2024-07-24
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Follow the market
Author: Wang Yajun
Cover source: Photo Network
Lei Jun sold at a lossXiaomi SU7, is quietly becoming a cash cow for others.
Someone sold Xiaomi SU7 to a wealthy man in Dubai and made a net profit of 60,000 yuan for one car; some people looked for business opportunities on social media and made a profit by taking advantage of the time and information gap; and some people rented this internet-famous car model to college students traveling during the summer vacation.
The day after the SU7 launch conference, Luo Yonghao praised Xiaomi for being likely to repeat the "epic scene" of good money driving out bad money in the mass consumer car market after the affordable mobile phone market.
But before that, it became popular in the second-hand market. How long can this gold rush last?
During this period, Liu Chang (pseudonym) received a request from a wealthy client in Africa who makes high-end cars: he would take as many Xiaomi SU7s as he could get and "pay the full amount directly."
Liu Chang is a partner in an automobile trading company. The company's main business is parallel export of automobiles, that is, unofficial authorized dealers export domestic new cars to foreign countries in the form of used cars. (For details, see Xuebao Finance）
Not long after Xiaomi SU7 was officially launched, a "dealer" approached Liu Chang and asked him if he had any Xiaomi SU7 in stock, and wanted to bring a foreign customer to discuss business with them. This African customer was introduced by the "dealer".
For every Xiaomi SU7 sold through a "smuggler", Liu Chang's company can make a net profit of about 10,000 yuan, while the profit of other models is about 3,000 yuan. According to estimates by Zhejiang Securities, in the first quarter of 2024, the leading domestic automobile companiesBYDThe profit of a bicycle is about 7,300 yuan.
If the car is sold directly to the customer, bypassing the middleman, the profit will be even higher.
In the second quarter of this year, the boss of Liu Chang's company went on a business trip to Dubai and sold a Xiaomi SU7 to a rich man in Dubai, making 60,000 yuan.
But most of the time, you can’t avoid “smugglers” in this business.
If you want to make money by selling cars, you have to buy a car first.
Chen Chong (pseudonym), an employee of Alibaba International Station, works with domestic auto dealers. He observed that on the night of the Xiaomi SU7 launch event, an auto dealer directly contactedXiaomi MotorsThey placed an order on the app to buy Xiaomi SU7, and then sold it after receiving the car. The profit of a single car once reached 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.
According to Chen Chong's statistics, Russia and the Middle East are the main destinations for the Xiaomi SU7 currently exported, with Russia accounting for about 50% and the Middle East accounting for about 30%.
The role that Liu Chang's company cannot avoid when purchasing goods is called "Second Network" - that is, the second-level dealer, that is, a small car dealer without manufacturer certification.
In Liu Chang's eyes, the "second network" practitioners are a group of people who travel around the world. They have connections and channels. Scarce cars like Xiaomi SU7 can only be purchased through them. To enter this circle, you need not only money, but also an introducer.
Although the profit per Xiaomi SU7 is higher than other models, their company only sold 10 vehicles because there were too few vehicles available.
"I position this car as a relationship-building car. If a customer wants it, we will try our best to meet his needs and make the mutual trust closer." Liu Chang told Snow Leopard Finance.
On December 17 last year, in an interview with CCTV News' "Face to Face" program, Lei Jun admitted that he was particularly worried that Xiaomi SU7 was not popular enough and no one would buy it. "What I am more worried about is that if everyone comes to buy it, they will have to wait for a year or two, and they will definitely be criticized."
After the release of Xiaomi SU7, the number of orders exceeded Lei Jun's expectations. At the Xiaomi Group's 14th anniversary celebration in April, Lei Jun said, "Xiaomi SU7 is 3 to 5 times more successful than expected."
The order volume exceeded expectations, making the delivery cycle long.
According to the Xiaomi Auto App, the current delivery cycle for the Xiaomi SU7 standard and Pro versions is within 30 weeks, and the delivery cycle for the Max version is 27 to 30 weeks.Tesla Model 3, the domestic delivery cycle is 3 to 5 weeks.
What if some consumers don’t want to wait nearly 30 weeks to drive the Xiaomi SU7? What if some prospective car owners regret placing an order but cannot cancel it due to order locks?
Scalpers keenly spotted the business opportunity.
On social media and second-hand trading platforms, searching with the keywords "Xiaomi SU7 order transfer" and "Xiaomi SU7 name change" will show many users selling or seeking to buy Xiaomi orders to be delivered. With the scalpers' central matching, consumers who want to buy a car do not have to wait in line.
In this business model of selling time difference, the shorter the delivery period, the higher the price. According to statistics from Snow Leopard Finance, the profit of a single business usually ranges from 5,000 to 9,000 yuan.
In addition, there is a "name change service provider" that sells the service of changing order names separately, charging 1,600 yuan and promising to complete the order name change within one to two days.
If consumers think that the 1,600 yuan fee is too high, they will sell a tutorial for 298 yuan to teach consumers how to change the order name:
If the prospective car owner and the consumer of the transfer order are of the same gender, the household registration books of both parties must be provided; if they are of different genders, the marriage certificate must be provided;
Call Xiaomi Auto customer service or contact staff on the App to transfer the order. Xiaomi Auto will usually refuse, but consumers can indicate that they want to change to a direct relative.
Make a name change on the order and also change the address of the delivery center.
How can two people who have never met become direct relatives? How can they produce their marriage certificate and household registration booklet?
"Find someone to do the drawing."
In addition to scalpers, car rental companies also made money through Xiaomi SU7.
Li Long (pseudonym), an employee of a Chengdu car rental company, told Snow Leopard Finance that his company has 20 Xiaomi SU7s, all of which were ordered immediately after the press conference. Currently, 10 of them have been rented out at a rental fee of 400 yuan per day.
Li Long told Snow Leopard Finance that he also saw news online that the daily rental price of Xiaomi SU7 was 3,000 yuan, but this price has never appeared in their store. This was the price for renting Xiaomi SU7 to Internet celebrities and car reviewers when it was first launched on the market, and their customers are mainly tourists and college students.
In 2024, the "scalpers" are becoming more and more aggressive. After Liu Chang quotes the price, the other party will directly ask if he can reduce it by another 3,000 yuan, "They know how much money we can make from each car."
However, the "scalpers" will not cut the Xiaomi SU7. "At present, the Xiaomi SU7 is in short supply abroad, and the speculators have no capital to bargain." Liu Chang told Snow Leopard Finance.
He estimated that the profit of Xiaomi SU7 will remain at around 10,000 yuan, and the fluctuation range will depend on the evaluation of foreign customers on this car. "Now Xiaomi SU7 has not been officially launched for a long time, and the export volume is relatively small. Foreign customers have not yet reached a consensus on whether the driving experience of this car is good or which performance is most popular."
If Xiaomi SU7 can stand the test of foreign markets, Liu Chang plans to shift the company's main focus to this car, "We traders always follow the market."
The market is quietly changing, squeezing the living space of gold diggers.
Chen Chong observed that after May, the existing cars that traders had placed orders for were gradually sold out, and they began to purchase the Xiaomi SU7 from their peers at a higher price, which reduced the export profit of each car from 30,000 to 40,000 yuan to 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.
On July 2, Xiaomi Motors’ official WeChat public account released a letter to prospective Xiaomi SU7 owners, announcing that delivery would be accelerated from July 1, and that the delivery cycle is expected to be shortened by up to 5 weeks after the order is locked. At the same time, in preparation for further increasing production capacity, Xiaomi Motors’ factory will start a new round of production line optimization and maintenance in the near future.
The shortening of the delivery cycle will directly affect the order scalpers who do business with time difference. On social media, some scalpers have begun to complain that it is difficult to find buyers.
As the delivery cycle shortens, more and more Xiaomi SU7s will be on the road, which will also further reduce the rental price.
In April and May, the delivery volume of Xiaomi SU7 was 7,058 and 8,630 respectively, and in June the delivery volume exceeded 10,000. Li Long, an employee of a car rental company, found that the number of Xiaomi SU7 on the road was increasing, resulting in cheaper rental prices.
Li Long told Xuebao Finance that the daily rental price of Xiaomi SU7 was 800 yuan in April, and it dropped to 400 yuan in June. He expects it to drop further after September. On the one hand, Xiaomi will deliver more new cars in July and August; on the other hand, the number of tourists will decrease after the summer vacation, and the demand for car rental will further shrink.
He predicts that the daily rental price of Xiaomi SU7 will eventually drop to a level slightly higher than that of Model 3 because "there are more Model 3s on the road than Xiaomi SU7s." Currently, the rental price of Model 3 at Li Long's rental company is 300 yuan per day.
Although the road for gold diggers is getting harder and harder, the Xiaomi SU7 is still going strong. In the third episode of "Lei Jun Asks Netizens" released on July 19, Lei Jun said that Xiaomi Motors has successfully entered the automotive industry and is currently on the way out.
Perhaps, this year's most popular car model will also give birth to a new wealth story.
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