The domestic auto market in 2023 may be the most involuted year in recent years. At the beginning of the year, an unprecedented battle swept the entire market, and then the major car companies began to roll up, volume configuration, and volume intelligent driving, especially under the pressure of traditional car companies, the new forces of car manufacturing are walking on thin ice.
After a year of competition, some new forces finally withdrew from the market competition; But there are also some new forces that have not only survived, but have also become more at ease. For example, Ideal, after experiencing a reshuffle in 2023, stands out among the new forces, and opens a gap with other new forces that is difficult to catch up with in a short period of time; And even Weimar, which has been mass-produced and delivered more than 100,000 units, ended up with a thunderstorm.
So, how are the new automakers doing in 2023?
The ideal is successful, but Weilai and Xiaopeng are still struggling
Ideal has achieved success in the fierce competition in 2023 and can be described as a standout among the new forces.
Many people may not expect that the first to come out of the new forces is ideals. Although it uses the "backward" range extension technology that has been questioned, and uses a set of design "nesting dolls" to produce three cars, refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas can be favored by "dads", and L7, L8, and L9 models are sold out, which is behind the accurate grasp of market demand.
For the whole year of 2023, the ideal cumulative sales volume will reach 3760,000 units, becoming the sales champion of the new car-making forces, and successfully unlocked the new achievement of monthly sales of 50,000 units in December, and it is also the only car company among the new forces to achieve the annual target. Under the ideal, the new force with the highest sales volume is NIO, which has sold 160,000 units, and there is a big gap between it and the ideal.
In addition to sales, Li Xiang, CEO of Li Auto, is also frequently searched for small compositions and sharp point of view output, especially the expression of "comprehensive learning Huawei", "80% of Huawei is learning, 20% is respect and 0% complaining" has caused a lot of heat on the Internet, it can be said that Li Xiang alone can stand up to his entire team in marketing, which is also the envy of many car companies.
In contrast, the other two in "Wei Xiaoli" are both struggling. NIO will only deliver more than 6,000 new cars in two months of 2023, while Xpeng's sales have continued to be sluggish in the first five months, and it will not return to the level of 10,000 units until June.
In addition, both NIO and XPeng have undergone organizational restructuring adjustments in 2023. The former cut redundant staff and organizational setups by about 10% in November, and postponed and cut investments on projects that did not improve the company's financial performance. The latter made organizational structure adjustments earlier, and Wang Fengying, who has the title of "Iron Lady of the Rim", joined in and optimized the product planning, product matrix and marketing system of Xiaopeng Motors.
However, fortunately, both NIO and XPeng have eased up before the end of the year and see hope.
In June 2023, Xpeng G6 was officially launched, and Xpeng put almost all the most advanced technology on this new model, and for the first time, the ** of the 800V high-voltage platform hit the price of 200,000 yuan; In September, Xiaopeng G9 was "listed for the second time", and after the price adjustment, netizens called it really fragrant. After the launch of the two models, Xpeng delivered more than 20,000 units in a single month for three consecutive months at the end of the year.
NIO experienced a ** adjustment in June, reducing the price of all cars by 30,000 yuan and canceling the right to free battery replacement. Sales in July then exceeded the 20,000 mark, and although they declined later, they also rebounded to 180,000 units.
Of course, the most hopeful thing for NIO is that NIO has recently received two strategic financings totaling $3 billion from Abu Dhabi, a Middle Eastern capital, and is not short of money for the time being. Secondly, NIO's battery swap model has also been recognized by the industry, and it has signed battery swap cooperation agreements with Geely and Changan Automobile, and NIO's moat has begun to take shape.
The more Zero Run sells, the better, and Nezha is temporarily behind
Also struggling with NIO and Xiaopeng is Nezha Automobile. As the sales champion of new car-making forces in 2022, Nezha will see a significant decline in 2023, and the final annual sales volume will only be 12740,000 units, the annual sales target achievement rate is only about 50%.
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Nezha Automobile, also made a public summary and reflection on personal social **, frankly admitting the reasons why it did not do well in 2023: there was no good connection between the new and old productions, and the rhythm was chaotic; The price of new products on the market is too high, and although the adjustment is in place in the second half of the year, it has lost the opportunity; Loss-making product lines have significantly reduced production; The way of communication is old, and there are good things that can't be said; The marketing headquarters is centralized and the management is weak.
In addition, Nezha Automobile also reorganized the marketing system, removed Jiang Feng Marketing Company from the position of executive vice president and Li Changhe Marketing Company as executive vice president, and put Daniel Zhang personally in charge and concurrently served as the president of the marketing company.
Leapmotor can be said to drive low and go high in 2023. Although sales were halved at the beginning of the year, the extended range model was soon launched in early March, and the price of all models was reduced, and then it quickly received feedback in the market, and sales went all the way up, and finally the annual sales reached 1440,000 units, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30%, only behind Ideal and NIO among the new forces.
There are two main strategies of Leapmotor, one is to provide a "pure electric + extended range" dual power scheme for all models, and the other is to take the ultimate cost-effective route. In addition, the extended range version of Leapmotor provides a super-large capacity battery, and the pure electric range can even reach 300 kilometers, which can meet the needs of a week's urban commute and weekend travel, which is very popular in the market.
Huawei and Xiaomi have become new forces 20
It is foreseeable that the competition in the new energy vehicle market in 2024 will be more intense, and the market pattern may also usher in changes0”。
Although Huawei is not directly involved in car manufacturing, it has been deployed in the field of autonomous driving for many years, and the cumulative sales of the Wenjie series in cooperation with Celis will exceed 940,000 units, close to the annual target of 100,000 units.
In particular, the ** Wenjie M7 suddenly exploded after it was listed, and the order volume exceeded 1 in less than 24 hours50,000 units. In December, more than 20,000 M7 units were delivered, and the cumulative number of units has exceeded 120,000. In addition, the M9, which has just been launched, has exceeded 30,000 units in just one week. In the sales ranking of new car-making brands announced by Ideal in the first week of 2024, the Wenjie series surpassed Li Auto for the first time and won the single-week sales championship of the new forces.
In addition to the Wenjie series, the first model of the Zhijie series cooperated by Huawei and Chery, the Zhijie S7, has also been launched, and the follow-up cooperation with JAC and BAIC is also planned. According to Ping An, Huawei's deeply empowered models are expected to sell 670,000 units in 2024 (including Wenjie, Zhijie, and AVATAR).
In addition, Xiaomi has been hot since it announced its car. After the technical conference on the 28th of last month, the traffic poured into the sky made all car companies envious, even though the conference has been over for more than a week, all kinds of rumors about the price are still flying all over the sky, so that the official has to come out to refute the rumors.
Xiaomi's first mass-produced car, the SU7, will be delivered in the first half of this year, and if it comes up with a more competitive price, it is bound to grab a certain market share.
In 2024, in the fierce competitive environment, let's wait and see how the new EV manufacturers will respond.