BYD cut prices, but Tesla raised prices by 20,003, is this a quasi-consumer?
On February 19, the Qin PLUS Glory Edition was officially launched, with the slogan "electricity is lower than oil", which directly pulled the hybrid A+ class sedan to 79,800, and the entire market was swept crazy.
Sales crown plus price reduction and additional configuration, whether it is fuel, pure electric or hybrid, all models in the same class are trembling.
On March 20, another giant struck. Tesla China announced that from April 1, the price of Model Y will be increased by 5,000 yuan, and at the same time, the car insurance subsidy of 8,000 yuan will be canceled, plus the 10,000 yuan car paint reduction, which is equivalent to a sudden increase of 20,0003.
In the current market situation, dare to be so brave, I have to say that Tesla really played with personality.
From another point of view, this also means that Tesla has completely abandoned the former cost sword and began to transform into the direction of the fan economy.
Why does Tesla dare to raise prices against the trend? What is its price control logic? Let Kung Fu Motors take you to take a look.
(1) Eat quasi-consumers, Tesla's unique cheats
It is not the first time that Tesla has raised prices against the trend, for example, on May Day last year, when almost all car companies were cutting prices, Tesla had a wave of price increases for the whole system. From October to November last year, when all car companies began to impulse at the end of the year, Tesla also raised prices against the wind, and several price adjustments led to a nearly 10,000 increase in the transaction price of the main sales model.
Everyone is drunk and I am sober, everyone is falling and I am rising, Tesla's biggest reliance actually lies in the complete grasp of consumer groups. Tesla's cars are not cheap, but they are not too expensive, with a price of 20-300,000 yuan, which most families can actually afford today.
At the same time, Tesla has another identity, that is, it is the "only seedling" of new energy of foreign brands. For many people, who want to buy new energy vehicles and do not want to buy domestic cars, Tesla is almost the only choice. Since they have already paid more than 200,000 yuan to buy a car, many people really don't care so much about paying more and paying less tens of thousands.
People who buy Tesla don't like to compare with other brands, that is, relying on this, Tesla can completely put aside the laws of the market and enjoy the quiet years silently.
The pampering of consumers has also brought some bad effects, that is, Tesla has chosen to completely "lie flat".
After so many years, who would dare to think that the latest Model 3, which has been sold for 245,900 units, has almost no progress compared to 2019 in terms of appearance, interior, configuration, and comfort. The so-called upgraded intelligent experience is almost at the bottom of the industry in terms of interaction ability and openness. Obviously, it has a good accumulation in intelligent driving, but because FSD has been unable to come in for a long time, and firmly takes the pure visual route, it has been beaten in all evaluations.
The most important thing is that Tesla doesn't seem to care about any of this anymore. It no longer participates in auto shows, although Tesla's earliest fame began at auto shows. It is no longer benchmarked against its rivals, although the first batch of domestically produced Model 3 in the early days became popular by fighting with Xpeng P7 and BYD Han. Today's Tesla seems to be more obsessed with publicity, and Tesla's good "understands everything".
Obviously, he used to be a revolutionary, and he is the new force that likes to humiliate traditional car companies in various evaluations. Tesla, which has only been popular for less than ten years, looks older than any car company.
(2) It is a pity to give up the cost sword
Thinking back to Tesla, which has just emerged, or Tesla that has just been made in China, today's Tesla is really strange. Including this price cut, it is generally believed that it is because Tesla's financial performance in the fourth quarter of last year was too poor, and the gross profit margin fell by 26% compared with the same period in 2022.
But in any case, Tesla is still one of the most profitable new energy car companies, but it is still not satisfied.
I'm afraid not many people remember that just three years ago, Tesla was still holding the banner of "cost pricing". At that time, Tesla was different from now, at that time, there were only a handful of new energy vehicles on the market that could sell more than 10,000 per month, and Tesla had two. I remember that Tao Lin, vice president of external affairs of Tesla, once proudly said that Tesla's price adjustment is based on only one basis, that is, the unique law of cost control.
In short, as long as the cost of building a car is reduced, Tesla will reduce the price, in order to completely defeat the traditional car companies. At that time, Tesla did exactly this, obviously the production capacity was only 20,000 or 30,000 units a month, but it was in short supply, and it repeatedly took the initiative to reduce prices. It can be said that Tesla at that time did not take profit as the first orientation, and was full of thoughts about becoming bigger and stronger.
But since last year, Tesla's approach has clearly changed. Last year, the price of lithium batteries fell for more than half a year, and it stands to reason that the cost of car companies has dropped by at least 15%. Tesla has neither a major replacement, but also a very high domestic production rate of parts, which should be one of the car companies with the most cost reductions, but it has not said anything.
It can only be said that after finding that the price reduction is not so obvious for the increase in sales, Tesla gave up this idea and began to concentrate on "cutting leeks". Since the user group is so fixed, basically you have to buy Tesla at a high and low price, so it seems that there is nothing wrong with insisting on high profits.
Comparatively speaking, it seems that BYD has become the one who raises the banner of cost. From the annual sales of 400,000, to the annual sales of 1 million, to the annual sales of 1.8 million, to last year's breakthrough of 3 million, and this year's impact of 4 million. Having given up such a favorable weapon, one has to feel sorry for Tesla.
(3) American-style pride, or not
In the past few years, we have discovered a strange phenomenon. Domestic new energy vehicle companies are desperately biting, and they are constantly replacing new cars, carrying out technological innovation, and constantly introducing products with high quality-price ratio. Tesla, on the other hand, is almost stagnant, not only are the two cancelled models almost unchanged, but the 4680 battery, the Cybertruck pickup, and the Roadster are also stagnant.
The expected big move did not come, but all kinds of negative news continued.
can understand Tesla's sense of superiority, even if BYD is far behind in sales, it still has a good market. In this case, it is really difficult to expect it to fight with competitors with bayonets. But the problem with Tesla is that it's just too relaxed.
Take the Cybertruck pickup truck as an example, this car was released in 2019, and it was already close to production at that time. This car was launched immediately and won a lot of orders. If this car is made for domestic car companies, it must be mass-produced as soon as possible at all costs and all technical problems will be solved. Because for domestic car companies, they are too short of such an opportunity.
Let's take a look at what BYD DM-i did after it became popular, it almost only took half a year to achieve a production capacity of 50,000+ per car, and established the position of BYD's new energy boss in one fell swoop.
But Tesla is not on the side, not only is the entire mass production process unhurried. Even after the small batch was finally delivered this year, there was a large-scale rust phenomenon. Such an oolong is simply shocking.
Including the push of FSD is the same, not to mention legal issues, it is almost impossible to see Tesla's efforts in this area. After all, the enhanced version of Autopilot Assistance (EAP) with such a low configuration can be sold for 30,002, and it is indeed difficult to convince Tesla to invest more.
With the full coverage of intelligent driving by Huawei and Xiaopeng, the window of opportunity that actually belongs to Tesla is gradually closing.
(4) Kung Fu shooting
Tesla's contrarian price increase actually reveals an important information, that is, Tesla has completely "decoupled" from today's new energy vehicle market.
Its goal is to firmly lock in customers who only consider Tesla and maximize their benefits. But experience shows that this is not a long-term solution, and there is a time when the leeks are really finished. If not, why in the past few years when domestic new energy vehicles broke out, Tesla's sales growth has been minimal, because its user group is almost fixed.
Perhaps, Tesla has given up on competing with its competitors. This is truly regrettable. But think about it, a few years forward, who would have imagined that TikTok would be able to beat YouTube and Facebook to the point of losing their armor and starting to use administrative means again, Tesla may have just figured it out in advance.