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BMW i3The news of the naked car costing 170,000 yuan was only a few days old.BMW"China withdraws from price war" quickly became a hot topic. The official reason was that the price war caused serious losses to the stores, so they hoped to ease the pressure on the stores by stabilizing prices.

The reason why BMW quit the price war is that they are worried about not being able to swing the sickle

From the perspective of a financial novice, this statement has many contradictions. Hot sales leading to losses? Price hikes to reduce pressure? From the perspective of the development of the situation, it is clear that after the release of the information about the 170,000 BMW i3, the inventory pressure of dealers in various places has returned to normal. From the perspective of the possibility of predicting future results, it is because BMW has made a trade-off between sales and brand power, which is equivalent to BMW indirectly admitting that in the competition for the new energy market, its premium ability is far less outstanding than imagined.

BMW is well aware that if its brand power declines due to price wars, it will inevitably have to engage in a head-on competition in product power with domestic brands and even joint venture models in the future. In this way, it will not be able to guarantee that its premium ability will bring considerable per-vehicle profits.

The reason why BMW withdrew from the price war is that it could not use the sickle and had nothing to cut.

It must be admitted that brand power has lost its previous power in the fuel vehicle field in boosting sales of new energy vehicles. The boundary between new force brands and luxury brands has become very blurred, but the gap in product strength is obvious.

For example, the BMW i3 has proven that it will not sell at all if it is not cut in half. In other words, in the eyes of consumers, the upper limit of the price that matches the true product strength of the BMW i3 is 200,000 yuan and no more.

However, the user portrait and user group analyzed when the BMW i3 was first launched were completely different from what they are now.

Did BMW really increase its prices?

BMW only officially announced its withdrawal from the price war, but did not explicitly say that it would "raise prices". The reality is that some of BMW's models have indeed had their prices adjusted, with the 170,000 yuan BMW i3, which has been the first to be affected, having risen back to over 210,000 yuan.

In fact, according to feedback from major forums, there are very few users who can afford a BMW i3 at a bare car price of RMB 170,000.

Other popular models, such as the fuel-powered 3 Series, 5 Series, i5, X3, X5 and other models, still have large discounts and no obvious signs of price increases.

However, store sales have a "new" set of rhetoric: prices are about to increase, so hurry if you want to buy.

Therefore, after clearing the inventory, the price of BMW i3 has rebounded, which is actually expected. However, the so-called "exit from the price war" is not expected to lead to a substantial price increase. After all, the price war is unprecedentedly fierce at this stage. Price increases are a retrograde move, which can easily arouse consumer disgust and lead to loss of market share. This is of no benefit to BMW in maintaining its current stable sales performance.

In the first half of this year, BMW's sales in China were 375,900 vehicles, down only 4.2% year-on-year, and its performance is still relatively stable.

Therefore, the so-called "withdrawal from the price war" is just a public relations behavior formed by taking advantage of the opportunity that the price of BMW i3 will inevitably rise, and at the same time hopes to use public opinion to create momentum and further stabilize the brand power.

Furthermore, "exiting the price war" is also a sedative, which will slow down the rate at which dealers ask for subsidies and policies from higher authorities and avoid the occurrence of palace coup d'etat.

Joint venture brands and luxury brands are so humble for the first time

The chain reaction caused by BMW's "strike" is also predictable. After BMW,Benz、AudiMany followed suit, and even several joint venture brands began to express their views.

On the one hand, the "iron chain" can be seen as a resistance to the initiators of the price war, hoping to use the group effect to delay the development and intensity of the price war, so as to win a breathing space for themselves. On the other hand, it is also a manifestation of lack of confidence in the price war.

To put it bluntly, since we can't win the fight anyway, we might as well just lie down and let things take their course, and use "price increases" to maintain the last bit of dignity.

Looking back many years ago, the pricing power was completely in the hands of joint venture brands and luxury brands. They only needed to be stingy with the configuration and power and maintain a certain cost-effectiveness advantage within the same level of competing products. They would not consider the competitiveness of their own brands at all. At that time, there were quite a few models that increased prices through modifications and replacements, and they could almost "do whatever they wanted."

With the arrival of the new energy trend, the rise of new forces and the efforts of independent brands, joint ventures and luxury camps have begun to find that the range of direct competitors has gradually become wider, and they can no longer ignore the erosion of market share by the rising forces. Therefore, they have begun to be cautious in pricing. The "last" price increase may be a last resort during the chip shortage period.

Looking at the present situation, the joint venture camp has been almost wiped out by new forces and independent brands. The status of luxury brands is no different from that of joint ventures ten years ago, and the premium ability is disappearing at a visible speed.

In this environment, "talking about withdrawing from the price war" is obviously a helpless move after running out of tricks, and it is an attempt to make a final "class division."

Finally, I would like to remind a small number of "leeks waiting to be harvested" that the price increase of "BMW" is fake, so don't show your heads yet, because the sickle is being swung.