U8 monthly sales of more than 1,500 million-level looking up to which "rich brothers"

Economic Observer reporter Zhou Ju As a million-level high-end brand under BYD, Yangwang has attracted much attention since its birth. Recently, BYD's sales data showed that Yangwang U8 sold 1,592 units in December 2023, entering the top of the domestic million-level luxury car sales list in one fell swoop. For a million-dollar autonomous off-road vehicle, such a sales performance exceeded many people's expectations.

On January 11, a reporter from the Economic Observer confirmed to BYD insiders that the above-mentioned sales volume of the U8 were actual deliveries. If you add the delivery of 408 vehicles in November, nearly 2,000 consumers have paid for the U8. According to the previous news released by Yangwang, orders for Yangwang U8 exceeded 30,000 units. Based on a rough calculation of 30,000 orders and a million yuan car price, the cumulative value of the backlog of orders is as high as 30 billion yuan.

Yangwang U8 is the first model launched by BYD's Yangwang brand, the car is positioned as a new energy off-road SUV, and the luxury version will be officially launched on September 20, 2023, and will be fully delivered in November, with a price of 1.098 million yuan. Since its listing, Yangwang U8 has earned enough eyeballs with its "black technology" such as making a U-turn on the spot, wading in water, and maintaining the stability of the body after a puncture, but the price of up to one million yuan has aroused heated discussions.

Today, looking up to the monthly sales of more than 1,500 units in U8, it seems that the independent brand has successfully broken the price "ceiling" of one million yuan. So, who did Yangwang U8 sell to? In this regard, BYD insiders told the Economic Observer that the company does not have a detailed user structure portrait of Yangwang U8.

According to the reporter's understanding, at present, the test drive and evaluation of the U8 mostly come from some car critics and media people who pay out of their own pockets. Therefore, some people joked, did Yangwang U8 sell to these "special groups"? In addition, the reporter found that on some car rental platforms, there are also figures looking up to U8.

Behind the chic payment of the "rich brother".

The Economic Observer interviewed several car owners, and they talked about several common reasons for choosing to look up to the U8. First of all, they chose to look up to the U8 because they were attracted by the cool features of this car, such as turning around on the spot, wading in water, etc., they believe that these functions are not available in the current models on the market, so looking up to the U8 is highly attractive. Second, they are all financially strong, and looking up to the U8 is not the family's first luxury car, not even the second, but the third or fourth. "I'm 39 years old, I'm in the energy industry, and before that, my family had a lot of imported cars with more than one million, but I knew that a large part of buying these cars was actually paying for the brand premium, which was relatively cost-effective. Chen Xiao (pseudonym), the owner of the Yangwang U8 from Ningxia, told the Economic Observer. The screenshot Chen Xiao showed to reporters shows that in addition to looking up to the U8, he also owns an Aston Martin DB11, a Bentley Bentayga, and a Range Rover, worth about 2.5 million yuan, 3 million yuan, and 2 million yuan respectively.

Although the price of more than 1 million yuan is a bit unattainable in the eyes of most people, Chen Xiao believes that in the same level of cars, looking up to the U8 is "worth it", because some of the new technologies equipped with the U8 are not available in other cars, such as "Yi Sifang" and "Yunpu". In addition, the U8 is equipped with three lidars, and the luxurious atmosphere created by the leather wrapping of the whole car is also satisfactory to him.

Another prospective car owner, Wang Hua (pseudonym), who has already paid a deposit, is from Guangdong. "I'm a 34-year-old graphic designer, and I'm the owner of an Audi A6L, and I'm looking up to the U8 as the third car in my family. After trying to look up, I found that the car could have so many playable tricks, some functions and configurations, maybe not needed, or redundant, but still want to have. Just enough money, I placed an order with passion. Wang Hua told the Economic Observer that from a functional point of view, looking up to U8 as a "big toy" is worth starting.

Mr. Sun, from Yunnan, is mainly interested in the off-road performance of this car. Mr. Sun, 40 years old, was previously the owner of the Mitsubishi Pajero and the mid-spec Nissan Patrol, and later bought the NIO ES8. He said that he likes performance cars, and he can only choose Japanese cars before, and now it is a little inconvenient to use NIO as an off-road vehicle, so he has been paying attention to the brand since its release, and paid the intention money on the first day of listing and pre-sale.

At the same time, the Economic Observer reporter also found that on social platforms, there are still many consumers who have a wait-and-see attitude towards looking up to U8 and dissuade them from quitting. As for the reason, it is generally believed that looking up to UB is not worth the price. So, is the U8 worth the millions?

According to the analysis of an automotive engineer with many years of work experience in Chinese and foreign car companies on social platforms, although several "black technologies" of U8 sound cool, the technical implementation is not so difficult. If calculated by BOM cost method, the motor price of the U8 is about 2.5 times that of Model Y, the battery and range extender system are about 1 times that of Model Y, the chassis, body, interior and exterior hardware U8 ≤ 2 times that of Model Y, and the intelligent driving chip, camera, wiring harness, tires and other accessories are roughly calculated to be 2 times that of Model Y. Roughly calculated, the total BOM cost of looking up at the U8 is twice that of Model Y, ≤ about 600,000. On this basis, the gross profit of the U8 is also twice that of Tesla, which is about 40%, then the price of the U8 should be about 840,000 yuan.

A consulting analyst who did not want to be named told reporters that for some consumers with high wealth accumulation, they do not have such a high loyalty to the brand, and they will buy it if they like it, "they buy a car even more chic than we buy a mobile phone." In addition, it is proposed that for high-value people, when they buy a car, they often not only buy the use and driving of the car, but also include the social value, looking up to these functions that are currently unique, and will be the focus of social interaction, so even if there is a part of the "IQ tax", the rich are willing to pay for it.

BYD has stood firm?

Judging from the current sales data, Yangwang U8 has successfully attracted the attention of a group of "rich brothers" through a series of "black technology" blessings. However, how to maintain stable growth will be a major challenge for Yangwang. In China, high-end auto brands such as Promising Auto and Gaohe have shown a lack of stamina after "harvesting" the first batch of users. Can looking up break this cycle?

In an interview with a reporter from the Economic Observer, although the owners and prospective owners of the U8 are more optimistic about the product strength of the U8 itself, they also generally mentioned that compared with the million-level luxury cars in the world, the brand height of the U8 is still a little insufficient. Throughout the million-level luxury cars on the current market, they all have a history of hundreds of years of car manufacturing, as well as profound technology and brand accumulation. As a newly established high-end brand under BYD, both popularity and product reliability have yet to be precipitated and tested by time.

"As the first generation of this car (looking up to the U8), the people around me also told me that I still have to wait and see, and wait a few months to see the real user feedback before making a decision, after all, the maturity of the product is not enough, and the feedback is not enough. The above-mentioned listed car owner from Guangdong said. "As far as the current situation is known, looking up to the brand team and the U8 product itself, there is still a lot of room for improvement, which needs to be improved. The above-mentioned car owner from Yunnan said.

Looking up to whether the brand can continue to maintain its popularity will be the key to whether the high-end BYD brand can be realized. At present, BYD's overall sales continue to rise, but its main sales force is still the relatively low price of the Dynasty and Ocean series, in order to improve profitability, high-end has always been the direction of BYD's efforts.

In order to hit the high-end, after fully switching to new energy vehicles, BYD reclaimed the equity of DENZA and quickly launched new products, and also launched two new brands, namely Yangwang and Equation Leopard. Among them, DENZA and Equation Leopard undertake the mid-to-high-end consumer market, and Yangwang, as a million-level brand, is the vanguard of BYD's high-end and is pinned on high hopes.

However, at present, only the D9 of DENZA has achieved good market feedback among the DENZA brands, and the market performance of follow-up products is not as expected; Equation Leopard's sales are increasing under the east wind of new energy off-road; relatively speaking, the price of up to one million yuan is facing higher uncertainty.

Looking up at the sales volume in December 2023, it shows that the brand has ushered in a "good start", but the follow-up development needs to be observed in a longer time dimension. However, there are also views that for BYD, the main goal of looking up to the brand is not sales, but to establish a higher brand value for BYD.

The good news is that in addition to the domestic market, some foreign markets have also shown strong interest in looking up to the U8. According to some second-hand car exporters, the current price of the U8 in Russia is more than 2 million yuan, and even reaches 3 million yuan per unit. This means that in the future, BYD will have the opportunity to "harvest" foreign rich users while meeting the needs of China's "rich brothers".