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byd's million-level product yangwang u8 has entered a long period of declining sales since its initial high point. its monthly sales have dropped by 80% compared to its high point. as byd's upward banner, yangwang brand development obviously still has a long way to go after shedding its "internet celebrity" coat.

01

sales volume fell by 80% compared to the beginning of the year

it has been a year since byd's million-level high-end brand yangwang's first car, yangwang u8, was officially launched on september 20 last year.

since its launch one year ago, the performance of yangwang u8 has lost its initial glory and has shown a more and more sluggish trend, with sales falling continuously. yangwang u8 started to be delivered in november last year. from november last year to august this year, the sales of yangwang u8 were 408, 1593/(2024) 1652, 780, 1090, 952, 608, 418, 439 and 303 respectively.

judging from the data, u8 only maintained a brief highlight performance in the early stage. as the popularity faded in the later period, the highlight was short-lived. the current monthly sales volume has dropped by 80% compared with the peak sales volume at the beginning of this year.

it is worth noting that the car attracted great attention in china as soon as it was launched last year, and it has been so popular that it can be called an "internet celebrity" product. in october last year, the official wechat public account of "xi'an release" wrote in a tweet, "the relevant person in charge of the provincial department of industry and information technology said that...yangwang u8 has officially started production, and the product orders have exceeded 30,000 units." this performance attracted countless attention, but byd officials did not give a clear response to the number of orders.

regarding the order issue, hu xiaoqing, general manager of yangwang's sales department, once responded that u8's order performance is very good. compared with publishing relevant data, yangwang hopes to "speak with strength" and serve consumers first.

the yangwang brand is an important attempt by byd to enter the high-end passenger car market. regarding this brand, a byd official once told china railway network that "yangwang has taken up the banner of byd's brand's continuous breakthrough and is mainly aimed at the social elite." wang chuanfu once said at the brand launch conference that "chinese high-end brands are not just about buying materials and piling up materials. yangwang will change the landscape of the global high-end automobile industry."

it is undeniable that the yangwang brand has played a positive role in promoting the domestic automobile industry, and at this stage it is still the ceiling of chinese brands in the million-level market, but its declining performance shows that its brand development challenges are still increasing. at this year's beijing auto show, yangwang u8 also launched an off-road player version, which also began to be delivered in july, but judging from the sales trend, the addition of the off-road player version of yangwang u8 did not help yangwang u8 to recover in sales.

02

compared with competitors, it is at a disadvantage

from the statements of byd, wang chuanfu and other senior executives, it is not difficult to see the high expectations for the yangwang brand. "in the future, the yangwang brand will impact the high-end market of millions of units that has been firmly occupied by traditional brands." hu xiaoqing also revealed to the outside world before. from the perspective of industry competition, the impact of the gradually declining monthly sales of yangwang u8 on the high-end market of millions of units is relatively limited.

as one of the products that the yangwang u8 is benchmarking, the insurance data of land rover defender shows that from january to august this year, the sales of defender were 1,839, 715, 1,282, 1,893, 1,510, 1,649, 1,639 and 1,622 respectively. in the comparison between the two, the sales of defender basically maintained the suppression of yangwang u8, and overall, the performance of the old luxury car defender was relatively stable with little fluctuation.

at the same time, the sales of the higher-priced land rover range rover from january to august this year were 1,853, 513, 1,838, 2,067, 1,066, 1,979, 2,182 and 2,229 respectively. the cumulative sales so far this year have reached 13,700 units. against the backdrop of declining sales of traditional luxury brands in the market this year, it still achieved a year-on-year growth of 18.98%. it can be seen that after u8 joined the competition for million-dollar suvs, range rover sales have increased instead of decreased.

in fact, the success of any car is not determined by its sales in the short term of a few months, but by its long-term stability. looking at the current declining sales of u8 shows that its foundation is not solid.

at the same time, on february 25 this year, yangwang's second model, yangwang u9, was officially launched. the car is a supercar model with a price of 1.68 million yuan. according to previous plans, the car will be delivered in august, but data shows that in august, the sales volume of yangwang u9 was only 7 units. byd has always dreamed of brand upgrading, but yangwang's current performance means that wang chuanfu's high-end dream has actually encountered certain obstacles.

the core selling point of the yangwang brand is "yi sifang", a set of core technologies that aims to achieve "ultimate safety". however, regarding the creation of high-end brands, a person from a car company once told china railway network that "creating a high-end brand has never been supported by a single technology. it is a complete reflection of the strength of a brand, including the ecology and efficient organizational system of r&d, supply chain, production and manufacturing, and marketing services."

03

high-end matrices face challenges

the yangwang brand was first revealed to the public in 2022. at that time, wang chuanfu said that byd is expected to win the global new energy vehicle sales crown in 2022, and the launch of the high-end brand yangwang is "a natural outcome." that year, byd achieved sales of 1.86 million vehicles, and this year byd will strive to achieve sales of 3.6 million vehicles. while retaining the title of new energy sales champion, yangwang obviously still has a long way to go to succeed.

an industry insider told crrc news that "building a high-end brand requires time, accumulation, and gradual accumulation."

in fact, what needs attention is that, rather than just looking up, the development of byd's high-end and luxury brand matrix still faces challenges, and the development is not entirely ideal.

among byd's three major brands, yangwang, fangchengbao and denza, which are positioned from high to low, except for yangwang, the performance of fangchengbao's first model, leopard 5, also failed to meet industry expectations. not long ago, fangchengbao has adopted the strategy of "trading price for volume", which has caused the price of leopard 5 to drop to the 200,000+ level. the significant price reduction but no compensation for old car owners has greatly undermined their trust in the brand, which once triggered offline rights protection by car owners.

judging from the data, fangcheng bao's strategy of "trading price for volume" has achieved growth in sales. in august, the sales of leopard 5 reached 4,876 units, a significant increase from 1,842 units in july before the price cut. however, the leopard 5 failed to maintain its price of more than 300,000 yuan, which will also put pressure on fangcheng bao to launch higher-level models, such as leopard 8. not long ago, at the 2024 chengdu auto show, leopard 8 was officially unveiled.

in addition to the fangchengbao, there is also the denza. as byd's earliest luxury brand in cooperation with mercedes-benz, the denza gained new life after byd took control and achieved a brand turnaround through the forward-looking layout of high-end plug-in hybrid mpvs. however, over the past year, denza has not been successful in expanding markets other than mpvs. in the suv market, it has successively launched the denza n7 and denza n8, which are priced at more than 300,000 yuan, but ultimately failed.

the original price of the denza n7, which was over 300,000 yuan, has been reduced to 230,000 yuan, but it still failed to save the situation. at present, denza relies only on the performance of the denza d9 to maintain its position in the industry, but the position of the denza d9 is being accelerated by other plug-in hybrid mpv models, and its sales have fallen. since the beginning of this year, the monthly sales of the denza d9 have dropped from over 10,000 to over 8,000.