In 2023, how will the "second generation" leverage the high-end market?
64% of the owners are from luxury car trade-ins, and the VOYAH Dreamer has successfully entered the first echelon of the high-end MPV market." At the recent Spring Festival event held by VOYAH Automotive, VOYAH senior management talked about it.
Luxury brands represented by BBA have always been outside the Chinese auto market, and even the overall market decline in the past few years has not been able to curb the rise of BBAs against the market. However, last year, as the scale of China's auto market expanded and the overall situation improved, some luxury brand owners were "changing their minds".
According to market data, the total number of high-end brand passenger cars produced in China reached 451 last year60,000 units, a year-on-year increase of more than 15 percentage points, but in the luxury brand camp, only Hongqi and Jaguar Land Rover outperformed**, and most luxury brands are in a state of slight growth, such as BMW, which tops the BBA camp, will only grow by about 4% in 2023.
In this regard, Xu Haidong, chief engineer of the China Automobile Association, pointed out: "The domestic high-end new energy brands have taken a lot of share from the market, increased the choice of consumers, stimulated the consumption of high-end cars from the supply side, but also diverted some of the customer groups of traditional luxury brands." Therefore, it can be seen that a large number of car owners who originally belonged to traditional luxury brands have gathered under brands such as VOYAH, Li and Wenjie, and the competitive landscape of China's high-end automobile market is also being rewritten.
Why did luxury brand owners "change their minds"?
Last year, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi sold 82 percent in China50,000 units, 7650,000 units with 7290,000 units, judging from the sales trend of "Royal Three", its market influence rating has changed from "growth" in the past to "steady".
In the domestic high-end market, it is the joint venture that really hurts.
Second- and third-tier luxury brands, such as Lincoln, Cadillac, Lexus and Infiniti, are all in the range of year-on-year decline, of which Infiniti has a year-on-year decline of 2083%, more than half of the stores have closed. It is worth mentioning that last year, when the second-tier luxury brand as a whole was the first, Hongqi achieved a year-on-year increase with a scale of 370,000 units, ranking first in the second-tier list.
As Xu Haidong mentioned, the decline of the above luxury brands is mainly due to the impact of domestic high-end new energy vehicles. For example, first-tier luxury brands such as BMW have been able to maintain their position in the BBA because they have a higher new energy penetration rate in the overall sales scale, with pure electric vehicle sales reaching about 100,000 units. At the same time, Audi and Mercedes-Benz are also rapidly deploying related electric products, such as the Audi Q6LE-tron, the new pure electric G-class off-road vehicle, and the new Mai**EQS pure electric SUV.
In the adjustment of market structure, second- and third-tier luxury brands are more affected due to their lack of market influence and recognition, and at the same time, there is a general lack of product support in new energy, which is difficult to withstand the encirclement and interception of new brands and new technologies. For example, Lincoln and Infiniti's products on sale are all fuel vehicles, while Volvo has maintained a good state among second-tier luxury brands by virtue of its advance layout in the field of hybrid and pure electric vehicles.
Of course, the core reason is still the technological upgrade of independent brands.
The industry-wide involution in 2023 will not only bring cost pressure, but also "technical anxiety". In the context of the joint venture brand increasing technology investment to promote brand transformation and the collective pressure of new power brands, the "second generation" represented by VOYAH, Aion, Deep Blue, ZEEKR, etc., began to intensively pour into the new energy vehicle market, opening up a new track with intelligence and new energy, and setting off a rapid increase in the joint venture brand.
Taking the VOYAH Dreamer as an example, it has the longest endurance in its class, the strongest power in its class, the shortest braking distance in its class, the lowest CLTC feed fuel consumption in its class, and the highest safe speed in its class.
In addition, the high cost of acquisition and use of products is also an important factor in the accelerated decline of second-tier luxury brands.
Compared with the second-tier luxury products of the joint venture, the products of the independent brand generally have the advantage of leapfrogging in the field of high-end new energy, such as the VOYAH Dreamer, as a medium and large MPV, ** is 33990,000-41990,000 yuan, and the joint venture luxury brand medium-sized cars such as Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac XT5 and other models are equivalent, superimposed on its comprehensive advantages in hardware configuration, intelligent technology and maintenance costs, it is not difficult to understand the "change of heart" of luxury car owners.
What exactly does the independent high-end grasp?
The best independent brand in the high-end market is not just huge.
Judging from last year's sales, DENZA became famous, and its D9 successfully leveraged the king position of Buick GL8, and the brand sales reached 12about 80,000 units; The high-end positioning of ZEEKR also performed well, consolidating its market position with a sales volume of nearly 120,000 units, while the VOYAH brand mentioned above has become one of the few high-end new energy brands in the "second generation" that has achieved its annual sales target and doubled its growth with a year-on-year growth rate of 160% and a breakthrough of 50,000 units.
Judging from the overall trend of the current market, luxury brands such as BBA still have a strong influence in the business scene, while the real leverage of independent high-end new energy is the share of luxury brands in the household car market.
Last year, the domestic economic development showed two major trends, namely, the downgrading of consumption and the continuous expansion of improved consumer demand. From the perspective of the real estate industry, Yang Hongxu, vice president of Shanghai Yiju Real Estate Research Institute, pointed out that "new houses with good plates, reliable developers and good quality are still in a state of structural insufficiency".
The same is true in the automotive field, where the demand for improved home travel is accelerating, providing an opportunity for the release of the technical potential of independent new energy high-end products. Compared with the commercial car scenario, family car consumers are more concerned about the actual value and comprehensive cost created by the vehicle, rather than the added value of the brand, so brands such as Aion, Denza and VOYAH are targeting the family car market.
Taking VOYAH as an example, the three products currently on sale, namely the new VOYAH FREE, the new VOYAH Dreamer and the Chasing Light PHEV, are respectively positioned as the "Smart Driving Tour Big Five-seater SUV", "Dream Mobile Castle" and "New Executive Electric Flagship".
To be able to gain a firm foothold in the family car market, the logic behind it is not a simple product positioning, but a comprehensive effort of independent brands in terms of technology and quality.
The key to the Denza D9's counterattack on the Buick GL8 lies in BYD's DM-i system and other technologies in the "technical fish pond". The VOYAH Dreamer is among the first echelon of high-end MPVs, which is also due to the fact that VOYAH Automotive has created a series of advantageous technologies such as ESSA native intelligent electric architecture, Tianyuan architecture, and "Lanhai Power" intelligent multi-mode hybrid technology under the empowerment of Dongfeng Group's superior technical resources, and is at the leading level in the industry in the fields of new energy vehicle platform, three-electric, electronic and electrical architecture, battery, body, chassis, etc., which can solve the doubts of home users in terms of product reliability, practicability, and safety.
At the same time, focusing on the attention of family users to product quality, the "second generation" also solved the core problems by means of the group's superior resources and self-built production management system.
For example, Aion, DENZA and VOYAH all started with self-built factories to go to the market, rather than OEM or purchase factories. Based on Dongfeng Motor's 55 years of experience in car manufacturing, VOYAH makes full use of the dividends brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and technological innovation, integrates the world's advanced manufacturing technologies and concepts, and adopts a large number of world-leading technologies such as IoT, big data, edge cloud and AI to create a vehicle that meets the needs of Industry 4The 0 standard customized, digital, and flexible world-class digital factory has been successfully listed as the 2023 intelligent manufacturing demonstration factory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and has been selected into the 2023 green manufacturing list of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Combined with factors such as the deep cultivation of self-owned brand high-end products in the actual needs and usage scenarios of Chinese families, the emphasis on product leapfrogging advantages, and the new service system established through big data and intelligence, the days of traditional luxury brands "lying down and making money" in the past are gone.
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Judging from the response of traditional luxury brands, such as accelerating the layout of new energy, adjusting the product structure and reducing product **, independent high-end new energy brands still have an uphill battle to fight in the family car market, and this process will continue until at least 2025, and independent brands have the possibility of further expansion into the high-end car market.
In the 2025 plan released by many brands, they have clearly put forward higher expectations for technology iteration, especially in the field of ecological collaboration, such as business applications, personal careers, company operations and other fields, which will help independent brands better seize the high-end market. At the same time, in the context of the accelerated expansion of new energy, market trends such as debranding and rejuvenation are becoming more and more prominent, which is also a good signal for independent high-end new energy brands such as VOYAH and Denza.
Written by丨Ouyang