Affected by the rising cost of upstream raw materials, since the beginning of this year, new energy vehicle products have experienced multiple price increases, and now, the price increase storm has spread to the field of fuel vehicles.
This wave of "leading" is the luxury car, Mercedes-Benz official information shows that since April 2, the price of its 14 models have been increased by different margins, the lowest increase of 900 yuan, the highest reached 121,000 yuan. A few days ago, BMW also announced that it has adjusted the price and configuration of its 5 models, and the price increase is between 1600 yuan and 11000 yuan.
According to a survey by China News Weekly, other mainstream brands have not yet been notified of price increases in fuel vehicles. However, at the sales terminal, the news that fuel vehicles will increase prices in a large area has not gone away, and many sales have been marketed with "fuel vehicles are about to increase in price, and now is a good time to bottom out".
Whether the fuel car will usher in a "general rise" is not yet known, but the independent brand has also taken action: the Great Wall Wei brand announced that from April 15, the official guidance price of the coffee series on sale will be adjusted, including fuel and hybrid models, with an increase of 5,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan.
Image source: BMW Brilliance
It's almost unimaginable that cars have gone up in price on such a large scale over the past few decades. According to incomplete statistics, since 2022, nearly 30 car companies have announced price increases, involving more than 80 models, mainly new energy vehicles, and some car companies have even completed the third round of price increases.
The addition of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Weipai is believed to be the starting point for a large-scale price increase in fuel vehicles. In the view of industry insiders, compared with the collective "official decline" of major car companies in 2015, the possibility of collective "official rise" was originally smaller, but in the current industrial situation, everything is possible.
Rising prices are rising
According to public information, as of April 21, there were a total of 28 car companies that announced price increases this year. Before April, the models that increased prices were mainly new energy vehicles, but since April, three car companies have raised the price of fuel vehicles.
According to the news on the bmw official website on April 12, due to the shortage of chips, BMW cancelled the automatic parking assistance system, mobile phone wireless charging and Wi-Fi hotspot functions of some models, and now the chip has been solved, and the newly produced models will resume these configurations, so the price has also been adjusted synchronously.
This time, BMW adjusted the price and configuration of its 3 Series, 4 Series, X3, X4, Z4 and a total of 5 models, with an increase of 1600-11000 yuan.
Among them, the 3 series is the main sales force, and this time it is also the focus of adjustment. For example, the 325i M Sport Edition, 325Li M Sport Edition and 325Li xDrive M Sport Edition increased by 1600 yuan in price, and the automatic parking assistance system was restored in the configuration; the 330i M Sports Night Set Edition and 330Li xDrive M Sports Night Set Edition increased by 11,000 yuan, and the wireless charging and WiFi hotspot of mobile phones were restored, the automatic parking assistance system Plus (with 360° panoramic image) and the BMW driving recorder were restored.
In addition, Nicolas Peter, BMW's director of finance and China affairs, recently said that the price of BMW's European models will also increase by 3% due to rising global raw material costs.
Compared with BMW's operation of "spending money to buy configuration", Mercedes-Benz's price increase directly claimed that due to the sharp increase in logistics costs and input costs, the price increase of all models was announced. The models involved include Mercedes-Benz imported C-class, E-class, S-class, Maybach, etc., in addition to some domestic models. Mercedes-Benz's price increase ranges from 3,000 yuan to 121,000 yuan, of which the S-Class Maybach has risen as much as 121,000 yuan.
Image source: Mercedes-Benz
In fact, before opening the price adjustment in the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi have all carried out a round of price increases in some overseas markets. Mercedes-Benz announced on April 1 that the price of its models sold in the Indian market will be raised by 3%, citing rising raw material prices and rising logistics costs.
The Wei brand of Great Wall Motor officially said that due to the price increase of raw materials, chips and core components and other factors, the brand's models in addition to the mocha DHT-PHEV price remained unchanged, the rest of the models rose by 5,000-12,000 yuan, the specific price adjustment models as shown in the above table. The price adjustment will take effect at 00:00 on April 15, but users who paid the deposit before the effective date will not be affected by this price adjustment.
Image source: Great Wall Wei Pai
As for whether this price increase will be like Last year's Tesla price increase, attracting a large number of "followers"?
Zhang Xiang, an automotive analyst and researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of The North China University of Technology, said that compared with new energy vehicles, the fuel vehicle market has grown weakly in the past two years, the market competition is fierce, and if the price is easily increased, it may face the risk of market share being robbed. In addition, limited by the dealer model of traditional fuel vehicles, there is a long-term contract between car companies and dealers on pressure depots and rebates, so the price cannot be changed arbitrarily, and the contradiction between supply and demand can only be adjusted through preferential methods.
Costs are under pressure
Some analysts believe that price increases are marketing means for enterprises to earn market attention, but this statement is not recognized. In fact, in the first quarter of this year, most of the domestic mainstream car brand sales fell sharply, luxury cars have also been hit hard, at this time to increase prices as a means of affecting sales marketing is obviously not worth the loss.
When various companies announced price increases, they all expressed the problem of rising costs, but the reason for the increase in the price of fuel vehicles is not caused by unilateral factors such as the rise in raw material prices, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association of Automobiles, believes that in addition to the increase in raw material prices, chip shortages and other factors are also reflected in the price increase of fuel vehicles, driven by a variety of factors, fuel vehicles will also face a price increase storm.
China Merchants Securities pointed out that the prices of copper and aluminum in 2022 hit a new high in nearly a decade. From January to February, the average price of non-ferrous copper/aluminum/stainless steel in the Yangtze River increased by 13%, 36% and 7% respectively year-on-year; the price of palladium used to purify exhaust gas increased by more than 65%, and even the soda ash needed to produce automotive glass increased in price. These factors have undoubtedly exacerbated the cost pressure of car companies, especially luxury cars.
Li Ruifeng, CEO of Weipai Automobile, posted on social media: "Now not only the cost of chips and battery materials continues to rise, but the prices of steel, rubber and aluminum alloys are rising, and they really can't hold back." ”
Source: Weibo @ Weipai Li Ruifeng
Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said that affected by the rising prices of raw materials and parts, GAC Group said that its costs will increase by 7 billion yuan in 2021. BMW's Nicolas Peter said that in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, BMW's overall manufacturing costs may increase by $1.2 billion due to rising raw material costs. Even Honda Chief Financial Officer Kohei Takeuchij told the media recently: "We usually digest the cost increase through internal efforts to cut costs, but now the increase is too big to digest." ”
It is worth noting that the recent epidemic in Shanghai has also brought more challenges to the cost control of domestic car companies. "The production and delivery delays of parts manufacturers in Jiangsu and other surrounding areas have led to limited production of car companies, and the bank believes that the cost of shortage in the automobile supply chain has risen, and it is estimated that the short-term profit of the automobile and parts industry is under pressure." CICC noted in its report.
For the future price trend of upstream raw materials, Zhang Xiang said that from the current situation, the recovery of the global industrial chain will take a while, and the price will still maintain the current trend in the short term. In addition, Cui Dongshu believes that the production and sales of passenger cars in April are facing uncertainties, and the market environment for automobile marketing will become more complicated.
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