With a huge loss of 11.1 billion in 3 years, how long can "Nezha" make a fuss?
Who would have thought that last year, Wei Xiaoli "kicked" Wei Xiaoli, asked the boundary, ran zero, and won the annual sales championship of the new force, but this year suddenly stalled.
The latest data shows that in July this year, Nezha's delivery volume was 10,039 units, a year-on-year decline and a new low in monthly sales since February.
What is even more embarrassing is that Nezha, which delivered more than 150,000 vehicles last year, did not achieve huge profits under such high sales.
▲ Source: Nezha Auto Weibo
Even on the contrary, the higher the sales, the more losses it will lose - according to the data, the net loss of Nezha Auto in 2022 will reach 6.919 billion yuan.
If you add the loss of 1.321 billion yuan in 2020 and the loss of 2.908 billion yuan in 2021, in the past three years, the "champion" Nezha Automobile has lost a total of 11.148 billion yuan...
"Bloody" scenery
"My life depends on me", "I don't recognize my fate, it is Nezha's life", "I don't believe in the so-called fate", "I was born a demon, so what"...
In July 2019, a national comic movie - "Nezha: The Devil Child Descends", exploded the entire film market. For a while, from online to offline, the "rebellious" Nezha sparked countless discussions.
Under the heat, Nezha Auto, which coincided with the first anniversary of the establishment of the brand and the first new car unveiled, took the opportunity to conduct a joint marketing with the film producer.
With nearly 5 billion yuan of box office revenue and tens of thousands of moviegoers, there is no doubt that this movie directly brought the Nezha brand into the public eye smoothly and won a high-profile and successful out-of-circle marketing.
At the beginning of its birth, there was such a phenomenal masterpiece to "lead the way", and I have to say that Nezha cars were quite lucky. You must know that before this, Nezha Auto did not really knock on the door of the consumer market.
▲ Source: Nezha Auto WeChat public account
According to the data, although Nezha's first car N01 began to be delivered in October 2018, only 1,000 units were sold from delivery to the end of the year, which is not even as good as the Weima in the same period, at least 4,000 units were sold.
So after seizing the exposure of this huge traffic, the famous Nezha car, and then relying on Nezha U and Nezha V finally ushered in a turnaround.
Data show that in 2021, Nezha's cumulative sales volume was 69,674 units, a year-on-year increase of 362%; Among them, the Nezha V ranks first among the new pure electric SUVs in 2021 with 49646 sales.
Entering 2022, Nezha continues to sing and lead, and Nezha V's performance is the same as before. In 2022, 152,000 Nezha models were delivered, of which Nezha V accounted for 65%, reaching 98,847 units.
Therefore, if you only look at the figures, in the past two or three years, Nezha Automobile, whether it is sales or growth rate, is properly ranked at the forefront of the market.
However, it should be pointed out that the big sale of Nezha V actually has a lot to do with the main sinking market. Unlike Wei Xiaoli, who is often hundreds of thousands, the price of Nezha V is actually only about 100,000 yuan.
Therefore, although such a price has allowed Nezha to survive in the new energy vehicle track with many brands, it is also destined to make a huge profit.
▲ Source: Nezha Auto Weibo
According to relevant media reports, Nezha's gross profit margin per car is now only about 5%, while on the other hand, such as Xiaopeng and NIO, although they are also struggling in the quagmire of losses, the gross profit margin can be controlled at about 12-13%.
has achieved the ideal of benign operation and Tesla, the gross profit margin is 19-20%, so from the gross profit section, it can be seen that Nezha is completely taking the route of exchanging price for volume and hurting the book.
Therefore, this result can only bring about the appearance of infinite scenery, but in fact it is very embarrassing.
"Backstab" old car owner
It is undeniable that the low price is indeed a success in the past few years.
However, this kind of play, in fact, for any car player on the market, can also be used at any time.
Not to mention other car companies, Wuling and BYD, the two strong new energy vehicle companies, have already extended their tentacles into the cost-effective market that Nezha V deeply cultivates.
Just like Wuling, Wuling Binguo pure electric car model, which has just been launched this year with a price of only 59,800-84,800, sold more than 20,000 vehicles in July alone.
▲ Source: Wuling Motors Weibo
BYD's cheapest model, the Seagull, sold for 73,800-89,800 also sparked a sales boom, and although it was also launched this year, sales were more ferocious than Binguo, selling more than 28,000 units in July alone.
On the other hand, Nezha, in the past July, the delivery volume of the whole series was only 10,039 units, which was not as good as one of BYD and Wuling's car series.
From January to July this year, sales were only 72,456 units, so from the current market performance, Nezha Automobile is obviously under great pressure to achieve the annual sales target of 250,000 units in 2023.
Moreover, the embarrassment faced by Nezha Automobile is far more than the crisis of declining sales, but also the "collapse" of word of mouth.
Among them, the most deeply backstabbed by old users is the new Nezha S, which was only launched on July 20.
It is understood that the new Nezha S not only adds two extended-range models with a pure electric cruising range of 200 kilometers, but more importantly, the new car has upgraded and optimized some configurations on the basis of the original model, and then the price is 30,000 yuan cheaper.
In addition, in June this year, the CEO of Nezha Automobile Daniel Zhang said when he participated in a forum that he could not blindly participate in the price war, so it was not long before the price was reduced, which made the old car owners very disturbed.
▲ Source: Nezha Auto Weibo
What made the old car's idea even more difficult was that after being annoyed by Nezha's price reduction operation, Daniel Zhang appeased that he "will do his best to make compensation within his ability."
But as soon as the countermeasure was given on July 30, on August 5, Nezha officially announced that its 2022 Nezha S "Qixi Release", with a maximum price reduction of 49,000 yuan, and at the same time enjoy 8,000 yuan of financial discount or replacement subsidies...
For new owners, this is indeed sincere, but for old owners, it is really a knife and a stab.
Want revenge with a sports car
The low-price strategy, although it did allow Nezha to open up sales, but eating meat and making money fiercely became an unattainable dream.
Of course, Nezha also felt such labor pain - a loss of 1.321 billion yuan in 2020 and 2.908 billion yuan in 2021.
Therefore, in July 2022, Nezha released the first sedan, the Nezha S, and the anchored market is no longer an entry car starting at 60,000 yuan, but a B+ class car with a price starting at 200,000 yuan.
In order to further enhance the brand's high-end image, Nezha even launched 999 limited edition editions priced at "upto" 338,800 yuan... His urgency to get out of his predicament is evident.
▲ Source: Nezha Auto Weibo
However, reality does not seem to surprise Nezha, just like in April, Nezha S actually delivered only 2237 units.
Not long ago, Daniel Zhang said that "monthly sales can reach 10,000 vehicles to reach the passing line", and Nezha S is obviously still a long way from the passing line.
But this is just a tip for Nezha to test the high-end, this year's Shanghai Auto Show, Nezha also officially released its first sports car product Nezha GT, with a pre-sale price range of 17.88-226,800 yuan, and claims to be "the best sports car within 2 million."
However, although the price is going up, and the advertising slogan is also shouting quite loudly, in fact, once the low-end brand image is rooted in the minds of consumers, and then want to reverse, it is not at all one car and two cars can "turn over".
Just like the mobile phone market, in recent years, although Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo have been impacting the high-end, the slogan has been shouted countless times, and the marketing has changed one after another, and most consumers still do not recognize it.
▲ Source: Nezha Auto Weibo
Is this no strength, no technology? Apparently not quite. In fact, the creation of high-end brands is not at all that you say that your impact on high-end is high-end, it requires the right time and place, and a combination of factors.
For example, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, three luxury car brands in the eyes of most ordinary people, if many cars equipped with them are really not as good as a number of domestic brands, but everyone just recognizes it, people just don't worry about selling.
Why? This is the appeal of the brand, the appeal of high-end brands.
Therefore, for Nezha Automobile, although the mood of hitting the high-end is understandable, betting on the high-end market at the moment cannot solve the near thirst.
*Orchestration | Ear Audit | Ears again
This article was first published by Chief Brand Watch (ID: pinpaigcbao)