Author | Chenwen
Source | Insight into the New Research Institute
The automotive industry in 2023 is very cruel, the joint venture has been defeated, the market share has been greatly penetrated by independent brands, and Mitsubishi's withdrawal from the Chinese market has become a true portrayal.
New energy vehicle companies, led by Weimar, and new car-making forces such as Skyrim, Ziyoujia NIUTRON, Hengchi, Aiways, and Reading have successively exposed poor management, fallen into an existential crisis, and walked to the brink of life and death.
In 2018, there were more than 487 electric vehicle manufacturers in China, and in 2023, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, said that there are only about 50 new power car companies left in normal operation.
In the first 11 months of this year, automobile production and sales reached 27.111 million units and 26.938 million units, up 10% and 10.8% year-on-year, respectively.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicts that in 2024, the overall sales of automobiles will be about 31 million, and the market share of new energy passenger vehicles will reach 43%.
Between a cold and a hot, there is a very interesting phenomenon, although there are not many new power car companies left, but they are very active, between the new forces and the new forces, between the new forces and the traditional car companies, just like a couple quarrel as casual and frequent.
This unveiled the sales code of new energy vehicles, and every time the car company bosses quarrel, the brand popularity will rise once, and the more fierce the noise, the more it will be sold.
01 Brand interaction throughout the year
One of the most heated quarrels of 2023 came from Great Wall and BYD.
The two brands have a long-standing feud and often "interact" before 2023, but this year's quarrel is more intense than ever, and the attention it receives has also spread from within the industry to the social level.
On May 25, Great Wall issued a statement on its official Weibo, saying that it had publicly submitted reporting materials to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on April 11, reporting on the use of atmospheric fuel tanks by BYD Qin PLUSDM-i and Song PLUS DM-i, which were suspected of failing to meet the emission standards of evaporative pollutants from the whole vehicle.
BYD's response came quickly, and on May 25, BYD issued a statement on the same day: "We resolutely oppose any form of unfair competition! and reserve the right to legal proceedings! Our products and related tests meet national standards and have passed certification in national authorities." ”
The two sides have repeatedly pulled, and in addition to watching the excitement inside and outside the circle, there are also many "persuasions", calling on industry enterprises to create a healthy atmosphere of business competition, rather than "tearing each other down".
But the fight between the Great Wall and BYD has already quarreled, like two bulls fighting together, it is difficult to pull away.
On August 9, BYD's 5 million new energy vehicles rolled off the assembly line, and BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu reviewed the difficulty of making a car at the celebration site, and affectionately shouted "We are together, we are Chinese cars", and Wang Chuanfu's shouting at the same time launched the "together" short video also became popular.
Wang Yuanli, CTO of Great Wall Motors, is not willing to be "together" with BYD, he said on his personal Weibo: "If you only emphasize being together verbally, it must be honey in your mouth and arsenic in your heart, it is better to fight first and then be together." ”
The quarrel between Great Wall and BYD is more of a "mutual pinch" at the brand level, which can be regarded as an "official act", and a series of "polemics" caused by Yu Chengdong and He Xiaopeng's "scolding" have added a personal color with official identity endorsement.
On November 1, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, talked about his views on "AEB" technology in an interview with the media.
He expressed two views: "First, most people may have never touched AEB, and second, friends talk about AEB, I think 99% of it is fake, it is fake, and those propaganda are not officially released by the company, all from small videos." ”
Clear-eyed people know at a glance that the friends in He Xiaopeng's mouth are talking about the AITO question world of Huawei and Cialis, and He Xiaopeng provoked the topic, the main purpose is to seize the position of his own technology in the minds of consumers.
In the face of such a "provocation", Yu Chengdong, who is not afraid of things, will definitely not be invisible, and on November 3, he Xiaopeng connotated in the circle of friends, "Even what AEB is, there are car companies who still don't understand it at all!"
On the evening of November 4, He Xiaopeng also posted in the circle of friends: "I recently commented on the chaos in an industry, but the industry is not in a hurry, but the non-industry is in a hurry, I don't know what he is anxious about." Although it was not explicitly stated, this is obviously a response to Yu Chengdong's previous speech.
The "firing" of the two car circle bigwigs also attracted onlookers from other new car-making executives. For example, when someone asked Li Xiang, the founder of Li Auto, what he thought, his answer also began to be yin and yang: "Don't quarrel with Huawei, because you can't quarrel." ”
The above is just a microcosm of brand quarrels in the automotive industry, executives fighting each other, and at the end of the year, the controversy caused by the winter test of the car emperor has attracted almost the entire car circle "group attack".
02 New car sales hit a new high
Using services to break the sales dilemma is the strength of NIO since its establishment
Generally speaking, if there is a quarrel between brands, it is good to say that if you win, if you lose, it will definitely cause damage to the brand image, and then affect sales, and the treachery of the automotive industry in 2023 is that brands fight each other, put the results aside, at least in terms of sales, there are no losers, all winners.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first 11 months of 2023, passenger car production and sales reached 23.441 million and 23.272 million units, up 8% and 9.3% year-on-year, respectively.
Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that the total sales of automobiles in 2023 are expected to be around 30 million units, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%, and the annual sales are expected to hit a record high. Among them, it is expected that there will be about 26 million passenger cars, about 4 million commercial vehicles, and about 9.4 million new energy vehicles.
Source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers Tabulation: Insight Xinyansha
In terms of specific brand segments, the top three brands in terms of sales of new energy vehicles in the first 11 months of this year are BYD, Tesla and GAC Aion.
It is not surprising that BYD and Tesla occupy the top two on the list, but BYD still has a growth rate of 52.6% on the basis of 1.8024 million sales in 2022, which is more or less surprising.
At present, BYD has completed a total of 2,683,400 wholesale sales, a year-on-year increase of 64.29%, but if according to the annual sales target of 3 million, BYD needs to complete the wholesale sales of 316,600 units in December, which is also a sales record that BYD has never had, there is pressure and suspense.
As for GAC Aion, although it ranks third, from the market situation in the past two months, the monthly growth rate of ideal, Great Wall and Cialis has risen extremely fast, all exceeding 100%, and the most exaggerated year-on-year growth rate of Xiaopeng Motors in November has reached 244.9%.
According to this trend, GAC Aion may be able to sit in the third position this year, but it is difficult to say in 2024.
Data source: Passenger Association Tabulation: Insight Shinkensha
In addition to the top three on the list, we can notice that the top brands in terms of sales are all good at "provoking trouble" brands, Great Wall and BYD quarreled fiercely, and their own sales did not fall; Yu Chengdong and Li Xiang, the two bigwigs, are frequent visitors in the field of public opinion, and the sales of the brand are not bad.
To be honest, Great Wall Motor's response to new energy is a little slower, but since the announcement of full new energy in August 2022, its determination to transform to new energy is very resolute, and the Haval brand also plans to park fuel vehicles in 2030, and its brands currently have a layout of new energy products, and the sales growth rate before November 2023 has also reached 81.6%.
With the L7, L8 and L9 models, Li Auto successfully opened up the incremental market for family cars in the price range of more than 300,000 yuan, and completed a year-on-year growth of 172.9% in November with a new high of 41,030 units delivered in a single month, and an increase of 190.7% in the first 11 months.
Cialis is backed by Huawei, with the launch of AITO in SeptemberAITO Wenjie new M7, become a dark horse in the car market, because its edge is too exposed, Li Xiang can only "avoid the war", the new M7 in Huawei Mate 60 mobile phone heat blessing, 11 months of sales across the 20,000 mark, as of November 27, the new M7 number has exceeded 100,000 units.
In contrast, Li Bin of NIO has rarely "participated in the war" this year, although the overall sales of the brand can squeeze into the top ten, but the growth rate is much behind that of its competitors, with a year-on-year increase of only 33.1% in the first 11 months.
The more noisy it is, the more it sells, and it seems to have become a sales password in the automotive industry.
03 The essence of brand quarrels is that the logic of communication has changed
Many people remember that the automotive industry is very "gentle", in the era of traditional fuel vehicles, corporate executives will never come out, let alone quarrel, even at the public relations level, the review of the manuscript, PR is also extremely strict, the description of the defects of competing products as much as possible to leave room for maneuver, usually after talking about the shortcomings of the space, do not forget to bring the advantages of handling to boast.
However, in 2023, when brand quarrels become the norm, and when brands are related to sales, the logic of marketing in the automotive industry begins to change.
In the past, the public relations communication and marketing of the traditional automotive industry basically revolved around the main line of industry progress, technological development, and product iteration, focusing on self-centeredness, emphasizing the promotion of the industry, and then focusing on the advancement of its own technology and products.
When new energy vehicles have gradually become the protagonist of the industry, the new car-making forces represented by Wei Xiaoli, coupled with Huawei, Xiaomi, Baidu and other Internet and consumer electronics industry enterprises have crossed over, bringing the Internet and digital circles that set of communication and marketing methods.
A very significant feature of the Internet industry is that the model innovation under the convergence of technology, in this model, the winner is king, and the gap between the boss and other younger brothers in the industry is very large, and the early BAT occupies the vast majority of the share of search, e-commerce and social games.
Therefore, when these companies do communication marketing, they promote more of their own corporate values, pay more attention to the grand narrative of strategy and picture, and have a very strong rejection of friends and businessmen, and imperceptibly guide consumers to stand in line.
A very obvious case, the different technologies commonly used in the industry, such as range extension, DHT, pure electric, etc., from the traditional industry point of view, are just for different applications in different scenarios, and the technology is not high or low, but now the quarrel between brands, its core purpose is to highlight the superiority of their own technology, in addition to occupying a place, but also to establish the image of "industry brother" in a certain field.
In this way, it is understandable that industry bigwigs such as Yu Chengdong, Li Xiang, and He Xiaopeng often provoke topic disputes.
The above may be one of the reasons why brands are "happy" to quarrel at the macro level, and at the micro level, "quarrels" are indeed conducive to sales.
Internet user drainage and sales of mobile digital products, the common practice is to use a large number of topics to attract attention, and then convert, so in addition to conventional marketing methods, the debate between brands, the topical executives' remarks often become the best tipping point.
On the other hand, due to the high price of the car and the long replacement cycle, users usually compare and contrast repeatedly when buying a car, think in many ways, and pay attention to rational decision-making;
In addition to the volume of advertorials, the creation of topical topics, exaggerated tone, and unrealistic bragging, the most efficient is the quarrel between brands, which gathers the attention of the circle in a short time, covers all the traffic, and successfully completes the expansion of a user funnel, which is reflected on the sales side, which is the increase in sales.
This set of thinking, the founders of the new car-making forces and Yu Chengdong, Lei Jun and other veterans of the mobile phone industry have gone through countless experiences in the past professional experience, and have also been verified by the market, so they can be used in the new energy automobile industry, and they can also quickly adapt.
There are still many uncertainties about the development of the new energy vehicle industry, such as how long BYD can maintain its dominance, or who can run out to challenge BYD, but one thing is certain, the future industry will definitely be more quarrels than this year.
Resources
1. "2023 Annual Inventory: Live Broadcast Tearing Each Other, Executives Scolding, Collective Crazy, How Outrageous Is the Real Business War?" - Yiou New Consumption
2. "Car sales will hit a new high in 2023, how many can there be in 2024?" - one passenger traveling
3. "What kind of communication is needed in the automotive industry in 2024" - autocarweekly