The price has been cut in half to 170,000 yuan, why don't Chinese consumers pay for the high-priced BMW tram?

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2024-06-11 23:24Published in Guangdong science and technology creators

Text/Wang Xinxi

"If you can't afford a domestic luxury car, you can only buy a BBA" is becoming a reality.

According to a number of media reports, the original price of 353,900 yuan for the new energy vehicle BMW i3, the current price is 175,000 yuan, and the price is directly "cut in half". However, an instalment loan is required to pick up the car at this price. "The price can be negotiated at the store."

BMW, known for its sportiness and handling, has always been regarded as a status symbol, but BMW's status symbol effect has failed on the new energy vehicle track.

BMW i3 dropped to 170,000 yuan, behind which is the reality of dismal sales. From January to April this year, the cumulative sales of BMW i3 were 16,173 units, with an average monthly sales of less than 5,000 units. In the Chinese market, it is inferior to Tesla Model 3, Xpeng P7, NIO ET5, Zhiji L6, etc.

Behind this is the changing perception, product appeal and brand attitude of Chinese consumers towards new energy vehicles.

At the level of consumer cognition, it is generally seen that domestic new energy is stronger in terms of product power and technical strength, and the configuration of the BMW i3 is benchmarked, and the domestic car can be won as long as about 100,000 yuan. From the perspective of domestic benchmark trams, Zhiji L6 has rear-wheel steering, SU7 has family intelligence, Xpeng P7, Wenjie M7 has intelligent driving, and Zeekrypton 007 is also 800V. The exterior and interior design of the NIO ET5 are more advanced, and the power and configuration are more technological.

However, from the perspective of the BMW i3, "oil to electricity", endurance (526km), and intelligence are all shortcomings.

What is the problem with the price reduction of the BMW i3?

First of all, the 170,000 BMW seems to be a big sale, but if you look at it from the configuration level, it still makes money. The second is its current price, which is also caused by insufficient product power and backward technology.

It has never been technology that supports the BBA premium, but brand and culture, but this set does not work in the tram market.

Why can BMW's brand premium be maintained in the gasoline car market?

In the gasoline car market, BMW has technology, including chassis technology and engine technology. Germany is the only highway in the world with no speed limit, and the stability of the vehicle at high speed should be taken into account from the beginning of the design. Whether it is BMW or Mercedes-Benz, in order to meet the working conditions of high-speed driving, the chassis of German cars is very solid, and it has a high comfort experience at high speed.

The second is engine technology, in engine technology, Germany and Japan are two strong, Japanese engine life is long, fuel consumption, reliability, stability is high, but Germany also has its advantages, BMW engine is famous for its powerful power and combustion technology, whether it is on the city road or on the track, you can always feel the surging. Not only that, but due to its superb technology and advanced design, BMW engines also perform well in terms of energy saving and environmental protection.

As the world's top engine supplier, BMW has countless star engines, and BMW has won more of Ward's top ten engines more times than the top three Japanese engines combined.

German car engine is keen to squeeze the power of an engine, and solid support and clear steering will make the driver feel that the car is driven fast, with excellent power output and smooth driving feeling, and better driving pleasure, but the consequence is that the engine is over-squeezed, resulting in the aging of seals everywhere accelerating, the problem of oil leakage and oil burning, and the maintenance budget is high.

But in general, the brand premium of BMW oil cars is supportive, on the one hand, the engine and chassis technology is excellent, on the other hand, the brand culture of the German car itself, after all, it is a century-old car brand, with a deep cultural heritage, and the German car gives people the feeling that the intuitive sense of luxury is better, and the aesthetic design is higher, which is related to the heritage and pursuit of aesthetic design in Europe.

Therefore, although it has its own advantages and disadvantages with Japanese cars in terms of engine technology and handling experience, the brand culture, aesthetic design, materials and other aspects of German cars are superior to Japanese and American cars, which makes German cars BMW and Mercedes-Benz stand firm in the high-end market, and consumers are willing to pay for their brand premiums.

In the new energy era, why can't BMW's premium support?

However, in the new energy vehicle market, the reason why BMW i3 is unable to support the premium is that there is no support point in terms of technology and brand culture.

From a technical point of view, the BMW 3 Series is not able to beat the domestic new energy and Tesla players at the same price in terms of product, technology and even interior design. People who want to buy this car can only go to BMW's mark.

From the perspective of consumers, BBA's consumers are basically middle-class, mainly post-80s and post-90s. The generation of the 60s and 70s has an obsession with the BBA German brand, after all, they have experienced the era when domestic cars were crushed by imported brands in all aspects, but in the 80s and 90s, they have witnessed the rise of domestic cars, and in terms of mentality and cognition, the acceptance of domestic cars is better.

This generation of middle-class groups has a higher level of education, stronger personality and independence, and pays more attention to the comprehensive performance of science and technology, product experience, cost performance and quality and durability.

They buy electric cars, more concerned about the cost of the car, driving experience, practicality, sense of science and technology and service guarantee and other factors, these aspects, domestic new energy technology and products are more able to play, BMW i3 configuration is passable, 3 series of exterior and interior design, 70 CATL ternary battery, panoramic sunroof, 6.2 seconds of zero hundred acceleration, rear air suspension, etc., but "oil to electricity" dragged its feet, the efficiency of the excitation motor is not as good as the permanent magnet synchronous motor, resulting in the overall efficiency of the three electric is obviously not as good as the competition, The high-tech configuration is also lagging behind in all aspects. When the technology gap is widened, consumers no longer pay for brands.

This kind of consumer recognition of the product does not recognize the reality of the brand is also reflected in the BMW i5, this year 1-4 months, BMW i5 cumulative sales of 481 units, 1-4 months sales were 5, 16, 90, 370 units, sales data bleak.

From last year to this year's Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou Auto Show, it can be seen that the booths of traditional luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi are no longer overcrowded, and the domestic new energy has been squeezed instead. Behind this is that people are starting to pay more attention to the performance of new technologies in products.

One of the wind directions behind this is that domestic new energy vehicles roll intelligent driving, AI, battery motor technology, automotive technology, electric software technology, chassis, hybrid system and other technologies, is changing the logic of consumers' car purchases. The German aesthetic style, brand power and culture are higher, and the high-end market is more stable.

But in the new energy vehicle market, the logic of face has changed, face is given by technology, and you can't support your face without technology. A single brand culture to support premium is ineffective.

For example, the high premium of Huawei M9 is due to the high-end intelligent driving assistance system, Tuling intelligent chassis, active and passive safety system, the world's largest integrated die-casting process, the industry's highest mass production of 22,000 rpm motors, HarmonyOS 4 intelligent cockpit, and higher standards of body safety and quality.

BYD looks up to the same, and the high-priced support comes from technologies such as Yi Sifang four motors, lateral movement, emergency floating, in-situ U-turn, and high-speed puncture body control.

BMW's situation also reflects that European car companies have forced themselves into an embarrassing situation by abandoning the strategy of all-electric vehicles, and the financial report data for the first quarter of 2024 shows that most of BBA's performance indicators are showing a downward trend. Among them, BMW's sales in the Chinese market fell by 3.8% year-on-year, and Mercedes-Benz fell by 10.4% year-on-year.

Since last year, BMW has begun to build factories in China to learn from the model of electric vehicles, but this year, both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have abandoned their plans to sell only pure electric vehicles by 2030, and will continue to develop gasoline vehicles. Although BBA has been making efforts to transition to new energy vehicles, it has also been looking ahead in practical actions.

This kind of forward-looking and backward thinking has also led to BMW's lack of determination to invest in R&D at the product level, and at the same time, it lacks its own unique product concept and technological innovation. For example, the cost of BMW i3 is very low, the main cost is the ternary lithium battery purchased by CATL, and there is no need to build a separate architecture to produce BMW i3, it can be seen that BMW has not made up its mind to use electric cars as the main battlefield to fight.

"If it sells well in the future, it will maintain this price, and if it doesn't sell well, it may have to continue to reduce the price or stop production." Some industry insiders said so.

The younger generation of mainstream consumers are not so obsessed with "face work", and they are more obsessed with whether the product is good or not. This is perhaps a reality that BBA needs to recognize sooner.

Author: Wang Xinxi, Senior Reviewer of TMT This article is not reproduced without permission

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