Just after the Spring Festival in 2024, domestic car companies ushered in a enter the dragon. This "year-opening drama" led by () accurately locked the "artery" of the commercial war between car companies-price. No matter whether it is active or passive "bloodletting", almost all car companies have participated in this price war, and there is no obvious sign of ending so far.
Recently, the reporter visited a number of offline stores of car companies in Jinan and found that this price war has penetrated into the sales front line and had a significant impact. Appropriate price wars between car companies have also benefited consumers.
Great strength, many patterns and wide range.
The price war of new energy vehicles will be upgraded again.
Just after the Spring Festival holiday in 2024, BYD brought the glory versions of two popular models, Qin PLUS and destroyer 05, at an unprecedented price, shouting the slogan "Electricity is lower than oil" and "detonated" the calm automobile market.
Posters of some car companies with reduced prices
At this time, the domestic automobile market has just experienced a fierce price war spanning the whole year of 2023 and is still in a short and calm "rest period". BYD Qin PLUS’s announcement of price reduction in the range of 70,000 yuan, such as thunder on the ground, directly rushed to the hot search. Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD’s brand and public relations department, even bluntly said on the social platform: "This’ dual-core bomb’ thrown into the fuel vehicle market will completely open a decisive battle with fuel vehicles."
Within one day, Wuling, Beijing Hyundai, (), Nezha Automobile and other car companies quickly followed suit and issued price reduction announcements. After that, various car companies have entered the game one after another, and they have been "mixed" to this day.
According to rough statistics, at present, nearly 30 automobile brands, such as Volkswagen, Zero Run, Chery New Energy, Great Wall Euler, Nezha, Geely, Wuling, etc., have participated in the price reduction tide with over 100 models, and have reduced prices and made profits in various ways.
This round of price reduction has triggered a series of chain reactions and intensified the price competition among automobile brands. In addition to the most direct concessions and price cuts, some car companies have introduced differentiated preferential policies. For example, Lantu Automobile has introduced a total replacement subsidy of 1 billion yuan, covering all its models of Lantu FREE, New Lantu Dreamer and Lantu Chasing Light, and can enjoy a subsidy of up to 50,000 yuan when buying a car.
Some new cars released during this period have also lowered their prices, so it is hard to say that they have not been affected by the price war at all.
On February 27th, Extreme Krypton released the completely redesigned Extreme Krypton 001, which not only provided a higher configuration, but also controlled the price range from 269,000 to 329,000 yuan, and reduced the price by about 30,000 yuan, making it a hot model in the near future. "The price of the new Krypton 001 is so affordable that it is even 20,000 yuan or 30,000 yuan lower than the price I personally guessed at the beginning." A staff member of Jinan Shimao Plaza Polar Krypton Center told the reporter.
Manager Li, who is in charge of sales of iCAR Jinan Jijia Store, said that when the first model of iCAR 03 was released on February 28th, the price was adjusted, from the pre-sale price of 129,800 to 185,800, and the price was reduced by nearly 20,000 to 109,800 to 169,800. "Now that the market is so big, we are pricing it in order to cope with the market environment." Manager Li said.
Tesla, as the "first brother" of foreign new energy vehicles, brought news of rising prices. Fang Rui, manager of Jinan Tesla Center Store, told reporters that due to the fluctuation of overseas Tesla prices, domestic Tesla may usher in price increases after April 1. At present, the time-limited insurance subsidy of 8,000 yuan, the car paint subsidy of up to 10,000 yuan and the financial discount benefit as low as 1.99% that can be enjoyed by car buyers will also expire on March 31.
In addition, only brands such as deep blue have heard sporadic news of price increases. On the whole, the whole price war seems to be continuing.
Offline stores are hot.
Consumers have a large choice.
"Hello, are you a staff member here?" At the beginning of March, Mr. Liu, a customer, wandered around the brand-new Krypton 001 for a long time at the polar car booth of the 2024 Jinan Spring Auto Show. No polar staff received him, and he mistook another customer for a staff member. Because the number of consumers who came to ask was too large, the staff was too busy. Within about half an hour of the communication between the reporter and Mr. Liu, people kept coming to the Krypton booth, and most of them went straight to the brand-new Krypton 001 after the price reduction.
Consumers at the scene of the 2024 Jinan Spring Festival Auto Show
This situation is not a special case. Recently, the reporter visited the offline stores of BYD, Geely, Lectra, Chery New Energy, Dongfeng Honda and many other car companies, and many stores were busy. Although it is a working day, customers who come to the store for consultation and test drive are still in an endless stream. Most popular models have reservations and need to queue up. The queuing time ranges from half an hour to two hours.
"Since the announcement of the price reduction, we have turned around at once, and by the weekend, there are more customers than we can receive." At BYD Dynasty Net Jinan Gancheng 4S store, account manager Chen Yu told reporters that at the weekend, their store arranged three test drive specialists. When customers came to test drive, they still had to wait in line for 20 minutes to half an hour.
In BYD Ocean Network Ganyu 4S store, the destroyer 05 Glory Edition, which has attracted the most attention, has sold all the exhibition cars. Dong Wang, a salesperson, said that because the sales are too hot, he is placing an order for this model now, and it is expected that the car will be picked up in a month.
Wang Dawei, general manager of Chery New Energy Jinan Hengxin Store, said that Chery New Energy has introduced sincere preferential policies. Taking urban scooters as an example, whether buying QQ ice cream or brand-new ants with higher configuration, they all have higher preferential strength and benefits such as quality assurance, zero down payment and household charging piles, and now customers pay high attention to these models.
However, according to the hot offline situation of stores and the actual sales analysis of various car companies, it is not difficult to find that there are still a large number of consumers in the wait-and-see stage of "just watching and not buying". "Many customers who have recently arrived at the store are curious to inquire after hearing the news of price reduction. Their willingness and demand for car purchase are not very strong." Dong Wang said.
Part of the reason is that some car companies only symbolically cut prices due to their own positioning and other factors, or the overall landing price after the price reduction is basically the same as before, so it is difficult to touch the price pain points of consumers in this round of price war.
The salesperson of a 4S shop in Jinan Lingke calculated an account: "Take Lingke 05 Yao Halo as an example, the previous official guide price was 198,800 yuan, and after the official drop, it was 188,800 yuan. Although the official has dropped by 10,000 yuan, the store can give a discount of about 30,000 yuan before, and now it may only give 20,000 yuan, and the overall landing price has remained basically unchanged. "
Another reason is that many consumers are worried that car prices will drop further after the shock. Although the current price reduction efforts have been great, many people still hold the mentality of "buying up and not buying down" and continue to wait and see.
"No one knows how the configuration and price of the new car will change in the next step. It is better to wait for this round of price war to stabilize and then pick it slowly. If you start now, I am afraid that you will soon be’ backstab’." In the krypton center of Shimao Square in Jinan, a citizen who came to hang out told reporters.
Appropriate market competition
Can make consumers benefit.
The year 2024 is not only a year to upgrade the price competition of car companies, but also a year to decide the life and death of many car companies, which has become the consensus of many people in the industry.
Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, said that the development of new energy vehicles will not give us a chance to stop, slow down and catch our breath.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, described this year’s competition between car companies as "a sea of blood" in his commencement letter in 2024.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Association, said bluntly on his personal new media platform: "2024 is a crucial year for new energy vehicle companies to gain a foothold, and the competition is bound to be fierce."
With the recent entry of brands such as Guangzhou Automobile Ai ‘an, Link, Cadillac, etc., this price war, which has been staged for a month, still shows no signs of stopping, and a sense of concern begins to spread: Will this price war turn into a vicious competition with ineffective involution?
Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, said that high value is the way out for China automobile to become bigger and stronger, and the road of price war will become narrower and narrower. "Everyone should hold a group to keep warm, not kill each other." Yang Xueliang left such words on the Weibo.
There are also views that proper market competition can bring positive effects to both consumers and manufacturers. Just as a netizen nicknamed "Rice Boy" left a message under the topic of "This year is the worst year for the price war of new energy vehicles": "Competition is divided into two aspects. First of all, it must be that car companies reduce costs and increase efficiency, and consumers get benefits; The second is to force car companies to improve their technical standards and accelerate the upgrading of new energy vehicles. "
However, for consumers, these topics seem to be too heavy and too far away. "I can’t worry about the grand narrative of industrial chain optimization and car enterprise competition. For me, I was very satisfied with the car that I had to "stand on tiptoe" and "bite my teeth" to buy. " A consumer who participated in the auto show told reporters.
Consumers are talking with the car consultant of Dongfeng Honda about buying a car.
"Our common people’s demand is very simple, that is, to buy a better car with less money. If it weren’t for the price war, you wouldn’t be able to mention the new Civic in your early 100 thousand s. For us, the price war is also a good thing to some extent. " In the 4S shop of Dongfeng Honda Xindayou Industrial North Road, a consumer and his family just signed a car purchase contract for the 11th generation Civic and told reporters happily.
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