Before August 2021, many people thought that the A0-class sedan was no longer in line with the general trend of consumption upgrading, and the A0-class sedan would no longer be favored under the consumption trend from the first purchase to the increase in exchange. Because the main force of the A0-class sedan market at that time was a joint venture brand fuel model that was equal to "small space", "low configuration" and "beggar's version car".
However, after the launch of the BYD Dolphin at the end of August 2021, the A0-class sedan has a new popular model, the A0-class sedan market has a new development direction, and consumers' inherent perception of the A0-class model has also undergone a complete change.
By April 2024, in the 33 months of its listing, Dolphin has won the monthly sales championship of domestic A0-class sedans 26 times, creating a new record for annual sales of domestic A0-class models, with cumulative sales of more than 660,000 units, and is a well-deserved leader in the A0 sedan market. The entire A0-class sedan market has also been revitalized under the benchmarking effect of dolphins.
The three years since the launch of the Dolphin have led the evolution of the A0-class sedan
Why is the Dolphin a benchmark that leads the evolution of the A0-class sedan market to high quality? We can find the answer from the proportion of sales volume and the proportion of energy forms in the A0 sedan market.
From 2020 to 2022, the A0-class sedan market has been in a state of no increase or even contraction, except for the dolphin, and there will even be a 28.5% decline in sales in 2022. But Dolphin almost single-handedly increased sales in the A0-class sedan market by 6.6% in 2022. This year, Dolphin's share of the A0-class sedan market has reached 35.8%.
In 2023, the success of the Dolphin has triggered other car companies to follow suit in the A0-class sedan market, and the sales volume of the entire A0-class sedan market has increased by 36.8% this year, and the market share has increased by nearly 1 percentage point compared to 2020. However, the entry of competitors did not weaken Dolphin's market share and did not change Dolphin's benchmark position. In 2023, Dolphin's share of the A0-class sedan market further increased to 41.1%. For a long time, the pattern of the entire A0-class sedan market was that "for every two cars sold, one was a dolphin".
On the other hand, the Dolphin has played a decisive role in the change of perception in the A0-class sedan market. Before the launch of the Dolphin, the new energy penetration rate of the A0-class sedan was less than 8%. But after Dolphin went public, that number soared to more than 80 percent. If consumers want to buy an A0-class car at this time, his choice must be "must buy new energy vehicles, and dolphin is the first choice".
So, how did Dolphin completely reshape the A0-class sedan market in three years? The answer is to use the innovation of new energy core technology to solve the consumer pain points of A0-class cars in the past, amplify the advantages of A0-class cars in car use scenarios, and make consumers' attitudes towards A0-class cars change from "cheap cars that need to compromise needs" to "high-quality boutique cars".
The first is to solve the pain points.
When consumers buy A0-class cars, they are worried about small space and poor safety. For a pure electric vehicle, it will also increase concerns about the range achievement rate, especially in winter.
The dolphin from the BYD e platform 3.0, on the one hand, gives full play to the advantages of both space efficiency and safety structure of pure electric vehicles, with a wheelbase of up to 2.7 meters under the length of about 4.1 meters, and the rear space is comparable to the mainstream A-class family car, while the high-strength body structure of four horizontal and four vertical, with 78.2% high-strength steel of body-in-white, and a high-safety and long-life blade battery that can act as a structural part and increase the rigidity of the body, completely dispel consumers' doubts about the safety of A0-class cars.
On the other hand, the Dolphin is equipped with an eight-in-one electric powertrain and a wide-range heat pump/PTC dual-system thermal management system, which also gives the Dolphin an excellent endurance achievement rate. In the extreme environment of -15°C in Yakeshi in winter, the endurance achievement rate of the authoritative vertical media test Dolphin remains in the forefront of many test models, and the solid endurance of daily driving can be seen.
After the pain points were solved, the dolphin gave full play to the advantages of the A0-class sedan.
The Dolphin is flexible, easy to drive, and convenient parking, especially suitable for urban car scenarios including commuting, picking up and dropping off children, shopping, etc. The extremely low cost of electric vehicles is in line with the original intention of an A0-class sedan consumer to buy a car. It is worth mentioning that the Dolphin Glory Edition, which was launched in February this year, is further based on the insight into the consumer needs of A0-class sedans and listening to user opinions, with the upgrade of the new rear four-link independent suspension, the addition of front seat ventilation, four-way adjustment of the steering wheel, the rear privacy glass, the trunk layered cover, the 60W Type-C charging port and the 50W wireless charging configuration, which comprehensively improves the driving quality, sense of grade and convenience of using the car, and the price is reduced by 4,000-7,000 yuan. As a result, the product strength benchmark of the A0-class sedan has been raised again.
Therefore, in the three years since its listing, the reason why Dolphin has been able to lead the A0-class sedan market from a shrinking sunset market to a thriving sunrise market is that consumers have found that Dolphin has not only created a subversive experience change compared with previous joint venture fuel vehicles, but also is a good product that has always been evolving based on insight into consumer demand and innovative technology, and consumer expectations have been continuously exceeded in this process.
Breaking the boundary, the Dolphin has given the A0-class model a new consumer group
In the past three years, Dolphin has proved that there is no shortage of consumer demand in the A0 market, and what is lacking is only good products that can tap consumer demand. Once the demand is released, the A0 class model will break the original boundary, find a broader consumer group in the context of consumption upgrading and the increase in the proportion of replacement and purchase, and play a more important role in the auto market.
First of all, the Dolphin is a car that is more suitable for young first-time buyers.
Young first-time buyers used to be the consumer base of A0-class models. However, under the continuous high requirements of the new generation of consumers for the quality of cars, the "unenterprising" of joint venture fuel vehicles makes the new generation of consumers have no choice but to flee. The entry of the dolphin, because of the significant enhancement in space, safety, configuration, quality, etc., as well as the natural driving response of electric vehicles, low cost of the whole life cycle, and the characteristics of personality and trend attributes, let such a group of A0-class models return to the consumer base.
Secondly, the Dolphin is an add-on model that can be purchased by different groups of people.
When there is already a mainstream family car or a large-size model at home, the Dolphin is an accurate option for urban commuting, pick-up and drop-off, and shopping because of its smallness, practicality, personality and high quality-to-price ratio, and plays the role of a second car in the family. Many people think of the rising and large number of female home users at this time, which is of course an important target group for Dolphin. But at the same time, the dolphin's all-in-one design regardless of gender and age, the power configuration that takes into account economy and high performance, and the rich practical configuration are not limited to the purchase of women only. Among the users of Dolphin, there are many male users who idle their fuel vehicles at home because the cost of refueling is too high and the technology configuration is behind the times.
Moreover, Dolphin's expansion of the boundaries of A0-class models has not only occurred in the Chinese market, but also gradually spread to the global market. At the Geneva Motor Show at the end of February, the Dolphin was selected as one of the top three city cars in the world at the World Car Awards, one of the world's top three automotive awards. In early March, the Dolphin was also the winner of the Japan Electric Vehicle of the Year Awards. In Brazil and Thailand, Dolphin has become the local electric vehicle sales champion. This kind of recognition across borders is enough to prove that the high product power of dolphins can open up human nature.
Because of the evolution of Dolphin's product power, it has led a major change in the product form of the A0-class sedan market, allowing Dolphin to break the boundaries of A0-class models and find a new group of people. It is also because of the continuous expansion of the consumer group of A0-class models by Dolphin that the A0-class models have completely changed from a niche model in the era of fuel vehicles to a popular model in the era of new energy vehicles.
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In the past three years, Dolphin has reshaped the A0-class sedan market, leading the A0-class sedan to be fully electrified and high-quality. From the leading product strength, to the leading sales, to the expansion of consumer groups, Dolphin has firmly established a leading position in the A0-class sedan market. However, instead of slowing down, Dolphin has continued to tap cost space through vertical integration capabilities of the supply chain and large-scale global apportionment, improving product strength, and sharing the price dividends brought by cost reduction, so that more consumers can experience the unprecedented value of a high-quality pure electric A0-class model.
From breaking the boundaries of products to broadening the boundaries of the crowd, and finally realizing the scale growth of the A0-class car market, this is the spiritual core of Dolphin's hot sales, and it is also the driving force for Dolphin's continuous evolution.