Wen | Li Haoxian
It has created the SAV segment, known as the king of highways, and is the originator of today's medium and large SUVs.
Since its launch in 1999, it has sold more than 2.2 million vehicles worldwide, making it the highest sales in its segment.
After 23 years of evolution and inheritance of four generations of models, the BMW X5 is once again leading the industry today, taking the lead in extending and localizing for the first time.
On March 30, the new BMW X5, which was born at BMW Brilliance's Tiexi plant, was officially launched, priced at 605,000 yuan to 775,000 yuan, providing 2.0T and 3.0T power solutions, compared with imported models, the guidance price dropped by about 50,000 to 100,000 yuan. Also released is the new BMW i3 of a pure electric sedan, priced at 349,900 yuan.
More than just lengthening
The core appeal of BMW X5 domestic production is very simple, one is to reduce the price and expand the consumer group; the other is to carry out Sinicization transformation and make up for the almost only short board - space.
From the data point of view, the domestic BMW X5 in the wheelbase lengthened by 130mm to 3105mm, in this segment of the horizontal comparison, immediately from the shortest wheelbase of one, in one fell swoop into the longest wheelbase model.
In terms of appearance, the domestic model is basically the same as the imported model, and the front face is still a large-sized "double kidney" grille, but the sides of the front surround are replaced with chic chrome trim. The side is not too obtrusive because of the lengthening, but the rear side window area has become a little larger, if it is not the two cars placed together, it is difficult to find the difference.
The biggest change in the new car is the rear space. Since the extra wheelbase is all used in the rear row, it is visible to the naked eye a lot more spacious, and the new car has also been upgraded to a comfortable seat exclusive to China for the whole car, not only using softer padding, but also the rear row has increased the length of the seat cushions, the seat backrest tilt angle has been increased to 31 degrees, and it has a comfortable headrest and a redesigned central armrest, and provides seat heating. Fundamentally solve the problem of cramped and uncomfortable rear of the previous standard axle models.
In terms of power, the models equipped with xDrive30 Li and xDrive40 Li will be equipped with 2.0T engines and 3.0T engines respectively. With maximum power of 180 kW and 245 kW respectively, the drivetrain is still mated to an 8-speed manual transmission. It is worth noting that the power of the domestic version is slightly lower than that of the imported version, of which the 2.0T version is lowered by 15 kilowatts and the 3.0T version is lowered by 5 kilowatts.
In exchange, the new X5 top-of-the-line model (xDrive 40Li Premium M Sport) will be equipped with adaptive dual-axle air suspension and electronic shock absorbers, which are not available in the imported version of the Chinese standard.
The new X5 is bound to sell well?
In 2021, the BMW X5 achieved sales of 50,200 units in the domestic market, ranking first in the sales list of medium- and large-sized luxury SUVs in 2021. There is no doubt that the domestic new X5 will inevitably consolidate its leading position in the market, but like the new X5 sales on the Internet will usher in a multiplier surge, which is basically unrealistic.
First of all, the market capacity of medium and large luxury SUV is so large, we can see from the table that Mercedes-Benz GLE sold 45,795 units last year, Lexus RX sales of 48,617 units, Volvo XC90 sales of 19,992 units, Audi Q7 sales of 16,273 units, Volkswagen Touareg sales of 16,000 units, Lincoln Aviator sales of 14,256 units.
Even with the addition of several models at the end of the team, the entire medium and large luxury SUV market capacity is about 200,000 units, and the first three models combined (X5, GLE, RX) have occupied about 70% of the sales volume of the market segment. From the perspective of existing market capacity, the new X5 can continue to divide the share is limited, after all, the new X5 essentially just fills the short board of its own rear row, compared to the back row of Mercedes-Benz GLE and other opponents has been quite enough, everyone is just back to the same starting line, the GLE will still buy GLE.
However, in view of the decline in the price range after the new X5 domestic production, the consumer group will inevitably expand, that is to say, the increase brought by the new X5 in the future is likely to come from this group of new buyers, rather than the original buy GLE, Q7, RX and other people. It is foreseeable that the capacity of the medium and large luxury SUV market will continue to "expand" in 2022.
On the other hand, since the inner volume has been rolled up to the X5 level, other opponents cannot sit still. Among them, Mercedes-Benz should be the most likely to keep up, to know that GLE is the highest price in this level, the 2.0T version of Mercedes-Benz GLE350 landing price of about 840,000, and 2.5T GLE450 landing price is close to 1 million, the transaction price is slightly higher than BMW, but the sales volume is not too much difference, it is conceivable that if GLE also ushers in domestic production, even if it is not lengthened only in the price adjustment, there will be a good effect.
Audi does not seem to have the meaning of domestic Q7, but SAIC Audi will send a localized model Q6 to meet the battle, which is also a subtle change. Under the waving of the flag of localization, if the BBA models of this level are successively domestically produced, it is likely to compress the living space of second-tier luxury brands, such as Volvo XC90 and Lincoln Aviator, which originally relied on price to occupy a place.
But there is no doubt that the internal volume between car companies is more beneficial than harmful to consumers, and the steady increase in sales of "56E" after successive domestic production is the best example.
Behind it is electrification
Nicolas Peter, the legal representative of BMW Brilliance, who has just taken office, has mentioned that bmw group will continue to deepen the "China first" strategy in the process of electrification, and by the end of 2023, BMW group will provide about 13 pure electric products in the Chinese market.
BMW revealed in the latest earnings meeting that the "new generation" model based on the new structure will start trial production in 2024 and be unveiled in 2025; by the end of 2025, the BMW Group plans to deliver 2 million pure electric vehicles worldwide. "By 2030, at least half of all global sales will be pure electric vehicles. By then, the annual sales volume of pure electric vehicles will exceed 1.5 million units. BMW Group CEO Chiptzer said.
This is a very positive sign, and BMW's determination to embrace pure electric vehicles is beyond doubt. However, traditional car companies, especially traditional luxury brands, cannot achieve overnight in the transformation, and need to take one step at a time.
At present, we can see that although iX3 is already the initial stage of BBA's transformation to electrification, relatively sincere and good sales of products, if you compare other pure electric products at the same price horizontally, iX3 and even other pure electric products of BMW still need a period of time to iterate and adapt to the pace of the market, the market competitiveness is relative to its own oil vehicles, there is still room for progress.
Therefore, BMW's roadmap to new energy seems radical, but it is actually dynamic and cautious. Only by ensuring the basic disk of fuel vehicles can BMW steadily transform into new energy, especially in the Chinese market, where new energy competition is most fierce.
Therefore, the biggest significance of the new X5 domestic production is that it can bring huge profits to BMW Brilliance and "broad grain" for the development of electric vehicles in the future. It is foreseeable that the new X5 will be the last fuel model introduced by BMW Brilliance to introduce domestic production, and will focus on new energy in the future, and the i3 that debuted in the same field is the best proof.
Finally, it is still that sentence, and buy and cherish it.