There are models that have dropped by more than one million yuan! Ultra-luxury cars are involved in a "price war", experts: should keep up with the development trend of the Chinese market

National Business Daily

2024-07-02 16:52The official account of National Business Daily

Every reporter: Duan Siyao Every editor: Pei Jianru

The continuous "price war" in the auto market has also "rolled" ultra-luxury brands.

"The Feichi 2024 4.0T V8 Yadu Edition is currently reduced by 700,000 yuan." A Bentley dealer told the "Daily Economic News" reporter. In addition to the large decrease in the entry model of the Flying Spur, the cash of other models with other configurations also decreased significantly. For example, the guide price of the 2024 4.0T V8 Yadu version of Feichi is 3.365 million yuan, and the price of the naked car after the price reduction is 2.265 million yuan, a direct drop of 1.1 million yuan.

In the ultra-luxury car market, it's not just Bentley Flying Spur that is cutting prices. A Maserati dealer also said that at present, Ghibli is currently available for a limited time, with a maximum cash discount of 175,000 yuan for some configurations. Taking the 2022 Ghibli 2.0T GT Edge Edition as an example, the naked price of the car has dropped to more than 600,000 yuan.

The price reduction of a number of ultra-luxury models has attracted public attention. Recently, entries such as "Porsche has cut prices" and "Rolls-Royce Cullinan has cut prices by millions" have frequently rushed to hot searches. "The price reduction is hundreds of thousands, millions, it sounds like a big drop, but in fact, the original high price is about 10%, which is very common in the current automobile market." An ultra-luxury brand dealer admits that the price reduction is also to cope with the pressure of declining sales.

Price reductions for a number of ultra-luxury models

During the reporter's visit, an Aston Martin dealer said: "At present, the DB11 two models in the store have a limited-time discount of 300,000 yuan, and the naked car price is more than 2 million yuan." The above-mentioned Bentley dealer said that in addition to the flying spur, some of the Bentayga, Continental and other models are also equipped with cash discounts of about 500,000 yuan.

"The 2022 Ghibli is equipped with red calipers, meteor lights, and an electric tailgate, and the current price after the discount is 598,000 yuan." According to the above-mentioned Maserati dealer, in addition to this special price of the current car, the price reduction of the rest of the models is also about 500,000 yuan.

Behind the higher price reduction, dealers have also put forward some additional conditions. For example, the above-mentioned Maserati dealer told reporters: "As long as you have a license plate in installments or in the store, you can get the lowest price for a naked car." ”

There are models that have dropped by more than one million yuan! Ultra-luxury cars are involved in a "price war", experts: should keep up with the development trend of the Chinese market

Image source: Photo by reporter Zhang Jian (data map)

In fact, because ultra-luxury models provide personalized customization, when there are many options, dealers may offer discounts on options, resulting in so-called "discounts" of up to hundreds of thousands of yuan, but this is different from cash discounts on car prices.

A Rolls-Royce dealer said that the specific price of Rolls-Royce's models depends on the options. Taking the Cullinan four-seater version of the model as an example, the optional front ventilation seats, rear ventilation seats, meteor roof, independent seats and other 7 configurations, the total price will be nearly one million yuan.

There are ultra-luxury brands with monthly sales of less than 100 vehicles

The price reduction of many ultra-luxury models may be related to the pressure on market sales.

Public data shows that in May this year, almost all ultra-luxury car brands in the Chinese market experienced a double-digit year-on-year decline in sales. Among them, Porsche sold 4,633 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 40.61%; Lotus, Bentley, Maserati and other brands have sales of about 200 units; Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and other brands sold less than 100 units; McLaren sold just two units.

In fact, since last year, the sales of some ultra-luxury brands in the Chinese market have shown signs of decline. For example, in 2023, Bentley's sales in the Chinese market will be 3,006 units, a year-on-year decrease of 18%; Lamborghini's sales in the Chinese market were 845 units, down 16% year-on-year; Ferrari's sales in China were 1,490 units, down 4% year-on-year.

"The sluggishness of the ultra-luxury car market is related to the instability of the global economic situation and the weakening of consumer purchasing power." Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said in an interview with reporters that the price reduction of ultra-luxury models will have a negative impact on its old customers and brand degree.

Different from ordinary car buyers, it may not be the low price that can impress the ultra-luxury car audience, but the brand value and identity. Rolls-Royce China executives have said that the potential target customers of Rolls-Royce are those "ultra-high-net-worth individuals" on the Hurun wealth list. But reports show that the number of people buying ultra-luxury cars is decreasing.

Image source: Photo by reporter Zhang Jian (data map)

Are the high premiums of ultra-luxury brands being lost?

Why don't rich people like ultra-luxury cars anymore? Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Group, once appeared to say. In April this year, Zhou Hongyi's live auction opened for 9 years, with a starting price of 600 yuan, and finally sold for 9.9 million yuan. After selling Maybach, Zhou Hongyi decided to buy 7 domestic new energy vehicles, and successively became the owner of Zeekrypton 009 Guanghui and Wenjie M9.

"Domestic new energy intelligent networked vehicles will far surpass foreign brand luxury cars, becoming the preferred choice of consumers and entrepreneurs. Compared with foreign luxury cars priced at four or five million yuan, domestic new energy vehicles are extremely cost-effective in terms of intelligent networking. Zhou Hongyi thinks.

Judging from the current trend, the high premium ability of ultra-luxury brands that used to be "scarce is expensive" is now gradually eroding. In particular, China's auto market is completing the transition from brand-oriented to value-oriented, and more and more consumers no longer recognize the premium of traditional ultra-luxury brands, and product power has become the primary factor influencing purchases.

Image source: Photo by reporter Kong Zesi (data map)

According to a new McKinsey data, 48% of respondents said they were not willing to pay a premium for foreign brands (up from 43% in 2023). Even among consumers willing to pay a premium, only 3% of respondents can accept a premium of 20% higher than the price of a high-end Chinese brand.

"The target customers of ultra-luxury cars have higher and higher demand for intelligent and other technologies, but ultra-luxury brands do not pay enough attention to this trend, and the market sensitivity is insufficient. Yan Jinghui told reporters.

How to deal with China's auto market, which is showing a new look, is a difficult problem that ultra-luxury brands must solve. In Yan Jinghui's view, ultra-luxury car brands should keep up with the development trend of the Chinese market, accelerate the iteration and innovation of products and technologies, and improve the cost performance of products in order to cope with market competition.

National Business Daily

View original image 1.25M