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Author: Yang Jing

Editor: Yang Jing

Editor: He Zengrong

We must strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent vicious "involutionary" competition.

These few short words are not only a profound summary of the current situation of China's automobile industry in the past year, but also an urgent call made by many industry participants after experiencing fatigue and struggle in the past six months.

Unfortunately, however, this call has not been quickly transformed into substantial change. Faced with the invisible but powerful opponent of "involution", many companies are still being dragged forward in an active or passive state, and are deeply trapped in an endless vortex of competition.

Until recently, a high-level national meeting rarely focused on this hot topic in the industry and clearly pointed out the need to strengthen industry self-discipline. Although the automobile industry was not directly named, this signal undoubtedly brought a glimmer of hope to the industry.

Some car companies have taken the lead in responding to this call and have begun to name each other. For the automotive industry, which has long suffered from "involution", this high-level tone is undoubtedly a shot in the arm. It not only points out the direction for the industry, but also provides a precious breathing space for those companies that are eager to get rid of vicious competition and seek healthy development.

This is perhaps the critical moment for the automotive industry to re-examine itself and jointly build a healthier and more sustainable competitive ecosystem. Under the banner of industry self-discipline, all companies should work together to resist destructive "involution" behaviors, and instead focus on technological innovation, quality improvement and service optimization, and jointly promote the Chinese automotive industry to a new stage of high-quality development.

In fact, starting from 2023, the phenomenon of involution in China's auto industry has become more and more obvious. The first thing to be affected is the increasingly fierce price war.TeslaIt was the first to cut prices at the beginning of that year, and many automakers followed suit, causing the entire industry to fall into the quagmire of price wars.

In the first half of the year, fuel vehicles saw a large-scale price reduction, while in the second half of the year, there was a price war between new brands.NIO、Zero Run、NezhaNew energy vehicle brands such as Toyota Motors and Toyota Motors have launched price offensives to varying degrees. Although this price war has promoted sales growth to a certain extent, it has also sacrificed corporate profits, leading to a decline in gross profit margins, and some automakers are even facing the dilemma of losses.

Then there is the acceleration of technology research and development and market layout. For example, fuel vehicle companies are accelerating their transformation to new energy, and the number of new energy models on the market far exceeds that of fuel vehicles. At the same time, technology giants such as Xiaomi and Huawei have also joined the ranks of car manufacturing, injecting new vitality into the industry, but also intensifying market competition.

Automakers are increasing their R&D investment in battery technology, smart driving, and car networking to promote technological progress. However, as competition in the industry intensifies, some industry chaos has begun to occur frequently. In addition, online trolls have also become prevalent, maliciously attacking competitors and disrupting market order.

In this disorderly internal situation, the profit pressure of most car companies is gradually increasing. Due to the continuous price war, corporate profits have generally declined, and some car companies are even facing the dilemma of losses. Finally, internal conflicts in the industry are also gradually escalating. At the same time, public disputes have also occurred among some car companies.

However, at this national high-level meeting, which rarely discussed the hotly debated issue of internal circulation in the industry, the response in the automotive industry was not about fierce price wars, accelerated technology research and development and market layout, frequent industry chaos, increased profit pressure, overseas market expansion, and escalating internal conflicts in the industry. Instead, it was about the sales list unilaterally released by a certain car company.

Last weekend, NIO President Qin Lihong pointed out that NIO has never authorized any other organization to publish a weekly list with NIO's name, and this number has never been recognized. "If you are another company, why do you use my brand to publish a weekly list?" NIO CEO Li Bin also added, "If we are the first, we will definitely never publish a weekly list."

At that time, the opinions of these two bigwigs did not cause much discussion in the industry. After all, as early as July last year,Xpeng MotorsThe executives also citedIdeal AutoThe company released a weekly sales data list and said: "Please pay attention to official information. Roadside information is indeed unreliable." "There is no need to publish sales every day or every week to hype it up."

However, on July 30, after the two bigwigs of NIO finished speaking, some car companies criticized the sales ranking again after the national leaders left. The first to come out was a senior executive of NIO, who directly named Li Xiang and said that the weekly ranking was more or less a low-level involution. Brother Xiang, please stop it. The current mission of Chinese car companies is to achieve technological breakthroughs through research and development, isn't it?

AfterwardsauspiciousYang Xueliang, senior vice president of the holding group, forwarded the post and said that he also opposed the weekly ranking. But interestingly, the two executives controlled the comment area. This fully shows that the weekly sales ranking released by Ideal Auto has caused a very heated debate both among car companies and consumers.

I don't know if it was in response to this incident, but Li Xiang also posted a circle of friends, without any text, only a picture, which is the story of "stealing the bell while covering one's ears". This actually shows that the fierce competition among car companies is far from over. Especially for these new energy/new power car companies on the list, any small piece of news is a fuel for the battle.

In the automotive industry, the importance of sales rankings is self-evident. It is not only an important yardstick for measuring the market performance of car brands and models, but also has a profound impact on consumers' car purchasing decisions. Especially for consumers, sales rankings have become an important reference for consumers when buying cars, helping them understand market trends and make more wise choices.

For car companies, sales rankings also affect the competition landscape of the entire auto industry. Models and brands with high sales volume can often occupy a larger market share, forming brand and scale effects. This not only helps to enhance the brand awareness and reputation of manufacturers, but also further consolidates their leading position in the market.

For new energy or emerging car companies, the release of sales rankings is essentially a marketing tool, or more precisely, a "public opinion war". I believe everyone is familiar with this term. In the past 1-2 years, the public opinion "battlefield" in the Chinese auto market has been full of wars, and there is no end in sight.

Sales rankings are not just for Ideal Auto. Many car manufacturers and even some automotive media have used a large number of adjectives as prefixes and made a large number of market segmentation rankings. The only purpose is to put their own brands or models at the top of the list, so as to guide consumer attention and promote sales growth.

Therefore, many sales charts have been played with new tricks, such as "Sales of new forces in the Chinese market, brands starting with small characters", "Sales of brands starting with the character 极", "Sales of brands with swappable batteries in the global market", "Weekly sales of square box models", "Sales of pure electric MPVs above 300,000 yuan", "Sales of high-end pure electric SUVs above 500,000 yuan"...

At first glance, some models seem to rank very well on these lists, but if you delete the adjectives or just look at the sales figures, it will be quite surprising. Therefore, with the release of these lists, the industry has also been ridiculed, "As long as the adjectives are added well, the ranking of car companies can be arbitrary", "As long as the prefix adjective is special enough, my competitors can't catch up with me."

With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market, many new car companies have entered the market, and market competition has become extremely fierce. In order to compete for market share and attract consumer attention, car companies have to adopt various strategies to enhance their brand influence and market competitiveness. Among them, using sales rankings to create public opinion topics has become a common method.

In today's era of information explosion, social media and new media have become important platforms for the dissemination of public opinion. Automakers release sales data and marketing content through these channels, quickly attracting the attention and discussion of netizens, thus forming a hot topic of public opinion. The creation of this public opinion atmosphere plays an important role in enhancing brand image and promoting sales.

In the battle for the sales rankings, competition among car companies has become increasingly fierce, and even open and covert fighting has occurred. Some car companies may resort to exaggerated publicity and belittling their competitors to improve their sales rankings and brand image, which often triggers public controversy. This competitive situation has not only exacerbated market chaos, but also caused consumers to have trouble choosing.

Therefore, in the long run, the rise of the "public opinion war" may have a profound impact on the entire automotive industry. Automakers that perform well in the public opinion field may gain more market share and consumer recognition, and gradually rise to become industry leaders; while those automakers that are at a disadvantage in public opinion may gradually be marginalized or even eliminated.

It should be noted that the automobile industry is a technology-based industry. Faced with the increasingly fierce "public opinion war", the entire automobile industry also needs to reflect. How to establish a more fair and transparent sales evaluation system? How to guide automakers to win market recognition by improving product quality, technical level and service level? These issues need to be thought about and solved by the entire industry.