Will there be a trend in the mid-size SUV market of "the master being punched to death"?This is a question for many people. In fact, the traditional luxury midsize SUV market is facing a number of challenges. Midsize SUVs account for the largest share of luxury brand sales in domestic sales, reaching 257%。But at the same time, the core ** segment of 30-500,000 yuan is also the market that has been hit the most by various new forces. Will traditional luxury brands be able to hold on to this market?Let's start with the sales figures.
Over the past three years, the luxury midsize SUV market has maintained a much higher growth rate than the market level, but traditional luxury brands have entered a period of slow contraction since 2022. Sales of traditional luxury midsize SUVs fell by 6 percent in 20227%, and the first 10 months of 2023 fell by another 8 year-on-year2%。Among them, Mercedes-Benz GLC and Cadillac XT5 contributed the most.
Mercedes-Benz GLC decreased by 5 in the first 10 months of this year40,000 new cars, a reduction of 70%;The Cadillac XT5 has not been replaced since its launch in 2016, and the obsolescence of the model is the main reason for the continuous decline in sales. In addition to these two brands, BMW, Lexus and Lincoln all saw year-on-year growth, with the BMW ix3 seeing the largest increase in sales and being the fastest electrification among traditional luxury brands.
Lexus relied on the expansion of the discount of the new generation NX terminal and some of the increments brought by RZ. The decline in the market of traditional luxury brands is related to the impact of new forces regardless of energy form or body form. Traditional luxury brands must adapt to market changes, accelerate the process of electrification, upgrade, and expand terminal discounts, etc., in order to remain invincible in the fierce market competition.
In the luxury SUV market, traditional luxury brands are facing a serious challenge: new electric vehicles are rising, and the technological content and green attributes of these new electric vehicles make traditional luxury brands feel incomparable. As a result, these traditional luxury brands can only rely on their own brand advantages and terminal discounts to defend.
On the ** side, the core ** segment of traditional luxury brands is 30-500,000 yuan, but the consumption trend of this ** segment has undergone great changes in the past three years. In the first 10 months of this year, in the 30-500,000 yuan market, the proportion of medium and large SUVs increased from 105% to 157% and MPV from 98% to 143%, and large SUVs also increased from 0 to 31%。These models are larger in size and richer in functional scenarios, providing consumers with more choices.
In addition, the popularization of new energy has also greatly reduced the cost of vehicles, making the use scenarios of large-size multi-functional vehicles more diverse. Therefore, traditional luxury brands need to strengthen innovation and seek breakthroughs in product power in order to gain more incremental growth in this increasingly competitive market.
The traditional luxury mid-size SUV market is facing fierce competition, not from better midsize SUVs, larger SUVs, or intelligent new energy SUVs, but from a completely new product form that completely subverts values. Traditional luxury brands once attracted mainstream luxury consumers, but now Chinese brands are launching larger, more powerful smart new energy SUVs (MPVs), which are dramatically raising consumer expectations and triggering a new consumer revolution.
This will fundamentally erode the user base of traditional luxury mid-size SUVs, making the user base of these brands smaller and smaller. New forces are instilling new values in the core price point of traditional luxury mid-size SUVs, so that potential users can feel a further experience than traditional luxury brands. One thing is certain, this kind of "random punch" will one day hit the point.
And for those brands that are gradually declining, they usually go through several steps: first, dealers start to increase sales through discounts;Second, as the profitability of dealers deteriorated, manufacturers began to subsidize themThen, unsustainable preferential policies led to dealers withdrawing from the marketAs a result, the brand's sales continued to decline. Many luxury brands are already in their second phase, and the luxury midsize SUV market is a prime example.
Although traditional luxury midsize SUVs still hold a place in terms of sales figures, they fail to realize that potential users are being irreversibly lost when they gradually lose their former premium advantage. Sooner or later, this "chaotic fist" will hit the point. Therefore, the innovative products offered by traditional luxury brands in this price segment should no longer be models such as Mercedes-Benz EQC, BMW ix3 and Audi Q5 e-tron that are still built with the thinking of gasoline vehicles.