"Wenjie 500000, Tank 700000, NIO 800000, Looking Up 1 million, brothers, if you don't work hard to make money, you can only drive Mercedes Benz and BMW!" This joke from netizens has become a true portrayal of the road for independent brands to "climb higher" in 2023.
"The price range sales structure of the national passenger car market continues to rise, with a significant increase in the proportion of high-end car models sold and a decrease in the proportion of mid to low price car models sold. This is a driving force for consumer upgrading, and it is also due to the consumption upgrading of the exchange group. In 2023, the high-end characteristics of the car market structure have been further strengthened." Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, analyzed that in the future, Chinese urban automobile consumption will mainly focus on increasing exchange purchases, High end will become an important core driving force for development.
The "high-end" mentioned by Cui Dongshu is most directly reflected in the luxury car market with a price of over 500000 yuan, or even millions, and is no longer an exclusive battlefield for German, American, and Japanese brands.
At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, BYD released the Looking Up U8 Luxury Edition and Off road Player Edition, with a pre-sale price of 1.098 million yuan. At the subsequent listing press conference, BYD announced that its official selling price of 1.098 million yuan remained unchanged. "Chinese high-end brands are not just about buying materials," said BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu. The birth of high-end automotive brands is often accompanied by the maturity of top-level core technologies. "In the era of electrification, Chinese car companies have already taken the initiative in technology, with profound technological accumulation and mature industrial chain support, supporting us to continue moving towards a deep technological zone."
At that time, there were many doubts in the industry about the prospects of such a new brand luxury car that broke the norm and sold for over a million yuan. But soon, news came of orders for over 30000 vehicles; The latest data shows that the sales of the Looking Up U8 reached 1593 units in December last year. At the same time, Yangwang has opened over 90 directly operated stores in more than 40 cities across the country to achieve full coverage in first tier and new first tier cities.
Looking up at the initial victory of U8, it has given BYD confidence and also shown domestic brands a vast space for high-end development.
At the 2023 Guangzhou Auto Show, Ideal Automobile announced that the selling price of Ideal MEGA is within 600000 yuan; In another exhibition hall, the limited edition of Tank 700 Hi4-T is available for pre-sale, with a pre-sale price of 700000 yuan; On December 23rd, the NIO ET9, positioned as an executive four seater flagship sedan, was officially unveiled with a pre-sale price of 800000 yuan; Three days later, the most expensive model under the AITO WENJIE brand, the WENJIE M9, made its debut after products such as the Nova 12 series phone and Huawei FreeClip earphones, with prices ranging from 469800 to 569800 yuan.
The aforementioned models all consider traditional luxury fuel vehicles as direct competitors. At the launch event of the WENJIE M9, Yu Chengdong, Chairman of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, repeatedly compared the WENJIE M9 with Rolls Royce Cullinan, Range Rover Shengshi Extended Edition, Mercedes Benz GLS, BMW X7, and other luxury cars in terms of space, fuel consumption per 100 kilometers, performance, and minimum turning radius, and stated that the car is meant to benchmark against luxury cars in the millions or even millions; Looking up at the tough off-road vehicle market targeted by U8, the main benchmark models are also locked in Land Rover Range Rover, Mercedes Benz G-Class, etc.
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2017, the sales of passenger cars priced above 400000 yuan were only 290000 units. In 2022, it increased to 520000 units. In the first 11 months of 2023, this number had already climbed to 650000 units, and it is certain that the annual sales exceeded 700000 units; In terms of retail proportion, it reached a new high of 3.7% in November 2023, compared to only 1.2% six years ago.
From the power distribution in the price range of over 400000 yuan, traditional fuel vehicles still dominate, but the internal structure is quietly undergoing changes. Taking November 2023 as an example, the penetration rate of traditional fuel vehicles in the price range of over 400000 yuan is 68%, far ahead of extended range and pure electric vehicles. Most of these price ranges are still conventional power models; However, from the perspective of retail price distribution, traditional fuel vehicles priced above 400000 yuan only account for 4%, while extended range vehicles have reached 14%, and pure electric vehicles have also increased to 2%.
The high-end of products is not only reflected in price, but also in the continuous increase in sales of higher-level models. In November 2023, the wholesale sales of mid to large-sized SUVs reached 347600 units, accounting for 25.88% of the wholesale market share, a year-on-year increase of 36% compared to the same period last year and a month on month increase of 7%; Retail sales increased by 42% year-on-year and 13% month on month compared to the same period last year. From January to November 2023, the wholesale sales of this segmented market reached 2.9514 million vehicles, with a cumulative increase of 25%; The cumulative retail volume is 2.5986 million vehicles, an increase of 23%.
In the process of electrification, the upward trend of brands and products is driven by the relentless research and development investment of independent brands in technology, design, quality, safety, especially in the field of intelligence. The hard power feedback to the product side has been increasingly recognized by consumers. However, at the same time, the entry-level new energy vehicle market, which dominates the market, also needs to be given special attention.
In Cui Dongshu's view, new energy vehicles are aimed at all consumer groups, not niche models for high-end groups, and this does not conflict with the manifestation of technological advancement in the mid to high end market. "Especially with the urgent need to increase consumption in the central and western regions and county and township markets, electric vehicles bear the important task of injecting new consumption vitality into the market. Low cost electric vehicles are suitable for ordinary consumer groups. As a new technology, new energy vehicles must accelerate technological progress and product improvement, but they should also pay attention to and meet the differentiated needs of different consumer groups." Cui Dongshu said.