who would have thought that it would never be difficult to sell in the past few decades?bmw, unexpectedly suffered a heavy blow in the chinese market and is now mired in a sales quagmire.

if they lowered the price, sales would drop instead of increase; if they raised the price, sales would almost be cut in half. bmw was really confused by this dilemma: what should they do?

1. bmw resolutely withdraws from the price war

when it comes to price wars,teslain 2023, tesla took the lead in reducing prices in china, with some models even reducing by as much as 50,000 yuan.

afterwardsbydmany automakers quickly followed suit, and the smoke of price war gradually spread to every corner of the auto market. in 2024, the price war intensified, and automakers such as byd pushed the price war to a climax.

even bba had to join in the challenge. bmw actively implemented the strategy of exchanging price for volume and significantly reduced the prices of many of its models.

purely electricbmw i3when the landing price drops to less than 200,000 yuan, the price of the fuel-powered bmw 5 will also drop to about 310,000 yuan, which is equivalent to a 30% discount.

what was the result? bba’s price cuts were in vain, and sales fell instead of rising.benzsales volume fell by 10%.audiit fell by 3%, and bmw only sold 364,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 5%.

at the same time, the price cuts caused serious losses to the stores, and bmw dealers were unwilling to do so. they threatened to refuse to deliver the cars or ask buyers to pay extra money to pick up the cars, which aroused widespread public concern.

therefore, in mid-july, bmw took the lead in withdrawing from the price war.bmw x1the prices of the x3, 5 series and x5 have all been raised, ranging from 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan respectively.

subsequently, mercedes-benz and audi followed suit and stopped blindly engaging in price wars.

2. sales volume in august was nearly halved

some people believe that: "at a time when the entire market is emphasizing cost-effectiveness, bmw's behavior of increasing prices instead of decreasing them will make it difficult for consumers to pay for it."

this is indeed the case, and the sales data proves it.

in july, mercedes-benz sold 49,568 vehicles, down more than 8% year-on-year, a decrease of nearly 5,000 vehicles; audi sold 45,233 vehicles, down about 17% year-on-year, a decrease of nearly 10,000 vehicles.

as for bmw, the situation is even more severe. it sold only 48,938 vehicles in july, a drop of nearly 20% or more than 10,000 vehicles compared with 59,912 vehicles in the same period last year.

in august, bmw's sales plummeted. data showed that bmw sold only 34,846 vehicles in august, a 42% drop from 60,116 vehicles in the same period last year, a decrease of more than 25,000 vehicles.

it is obvious that after bmw increased its prices, its sales have been declining year-on-year and month-on-month for two consecutive months, and the decline is getting bigger and bigger, even to the point of a cliff-like drop.

the star model of the bmw familybmw 5 seriesfor example, it used to easily sell more than 10,000 vehicles every month, but in august it only sold 5,600 vehicles, which was basically cut in half.

3. chinese people no longer like bmw

bmw was founded in 1917. its predecessor was an aircraft manufacturing plant and it has a long history of more than 100 years.

in 1994, bmw set up an office in beijing to tap into the burgeoning chinese auto market. in 2003, the bmw brilliance joint venture was established, marking the official launch of bmw localization and its expansion into the chinese market.

with its well-known handling and unparalleled brand power, bmw is becoming more and more powerful in china. in 2023, bmw sold 824,000 vehicles in china, surpassing mercedes-benz and audi, and has been the sales champion in the luxury car market for five consecutive years.

over the past few decades, bmw has enjoyed super high brand premium capabilities in china, and has been monopolizing the chinese luxury car market with mercedes-benz and audi.

however, with the advent of the era of new energy and intelligent vehicles, the definition and pricing power of luxury cars by foreign brands such as bmw and bba is gradually disappearing.

the most fatal problem of bba is that chinese consumers' understanding of luxury cars is undergoing earth-shaking changes. they are no longer limited to brands, prices, etc., but are increasingly inclined to regard intelligence, digital ecology, and localized needs as the standards of luxury cars.

in these aspects, bmw is not lagging behind at all.

in fact, it’s not that the products of bmw and other bba are bad, but that they cannot keep up with the development of the auto market and lag behind the pace of the times.

"no characteristics", "old", "lacking intelligence", etc. are the comments given by many chinese consumers to bmw and other bba electric vehicles.

with huawei, ideal,nio、byd、auspiciousdomestic brands such as zeekr have entered the luxury car market by riding on the wave of new energy vehicles. the good days of bbas winning without doing anything are over.

the traditional pattern of the luxury car market has been broken, and domestic brands have gradually eroded some of the market share of bba. bba is still very strong, but they seem to be losing their future in the chinese market.