The first round of "price war" in 2024 will start!

Every reporter: Duan Siyao Every editor: Pei Jianru

At the beginning of 2024, car companies are a little busy.

On January 1, car companies, including BYD, Changan Automobile, Celis, Li Auto, etc., successively announced their 2023 annual sales results. Among them, BYD's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in 2023 will be 3.0244 million, a year-on-year increase of 62.3%, winning the "sales crown" of new energy vehicle companies in 2023. In terms of new EV manufacturers, Li Auto took the lead, delivering more than 376,000 new vehicles in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 182.2%.

On the one hand, car companies are posting their sales report cards in 2023, and on the other hand, they are busy opening the first round of official reductions in 2024. According to incomplete statistics from the reporter of "Daily Economic News", since January 1, 7 car companies, including Tesla, have officially announced that they will lower the prices of their models or launch promotional policies for limited-time cash discounts. The industry generally believes that the price war will not end in 2024, and the knockout competition will continue.

Car companies will show their sales of new energy vehicles in 2023

So far, most automakers have announced delivery data for December 2023 and the whole year. Different from previous years, major car companies have highlighted "new energy vehicle sales" in their 2023 report cards.

Tabulating: Reporter Duan Siyao

For example, Changan Automobile's annual sales exceeded 2.55 million units, of which 470,000 were self-owned brand new energy vehicles, Geely Automobile's annual cumulative sales were about 1,309,500 units, of which 487,400 were self-owned brand new energy vehicles, Great Wall Motor's annual sales of new energy vehicles were 261,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 98.39%, and Hongqi brand's annual retail sales exceeded 370,000 units, of which the retail sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 85,000 units.

Compared with domestic brands, the enthusiasm of joint venture brands is not high, and only two automakers have announced their sales of new energy vehicles in 2023. Among them, SAIC Volkswagen's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles were about 130,400 units, a year-on-year increase of 44.7%, of which the ID. family sold 109,700 units for the whole year, and FAW Toyota's domestic new car retail sales exceeded 800,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, of which the sales of pure electric models increased by 17 times year-on-year.

In terms of new EV manufacturers, the top five deliveries in 2023 are: Li Auto (376,000), NIO (160,000), Leapmotor (144,200), Xpeng (141,600), and Nezha (127,500).

While announcing the sales volume in 2023, the car company also has a clear plan for the sales target in 2024. Among them, Li Xiang, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, revealed on social media that Li Auto will challenge the annual sales target of 800,000 units in 2024, while Geely Automobile has set a sales target of 1.9 million units in 2024, and the sales of new energy vehicles will increase by more than 66%.

A number of models are available for price reductions or limited-time offers

When many car companies are still competing for sales in 2023, Tesla has fired the first shot of the New Year's "price war".

On January 1, 2024, Tesla officially announced a Model 3 rear-drive cash car insurance subsidy of 6,000 yuan, and at the same time launched a low-interest financial policy, which can save up to 23,000 yuan by buying Model 3/Y for a limited time.

Image source: Sina Weibo (@特斯拉)

Nezha Automobile followed suit and announced that it would be able to enjoy a 5,000 yuan Nezha New Year's exclusive red envelope gift for Nezha AYA/Nezha X/Nezha S/Nezha GT; FAW Toyota launched the "full system direct subsidy" policy, and all models can enjoy a time-limited direct subsidy of purchase tax, up to 5,999 yuan; Geely Emgrand L HiP The Champion Edition also launched a New Year's subsidy of 5,000 yuan, which can be superimposed with a cash subsidy of up to 14,000 yuan, while the Lynk & Co 09 directly reduced the price, and the official guide price of all models was reduced by 10,000 yuan, and the adjusted starting price was 247,900 yuan.

Hua Chuang Securities Research Report believes that because the price of joint venture vehicles and electric vehicles is still not to the end, and the space range is relatively large, it is expected that the price pressure in 2023 will continue in 2024.

The reporter noticed that most of the time-limited promotion policies launched by this round of car companies are concentrated on January 1, 2024 ~ January 31, and some of them are extended to before the Spring Festival in 2024. Compared with previous years, the Spring Festival in 2024 is relatively late, and it is also considered a big year for car market sales.

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, believes that the later the Spring Festival, the longer the market boom period before the Spring Festival, the more it can bring about a strong pre-holiday consumption growth in the auto market.

From the current point of view, the price war in 2024 is still the main theme of the auto market. Ping An Securities Research Report predicts that the "price war" dominated by leading new energy vehicle companies will continue in 2024, especially in the mainstream price band of 100,000~200,000 yuan. In addition, the decline in battery costs also provides room for car companies to cut prices for new energy vehicles.

National Business Daily