The Spring Festival auto market "volume" does not stop: Tesla's price war continues to escalate, but traditional 4S stores are collectively on vacation
Tencent Auto & High-quality Creators specially planned the "New Energy Vehicle Market Exploration during the Spring Festival Holiday" series of "Car Life in the New Year", which is jointly planned and output by [Travel One Guest], focusing on the operation of the car market during the Spring Festival in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other parts of the country, especially the mainstream new energy brands, real passenger flow, discounts, etc.;
文 | 李皙寅 邓雨洁 赵成 宋立伟 邓霞 陈亮
Editor: Wang Jingyi
Compared with the crowds at the entrance of the scenic spots, the long dragon car river on the highway, the car sales during this year's Spring Festival schedule are slightly flat.
During the Spring Festival, Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) visited the front line of automobile sales in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, and felt the two seemingly different flavors.
One is the familiar "volume", some car companies have launched a "limited time" to further increase the price of discounts, and the sales staff invite customers to take a test drive and place an order to buy a car.
In the hall on the first floor of a shopping mall in Xingtai, Hebei Province, Tesla and Zhiji temporarily "settled" in the traffic Photo / Song Liwei
The other is a rare "relaxation", some dealers have extended the opening time to the eighth and ninth days of the first month, leaving only a small number of employees in the store, and the main task is to guard the introduction and retention of information.
It seems that there are two heavens, but the common fact is that the car market during this year's Spring Festival seems to be "deserted", and then some voices believe that the car market in the Year of the Dragon has cast a shadow.
The Spring Festival car market had a good time a few years ago, and now the market is sluggish, and the reasons are complicated.
First, this Spring Festival in 2024 is slightly different from usual, and people are going home to reunite and travel with their companions. With an eight-day holiday and warm temperatures in mid-February, people have more motivation, energy and stamina to welcome the New Year than in the past four years.
Second, it is now easier and easier to buy a car, the iteration of new cars is getting faster and faster, and the urgency of buying a car in a store during the Spring Festival is getting less and less. There is no need to limit the time and place, consumers can see, buy, and pick up the car, so that the original "sales season" is scattered throughout the year.
"In fact, the Spring Festival holiday is not the peak season for sales throughout the year," Fan Lili, vice president of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Automobile Dealers Chamber of Commerce and director and general manager of Shanghai Yunfeng Group Automobile Industry Development Co., Ltd., told Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that in contrast, the peak season for sales is before the Spring Festival - consumers take the year's income, take the year-end bonus, and buy a car before the holiday to go home with face.
The Spring Festival auto market seems to be cooling, because car companies and dealers are taking a break and are gearing up to "build momentum" for the launch of new cars in the first half of the year, and consumers are gradually repairing the pain and scars of the past, and the pursuit of beauty and free travel is becoming more and more vigorous.
01 The supermarket is not closed, but the passenger flow is not much
The Spring Festival is usually the busiest day of the year, but this year, the car market in the first-tier cities is a little deserted.
On February 14 (the fifth day of the Lunar New Year), a sales consultant in Beijing Heshenghui told Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that in the first half of the Spring Festival holiday, that is, from the first day of the first month to the third day of the first lunar month, there were very few people who came to the store to see the car, and the traffic did not gradually recover until the fourth day of the first lunar month, and as of the sixth day of the first lunar month, almost all of the 10 orders harvested by the store during the holiday came from the fourth day of the first lunar month.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the customer flow of Huawei (Hongmeng Zhixing) store in Beijing increased significantly Photo by Song Liwei
Although this performance is far from the past, compared to other car brands in the same mall, the number of customers and orders in the same mall is the highest, followed by ideal.
This is also in line with the sales performance of new power brands last month. According to the company's public data, in January 2024, Wenjie won the first place in the new power ranking for the first time with a monthly delivery of 32,973 vehicles, while Ideal ranked second with 31,165 deliveries.
In Chengdu, the number of visitors to Huawei's stores far exceeds that of other car brands, and people not only look at the "far ahead" Mate 60 Pro, but also come to see the car, whether it is the M7 or M9, almost every show car is full of people.
At around 19 o'clock on the evening of February 15 (the sixth day of the Lunar New Year), the car showroom and pop-up booth in the Century Hui shopping mall in the core business district of Shanghai did not reflect the heat of the holiday. Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) visited the ideal and AVATR exhibition areas, and saw two or three salespeople sitting and waiting for customers to come to the door.
During the store visit, Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) found that there were not many consumers who came to the store to buy new cars, and the sparse passenger flow was in stark contrast to the neatly placed show cars in the store.
In the Great Wall Haval 4S store in Beijing, the neatly placed exhibition cars are not cared for Photo / Zhao Cheng
In front of a Chery 4S store in Beijing, several male salesmen smoked cigarettes idly, while in the Great Wall Haval 4S store, five or six salespeople gathered together to chat. "You can take a look first, if you need to call me," said a salesperson after Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) entered the store.
Unlike the brand stores of major shopping malls, which do not close during the holidays, traditional 4S stores have chosen to collectively "take a vacation" during the Spring Festival.
On February 17 (the eighth day of the Lunar New Year), in a Mercedes-Benz 4S store near the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing, the sales of financial cars (ID: caijingqiche) said that our store is on holiday from the first day of the Lunar New Year to the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and today is not officially open. On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, our store was officially opened, and all 30 sales people arrived at their posts.
Most of the customers in the store are handling maintenance business Photo / Zhao Cheng
In a conversation with the sales staff of a Haval 4S store in Beijing, I learned that February 17 was the first day of official business after the Spring Festival holiday, and most of the customers who entered the store were engaged in maintenance business.
02 There are many discounts during the Chinese New Year, and the price war has not stopped
During the visit, Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) found that many new power brands have launched New Year discounts of varying intensity, the main purpose of which is to clear inventory and better welcome the new car facelift in 2024.
"The 24 models of chips will be upgraded, and the image and appearance will not be greatly changed. The sales staff of a Weilai store in Guangzhou told Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that in order to clear inventory, Weilai has now launched a price reduction activity, and the discount amount varies according to different models, such as Weilai ET5 discount 24000, Weilai ES8 discount 32000.
Li Auto gave a cash discount of 33,000 yuan to 36,000 yuan, and the price of the ideal L7 dropped from 319,800 yuan and 339,800 yuan to 286,800 yuan and 306,800 yuan. The interest rate on financial incentives has also been lowered, reaching as low as 1.99%. In addition, ordering a car on the first day of the Lunar New Year will also give away a limited edition of Apple Watch, and the overall feeling is "give everything that can be given".
Ideal sales staff to financial auto (ID: caijingqiche) revealed: "This Spring Festival activity is the largest discount since the history of the ideal, the main purpose is to digest the current car, because in March the ideal will be on the new car, there is no change in the appearance, mainly chip updates." Many of our own staff also took advantage of this event to pick up the car. ”
In addition, brands such as Tesla, Huawei, and BYD have also launched New Year discounts. For example, the price of Tesla's Model Y rear-wheel drive version has been reduced from 266,000 yuan to 258,000 yuan, with a discount of 8,000 yuan; Huawei's Spring Festival discount includes 3,000 yuan for the New Year red envelope, and the intelligent driving version will give an additional 5,000 yuan insurance subsidy; and BYD has cash discounts ranging from 8,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan depending on the model.
Huawei store in a large supermarket in Chengdu launched a New Year discount activity Photo by Deng Yujie
As the time and place of buying a car become more and more free, it is inevitable that the color of "such and such a file", including the Spring Festival stalls, will fade.
Throughout 2023, the price war of car companies is in full swing, regardless of new cars, old cars, new energy, traditional fuel vehicles, price concessions, free configurations, loan interest rate discounts and other actions frequently. Car deals are no longer limited to a specific time of the year.
At the same time, the new car-making forces represented by Tesla have stationed car experience stores in large shopping malls, increasing the exposure of automotive products and brands.
In Nanxiang Impression City, Jiading District, Shanghai, Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche) on the first floor, roughly saw nearly 10 brands of cars, some fixed exhibition halls, some are temporary booths, the characteristics of the vehicles are clearly and concisely marked on the display cars, such as the Jiyue booth is written, Baidu X Geely, Apollo autonomous driving + vast car manufacturing platform of car robots. The sales consultant introduced on the side, leaving information and posting social media to give small gifts for the New Year.
The show cars in the mall are very friendly to consumers, and the sales consultants welcome consumers to enter the car to experience, take pictures, and even help children to talk about the development history of new energy vehicles, which is used as winter vacation homework. You don't have to go to the sales store on the outskirts of the city to see the car, and you can also make an appointment for a test drive.
03 People who have already bought a car and have a full schedule
Behind the slightly bleak appearance of the Spring Festival auto market is consumers' expectations for the New Year.
The 2024 Spring Festival holiday is exceptionally long. A total of 8 days from February 10 to February 17. Compared with previous years, this year's Spring Festival holiday is more generous. What is particularly striking is that although there is no holiday on Chinese New Year's Eve, all units are encouraged to arrange for employees to rest on Chinese New Year's Eve in combination with the paid annual leave system. As a result, the Spring Festival holiday is longer than in the past.
In the past four years, some operators have chosen to re-evaluate market demand and choose to restructure and transform their business formats before the year, while some employees have chosen to go home early in anticipation of a healthy New Year reunion.
On February 4, data released by the Ministry of Transport has shown that the daily cross-regional movement of people has exceeded 190 million. On February 17, according to the data of the 2024 comprehensive transportation Spring Festival transportation work class, from February 10 to 17, the cross-regional flow of people in the whole society is expected to accumulate 2.311 billion person-times.
A car dealer investor told Caijing Auto (ID: caijingqiche) that compared with previous years, there are more employees who want to go home early and delay their arrival this year, and in his opinion, the younger generation has new needs - work is not the whole of life.
In the Guangzhou store of ZEEKR, most of the customers who watch the car are young couples Photo / Deng Xia
Judging from the data, self-driving travel is becoming more and more popular, and China on wheels is expected to give rise to a more active market. During the Spring Festival holiday, the flow of people on highways is expected to accumulate 2.184 billion person-times, of which 1.998 billion people are expected to travel on expressways and non-commercial passenger cars on ordinary national and provincial roads.
Such confidence lies in the willingness of consumers and confidence in economic development, as well as in the continuous improvement of internal strength, quality and cost performance.
On February 18, on the first working day after the Spring Festival holiday, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, and Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, respectively issued a letter of commencement for all employees. He Xiaopeng and Ganjiayue both believe that this year will usher in more fierce competition in the auto market.
He Xiaopeng said that this year is the first year for Chinese auto brands to enter the "sea of blood" competition, that is, the first year of the knockout competition; Ganjiayue pointed out in the opening letter that 2024 will be the "most volume" year in terms of prices, products, services, and traffic.
He Xiaopeng proposed to adhere to the intelligent attributes of Xiaopeng Motors, strengthen core functions such as autonomous driving, increase sales, reduce costs and increase efficiency.
While insisting on the electrification and intellectualization of products, Ganjiayue emphasized the internationalization of products, and once again emphasized the importance of coordinating the strength of the platform - the black technology invested and incubated by the vehicle integration group, relying on the group's system strength in terms of employment and management.
No, at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on January 19, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that in 2023, the overall scale of China's manufacturing industry will rank first in the world for 14 consecutive years. The production and sales of automobiles exceeded 30 million units for the first time, maintaining the world's first place for 15 consecutive years.
It is estimated that in 2024, the production and sales of China's automobile industry will reach 31 million, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles will reach about 11.5 million, an increase of about 20%.
Editor-in-charge: Zhao Cheng