"Harbor Business Watch" Li Lei
The price war in the new energy automobile industry continues. From Tesla to Dongfeng's crazy "price reduction", in the competition between new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles, this price war has intensified.
In 2023, the new forces and traditional car companies are destined to be a battle between you and me.
This year is the first year that state subsidies are officially withdrawn, which means that car companies must rely on their own strength to deal with cutthroat competition.
01
Price war, to participate or not to participate?
No car company can stay out of the situation. Between participation and non-participation, the consumer's scales oscillate left and right.
Soon after the beginning of March, the Dongfeng series set off a price sale covering 7 brands and 56 models of Dongfeng Fengshen, Dongfeng Citroen, Dongfeng Peugeot, Dongfeng Honda, Dongfeng Nissan, Dongfeng Fukang and Lantu.
Among them, the largest declines are Dongfeng Citroen C6 and C3-XR, whose government and enterprise subsidies are 90,000 yuan and 56,000 yuan respectively. This means that the original price of 211,900 yuan of C6 co-creation version can be obtained for 121,900 yuan, while the 113,900 yuan C3-XR Shang version is only 57,900 yuan.
Specifically, in terms of cars, the classic Xuanyi reduced the price by 25,000 yuan, the starting price was as low as 74,800 yuan, saving 5,000 yuan from before, the new Xuanyi reduced the price by 15,000 yuan, the starting price was as low as 104,000 yuan, the price of Tianea was reduced by 40,000 yuan, the starting price was as low as 139,800 yuan, and the price of Qida was reduced by 15,000 yuan, and the starting price was as low as 84,900 yuan.
In terms of SUVs, Qashqai reduced the price by 35,000 yuan and the starting price was as low as 119,900 yuan, Xinqijun reduced the price by 40,000 yuan to 139,900 yuan, Qi Jun Glory reduced the price by 35,000 yuan and the starting price was as low as 154,300 yuan, Loulan reduced the price by 68,000 yuan to 170,800 yuan, and ARIYA (pure electric) reduced the price by 98,000 yuan to 186,800 yuan.
Another auto giant, BYD, followed suit. It is understood that on March 9, BYD official micro released news that from March 10 to March 31, BYD's two main models carried out special limited-time marketing activities: Song PLUS car series can enjoy 88 yuan deduction of 6888 yuan for car purchase; Seal can enjoy 88 yuan offset by 8888 yuan for the purchase of the car, which is equivalent to 8800 yuan off.
On March 16, BYD Auto announced that the 2023 Han EV Champion Edition and the 2023 Tang DM-i Champion Edition were officially launched, the 2023 Han EV Champion Edition was launched in 5 models priced at CNY 209,800 to CNY 299,800, and the 2023 Tang DM-i Champion Edition was launched in 3 models priced at CNY 209,800 to CNY 233,800. Among them, the entry price of the Tang DM-i Champion Edition remains the same, and the entry price of the Han EV Champion Edition is reduced by 10,000 yuan, which is lower than that of the Model 3.
"If you buy a car before April 30, you can enjoy a cash subsidy of 10,000 yuan, in addition to 2 worry-free car purchase policies, 1 worry-free car guarantee, 5 exclusive VIP services, 5 Zhaopin online services and other car purchase gifts." BYD said.
In short, whether it is fuel vehicles or new energy forces, this smoke-thick price reduction competition has officially started since the first quarter.
"Whether it is fuel vehicles, or new energy vehicles, in fact, they are facing a lot of competitive pressure, because most consumers can only choose one of the two, so car companies can only do everything to ensure sales and seize the market, it can be said that if who occupies the first opportunity this year, it means that other car companies may be under more pressure, this 'war' not only affects this year, but also affects the future." A relevant person in charge of a car sales company told Harbor Business Watch.
Qiao Xinyu, executive deputy general manager of Great Wall Motor's Haval brand, also recently said, "In the case of market chaos, this year is the year of reshuffle. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, also believes that this year is a year of fierce competition in the whole industry.
Is this price war like the color TV war, e-commerce war, group war or shared bicycle war of the year? It will take longer to observe.
Different car companies have also launched "anti-price war" measures.
On March 15, Nezha Automobile announced that from now on, if the official price of the purchased specific version is reduced, the official price of the purchased specific version will be actively repaid within 90 days from the order date (inclusive) if the official price of the purchased specific version is reduced.
In addition, Ideal, Denza , Lynk & Co and Leapmotor have all announced corresponding price insurance policies.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers also pointed out that the reasons for this round of short-term promotion are many, and the preferential models launched by various enterprises are mostly long-term inventory age, old models or slow-moving inventory models. In the terminal market, these models have had considerable preferential prices before this round of promotion, and terminal publicity in order to attract attention, exaggerate the intensity of price reduction, increase customer acquisition, and easily mislead consumers.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers appealed that the price war is not a long-term solution, and the auto market should return to normal order as soon as possible. With the acceleration of the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry, traditional car companies have invested heavily in the fields of electrification, intelligence and networking, and have suffered the dual pressure of stable operation and transformation and upgrading, and their profitability is weak. Of course, reducing prices to deal with inventory and properly recovering costs is a normal business measure, but it should not be reduced to a price war. Price wars don't last long, and value for money is an eternal business rule. In the new journey of China's modernization, the automobile industry undertakes the important task of building an automobile power. Automobile companies should focus on the long term, make more efforts in product technology, quality, service, brand power, etc., and strive for high-quality development. In the process of stabilizing growth and promoting consumption, local governments must have appropriate methods and methods.
02
Once the price butchers wrote legends
The price war in history has achieved many price butchers, whether it is Sichuan Changhong Ni Runfeng during the color TV war, or Huang Guangyu when the home appliance chain fought bayonets, or Liu Qiangdong in the e-commerce era. Ruthless people have not only created business legends, but also changed the industry ecology, and also profoundly and intuitively influenced consumers.
The price war during Ni Runfeng's period was from 1996 to 1999, so that even Changhong, Sichuan Province fell into a difficult situation, and Ni has since withdrawn from the commercial stage.
Many years later, the views of Skyworth Group President Zhang Xuebin on Ni Runfeng were circulating in the rivers and lakes:
In 1996, when the whole market was very chaotic, he dared to launch a price war first, which of course hurt the industry itself, which is a double-edged sword, harmful to domestic brands, but what results does it bring? That is, the domestic market is relatively concentrated, forming an oligarchy of operation, if it is still a chaotic war, or a situation of chaotic wars between princes, then the industry will be very chaotic, and it is difficult to form a relatively strong force to resist foreign competition. The price war launched by Mr. Ni, although everyone is very difficult, life is very hard, everyone can not make money, enterprises can not make money for a long time, some enterprises with poor survivability and poor resistance will not be able to survive the winter, frozen to death, the rest is physically strong, or very strong survivability, which also exercises the remaining group of enterprises to gather international competitiveness, which is related to the price war launched by Mr. Ni.
Looking at Huang Guangyu, before he was imprisoned in 2008, he was even more in the industry, and he released a cruel word at the end of July 2006, "Until Suning merges with Gome." So much so that Zhang Jindong responded, Suning can't do it, he will definitely give it to you.
The strange thing about history is that many years later, both Gome and Suning are "lonely". In the business competition and the love and killing of time, Gome and Suning largely lost to Liu Qiangdong.
Back in 2012, Liu Qiangdong shouted that all major appliances of JD.com will maintain zero gross profit in the next three years, and promised that "all major appliances in JD.com are guaranteed to be at least 10% cheaper than Gome and Suning chain stores."
In the following ten years, the right time and place and people undoubtedly stood with Liu Qiangdong, or on the side of online e-commerce platforms. In recent years, Pinduoduo has set off tens of billions of subsidies, so much so that even this year Liu Qiangdong announced tens of billions of subsidies.
Looking back on these histories, it is not only the history of the changes and growth of Chinese business, every merchant and every consumer feel deeply, but also the spread of technology, capital and consumption upgrades.
Now, in the automotive industry, or the future of new energy vehicles, including the future unmanned, AI and other technologies, price wars, business strategies, the real sense of the reshuffle may indeed just begin.
Whose hand the deer dies, wait and see. (Produced by Harbor Finance)