Text: Digital Reading Business
In the latest social media, Lei Jun mentioned that the first single-day delivery of Xiaomi SU7 exceeded 1,000 units, and the delivery target for October exceeded 20,000 units. The annual delivery target of 100,000 units is expected to be completed ahead of schedule in November.
On the other hand, multiple media outlets reported that Porsche's all-electric sedan, the Taycan, is facing sales difficulties, with the latest data showing that global deliveries of the car in the first nine months of 2024 have halved compared to the same period in 2023.
One production reduction and one early completion of the target, Porsche Taycan has completely declined with the rise of domestic cars such as Xiaomi.
From heaven to hell
The Taycan is Porsche's first all-electric model, and like the Xiaomi Su7, it is responsible for breaking new ground.
At the beginning of its launch, the Taycan performed very well.
As a loyal fan of Porsche, Bill Gates publicly said in 2020 that although Tesla is good, he bought a Porsche Taycan, which is also his first electric car. Bill Gates's statement even attracted criticism from Musk, and at that time, Tesla became the world's largest car company by market capitalization. The Taycan is priced at 1.148-1.988 million yuan, far exceeding Tesla's high-end model S and X.
The Taycan is not just a brand image, on the contrary, it is a model that leads the way on many levels.
For example, the 800V PPE platform can achieve 10% to 80% power in 21 minutes and a maximum range of 784 km (WLTP). In comparison, to date, the Xiaomi Su7 Max version has a range of 810 (CLTC, measured higher than WLTP), which is about the same.
Another example is that the 000 acceleration has been achieved in 2.8 seconds, and the Xiaomi su 7 is only 2.78 seconds, which shows the advanced nature of the Taycan. In addition to the zero hundred, Porsche has made special designs in terms of shock absorption, steering, acceleration and stability.
In terms of the cabin, the Taycan is equipped with "one car with multiple screens", including a floating 12.6-inch curved instrument cluster and a 10.9-inch central display, as well as an optional 10.9-inch display for the front passenger. The main passenger seat is equipped with an AR head-up display system. These are things that have only become standard in recent years.
Taycan's forward-thinking performance has resulted in a very good market performance.
In 2021, the Taycan became Porsche's best-selling model in the European market, even surpassing the petrol versions of the 911 and Panamera. In the Chinese market, 7,315 units of the Taycan were delivered, and considering the price of the Taycan, this model can generate tens of billions of revenue in the Chinese market alone.
From 2020 to 2023, the global sales of the Porsche Taycan will be 20,015 units, 41,296 units, 34,801 units, and 40,629 units, respectively, and the overall sales volume will be relatively strong.
However, starting in 2023, things have changed. In 2023, sales of the Taycan model in China will only be 4,151 units, which is already a significant decline from its peak. The decline in deliveries in China also affected sales of the Taycan as a whole.
Terminal data shows that entering 2024, the Taycan will only deliver 8,838 units in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 51%. From January to September, Porsche's global sales were 226026 units, down 7 percent year-on-year, with the Chinese market seeing the most significant decline, with sales falling by 29 percent to just 43,280 units. China, once Porsche's largest market, has now fallen to third place, and is at risk of slipping to fourth.
In the middle of this year, Porsche made a change. Porsche's plant in Zuffenhausen has switched to single-shift production and is not renewing hundreds of temporary contracts.
Taycan has taken a sharp turn for the worse, and the brand, which has been and still has been in the spotlight, is in a deep depression.
What makes the Porsche Taycan so far?
It was completely encircled and suppressed
The key reason is that other car companies can't be rolled.
In recent years, the speed of change of new energy vehicle companies is comparable to that of the original currency circle, a thousand years a day. Taycan's slow movement is not only not comparable to Chinese car companies, but also foreign car companies.
Taycan's 000 acceleration that it was proud of at the beginning has now grabbed a lot of domestic cars of 20-300,000 yuan. 800V ultra-fast charging, "one car with multiple screens", and AR head-up display have also almost become standard features for flagship models.
What Taycan can't do, domestic car companies have also done everything. For example, car refrigerators, zero-gravity seats, multi-screen linkage of intelligent cockpits, and so on. These details don't seem to be the most important, but when Taycan owners see that their friends can adjust the temperature of the car refrigerator with their mobile phones, and they can open the QR code of the mobile phone with their mobile phones, the sense of superiority of the noble million-dollar car owner pales for a moment.
It's not that older models can't play a lasting role, such as the Model 3 and Y, which are still selling well. But Tesla's OTA updates are almost every month, and they are not lagging behind Chinese automakers. In comparison, Taycan doesn't have many OTA upgrades.
Even this doesn't necessarily have a substantial impact on the Taycan. Just like the user who buys the 8848 mobile phone, he does not want it to have full functions and good system optimization, and the brand perception is not the same at different price levels, especially for cars.
It was the Xiaomi Su 7 that really had an impact on the Taycan.
Since its debut, this car has been given the title of "Porsche", and Xiaomi is also directly benchmarked against Porsche. Lei Jun said bluntly at the press conference: "Xiaomi SU7 is currently the fastest production car within 500,000 yuan, comparable to millions of luxury cars, with a maximum speed of 265km/h." This product was designed to be a direct benchmark for Porsche, so we went to par with the Porsche Taycan in every aspect of performance. "
Borrowing alone was not enough to influence the Taycan, and before the Xiaomi Su7, Porsche had been "borrowed" many times, and none of these brands could really affect the Taycan in terms of sales. But the difference is that the Xiaomi Su7 sales are very impressive. Nearly 90,000 units were ordered in the first 24 hours of release, 7,058 units could be delivered in the first month, and 100,000 units could be delivered by the end of the year. This series of data means that, in the future, it will be far easier to see the Xiaomi Su7 on the street than it is to see the Taycan.
Xiaomi's popularity and popularity are much higher than those of the Taycan, and there are great similarities in appearance. Initially, many people would take out their mobile phones to take pictures when they saw the Xiaomi Su7 on the street, and even mistakenly recognized the Taycan as the Su7. In this state, the uniqueness of the Taycan will be washed away.
Cars, especially high-priced cars, car owners need a status symbol, when their million-dollar cars and 20-300,000 models are not distinguishable, and they are inferior to each other in terms of software and hardware configuration, the value of buying a Taycan is very low.
The Taycan's big decline is mainly from this year, which coincides with the release of the Xiaomi Su7.
At this time, Taycan was very "uncompetitive".
Angry and indisputable
The competitiveness of its own products has declined, but Porsche has been making frequent moves.
In the first half of this year, in the face of huge sales pressure, Porsche pressed dealers. The 2023 Taycan has a 30% discount on inventory clearance, with a maximum discount of 440,000 yuan in some areas, and buying a Taycan is equivalent to a discount of 1.5 Xiaomi Su7s. In this case, the dealer will lose a lot, and there are reports that selling a dealer will lose 150,000.
Porsche's depot sparked a dealer backlash in May. Initially, Porsche not only did not give subsidies, but also did not lower its sales target, which led domestic dealers to use "stop entering the car" as a weapon, asking Porsche Germany headquarters to give subsidies and remove Porsche China executives. On May 25, Porsche's global sales director traveled to China, and the incident was eventually settled in a vaguely worded "joint statement".
In June, a Porsche Taycan caught fire in Zhejiang, and after the open flame was extinguished, it re-ignited many times. Prior to this, Porsche announced a worldwide recall of all Taycan models sold worldwide, covering a period of more than 150,000 units from 2019 to 2024 and throughout the sales period. Of these, 17,278 are in China alone.
The reason for the recall is that the front brake hose may crack and cause brake fluid leakage, resulting in reduced braking efficiency and longer braking distance, increasing the risk of vehicle collision and posing a safety hazard. According to third-party data, it currently shows a 5% failure rate, and there have been no casualties as a result.
This month, Porsche AG once again announced a large-scale recall of the Taycan electric vehicles from 2020 to 2024, involving a total of 27,720 vehicles. The reason for the recall is that there may be a risk of short circuits in the battery modules of some vehicles. According to Porsche, a component in the affected vehicle's battery module may be short-circuited under certain conditions, increasing the likelihood of the vehicle catching fire or malfunctioning. In order to ensure the safety of owners and passengers, Porsche decided to take precautionary measures by carrying out a comprehensive inspection of these vehicles and the necessary repairs.
This series of problems, like a reversal of water, further plunged Taycan into the abyss.
Looking at Porsche's movements, it seems that the Taycan is no longer the focus. Earlier this year, Porsche unveiled the Macan electric model in Singapore, making it Porsche's second all-electric model. In China, the electric Macan was unveiled and launched during the Beijing Motor Show, with deliveries starting in the fourth quarter of this year. At the same time, the third-generation Paramela and Porsche 911 will be available as plug-in hybrids. Porsche also plans to launch the all-electric 718, the all-electric Cayenne, and an all-electric SUV model with a higher positioning than the Cayenne.
Sandwiched in the middle, the position of the Taycan model is very awkward.
In fact, the Taycan is just a victim of the all-out rise of Chinese car companies, not the first and will not be the last. High price and low configuration, technology is no longer leading, only relying on brand heritage, under the tide of electrification, it is destined to only be passively beaten.
Resources:
1. Porsche China was defeated: no effort, it is a real volume Source: Outside the surface
2. In the era of intelligence, will Porsche's brand premium fall off the altar? Source: Finance Auto
3. Sales in China fell by 33%! Porsche Taycan recalls and reduces production in the traditional luxury car market or will be reshuffled Source: Times Weekly