For a long time, the domestic high-end car market has been monopolized by luxury car companies led by BBA, followed by huge profits and a broad market cake.
However, in recent years, with the gradual surge of electrification, BBA, the leader of the high-end market, has not continued its absolute advantage in the past, but has retreated step by step under the continuous impact of China's traditional car companies and new forces in car manufacturing. So why is the once glorious BBA so lonely in the new energy era?
Times have changed
In terms of thinking, BBA's brand reputation, pricing and sales are beyond the reach of other car companies, but after entering the new energy era, the style of these luxury car companies has taken a sharp turn, from the new energy vehicle sales list in recent months, BBA's products are rarely on the list, the reason behind this is intriguing.
The reason is simple, and it can be summed up in one sentence: times have changed. With the advent of the era of smart electric vehicles, the consumption concept of car buyers has long changed, and the once unchanged market structure and demand have also turned around. As a pioneer, Tesla ran all the way with full power, and tore a big crack in the fuel vehicle market mastered by BBA, and then major new forces sprang up and began to grow wildly. After the mainland's traditional old car companies joined the battle, they further boosted the sales of the entire new energy market. According to information released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2022, the total annual sales of pure electric models in China Continental will be 5.365 million units, a year-on-year increase of 81.6%, while the sales of plug-in hybrid models will be 1.515 million units, a year-on-year increase of about 150%.
In the new energy vehicle market, the performance of the new forces is undoubtedly more outstanding, among which the new forces represented by Tesla and Wei Xiaoli seem to have no deep roots, but they do not have the user's cognitive baggage of traditional car companies, and can bypass the barriers of BBA in fuel drive technology, and directly hit the core needs of the majority of users with outstanding intelligent experience, service experience and driving control experience. There is no doubt that today's new forces have carried the banner of entering the high-end, while luxury brands led by BBA still adhere to the basic fuel plate, although they can maintain the stability at this stage, but this is not a long-term solution after all.
Self-destruct the Great Wall
In fact, the BBA three have long explored the field of new energy, of which BMW began the Project i plan in 2007, which is earlier than the release of Tesla's first model, but in 2013, the BMW i3 was late to the oil. Mercedes-Benz is even more exaggerated, it unveiled its own pure electric model 190 in 90, but only launched its first pure electric product, Mercedes-Benz EQC, in 2019. In addition, Audi's preparation is also sufficient, but its first pure electric product was only delivered in 2021. From this point of view, these three families got up early and rushed to the late set.
As the saying goes: the ship is difficult to turn around, BBA's new energy transformation is hesitant, largely because of the reluctance to their own huge cake in the fuel market, which is like the old aristocracy when facing reform, but unfortunately the development of the times is rolling forward, and it never stays because of whom. These "nobles" naturally knew, so whether active or passive, BBA took that step, but the result was not ideal.
Among them, BMW is the leader in electrification transformation in the BBA top three, at present the brand has a total of iX, iX1, i4, i7, iX3, i3 and other products, the product matrix has been relatively perfect, from the sales data of the first half of this year, BMW sold a total of 45,000 new energy models in China, and BMW iX3 and i3 sales in the first half of the year exceeded 21,000 units, both of which can be described as the main sales force. It is worth noting that the sales of BMW new energy products in the first half of this year increased by 283% year-on-year, directly soaring, but through the automotive vertical website we can easily query that i3 and iX3 both models have about 110,000 terminal discounts, of which the starting price of about 350,000 yuan i3 discount instantly came to less than 250,000 yuan.
BMW has gained beautiful data through a sharp price cut, but this kind of drinking and quenching thirst has a great impact on the brand image and the pricing of subsequent models, and it will also greatly reduce the company's own profits. According to BMW's financial report in the first half of the year, the brand's global revenue was 740.72 euros, and the profit was only 6.62 billion euros, down 50% year-on-year. Therefore, BMW's approach at this stage is not advisable in the long run.
The operation of the Mercedes and Audi brands is much the same as BMW, of which Mercedes has a bigger problem. Low product power, high price setting greatly affected the sales of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles, in January ~ August this year, Mercedes-Benz's first pure electric model EQC domestic sales are only 167 units, EQB, EQA and EQE sales are 4354 units, 2583 units, 4887 units. Even if Mercedes-Benz gave a large terminal discount, it failed to obtain the recognition of domestic consumers, and this also indirectly led to the suspension of some Mercedes-Benz new energy plants.
Uncle Che concluded
From the market level, most of the new energy products under BBA are priced at more than 300,000 yuan, which is logically the self-reserved land of such luxury brands, but in the new energy era, most consumers still choose their own brand products without hesitation. In my opinion, the main reason for this situation is that domestic car companies have accumulated sufficient technical advantages in the field of advanced military new energy, and to some extent, the three German top three belong to the latecomers. Secondly, in the new energy era, the technical barriers have been successfully broken, and the three-electric system is open and transparent, so the terrorist premium ability of BBA no longer exists. Finally, under the premise of insufficient strength of new energy products, BBA also maintained its previous arrogant posture, and there was a serious premium for products, completely unaware of the changes in the automotive industry, and the lack of hard power to support the brand power has become a castle in the air. To sum up, BBA has been reduced to "miscellaneous cards" in the new energy era.