Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Zhao Yu
For a long time in the past, Li Jie, the owner of fuel vehicles, couldn't help but worry about energy replenishment whenever she talked about new energy vehicles with people around her. No matter how impressive the cruising range marked in the brand slogan, "range anxiety" always lies in Li Jie's heart; The inconvenience of installing charging piles in the old community, the lack of cars at public service points, and the worry about mileage attenuation in winter are all important reasons that hinder her from choosing new energy vehicles.
But during the National Day holiday, a long-lost self-driving trip changed Li Jie's view of new energy vehicles.
When Li Jie traveled in a friend's newly purchased range-extended car, she was surprised to find that charging piles were set up in supermarket parking lots, high-speed service areas, scenic spots and even some homestays. The B&B they booked also provides free charging services for new energy vehicles.
When a friend is driving a vehicle, Li Jie can first check the number of free piles and charging prices at nearby service stations in advance through the map software. In less than half an episode of the TV series, Li Jie's friend's car has been charged from 30% to 80%, and a pure electric run of 200 kilometers can save nearly half of the money compared to a pure oil run; If there is no free pile available, the friend will choose to refuel.
New energy vehicle owners wait for charging in an orderly manner (photographed by a reporter from Times Weekly)
According to the data released by the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, in the first three weeks of September, the retail penetration rate of new energy continued to remain above 50%. As of September 22, the retail sales of the passenger car market reached 14.709 million units during the year, a year-on-year increase of 3%; Among them, the cumulative retail sales of new energy vehicles were 6.673 million, a year-on-year increase of 36%.
Looking at the green signs from Tiannan and Haibei in the scenic area, Li Jie felt that he might be able to learn more about new energy vehicles.
The new forces exploded
After returning to Beijing, Li Jie seized the tail of the long holiday and came to a number of new energy brand stores in a business district in Beijing.
An ideal car store in Beijing during the National Day (photographed by a reporter from Times Weekly)
Although the price war in the industry in the past two years has caused some consumers to wait and see, under the superposition of the centralized listing of new cars, the continuous increase in trade-in policies in various places, and the boom of self-driving tours during long holidays, various brands have launched limited-time discounts on National Day, and the popularity of the new energy vehicle market has increased.
As the two brands with the highest sales volume among the new forces, the stores of Li Auto and Hongmeng Zhixing ushered in the peak of customer flow during the National Day holiday, and it has become the norm for one sales person to connect with two or three groups of customers at the same time.
Ideal L6, L7 is still the most popular model under the brand, a salesperson told Li Jie, L6 car needs to wait 1-2 weeks, L7 car delivery time depends on the configuration, most of the configuration has the current car, very few personalized configuration needs to be scheduled, but the waiting time will not exceed 4 days.
When Li Jie asked about the preferential policies of the ideal L7, the salesperson introduced that in addition to the 10,000 yuan regular Beijing brand subsidy, 15,000 yuan replacement subsidy, and 20,000 car purchase points, consumers who locked the order before October 13 can also enjoy a 5,000 yuan Beijing Shunyi subsidy (Li Auto has a factory in Shunyi, Beijing). If you buy a car during the National Day holiday, you can also choose one of the three items of Apple earphones, 1000 kWh electricity, and floor mat trunk mat as a car purchase benefit.
Li Jie then walked into the Huawei store. She found that the number of customers looking at cars in the store has significantly exceeded the number of customers looking at their phones. The "Three Realms" exhibition cars of Hongmeng Zhixing are arranged in the store one after another, and each car is full of customers who come to experience it.
A Huawei store in Beijing (photographed by a reporter from Times Weekly)
While the salesperson helped Li Jie calculate the price of the car, the family next to him had just paid the deposit for M9. "Don't wait any longer, the price won't drop anywhere." Li Jie heard the old man of the family say this. The salesperson also expressed a similar view to Li Jie. "The price is uniform across the country, but the preferential activities will change."
Take Li Jie's M7 Ultra as an example. According to the sales introduction, if the order is locked before October 8, you can get 12,000 yuan of optional money, a smart driving bag subsidy worth 20,000 yuan and an electric pedal of 6,800 yuan, which is equivalent to saving some additional costs after picking up the car.
Another consumer who came to see the car told Li Jie that although Wenjie had launched an interest discount campaign in August to reduce the interest rate on vehicle loans to 1.99% (currently 2.49%), most brands now support "long-term loans and short-term repayment", reducing the interest payable, so the National Day discount is more attractive in general.
In addition to the Wenjie series models, Hongmeng Zhixing has also launched different degrees of discounts for the Zhijie S7, R7 and Xiangjie S9.
Li Jie also found that Xiaomi cars, which have been on the market for 7 months, are still sought after by young people, and the show cars are surrounded by crowds.
Li Jie also felt the popularity of Xiaomi SU7 from the store sales office, "Our current pick-up cycle is 22-25 weeks, and you make a decision during the eleventh day to ensure that you can pick up the car before mid-February next year." The later you decide, the more people are waiting to pick up your car in front. According to official information, in October, Xiaomi's auto factory will continue to increase production capacity, with a target of producing and delivering more than 20,000 vehicles.
Perhaps there is a sales base, Xiaomi Auto did not launch a large profit during the National Day. In addition to the "payment of Dading, you can get free Nappa leather seats and intelligent driving enhancement functions for a lifetime free use", only the Xiaomi SU7 Max version priced at more than 300,000 yuan will provide a 3,000 yuan Beijing Yizhuang subsidy. Like the regional subsidy for Li Auto, the regional subsidy for Xiaomi Auto is also provided by the location of the factory, which is located in Yizhuang.
On October 8, Hongmeng Zhixing released data showing that the cumulative number of vehicles exceeded 28,600 during the National Day holiday, and Zhu Jiangming, chairman of Leapmotor, posted in his circle of friends that the number of Leapmotor lock orders exceeded 17,000 during the 7-day National Day.
Perhaps the notion of "buy early, enjoy early" is shaking up more "wait and wait" parties. Li Jie thought so.
BBA takes on the battle
Early in the morning of October 6, Wu Kun had just finished inquiring online, and sales calls came in one after another.
With the increase in family members, it is clear that the 2016 Camry at home is not enough to support the family's self-driving needs. In order to give his wife and children a better riding experience, Wu Kun decided to buy a mid-size SUV, looking at all the brands on the market, BBA has become the first choice for him as a fuel car enthusiast.
After comparing a number of online quotations, Wu Kun found that the three dealers he asked gave exactly the same quotations, indicating that the online platform is only a way for dealers to obtain customers. A number of salesmen said to Wu Kun either cryptically or bluntly that the online quotation is for reference only, and if you are sure to buy it after a test drive in the store, the price can be negotiated.
Wu Kun's main focus models are the Audi Q5L, BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC. He is not unaware of how fierce the price war in the car market is and how involuted the car companies are, so he is also curious about the price of the Audi Q7, BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE, which are positioned higher.
I thought that after the acceleration of new energy vehicles, luxury brands such as BBA, which mainly sell fuel vehicles, would fall into a "silence". However, after Wu Kun arrived at the store on the afternoon of the 6th, he observed that although the BBA store was not as lively as the new power store in the supermarket, it was also crowded. Even if you book a test drive in advance, you will have to wait at least 10 minutes.
In a BMW store in Beijing, many customers came to see the car (photographed by a reporter from Time Weekly)
Before receiving Wu Kun, BMW sales Wang Hao had just completed the last round of test drives. According to him, in the first two days of the National Day holiday, hundreds of groups of customers were received every day, which is already a small number of days.
Compared with the new power brands to provide discounts by adjusting their rights and interests, the traditional fuel brands are more direct in the way of making profits. The BMW X3 xDrive 30i, with a suggested retail price of 486,900 yuan, has a landing price of more than 360,000 yuan; The suggested retail price of 615,000-645,000 yuan BMW X5, Wang Hao directly provided a price discount of 90,000 yuan, after the discount, the price of the naked car of X5 xDrive 30Li dropped to 550,000 yuan, superimposed insurance, licensing fees, decoration costs, and deep cleaning costs, and the landing price can be discounted to less than 625,000 yuan.
Seeing that Wu Kun hesitated to choose the X5 with more space, Wang Hao chased after him: "If you are sure that you want this car, the decoration cost of nearly 7,000 yuan and the cleaning cost of 3,000 yuan in the quotation, I can try to apply for a reduction for you." ”
Wu Kun's hesitation comes not only from the fact that there is room for negotiation with higher-level models of the same brand, but also from the competitive prices of competing models.
An Audi salesman told Wu Kun that if he buys the Q5L 45TFSI luxury model with a guide price of 453,800 yuan, the landing price can be less than 350,000 yuan; The Q7 Black Samurai with a guide price of 609,800 yuan has a landing price of about 520,000 yuan. "If you have a model of the same brand that needs to be replaced, you can enjoy a replacement subsidy of 19,000 yuan in our store. This subsidy is also available for trade-in of old cars from other brands, but the amount is not as high as that of the same brand. ”
In terms of Mercedes-Benz, GLC, which is in the same market segment as BMW X3 and Audi Q5L, has also made a big move in the "Golden Nine and Silver Ten". The GLC 300L 4MATIC luxury five-seater version with a guide price of 525,300 yuan was sold to Wu Kun and quoted a discount of 125,300 yuan for naked cars, and after superimposing insurance, purchase tax, licensing, decoration and other expenses, it was less than 500,000 yuan. The GLE 350 4MATIC currently has no existing car, and the landing price of the GLE 450 4MATIC is more than 700,000 yuan, far exceeding Wu Kun's budget.
As can be seen from the price, BBA has carved out its own territory in the high-end market. When Wu Kun went to the store to see the car, he also found that the user portraits of BMW and Audi are younger than those of Mercedes-Benz, and the people around him are more inclined to the sports models launched by BMW and Audi, while the parents' generation prefers the calm design of Mercedes-Benz.
Another interesting point is that when Wu Kun asked about BBA's new energy models, the sales staff invariably said that the new energy models are more preferential than fuel models.
In mid-July, BMW took the lead in withdrawing from the price war, and Mercedes-Benz and Audi were subsequently rumored to follow up. As soon as the news came out, it was on the hot search on Weibo. However, in the following month, except for Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW all saw a certain amount of month-on-month decline. Entering the "Golden Nine and Silver Ten", BMW returned the terminal pricing power to the dealers.
The new forces focus on intelligence and comfort, while the sales rhetoric of traditional luxury brands is more inclined to brand recognition, technical accumulation and driving experience. It can be clearly felt that although traditional luxury brands have been greatly impacted by the market, these veteran players with 100 years of experience in car manufacturing are still looking for new breakthroughs.
(The names of the interviewees have been changed.) ）