Although it is said that the price reduction of BBA is very dreamy now, the purchase enthusiasm of Audi Q5L is not as high as imagined. In December, the terminal sales of Audi Q5L exceeded 110,000 units. After giving up its own identity and starting the price reduction strategy, the Audi Q5L barely maintained the "passing line" of 10,000 units.
As a mainstream luxury SUV, the Audi Q5L has entered the end of its life, and the current model is in urgent need of an upgrade and facelift to improve its competitiveness. The Audi Q5L debuted in 2018 and has been around for 6 years. In the new energy race, it lacks both novel styling and intelligent capabilities required in the electric era, and many models are outdated, and its product power is also the key core of Audi's overall decline.
Interestingly, in December, sales of the all-new ES6 exceeded 150,000 units, after releasing a large amount of production capacity, effectively released the production capacity of the new ES6. In addition, the all-new ES6 has been comprehensively upgraded in terms of design, configuration and technology, enhancing its competitiveness in the high-end market. What I've seen is that the Audi Q5L tried to lower ** to maintain the market, but was eventually overtaken by the ES6. It is unbelievable that the flagship product of an old traditional enterprise has been overtaken by the electrification products of an emerging car company, because from the traditional cognition, pure electric products have many shortcomings, such as spontaneous combustion, charging, range anxiety, short travel range, etc., which are the criticism points of users.
The Audi Q5L itself is a model with no shortcomings and long-term stability, which has a strong recognition in the market. At the same time as the price reduction, the core reason for being caught up by the market is that the cognition of the high-end market user group has changed. This problem does not originate with Audi itself, the market as a whole is constantly changing, and this is also a huge factor. In essence, luxury brands like BBA have a higher advantage in sales than new energy vehicles, after all, the brand premium is there, and it is also very face-saving to drive out. However, the strength of their products is not as strong as they thought.
When we take a step back and look at the entire luxury car market, we see that, in fact, the product power of luxury midsize SUVs is almost the same. When including models such as the XC60, X3, Q5L, and XT5, the difference in experience will not be particularly significant from a brand perspective. The new energy products on the other track are completely different, and the experience they bring is absolutely refreshing. The first is that there is no restriction on license plates. The high-end user groups are concentrated in the first and second tier cities, and these cities are the places where the number is restricted, which gives new energy a great advantage.
At the same time, NIO's service value matches the needs of high-end user groups. In the past, BBA users needed brand value to bring a prominent status, but now NIO provides the luxury that a high-end user base needs. In fact, this sense of need is consistent. So why ES6? The ES6 is the most reasonably priced, with the BaaS version priced at less than 300,000 yuan and the landing price at 340,000 yuan. Not only does it fit into a home's budget, but it also has excellent space, battery life, and smart performance, while also enjoying the services and benefits that NIO deserves. This can also indirectly reflect that the value of NIO's brand and products should actually be set at 300,000 yuan or even within 300,000 yuan, which is reasonable.
The top three models by sales are the ES6, ET5T and ET5. In the early days, the NIO ES8 sold less than 2,000 units, and the ES7** sold more than 500 units with a price of more than 430,000 yuan. This profoundly illustrates one thing, more NIO owners believe that their product and brand value positioning at 300,000 yuan is reasonable, so the best-selling model is also a 300,000 yuan level product. NIO's battery replacement, service, technology, materials, and design are indeed excellent, and it is extremely competitive in the 300,000-level market, and is the most competitive brand in the 300,000-level luxury car market.
Not only Audi, but also BMW, Volvo, Cadillac, Lexus, Land Rover and other brands have been affected to a certain extent, and this impact will continue. The entire high-end electric vehicle market will continue to expand, and the stage where the NIO ES6 surpasses the Audi Q5L is just a microcosm of the automotive market. In the future, this will become a norm, so in order for electric vehicles to become more popular, then BBA can only reduce the price and seek quantity. What do you think about this? Discussions are welcome. Audi