Special supply cars are frequently out of the market, delisting storms are everywhere, how to break the situation of luxury brands?

In recent years, the luxury car market has maintained a good growth trend. Although 2021 was affected by multiple factors such as the epidemic and lack of cores, the sales volume of the domestic luxury car market still increased by 10.6% compared with the same period in 2020, which is the fifth year that China's luxury car market has maintained positive growth. In this incremental market, some brands make a lot of money, some brands can only be spectators, and even some brands are rumored to withdraw from the Chinese market. Today, Brother Rumble will talk to you about what are the big changes in luxury brands in 2022?

Specialty cars are spreading to luxury brands

It has to be said that with the continuous upgrading of the consumer market, the launch of "regional special vehicles" by luxury brands in the past two years has gradually become a trend. The so-called "special supply car" refers to the localization design transformation carried out by multinational car companies for the Chinese market, and is usually only sold in the Chinese market. In fact, special cars are not new products in the domestic automobile market, and many special cars have become hot star models, but from the current trend, the domestic special car market is developing towards luxury trends.

As we all know, many luxury brands are now putting forward the slogan of "in China, for China" in the domestic market, they not only localize the choice of overseas models, but also launch a variety of "special cars" for the Chinese market. Compared with the previous "extended version" model, the special supply car launched in recent times is more in line with the car needs of Chinese consumers in terms of styling design and intelligent network connection. For example, BMW i3, SAIC Audi Q6, Lincoln Z and other models, they are typical luxury special cars.

For luxury car brands, they launch special cars for two reasons. On the one hand, the reason is that before the overseas models were directly introduced into sales, but it was found that the water and soil were not satisfied, it was difficult to open the market, so many luxury brands learned to follow the customs. On the other hand, the reason is that due to the limited space for luxury cars in the market, the range of choices can be further expanded through special cars and attract more consumer attention.

Of course, luxury brands have many advantages in launching special cars. First of all, the brand influence is large, and many consumers choose a very important influencing factor when choosing products is face and identity. If you can choose a luxury brand at the same price point, even if the product is not an original overseas global model, it may still be far more attractive to users than other ordinary brand products. Secondly, the technical strength of luxury brands is enough to reassure most users. In fact, many luxury brands have set up R&D centers in China, and the introduction of international large factories to support, the performance of special vehicles in all aspects is inseparable from overseas global models.

The launch of special cars has also made the purchase threshold of these luxury brand cars lower and lower, which means that Chinese can spend less money to buy first-class models that are more in line with the needs of our consumers, which is good news to celebrate. It is worth mentioning that the special car of luxury brands must find the market positioning, and only by truly meeting the user's car purchase needs can they make themselves stand firm in the future automobile market.

The trend of differentiation has intensified, and the countdown to exiting the Chinese market has been made

As mentioned earlier, china's luxury car sales have continued to increase in recent years, from less than 2 million in 2016 to nearly 4 million in 2021. Although the luxury car market is generally upward, the trend of differentiation is also intensifying, the market concentration of first-line luxury brands has increased, and the competition of second-tier luxury brands has become more intense. In this context, the weak brands in luxury cars have almost no living space, and some brands will face the dilemma of withdrawing from the Chinese market. Recently, the news about Acura's withdrawal from the Chinese market is "full of flying", although there is no official statement on Acura, but there is a fact that cannot be ignored, that is, Acura has not been able to share the market dividend in recent years.

Infiniti, which is also a Japanese luxury brand, has also fallen into the same situation in the domestic market. Not only is its sales in a tepid state, but it has also been named by the "315" party, and all indications are that Infiniti has been marginalized in the Chinese market. At the beginning of this year, Infiniti "downgraded" from the independently operated brand to the Dongfeng Nissan brand, alongside Nissan and Venucia. This also means that Infiniti will lose more autonomy in brand management in the Chinese market.

In addition to Acura and Infiniti, the Chinese market is also under pressure from the French car DS and the Korean car Jenissee. After DS entered the Chinese market, due to the low brand recognition, its products have been in a state of no one's interest; and it is even more difficult for Genissy to "eat meat" directly when it first arrives. Judging from their market performance, although the official did not say that they would withdraw from the Chinese market, I am afraid that the market left them with fewer and fewer opportunities.

Luxury brands are fully electrified

In the era of fuel vehicles, luxury brands have indeed attracted the favor of many consumers with their technical heritage and brand influence. But for a variety of reasons, luxury brands seem to be slowing down in the field of electrification. The domestic independent brands and new car-making forces have taken the lead in attacking the city and seizing a large amount of market share. Although luxury brands have also launched various new energy models before, the market presence is not high, and the sales performance has not met expectations. In 2022, major luxury brands have finally accelerated the pace of transformation and begun a new strategic layout.

The most obvious is BMW, which launched pure electric vehicle products such as iX and i4 in just a few months, and will soon launch pure electric sedan i3, a pure electric flagship, and 2 plug-in hybrid models. Not to be outdone, Mercedes-Benz adopts a strategy of "holding high and hitting high", and will launch 8 pure electric and plug-in hybrid models this year after the release of EQS to accelerate the transformation of electrification. Audi has also launched new energy pure electric vehicles such as Audi e-tron and Audi Q2 e-tron in the past two years, and by 2022, Audi will lay out 10 electrified models in China. Everything is indicating that luxury brands have been a bit unable to sit still, and they are all trying to seize the new energy vehicle market.

It can also be seen from the above new car planning that traditional luxury brands have some different understandings of electrification. They have abandoned the launch of insincere oil-to-electric models, but have focused more on creating a professional pure electric platform, and have also greatly improved the product strength of the model. With the transformation of luxury car brands from "electric first" to "fully electrified", the competition between car companies will become more intense.

With the rise of the concept of consumption upgrading in the past two years, the sales share of the luxury car market will continue to grow. However, under the increasingly fierce competition in the luxury market and the external troubles of the rise of joint ventures, the fight between various brands has also entered the bayonet stage. The spread of special cars to luxury brands and the transformation of luxury brands to "fully electrified" are the major trends in the luxury car market this year. As for whether the electrification strategy of luxury brands can work, and whether second-tier luxury brands can be overturned, let's wait and see.