The core hinterland is difficult to defend, how long can Mercedes-Benz "dominate" in China?

Image source: Du Ge

Photographed at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2023

"I didn't have money to buy domestic products before, but now I don't have money to buy domestic ones. ”

This is the emotion that most consumers have recently expressed when they look up to the U8 with a price of more than one million, and the ZEEKR 001 FR and NIO ET9 priced at around 800,000 yuan.

And this scene was impossible to see in the past era of fuel vehicles.

Pricing has been pushed into the heart of the heart, and even Mercedes has had to change its long-standing arrogant stance.

1

Forced to get involved in a price war

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Mercedes-Benz, which used to be bought at a higher price, seems to have changed its "face" in the past two years.

As early as the beginning of last year, there were rumors that Mercedes-Benz launched a "huge discount of 110,000 yuan". Although it was later found that this was just a marketing gimmick, consumers needed to meet the second-hand car replacement, installment loans, targeted subsidy policies at the same time, and the purchase of insurance, decoration, repair and maintenance packages in the store, etc., in order to get a preferential amount of 110,000 yuan, but under the influence of the price reduction tide, Mercedes-Benz still had to launch a C-class cash discount of 60,000 yuan, which is enough to see Mercedes-Benz's compromise in an increasingly competitive market environment.

Perhaps most car companies think that the price reduction tide is only temporary, and this wind will not blow for long. But no one expected that this wave of price reductions would run through almost the whole of last year.

According to public information, "Rim Visibility" found that Mercedes-Benz C-class has maintained a terminal discount of about 60,000 yuan in the first three quarters of last year, and in the fourth quarter of the sales sprint, many dealers have gradually expanded the terminal discount provided by Mercedes-Benz C-class to 110,000 yuan, so that the marketing gimmick at the beginning of the year has been illuminated into reality.

Not only fuel vehicles, Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV has also opened a discount of 100,000 yuan, and the starting price has been reduced to 386,000 yuan.

So, why did Mercedes-Benz, which was once invincible, also begin to be forced to "bow its head" and engage in discounts?

First of all, in the luxury camp, peers are generally busy cutting prices, and Mercedes-Benz is forced to join the "battle" in order to maintain sales.

Since last year, BMW's many models have a discount of about 50,000 yuan in the terminal, of which the BMW 325Li, which is benchmarked against Mercedes-Benz C-class, even reached 84,000 yuan at the end of last year; Audi also has a variety of models to give a lot of terminal discounts, such as Audi Q7 terminal discount can reach 70,000 yuan, and the highest discount amount of Audi RS 7 is even close to 150,000 yuan.

Secondly, in the era of fuel vehicles, independent brands have failed to hit the high-end several times, resulting in basically no competition with BBA in the camp with a price of more than 300,000 yuan. However, now, with the advent of the era of electrification, many independent new energy brands have successfully set the price range at more than 300,000 yuan, filling the gap.

This also allows consumers who can only choose in BBA in the past to have many early options, they can either buy NIO to experience the supreme service, or buy the ideal to play switch in the back row.

From this point of view, Mercedes-Benz's choice to cut prices is essentially a compromise with the market, using price reductions to protect the country that is becoming more and more difficult to defend.

However, the disadvantages of price reductions are also obvious. According to the semi-annual report released by BAIC last year, it was disclosed that Beijing Benz's revenue in the first half of last year was 90.817 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.47%. However, in the case of a sharp increase in sales and revenue, the profitability of Beijing Benz began to decline, and the net profit in the first half of last year was 22.615 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 5%.

Since entering China in the 80s of the last century, Mercedes-Benz can be said to have fully enjoyed the growth dividend of the automobile industry in China. And now this scene seems to have never been encountered by Mercedes-Benz, and even whether Mercedes-Benz can continue to gain a foothold in China in the future has become unknown.

2

The core hinterland is difficult to hold

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The reason why Mercedes-Benz is facing an unprecedented crisis in the Chinese market is that its electrification transformation is very slow and has become a "latecomer". At the same time, Mercedes-Benz has been beaten down by fuel vehicles, and it is becoming more and more unstable in the context of the general price reduction of joint venture brands.

First, let's talk about the progress of Mercedes-Benz's trams.

Previously, a number of Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles such as EQA, EQB, EQC are from the MEA electric drive platform, at that time the MEA platform can not be called a pure electric exclusive platform in the strict sense, but based on the Mercedes-Benz GLC platform transformation, in short, these models are "oil to electricity" products.

As for the disadvantages of "oil to electricity", everyone also knows that because there is no space reserved for the battery, the "oil to electricity" models generally have a lower battery life, and the interior space will be more cramped and the handling will be reduced. The most important point is that in today's era when new forces are playing intelligent, the "oil to electric" model still reveals the atmosphere of the ancient fuel vehicles of the last century.

What's more fatal is that when it was first launched, the guide price of Mercedes-Benz EQC started at nearly 500,000 yuan, but the range was only more than 400 kilometers, and the low-profile version even had to be optional for L2 automatic driving, which was cost-effective. The results are naturally known that in the past year, the cumulative annual sales of EQC were less than 200 units, and the annual sales of EQA and EQB were 3,530 and 5,816 units respectively last year, which did not add up to the monthly sales of some new forces.

Not only could the sales volume not compare with the new forces, but Mercedes-Benz also failed to hold its position in terms of price, but was attacked by the new forces into the high-end range. For example, the price of Yangwang U8 has exceeded one million yuan, the official retail price of ZEEKR 001 FR starts at 769,000 yuan, and the price of NIO's executive flagship ET9 has also reached 800,000 yuan, and the selling point directly competes with Maybach.

Mercedes-Benz, which failed to respond to China's new energy vehicle market in a timely manner, fell into the disadvantage and became a "latecomer", which had to make Mercedes-Benz readjust its new energy strategy.

Last year, Mercedes-Benz halted most of the improvements to the EQ series of electric vehicles on sale (MOPF). This wave of operation Mercedes-Benz has indeed made a lot of money, because the research and development of some of the four products of the EVA platform (MOPF) has actually been completed, and even some improvement projects have been handed over to suppliers for mold development.

At the 2023 Munich Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the all-new CLA concept car, which is worth mentioning that the new car is being built on Mercedes-Benz's next-generation MMA electric vehicle platform. According to Mercedes-Benz's product plan, Mercedes-Benz will launch four new platforms, including MMA, in the future, which will be launched from 2025.

This also means that the changes to this year's Mercedes-Benz EQ series will be very small, even if it is possible, it will only be a fine-tuning of the details, and Mercedes-Benz will usher in a period of product "gap". In 2024, Mercedes-Benz's pure electric sales pressure will be even greater.

The EQ series is weak, and the new products are difficult to connect in a short time, so that fuel vehicles will still become the core hinterland of Mercedes-Benz in the short term, which is why Mercedes-Benz has not hesitated to reduce prices to ensure sales in recent times.

Since last year, Mercedes-Benz's two most important products, GLC and E-class, have ushered in a new generation, from the next month of the GLC replacement began to have a discount of 40,000 yuan, Mercedes-Benz's fuel vehicle sales also have a lot of pressure.

The core hinterland of Mercedes-Benz is becoming more and more difficult to defend.

3

Is there still a place in the electric era?

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In fact, Mercedes-Benz's slow transition to electric vehicles is indeed understandable.

Judging from the progress of new energy vehicles in various countries around the world, driven by policies, China and Norway have the highest penetration rate of new energy vehicles, with China reaching more than 30% and Norway reaching more than 80%. However, in many countries, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is not high, for example, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the United States has not exceeded 10%, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in other countries in North America, Japan and Italy is also very low.

This also makes it difficult for Mercedes-Benz, as a global car company, to make it difficult to focus too much on new energy vehicles, so it will not be able to take into account those countries with low penetration rates of new energy vehicles. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz's new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles will partially form a substitution relationship, and Mercedes-Benz does not need to roll itself too early, let go of the high-end car image established for more than 100 years, and compete with new forces.

Mercedes-Benz has set the goal of full electrification in 2030, that is to say, if Mercedes-Benz wants to catch up with the rhythm of the new energy era, the next generation of products released in the five years from 2025 to 2030 must fully catch up with the trend of electric intelligence.

However, it is very difficult for Mercedes-Benz, a "latecomer", to catch up with the pace of new energy in the Chinese market.

As mentioned above, China's own electric brand has pulled the involution to a new level, redefined the high-end car in the new energy era, and successfully pushed the price into the BBA range, and occupied all the selling points imaginable.

For example, when it comes to daddy's car, everyone will think of ideals, when it comes to high-end services, they will think of NIO, and even pure electric sports cars and executive cars have been made into products, leaving really not much space for Mercedes-Benz.

More importantly, in the era of new energy vehicles, it will become more difficult for Mercedes-Benz to maintain a brand premium.

From the supply side, in the era of fuel vehicles, due to the lack of choice, BBA will naturally be able to win a higher premium by virtue of scarcity. After all, you don't buy it, some people do, which also leads to some models not only having to queue up, but also need to increase the price to buy.

Of course, in the era of new energy, the power of independent brands has given domestic consumers more and better choices. Nowadays, car companies are thankful that they want to stabilize prices in the tide of price cuts, and it is even more impossible to buy cars at a higher price. The era of Mercedes-Benz's highest pride has passed.

Here leads to another problem, that is, without the barriers of the three major parts, the attributes of new energy vehicles will be closer to scientific and technological products. In the era of technological equality, only cutting-edge technological change can bring real premium, and it is still unknown whether traditional automobile companies such as Mercedes-Benz can keep up with the changes of the times.

Author | Ancient Moon

来源 | 车圈能见度（CarVisibility）

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