news

The price war among car companies is not a multiple-choice question

2024-07-18

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

From BMW announcing price increases in many places to Audi and Mercedes-Benz also withdrawing, watching the current car price war, traditional BBA seems to have different choices.

From price reduction to price stability and price increase, this price war has lasted for nearly two years, and the attitudes of car companies that are deeply caught in the vortex of price reduction have begun to show obvious differences.

As traditional luxury brands end their strategy of “cutting prices to maintain market share,” several brands including Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, and Volvo have also been reported to have reduced terminal discounts or may no longer cut prices further.

BMW chose to withdraw because the price cut did not bring about an increase in sales. BMW failed to maintain its sales performance in the Chinese market and became the loser in the price war.

BMW is not the only one who is disappointed. Luxury car brands have similar "grievances". They have encountered the same or similar difficulties in the Chinese market. On the one hand, Chinese brands are rising strongly, and on the other hand, new energy vehicles are constantly attacking the basic market of luxury cars.

If the price reduction cannot maintain the sales volume, it will be tantamount to losing both the wife and the army.

In the era of fuel vehicles, BBA once occupied 90% of the Chinese luxury car market. But in the new energy era, BBA is entering a fork in the road.

The price war has accelerated the fragmentation of the traditional market. In the layout of the electric market, BBA has felt the pressure of being one step slower and being pressed step by step.

Take BMW's new energy brand i3 as an example. From its launch to the present, it has only launched 10 new energy vehicle models, many of which include "oil-to-electric" products that lack sincerity.

In the past, BBA has been singing all the way in the Chinese market, but for BBA, which is a step behind in the journey of electric vehicles, its advantages are naturally not obvious in the context of the oil-electric war.

It was expected that there would be no sales. When faced with a price war, they may have adopted the mentality of "join if you can't beat them" from the beginning. Exiting is another option.

To retreat in order to advance, in future development, electrification transformation has become a top priority. Whether these companies can successfully complete the transformation is also the key to their future success.

As BBA pays more attention to new energy vehicles, domestic new energy vehicles return to market-driven, and the real competition has just begun.

In the new energy sector, domestic car companies are growing rapidly, especially new car-making forces are gradually gaining momentum. BYD, Huawei, Xiaomi, NIO, Xiaopeng and Li Auto are all able to dominate the market.

The price war has spread from new energy vehicles to fuel vehicles, and finally to the entire industry. The duration, magnitude of price cuts, and impact on the industry are all unprecedented.

The intensity of competition in China's new energy vehicle market has become a touchstone for the growth capabilities of automakers. Although some companies believe that internal competition has caused a serious decline in corporate profits and triggered a series of problems, from the perspective of corporate and industrial competitiveness, it has objectively promoted the survival of the fittest in the industry.

Those companies with greater cost, technological and brand advantages not only survived, but were also able to gradually grow bigger and stronger, achieve economies of scale, and transmit real pressure to overseas automakers.

The domestic automobile industry has entered an era of inventory, new energy vehicles are still expanding at an accelerated pace, and consumers always prefer high quality and low prices. The current withdrawal may just be another option, but not necessarily the end.

Tao Feng, commentator of Beijing Business Daily