Shentucar original
Author | dawn
Edit | Ai Xiaojia
The March delivery report card of the new automaker is here.
Ideal won another championship, delivering 20,823 vehicles; NIO ranked second, with 10,378 deliveries; Nezha delivered 10,078 units in third place. The remaining new forces have delivered less than 10,000. Among them, Lantu and Qianjie did not hand over the papers.
As a rule, on the 1st of each month, new automakers announce the delivery volume of the previous month. If you rush to hand in the papers, the general results are okay; If you delay and do not hand it over, you will most likely encounter problems.
Overall, the market performance of the new automakers in March was very average, and it was a state of slow recovery from the trough. The deliveries of Xiaopeng and Nezha fell year-on-year, but these car companies were very scheming, and used a "month-on-month" caliber when announcing data, compared with February, which had worse results, so they "increased" again.
This March, there is something special - the price war. After Tesla took the lead in reducing prices in January, some new forces followed up to reduce prices, and then traditional fuel vehicle companies collectively "lifted the table" in March to start an unprecedented price war. The situation is very chaotic.
The negative impact of the price war has begun to be reflected, especially Xiaopeng and Qianjie, which have been relatively affected. It's a little hard to climb out of the pit in the short term.
In addition, Huawei reiterated on the last day of March that it would not build cars, and slapped Huawei's internal "car makers" in the face. Sales have been declining for several months in a row, and they are ready to face a tougher market test.
Sales are not more than 10,000, each with its own difficulties
Ideal, NIO's delivery results in March were not bad. The ideal relies on the three cars of the L series, and NIO relies on the ET5, and the market performance of these cars is relatively stable, so it will not be expanded in detail. We focus on brands that have delivered less than 10,000 deliveries.
Xiaopeng, Zero Run, and Extreme Krypton have not exceeded 10,000, and Lantu rarely released the report card. We focused on these brands and summarized their performance in March with one keyword.
Xiao Peng, who is "still in the pit".
After the release of the new car G9 in September last year, Xiaopeng has been squatting in the pit and has not come out. In March this year, Xpeng delivered 7,002 new cars, which is the eighth consecutive month that it has delivered less than 10,000 vehicles. Moreover, in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, Xpeng's monthly deliveries declined.
Xiaopeng's problem now is that there is no explosion. The previous hit was the P7, and the P7 alone sold 9,183 units in March last year, more than the current five cars combined. The current P7 has stayed at the level of one or two thousand vehicles for 4 consecutive months, because everyone knows that the P7 will be remodeled, so they choose to wait and see.
The facelifted P7i finally began to be delivered in March, but the contribution is still relatively small, with a total of 3,030 P7 models delivered in March. He Xiaopeng said that the P7i's order performance after listing was strong, which was Xpeng's first victory after comprehensive changes.
However, the effect of this victory has yet to be tested. In addition, the market performance of the G9 is rather disappointing. This new model, which Xiaopeng has high hopes for, has been tepid since its launch. In March, the G9, P5 and G3 combined deliveries were less than 4,000 units, and the G9 performed less than expected. Xiaopeng still has to stay in the pit for a while.
Zero run of "difficult transformation".
Transformation is the key word for Zerorun now, which wants to sell more expensive cars. The mini car T03, which costs only tens of thousands of yuan, is no longer the focus of Zerorun, and it cannot support the company's ambitions. T03 accounted for more than 90% of Zerorun's sales, and now it has dropped to 40%.
At the same time, the Leap C11 (parameter 丨 picture) and C01 with higher prices and larger profit margins have been delivered one after another, gradually replacing the T03 as the main model of Leap.
But the process is tough. It takes time to reverse the brand image of cheap scooters and obtain more premium space. Last year, Zero's net loss expanded from 2.9 billion yuan to 5.1 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin was still negative, making money in the short term unrealistic.
"Red and black" polar kryptonite.
Extreme Krypton is a black and red physique, and its reputation among consumers is mixed. Previously, the car machine problem of Extreme Krypton 001 was complained about by the owner countless times, and later won back a game by changing chips for free. This year, Extreme Krypton 001 fell into the turmoil of the rights and interests of car owners again, and was questioned about the replacement model "backstabping" the old owner, causing a large number of complaints.
In the last three months of last year, the delivery volume of Zeekr exceeded 10,000 in a row, and then plummeted to more than 3,000 vehicles in January this year, and only recovered to more than 6,000 units in March, which is still far from the market's expectations. Removing the order of Extreme Krypton 009, Extreme Krypton 001 only had more than 4,000 units in March, a serious decline.
Lantu of "losing money and shouting".
Lantu has always been very loud, often rushing to announce monthly deliveries first, although the results are not very good. Lantu's best monthly delivery result is only more than 2,000 vehicles. This time, however, Lantu did not release the results.
In early March, it was reported that Lantu Automobile had started layoffs due to poor sales performance, mainly involving multiple departments such as outbound calls and sales support. Although Lantu responded that it was not true, there are still great challenges for Lantu to open the market.
The negative effects of the price war are beginning to appear
The biggest event in the automotive industry in March was the price war, in which almost all automakers were actively or passively involved. Nowadays, the price war has limited effect on driving new car sales, and some brands have been mistakenly injured.
The first wave of price wars was initiated by Tesla.
On January 6, Tesla announced a major price reduction for domestic Teslas, with a maximum reduction of 48,000 yuan. This caused a great shock in the industry, and Qianjie and Xiaopeng soon followed. On January 13, the company announced a price reduction of the M5 EV and M7, with a maximum reduction of CNY 30,000. Xpeng followed up on January 17 to reduce prices, involving three models, G3i, P5 and P7, with a price reduction range of 20,000-36,000 yuan.
Being involved in a price war by Tesla did not increase sales. The January deliveries of Qianjie and Xpeng were 4,475 and 5,218 units, respectively, and the growth in the following two months was not obvious.
In fact, if there is no shortage of orders, they are not afraid of opponents cutting prices. BYD also adjusted the price of its models in January, but it was a price increase, which the industry believes indicates that BYD has sufficient orders in the market. The most ruthless price cut by Xpeng is the P7, which is the model with the most decline in orders.
Judging from the sales results, Tesla's price reduction may have a certain impact on the market performance of Qianjie and Xpeng.
The second wave of price wars is the lifting of traditional fuel vehicles.
The reason is that the "China VI B" emission standard will be fully implemented from July 1 this year, which is known as the "world's strictest emission standard", causing manufacturers to accelerate inventory clearance and launch "the strongest car purchase discount in history".
Since March 6, after Hubei Province officially announced government and enterprise subsidies, represented by Dongfeng models, a wave of price reductions for fuel vehicles has been set off across the country. For example, the "French presidential car" Dongfeng Citroen C6 directly discounted six, making many people think that fuel vehicles have fallen into cabbage prices.
Dongfeng Citroen C6
But in fact, the actual discount of this wave of price reduction to consumers is not large, and exaggerated discounts, giveaway promotions, hunger marketing and other means are emerging one after another. Many car buyers said that after entering the store, they found that the manufacturer's routines were full, limited time, limited land, limited quantity, and the gimmick was greater than the substance.
The negative effects of the price reduction tide are obvious and quickly appearing.
A channel source of a new car-making force told Shentu that this wave of operation of fuel vehicles has made many people think that the price of fuel vehicles has collapsed, and new energy vehicles will also reduce prices, resulting in a very strong wait-and-see mood among consumers, and even some users who originally planned to lock orders have also chosen to postpone.
As a result, since mid-March, many new automaker brands have launched a time-limited price insurance policy, promising not to reduce prices, otherwise make up the price difference. Ideal, Zerorun, Nezha, and Denza have all announced price insurance policies, and they are basically limited to orders before the end of March. NIO even directly said that it would not follow up on the price reduction. The intention is clear, to let consumers abandon the wait-and-see and hurry to place an order.
The impact of price wars is not only at the order level, but also on bicycle profits. The above-mentioned channel sources said that companies with low bicycle profits, such as Nezha and Zerosport, do not have much leverage to follow up the price war.
Nezha's delivery volume in March was 10,087 units, although it ranked third, but the price of bicycles was low, and the Nezha S, which sold for an average price of more than 200,000 yuan, only delivered more than 2,000 units. Therefore, the delivery volume of Nezha is high in quantity, but the gold content is not high.
Huawei's hitchhiker, it's not easy to ride
Deliveries in the past few months have been sluggish, with more than 4,000 units in January and more than 3,000 units in February, which is obviously insufficient stamina. Both cars are in the M5 and M7, and sales have fallen seriously. Among them, the M5 also launched a pure electric version, but the proportion of sales is not high.
The company behind the question is Cialis. In the new energy vehicle track, Cialis originally did not have any sense of existence, just because he fell in love with Huawei. Huawei does not build cars, but cooperates with Cialis to build cars, so it has the Qianjie brand.
Huawei's strong industry is obvious to all, and Qianjie can sell more than 70,000 vehicles in the past year, which also relies on the support of Huawei's brand, channels, marketing and other aspects.
On March 8 this year, in the promotional posters released on multiple social platforms, Qianjie began to use "HUAWEI Qianjie" to replace the previous "AITO Qianjie". Huawei terminals also use the words "HUAWEI Boundary". Huawei's latest HarmonyOS 3.0 system was subsequently upgraded to all models. On March 30, the company also used "HUAWEI" in the promotional poster. The outside world once believed that Huawei sent an official announcement to build a car.
But the twist came quickly.
On March 31, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei issued another announcement on the decision of the automotive business, emphasizing that Huawei does not build cars and is valid for 5 years. Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, said that recently, some departments, individuals, and partners have been abusing the Huawei brand, and Huawei has been in the process of investigating and dealing with it. Huawei does not build cars, nor does it have any brand of cars. It is strictly forbidden for the Huawei brand to appear in front of the car brand, or as a car brand.
At the 2023 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum on April 1, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Intelligent Vehicle Solution BU, explained that Huawei's smart car model partner companies include Chery, BAIC, Jianghuai, etc., he hopes to build an ecological brand - HUAWEI, with a unified brand for consumers, to avoid different brands causing user confusion and increasing marketing and service costs.
Qianjie is the brand created by Huawei's smart car model and Cialis, and it is the first. However, Q is not the only one. The new brands cooperated by Chery, BAIC, and JAC and Huawei will be unveiled one after another.
For the world, Huawei's hitchhiker is not a good ride. On the one hand, the use of the logo of "HUAWEI" is more strict, and the marketing difficulty is increased; On the other hand, Huawei's "godsons" have increased, and they will compete for resources from Huawei together with the world.
Now, even if Huawei fully supports Qianjie, Qianjie's sales have begun to slump, and if Huawei reduces its support, how can Qianjie compete with other new forces?
Looking at Huawei's cooperation with car companies, in addition to the smart car mode mode, another highly concerned is Huawei's HI model.
This model has been promoted by three projects, namely BAIC, GAC and Changan, and two new car brands have been born - Extreme Fox and Avita.
But for now, neither new brand is a success. Since the start of deliveries of Avita 11 at the end of last year, sales have not been high, and the extreme fox has continued to be sluggish, and sales have not been announced for a long time.
Yu Chengdong revealed on April 1 that at present, Huawei's HI model only has Changan Avita, GAC has given up and does not do it, and there are some problems in BAIC's product definition and competitiveness. Just a few days ago, GAC announced that it would abandon the joint development of the AH8 project with Huawei, and at the same time unbind it from Huawei, it would switch to independent development, and increase its capital by 300 million yuan.
Therefore, the cooperation between car companies and Huawei, including these jointly created new brands, has great uncertainty about the development prospects.
GAC, which abandoned Huawei's HI model cooperation, has its own independent new energy brand Aion, and has always regarded itself as a new force, like "Wei Xiaoli", rushing to release sales on the 1st of each month. Its results in March were 40,016 vehicles, more than "Wei Xiaoli" combined.
However, this is nothing to show off, BYD's sales data has not yet been announced, it should be several times that of Aian.
*Image from Pexels.