A car company with annual sales of more than 3 million units, the first new energy, and the top 10 in the world; A car company that has rapidly iterated a new round of hybrid and pure electric technology, pulled the fuel consumption to 3L, and the battery life rushed to 2000+, and is still constantly upgrading Yi Sifang, Yi Sifang, Yun Yuan, new intelligent driving, Huawei Qiankun 3.0 and other cutting-edge technologies, how much should it earn by selling a car?
If this question is answered by overseas brands, Tesla's answer is that each unit earns 60,000 yuan; Mercedes-Benz is slightly lower, but it will not be less than 50,000, even if it is a Korean system known for its cost performance, it will not be less than 20,000, which is the profit of these car companies in 2023. But the answer given by BYD is that each car only earns 8,500 yuan.
In the face of this number, whether it is many consumers, or other friends, it is inevitable that BYD earns a little insufficient, all new energy first, the world's top ten, but also holding a number of high-end brands, in the end the profit of a single car is less than 10,000 yuan, what is the end of the struggle? In fact, in BYD's view, the new energy business is far from the end, overseas brands are still holding high profits, and the overall global sales are still leading them, and the country's hundreds of billions of subsidies / support for the new energy industry, the purpose is not to rush to pick the fruit at this moment, but to expect it to really grow into a towering tree. For this reason, BYD continues to rewrite the industry pattern with a single car profit of only 8,500 yuan.
Small profits are for more sales
With BYD's influence, it still maintains a four-digit profit on a single bike, and its first thing is to sell more. It's just that in 2024, small profits and quick sales have become a difficult thing to do and have to do, for example, Tesla, which is the most willing to reduce prices among overseas brands, has reached a bottleneck in sales, and its popularity is not as good as before; And BYD, whose profit per car is less than one-sixth of Tesla's, where does it have to start?
First of all, this year's new energy industry has brought good, due to the decline in the price of lithium batteries and other materials, so that car companies have room to increase costs and reduce efficiency. It's just that, in the face of this wave of goodness, more car companies have chosen to seize the "blood" after the epidemic; BYD gave this benefit back to users intact.
Of course, it is not enough to "reduce the price of raw materials and reduce the price of cars", in 2024, you can find that those products that only reduce prices and do not improve functions can only sell "capital protection" at most, from luxury cars with fracture prices, joint venture cars, to some domestic products. BYD's goal is to further attack the city. Therefore, in addition to reducing costs and increasing efficiency in raw materials and self-sustaining in the whole industry chain, BYD invests all its profits in research and development, and also pays out of its own pocket to polish more technologically advanced products.
So, at the beginning of the year, when everyone thought that the 89,800 Qin PLUS was already an industrial miracle, the 79,800 glory version was eye-catching again; soon after, the 99,800 Qin L, Seal 06, is to rewrite the price system of hybrid medium-sized cars, plus the Song family, which also used the fifth-generation DM hybrid technology, BYD allows people to enjoy low prices while letting people try new technologies. In the same way, in the face of overseas markets, when the European anti-monopoly tried to prevent the invasion of China's new energy, BYD still had the confidence to "pay high tariffs and still have the advantage in price and performance".
So in the end, let's look at the sales results brought by small profits: when Tesla also began to stagnate, when other manufacturers with a single price are difficult to see results, BYD, whose monthly sales remained at 28-290,000 last year, have steadily exceeded 300,000+ this year, and are growing year-on-year. As a car company that is still willing to take small profits after becoming famous, BYD allows its consumers to continue to enjoy technological dividends at affordable prices, and it seems that winning the recognition of the majority of users is BYD's primary goal; In return, consumers also let this car company, which has broken through the 3 million mark, continue to rush towards the order of 5 million and 10 million.
Small profits, but also for the cultivation of science and technology trees
As mentioned earlier, the 2024 car market is ostensibly fighting for price, but the core is still comparing technology, and Huawei, Ideal, Weilai, and Xiaomi, which have truly achieved sales growth, all rely on technology to break through. Among them, BYD, which has maintained the first place in the industry in R&D investment for many years, is indispensable.
Judging from the data alone, BYD really "not only invested all the profits into it, but also paid out of pocket" for research and development. For example, in 2023, BYD's net profit will be 13.631 billion yuan, and in the first half of this year, BYD has not only invested all of last year's profits in research and development, but also spent nearly 6.3 billion more. Looking further back, from 2011 to the present, BYD has 13 years of R&D investment higher than net profit, leading all year round.
It is this high investment that has brought BYD to be overwhelmed with new technologies. From the blade battery and DM-i at the beginning of its fame, to this year's fifth-generation DM technology, e-platform 3.0 EVO, the new chassis, as well as the high-end field of Yi Sifang, Yi Sanfang, Yun Yuan, high-end intelligent driving, etc., as well as the cooperation between BYD and Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving...... This increasingly lush technology tree has made BYD form a great user stickiness; For consumers, even if they don't care about low prices, they are pursuing the latest and most breakthrough product experience, and the first thing that comes to mind is BYD.
Therefore, in the field of technology, BYD has brought a reversal that consumers expect the most: that is, in the past tens or hundreds of years, many automakers have been repeating the cycle of taking out famous skills - establishing technical/patent barriers - and starting to lie flat and squeeze toothpaste/tell old stories over and over again; But BYD, which has never slackened in research and development, has repeatedly brought surprises. As a result, the words quattro, TSI, and V-TEC began to be forgotten, and BYD's new technologies became hot spots in the automotive industry.
Fight to the end with the old system
Looking back at the various car companies and various phenomena mentioned above, it can be found that Chinese brands have broken the old order to a certain extent, overseas brands have declined, independent brands have risen, and the new energy strategy has given us a taste of the sweetness of technological leadership; However, overseas brands still have tens of thousands of yuan in bicycle profits, world-leading sales, and their monopoly and control of the high-end market, all of which show that the old order has not fundamentally changed, and the new energy revolution has just begun.
At this time, a good word will often become a roadblock for changemakers. Looking back on the past, whether it is automobiles or other fields, countless heroes have chosen a corner of safety, began to enjoy the current results, began to integrate into the old system, and became another Old Money, constantly repeating the story of the dragon slayer; However, BYD, which chose small profits and increased research and development, chose to fight to the end with the old system. stop at an annual sales of 3 million and be the hero of the Asia-Pacific region, which is not what it wants; The goal of BYD and Wang Chuanfu is to let Chinese car companies truly stand on the world's top stage, turn the goal of advancing to the top 500 and top 3 in the world, and change a cutting-edge automotive technology to a Chinese name.
Under this goal, domestic consumers still enjoy products with top-notch technology but affordable prices; For the future, overseas brands that sit on huge profits and monopolize high prices will also be further dismantled. Therefore, don't underestimate the profit of 8,500 yuan for a single car, and don't rush to conclude that Chinese are still earning hard money after scientific and technological breakthroughs, on this road full of thorns, we finally gave birth to a brave man who is not moved by immediate interests and difficulties. BYD, which once relied on state subsidies to narrow its losses, continues to sharpen its knives with the expectations of more than one billion people and rushes towards the goal of becoming a world-class brand.