Porsche can't sell either? 20% off is useless, Chinese consumers do not pay

At least until the third quarter of this year, Porsche belongs to the kind of brand that is high and high, and no matter how the market rolls in, it cannot be affected.

Porsche's global sales from January to June 2023 reached 167,354 units, up 15% y/y. Sales in China reached 43,832 units, up 8% year-on-year, while sales of the 911 and Taycan models increased 57% and 46% respectively in the first half of the year.

But just two days ago, the official website of Porsche, a luxury brand owned by German Volkswagen, showed that Porsche delivered 242,700 vehicles worldwide in the first three quarters of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 10%. Among them, the Chinese market contributed 60,700 units delivered, down 12% y/y.

In other words, Porsche delivered only 16,900 vehicles in China in the third quarter. Sales in China bucked the trend. From 2015 to 2022, China has been Porsche's largest single market for eight consecutive years. But if sales in China decline this year, Porsche's largest single market could change hands.

What happened in Q3? Porsche officials did not give a specific sales data reference for subdivided models, but we can still get a glimpse of the changes that have occurred in Porsche from other aspects.

The first is the price decline. You know, a brand like Porsche that does not worry about selling is difficult to have discounts in the past. And buying Porsche can not avoid the official optional policy, such as the Macan starting price of less than 600,000 entry-level models, seemingly inexpensive, but the actual purchase of the car often has to add a large number of options, the price to seven or eight hundred thousand is normal.

But in fact, since the beginning of this year, Porsche's price has continued to fall.

The current discount of classic Porsche 911 in dealers is generally about 20% off, and the highest discount range can reach about 300,000 yuan. If the price is high-end, and the price reduction of the Porsche 911, which already sells only a few hundred units a month, is not telling, then the discount margin of the entry-level model Macan may be more convincing.

Now Porsche Macan can generally achieve 83% off at dealers, and if sincerity is obvious, there is more room for discounts. That is to say, a Macan with a guidance price of about 570,000 yuan, the reduction can be as high as 100,000 yuan, the price of a naked car can be 470,000 or even lower, and the optional policy is not as strong as in the past.

The entry-level model is for the sake of volume, and now the price has been loosened, which means that Porsche's sales have been affected.

It can also be seen from the statistics of the domestic platform that after entering 2023, in addition to the sales of Panamera, it can remain stable, and other main models such as Macan, Cayenne, and Taycan have different degrees of year-on-year and month-on-month declines.

Porsche Macan, Cayenne and other models can generally maintain monthly sales of about 2,000 vehicles in the past, and even sell more than 3,000 vehicles a month when the market is good, but most of this year can only sell more than 1,000 vehicles a month. As the Cayenne entered the third quarter, it had even fallen to less than 1,000 vehicles a month.

In terms of new energy, Taycan sales also fell slightly, with monthly sales of about 400-500 vehicles in the same period last year in the third quarter, but only about 200-300 units this year.

When the factors of oil-power switching, internal rollover, and declining consumer demand are superimposed and intensifying, the high-end luxury market, which was once considered difficult to shake, has also begun to show signs of loosening.

It is an indisputable fact that high-end consumption is weak this year.

The result is that the sales of models in the price range of more than 400,000 yuan in the first half of the year fell compared with the same period last year, and those who originally had the ability to buy 500,000 cars may now only consider the 400,000 level, and those who originally wanted to buy 400,000 level cars are now considered 300,000 levels, and the excessive consumption of non-rigid demand has decreased, affecting the overall volume of the high-end car market.

The second is the rise of a large number of domestic high-end brands.

If in the past, no matter how domestic brands rolled upwards, they were mainly concentrated in the low-end market below 400,000, which mainly affected BBA and would not reach Porsche's user groups. Then with the rise of domestic brands with prices of more than 500,000 or even more than one million, they began to touch the high-end market. With the leading edge of electrification, domestic high-end brands are no less than overseas high-end brands in terms of technical performance and luxury.

What is more important is the enlightenment of consumers' minds.

After so many years of new energy market education, especially under the rise of major countries and the prosperity of domestic products, users' view of automobile consumption is undergoing subtle changes. The first is that the belief in overseas luxury brands is not as strong as in the past, and the trust and favorability of domestic brands have greatly increased; The second is that the interest in automotive products is changing from the simple pursuit of appearance styling and performance to the pursuit of intelligence and new technologies.

This makes Porsche not obviously attractive to users, whether it is the performance of traditional fuel vehicles or the intelligence of new energy vehicles. Once the brand appeal is also broken, sales will naturally suffer.

In fact, when the brand and product barriers established by the luxury brand BBA are broken, it is doomed that the super-luxury brand market represented by Porsche will be changed sooner or later. Under the tide of new energy, the user's concept has changed, the market rules and gameplay have changed, for all overseas brands, if the product cannot conform to the times will be affected, this is the fact that all overseas brands in the Chinese market have to face, it is only a matter of time. Now it seems that it is the turn of the ultra-luxury market. (Text/Youshi Auto Old Cannon)

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