Car brands are fighting a protracted involution war.
BYD started half a month ahead of schedule
At the beginning of 2024, BYD took the lead in firing the "first shot" of the Year of the Dragon, and its two plug-in hybrid models, Qin Plus Glory Edition and Destroyer 05 Glory Edition, were launched, with a starting price of 7980,000 yuan.
Compared with the previous version of the champion version of the model, the two new versions of the Qin plus Glory Edition** have dropped by 20,000 yuan. Among them, the price range of the Qin Plus DM-i Glory Edition is 7980,000 yuan-12580,000 yuan, the price range of the Qin Plus EV Glory Edition is 10980,000 yuan-13980,000 yuan. BYD Destroyer 05 Glory Edition has a total of 6 models, and the ** range is 7980,000 yuan-12880,000 yuan, the starting price is as low as 7980,000 yuan.
It can be seen from the four big words "electricity is lower than oil" on the official poster released by BYD that the ** spearhead of the BYD destroyer 05 glory version is directly aimed at fuel vehicles. Many people on the Internet ridiculed BYD for others lifting the table, and BYD directly moved the table away.
Indeed, the new energy market has experienced several battles since last year, and the penetration rate of new energy has accelerated the expansion with the advantage of price reduction, which has further squeezed the market space of fuel vehicles. BYD launched 9When the Qin PLUS Champion Edition started from 980,000 yuan, it reconstructed the pattern of the A-class sedan car market due to the "same price of oil and electricity", and this sharp price reduction once again hit the A-class sedan market with "electricity is lower than oil".
Subsequently, a number of new energy vehicle brands have followed up with price cuts, and Zhou Yu, deputy general manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling Brand Division, also said on Weibo: "One word, with!" Wuling Motors' official blog announced that the price of the 150km advanced version of the Wuling Starlight plug-in hybrid model will be increased from 10580,000 yuan was adjusted to 9980,000 yuan.
Chang'an Qiyuan also played "electricity is lower than oil!" Low! Low! The slogan announced the follow-up price reduction, Kaizen Q05 and Kaizen A05 minimum 7From 390,000 yuan.
Nezha Automobile officially announced that Nezha X has added a new Nezha X 400 Air model, priced at 9980,000 yuan, Nezha x other versions of the model all straight down 220,000 yuan, and the adjusted price is 10480,000-12480,000 yuan; Nezha aya's entire system dropped by 8,000 yuan and sold for 6From 580,000 yuan; Nezha S dropped 5,000 yuan for all systems, selling 15From 480,000 yuan.
The fuel car brands that were chased and intercepted also had to follow up with price reductions to increase their own popularity. Beijing Hyundai announced under the slogan of "oil is stronger than electricity" that the price of its A-class sedan Elantra model has been officially reduced, with a minimum of 7From 580,000 yuan;
In addition, SAIC-GM Buick officially announced the "Buick New Gift" activity, with a cash discount of 3 for bicycles5-6.50,000 yuan, the event involved Weilan 6, GL8, LaCrosse, Valeant Pro and Envision Plus, which is almost the main sales model of the Buick brand. Among them, Envision PLUS has the largest discount margin, with a cash discount of 650,000 yuan, in addition to a replacement subsidy of 4,000 yuan.
Whether it is "electricity is lower than oil" or "electricity is lower than oil!" Low! Low! "Oil and electricity at the same price", or "oil is stronger than electricity", major brands have successively "rolled" **, so that "**war" has once again become the key word of this year's automotive industry.
The confidence of the price reduction comes from**?
New energy has gradually become a new increment in the development of the automobile market, and from the perspective of the current market competition pattern, it has many camps such as traditional new energy, new forces, and traditional second generation. Among them, traditional new energy has an absolute leading advantage, especially the sales growth of independent brands throughout the year.
In particular, BYD's performance in 2023 can be said to be a well-deserved king in the new energy field. According to BYD's official data, BYD's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in 2023 will be 3,024,417 units, a year-on-year increase of 6186%, and even achieved the annual sales target of 3 million units one month ahead of schedule.
It is worth noting that as of December 31, 2023, BYD has sold more than 6.3 million new energy vehicles, making it the first new energy vehicle company in China to exceed the 6 million mark in cumulative sales.
In the context of continuous downward adjustment and new allocation, how big is the scale of the new energy market, and how should the surviving brands carry out the stock game to maintain or even increase their market share? Under the development trend of new energy involution and upgrading in 2024, what should enterprises do to find new growth points and establish their own "moat"?
Taking BYD as an example, its Fodi battery said in an internal notice, "In 2023, the procurement team will maximize benefits through layers of screening, removing the inferior and retaining the good, and fully bidding and bidding." At present, there is still a huge space for procurement cost reduction. In 2024, we will continue to strengthen the management and control of non-production materials, and work together to reduce costs and increase efficiency. ”
In order to maintain their market position, car companies can only continue to reduce costs and increase efficiency, car companies with self-research capabilities are beginning to launch self-developed batteries, and car companies without self-built battery production lines have also begun to reduce batteries through business strategies. The battery is cheaper, and the electric vehicle will naturally come down, and the confidence to reduce the price, to put it bluntly, comes from the deep cultivation of the first chain, and the cost is diluted through scale.
Do your opponents follow?
However, according to consumer psychological analysis, after this wave of price cuts, there may be a long time when they are no longer willing to buy "original price" cars, after all, for consumers, a car market that is the best at every turn, the "original price" makes people feel very insecure, and even worry that they will become the next "leek". For car companies, it is easy to reduce prices and difficult to raise prices, and at the same time, too low ** may seriously hit the brand power.
In recent years, independent brands have overtaken in the new energy track, making the classification of car brands more and more ambiguous, and the only thing that can be clear is that this track will become more and more crowded, and over time it will usher in more opponents, lower products, and more diverse competition methods.
The "first war" that has been fought for several years is just an effective means to establish a new market order in the process of replacing old technology with new technologies and replacing fuel vehicles with new energy vehicles. At the same time, with the rapid increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, the scale of the traditional fuel vehicle market is gradually shrinking, and the contradiction between the huge traditional production capacity and the gradually shrinking fuel vehicle market has brought a more fierce battle. Scale determines the cost and the survival status of the enterprise, and most manufacturers give priority to ensuring their share, which will inevitably lead to the further intensification of competition.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, mentioned in his New Year's opening letter that Chinese auto brands will enter the "sea of blood" competition in 2024, and this wave of price cuts in the A-class car market should only be an "appetizer" in 2024.