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the recent news about the automotive industry are a mixture of prosperity and desolation, and it is appropriate to look at them together. first, the united states, the european union and other places imposed tariffs on chinese electric vehicles, and then kept a close eye on domestic new energy at the macro-strategic level.

immediately afterwards, bmw, which had proudly withdrawn from the price war some time ago, once again returned to the battlefield in a miserable state, with prices of some models reduced by as much as 550,000 yuan.

you may wonder whether the old automobile powerhouse is overreacting. after all, elegance and nobility have been flowing in the blood of the automobile industry for thousands of years. why would it lose its dignity so easily?

looking at the other side of the coin, in the first half of 2024, my country's production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 4.929 million and 4.944 million respectively, up 30.1% and 32% year-on-year respectively, with a market share of 35.2%.

what is more noteworthy is that the high-end market, which was previously monopolized by traditional luxury brands, is now undergoing a silent role swap.

on september 20, hongmeng intelligent driving announced that the cumulative delivery of m9 has exceeded 100,000 units, and the total order volume has exceeded 140,000 units. it should be noted that m9 won the title of luxury car with an average terminal price of over 500,000 yuan.

image source: hongmeng zhixing weibo

it is worth thinking about how domestic new energy vehicles can break into the uncharted territory of the high-end market, what are the consumer motivations behind it, and whether the fundamental logic of china's high-end automobile market has changed.

one thing is certain, in the second half of the key battle in the automotive industry, domestic new energy vehicles are fulfilling their promises.

who is paying for the wenjie m9? this must be a question that many people are confused about.

because the word "high-end" has always been a shackle in front of domestic cars, extremely tempting but difficult to touch.

innovation lies in its courage to subvert everything. in fact, in recent years, high-end domestic cars are not uncommon to us, at least in terms of price, they have been iterated.

with the yangwang that costs over one million, the nio that costs eight hundred thousand, the zekr that costs seven hundred thousand, the byd that costs six hundred thousand, the wenzhen that costs five hundred thousand, and the vizi and lianglian that costs five hundred thousand, the bba look like rookies.

note: screenshot of li xiang’s live broadcast room

the saying “if you don’t work harder, you can only drive a bba” is reflecting the reality!

this sentence is funny and thought-provoking at the same time. it reveals a new trend of market change. in the past few years, the entry threshold of bba has been lowered again and again, and the brand value has long been overly diluted. it is difficult for high-net-worth consumers in the past to extract satisfaction and happiness from bba.

at the same time, in the chinese market, the common saying “good cars are not well received” is gradually becoming a reality. the sales of brands such as porsche, bentley and lamborghini are enough to illustrate the problem.

the market has already cracked, and as high-end brands and consumer groups are changing, the luxury market urgently needs a new story to save it.

domestic brands are seizing this opportunity, but market positions will not change willingly and require a bloody collision.

ideal used mega as a token of its intention to enter the high-end market, but unfortunately it encountered intervention from "unnatural" forces and its sales volume was not good enough at all.

the zeekr 009, which is priced at nearly 500,000 yuan, is unlikely to take on the leading role and cannot become the "chinese rolls-royce".

there are also hiphi and nio, which are aiming for the high-end market, one is "in the icu" and the other is still struggling.

now it seems that wenjie m9, as a latecomer, has become the first brand to break through the siege.

yu chengdong's words, "the best suv under 10 million", have been verified by market sales.

looking back at the success history of the wenjie m9, success in marketing is one of the key factors, and it can even be said to be the primary magic weapon that makes it stand out in the fierce new energy vehicle circle.

after all, it is deeply tied to huawei, the "internet celebrity in the technology circle", and yu chengdong's generous "far ahead" publicity has made the question circle more fashionable. to some extent, it is more like huawei's eldest son.

image source: hongmeng zhixing weibo

with this label, the marketing level naturally entered the fast lane. after all, this is an era of competition where "you not only have to be able to do it, but also to be able to shout." with differentiated competitive positioning, you can be the first to occupy a unique position in the minds of consumers. because in the high-end market, you have to have a story to tell, and recharging your beliefs requires the support of all-round packaging.

secondly, and most importantly, technological innovation is the basis for challenging the high-end market. yu chengdong once called out the slogans of "redefining smart cars" and "the king of technological cars" because it uses a number of high-end technologies such as huawei's advanced intelligent driving ads 2.0, super-dimensional safety system, huawei tuling intelligent chassis, and integrated die-cast basalt body.

it can be said that huawei's years of accumulation of technological research and development have formed the moat advantage of hongmeng intelligent driving, which also reflects the saying that brand premium can only be achieved through technology.

looking at the vehicle problems reported by car owners on q&a, most of them revolve around quality control. some people also complain that the smart driving system has average running-in, but overall there are no major problems.

the success of wenjie has provided a model for domestic cars to impact the high-end market, and it has also made traditional luxury brands truly aware of the crisis.

in the luxury car market, bba no longer dominates the market, and the market's offensive and defensive trends are enough to speak for themselves.

in fact, traditional luxury brands feel bitter in their hearts. they created the mainstream values ​​of luxury cars, but began to loosen under the impact of domestic new energy vehicles. when they lowered their posture and turned to embrace consumers, they were only left with a label of "insincere".

this is exactly what happened to bmw. just two months after withdrawing from the price war in the chinese market, it was forced to announce its return to the price war.

image source: blue whale news weibo

sure enough, when faced with the issue of survival, all ambitions are untenable.

at the chengdu auto show in early september, bmw group greater china president and ceo gao xiang said, "the current price war is unhealthy and unsustainable for automakers, consumers and dealers."

but the key issue is whether health and sustainability are issues that survivors need to consider, and bmw understands this.

when bmw withdrew from the price war two months ago, consumers did rekindle their enthusiasm for it, and some media reported that bmw 4s stores were overwhelmed.

there were rumors at that time that audi and mercedes-benz would also stay away from the smoke of price wars, and even some joint venture brands wanted to form an "avengers alliance" to compete head-on with the market.

but high-end and luxury require sales to pay for it. in august, bmw's total sales in the chinese market were only 34,800 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 42%. on the brand monthly sales list, bmw ranked 15th, and none of its models had monthly sales of more than 10,000.

the beautiful fantasy of wanting both profit and sales volume ended up with the reality that the product could not be sold.

it can be said that bmw’s situation is the most realistic reflection of luxury brands at the moment, and it can neither be rolled up nor lie flat.

what's even more terrible is that while bmw was maneuvering in the price war, mercedes-benz and audi, which had previously ranked behind it in sales, gradually caught up, with monthly sales of 49,500 and 47,900 vehicles respectively.

the strategy of mercedes-benz and audi to overtake is very simple. they mainly keep their troops in place and do not sell at low prices to clear inventory, but instead maintain the brand value as much as possible.

the considerations of the bba trio are different, but bmw is clearly under greater pressure. in the first half of this year, the bmw group delivered a total of 1.2134 million vehicles worldwide, and the bmw brand's global sales increased by 2.3% year-on-year to 1.0965 million vehicles. however, in the highly anticipated chinese market, bmw china sold a total of 375,900 vehicles (including bmw and mini), a year-on-year decrease of 4.2%.

this struggle has forced bmw to find a new way out, but lowering prices now may not be enough to solve the problem, because domestically produced new energy vehicles are eroding its share of the high-end market, and the battle fronts on all sides are very tense.

challengers led by the m9 have led the trend of luxury cars in terms of technology. this is the aspect that bba is most reluctant to see, because in the second half of intelligence, it has fallen behind by several steps in technology.

now we are losing the power to define the aesthetics and quality of high-end cars. this is the waves stirred up by the new and the old.

the chinese auto market has changed. this is the most real feeling of every auto company in 2024.

looking back ten years, perhaps no one would have thought that domestic new energy would have such strong vitality and be able to subvert this field that has long been dominated by foreign brands.

in fact, looking back at the counterattack of domestic new energy, this year's strategy can be summarized in one sentence: explore higher and take root lower.

it is not difficult to understand the need to take root downwards; this seems to be a cyclical narrative that the technology industry cannot avoid.

as early as 2009, the then domestic flagship meizu m8 was launched, sparking unprecedented fierce competition in the mobile phone industry.

the way of competition is very simple: price war. brands such as huawei and xiaomi used their own pricing strategies to tear open the market, and the high-end brand samsung was directly kicked out.

and now, the automotive industry has perfectly replicated the grand occasion of the mobile phone industry, and major brands have entered an era of full competition.

surrounding with low prices is a method that never goes out of style. xiaomi has used this strategy again on its first car su7. the result is that xiaomi su7 sold out as soon as it was launched, constantly breaking sales records.

the same story happened recently to xiaopeng motors. the 120,000-yuan xiaopeng mona m03 received 30,000 large orders within 48 hours of its launch, and more than 10,000 vehicles rolled off the production line within 22 days of its launch.

the explosive popularity of this car has made xiaopeng show confidence from top to bottom that it can make it through.

tapping into the potential of ordinary consumer groups, increasing the penetration rate of new energy, and starting brand cultivation from low-priced cars are key steps to the success of domestic new energy.

you should know that in the first eight months of this year, the market share of china's domestic brands in the auto market has reached 63.2%.

immediately afterwards, the chinese automobile market began to move towards high-end brands, and intelligence began to drive the increase in automobile added value and competitiveness, continuously raising the level of chinese automobiles.

after all, when the advantage in technological level is established, the imported brand advantage accumulated by bba for a long time begins to fade, and what consumers value more in the high-end automobile market is actually recognition.

as the value of technology suggests, the technology of domestically produced cars can be recognized by consumers and has its own unique advantages in safety, driving control and other aspects.

there is also group recognition. can this product become a high-quality product that is passed on by word of mouth among consumers, accumulate its own brand assets, and truly inject high-end blood?

it now seems that models such as yangwang, wenjie and ideal are moving in this direction and establishing the core of "chinese luxury".

however, the slow-moving joint venture brands are speeding up their progress, trying to find a fast lane "from oil to electricity". now is the critical period of the elimination round in the automotive industry, and "living like animals" is still the main theme of car companies.