The hot MPV market has been an indisputable fact in recent years.
In recent years, China's automobile industry has gradually become stronger, and after the arrival of the new energy era, new independent models of sedans, SUVs and MPVs have ushered in rapid growth, while in the relatively niche MPV market, independent models such as VOYAH Dreamer, Denza D9, Hongqi HQ9, ZEEKR 009, Hechuang V09, Xpeng X9, Trumpchi M8 and Ideal MEGA have also emerged, contributing to the diversification of MPV models.
All this is expected by the market.
However, there is a difference between MPVs and sedans and SUVs, that is, on the pure electric track, sedans and SUVs are selling hotly, but pure electric MPVs never seem to be able to see the future.
Although there are many car companies on the market that have laid out pure electric MPV models, if you look closely, you will find that these models do not seem to be popular.
According to the statistics of a website in MayMPV sales list, among the top 15 models, only Xpeng X9 and Besturn NAT only have pure electric versions, although Xpeng X9 with the luxury configuration and heat, and finally became the sales champion of pure electric MPV, but the monthly sales are only 1625 units, and the sales of Denza D9, Toyota Sena, Buick GL8 and other models at the top of the list are still not far behind, which shows the difficulty of the pure electric MPV market.
I can't help but wonder why, at the moment when pure electric vehicles are popular, pure electric MPVs have become a "market that cannot be opened"?
This article will interpret the dilemma of pure electric MPVs from the market level and user demand level. Read this article to learn about:
1. The pure electric MPV market is less than expected
2. Why don't pure electric MPVs sell well?
3. Where should the road of pure electric MPV go?
Not as expected as an all-electric MPV
From the perspective of the market, the sales of pure electric MPVs are less than expected, which is mainly reflected in three aspects:
1. The overall MPV market has declined
2. The proportion of pure electric MPV models is relatively small
3. The birth of popular models that do not bring traffic on the market
Let's look at the overall market level first, not only the pure electric MPV market, but also the MPV market as a whole has declined in the past May.
According to the data of the Passenger Car Association, in May 2024, the retail sales of MPV models were 77,613 units, down 18.3% year-on-year and 3.9% month-on-month.
In the January-May period of 2024, retail sales of MPV models were 396209 units, down 8.8% year-on-year from 434266 units in the same period last year.
On the other hand, the size of the sedan and SUV markets is expanding, and the sales volume of the overall passenger car market from January to May increased by 5.7% year-on-year, but the sales volume fell by 8.8% year-on-year, which also indicates the sluggish MPV market.
A large part of this is due to the fact that MPVs are becoming more and more premium, and low-end MPVs are becoming more and more difficult to sell. It can also be seen from the above list that the price of most MPVs is more than 200,000 yuan, and even as high as 300,000 yuan and 400,000 yuan.
Looking at the pure electric MPV market, the author uses one sentence to evaluate it as "a niche market in a niche market".
You must know that although the MPV market is not as large as the SUV and sedan market, it is also the third largest market for passenger cars, but most of the models in this market are fuel vehicles. According to the data of the passenger association, the sales volume of new energy MPVs in May was 25,100 units, and through simple calculations, it can be known that this data is only a very small part of the overall sales of MPVs in May of 77,613 units, and the proportion of pure electric MPVs is even smaller, only 8,199 units.
That is to say, the pure electric MPV market itself is an extremely niche market, in the case of the overall MPV shrinkage, it is naturally not much better, and it is a "nightmare difficulty" to think of the volume itself, unless there is an extremely hot model to lead this market out of the circle, but the fact does not seem to be the case.
On March 1 this year, the ideal MEGA was officially released, as the first pure electric product of the ideal, and at the same time it is an MPV model, which has whetted the appetite of consumers at the beginning of the market, making many consumers want to go to the store to find out.
It stands to reason that this is a good opportunity for a pure electric MPV to go out of the circle, but due to various reasons such as excessive pricing and appearance complaints, the sales of the ideal MEGA are not as expected, only 614 units in May, and the pure electric MPV has once again lost the opportunity to go out of the circle.
Among the top 15 of the aforementioned list, the No. 1 Denza D9 is also a new energy vehicle, but the main sales volume is still plug-in hybrid models, and the proportion of pure electric vehicles is still small.
It can be seen that at the market level, it is difficult to make a popular pure electric MPV.
Why doesn't the pure electric MPV sell well?
In a word, the travel scene of MPV models is very different from that of sedans and SUVs.
You know, MPV owners are mainly divided into two parts: family users and business travel. For family users, although many car companies have claimed that MPV is family-oriented in recent years, the main reason given is that MPV can bear more population travel, and car owners can bring their partners, children, and parents to go out to play together, especially at the moment when the number of two-child families is gradually increasing, MPV can perfectly solve the problem of large-scale family travel.
Such a statement seems very reasonable, but if you think about it carefully, there is a loophole, that is, how many times can the travel scenarios mentioned above appear in the travel scenarios of most car owners? Can we really travel with our partners, children, and parents every day?
Adults have jobs to do, children have heavy studies, and parents have a pension life, for many families, if they want to get these people together, they have to pick a day, not to mention high-frequency group travel, so for most travel scenarios, SUVs and even sedans can be solved, and there is no need to buy MPVs at all.
On the other hand, MPV has gradually become high-end in recent years, and as mentioned above, a large reason for the shrinkage of the market is because low-end MPVs are not easy to sell, but the price of high-end MPVs is also relatively high, which means that owners who can buy high-end MPVs must not only have economic strength, but also have time to travel with their families.
Recently, Xpeng Motors released a pure electric MPV user report, including Xpeng X9 car user portraits, including "33% of the owners have an annual income of more than 1 million yuan", "87% of the owners have an annual income of more than 300,000 yuan", "79% of the users are additional users", "BBA owners account for 8% of the additional users".
It can be seen from the user portrait of the pure electric MPV sales champion Xpeng X9 that the high-end MPV is more like a "big toy for family users", and the owners who can afford it are already very rare, and then after the diversion of fuel MPV and plug-in hybrid MPV, the users of pure electric MPV with higher prices and smaller markets are even rarer.
Let's look at business travel. Pure electric MPVs still have special problems in travel scenarios. Because MPVs have various uncertainties in business travel, you don't know when there will be travel demand, which leads to a certain anxiety about the energy replenishment of pure electric MPVs.
In fact, this anxiety also exists for ordinary pure electric users, but because ordinary pure electric users are mostly commuting and urban travel every day, and the travel time and distance are relatively fixed, so they can avoid the anxiety of energy supplementation.
But for business travel, once you receive the boss's travel needs at night, or you need to pick up customers temporarily, you can't let the boss and customers wait for you to fully charge first, right?
For example, some time ago there was such a story, a boss talked about a business in Hebei, but because the official seal was forgotten, he told the driver to go back to get it, and finally the driver drove Buick GL8, ran 800 kilometers in 4 hours, and successfully completed the task.
Just imagine, if the pure electric MPV encounters such an unexpected situation, can it still successfully complete the task? Once the cooperation is delayed, the losses are immeasurable.
Some people may say that this is all a small probability event. Indeed, this is a small probability event, but sudden pick-up and drop-off customers and boss travel often happen, so for MPV users, the best demand is to avoid risks, which is why many business travel users do not choose pure electric MPV.
Even though pure electric MPVs have better economy, in order to maximize the response to emergencies, companies still choose fuel MPVs and plug-in hybrid MPVs that can be fueled or electric.
It can be seen that whether it is the family market or the business market, the application scenarios of pure electric MPV are very limited, and the volume has naturally become a "nightmare difficulty".
End
Could it be that pure electric MPVs really don't sell well?
Not so, pure electric MPV is not as expected and still has certain development prospects, because today's automobile market is too volatile, and the competition in the sedan and SUV markets is very fierce.
In the existing fierce competition, car companies can only continue to open up new markets and seek new growth routes, so more and more people are deploying pure electric MPVs itself is a road that cannot be bypassed.
On the other hand, although the pure electric MPV is now less than expected, from the user's point of view, for family users, it is mainly the price, travel scenarios and other issues that lead to the limitation of the user group, with the gradual increase in the number of large population travel families, the price of pure electric MPV drops, this situation may be improved.
For business travel users, I am afraid that after the emergence of solid-state batteries, or completely solve the problem of pure electric MPV energy supplement, can we gain the attention of business users.
But no matter from which point of view, the pure electric MPV market is destined to be a "hard cake" for a long time to come.