Auto News | The smoke of the price war has not yet dissipated in August, and the ranking war has sounded the air defense alarm
2024-08-09
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Despite facing questions from many automakers, Ideal Auto still released the weekly car sales list for the 31st week of 2024 on August 6. In the list, Ideal defended the sales champion of the new force list that week.
However, unlike previous verbal disputes, this time, some car companies used the same ranking list to fight back.
Also on August 6, Yu Chengdong presented a research list titled "Users' Favorite High-end Brands" at the launch of Hongmeng Intelligent Travel S9 and Huawei's full-scenario new products. The list showed that among many high-end brands, Hongmeng is the most favorite high-end brand among users, followed by NIO, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Zeekr, BMW, and Audi, while Ideal was not on the list.
Is Ideal, which is priced similarly to the above brands, not a high-end brand, or are users not that fond of it? Although Yu Chengdong did not explain, this incident also reflects that based on different dimensions, each car company can generate different lists to achieve their own goals. On August 7, when talking about the issue of car sales lists, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motors, also said that there should be a multi-dimensional and comprehensive ranking, including the number of corporate complaints, consumer reputation, corporate favorability, and profit tax.
After the price war, is another round of ranking war about to begin in the automotive industry?
Ideal Auto's behavior of releasing weekly rankings has been controversial in the industry for a long time, but recently, senior leaders of companies including NIO, Geely, and Xpeng have come forward to criticize this behavior, bringing the public opinion controversy to a peak.
First, there is the issue of the source of the data. "NIO's weekly sales data is known by no more than 10 people internally." Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of NIO, publicly stated at the NIO Innovation Technology Day that this data is not serious and NIO does not recognize it.
Fairness and impartiality are the cornerstones of any list, and this is an indisputable principle, especially when it comes to the public release of data, the source and origin must be indicated. However, Ideal Auto Weekly List only marked the source of data in the first issue, and no longer noted it thereafter, and did not disclose the source of data due to contractual agreements. This will inevitably give many brands on the list an excuse to say that the data is false, since there is no proof of the source anyway.
Furthermore, the coverage of the list should be comprehensive and objective, and it should not selectively exclude certain brands of the same nature. In the weekly sales list of new power brands released by Ideal Auto, we can see new energy brands such as Zeekr, Deep Blue, Denza, and Arcfox, which were incubated by traditional automakers. However, the Aion brand, which is similar to the above brands, was excluded from this list. After all, Aion once surpassed Ideal in weekly sales. This kind of list with selective inclusion will inevitably cause public doubts.
As a serious data release, the industry should have a unified statistical standard instead of having different opinions. Every brand finds a so-called organization to publish a list to promote itself and suppress its competitors, which will inevitably lead to chaos in the industry. For example, in the mobile phone industry, each brand has released its own so-called "sales champion" list, and the data is chaotic, leaving consumers at a loss. The automotive industry should learn from this and establish a unified and standardized data statistics and list release mechanism to ensure the accuracy and fairness of the data, so that consumers can clearly understand the market situation and make wise consumption decisions.
The dispute over Ideal Auto's weekly ranking is not just a problem for one company, but a problem that the entire industry needs to reflect on and rectify. Only by adhering to the principles of fairness and justice, presenting data comprehensively and objectively, and establishing unified data statistics standards can the industry develop in a healthy and orderly manner. Otherwise, the chaos in the industry will intensify, and ultimately the interests of consumers and the future of the entire industry will be damaged.
Cover News reporter Liu Nian
