Halfway through 2024, it is time for the new car-making forces to submit their "midterm exams".
In March, after the listing of Ideal MEGA, there were constant turmoil, and Ideal Auto ushered in a major adjustment; Huawei's actions continued, and in May, the M9 topped the sales of luxury cars with more than 500,000 yuan; In May, Zeekr was listed on the U.S. stock market, and in June, Nezha Automobile submitted a Hong Kong stock prospectus, and the remaining new forces are lining up to impact the increasingly urgent listing opportunities.
The real "king of traffic" in 2024 is none other than Xiaomi. In March, Xiaomi SU7 was launched, and 100,000 orders were taken in 40 days, and Lei Jun was also once "a god" on the Internet.
In the auto market, which is constantly involuting, "traffic" has become a common anxiety, and it has become a fashion for car company executives to go live and create personal IPs. But all the "traffic" has to be converted into sales in the end, under the complex phrase of "car company first", who is falling behind, who will break through successfully?
Ideal and Hongmeng Zhixing: The competition is fierce, and there are winners and losers for each other
At the beginning of this year, Huawei merged multiple brands under the smart car model into one, including the Wenjie brand in cooperation with Cialis, the Zhijie brand in cooperation with Chery, and the Xiangjie brand in cooperation with BAIC, all of which were integrated into "Hongmeng Zhixing".
Under the strong promotion of Huawei, HarmonyOS Zhixing is also the fastest-growing new power brand this year.
Entering 2024, Li Auto and Huawei Hongmeng Zhixing will have more and more head-to-head competition, and the two brands are also direct competitors for the first sales volume of new forces. Large-scale deliveries of the M9 began in March, posing a threat to both the Ideal L9 and the Ideal MEGA; On the other hand, in the case of the continuous increase in sales of the M7, the ideal L6 attacked in April, and the sales also rose sharply.
Specifically, in the first half of this year, Hongmeng Zhixing delivered a total of 194207 vehicles, overwhelming the ideal and topped the sales of new forces in the first half of the year. Among them, 17,241 M9 units were delivered this month, ranking first in sales of models with more than 500,000 yuan for two consecutive months.
In addition to growth, Hongmeng Zhixing also has hidden concerns. In the past 6 months, Hongmeng Zhixing delivered a total of 46,141 vehicles, of which the Wenjie brand accounted for 94% of the total sales, while the sales of Zhijie S7 were only 2,995 units, a month-on-month decline of more than 2,000 units.
Previously, Zhijie S7 had encountered production capacity problems, so in April this year, Huawei re-released Zhijie S7, and the price of the whole system was reduced by 20,000 yuan. But at present, it seems that the sales password of the M7 has not been copied to the wisdom of the worldS7. Therefore, it is still very important for Huawei Hongmeng Zhixing to successfully explore the second growth point outside the Wenjie brand.
According to the information currently exposed, the second model of the Zhijie brand cooperated by Huawei and Chery, the Zhijie R7, and the executive-class sedan Xiangjie S9 cooperated by Huawei and BAIC will be unveiled in the second half of the year. Among them, the Zhijie R7 is positioned as a pure electric coupe SUV, and the main competitor will be the Tesla Model Y; The pre-sale price of the Xiangjie S9 is 450,000-550,000 yuan, and the main competitors are BBA's leading models: Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5 Series and Audi A6.
With the Model Y being the best-selling EV in China and the world, and BBA's 56E being one of the world's most successful traditional luxury models, it is understandably difficult for Huawei to compete with the industry's strongest rivals in both areas.
In the first half of this year, Li Auto delivered a total of 188983 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 35.8%, and achieved 33.7% of the annual sales target of 560,000-640,000 units.
It should be mentioned that the target of "560,000-640,000 units" has been lowered, but even so, if the minimum target of 560,000 units is to be completed, the average monthly sales of Li Auto in the second half of the year must reach 61,000 units, which is nearly twice the average monthly sales volume in the first half of the year, and 14,000 units higher than the delivery volume of 47,000 units in June.
The good news is that the Ideal L6, which was released in April, is rapidly gaining popularity, with more than 20,000 units delivered in June. If Ideal can continue to tap the growth potential of Ideal L6, it is expected to reduce the sales pressure in the second half of the year.
The bad news is that the launch of the Ideal L6 seems to be squeezing the market for the Ideal L7. Since the release of the ideal L6, the sales volume of the ideal L7 has declined year-on-year for two consecutive months from April to May.
In addition, Ideal has announced that the release of three pure electric models originally scheduled for this year has been postponed to next year. This means that in the second half of the year, there will be no new cars on the market. At that time, the challenges that Li Auto will face will really come.
Although Ideal and Hongmeng Zhixing have fought back and forth, they also have to face common problems.
In the past few years, the domestic luxury car market has been growing, with year-on-year growth of 5.6%, 6% and 10.5% from 2021 to 2023, making it one of the few growing segments. But this year, things have changed.
According to the sales data released by the Passenger Association, from January to May this year, the retail sales of domestic luxury cars were 1.0895 million, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6%, of which the decline in May increased, down 6.9% year-on-year.
On the other hand, under the pressure of new forces, traditional luxury brands continue to reduce prices and exchange volume to resist the impact; Traditional car companies such as BYD and Geely are also making every effort to hit the high-end market.
As upstarts in the luxury car market, Li and Hongmeng Zhixing have not yet grown to the size of BBA, so they must face market contraction and fierce competition from their peers.
Xiaomi, Zeekr, Weilai, Xiaopeng: Everyone is happy, but Xiaopeng is frustrated
As a new power brand that has sprung up in the first half of this year, Xiaomi alone may occupy more hot search topics than other car companies combined, with the blessing of "monstrous" traffic, Xiaomi's first pure electric car Xiaomi SU7 naturally performed well.
On July 1, Xiaomi Auto Weibo said that the delivery of Xiaomi SU7 exceeded 10,000 units in June. Deliveries in July are expected to exceed 10,000 units.
Today, Xiaomi SU7 still has more than 100,000 orders, and the most worrying thing is no longer how to sell cars, but how to improve delivery.
Zhixing Driving Road (ID: carviews) saw on the Xiaomi Car App that if you place an order for Xiaomi SU7 now, the whole series will have to wait until 26-34 weeks to be delivered, that is, nearly 7 months later, it has been scheduled to 2025.
Zhang Xiang, secretary-general of the International Intelligent Vehicle Technology Association, once told Zhixing (ID: carviews) that in the context of continuous price wars and accelerated replacement of car companies, too long delivery cycles are likely to cause user loss.
Xiaomi is obviously aware of this, and began to transform the production line in May, so the first delivery of more than 10,000 in June just passed.
Xiaomi's plan is to deliver 100,000 vehicles this year and 120,000 units in a sprint. A total of about 25,000 vehicles were delivered in the first three months of the year, and even if the minimum target is completed, an average of 12,500 vehicles per month will be delivered in the remaining half of the year, which will continue to test Xiaomi's delivery ability and the patience of car owners.
In addition to Xiaomi, two other important brands in the EV market, NIO and ZEEKR, also performed well.
In the first half of the year, NIO delivered a total of 87,426 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 60.2%, and achieved 38% of the annual target of 230,000 vehicles. If the annual sales target is to be achieved, NIO needs to achieve an average monthly sales of 24,000 units in the second half of the year, and NIO delivered 21,000 units in June.
Like ideal, the main brand of Weilai will not have a new car on the market this year, the difference is that Weilai also has a sub-brand Ledao, its first model Ledao L60 will be launched in September, with a pre-sale price of 219,900 yuan, and the main competitors include Xpeng G6, Tesla Model Y, etc.
Li Bin, founder and chairman of Weilai, previously said on Weilai's first-quarter earnings call that Weilai's third brand "Firefly" is positioned as a boutique car with a price of 100,000 yuan, and the first product of Firefly is planned to be officially delivered in the first half of next year, but the release time has not yet been determined.
The biggest advantage of Ledao L60 and Firefly is to support NIO's battery swap system, and they will also be the most important part of supporting NIO to a larger market.
In May this year, ZEEKR was listed on the U.S. stock market, becoming the only new car-making force listed in the past two years. In the first half of this year, ZEEKR delivered a total of 87,870 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 106%, and completed 38.1% of the annual target of 230,000 vehicles. Among them, the delivery volume in June reached 20,106 vehicles, and the monthly sales of ZEEKR exceeded 20,000 for the first time.
However, under the soaring sales, the problem of ZEEKR is similar to that of Hongmeng Zhixing, in that a single model supports most of the sales of the entire brand. For example, in May, the sales volume of ZEEKR 001 accounted for 72.4% of the entire ZEEKR brand, and the total sales of ZEEKR X, ZEEKR 007 and ZEEKR 009 accounted for less than 30%.
Known as the "baby bus", ZEEKR MIX has been unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in the first half of the year and may be launched in the second half of the year.
Among the pure electric brands, the worst situation may be Xpeng Motors.
In the first half of this year, Xpeng delivered a total of 52,028 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 26%, and achieved 18.5% of the annual sales target of 280,000 vehicles.
In the first half of last year, Xpeng Motors was in a period of intensive challenges, and the Xpeng G6 launched in the middle of the year was pinned on high hopes by Xpeng Motors with the blessing of 800V architecture and high-end intelligent driving. He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, said in an interview: "I am very confident that we will be the first in sales in the range of 20-250,000 yuan."
But now that it has been on the market for a year, Xpeng G's sales in June have not exceeded 10,000 units, and since entering 2024, its sales have declined repeatedly, and in the first five months of this year, the average monthly sales volume was only about 2,000 units. The once dominant model Xpeng P7 has gradually fallen to the edge of the market, with average monthly sales of about 1,500 units in the first five months of this year.
In this case, Xpeng pinned its hopes on the upcoming Xpeng MONA series. On July 3, MONA M03 will be released on the market, the car is positioned as a pure electric compact sedan, with a price range of 10-200,000 yuan.
But the situation faced by this car is not good, Xpeng previously said that the model is jointly built by Didi and Xpeng, in addition to ordinary consumers, it will also be sold to online car-hailing companies and other business vehicle demanders. But later, Xpeng officials said that MONA M03 will focus on the C-end market, hiding its potential "online car-hailing" label.
On the other hand, He Xiaopeng previously set the debut time for the MONA M03 to be "June", although it was only nominally postponed for a few days, but it can also be seen that this model will face a complex environment.
The main models have suffered setbacks one after another, and if Xpeng Motors wants to truly "come back to life", it may not be enough to save by one model alone.
Leap and Nezha: Striving to be a "trumpet ideal"
Among the new forces within 200,000 yuan, Leapmotor and Nezha Automobile are the two most prominent brands, in the context of the slowdown in the growth of pure electric models, they all invariably poured into the arms of extended range, and in terms of product strategy, they are getting closer and closer to the ideal car's "sofa, color TV, refrigerator", so these two brands are also ridiculed by netizens as "small ideal".
However, the actual feelings of Leap and Nezha are different.
In the first half of this year, Leapmotor delivered a total of 86,696 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 94.8%, and completed 34.6% of the annual target of 250,000 vehicles. Among them, 20,116 vehicles were delivered in June, which is also the first time that Leapmotor has delivered more than 20,000 vehicles per month.
Leapmotor is the first new power brand to shift from pure electric to extended range, and since the release of the Leapmotor C1 and C01 extended range versions last year, it has been in the top five sales list of new forces for a long time.
Since the beginning of this year, Leapmotor has launched two family SUVs, Leapmotor C10 and Leapmotor C16, with a pure electric version and an extended range version on the market at the same time, with a price of 130,000-190,000 yuan. This is the price range with the highest domestic car sales, and it is also the most competitive price segment.
However, the performance of these two new cars has been tepid, and the average monthly sales of the Leapmotor C10 have been around 5,000 units since large-scale deliveries began in March; The Leapmotor C16 was launched in 48 hours, and 5,208 units were set. In the sequence of zero run, the performance of these two cars is not bad, but in the entire new energy market, it is a bit insufficient.
Another "small ideal" Nezha car has not had such a good time.
In the first half of this year, Nezha delivered a total of 35,701 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 35.6%, which is also the second consecutive year that Nezha has recorded a year-on-year decline. In terms of sales, Nezha only completed 12% of its annual target of 300,000 units in the first half of the year.
In April this year, the Nezha L extended range version was launched, this model is similar to the Leap C10 and C16, focusing on the ideal L6 "flat replacement", priced at 129,900-159,900 yuan. According to the official information, Nezha L has accumulated orders of more than 30,000 units from April 22 to May 26, which can be regarded as pulling Nezha back from the edge of the cliff.
Not long ago, Nezha's parent company, Hezhong New Energy Vehicle, submitted an application for listing on the Hong Kong stock market, and according to the application materials, its revenue in 2023 will be 13.555 billion yuan, with a loss of 6.867 billion yuan. This year, Hezhong's losses have expanded, and now in less than half a year, the net loss for the year has reached 6.87 billion yuan.
In the face of severe domestic competition, Nezha set its sights overseas. In the prospectus, Hezhong attributed the main reason for the decline in sales and deliveries to the fact that it has spent more energy to promote overseas markets.
At present, Nezha has established overseas factories in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, and has landed in South America, West Asia and other markets. According to data from the China Passenger Car Association and CIC Consulting, Nezha Automobile's sales volume in the Southeast Asian market in 2023 will be about 13,000 units, ranking third, accounting for 10.5% of the market share in Southeast Asia.
Summary: The annual sales volume is very high, and it is difficult to achieve
In general, the annual sales targets of the new forces are not low, but the overall completion rate in the first half of the year is not high, even the best performers of Zeekr and NIO, the sales target completion rate does not exceed 40%.
But on the other hand, Hongmeng Zhixing, Zeekr, Weilai, Leap, and Xiaomi all created new monthly sales highs in June, showing that the market is still expanding rapidly, and the dominant brands will eat more growth.
The price war in the domestic auto market still shows no sign of ending in the short term, and car companies must not stop for a moment to avoid becoming the next WM or Gaohe. The constantly rolling sales figures are not only the monthly "battle report", but also the lifeblood of car companies.