Producer: Electric Planet News
Author: Fat Fei classmate
The BBA began to counterattack.
Although the Beijing Auto Show jumped because of the epidemic, the BBA was not idle. This week, the BBA began intensive releases, and the Audi urbansphere concept car, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, and the BMW i7 set off a seemingly huge electric offensive.
However, after watching the release of the new car, many people expressed doubts about the BBA's electric vehicle: the traditional brand is eating the old, and it is oil to electricity, even worse than XXX, can not see, like the original 8848...
Looking through the BBA's pure electric sales list in recent years, it is almost impossible to find any eye-catching performance, Audi E-tron, Mercedes-Benz EQC monthly sales are only three digits, even after the price reduction bmw iX3 is only a fraction of Tesla's sales.
We can't help but ask, why is the BBA unattractive?
Consumers are "too tough"
With the delivery of the domestic Model 3 at the end of 2019, China's electric vehicle market began to usher in a magical three-year period, and the annual sales of new energy jumped from the original 1.2 million to 2.893 million units, achieving an unprecedented growth in history.
Of course, this is not just a credit to Tesla, but its catfish effect has a profound impact on the Chinese car industry.
Before the Model 3, few people really realized that the car could not use the dashboard, the complex mechanical control could not use the physical buttons, the driving assistance could be so easy to use, and the charging originally only required a cup of coffee.
Yes, Tesla has broadened our horizons, and more importantly, it has spurred new forces to stride forward, and even to some extent, China's new forces have achieved "green is better than blue":
Earlier, Weilai's "Haidilao service", which attracted people's emulation, brought the relationship between depots and users closer than ever;
Looking at the current situation, the flexible policies and supporting facilities such as the rechargeable and upgradable energy replenishment network, baaS vehicle and electricity separation, etc., which are blooming everywhere, have further enhanced the experience of buying and using cars;
In terms of core technology, Xiaopeng's all-scenario voice, increasingly mature high-speed NGP and upcoming urban NGP and other key technologies have established their own solid position in the two areas of intelligent networking and automatic driving;
Human-computer interaction is getting better and better, automatic driving is getting smarter, and user relations are getting closer and closer, which are the three most prominent features of the new forces in the head of the product. What's more, user feedback from these brands can be quickly delivered to the CEO's desk, or even form news hotspots on social media in a very short period of time. The matter of buying and using a car has received unprecedented attention under the direct operation system.
In such an environment, it is reasonable that the tastes of China's new energy users will "change".
Looking at the BBA, what do we see?
EQS's large joint screen, i7's ingenious back row long entertainment screen, they are generally outstanding size, exquisite workmanship, delicate display, is an excellent industrial product. But under the exquisite appearance, the MBUX and iDrive systems behind them are always so unsatisfactory, with voice errors, cumbersome interactions, and ungrounded functions, which are often more defective than advantageous.
When people ask about the ability to drive themselves, the BBA's unified words are always limited by policy, continuous upgrades, and safety first, and then hand over the "version" L2 to users.
When the new power users listen to the song and drive the pilot system to wander the high speed, BBA still stays on the basic functions of adaptive cruise, lane keeping, side collision warning, and it is rare to keep up with the times. But even for these basic accessibility features, the BBA is clearly priced.
Referring to previous test drives, we do not deny that companies such as BMW have spent effort on the polishing of basic auxiliary functions, and the experience is also remarkable, but this does not mean that BMW has come to the forefront of intelligence.
The BBA is "too slow"
Admittedly, the BBA is also making progress, but this progress is relative to their own, not to the industry as a whole. So you will find that although the fuel 7 series and i7 that appeared on the same stage have the same face and carry almost the same configuration, the fuel 7 series is much more stunning than the i7.
There is a question of expectations here.
Under the huge wave of electrification, the evolution of fuel vehicles in the entire industry is beginning to slow down, and the speed of technological iteration is far less than that year, and car manufacturers have given good things for scientific and technological innovation to electric vehicles.
Again, in the face of the dazzling electric market, the tastes of consumers who have experienced hundreds of battles have long been "changed", so the same innovation will be relatively prominent in fuel vehicles with slowing development, and it will not be so amazing when placed on electric vehicles. Different expectations, naturally different feelings.
For example, i7 split headlights, hidden door handles, electric doors, all kinds of large screens, these can all find shadows on the past electric vehicles, more or less have a strange feeling.
The same logic applies to Mercedes-Benz's EQS, many of which are familiar and difficult to refresh.
The BBA seems to be running at its own pace all the time, you can say that its fuel car market burden is very heavy, you can also say that it is still addicted to the glory of the past, in short, they are "too slow", always used to stick to their own product rhythm, firm their pricing system.
Ren Er's wind and rain, I stood still, stubbornness is not much better than nokia in the past.
Self-improvement is important, but not keeping up with the pace of the times can only be regarded as backward after all. BBA, the benchmark of the former automotive circle, they should have led the entire industry!
But today, they're leading the way in the same high pricing as always.
While neither the EQS SUV nor the i7 released this week has yet to come out, both cars are properly million-dollar by side-reference. What is the concept of a million-level electric vehicle?
The latest Model S is 88.999-105.999 million, the latest Model X is 93.999-9999 million, and NIO's highest-end ET7 is 43.666-51.34 million. In other words, one i7 can buy two entry-level ET7s.
Many people ask, why?
Yes, from the configuration table, this is ridiculous.
In the past hundred years of automobile development, the initial barriers are the engine, followed by the gearbox and chassis, so many people often say that "changers" have the world. Due to the overly complex R&D and manufacturing of transmissions, the industry has been further divided, and it is roughly the main engine factory that engages in engine research chassis and suppliers that study transmissions.
Large displacement engines, efficient and intelligent transmissions, and superb chassis have become the biggest characteristics that distinguish the automobile class, and the high-end cars of BBA have mastered this.
However, seeing the electric car side, the challenge of engine and transmission is gone, and the extremely low cost can get more than 200kW motors, from a certain point of view, the era of "power is status" of automobiles is gone. In the era of electric vehicles, horsepower is cheap. The supply chain has come to this day, and the bom cost of the whole vehicle is also transparent.
So what else does the BBA have to insist on a high premium? Is it manufacturing or chassis tuning or an understanding of luxury?
These can be collectively referred to as car-making experience, and they are very valuable, which is exactly what the new forces need to accumulate.
However, the market's perception of experience is often extremely insensitive, why do we all know that Tesla is poor, but why can the Model 3 still become a blockbuster? Because it's cheap! What a bowl!
Why is Tesla doing it so cheaply? It is efficient.
Starting with the Ford Model T, the goal of automobile manufacturing is high efficiency, and rapid reproducibility is the biggest feature of modern cars as mature industrial products. In order to improve efficiency, Tesla has introduced a lot of innovations in production and manufacturing, including integrated die casting, 4680 batteries and CTC integrated chassis, and each link is reducing costs and increasing efficiency. So much so that in Q1 this year, Tesla's gross profit margin achieved a staggering 32.9%.
Perhaps, as Musk put it, "He's the most manufacturing-savvy guy in the world."
In fiscal 2021, BMW's gross margin was 17.6% and Mercedes-Benz's was 12.7%. Audi is 10.7%. Although they are all high achievements, where does the growth point of gross profit margin come from? This is what we're going to draw a question mark.
Taking Mercedes-Benz as an example, its gross profit margin is not the highest, its sales volume is not the best, and its electrification efforts are also the smallest, but it is the most profitable one. What is mercedes-benz's money-making code?
In 2021, Mercedes-Benz's high-end model sales increased by 30%, the average price of each car was as high as 354,000, and Mercedes-Benz's "price protection" in the terminal has always been very strict, and the offers of Mercedes-Benz in the three BBA countries are often the smallest, that is to say, Mercedes-Benz can make more money than others, and the biggest credit comes from the brand premium.
But is this growth healthy?
We often talk about a concept called "brand zeroing", and more and more people buy cars and start to be less sensitive to brands.
In 2021, BBA lost successively in the domestic luxury car market, and its market share fell below 60% to 57.1% for the first time, barely controlling the position of the three males in the Chinese luxury car market, corresponding to the high growth of Tesla and Wei Xiaoli, each with an increase of more than 100%. Especially in first-tier cities, everyone's enthusiasm for BBA is gradually weakening, and people are more willing to try new brands.
Although there is still a considerable gap between the new forces and the BBA in terms of volume, the contrast between the changing trends between the two sides is extremely strong.
The competition in the new energy vehicle market is like a boat against the current, standing still and running slowly means backwardness, and the era of mixing the market by brand premium will eventually pass.
Article from: Electric Planet News
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