In the past few days, the car circle has been lively again. The price of the German luxury brand BBA has collectively fallen, the range is rare in history, and the promotional activities that are often cheaper than 100,000 yuan have made many netizens ridicule, "If you don't work hard, you can only drive BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi)", "I can't drop it anymore, I can really afford it"......
In recent years, in the face of fierce competition in the automotive industry, major car companies have launched "involution" in terms of power system, intelligent experience, luxury configuration and even price concessions, which has made many consumers call it "too enjoyable". However, many industry leaders issued warnings, Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's brand and public relations department, said: "You can roll the price, but don't roll the bottom line, we must work together for a win-win situation!" Li Bin, CEO of NIO, said: "Vicious competition without a bottom line will make today's gratifying situation go down the drain. ”
01 "If you don't work hard, you can only open a BBA"
With the sharp decline in sales, recently, domestic traditional luxury brands have opened a price-for-volume model, especially the German luxury brand BBA, which has seen a rare price drop in the past years.
Mercedes-Benz's official website shows that Mercedes-Benz C200L, the guide price is 334,800 yuan, and at a dealership, the same car price starts at 202,700 yuan, with a discount of more than 130,000 yuan. Among the new energy models, the guide price of Mercedes-Benz EQB 260 starts at 352,000 yuan, and some dealers offer bare cars from 176,000 yuan, which is equivalent to a 5% discount. "Now the discounts of car companies are quite large, and the price of the imported EQS SUV 2023 450 4MATIC luxury version is 1.1005 million yuan, and the discount is about 300,000 yuan." In the Mercedes-Benz 4S store, a staff member said that most of the models are being sold at a significant price reduction, among them, Mercedes-Benz EQE and EQE SUV loans are discounted by 160,000 yuan, and some models can "discount a luxury car".
And a similar "big price cut" was also staged in the BMW 4S store. According to the sales of a 4S store in BMW's Fengtai District, Beijing, the iX3 has a low configuration of almost 270,000 yuan and a high configuration of more than 300,000 yuan, which is 130,000 yuan and 140,000 yuan lower than the official guide price. Similarly, consumers who apply for a loan to buy a car can enjoy the above-mentioned preferential prices.
A salesperson at a BMW 4S store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, also said: "The BMW i3 eDrive 35L naked car costs 180,000 yuan, and even if you add insurance, the landing price is almost 192,000 yuan." Compared with the guide price of 353,900 yuan, the price of naked cars has decreased by 173,900 yuan, which is equivalent to a "49% discount".
"I didn't dare to say this price before, but now it is really appropriate, and the price can be negotiated in the store." A sales staff of a BMW 4S store in Beijing said.
For example, the price of the 2024 Audi 40 e-tron Genesis Edition is 317,100 yuan, about 210,000 yuan after the loan purchase discount, and if it is an entry-level model, the price after the discount is only about 190,000 yuan. "Some may have more discounts, such as more than 200,000 yuan for Audi A8, and more than 600,000 yuan for entry-level landing." The store's salesperson said.
Today, the price of BBA's new energy model after the discount is lower than the starting price of Xiaomi SU7 (215,900 yuan), and it has entered the market within 200,000 yuan. "If you don't work hard, you can only drive a BBA in the future" "I didn't have money to buy a BMW before; Now I don't have any money, buy a BMW". In the era of electric vehicles, the word "luxury" is gradually moving away from BBA, and has even become a joke in the mouths of netizens.
02 The price has plummeted, can it really be exchanged for consumers' explosive purchases?
The price of new cars has plummeted, and many prospective car owners have received affordable prices, but for used car dealers and car owners who already have cars, the price reduction is not good news.
"At the beginning of 2022, I spent 380,000 yuan to pick up the car, and in a little more than two years, the second-hand car dealer bid a maximum of 180,000 yuan, which is equivalent to a loss of 200,000 yuan in two years." A Mercedes-Benz C260L owner said.
"I didn't expect BMW's cars to drop to this level, I went to the store to see it, and it was really a lot." A BMW 5 Series owner said that he was shocked by the current price, and at the same time felt sorry that he bought it early. Some second-hand car dealers said that because the traditional luxury brands have cut prices too much recently, they don't dare to easily collect the car now, and they can't sell the car after collecting it, not to mention losing money, and it is easy to lead to the rupture of the capital chain, and the risk is too high.
Ms. Bai, the owner of the car, said that she is currently driving a domestic new energy vehicle and is planning to change the car. After learning that BBA has cut prices significantly, she is hesitant, worried about whether the value of the luxury car brand will shrink significantly as a result. "I used to think that buying a luxury car was more expensive for the car logo, but now the car logo is not worth much, so it is better to buy a domestic brand."
"Originally, it relied on brand reputation, but as a result, the only brand reputation was gone." Some netizens said.
Huang Xili, an analyst at Soochow Securities, said: "Considering the luxury brand factor and years of deep accumulation, there is still room for adjustment in the price of traditional luxury cars. ”
"The demand for traditional luxury cars is not very large." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the passenger association, said.
According to Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology and director of the International Cooperation Research Center for Vodaf Digital Vehicles, BBA's sharp price reduction of its new energy vehicles is a "double-edged sword", which may be able to reduce inventory in a short time, but it is inevitable that it will damage the brand value.
"Many consumers who recognize new energy vehicles are post-80s and post-90s, and their brand loyalty to BBA is not high." Zhang Xiang further explained that in their hearts, new energy vehicles like Tesla, BYD and other brands have better technology and more weight, and BBA's discounts may not be able to impress such consumers.
Currently, the premium of luxury car brands is being squeezed.
According to Cui Dongshu's statistics, from January to May 2024, the scale of price reductions in the auto market has reached 136 models, exceeding ninety percent of the total price reductions in 2023 (139 models) and exceeding the total scale of price reductions in 2022 (85 models).
According to the data of the Passenger Association, in May, the production of luxury brands fell by 13% year-on-year and 3% month-on-month; Retail sales of luxury cars were 240,000 units, down 3% year-on-year and up 19% month-on-month. The retail share of luxury brands in May was 14%, down 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
In addition to the squeezed brand premium, the rapid rise of China's independent auto brands is also one of the reasons for the fierce competition in the car industry. According to the data, from 2021 to 2023, the market share of Chinese auto brand passenger cars will reach 44.4%, 49.9%, and 56% respectively, with steady growth. In the first quarter of 2024, the sales volume of Chinese brand passenger cars reached 3.392 million units, a year-on-year increase of 26.4%, and the market share reached 59.6%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points year-on-year.
China Business Daily is synthesized from Peninsula Metropolis Daily, China News Network, China Economic Net, and Finance Associated Press