How much do Chinese like Porsche?Let's take a look at a set of data:
From 2015 to 2022, China was Porsche's largest single market in the world for eight consecutive years. Chinese account for more than 30 percent of Porsche's global sales.
In 2022, Porsche's sales in China exceeded 930,000 units, compared to less than 80,000 units in North America and 6 units in Europe30,000 units. This year, Porsche's revenue in China reached 11.7 billion euros, equivalent to more than 91 billion yuan, helping Porsche achieve a record high in global operating income and sales profit. It can be said that Porsche is making a lot of money in the Chinese market.
This year, however, the situation has taken a turn for the worse. In the first three quarters, Porsche sold a total of 6070,000 units, a decrease of nearly 12% compared to the same period last year, becoming the only market where Porsche's sales declined. At the same time, the North American market overtook China and temporarily regained Porsche's largest single market in the world. If nothing else, for the first time in its history, Porsche may see its sales in China fall for the second year in a row.
The culprit "is the third quarter of this year, and Porsche's sales in China in the third quarter of this year were 1690,000 units, up from 2 in the same period last year810,000 units, a drop of nearly 40%, such a huge gap is staggering.
The average age of Porsche China's customers is 35 years old, of which 47% are women, and these customers have grown up in the digital age, which means that they have a very high preference for innovative and digital products, and a higher demand for diverse and personalized products. This is what Hong Sheng, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Porsche China, said to the public in 2021.
However, I am afraid that even Ferdinand Porsche would not have imagined that just two years later, this group of little brothers and sisters under the age of 40 has begun to abandon Porsche. The luxury brands that are popular all over the world are suddenly unable to satisfy the appetite of Chinese consumers.
Why does it seem that overnight the Chinese no longer love Porsche?Porsche, for its part, blames the continued difficult economic situation. Admittedly, this is partly due to the fact that Chinese consumers are becoming more cautious about spending money, and even the younger demographic, which is considered to be the most energetic, is becoming more pragmatic, which has also led to a weakness in high-end consumption. From the perspective of automobile consumption structure, the proportion of models in the first half of this year in the range of more than 400,000 yuan has decreased significantly, which can already explain the problem. But that's not the main reason.
But the core reason is that the high-end market in which Porsche is located was originally considered to be a worry-free market, but now the war of new energy has begun to affect this market.
The first is cognitive warfare. Over the years, both traditional car companies and new car-making forces are gradually changing user perception through the cultivation of the new energy market and users. On the one hand, the core indicators of automotive products in the past are also the charm of luxury brands such as Porsche, first of all, speed, performance, handling, and secondly, luxury. However, the former is no longer unattainable in the face of new energy vehicles that can accelerate from zero to 100 for three or four seconds. The latter has gradually been replaced by a series of seemingly "nonsensical" configurations such as "refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas", as well as technological functions such as voice interaction, intelligent driving, and intelligent chassis, and even become standard.
Porsche, on the other hand, has not been able to keep up with the changes in its actions, even though it knows that there is a higher demand for diversified, personalized and digital products. In the past few years of the great leap forward in China's new energy market, Porsche's pure electric segment has always been the only one in the Taycan. According to Porsche's plan, by the end of 2025, more than half of Porsche's models will be electrified.
Although the younger generation of consumers has the vitality to spend, they are also in fact the least brand loyal group, and once their perception changes, they will ruthlessly turn around and choose other brands.
The second is the ** war. It is not only the price reduction that is called the first war, with the independent high-end brands such as Gaohe, Yangwang and Haobo will touch the high-end market where Porsche is located, the fire of the war will gradually burn to the high-end luxury market. The same is even lower**, but the performance, configuration, and intelligence are better than Porsche, coupled with changes in consumer perception, which is to drag Porsche into the quagmire of price reduction.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, Porsche's ** has continued to decline. The discount of the classic Porsche 911 is generally about 20% off, and the maximum discount can reach about 300,000 yuan. The entry-level model Macan can generally achieve a discount of 83% at the dealership, and if the sincerity is obvious, there is more room for discount.
And what is Porsche doing at this time?
In 2022, Porsche had a "reduced door" incident in China, and car owners questioned Porsche's replacement of the marked electric steering column with a manual steering column. In the handling of the incident, Porsche treated Chinese and American car owners differently, which chilled Chinese consumers.
At the beginning of this year, Porsche made another "oolong price" incident, and the official website was incorrectly launched 1240,000 yuan of panamera, the down payment is as low as 30,000 yuan, and the deposit is only 911 yuan, causing netizens to place orders frantically. However, Porsche only recognized the first order afterwards, and judged the subsequent orders as invalid, and the incident caused a stir.
At the same time, Porsche has recalled its vehicles four times this year due to quality problems, totaling more than 5370,000 units. This has to raise concerns about the quality of Porsche.
It is not that Chinese people have stopped loving Porsche overnight, but it has changed subtly over a long period of time. The luxury car market at the BBA level has been under great pressure, and the super luxury market represented by Porsche will also break the defense sooner or later. (Wen Youshi Auto Old Cannon).
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