales of new vehicles. From this point of view, the "retention rate" improvement war of electric vehicles of new forces such as Weilai is actually more like a microcosm of the current situation of the industry.
However, those who walk in front are often not the first to eat crabs, or the first case to be tripped. What is inevitable is that Weilai needs to spend time and financial resources to open up the channel of collection and sale to improve the retention rate, and finally achieve a closed loop to promote the sales of new cars. After all, it is not realistic to only do value-preserving repurchases, and after the long-term development and the increase in volume, the statement of "not for the purpose of making money" may no longer make sense.