Due to the control of the epidemic, the current "shutdown" of the automobile industry in Shanghai and surrounding areas has forced many car companies such as SAIC Motor group and Tesla to reduce production or stop work. Under such a difficult circumstance, SAIC still arranged the L7 that had been brewing for a long time.
On April 17, Zhiji Automobile's first model, Zhiji L7, was launched, with a total of Pro and Dynamic models, priced at 40.88 and 368,800 yuan respectively after subsidies. As a new brand, it has a starting price of 368,800 yuan, and the way of playing zhiji L7 and WEILAI ET7 is similar, that is, it wants to shake consumers who are immersed in the traditional value system built by BBA through "value-added" performance and luxury.
It seems that this is already an unwritten rule in the electric age. Aiming the price at the traditional luxury brand and then transcending everything else becomes a way for new brands, especially in China, to tell the story of luxury. But it does work.
New forces grabbing the share of traditional luxury cars?
According to the march high-end luxury car sales list released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, most of the models occupying the luxury car sales list come from BBA, although the three major BBA brands occupy half of the domestic luxury car market, but this leading trend is obviously declining.
According to the latest data, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in March was 28.2%, an increase of 17.6 percentage points from the penetration rate of 10.6% in March 2021. In March, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 46% and that of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 32%.
The penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury cars is 32%, which is enough to show how good new power brands such as Tesla are in the market now.
According to the statistics of the Association, the retail sales of luxury cars in March were 230,000 units, down 14% year-on-year and 43% month-on-month. In addition to the high growth of Tesla, all the 11 major domestic luxury brands have negative year-on-year growth, and Tesla has also surpassed Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi to become the champion of monthly sales of luxury cars.
Although Lexus ranked first in the second camp with 16,900 units, down 31.9% year-on-year; Hongqi 16,000 units followed by a 5.2% year-on-year decline; Volvo surpassed Cadillac, with sales down 18% to 12,882 units; Cadillac sold 12,206 units, down 40.7% year-on-year, the highest decline in the list.
In March, Tesla Retail sold 65,754 units in China, an increase of 85.3% year-on-year, of which the Model Y reached 39,730 units, an increase of 291.4% year-on-year, becoming the best-selling luxury car in March, and sales even reached more than 3 times that of the Mercedes-Benz GLC that month.
Tesla also saw sales double in March from the previous two months, with its share skyrocketing, from 0.9% in January to 4.2% in March. The sales of luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi in January and March are basically declining.
And in March this year, Tesla rose three times, each time the increase exceeded 10,000 yuan, but in March Tesla sales did not fall but rose, which is enough to see consumers' recognition of high-end new energy brands such as Tesla. In contrast, the sales of pure electric products of Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW are only a few hundred units, which is really impossible to get out of hand.
There is no doubt that after several years of market cultivation and large-scale investment in new energy, a new car recognition has been established at the user level in terms of intelligence and convenience, of course, this is also a novel experience that cannot be felt in traditional luxury brands such as BBA today. New energy brands such as Tesla and Wei Xiaoli are using new technologies and new services to teach these traditional luxury brands lessons.
BBA electrification charge shines a new "big move"
In the case of such a high penetration rate of luxury electric vehicles, Tesla and Wei Xiaoli are indeed the leaders in the field of new energy today, but the success of new forces such as Wei Xiaoli can also be copied.
Taking Xiaopeng Automobile as an example, after launching the P7, which is very balanced in all aspects, after entering the traditional B-class car market such as the Passat, which has few pure electric players, it has not only won the reputation, but also opened the market for it; the ideal car is an ideal ONE with a very balanced product force, and the medium and large SUV market that is not so fierce in the competition situation is mixed with the wind and water.
These new force brands are very tacit to avoid the most fierce competition in the price range of 100,000 yuan - 200,000 yuan, after all, there are too many excellent players in this price range, so many new power brands also choose to avoid their sharp edges, use their own advantages to open up the gap with other models and other brands, and achieve dislocation competition in advantages.
In the era of electrification, consumers are more willing to pay for "value-added" products. And those traditional luxury brand new energy models have a gap in design, configuration, service level and new power models, taking Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi electric products as an example, whether it is endurance, or configuration and the same level of Weilai models have a big gap, luxury experience is also a lot worse.
For example, in terms of price, BBA does not seem to be able to put down its body, and the pricing of its new energy products is generally higher than that of other brands of new energy vehicles at the same level without exception.
Among them, the manufacturer guidance price of Mercedes-Benz EQC is 49.98-57.98 million yuan, and the Audi e-tron guidance price is 54.68-64.88 million yuan, which is contrasted with the current ideal ONE guidance price of only 349,800 yuan, and the guidance price of Weilai's flagship product ES6 is 358,000-52.60 million yuan.
In addition to the pricing can not put down the body, the BBA in the matter of car sales and car-making new forces also have many drawbacks.
The difference between BBA and the new forces is that it has 4S store dealer channels across the country, and it is its only "profit cow", ready-made sales channels, and its own new pure electric model sales channels are also the first choice for 4S store dealers.
However, the pure electric models sold on the same stage as fuel vehicles are indeed pitifully small in terms of profits, and the sales staff is not willing to take the initiative to promote the sales of pure electric models, more KPIs given by manufacturers, and compared with the direct stores of new forces and various fancy marketing, the position of pure electric models in the organizational structure of the BBA is indeed a bit weak, which is a key factor that its sales have not been able to go up.
This also explains why BBA's new energy models only sell a few hundred units a month, while the monthly sales of new power brands can exceed 10,000.
However, these luxury brands that have been in the market for so many years will not "sit still", mercedes-Benz, Audi, and BMW have recently launched their new flagship models as if they have discussed it.
Mercedes-Benz brought a full-size pure electric SUV - Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, although still the design of the Mercedes-Benz EQ family, but large enough size and a variety of configurations, showing the car's inventor's determination to continue to lead the electric market. There are not many competitors in this field, and the new car will compete with medium and large SUVs such as Tesla Model X and BMW iX.
Audi also released the urbansphere pure electric concept car on the same day, which is a size level and EQS SUV against the product, the most interesting point of the new car is that it is based on the needs of Chinese customers, co-creation design, by the Audi China design team and the German design center to create, which shows Audi's emphasis on the Chinese market.
BMW is in the release of a new generation of 7 series at the same time, but also brought a flagship electric sedan - i7, as BMW's "brand face" model, the new generation of 7 series is the only class to provide 3 forms of power luxury large car.
In the past product design, the 3 series is the first to use the family design elements of the model, this time BMW broke this law, in the new 7 series with the latest design, and BMW i7 is also equipped with Huawei app store, which is the first time in the luxury car brand, enough to see BMW's desire for this electric market.
It can be seen that in the face of the continuous improvement of new energy penetration rate and the strong rise of new car-making forces, Tesla even opened the factory to the German hometown of BBA, and these traditional luxury brands of BBA are really like needle felt, so they "invariably" brought their own new flagship models. Although these flagship models are more symbolic, they also announce to the world BBA's determination to fully develop the electrification market.
BBA also understands that the times have really changed, in the era of user-defined cars, consumers do not care about what brand heritage, they only want to buy better electric products with less budget, which also gives new power brands the courage to face luxury brands such as BBA.
China has now become the world's largest new energy market, whether it is a new force or a luxury brand such as BBA, once back to the same running line, carefully play the Chinese market is the best solution to the new energy situation, of course, this is also a good thing for us consumers.