Just after the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon, Gaohe Automobile reported that it would suspend work and production for six months. After many days of fermentation, Ding Lei, the founder of Gaohe Automobile, and other executives took turns to call on the public to give the company time and would do everything possible to save the company.
At the same time, a new round of war in the auto market has quietly begun. Industry giant BYD took the lead in throwing out the "king fried": the Qin plus glory version of Dynasty Network was officially listed, and the official guide price was less than 80,000 yuan. Since then, Wuling, Changan Automobile, Nezha Automobile, Beijing Hyundai, SAIC-GM and other car companies have successively announced price reductions for many of their models.
The wave of electrification and intelligence has further accelerated the update and iteration of the industry, and also urged car companies to work harder to meet consumer needs. Although China's new energy vehicle production and sales have ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years as of 2023, it should also be noted that the vast majority of the 320 models sold in China in 2023 will have monthly sales of less than 1,000 units, and there are only three or four truly profitable car companies.
Especially at present, a number of new car-making forces are on the verge of bankruptcy and bankruptcy, and the development of Gaohe Automobile has been struggling at this stage, who will be the next out?
It is foreseeable that the competition of new energy vehicle companies will intensify this year. The heads of major car companies also admitted frankly in the letter of the start of construction in the Year of the Dragon that they should be ready for a sprint in 2024. Among them, Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, said that the current transformation of the automobile industry has entered the deep water area, and the intelligent transformation has begun to shift gears and speed up, and the development of new energy vehicles will only run faster and faster. In the view of He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, 2024 will be the first year for Chinese auto brands to enter the "sea of blood" competition, and a "fight" in a fierce competition is inevitable. Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, said bluntly that 2024 will be the "most volume" year, "volume **, volume products, volume services, volume traffic".
The author believes that as China's new energy industry gradually matures, fierce competition in the industry brought about by market share competition is inevitable. At present, China's new energy vehicle production capacity has been overcapacity, and industrial optimization and upgrading is imperative. In addition, industry chaos such as incremental no profit increase and marketing without bottom line also occurs from time to time, which needs to be changed as soon as possible.
In essence, the battle of car companies reflects the contradiction between oversupply and insufficient demand in the domestic auto market. However, it should be noted that blindly lowering the car **, or even falling below the cost line, in order to increase sales, not only can not make the company survive in the cruel market competition, but will make the company face a deeper business crisis. At this stage, healthy competition in the automotive industry should be vigorously promoted.
As Duan Jianjun, President and CEO of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales & Service, said, car manufacturing is not a 100-meter sprint, only by adhering to long-termism, continuous learning and reconstruction, and continuous linkage with consumer demand changes and advanced technology, can we gain the trust of customers.