Header image source | Visual China
The only way to scale.
Profits are imminent, and Wei Xiaoli has to "find a balance" in the rights and interests of user services.
On the evening of May 6, Xiaopeng Automobile officially announced that considering the impact of external factors such as the epidemic situation and supply chain, starting from May 9, 2022, all models of peng brand will no longer provide terminal free charging service rights and free home charging piles. However, accordingly, under the E/E+/P version of P5 and the E/E+ version of P7, the corresponding version of the intelligent driver assistance system software and upgrade services are adjusted to standard.
Xiaopeng Automobile is not the only one who adjusts the rights and interests of user services. Ideal Auto also said in February this year that the lifetime warranty rights of ideal ONE new car buyers of the three electricity and extended range systems were adjusted to 8 years or 120,000 kilometers. Earlier, WEIO adjusted the first owner's unlimited mileage and unlimited lifetime free power exchange rights to the first car owner can enjoy 4 free power exchanges per month (choose the first pile of rights) / 6 times a month of free power exchange (do not choose the first pile of rights).
Rights and interests have shrunk, and car owners have mixed reviews. An old user of Xiaopeng Automobile was a little dissatisfied, "The rights and interests have changed again and again, and the old users have been cut as leeks." "I have paid for two months of intelligent driver assistance software hardware, and now it has become free, and it is inevitable that there will be some imbalance in my heart." However, some car owners expressed their understanding, "It is impossible to have wool all the time, and enterprises must also develop."
Initially, in order to attract early users, Wei Xiaoli hollowed out his mind to please consumers and completed a certain scale of user accumulation. With the increase in the scale of delivery, Wei Xiaoli has initially completed the brand accumulation, especially Weilai, which takes user operation as a differentiated competitiveness, and is gradually overwhelmed.
It's time to find balance.
The financial pressure is enormous
Wei Xiaoli is facing different degrees of financial difficulties.
According to the 2021 financial report released by the three brothers, the three new car-making forces are still mired in losses. In 2021, WEIO lost 4.02 billion yuan; the ideal loss was 322 million yuan; and Xiaopeng had the highest loss, reaching 4.86 billion yuan. As for the reasons for the loss, Xiaopeng and Ideal both said that it was mainly due to the increase in research and development, marketing, promotion and advertising expenses, as well as the increase in sales network and a large number of related personnel costs and sales commissions of franchise stores.
And since entering 2022, the market environment faced by the three brothers has been worse, and the risk of aggravated losses has always existed. Before releasing the 2021 financial report, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, analyzed the market situation in 2022: "This year (2022), new energy vehicle manufacturers are facing three major challenges: one is materials (mainly referring to batteries); the other is chips, previously we expected that the lack of cores in the second half of 2022 may be alleviated, but in the first half of this year, instead of alleviating, it further deteriorated; third, the changes in the epidemic situation. ”
According to market expectations, with the improvement of automobile delivery and profitability, the new forces of car manufacturing will gradually end the state of burning money. However, rising manufacturing costs and insufficient supply of upstream parts have limited the profitability of car companies.
In the face of these thorny problems, in addition to raising the price of the models on sale, Wei Xiaoli has also begun to dynamically adjust the rights and interests of user services to achieve the purpose of open source and throttling.
WEILAI AUTO SUBSTATION Source: Visual China
Weilai began to provide lifelong free battery replacement services for car owners in September 2019, and a year later, due to high operating costs, it had no choice but to change this benefit to "6 free battery replacements per month". Zhu Jiang, then vice president of WEILAI Automobile, said: "(In August 2019), an average of 1,000 users will change electricity for free every day, and the cost of a bicycle is about 50 yuan, and the operating cost of this service is about 50,000 yuan per day. "For a startup like Nio, this is undoubtedly a huge expense.
Future Auto Daily's free charging service for Xiaopeng Automobile also counted an account. Before the cancellation of free charging, Xiaopeng car owners enjoy 1000 degrees / year free charging rights. The charging standard of Xiaopeng self-operated charging pile is 1.92 yuan / kWh for peak charging, 0.9 yuan / kWh for valley charging, and 1.38 yuan / kWh for intermediate periods. According to the valley price estimate, the free charging rights can save at least 900 yuan per year for the owner of the charging cost, which naturally needs Xiaopeng Automobile to pay.
As of April 1, The cumulative delivery volume of Xiaopeng Motors has exceeded 160,000 units, and if this equity policy is not adjusted, Xiaopeng Motors will bear the cost of at least 144 million yuan in 2022 (rough estimate).
Although Xiaopeng Automobile canceled the benefits of energy replenishment, it compensated users accordingly in terms of software. After this adjustment, some of the auxiliary driving functions of the Xiaopeng P7 E/E+ series version will adopt a self-developed solution and be opened to users through OTA. Previously, users had to pay 25,000 yuan (P version) or 20,000 yuan (E version) to use the intelligent driver assistance system. The adjustment means that this software system will be standard and new users will no longer need to pay extra for it.
Xiaopeng said that the adjustment of the configuration, price and rights of some models will not involve old users, nor will it affect the rights and interests of car owners determined before May 9.
The only way to scale
Such an adjustment does not seem surprising to industry insiders.
"Judging from the development of the enterprise, Wei Xiaoli is bound to reduce the rights and interests of user services step by step, but the current market environment is not good, and Wei Xiaoli's actions are ahead of schedule." A brand business leader of a new car-making force told Future Auto Daily.
For the whole of 2021, NIO's sales and general management expenses were 6.878 billion yuan, and the average bicycle sales and general management expenses reached 75,200 yuan, which is 54,100 yuan in Xiaopeng, ideally 38,600 yuan.
"With the increase in the number of users, the cost of user rights services is like a snowball, if you do not subtract this part of the cost, it is difficult for new car-making forces to achieve profitability by selling cars." The above-mentioned person analyzed it.
Source: Visual China
In addition to the factor of money, of course, there are other considerations.
The rights and interests of the first owner are a double-edged sword, which helps the brand to open up the market and enhance the favorability of consumers in the early stage. But on the other hand, this policy is not conducive to the circulation of Wei Xiaoli's models in the second-hand car market.
"Free charging, lifetime warranty only the first car owner is eligible to enjoy," which is bound to be detrimental to the used car transaction, a used car dealer told Future Auto Daily. Although "the account of the first owner can be transferred at the same time when the second-hand car is transferred," this operation is equivalent to playing "wiping the edge ball", "At present, Weilai and Xiaopeng have a relatively loose management of the rights and interests of the first car owner, and no one dares to guarantee the future."
Some car owners believe that with the cancellation of the rights and interests of the first car owner, the consumers who first purchased the products have more bargaining power in the second-hand car market. "Selling used cars can also package the account to transfer, we enjoy the rights and interests in the market is not, equivalent to value-added products, you can directly convert the rights and interests of the owner into money, superimposed on the price of the second-hand car."
However, the above-mentioned car owners also have concerns, "this kind of transaction is not protected by laws and enterprises, and disputes will inevitably arise in the future."
The new forces are busy doing subtraction, and on the other hand, the second generation hatched by traditional car companies is stealing from teachers and trying to add in terms of user service.
The first users of Lantu FREE can enjoy lifetime free charging, lifetime free warranty, lifetime triple electric warranty, lifetime free vehicle traffic, lifetime free roadside assistance, lifetime free OTA upgrade, free charging pile package installation and other services; Zhiji L7 angel wheel and A round users can enjoy a series of "lifetime" services such as "lifetime warranty", "lifetime free charging" and "lifetime free roadside assistance".
"Lantu and Zhiji have Dongfeng and SAIC behind them, and they are not worried about funds, they can also provide excellent user services in the early stage and seize the opportunity to seize the market share of the new car-making forces." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, said.
However, in the long run, user service rights and interests are fungible competitiveness, not a long-term solution. "It can be easily emulated, and the competition is the amount and sustainability of capital investment." Cui Dongshu thinks.
Perhaps based on this consideration, Xiaopeng made up for it with software services. A Xiaopeng car owner dialect believes that on the one hand, the software cost is lower than the cost of real money and silver charging piles and power resources, on the other hand, the software standard is also conducive to improving the real data accumulation of its intelligent driving, which can not only promote the continuous strengthening of Xiaopeng's software strength, but also widely cultivate consumer habits. That's the real benefit.
The author | Su Peng
Edit the | Li Huanhuan