The highest 350,000 can't be higher? Will the pricing of Xiaomi cars become an obstacle to sales?
Xiaomi SU7 scene surging news reporter Fan Jialai photographed
"Now the new energy vehicles are too rolled, there is no point in talking about technology, it may be out of gas after a month, and price is the key factor. After the Xiaomi car press conference, an automobile practitioner shared his feelings with the surging news reporter.
On December 28, Xiaomi held a Xiaomi automotive technology conference in Beijing, and Xiaomi SU7, the first product of Xiaomi Automobile, made its public debut. The model is positioned as a C-segment high-performance coupe and is scheduled to go into production in the first half of 2024. In addition, this conference officially disclosed the progress and breakthroughs of the five core technologies of Xiaomi Automobile, including electric drive, battery, large die-casting, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit and other key areas.
At the press conference, Xiaomi SU7 was almost spoiled, but the price has always remained mysterious, which has also become the focus of heated discussions in the outside world.
At the same time as swiping the screen of the circle of friends and dominating the hot search, this huge press conference has also been questioned by a lot, some practitioners told reporters that they are "quite good at marketing", and Shen Ziyu, chairman of Xingji Meizu Group, publicly said in the circle of friends: "Is it interesting to kidnap such feelings?" Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holdings, hinted on Weibo that the announcement of Xiaomi Auto was "over".
"Xiaomi is a novice in making cars, no matter how fanciful Lei Jun says, building cars still requires the process of accumulation of experience and production capacity climbing. Zhang Xiang, a senior automotive analyst and director of the Vodafo Digital Vehicle International Cooperation Research Center, told The Paper. As for the price, he believes: "At most, it is 300,000 or 350,000, and it can't be higher." ”
The Paper reporter visited the Xiaomi Yizhuang factory Photo by The Paper reporter Zhou Di
"Heap Parameters" are not as good as "Volume Price"
"Detached from the price, it doesn't really make much sense to talk about the release of a new car. A chief analyst of a brokerage told the surging news reporter that purely from the perspective of parameter configuration, the general evaluation in the industry is not bad, but whether it is "sellable", price is the most critical factor.
At the Xiaomi car press conference, Lei Jun said that Xiaomi cars should do 100 first, unique, and most, and also disclosed a number of key data such as the maximum speed and zero hundred acceleration, saying that Xiaomi cars have surpassed Porsche's million-dollar tram TaycanTurbo in performance, and these eye-catching parameters have also caused discussions from the outside world.
"Judging from the actual cars I have seen, Xiaomi's materials are still good. A car blogger told reporters at the press conference that he compared the configuration and pricing of the hotly discussed Zeekrypton 007 and Xiaomi SU7 on the whole network: "Lei Jun used a lot of 'the world's best' at the press conference, and in terms of strategy, it alludes to domestic car companies." Because the high-tech content of this car is still relatively high, its price strategy should be highly overlapping with Extreme Krypton 007, and the high-end price should be around 300,000. ”
Xiaomi SU7 scene surging news reporter Fan Jialai photographed
Judging from the many speculations on social media, it is widely believed that the price of the Xiaomi car SU7 is about 250,000-300,000, while the price of the SU7 Max version is between 300,000-370,000.
Lei Jun has hinted many times before that the price of Xiaomi's new car is "a bit expensive, but it is reasonable", however, some people in the automotive industry told the surging news reporter that this is a common marketing routine of Xiaomi, and it is likely that it is just to raise people's expectations and make the final price more attractive.
Lei Jun repeatedly mentioned words such as "highest" and "unique" at the press conference, but Zhang Xiang sharply commented that Xiaomi cars should not be overpriced, and the parameters are only the internal characteristics of the car, "From the external point of view, Xiaomi cars have a certain degree of homogeneity with other brands." ”
Zhang Xiang said that the sedan models designed by Xiaomi are not as good as SUV models, "Now Chinese consumers are Xi to buying cars with large space, and SUVs as the mainstream are beyond doubt." In addition, in his opinion, the layout and cockpit design of Xiaomi cars "should also follow the crowd". For example, the lidar on the roof and the center console screen inside the cockpit do not seem to be very different from other brands.
"Losses from car manufacturing are a common phenomenon. There are a lot of R&D expenses in the early stage, and the profit margin is difficult to turn positive, let alone the hardware profit margin. The amount of hardware purchased does not reach a certain amount, and it is difficult to achieve economies of scale. Therefore, reasonable expectations should be maintained for new cars. Zhang Xiang said that Xiaomi is facing not only competitors such as Xiaopeng, Weilai, Ideal, Huawei, etc., but also traditional car companies such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
Xiaomi Auto Production Base Daily Economic News Figure
On December 29, a staff member of Xiaomi Home in Beijing told The Paper that Xiaomi will set up several larger stores to sell cars, and the specific time is not yet clear, "it should be soon".
An industry insider told reporters that Xiaomi Auto has begun the screening work of the delivery center, requiring the candidate site to provide at least 120 parking spaces, and the construction area cannot be less than 3,000 square meters. Xiaomi Auto may adopt the industry's general operation model, that is, the model of Xiaomi franchise store + delivery center + authorized sheet metal painting center.
It is worth noting that in November, a staff member of Xiaomi Home told reporters that in some offline stores with large space, Xiaomi cars will be sold together with mobile phones, and professional car sales personnel will also be recruited. This also means that the sales channels of Xiaomi cars may be carried out through offline Xiaomi Home and delivery centers at the same time.
The surging news reporter photographed the Xiaomi road test car The surging news reporter Zhou Di photographed
Analysts say "normal mind to look at sales"
"This time, we actually released two products, SU7 and SU7 Max. The above-mentioned brokerage analysts told The Paper that the prices of the two cars are expected to be very different, Lei Jun refers to the "a bit expensive" one, mainly referring to the SU7 Max, and the other one is more hidden, which is "the first Xiaomi for young people".
The analyst said that don't expect too much from the sales of Xiaomi's first car, because of the fully self-developed strategy, the early mass production will definitely be very difficult, even if the scheduled volume exceeds expectations, there is a risk that the output will not come up, and you can look at it with a normal heart.
"It's really good at marketing. Another new power car company practitioner told the surging news, "but at the end of the year, the car market is very volatile, everyone is releasing new products, to say that the impact is great, in fact, there is no one, after all, everyone is busy with their own affairs, no time to pay attention to others, now the pricing is not clear, and it is difficult to judge its sales prospects." ”
A number of brokerages said that the further pricing and industrial chain of Xiaomi cars deserve in-depth attention. Huatai Securities said in the research report that the key factor is that the price of Xiaomi SU7 has not yet been clarified, and the market is still playing low allocation pricing to below 200,000 or maintained at the level of more than 250,000, and pricing is still the core focus. Xiaomi's entry into the game will accelerate the intelligent competition in the vehicle industry, and it is recommended to pay attention to the Xiaomi automobile industry chain and the parts and components that benefit from the acceleration of intelligence.
Zheshang Securities believes that the "people, cars, and home full ecology" operating system created by Xiaomi has the characteristics of good heterogeneous compatibility, cross-terminal portable and efficient connectivity, cross-device thinking center, and open ecology, and there are precedents for cross-border car intelligent cockpits by mobile phone industry players, such as Meizu and Huawei, all of which allow consumers to get a good experience. In addition, the whole ecology of "people, vehicles and homes" is expected to improve the value of data by connecting the previous single vehicle and machine, and effectively combine with other equipment data to achieve better value release.
As of the close of trading on December 29, Xiaomi's Hong Kong stock closed at HK$15.6, down 4.18%, after falling about 0.25% on the day of the end of the press conference.