The ideal "hit the line" in advance, and Weilai and Xiaopeng are under great pressure
The new car-making force has sold more than 300,000 units a year. The first to accomplish this goal is Li Auto. According to official information, in only 11 months this year, Li Auto completed the annual sales target of 300,000 units set at the beginning of the year. The ideal is "hitting the line" in advance, and the other two brothers of the three brothers of "Wei Xiaoli", Weilai and Xiaopeng will undoubtedly be under greater pressure.
01
Ideally, it aims at the demand for family cars and continues to make efforts
Walking into the exhibition hall of Li Auto in Yubei District, Chongqing, it was crowded. The sales staff of Li Auto told reporters: "Now, consumers have a relatively high degree of recognition of extended-range models, which can be oiled and electric, convenient and affordable." That's where we sell in. This is also the main reason why Li Auto can take the lead in completing the annual sales target of 300,000 units.
The reporter saw in the ideal car exhibition hall that most of the consumers who came to see the car to inquire were mainly families. The ideal car, which focuses on large space and family car needs, well meets the needs of contemporary mainstream family cars. Li Auto not only does not have range anxiety, but also has in-vehicle intelligence and entertainment functions that can fully meet the various needs of family members. More importantly, the ideal car, which has been labeled as a technology-based car company, has been favored by more middle-class elites. Their recognition of Li Auto's technology, products and values has made them loyal users of Li Auto, and many of them will recommend the model to their friends. "Many of my customers were introduced by friends, and Li Auto has a good reputation in the circle of users. The salesperson said.
The above-mentioned salesperson said: "Through the accumulation of several range extender models, users have a good understanding of our products and brands, and generally have high expectations for the first pure electric model MEGA that we will launch next." Liu Jie, vice president of business of Li Auto, said that the price of MEGA is expected to be within 600,000 yuan, and it will be officially released in December this year, and mass production and user delivery will officially start in February 2024. Within two hours of the start of pre-sales at the Guangzhou Auto Show, MEGA received orders for 10,000 units. The MPV built for the Chinese family is exactly the positioning of MEGA. Focusing on the demand for family cars, Li Auto continues to innovate, and the market is promising.
02
NIO and XPeng were unable to meet their annual sales targets
Compared with the ease with which Ideal took the lead in completing the annual sales target, the pressure on new car-making forces such as NIO and Xpeng has increased significantly, and this pressure has also been fed back to the sales side. Entering the fourth quarter, the sales staff of the new car-making forces are obviously busy.
"Shanghai's current policy of pure electric license is valid until December 31, before the completion of the car license; Shanghai license replacement subsidy of 10,000 yuan to December 31, before the completion of the new car license plate, the old car transfer invoice; next year pure electric vehicles will also be charged purchase tax, Weilai launched a November sales policy before the policy decline, there are optional fund discounts and current car points benefits, as well as ultra-high show car preferential benefits. If you are interested, please contact me. Changing the previous "reserved", the greetings of NIO's sales consultants have become courteous.
According to the data, in January ~ November, NIO delivered a total of 142026 new cars, which is not far from the annual sales target of 245,000 units set at the beginning of the year. This year, NIO has made major adjustments, obtained the qualification to make cars, and is about to bid farewell to OEM production, and reached strategic cooperation with Changan Automobile, Geely Automobile and other car companies in battery swapping...... It seems that NIO is showing a good development trend in all aspects, but the continuous loss of financial situation will undoubtedly bring more pressure on its sales. According to NIO's third-quarter financial report, NIO achieved operating income of 19.07 billion yuan during the reporting period, an increase of 117.4% quarter-on-quarter and 46.6% year-on-year. Among them, the sales revenue of automobiles was 17.41 billion yuan, an increase of 142.3% month-on-month and a year-on-year increase of 45.9%. During the reporting period, NIO's gross vehicle gross profit margin returned to double digits at 11.0%, down 5.4% year-on-year and up 4.8% quarter-on-quarter, while NIO's net loss was RMB4.56 billion, up 10.8% year-on-year, but narrower than in the second quarter. Although NIO currently maintains a good cash flow situation, sales are lower than expected, coupled with the previous layoffs, which still put NIO under greater operating pressure.
The data shows that in January ~ November, Xpeng Motors delivered 121486 vehicles, which has exceeded the cumulative delivery volume in 2022, but there is still a big gap from the annual sales target of 200,000 units. Like NIO, Xpeng is also facing greater sales pressure this year.
Xpeng's third-quarter financial report shows that Xpeng's revenue in the third quarter was 8.53 billion yuan, up 25% year-on-year and 68.5% quarter-on-quarter, and the net loss in the third quarter was 3.89 billion yuan. Referring to its 80,000 new car deliveries in the first three quarters, Xpeng lost 112,500 yuan for each new car delivered.
Under pressure, Xpeng Motors had to launch various promotional policies. "8,000 yuan for a limited time or 24 installments of 0 interest" This is the latest preferential policy given by a sales consultant of Xpeng Motors in Beijing. After half a year of silence on WeChat, the sales consultant began to contact potential customers frequently after entering December, and Xpeng Motors also launched a number of promotional measures including "special car purchase rights", "replacement/repurchase rights", "basic car purchase rights", etc., in order to achieve better sales performance at the end of the year. However, judging from the current development trend, the annual sales target of 200,000 units has become an impossible task for Xpeng.
03
"Product + network" continues to make efforts
"It's not that we don't work hard, it's that this year's car market is too 'rolly'. Talking about the difficulty of this year's sales task, the above-mentioned Xiaopeng Motors sales consultant said that under the serious "involution" of the auto market, the pressure on the new car-making forces that are still in the growth period is much greater than that of traditional car companies. According to incomplete statistics, in December, BYD, Changan, Leap, FAW Toyota, etc., more than 17 auto companies have launched preferential policies for car purchases, including cash drops, purchase tax subsidies, replacement subsidies, etc., and some manufacturers even began to launch various promotional policies as early as November, and the degree of "involution" in the car market at the end of this year is still increasing.
After Ideal took the lead in completing the annual sales target, NIO and Xpeng are also increasing sales through various means. First of all, we will adopt a new vehicle strategy to increase sales. At present, NIO, Xpeng, and Li have all announced that they will enter the MPV market. Among them, Xpeng X9 and Ideal MEGA have formed a head-to-head confrontation and earned enough eyeballs. According to the news, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, set the X9 goal as "becoming the No. 1 seller in the large pure electric MPV market". NIO will also launch an MPV model. Li Bin, chairman of NIO, even declared: "Whatever model sells well, what model will be used." Whoever sells well, ''. In order to achieve better sales results, NIO will also vigorously promote the parity sub-brand, its first model will be positioned as a sedan, the price is locked in the range of 200,000 ~ 300,000 yuan, based on the NIO NT3.0 next-generation platform, may be equipped with self-developed intelligent driving chips, equipped with a single motor, 800V high-voltage architecture, and share a battery swap station with NIO.
Secondly, while continuously enriching the model products and locking in the hot-selling models to open up the market, Xpeng and NIO are increasing the construction of marketing networks. Recently, NIO has increased its investment in sales personnel. Li Bin revealed that NIO currently has more than 5,000 sales consultants, reaching 5,700 people, of which 3,000 sales personnel have only joined the company in the past two months. "It's not enough to just increase the number of salespeople. Li Bin said, "If we don't expand the sales network, it is not enough to deal with market competition." ”
At present, NIO has 460 NIO Centers and 468 NIO Spaces in 152 cities, and 314 service centers and 62 delivery centers in 217 cities. In order to further expand sales, NIO will continue to expand its sales and service network to tap the market potential of fourth- and fifth-tier cities.
Xpeng is constantly promoting its "new retail model". According to the official recruitment announcement of Xpeng Motors, the Xpeng sales and service center is a comprehensive store that provides users with a one-stop service experience such as experience, sales, delivery, and after-sales.
Xpeng's channel reform plan, called "Jupiter Plan", shows that it will reduce the 24 sales areas identified at the beginning of the year to 12 across the country, and gradually eliminate inefficient direct stores, and expand the store scale of agents and dealers to reduce operating costs and improve market coverage. He Xiaopeng said: "It is necessary to carry out drastic survival of the fittest in the sales network, and introduce excellent dealer partners at a faster speed to accelerate the market share expansion in second-tier and lower-tier cities." ”
Text: Wang Jinyu Editor: Huang Bei Layout: Wang Kun