April 1, new car-making forces released their sales reports for March as scheduled. According to the ranking statistics of “Electric Vehicle Report”, the new force sales champion in March was once again won by WEY, which outperformed Li Auto by more than 3,000 vehicles. The former sold 31,727 vehicles per month, while the latter sold 28,984 vehicles. Against the background of the overall sluggish sales during the Spring Festival holiday, the overall sales of other car companies rebounded significantly, with both year-on-year and month-on-month maintaining high growth.
WEY was the first brand to announce its sales. Data shows that in March, the whole series of AITO delivered 31,727 new cars, and it has outperformed Li Auto for three consecutive months, becoming the sales champion of new car-making forces. Among them, the monthly delivery of the new M7 was 18,479 units, and the just-delivered M9 was 6,243 units.
On the same day, WEY adjusted the rights and interests of the new M7. The starting price of the M7 Plus rear-wheel drive version was 229,800 yuan, a direct reduction of 20,000 yuan. However, the original technology and comfort package, including the HUD head-up display, the main driver’s headrest speaker, the electric door, and the crystal gear lever, now needs to be selected for 15,000 yuan, which means that the actual price reduction is only 5,000 yuan. The price of the M5 Plus four-wheel drive remains unchanged. In addition, the new M7 intelligent driving version, whether it is four-seat or five-seat, rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, has a direct price reduction of 10,000 yuan, and the above-mentioned technology and comfort package is still provided for free.
This time, the new M7 has lowered the purchase threshold, which will have a significant impact on Li Auto. In March, Li Auto delivered 28,984 new cars, which is far from the level of 50,000 deliveries that Li Xiang estimated. Previously, Li Auto announced to lower its delivery expectations for the first quarter, from 100,000-103,000 vehicles to 76,000-78,000 vehicles. In the first quarter, Li Auto actually delivered 80,400 new cars, slightly exceeding expectations.
Li Auto’s lower delivery guidance is not only due to the interception of WEY M7, but the most important reason is the setback of the listing of Li Auto MEGA. Li Xiang predicted that Li Auto MEGA is expected to become a new best-selling model of Li Auto. However, after its listing, the order volume has far failed to meet expectations, ultimately resulting in the slowdown of Li Auto’s growth rate. Li Xiang admitted in an internal letter that due to the chaos of the Li Auto MEGA’s rhythm, the sales team has significantly reduced the time and energy spent serving users of the L series. To cope with this challenge, Li Auto will focus on promoting the L series and will announce the price of the ideal L6 at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show. This is the first model under 300,000 yuan of Li Auto, intended to intercept the new M7 of WEY. However, with the just-reduced price of the new M7 of WEY, the road to the surprise attack of the ideal L6 is destined to be not smooth.
Looking at other new car-making companies, the performance of Xiaopeng Motors and NIO in March was not very good, especially Xiaopeng Motors. Its sales in March still did not exceed 10,000, only delivering 9,026 vehicles, of which X9 delivered 3,946 vehicles. Although Xiaopeng Motors has many products on sale, including the P7, P5, G6, G9, and X9, in fact, there are no best-selling models. The highest-selling model is actually the pure electric large MPV – X9. The previously highly anticipated G6 only became popular for half a year, and the renewed G9 also failed to meet market expectations. On April 1, Xiaopeng Motors announced to lower the price of the G9. The limited-time discount on the existing car is as high as 20,000 yuan, and the price after subsidy is 243,900 yuan.
As for NIO, although it has delivered more than 10,000 vehicles, the title of “Wei Yiwan” has still not been shed. In March, NIO delivered 11,866 new vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 14.3%, a month-on-month growth of 45.9%, and a delivery of 30,053 vehicles in the first quarter, with a year-on-year decrease of 3.18%. Due to the reluctance to lower the official price to participate in the price war and maintain the positioning of NIO’s luxury brand, NIO chose to indirectly lower the threshold for consumers to purchase by adjusting the replacement subsidy and the BaaS battery rental service plan. On April 1, NIO launched a maximum of 1 billion yuan of oil vehicle replacement subsidies.
Zero Run is the fourth new power company to go public in Hong Kong after Ideal, XPeng, and NIO. It delivered 14,567 new cars in March and 33,410 in the first quarter. It is understood that Zero Run launched the C10 on March 2, with a starting price of 128,800 yuan. This mid-size SUV offers more space and higher configurations, but the price is comparable to the compact SUV Song PLUS DM-i. Zhu Jiangming, chairman of Zero Run, said that Zero Run’s sales ranking this year can at least move up one more place among the new power car makers.
The performance of Nezha is rather backward. It only delivered 8,317 vehicles in March, a year-on-year decrease of 17.55%, and 24,434 vehicles in the first quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 6.65%. The official said that the Tongxiang factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, is under renovation and expansion, which has a greater impact on the production in March and April. According to the plan, Nezha L will be launched in April, and in the face of the recent sluggish sales, Nezha Auto is also stepping up the build-up on the marketing front. Not long ago, Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Group, and Zhang Yong, the CEO of Nezha Auto, jointly live-streamed and made suggestions and comments on Nezha Auto. Subsequently, Zhang Yong responded on the social platform, “Accepting Lao Zhou’s criticism, learning from Lei Jun in marketing, is not shameful.”
Other high-end brands of traditional auto companies, Geely has a relatively good market performance, delivering 13,012 vehicles in March, a year-on-year increase of 95%, and 33,059 vehicles in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 117%. The good sales of Geely is mainly due to the new 001. The new 001 was launched on February 27, with a starting price of 269,000 yuan. In the first month of its launch, the number of orders exceeded 30,000.
As for the leader of new energy vehicles, BYD’s wholesale sales in March were 302,459 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 46%, and its sales in the first quarter were 626,263 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 13%. After the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, many models under the Dynasty and Ocean networks of BYD have launched the Honor Edition, covering Qin PLUS, Destroyer 05, Han Family, Tang DM-i, Seal DM-i, Song PLUS, Song Pro, and Dolphin, among which Qin PLUS and Destroyer 05 are only priced at 79,800 yuan. The market believes that in the context of the slowdown in the growth rate of the overall new energy vehicle market, BYD needs to seize the market share of fuel vehicles under 200,000 yuan to increase sales volume by price, while striving for sales breakthroughs in the market above 200,000 yuan and seeking incremental support for sales growth in overseas businesses.
The pattern of China’s new forces has quietly changed. The once “Wei Xiaoli” has been broken. Ideal and AITO are competing to snatch the title of the new forces’ sales champion, while other new forces’ brands are constantly looking for their own positions in the market. On April 1, nearly 10 auto brands launched new policies of limited-time preferential purchase of cars to cope with the price competition in the auto market.
Admittedly, the market competition in 2024 will only be more intense. The competition between brands is not only reflected in the price, but more in the product power, technological innovation, and service experience. Of course, for consumers, price reduction can still stimulate the acceptance of new energy vehicles, and more choices and better experiences are undoubtedly the greatest benefits brought about by this competition. The new energy vehicle market will continue to maintain a growth trend.
