Flipping the table price reduction and pushing new, BYD s champion defense battle .

Mondo Entertainment Updated on 2024-02-29

Following Qin Plus, BYD lowered the starting price of the new version of Song, Han and Tang, and listed less than 80,000 plug-in hybrid A-class cars and less than 170,000 C-class hybrid cars.

Behind the price reduction, it is also a championship defense battle launched by BYD. In 2022, Song PLUS will become the new sales champion of SUVs in China's auto market, and Qin PLUS will also surpass Sylphy in September of that year to win the sedan sales championship.

However, entering the second half of 2023, Qin and Song began to sell weakly and never reached the top again. Han and Tang also sold more than 20,000 per month and fell to less than 15,000 in January this year, and BYD's overall sales also fell to 1The gap of 20,000 yuan lost to Geely, and the position of the sales champion that had been entrenched for more than ten months was given to others.

In the second half of last year, the star models that were once in short supply began to reduce prices at the terminal, and the profitability of dealers has become more difficult than in the past. BYD, which has expanded production capacity and channels on a large scale, overestimated market demand and gradually suffered a backlash.

At the China Automobile 100 Forum held in April last year, Wang Chuanfu said: "The industry is now a mixed bag, the joy is that China's automobile market is huge, and the worry is that the market competition is extremely fierce. At this time, the industry is not a big fish eating small fish, it may be a fast fish eating slow fish. ”

Now, "Fast Fish" BYD is using a sharp price reduction offensive to ensure that its development pace is not forced to "slow down", and the champion position that has been lost once can return again.

The champion model is coming back

If a car brand wants not to be surpassed by its rivals, it must have several star models that will endure for a long time. Wang Chuanfu knows this truth very well, compared to the dumplings like dense new cars, BYD adopts the most advanced strategy to further highlight the cost performance to defend the city.

Just after the Spring Festival holiday, BYD launched a series of price reduction offensives. Today, BYD launched the Song Plus Glory Edition and the Seal DM-i Glory Edition, the former 12The starting price is 980,000, and the starting price of the latter has dropped to 14980,000 yuan, 30,000 yuan and 40,000 yuan cheaper than the previous generation when it was launched. So far, more than half of BYD's star models have completed the price reduction and new launch.

On February 28, BYD's official Weibo announced that the starting price of the newly launched Hantang Glory Edition were. 980,000, more than 20,000 lower than the starting price when the version was launched last year.

On February 19, BYD shouted "electricity is lower than oil", reducing the Qin Plus Glory Edition to 7 in one fell swoopThe price reduction of 980,000 yuan soon drove a wave of sales.

On February 28, the rival Wuling announced that BYD sold a total of 3160,000 units. According to the "Car Governor" report, in the two weeks from February 5 to February 18, BYD's total sales were only 3060,000 units.

Last year, after the same Spring Festival holiday, the Qin plus Champion Edition was launched, shouting the slogan of "the same price of oil and electricity", and the starting price of the car was set at 9980,000, this move can be called a sharp knife inserted into the market, so that many joint venture A-class cars have to follow the price reduction.

The effect of price reduction was immediate, and from February to April last year, Qin plus continued to dominate the domestic car sales list. However, the joint venture A-class car did not slump from then on, and in May, Sylphy once again became the sedan sales champion, and the title of champion Qin PLUS was never obtained.

In December last year, the starting price of the Qin Plus Champion Edition dropped to 8980,000 yuan. But in January of this year, Qin Plus still failed to defeat his opponents with 290,000 monthly sales ranked third in the sedan list, not as good as Lavida and Sylphy.

Han and Tang, which launched a more "affordable" new version of the model, are also BYD's star models that once sold more than 20,000 per month, especially Han, which is regarded as a strong rival to the best-selling B-class cars of joint ventures such as Accord and Camry.

The official guide price of the 2023 Tang and Han is 18980,000, 20980,000 yuan. Both the pricing strategy and the actual performance of the two cars can be called the model of the BYD brand.

But by January last year, Han's sales had dropped to 110,000 units, lost to the Camry and Accord that had been surpassed, Tang fell to 8,892 units, outside the 30th place in the SUV sales list, and the sales volume of the M7, which was higher than its price, exceeded 290,000 units.

It is difficult to reproduce the shortage of supply

In addition to the lower pricing of new cars, BYD's 4S store also gave a lower price for the models on sale**.

The sales staff of a BYD Dynasty store in Xiqing District, Tianjin, revealed to the "Circle Chronicle" that their store's 2023 Han 121km elite model can give a discount of 30,000 yuan cheaper than the guide price.

The Song PLUS, which launched the Honor version today, is BYD's first "champion" model, which became the SUV sales champion in China's auto market in 2022, but since the second half of 2023, the Song PLUS has not returned to the championship, and the monthly sales of Model Y and Changan CS75 PLUS have surpassed the Song PLUS during this period.

In 2021 and 2022, models such as Tang and Song are still in the stage of hard to find a car and an imbalance between supply and demand, and car owners need to wait for 3 to 6 months to pick up the car, and 4S stores will not reduce their prices**.

In the period when the supply of models exceeds demand, BYD dealers can almost make money, and many 4S store employees who originally sold joint venture cars have also jumped to BYD. "Car Circle Chronicle" learned from the mouths of a number of 4S store managers of different car brands in Beijing that in the second half of 2023, BYD dealers in Beijing have begun to sell cars at a loss in order to digest inventory.

BYD's massive price reduction of new models this time is also a self-battle to retain the championship. In the second half of 2023, the year-on-year growth rate of BYD's sales will drop to 312%, while in 2022 it was 152%. In January of this year, Geely was even more 2130,000 sales became the sales champion in the domestic passenger car market, 1 more than BYD in the same periodAbout 20,000 units.

In the 21 days mentioned above, BYD's total sales in February were only 620,000 units, and last year's sales of more than 230,000 in 30 days have a big gap, BYD's sales in February are difficult to reach 150,000 units, far from the past glory.

Autonomous opponent to chase and intercept

It is true that BYD's achievements in China's passenger cars are indelible, and it can be said that it has single-handedly led China's auto market to a new milestone.

Before BYD, no independent brand had successfully challenged the joint venture brand and won the sales champion. The stereotype of insufficient competitiveness of core components and high fuel consumption of independent models has been subverted by BYD.

The launch of the Song DM-i in 2021 has become a watershed in BYD's development. From the performance point of view, with the three-electric technology as the core, the DM-i model with the electric drive mode has the advantages of smooth electric vehicles and strong power, and the approach of finding a new way allows BYD to not have to compete with the joint venture brand for the three major parts.

The characteristics of the BYD DM-i model's plug-in hybrid, oil-fueled and electric vehicles also solve the range anxiety of pure electric vehicles, which is only 3 per 100 kilometersThe fuel consumption of 8L is a direct attack on the core advantages of Japanese cars, and it also changes the image of "fuel consumption" of independent models.

Compared with the opponents for new energy indecisive, in the market direction after the clear investment, BYD for more than ten years to overcome the DM-i technology, every time there is a problem has not given up, to the Song DM-i launch, is the third generation of technology, to overcome many costs, safety and other aspects of the problem.

Under the firm strategic determination, Wang Chuanfu, who did the "proof question" of new energy, finally received positive feedback from the market.

However, after becoming the champion, BYD's road is no longer so easy, in the sedan market, the joint venture brand is still quite strong, and it is still quite difficult to change consumer perception. Sylphy, Lavida and other hot-selling joint venture models for many years, through price reductions and other methods, did not let Qin take its place.

The biggest opponent is not the joint venture brand, and many independent brands have increased their hybrid technology, which is the obstacle for BYD to maintain its position as the champion.

In the second half of 2023, Geely, Great Wall, and Chery will launch the hybrid L7, Thunder, and Tiggo 7 new energy champion editions respectively, all three of which are plug-in hybrid models like Song Plus, using a series-parallel structure that can be oiled and electric, and have more new gravitational force than Song in terms of price or configuration.

In January this year, Geely, BYD, Chery, and Changan respectively ranked among the top 4 in the sales list of domestic car companies, squeezing out the joint venture brands by 4.

A senior executive of a state-owned automobile group once told the "Car Circle Chronicle": "Although BYD is at the head of the hybrid car field, it is not a few streets behind its opponents, and everyone has continued to track hybrid technology over the years, even if its sales were not high at that time, but the research in this field has not stopped." Now everyone's technology has basically caught up, the technical route is unified, and the product performance tends to be the same. ”

The EV market began to decline

BYD, which has nearly half of its electric vehicles in its sales mix, is facing another challenge - the overall growth of electric vehicles has reached a bottleneck. In January this year, a total of 3760,000 units, down 37% m/m.

Not only BYD's recent sales have fallen short of the past, but brands such as Wuling, Tesla, and Aion also performed quite sluggishly in the first half of February. From February 5 to February 18, Wuling and Tesla sold 0940,000 units, 0With 820,000 units, it has been the runner-up and third place in the sales list of new energy brands in the Chinese market.

Every long holiday, the long-distance driving of electric vehicles is a test, this year's freezing rain in the south, many new energy vehicle owners are trapped on the road, even if they dare not turn on the air conditioning along the way, they can't stand being blocked on the road charging no door, and finally lie on the highway.

Xiaopeng, FAW-Volkswagen and other brand personnel have told the "Circle Chronicle" that most electric car owners already have a fuel car at home, but they just bought an electric car as a second car for the family. One of the important reasons why car owners dare not use electric vehicles as the only travel vehicle in their homes is range anxiety, and long-distance driving during holidays is more likely to cause moths.

At the same time, although electric vehicles have the advantages of low cost of use, high investment such as fixed parking spaces still "dissuades" many people. In order to facilitate charging, many electric vehicle owners choose to install charging piles in their own parking spaces, but the people who buy electric vehicles are more settled in large cities with purchase restrictions, and the fixed parking spaces themselves are expensive, and it is not uncommon to sell more than 100,000 yuan.

The author returned to the southern town in northern Anhui during the Spring Festival, and observed whether there were any owners who drove electric vehicles back to their hometowns during this period. Unexpectedly, the author did see more than ten electric vehicles in 12 days, but more than 80% of them are Tesla, except for local cars, all of which are Su A and Anhui A license plates, and the driving distance from here is less than 200 kilometers.

The positioning of pure electric vehicles is urban transportation, which is not suitable for long-distance running, and you still have to use hybrid or fuel vehicles for long-distance running. No matter which brand of pure electric car runs at high speed, there is anxiety about battery life. In some places, such as Beijing, there are many people driving pure electric cars, also because the license plate of the hybrid is not easy to shake." The above-mentioned sales staff of a BYD Ocean Network in Hexi District, Tianjin, said bluntly.

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