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at the chengdu auto show, you can easily sell a lot of things. for example, luckin coffee will stop taking orders from time to time, and you often have to wait in line for more than half an hour to buy a cup of other brands of coffee. however, in 2024, it is very difficult to sell a traditionally defined car.

there are many keywords directly associated with the word chengdu, including food, slow life, leisure, tianfu, etc. in many consumer fields such as automobiles, it is far ahead in terms of consumption power. in the early years when internet celebrities took photos with maserati and high-speed rail, maserati's global sales growth was led by chengdu. from bmw, mercedes-benz, bentley, lamborghini, to toyota's crown and alpha, to huawei hongmeng zhixing, weilai, and ideal, every car company that wants to make a difference in the market of more than 300,000 yuan or even more than 1 million yuan will take chengdu as its core battlefield.

for example, this time it was jokingly called "bmw saved the media coverage of the chengdu auto show" because many automakers suffered losses due to the continuous price war, so they cut off the activities and media invitations of the chengdu auto show, but bmw still insisted. in recent years, it has launched the new 7 series, 4 series, and x1 in chengdu, and this time it is the seventh-generation m5 and x3 long wheelbase.

however, chengdu has changed, not only in terms of gdp, which jumped to seventh place in the first half of 2024. nanjing was squeezed to 10th place, because chengdu has gone from being comfortable to being involuted. due to the recent power cuts, chengdu's online car-hailing drivers suddenly found that they had jumped to the top three of all cities in the country in terms of online car-hailing.

chengdu people in 2024 are no longer willing to pay for simple luxury

the 2022 chengdu auto show was suspended after opening, and then resumed. at that time, the high temperature and little rainfall caused power outages, and chengdu people suddenly found that new energy was not so attractive, especially the anxiety caused by pure electric vehicles. therefore, as early as two years ago, chengdu people had already realized that among new energy vehicles replacing gasoline vehicles, plug-in hybrids are better;

the 2023 chengdu auto show coincided with the peak of rounds of price wars, and consumers' expectations of car prices fell to a low point. the final transaction volume fell by 430 million yuan compared with 2022. the result behind this was that chengdu people's pursuit of joint venture brands began to weaken;

at the 2024 chengdu auto show, as the involution of society intensified, chengdu residents also began to change their mindset. the luxury car consumption that they were good at originally turned into “if the car is just luxurious and has no new features, then i won’t buy it.”

chengdu is like a mirror, voting with wallets and selecting every trend change. luxury cars are the core area of ​​this deep reshuffle. the clearest example is that there are 16 pavilions in the auto show. in theory, everyone who pays to visit the exhibition (100 yuan on the first day, 40 yuan later, or even lower) will take a closer look at it when it is about to end.

however, halls 15 and 16 are typical low pressure areas. first, you will feel the cooler temperature, and second, the lower decibel level. a few days before the chengdu auto show, the highest temperature was 38 degrees or even higher, but because of the large number of visitors, the temperature inside the hall was not actually low. when you come to halls 15-16, which are the last, it is cooler here because there are fewer people. the noise becomes more pleasant because there are fewer people.

these two venues are home to bentley, lamborghini, and porsche, which everyone is willing to check in and take photos at all previous auto shows, as well as audi, jaguar land rover, and genesis.

however, now, the past situation is no longer there, and it has become a deserted existence. the audi a4l, audi a6l, and audi q5l, which were able to exchange price for volume in previous years, are now almost abandoned by the audience at the auto show. the first public day after the media day is the holiday saturday, which is also the most important sales start point. this is an important start point for car companies to judge the sales completion rate of each auto show, but the situation is that the number of visitors on site is "halved" compared to the media day.

audi's booth was so deserted that it needed no description and could be seen at a glance. this was not only related to the decline in traffic, nor was it because audi did not bring any new models worth seeing, nor was it because audi did not hold any events. rather, audi was out of touch, and its current products were all traditional cars. audi's booth was filled with colorful rs models, which were expensive and difficult to sell. the audi a4l successor model, the audi a5, which had already been released in europe, was expected to be an easter egg left for the guangzhou auto show.

"bba is everywhere, driving it doesn't give you much sense of superiority, and it's not as fun as domestic cars." this is the core problem audi faces. originally, audi could become the first luxury brand family car for the middle class with its large space and cheap price. but now, with each of its main selling models in the market, it is filled with famous new products. the story audi can tell is still just four-wheel drive, driving, and extended wheelbase.

moreover, the market competition cycle has continued to evolve. even if the price drops, domestic cars are quickly filling the space at a rate of one year or even eight months. compared with two years ago, the entry price of the audi a4l has dropped to around 220,000 yuan, the audi a6l has dropped to just over 300,000 yuan, and the audi q5l has been reduced to 270,000 yuan. however, after the price drops, the number of competitors it faces is increasing. the 200,000-250,000 yuan range is crowded with xiaomi su7, model 3, zeekr 001, zeekr 007, and nio et5. the 250,000-350,000 yuan range is crowded with huawei and baic's new xiangjie s9, huawei and seres' wenjie m7, ideal l6 and l7, model y and other models with monthly sales easily exceeding 10,000.

the struggle is not just about why the voice speed in audi's car cabin is still so slow, nor is it just about whether there is intelligent driving. even in terms of new energy acceleration and fuel economy, audi still chooses to use technologies such as ea888 and quattro that have been around for more than 10 years to cater to them.

in the hurun rich list 2023 released in march 2024, the number of "affluent families" with assets of 6 million yuan decreased by 0.8% to 5.14 million households; the number of "high net worth families" with assets of 10 million yuan decreased by 1.3% to 2.08 million households; the number of "ultra-high net worth families" with assets of 100 million yuan decreased by 3.8% to 133,000 households; the number of "international ultra-high net worth families" with assets of 30 million us dollars was 88,000 households, a decrease of 4.5%.

the pattern of the consumer market is that the middle class's demand for cars is no longer just to drive a face-saving and comfortable car for transportation. the gradual popularity of traditional luxury cars has offset the sense of difference. moreover, more and more cheaper vehicles can achieve basically the same transportation experience, and the same-priced models can do functions that audi cannot do. for example, a question that can be seen with the naked eye is, with a budget of 500,000 yuan, would you buy an audi q7 or an audi m9? it's that simple. the standard answer is definitely to choose huawei.

chengdu people, who are optimistic about spending, are starting to learn from guangdong people's careful budgeting

in short, everything reflected in the chengdu auto show is always half a year or even a year ahead of the entire social trend.

nowadays, chengdu residents' impulse to consume is shrinking, and they are more careful with their budgets. this is almost exactly the same as the change in guangdong residents' consumption logic since the early days of reform and opening up.

previously, they were able to gain wealth first and quickly, and had good expectations for future income. then, when income and the economy fluctuated, they began to spend cautiously, and only after careful calculation would they make large purchases.

today, chengdu residents, like guangzhou residents, do not just pay for luxury, transportation and driving pleasure. they consider saving as much as possible, having more fun as much as possible, and most importantly, making themselves happy rather than making others feel proud.

audi is undoubtedly a good example. guangdong is indeed born with a japanese car culture and has no obvious feeling for german cars, but in contrast, mercedes-benz and bmw are recognized. chengdu itself is a blank sheet of paper in terms of car culture, and now it has no feeling for audi. the similarity between the two is that people only pay for advanced technology.

since 2018, car companies in china have been calling for the "new four modernizations" and transforming from the traditional. now, six years have passed, but we can still find that many car companies are actually standing still.

it is not easy to explain the low sales volume with a single reason. because judging from the 2024 chengdu auto show, the reasons are not only "it cannot get a green license plate", "its car computer is difficult to use", "it does not have intelligent driving", etc. nowadays, a one-size-fits-all answer cannot explain the core problem.

if you look closely at this year's chengdu auto show, the most core contrast between the car companies that performed relatively well and those that performed not so well is the degree of their progress.

among similar multinational automakers, bmw has lengthened the x3 to the standard wheelbase of the x5. in addition to the obvious upgrade in interior space, the design of the entire vehicle has been completely readjusted. for example, the front and rear of the vehicle can be designed to form an "x" structure, and the physical buttons in the car have been restored and upgraded to be intelligent.

for example, the launch of the seventh-generation bmw m5, the plug-in hybrid brought by the 4.4t v8, can not only get a green license plate, but also use electricity as an auxiliary to the engine. it is even detailed enough that when you go home at night, you can switch to the silent pure electric mode to avoid disturbing your neighbors.

the same is true for mercedes-benz. although it did not hold a press conference, the secret debut of the glc plug-in hybrid also made many people who originally only considered ideal and wenjie brighten their eyes. as for similar car companies, cadillac became the only car company besides byd to hang advertisements outside the venue. although its slogan "the strongest dual-clutch four-wheel drive" discouraged many people who know cars, it undoubtedly attracted many home customers because of its length and size.

at the auto show, chengdu people also began to pay more attention to "spending little money to achieve big things". for example, ideal's announcement of "entering supervised autonomous driving" and huawei's hongmeng intelligent driving's comprehensive promotion of end-to-end and ads3.0 continued to attract traffic. in addition, plug-in hybrids also began to show new trends at this auto show.

in the current market, when talking about plug-in hybrid and extended-range, it can be found that the engine specifications are almost all 1.5t. and what can be seen at the chengdu auto show is that more and more car companies are abandoning 1.5t and replacing it with 2.0t in products above 300,000 yuan to achieve a better luxury perception. for example, the formula leopard 8, which is expected to cost 500,000 yuan, has been replaced with a 2.0t+ plug-in hybrid. for another example, the mercedes-benz glc plug-in hybrid is a 2.0t+ plug-in hybrid. and the possible future plug-in hybrid version of the bmw x3 long wheelbase will also be a combination of 2.0t+ plug-in hybrid.

spend less money, buy more things, use less oil, and drive smarter. it is no longer simply about recognizing brands, agreeing with advertisements, or following sales. people nowadays pay more attention to experience and analysis.

this conclusion can also be verified by the fact that although he xiaopeng announced that the mona m03 sold 30,000 units in the final 48 hours, and it is the first 3 series for young people, the xpeng booth at the chengdu auto show from the media day to the public day on the second day was crowded only during the press conference, and the rest of the time was deserted.

the price of the car is indeed cheap, but the core feature of the whole car is only cheap. xiaopeng has emphasized intelligence in its 10 years of car manufacturing. the main selling version of m03 has the characteristics of longer battery life and lower price. the high-end intelligent driving version will be delivered in 5 months. this kind of refinement, quality and futures obviously cannot satisfy the appetite of chengdu people.

in conclusion:

a car without characteristics has no way out. in fact, this trend has already appeared since the guangzhou auto show at the end of 2022. in the past, the chengdu auto show was able to promote the sales growth of some car companies more tolerantly due to strong consumer power. however, starting from 2024, this grand scene will slowly fade away.

it is true that the industry is transforming, but some people are only transforming but not forming. each company has its own corresponding characteristics and labels. mercedes-benz has not lost its luxury, and bmw has not lost its innovation and sportiness. huawei is a new disruptor in intelligence, ideal is huawei's peer, and nio, in addition to services and battery replacement, is also showing off its technological muscles.

byd is synonymous with technology and new energy. geely, changan, great wall, avita, chery, xingtu, etc. are all playing the technology card and giving themselves obvious characteristic keywords.

in addition to being more cost-conscious and proactive in experiencing things, consumers are also becoming more and more knowledgeable about cars. their judgment on whether a car company is advanced or not is like voting with their wallets, whether the exhibition booth is deserted or bustling.