□ Dahe Daily· Yu video reporter Qi Yi Shi Ge Xie Yuanli
As a traditional luxury car brand, BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi) always attracts the attention of consumers: last month, "170,000 can buy BMW X1" just sparked heated discussions, and this month, "BBA took the initiative to withdraw from the price war" rushed to the hot search.
To this end, Dahe News · Yu video reporters visited the offline stores of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi, and found that after the price correction, more consumers came to see the car.
Some experts pointed out to the video reporter of Dahe News · Yu that on the one hand, luxury cars withdrew from the price war in order to maintain brand image and profits; On the other hand, the "emotional value" brought by domestically produced new energy vehicles will also quickly make up for the position after BBA withdrew from the price war.
Not a price increase, but a reduction in benefits
"It's just the discount, not the price." The sales staff of Zhengzhou Baolian Xiang told the Dahe News · Yu video reporter, "Taking the i3 as an example, the guidance price of the basic configuration model in 2024 starts at 350,000 yuan, and the lowest price last month is also 189,000 yuan, and now the price has returned to about 220,000 yuan, but it is not higher than the manufacturer's guidance price." ”
The sales person in charge of a number of BMW 4S stores in Zhengzhou admitted that the current transaction price has indeed been corrected compared with before, among them, the BMW X1, BMW X3, BMW 5 series and BMW X5 prices have been "raised" by about 5,000 yuan, 8,000 yuan, 10,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan respectively.
Not only BMW, but also traditional luxury car brands, including Mercedes-Benz and Audi, are also adjusting their prices. In the Audi 4S store, the reporter saw that the price of Q5 and A6 has increased, and A4 is basically unchanged; In the Mercedes-Benz store, the sales consultant said that although the discount range of the C-class and E-class has not been adjusted at present, the recycling price may be considered in the future.
Although the price has rebounded, the reporter found in BBA's stores that the number of consumers who came to see the car did not decrease significantly. "There are customers who ask if they can book a car with the previous offer, so I can only say sorry that this can't be booked." Mr. Li, the showroom manager of a BMW 4S store, said.
There is a Zhengzhou BMW store that only earns 60,000 yuan in half a year
Since the beginning of 2023, this price war that has swept all brands has lasted for 18 months, and for luxury brands led by BBA, although the average loss per car sold is as high as 70,000 yuan, the price reduction has not met the expectation of "volume exchange".
In the first half of this year, BMW's global deliveries reached 1,096,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 2.3%, while BMW's (including MINI) sales in the Chinese market in the first half of the year fell by 4.2% year-on-year to 375,900 units. Mercedes-Benz delivered 352,600 vehicles in the Chinese market in the first half of the year, down nearly 6% year-on-year from 374,600 units in the first half of last year.
What makes BBA even more embarrassed is that the dealer's loss is faster than the price drop, and a BMW dealer in Zhengzhou who has been operating for many years made a profit of only 60,000 yuan in the first half of the year. "Even the 60,000 yuan is considered good among BMW dealers, and one dealer directly lost more than 4 million yuan in the first half of the year." BMW insiders privately told reporters that if this situation continues, it is likely to cause manufacturers and dealers to "annihilate", which is also the direct reason for their withdrawal from the price war.
The market demand is decreasing, and the pressure on dealer inventory is greater. According to the survey of China's auto dealer inventory warning index, in June, China's auto dealer inventory warning index was 62.3%, which was above the boom and wither line, and the pressure on dealer inventory was still large. In terms of brand types, the current market pressure of luxury and imported brands is prominent, with the dealer inventory warning index at 66.4%, mainstream joint venture brands at 60.8%, and independent brands at 61.5%.
"BBA is aimed at high-end users, and its own audience does not react so much to the elasticity of prices, that is, price reductions do not actually bring an effective promotion effect." Sun Zhongfeng, an auto marketing expert, believes that BBA's big price cuts are not the same as BYD, Toyota, Volkswagen, these low-end brands, and long-term participation in the price war may weaken its century-old accumulated brand effect, and large-scale promotion should not be the sales strategy of high-end luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. On the other hand, this is also the manufacturer's "yang strategy", Sun Zhongfeng pointed out that after withdrawing from the price war, some weak dealers will choose to withdraw on their own, so it is not so much that BBA "can't afford to play", but rather a means of adjusting to their own internal and external environment.
Does the collective withdrawal of luxury cars from the price war mean that the price war in China's auto industry is nearing its end? In this regard, people in the automotive industry generally believe that the root cause of the price war lies in the imbalance between supply and demand, therefore, such an industrial trend may continue for a period of time, not only will not end immediately, but will also usher in a new round of price war in September this year, because relying on price means to regulate the market is still the main means of promotion for car companies and merchants.
Domestic new energy fills the "emotional value"
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the passenger association, told reporters that the price of BBA's entry-level models has been falling all the way this year, mainly because these entry-level models are oriented to young people and are more price-sensitive, and this price range is also in head-to-head competition with domestic brands; The BMW 5 series and other models are actually relatively less affected by the price war, and the price system is relatively stable, because for business people, the brand has more influence on the decision to buy a car, so it is not a simple preferential price recovery, but a "wheeled price reduction", that is, the replacement of old models with new products and new technologies, and in this regard, domestic new energy luxury cars obviously have a lot of space to supplement.
Ms. Xie used to be the owner of a traditional luxury brand, but now when she changes cars, she turns her attention to domestic high-end new energy brands, "Many friends around me have changed to Wei Xiaoli or Huawei, and I think Zhiji and Haobo seem to be good."
The "emotional value" of traditional luxury car brands seems to be starting to dissipate, and more and more consumers like Ms. Xie are becoming more and more like, and the "high-end & luxury brands" in consumers' minds are beginning to be reordered, and the "emotional value" provided by traditional luxury brands is also changing.
"In the past, when everyone talked about luxury cars, it was horsepower and interior, but now they are more intelligent driving." In his opinion, the current luxury car is already intelligent driving computing power, intelligent cockpit chips, and whether there is ultra-long-distance, high-precision mass production of lidar, whether it will be automatic, whether it can automatically change lanes and other new technologies, if there is "crab mode" and other "black technology", it will be better.
Ms. Xiao was also a lover of fuel luxury cars, because of a friend's sentence "good service", she tried a domestic new energy luxury car, "After trying it, I found out what is called true fragrance, and the service is really in place." Ms. Xiao told reporters that compared with the previous BBA style and price of the same expensive service, domestic new energy vehicles are now playing "car machine", is "function upgrade", is "exclusive service", new technology and new business brought by the new "emotional value" makes her more satisfied.
In the "Rich Car Market Insight Report" released by the BitAuto Research Institute this year, we see that in the past ten years, BBA has not changed, but the people who buy BBA have changed. In the past two decades, the changes of the times have not only reshaped China's wealthy class, but also China's wealthy car market.