The "small targets" that new force car companies want to catch up with teslas count as one, and BBA (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi) counts three.
Lantu and Ideal CEO have said that many users are from BBA owners, and Weilai co-founder Qin Lihong bluntly said that Weilai hopes to transform BBA into NBA (NIO is the English name of the NIO brand).
Such a flag might have been considered a fantasy a few years ago, but the BBA's performance in the new energy market in recent years has indeed been unsatisfactory, giving new players a good opportunity to overtake in curves.
Tesla, BYD and Wei Xiaoli are all greatly improving their delivery in the domestic market, and the BBA on the other side is not only at the bottom of the sales level, but also lacks the domineering advantages of the past in pure electricity and intelligent technology.
BBA, which was once in the era of fuel vehicles, is obviously a little weak in the electric era.
Sensitive sense of smell and slow movement
BBA has long smelled the potential and trend of new energy.
In 2007, before Tesla had released its first car, just three years after its establishment, BMW released the "Project i" plan, which began to develop new energy technologies and transform. Two years later, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla reached a partnership that would supply powertrains to some of mercedes-benz models, and the same year, the Audi e-tron concept was unveiled in a high profile.
So far, the three companies have a direction and plan for the transformation to new energy, 5-6 years earlier than Wei Xiaoli. However, the advantage of a fast start did not continue in the later stages.
BMW's first pure tram launched in 2013, the i3, has a range of only 160 kilometers, which is nearly 40% of the Model S launched by Tesla in the previous year, and the overall design sense is far less than Tesla.
According to media reports, the BMW i3 was launched in the year, the global sales were only 311 units, while the Model S has reached 22,000 units.
Audi and Mercedes-Benz are moving more slowly, with Mercedes-Benz only releasing the first pure electric vehicle EQC in 2019 and Audi only starting deliveries 12 years after the release of the e-tron.
The ship is difficult to turn around, not to mention that the BBA has been quiet for many years, and there are too many worries when escaping from the comfort zone, losing the first-mover advantage and the best time to develop.
The BBA is stuck in a break
In 2021, the cumulative global sales of BBA new energy vehicles are less than Tesla's, and bmw's best-selling record in the Chinese market is not as good as Wei Xiaoli's.
Why is it so messed up?
A very important reason is that the BBA can't let go of the old production and sales model, and is stuck in a break.
Mercedes-Benz's main model EQC and even EQA, EQB are products developed from the fuel vehicle platform, and the BMW iX3 in BBA (with annual sales of 21,000 units) is also based on the platform of gasoline, plug-in and pure electricity, rather than pure electric platform, commonly known as "oil to electricity".
What is a platform for cars? To put it simply, the platform is a complete set of automobile production lines, different models are produced on the same platform, and a complete set of processes such as vehicle design, production process, manufacturing process, and quality control can be shared, especially chassis design and vehicle structure.
For car companies, the extension or modification of fuel vehicle platforms can make production more flexible, eliminating the cost of research and development funds and time.
However, new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles are essentially different, and the core components have changed from chassis, engine and gearbox to motors, electronic controls, and batteries. If the fuel platform is used, the rationality of space utilization and mechanical layout will be reduced, not only the efficiency of the three-electric system will be greatly reduced, but also the safety and endurance level will be relatively low.
The seam patching of second-hand houses is always not as painful as renovating new houses from scratch, and the success of Volkswagen ID series models proves the importance of pure electric platforms.
Therefore, it can be seen that many of the performance of the pure trams of the BBA are not as good as Tesla and Wei Xiaoli.
For example, the WEILAI ET7, which has a range of 1,000 kilometers (official data), has begun to be delivered, but the BMW iX3 and Audi e-tron once hovered around 500 kilometers, and the acceleration time of 100 kilometers was still stuck at 6-7 seconds.
And some BBA electric vehicles do not have the basic standard OTA upgrade (remotely download the software update package to upgrade their own system) function, assisted driving function is not as complete as the new forces. "Driving is no different from a fuel car."
The Mercedes-Benz EQC even thunderstorms on the motor of one of the three major pieces. Due to the damage to the motor due to the coolant leak, EQC was jointly complained by multiple car owners. In the end, more than 10,000 vehicles were recalled, and the reputation was seriously damaged.
Some netizens joked that "the price level of BBA's electric vehicles is only higher than that of new power car companies."
Let's talk about the sales and service model.
In the fuel age, consumers who want to buy a car or get after-sales service must go to dealerships and 4S stores, wrestle with salespeople, and always worry about whether they will be "slaughtered". The service quality of these channel providers directly affects the car brand.
In this regard, the new forces of car companies have given a direct solution, the price of each model version is fully transparent, and the service to users is more refined and standardized. Taking WEILAI as an example, each Weilai user has its own exclusive service group, which has multiple service personnel such as sales, technology, maintenance and supervisors, and answers questions for users in a timely manner.
Such "buying people's hearts" has helped the new forces accumulate a group of loyal customers and also pried away a group of BBA customer groups with higher service requirements.
When the new force car companies are fighting for endurance, intelligence, and service quality, the BBA is still "drawing the sword and looking around at a loss", using the thinking of fuel vehicles to build electric vehicles, and finally helplessly falling behind.
Accelerate the turn, is it too late?
After the fall-behind trend became more and more obvious, the BBA also accelerated its turnaround.
Electrification is one of the most frequently mentioned keywords in the BBA in the latest earnings report, and all three will launch multiple new cars this year.
BMW will launch five new energy models in the Chinese market, including the pure electric 3 series and 7 series; Audi will launch at least six pure trams such as the e-tron GT; and Mercedes-Benz will bring eight new energy vehicles, including the new EQE.
Judging from the three new models recently released, it is obvious that they have begun to exert efforts on the short board.
BMW's i7, equipped with a fifth-generation power system, has a range of 625 kilometers, an increase of more than 100 kilometers over the iX3, and one of the biggest highlights is the 31-inch large screen equipped with the rear.
BMW i7 rear seat view
The Audi urbansphere concept car made its world debut, with a significant increase in range to 750 kilometers and an autonomous driving level of L4; Mercedes-Benz's new EQS was also launched, with a range of 35 kilometers higher than the BMW i7, with L2 level autonomous driving capabilities.
In addition to the BMW i7, Audi and Mercedes-Benz's new cars are based on pure electric platforms, trying to completely get rid of the image of "oil to electricity".
Compared with the previous products, these three trams did win back some face for the BBA, but in fact, they still can't beat the new forces. Mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW i7 automatic driving is L2 level, the only Audi urbansphere that reaches L4 is still in the concept stage, and the real landing is far away, and the other side of the Weilai ET7 and WM M7 are equipped with L4 level intelligent hardware.
On the battery life, Xiaopeng P7, Weilai ET5/7, Tesla Model 3 (high-performance version), each single out of the run is farther than mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW i7 (according to official data comparison).
Even if performance is abandoned and BBA attacks with car-sea tactics, will consumers regain their old love?
Some people believe that the BBA only has too many concerns when transforming, brand advantages and manufacturing process accumulation still exist, "the elephant turns around after the domineering still exists", the other side of the view is that the BBA left and right, the new forces have already accumulated a number of technology patents, have a certain moat, and electric vehicles for the public is a new thing, and the new brand's manufacturing, marketing model and overall style is more suitable, BBA is difficult to continue to be brilliant.
After all, BBA took the initiative to reduce tram price promotions last year, and did not grab many customers.
Someone on the Internet once asked, "Why don't you buy BBA electric vehicles", below the question, many netizens gave their own answers, poor sense of manipulation, not smart enough, brand premium is too high ...
A netizen directly asked, "Tesla-built fuel vehicles, will you buy them?" ZAKER News randomly interviewed nearly ten car owners and basically answered "NO".
This is the problem of the inherent image of the brand and the fit of the product.
The experience of the BBA can be said to be the epitome of all traditional car companies. A few years ago, new forces of car companies just emerged, many people think that once the traditional car companies began to do new energy seriously, the new forces could not live, but this is not the case.
Since then, traditional car companies have set a timetable for stopping production of fuel vehicles, tried to create new brands, and carried out in-depth cooperation with Internet companies, and most of today's domestic new energy sales rankings are still new force car companies.
Brand impression is too rigid, perhaps one of the important reasons, as a century-old brand of BBA, the old atmosphere is more intense, coupled with the transformation of the "creepy hand", it is not easy to get out of the circle.
On the other hand, in the price of BBA, the new power brands Weilai and Gaohe are relatively strong opponents. Among them, Gaohe's first mass production car, The HiPhi X, has occupied the top spot in the luxury pure electricity market for many consecutive months, leaving models such as the Mercedes-Benz EQC and BMW IX far behind.
epilogue
In the era of fuel vehicles, with its leadership in high-end materials, workmanship, engine and transmission technology, consumers are willing to pay for the brand premium of BBA.
In the new energy era, the value system of vehicles and the evaluation criteria of car owners have been reshaped, most consumers pay more attention to luxury, but also care more about the sense of design, control, endurance and intelligent level, and the brand premium without the support of core advantages is no longer a weapon for car companies to make money lying down.
New energy, new technologies, new products, new models, new consumer groups, not so new BBA is struggling.
In the face of the next decade, BMW shouted the slogan of "delivering 10 million electric vehicles", Mercedes-Benz set a goal of achieving full pure electrification by 2030, and New models launched by Audi after 2026 will all be electric vehicles. The three families still seem to be very confident in themselves.
After the giant ship makes a U-turn, it may succeed in catching up with other clippers, but it may also hit an iceberg and sleep permanently like the Titanic.
Produced by ZAKER News
Text / Bao Xingwa
Editor / Zeng Xiantian