On November 3, the BMW Group mentioned in its third-quarter financial report that it continued to promote the electrification of its products. The sales of pure electric models in the first three quarters increased by 65% year-on-year, and further stated that although the overall sales volume for the whole year is expected to be slightly lower than that in 2021, But sales of pure electric vehicles are expected to double.
Mercedes-Benz and Audi, which released their third-quarter reports at the end of October, also said in their performance reports that the delivery of new energy vehicles performed well, and Audi also said that the electrification strategy will be further accelerated in the next few years.
In the Chinese market, which plays a crucial role in its electrification transformation, BMW and Mercedes-Benz's new energy vehicle sales have also achieved varying degrees of growth, but as of press time, Audi has not disclosed specific new energy vehicle sales.
In fact, with the impact of Tesla's new car-making forces, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi (BBA) have also reached the key point of electrification transformation; at the same time, second-tier luxury brands are also impacting electrification while deeply shuffling their cards. , Seizing the pole position of new energy vehicles has become a new goal of luxury brands.
The counterattack started, and the electrification of the luxury three powerhouses accelerated
In the third quarter of this year, domestic high-end brand passenger car sales increased by nearly 40% year-on-year, and from the total sales in the first three quarters of this year, high-end brand passenger car sales reached 2.756 million units, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%.
The deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers believes that high-end brand passenger cars are showing a trend of rapid growth. On the one hand, it is the recovery of the domestic economy. On the other hand, the policy of halving the purchase tax covers most high-end cars. Sales play a role in promoting.
As a first-tier luxury brand, BBA's sales also recovered rapidly in the third quarter.
In the field of pure electric vehicles, in the first three quarters of this year, the sales of BMW Group's pure electric vehicles in the first three quarters increased by 65% year-on-year, and the sales of Mercedes-Benz's new energy vehicles also achieved a quarter-on-quarter growth of 27% in the third quarter; in addition, Audi did not disclose specific details. Sales of new energy vehicles.
In fact, in order to change the tepid state of the new energy vehicle market in recent years, the transformation of BBA in the field of electrification has been accelerating since this year. .
On June 13, the off-line ceremony of Mercedes-Benz's new electric car EQE made Beijing Benz's Shunyi plant, which is the benchmark of Mercedes-Benz Sindelfingen's No. 56 plant, officially unveiled in the industry. The total investment of the plant was 11.9 billion yuan.
On June 23, the BMW Group's iFACTORY Lida plant with a total investment of 15 billion yuan was officially put into production. Gao Le, president and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that the Lida plant can be based on market demand at any time. Shift to 100% EV production.
On June 28, the production base of Audi FAW New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. began to be put into construction. This is Audi's first factory in the Chinese market that only produces pure electric models. The total investment exceeds 30 billion yuan and will be put into production in 2024.
Behind these three tens of billions of factories is BBA's urgent need for electrification transformation.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, said that BBA has not kept up with the high growth of domestic new energy vehicles, and traditional luxury car brands including BBA have not performed well on the new energy vehicle track, but they have Some luxury car brands have shown great importance to China's high-end new energy vehicle market.
Not only that, BBA's electrification strategy in China is also being upgraded.
At the end of October, it was reported that BMW plans to relocate MINI's pure electric production line to China. When MINI released a new strategy last year, MINI mentioned that China will become the focus of MINI's global strategy; 13 pure electric products; by 2025, a quarter of BMW's vehicles sold in the Chinese market will be electric.
Mercedes-Benz and Audi have also increased their emphasis on the Chinese market.
In the third quarter, the new EQE and other models were launched, and the new energy vehicle camp was further enriched. In addition, the new EQS will also be unveiled in the Chinese market in the fourth quarter.
This year, Audi also launched the first luxury pure electric SUV Audi Q4 e-tron on the MEB platform. At the end of 2024, the Audi FAW New Energy Plant will produce models based on the PPE luxury pure electric platform.
In fact, BBA started not too late in the field of new energy vehicles, but the market performance is relatively backward.
"The design of BBA electric vehicle products has not yet jumped out of the inherent framework of traditional fuel vehicle design. It has a weak sense of freshness and future technology, and its electrification strategy is relatively conservative and indecisive, causing it to miss the opportunity to occupy the market." Automobile industry analyst Zhang Xiang believes, "China is the world's largest new energy vehicle market, and its support for new energy vehicles has been continuously strengthened. As the main sales market of BBA, its promotion of electrification is obvious."
New car power brands are on the rise, and the second-tier luxury market is deeply reshuffled
While the first-tier luxury camp BBA is making efforts to transform into electrification, the second-tier luxury car camp is also making every effort to cope with the wave of electrification transformation.
In the second-tier luxury car camp, the sales volume of each brand in the third quarter also increased in different ways.
In the first three quarters of this year, the Hongqi brand achieved sales of 211,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%, ranking first in the second-tier luxury car camp; Volvo became the luxury brand with the highest growth rate, with cumulative sales in the first three quarters increasing by 42.3% year-on-year to 188,000 units; It was Cadillac, Lexus, Lincoln and Jaguar Land Rover, of which Jaguar Land Rover came in last with 36,700 units.
But it is worth noting that if new forces such as Tesla are counted, the ranking of the second-tier luxury brand camp has changed.
Tesla's sales surpassed traditional second-tier luxury brands in one fell swoop and won the first place.
Not only that, the sales of new domestic car manufacturers and new energy brands derived from traditional car companies are also constantly impacting second-tier luxury car brands.
The cumulative sales volume of GAC Aeon in the first three quarters was 182,000 vehicles, and the cumulative sales volume of Xiaopeng Motors in the first three quarters was about 99,000 vehicles. Zhang Xiang, an automobile industry analyst, said that with the acceleration of the wave of new energy vehicles, the new power brands of car manufacturers are constantly impacting The market share of traditional luxury cars has become more and more extensive in categories, routes, price areas, and users, and has seized market share in the high-end market.
From the perspective of the electrification transformation of second-tier luxury brands, the pace is relatively slow; the most radical of them is Volvo. According to its plan, Volvo has completed the transformation of pure electric platforms and factory production lines.
In addition, Cadillac's pure electric model Ruige was only delivered at the end of September, and its production capacity and sales are still in the climbing stage; Lincoln's first electric model is expected to be launched in 2023 at the earliest; Lexus' first exclusive pure electric model RZ this year 4 It was officially released globally in June, but has not yet been officially launched. According to its plan, all its car series will provide pure electric versions by 2030, and it is expected to achieve 100% electrification worldwide by 2035, but the progress is still relatively slow.
The industry also believes that the increase and expansion of new brands will bring a catfish effect to the luxury car market, and the competition pattern of luxury cars is being reshaped.
Southwest Securities believes that under the background of the continuous and diversified supply of new energy vehicles, it is expected that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is expected to continue to remain high, providing a good market space for the electrification transformation of traditional luxury brands, and also for new car manufacturers. created space.
Zhang Xiang believes that on the electrification track, traditional luxury car companies still have certain technological advantages, but their transformation and response speed are relatively slow; at present, BBA and second-tier luxury brands are accelerating their deployment in electrification transformation and localized production of electric models. It also makes it more active in the competition on the electrified track.
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Wang Linlin