Liu Zhao
Just after the Spring Festival holiday of the Year of the Dragon, there was news that Gaohe Automobile would suspend production for six months.
After many days of public opinion fermentation, Gaohe Automobile founder Ding Lei and other senior executives took turns calling on the public to give the company time and make every effort to save the company.
At the same time, a new round of price war in the auto market has quietly begun.
Industry giant BYD took the lead in launching the "king bomb": Qin PLUS Honor Edition under Dynasty.com was officially launched, with an official guide price of less than 80,000 yuan.
Since then, Wuling, Changan Automobile, Nezha Automobile, Beijing Hyundai, SAIC-GM and other car companies have successively announced price cuts for many of their models.
The wave of electrification and intelligence has further accelerated the iteration of the industry and urged car companies to work harder to meet consumer needs.
Although China's new energy vehicle production and sales have ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years as of 2023, we must also note that the vast majority of the 320 models of domestic new energy vehicles sold in 2023 have monthly sales of less than 1,000 units. Those who are truly profitable There are only three or four car companies.
Especially now, many new car-making forces are on the verge of bankruptcy. At this stage, the development of Gaohe Automobile is already struggling. Who will be the next one to be eliminated?
It is foreseeable that competition among new energy vehicle companies will intensify this year.
The heads of major car companies also admitted in their start-up letters for the Year of the Dragon that they must be ready for a sprint in 2024.
Among them, Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, predicted that the current transformation of the automobile industry has entered a deep water zone, and the intelligent transformation has begun to shift gears and speed up, and the development of new energy vehicles will only accelerate faster and faster.
According to He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, 2024 will be the first year that Chinese car brands enter the "sea of blood" competition, and a "fight" in fierce competition is inevitable.
Gan Jiayue, CEO of Geely Automobile Group, even bluntly said that 2024 will be the "most important" year again, "increasing prices, products, services, and traffic volume."
The author believes that as China's new energy industry gradually matures, fierce competition in the industry due to competition for market share is inevitable.
At present, my country's new energy vehicle production capacity has been excess, and industrial optimization and upgrading is imperative.
In addition, industry chaos such as incremental growth without increasing profits and marketing without a bottom line also occur from time to time and need to be changed as soon as possible.
In essence, the price war between car companies reflects the contradiction between oversupply and insufficient demand in the domestic auto market.
However, it should be noted that blindly lowering car prices, or even falling below the cost line, in order to increase sales will not only fail to enable the company to survive in the brutal market competition, but will instead cause the company to face a deeper operating crisis.
At this stage, healthy competition in the automobile industry should be vigorously promoted.
As Duan Jianjun, President and CEO of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales and Service Co., Ltd., said, building a car is not a sprint. Only by adhering to long-termism, continuous learning and reconstruction, and keeping pace with changes in consumer needs and advanced technology Only through links can you gain the trust of customers.
(Securities Daily)