For Tesla, an ongoing and increasingly intensifying fact is that Tesla's top popularity in China has been eaten away by its own new energy brands step by step.
Taking our Weibo as an example, even under the premise that the number of fans and fans of our Weibo is rising, the interaction and reading volume of Tesla's Weibo is far less than in the past, even the content of Tesla's financial report is no exception.
Among them,Part of the reason is due to the fact that although Tesla is still in the center of the whirlpool of the domestic new energy vehicle market, it is basically in the form of being compared by friends and actively discussed by industry people.
Even if being compared and discussed is a free advertisement for Tesla, it is only a small fight after all, and it cannot be a long-term solution.
In obvious contrast, independent new energy brands have achieved breakthroughs at high frequency in terms of mileage, charging speed, high-speed NOA, urban NOA, and intelligent cockpit.
At the same time, between independent brands, they either poke and poke secretly, or openly fight with each other, and you sing and I appear on the center stage, which continuously focuses the attention of users who are distracted by the sea of information on their own brands.
However, this time through the Cybertruck to enter the China tour, Tesla finally created another major event that broke the circle.
Car Dealer in China
Is Cybertruck's entry into China really to open everyone's eyes and be lively? No, it'sThe core task is actually quite simple – sell the car.
As we all know, the Cybertruck is a new species of car born with a golden key. Tesla has given the most bizarre imagination and the most cutting-edge manufacturing technology to the Cybertruck.
Since its debut in 2019, the Cybertruck has been in the spotlight around the world. Even with the embarrassment of the glass being smashed at the time, and the continuous delay in mass production and delivery on a yearly basis, it still stopped the enthusiasm and choice of users for the Cybertruck. Of course, a lot of Chinese users are also included.
And all this, Musk naturally sees it.
In mid-January of this year, Musk replied to netizens on X that it is difficult for the Cybertruck to be legally on the road in China, but the Cybertruck can be shipped to China for display. Unlike FSD, which has repeatedly bounced tickets, Musk did not draw pies this time, but just did what he said.
On January 24, Cybertruck launched its first live broadcast in China as a cyber off-road vehicle; On January 28, Cybertruck began its first tour in eight cities in China.
Although the Cybertruck is not currently available for sale in China, it is like a mascot invited for the New Year through live streaming and touring, bringing a short-term tangible gain to Tesla.
I don't know if you watched Cybertruck's live broadcast on January 24th. There were a total of 3 live broadcasts that day, and the anchor not only cooperated with three Tesla personnel to explain the product power of the Cybertruck, but also brought a large number of goods specifically for S3XY during the period, and guided the audience to leave money in the live broadcast room by signing up for the Cybertruck tour.
In the next tour, Cybertruck is like a high-profile top star, which has brought Tesla's vigorous popularity.
For example, at the exhibition tour site at HKRI Taikoo Hui in Shanghai, the people queuing up to get the admission tickets formed a long line, and the people waiting to take photos and check in after taking the tickets formed a long line. Spotlights, flashing lights are lit up; Upstairs and downstairs, there are constantly people speaking Mandarin, dialects, and foreign languages stopping with novel eyes**.
At the same time, the Tesla store next to it was also full of people, **, looking at the car, so lively. In this way, even if some users are very new to Tesla, when they see such a scene, I believe they will have a good first impression of Tesla.
From this,On the one hand, Tesla has eaten up a lot of online and offline traffic with CyberTruck, and has obtained rich and high-quality sales leads; On the other hand, it emphasizes Tesla's brand characteristics of holding and pursuing hard-core technology, leading manufacturing technology, and being able to think and dare to do things from a new incision, so that more people will have more brand favorability towards Tesla.
As for how many more cars the Cybertruck can help Tesla China sell this time, it depends on how Tesla's sales in China can digest the wave of traffic brought by the Cybertruck.
The market is hot
If it weren't for the emergence of the Cybertruck, Tesla's current heat in the domestic continuous market would basically be eating its old roots.
On the one hand, although Musk does not know anyone in the world, his main battlefield is on the X under his control after all. Since Musk basically does not have direct communication with Chinese users, it is difficult to form a direct influence on Chinese users.
Unlike independent brands that are close to Chinese users, the heads of new forces such as Yu Chengdong, Lei Jun, and Li Xiang are often echoed on Weibo, the main battlefield in China, and they can hear the voices of Chinese users more directly, and interact with users from time to time.
Compared with Musk, the emotional distance between the head of the independent new energy brand and the user is closer.
In addition, it is not only the head of the independent brand that is the big V on Weibo, but also their executives who frequently speak out on Weibo, so that they can see the most direct feedback from users in a more specific business. And once necessary, the collective voice of the head and executives on Weibo is also easier to form a surging ** potential energy, just like the collective voice of the executives before the release of ET9 by NIO.
Therefore, even if Musk's personal influence can incite the wind, as time goes by, it may be difficult to compete with the "pillow wind" that independent new energy brands collectively blow to Chinese users.
Tesla, on the other hand, is already a more mature brand in its early twenties. In the past two decades, Tesla has led a new round of revolution in the development of integrated die-casting, setting off a storm of electrification in the world, making intelligent driving never as accepted and needed as today, and directly causing changes in China's auto market.
However, it is precisely because Tesla's achievements in the past are so great that users' expectations for Tesla have been raised higher and higher. If Tesla's new changes are not revolutionary and far-reaching enough, it will be difficult to bring users the freshness and impact they used to have.
If Tesla wants to continue to have revolutionary and far-reaching changes, it must continue to increase investment and continue to roll itself. In this process, R&D costs will be raised, and changes will not be known when they will appear, and FSD is a vivid example.
At the same time, relatively young independent new energy brands are in a period of rapid growth. For example, in terms of intelligent driving, in the past two years, independent new energy brands have first rolled up intelligent driving sensors and chip computing power, and then rolled up the application level of high-speed NOA.
In addition to intelligent driving, independent new energy brands have intensively produced new changes in various aspects such as intelligent cockpit, three-electric capabilities, chassis control, and styling design. The user's attention is limited, and which side is more lively will naturally focus on which side.
It is precisely in this process of intensive change that Chinese brands have shown great ambition and increasingly hard product power in the new energy market, and with the overall upward development of China, domestic users are no longer as superstitious as before, but are more willing to move closer to their own brands emotionally, and they have begun to prefer more independent brands in their actual choices.
Tesla is in a completely different situation. At present, the core of supporting Tesla Tedu is its brand and product power, but as mentioned above, in terms of brand, Tesla's progress has slowed down, while its own new energy brand has grown rapidly.
In terms of products, although Tesla's manufacturing capacity and three-electric capabilities are still the top players in the industry, it is inferior to Chinese brands in terms of intelligent driving and cockpit value to users.
As Chinese brands continue to lose their lives, it is a question mark whether Tesla's brand and product strength can support its continuous and high development in the Chinese market.
Of course, the changes that Tesla can bring are only fewer in number and less frequent, which does not mean that there are none. From the current point of view, there may be three events that can be foreseen that can bring the best sexual heat and break the circle for Tesla:
Cybertruck meets Chinese laws and regulations and enters the Chinese market as a cyber off-road vehicle;
FSD has entered the country, and it is suitable, and its application ability can adapt to the driving environment with Chinese characteristics;
Launching a brand new product based on a next-generation platform, but without squeezing toothpaste, represents some even bigger changes from the current S3XY.
After all, the Model Y, which has been on the market as early as 2019, will still become the sales champion of the Chinese auto market in 2023 in the face of the product evolution speed of almost one iteration a year in the domestic new energy marketSales can drive traffic in itself.
Write at the end
The Cybertruck tour once again pushed Tesla's popularity to a climax. Regardless of whether the Cybertruck can be launched in China or not, it has already brought significant short-term benefits to Tesla, and at the same time, it has also injected vitality into Tesla and the entire new energy vehicle market in the off-season of January.
However, when the popularity of Cybertruck ebbs, Tesla, which does not advertise and has a CEO on the other side of the ocean, is facing a crowd of tigers from its own new energy brands, and how to create continuous and positive popularity for the brand in the long term is a difficult problem.
Based on this, a fact that is beneficial to independent new energy brands is that Tesla's current circle-breaking popularity is always achieved by holding back big moves, and the time for Tesla to hold back big moves is a good opportunity for independent new energy brands to accelerate the pace and build brand potential energy.
So,Even if it is as powerful as Tesla, it has to walk on thin ice in today's Chinese new energy vehicle market; Perhaps as time progresses, there will be some practical changes in marketing strategies.