If 2023 is the year of the rise of independent brands, it is also the most tragic year of "fighting".
Crazy ** war
In 2023, China's auto market will usher in an unprecedented battle, with major auto brands cutting prices one after another. Since Tesla announced a price cut of 2-4 for the Model 3 and Model YAfter 80,000 yuan, the curtain of the ** war was officially opened. Subsequently, Wenjie, Xiaopeng, Aion, Leap, and Wuling announced price reductions until March, Dongfeng Citroen will be priced at 21The C6 with a guide price of 680,000 yuan was directly reduced to 12680,000, pushing the first wave of ** war to a climax.
In addition to new energy vehicles, fuel vehicles such as "Liangtian", "Liangfeng", Nissan, North and South Volkswagen, Mazda, Ford, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet, Buick and other fuel vehicles have also joined the battle. The new car ** system you know has completely failed in just a few months! Some new cars even drop in price within a few days of being on the market**.
At the beginning of November, the pre-sale price of the Wuling Starlight Hybrid was 9380,000, which can be called the "cheapest plug-in hybrid sedan", directly snatched the BYD Qin plus DM-i (9980,000 starts). Then BYD directly announced that the Qin Plus DM-i Champion Edition** is as low as 8980,000. Obviously, Wuling Xingguang is not happy that the new car is "stillborn", so on December 6, at the Guangzhou Auto Show, the price was directly 8With a starting price of 880,000 yuan, although it got the title of "the cheapest plug-in hybrid car" as it wished, the profit of a single car can be imagined.
Cheap is easy to sell
Looking at the annual car sales in 2023, although various car companies have frantically cut prices and "involuted", the most sold sedan is still Nissan Sylphy, with annual sales of 3760,000 vehicles, less than 80,000 yuan landed. In any case, it is the common people who will benefit in the end.
Crazy diss
In 2023, the situation of fighting between various car companies and bosses and complaining about competitors will become more and more serious.
In January, Audi accused NIO of trademark infringement, and ES6 and ES8 infringed on the trademark rights of Audi S6 and S8.
In February, on the eve of the launch of Kia's new K3, BYD launched the first lower Qin PlusDM-i Champion Edition, which attracted Yang Honghai, director of operations of Kia, to complain, "not doing things kindly". BYD responded, "I wish you all the best in your work."
In March, BYD Wang Chuanfu shared his views on autonomous driving at another investor meeting, "Unmanned driving is nonsense, and everything that makes a fool of one's head." Huawei's Yu Chengdong choked back, "Saying that intelligent driving is blind and nonsense, either you don't understand the industry, or you can't do it."
In May, this limelight reached a climax because of the "environmental protection problem of high-pressure fuel tanks" and became a social topic.
In the second half of the year, the situation intensified, first of all, Xiaopeng questioned the untruthfulness of the weekly sales data announced by Ideal; Then Akio Toyoda made a joint venture with BYD on the one hand, and "bombarded" electric vehicles on the other hand; Immediately afterwards, He Xiaopeng believed that "99% of the AEB of friendly businessmen are fake", and the "friendly businessman" replied, "I don't even understand AEB, and it is nothing......"In the past 2023, there have been about 18 "verbal battles" with a certain impact, large and small, with an average of 1 "quarrel" a month5 times!
Bragging is not taxed, and painting cakes is not afraid of getting tired
In 2023, in order to pay more attention to various automobile companies, various "bragging", "painting cakes", and "making words" ......For example, someone claims to be "the best within 5 million", and then someone claims to be "the best within 10 million" ......
The word-making aspect is even more dazzling. You have a unicorn, I have Dayu; You have the Aegis, I have the bell jar; You have the divine refining, and I have the clouds; I am Haohan, you are Kunpeng; You're cosmic, I'm epic ......In 2023, car companies that can't make up words are not good car companies.
In the face of such an absurd situation, the central media directly criticized, "There is no bottom line in the marketing of car companies, when will 'bragging and release satellites' stop?" ”
In 2023, China's new energy vehicles will continue to grow rapidly, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles will complete 958 respectively70,000 and 94950,000 units, an increase of 358% and 379%。According to incomplete statistics, a total of 320 models of new energy vehicles will be sold in China in 2023, most of which will sell less than 1,000 vehicles per month, and only three or four car companies will be truly profitable. Car companies are keen on all kinds of exaggerated marketing, and "the best car within xxx million yuan" abounds, all kinds of big words, ruthless words, and war of words. There is already excess capacity, and there are still local ** and enterprises in launching new projects. ”
A moment of life and death
Whether it is the best war, or the mutual choking between various enterprises, or even "bragging", it actually reflects the fierce competition in the market. According to the Dealers Association, more than 15 car companies will close down in 2023, and more than 10 auto sales groups will run away, causing more than 2,000 4S stores to close their doors.
The most concerned "Weimar became a dangerous horse" not only burned up 41 billion investment, but the founder participated in the Munich Motor Show and fled to the United States, never returned, making Weimar go bankrupt on the spot. In addition to WM Motor, new car-making forces such as Skyrim, Ziyoujia Niutron, Hengchi, Aiways, and Reading have been exposed to poor management.
In late March, Hengchi Automobile reported the news of layoffs and cost reductions, suspension of work and production, and delay of salary payment; In April, Dianka Automobile, formerly known as LeTV Automobile, announced that it would suspend production and production; At almost the same time, the car brand Ziyoujia Niutron, founded by Li Yinan, the founder of Maverick Electric, emptied its official Weibo, closed its official website and stopped its App services; Subsequently, in May, the "old man Le Yi Ge" Reading Automobile, which was founded in 2008, filed for bankruptcy.
The most pitiful thing is that the consumers who paid real money to "support" domestic production were broken to the ground, and there was no way to guarantee and repair cars!
If you can't beat it, join in
Because of the rapid development of domestic independent brands and their dominance in the new energy market, most of the joint venture brands will be confused all the way in 2023 and will not have an advantage at all. Therefore, some foreign brands that responded quickly began to change their thinking, and the famous Wall Street saying "If you can't beat it, join it"!
For example, Toyota, which has been bombarding electric vehicles, directly entered into a joint venture with BYD to create a pure electric special car; Mercedes-Benz and Geely jointly build a pure electric smart; Renault and Geely are a joint venture to produce electric vehicles in the European market; Stellantis and Leap formed a joint venture; BMW and Great Wall jointly established Beam Automobile to create a domestically produced electric mini; Volkswagen and Xpeng have reached a cooperation agreement ......
Many people began to sigh, "30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi", China's own brands in the fields of three-electric technology, intelligent systems, automatic driving and other fields "change lanes and overtake", and finally let foreign brands lower their "arrogant heads".
In fact, in the face of industrial design, engineering capabilities, hardware tuning ......Foreign brands still maintain their advantages. The introduction of electric vehicle platforms by foreign car companies into China is more likely to be cheaper to make up for the gap period before the launch of their new generation of electric vehicles.
Used cars that are lighter in the off-season
If you read the "Brief Analysis of the Used Car Market in December 2023" by the China Automobile Dealers Association, you will find that the second-hand car transaction volume and transaction value in 2023 are not a lot, and even increased compared with the same period in 2022, of which the transaction volume increased by 14% year-on-year88%, judging by the data, it is peaceful.
But the actual feeling is completely different, affected by the whole year of the new car war, the second-hand car is like the seafood market, a price a day, the fluctuation is huge. Usually the car is closed today and falls tomorrow, and it falls by a fraction of a star. We got a 2014 BMW mini 1 at the beginning of the year6L self-priming, less than 70,000 kilometers, 80,000 yuan The price is not bad, but I didn't expect that within 1 month, the selling price fell to 70,000!
According to another set of data from the Automobile Dealers Association, the average inventory period of used car dealers in 2023 will rise from about 30 days in 2022 to about 57 days. Used car dealers with gross profit margins below 2% accounted for 614%, compared to 40% in 2018. It can be seen from the data that there will be no "Golden Nine and Silver Ten" in 2023, and some are just "not prosperous in the peak season, and even weaker in the off-season". It seems that the trading volume is increasing throughout the year, and more second-hand car dealers are "cutting meat and stopping losses" to clear inventory.
Be cautious in what you say and do
In any case, you can't deny the great progress of China's own brands, but we must have the understanding of danger in times of peace, not blind confidence, the actual market competition is surging. Foreign investment cooperation is more about our cost performance, to put it bluntly, it is cheap, and the core technology of automobiles, especially in key technologies, is still "stuck". Therefore, we still have to work hard, not because of the sales of a lot of money, just complacent, ignore laws and regulations, break through the red line of environmental protection, and pay for the consequences, or we, simple and sincere consumers!