Text | Du Debiao
At the beginning of May, all new energy vehicle companies announced the production and sales data for April, which can be described as "falling" in the first place, which is difficult and does not speak.
Among them, BYD can be called a thriving. On the evening of May 3, BYD announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the company's new energy vehicle sales in April were 106,000 units, an increase of 313.22% year-on-year; from January to April, BYD's cumulative sales of 392,400 vehicles, an increase of 387.94% year-on-year.
In addition, let's look at another anecdotal data. Third-party agencies counted the amount of insurance for some car companies from March 27 to April 17. More than a dozen mainstream car companies generally fell by more than 50%, for the same reason, the epidemic led to the suspension of work and production, and nearly half of the domestic suppliers around Shanghai are also unavoidable, becoming a barrier that many new forces and manufacturers cannot avoid, and there is no blame.
BYD is still one of the exceptions, in the past three weeks, BYD's insurance volume increased by more than 80% year-on-year.
Although since October last year, BYD Qin and Song PLUS series have begun to sprint with full force, under the main theme of The General Fall, such a degree of counterattack is still unexpected in the industry.
Whether DM-i technology is too hot, or the supply chain system known for not seeking people, BYD can be independent, probably both.
However, from BYD's point of view, sales data is a thing of the past, and the top priority now is to hit the iron while it is hot and continue to let the DM-i boom hit the motherland.
The infectious power of DM-i
Before writing the article, I went to a BYD 4S store in Beijing for a turn, it is reported that the store is a relatively strong one in Beijing, and the amount of walking is also considerable, located in the west of the West Sanqi Section of the Beijing-Tibet Expressway.
The space resources on the highway side are tight, so the parking spaces are also relatively tight, and in the limited space, there are not many parking spaces for customers, and most of the locations are parked with new cars to be delivered.
But even so, the lead time is difficult to determine. For example, the CurrentLy On Fire Song PLUS DM-i, if you want to buy a high-end version with a range of 110 kilometers, it will take up to 3 months. The clerk said it was an ugly story ahead, but it did take a wait.
It is worth mentioning that after the warship series and the dolphin have been listed, BYD has divided the sales network into dynasty network and ocean network in order to clearly divide the model sales network, but Song PLUS DM-i still falls under the vein of ocean network, probably to support sales, but no matter what, the family growth is self-evident, and the two major families are divided, which is also convenient for users to recognize, although the market competition between the two sides overlaps.
For example, the price range of destroyer 05 and Qin PLUS DM-i is basically consistent, and BYD does not seem to be worried about the internal firefight, and their confidence comes from the strong confidence in the DM-i market appeal.
As long as 1+1 is greater than 2, then it is the right thing to do.
This hybrid system has now become Noah's Ark, and several representative independent brands are following BYD's footsteps and competing to get on the ship, to some extent, this is the biggest growth point of the "post-new power era".
Although in order to distinguish themselves from BYD, they have sacrificed two- or three-speed transmission mechanisms (so that the vehicle is slower and more energy-efficient when driven by the internal combustion engine) to highlight the trend of technological evolution, but the fate of followers is uncertain, and the first crab eater still occupies the market mind.
After all, it is a market-proven technology, and there has been no scandal of technical reaction, and even the price of 3,000 km / maintenance once that broke out at the beginning has become the sales clerk's promise of 12,000 km / maintenance once.
Coupled with the fact that the feed state is still restrained at the 4-word fuel consumption, and the acceleration of the zero hundred and 7-second range (of course, the acceleration ability is another matter when feeding), it is difficult for potential customers to resist the impact of these book data. The clerk said that the vast majority of customers generally dispelled the doubts of insufficient power of the 1.5L engine after the test drive. This is the effect of the motor to double the work with half the effort.
And with the confidence of BYD also began to do the details of the cost saving article, such as Song PLUS DM-i is no spare tire, you can imagine how much cost to save with its current average monthly sales of 20,000.
But harmless, in the face of the main points of interest, this is just an episode that is easy to be tolerated, including the bottom line of no discounts in the whole series, and the version of the model is actually not sold, only responsible for the existence of the price, that is, forcing customers to buy high-end models.
That's the appeal of DM-i.
Ten years a sword, or a dynasty to achieve
But BYD has become numb to the sales figures, at least in terms of communication strategy.
They are not interested in continuing to sell big books, because "everyone on the earth knows", and they are interested in how to make DM-i technology continue to enter thousands of households and become famous to passers-by, which is much more practical than the spread of sales itself.
Including the topic of supply chain, in mid-April, a number of online media reported or reprinted BYD's response to the problem of widespread supply chain disruption in recent times, and the answer was short and understated, "The impact on BYD is not large, and it is not as strong as the impact of the epidemic in Xi'an."
There are also media reports that BYD engineers have responded to inquiries about the supply chain at a non-positive 45-degree angle, and the impact is impossible, such as the braking system from Bosch, and Bosch's production base is located in Shanghai.
After all, although BYD announced the suspension of fuel vehicles, it did not announce the suspension of internal combustion engines, and it is impossible for OEMs to achieve self-sufficiency in the whole supply chain.
Therefore, it can only be speculated that DM-i is too hot, and the blow of the epidemic to other car companies is interrupted, and for BYD, which is currently in the limelight, it is probably to alleviate the pressure on production capacity.
In fact, BYD made a similar statement in March. At the beginning of the year, BYD predicted that this year's sales volume would be as low as 1.5 million, and if the environment was good and the supply chain was strong, it could rush to 2 million. Just the difference between platinum and gold.
At the store I visited, the clerk said they currently have 350 orders to be delivered, compared to four of song plus DM-i's orders this month.
Therefore, the safest and most effective tactic at present is to copy, although it is a bit tedious and boring to do so, and the technology itself is copied, but it is the most reliable copy after all.
Its enlightenment to the domestic market is that consumers may attach great importance to the elements of appearance and interior, but the core technology can fundamentally reverse their attitude towards their own brands, no matter how it is realized, whether it is copied or original, whether it invites foreign engineers or starts from scratch, everyone pays more attention to the results.
Like the Lantu Dreamer, its way of realizing four-wheel drive is simple and rough, just the rear axle plus a drive motor. But as an MPV, the speed-up capability of four-wheel drive and zero hundred and 6.9 seconds is so rare, so it has a basic point of dialogue with the market.
Of course, as far as DM-i is concerned, it may not be applicable to the high-end market, because the consumer market demand is higher, which is also the bottleneck that BYD needs to consider breaking through, continue to raise the displacement and increase the motor and battery pack, whether it can continue to copy the success is quite suspenseful, the high-end market is not only supported by performance, but also tests the understanding of luxury, its theme color is stronger, not just the stacking of parameters and materials, as if to give you a bunch of Tesla raw materials, but domestic manufacturers may not be able to build a Tesla, The market needs a product, not a bunch of parameters. So it's still a realm issue.
But on the facts, in the current market of more than 100,000, BYD's hot sales storm will continue for a period of time.