On the eve of the Beijing Auto Show in April, a new round of price war swept the auto market, and there is an endless trend.
For example, in the face of continuous price reduction offensives, Li Auto and Tesla, which had been sitting firmly, couldn't hold back.
The price war has been fought from last year to this year, and now it seems that car companies have the ideal of not reducing prices, but they have to follow up the helplessness of price reductions, after all, the car market is treacherous, and no one can guarantee that they can win in the chaos.
Ideal and Tesla, no longer "head iron"
The day before yesterday, Li Auto officially announced that from April 22, the 2024 Ideal L7, Ideal L8, Ideal L9 and Ideal MEGA will also adopt a new price system. Among them, the starting price of MEGA has been reduced from 559,800 yuan to 529,800 yuan, with a maximum price reduction of 30,000 yuan, and the 2024 L7, L8, and L9 models have a decrease of 18,000-20,000 yuan.
For owners who have already picked up their cars, Li Auto said that it will provide cash rebates for owners of the 2024 Li L7, Li L8, Li L9 and Li MEGA.
As the sales champion of the new force in 2023, Li Auto delivered a total of 376,030 new cars last year, a year-on-year increase of 182.2%. In March of this year, Li Xiang, the founder of Li Auto, said bluntly: "There will be no price reduction." ”
This time, the price of many models has been changed, and I don't know if there is new pressure.
On March 21, Li Auto announced that due to sales orders falling short of expectations, the company now expects vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2024 to be 76,000 to 78,000 units, while the company's previously announced delivery expectations were 100,000 to 103,000 units.
At the same time, Li Auto also held an all-staff retail conference to answer some questions. It mentioned that the sales target for 2024 will be lowered, and the full-year sales growth rate is expected to be between 50% and 70%, and the sales target is 560,000-640,000 units. In addition, the monthly delivery target of the MEGA is 2,000 units, which will gradually increase to 4,000-5,000 units per month, and the monthly delivery target of the L6 is 20,000 units.
According to official data, in the first quarter of 2024, Li Auto delivered a total of 80,400 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 52.9%, with an average of nearly 27,000 vehicles delivered per month. According to the ideal target of delivering at least 560,000 vehicles this year, an average of nearly 47,000 vehicles need to be delivered per month.
In order to significantly increase sales from the second quarter, it may be the main reason why Li Li cut prices before the Beijing Auto Show.
It is worth mentioning that on April 21, Tesla, which has always been "the first iron", could not withstand the pressure to reduce prices. According to Tesla's official website in China, the price of Tesla's Model 3/Y/S/X models in China has been reduced by 14,000 yuan, of which the starting price of Model 3 has dropped to 231,900 yuan, and the starting price of Model Y has dropped to 249,900 yuan.
And before the price cut, Tesla had just experienced a price increase.
On April 1, the price of some Tesla models increased by 5,000 yuan. Among them, the price of the Model Y rear-wheel drive version was raised to 263,900 yuan, the price of the Model Y long-range version was raised to 304,900 yuan, and the price of the Model Y high-performance version was raised to 368,900 yuan.
From the perspective of sales data, the data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Tesla delivered a total of 386,800 vehicles worldwide, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5% and a decrease of 20.2% from the fourth quarter of last year. This is also the first time since the third quarter of 2022 that Tesla's quarterly sales have fallen below the 400,000 mark. And this time the price increase first and then the price reduction is also Tesla's usual method to stimulate sales.
The sales volume in the first quarter and the recent trends of the company can be seen in the development trend of car companies. For example, in April, Li Auto lowered its sales forecast in response to online rumors of layoffs and a sharp reduction in budget, and Tesla announced layoffs of more than 14,000 people after its net profit plummeted in the first quarter. This all means that there is a potential for a weak trend after the highlights.
The new energy vehicle market is too volatile, and there is no winning general?
In addition to Ideal and Tesla, there were also many popular and mainstream new energy products that have been reduced in price in April.
On April 20, Xpeng Motors officially announced that from now until May 5, 2024, it will launch a car purchase subsidy of 500 million yuan, covering a total of four models of Xpeng G9, G6, P7i, and 2024 Xpeng P5. On April 11, Xpeng G6's new 580 Plus was released, with a starting price of 30,000 yuan and a limited price of 179,900 yuan, further reducing the threshold for 800V and high-end intelligent driving in the whole domain.
On April 18, Chery Fengyun T9 opened pre-sale, with a pre-sale price of 159,900-199,900 yuan. In order to stimulate orders, Chery officially launched the "new car pre-sale crowdfunding" activity, less than 10,000 orders, the price of the car is reduced by 5,000 yuan, more than 10,000 orders, the price is reduced by 10,000 yuan, and more than 20,000 orders, the price is reduced by 20,000 yuan. It is reported that the "crowdfunding" activity made Fengyun T9 place more than 10,000 orders in 72 hours.
Geely, on April 17, Lynk & Co 08 EM-P also launched a new model, with a starting price of 175,800 yuan, 33,000 yuan lower than the original starting price of 208,800 yuan, and on April 15, Geely Galaxy E8 launched a two-wheel drive Longteng version and a four-wheel drive Longteng version of the model, priced at 165,800 yuan and 215,800 yuan respectively, which was 10,000-13,000 yuan lower than the previous starting price.
Within ten days, some mainstream new energy products have been reduced in different ways, and the reason is very simple, in order to maintain or expand the scale of sales in the competition.
Moreover, this is not the first round of price wars this year. It can be said that from the beginning of 2024 to the present, the price war in the auto market has not stopped, and under the intensification of competition in the industry, most car companies have almost not escaped the involution of price reduction.
Of course, car companies also have a lot of helplessness.
"There is a lot of bubbling within the company over the pricing of this model. Previously, Huawei's executive director, CEO of the terminal BG, and chairman of the intelligent car solution BU, Yu Chengdong, said when talking about the price of the Zhijie S7, "At present, the price of the four versions of the Zhijie S7 is at a loss, just to let more consumers experience Huawei's products, and I hope that the cost can be balanced with the increase in the future." ”
At the end of March, on the night of the launch of Xiaomi SU7, Lei Jun also said frankly in an interview, "The original price is actually 229,000 yuan, and the top model is 350,000 yuan, but Xiaomi was blinded by the price war of car companies." ”
After that, Xiaomi SU7 had to reduce the price, starting at 215,900 yuan, and the top configuration was adjusted to 299,900 yuan. According to Lei Jun, "Xiaomi loses money every time it sells a car, and it vomits blood anyway." ”
Whether Lei Jun really "sells cars at a loss" is unknown to the outside world, and with Mr. Lei's marketing attainments, it is difficult to say that it is not part of his marketing.
After all, the release of Xiaomi cars has completely set off a storm in the automobile market, and it is already a bumper harvest just from the perspective of orders and volume. If the scale is achieved in the future, it can also further spread the cost to achieve profitability, and even further lower the price, which is the case with the current new energy brother BYD.
In the current era of variables, whether it is a leader who rides the dust, a new star who crosses the border, or a traditional big brother who is full of stamina, there has been no fixed winner in the car circle for a long time, only scrambling and hunting.