“pricing war” is undoubtedly the key word for china's car market in 2023。
After spending 28,879,000 vehicles in 2017, six years later, chinese cars had finally completed their total sales of 30 million vehicles in 2023, a record high。
But no one can imagine that the way the car market rises is so “hot”: the “price battle” that runs through the year, the new forces that have left behind, the autonomous brands that have accelerated the rise, all reveal the intensity of competition in the market。
"pricing battles" throughout
Looking back at the car market in 2023, “price warfare” became the key word throughout the year。
On 6 january 2023, tesla fired the first shot at the “price battle” of the chinese new energy car. At that time, the tesla network of chinese officials announced that the tesla model had fallen significantly, by more than 6 per cent, to its lowest ever price。
The sudden drop in prices has caught up with the new powers in the country, with peng and the fastest response from the public. Among them, the prices of m5 and m7 have been revised downwards by 288,000 to 30,000 yuan; and the prices of peng g3i, p5 and p7 have been reduced by 20,000 to 36,000 yuan. The subsequent spring holidays were followed by new forces joining the price reduction, but this was only the beginning of a “price war”。
In march, the consortium's car subsidy added fuel trucks to the war without smoke. In a previous interview, a hubei wuhan dealer told journalists that “i have never seen such a high price reduction for years in the profession”
According to incomplete statistics by journalists, more than 40 fuel vehicle brands were added, with a price reduction of over $100,000. At the same time, both the traditional car industry and the new powers were aware of the changes in the market, and the fact that the cars that had been said never to drop prices could not withstand the pressure on the market was a price reduction of $30,000. Biadi pushed the entry price of the qin plus dm-i championship to $998,000, and then launched several car-style champions。
With such a rapid roll-out of the low-priced car, president biadi's message is his own: “it's time for fast fish to eat slow fish, not for big fish to eat small fish, and no chance for a car to go up in the next three to five years. And over the next three to five years, price battles will continue in the car market as a whole or in different subdivisions.”
However, the “price war” that started with the promotion of sales did not work optimally in the early days of the outbreak, and the price drops increased consumer waits, and many car sales did not increase or decrease. In order to stabilize the market environment, several organizations, including the chinese-ambassador association, have called on cars to refrain from maliciously lowering prices, and have issued a policy of guaranteed prices for months with many new powers led by ideal cars. Since then, large-scale “price wars” have eased over the years, but small-scale subsidies and price reductions have not stopped。
Until the “golden and silver ten” consumption boom, when a massive “price war” broke out in the car market, new energy and fuel companies opened a new round of price-reduction subsidies, during which time even the ideal of a guaranteed price did not escape disguised price reductions, with companies issuing insurance subsidies of up to $10,000 to join the price-reduction trend。
“insurance subsidies, down payment subsidies, full discounts, bank interest subsidies, etc., which used to be a marketing tool for distributors, have now become a car business, and have extended many new models of price reductions, such as lowering prices on pre-sale prices to attract consumers, are not protected.”
At the end of the year, the final sprinting phase, with consumption surges such as the “two-to-one” wave, resulted in price reductions or subsidy concessions to varying degrees for car companies such as biadi, ideal, tesla and zero run。
Under the fierce “price war”, china's overall car sales have surpassed their high levels, and the market generally believes that the “price war” will remain the main melody of the car market in 2024。
A cruel phase-out
The “price war” affected last year's car market, and intense competition in the market led to a phase-out, with wilma, sky, and elves falling victim to this “war”。
In early 2023, the founder of weimar, shen shen, wrote in his microblogging and graphs that the weimar car would survive as an animal, but for a year, the company did not survive as shen wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei wei。
In october, there were reports of shenzhen leaving the country and journalists had testified to wilma but had received no response。
Previously, negative news about the wilma car continued. In february 2023, most of the employees of the weimar automobiles were left without pay; in march, the qingura district consumers' rights protection commission in shanghai issued a consumption warning against weimar cars; and in june, after the previous reduction in the pay scale, only the director general and above were paid. At the end of the year, no sales data were published by the company, and journalists were able to access websites such as the emperor and found that the wilma model showed a stoppage。
Until january this year, wilma disclosed the latest progress on corporate restructuring. It has been claimed by industry that it is difficult to find the “savior” if someone is willing to finance the wilma or to see the “rebirth” of the wilma this year, but its billions are lost。
There are also skyscrapers and hobbies that have been eliminated from the market。
On 1 april, the skycar issued a bulletin stating that, as a result of the cash flow problem and the restructuring of its sales operations, the company would implement a cut-off measure for some of the company's posts effective 1 april, with the date of resumption to be determined。
In fact, skycars ceased production as early as 2022, two plants in nanning and qingdao were not substantially operational, and only long sand plants were produced in the country, but production conditions were unstable. Since the production of the long sand factory ceased, the national production base of skycars was completely shut down。
The skycar (formerly known as the electric car) was created in 2015 as a sub-brand under the flag of the ecstasy car, and in 2017 it introduced the first car-type ev10, but in subsequent growth, only the me7 and me5 models were introduced into the market, with less than 6,000 cars sold in total in 2022。
Although at the end of 2022, a joint venture with sumou holding, a saudi mainland company, was contracted to undertake two joint investments of approximately $500 million in saudi arabia to establish a production and research and development base for new energy vehicles, producing approximately 100,000 new energy vehicles annually. Eventually, however, the contract landed and the time of the receipt of funds was not determined and the sky did not survive the “cold winter”。
Accelerator is in the same position as the sky, and in 2023, he is caught in a pay-as-you-go situation, in which he defaults on his staff salaries, payments to suppliers, etc。
Last july, the vehicle announced that it was ready to return to full work, but six months later, instead of actually returning to work, the vehicle sent more negative news. Journalists visited the headquarters of the elzé car in changyang valley, shanghai, and found that the “payment notice” had been posted, that the once noisy headquarters had been empty and that, according to other sources, the elzé car had reached the point where it was out of food supply and that the $45,000 involved could not be paid。
In the course of this period, he was exposed to an investment agency visiting the factory, but was unable to “live back”。
Autonomous brand rise
Turning to the difference between china's car market in 2023 and the past, the rise of autonomous cars was particularly marked, while joint ventures began to decline in the chinese market。
According to iaf data, the market share of autonomous brands for motor vehicles reached 52 per cent last year, an increase of 4. 6 percentage points over the same period. In the same period in 2022, the volume of autonomous car sales by biadi, the guangcai group, the great wall car and the chire are increasing。
According to published sales data, biadi completed the year's sales of 3. 02 million vehicles and was firmly at the top of the global sales of new energy。
There's also the chire group. Throughout the past year, the total volume of chire's exports was 937,000, representing an increase of 101. 1 per cent over the same period, or 49. 8 per cent of total sales. At the end of the year, the group claimed to have spent over $300 billion for the first time throughout the year, thanks to a significant increase in export volumes, with the sale of 18,813,000 vehicles throughout the year, which was more than 50 per cent over the same period, 11 years later, again surpassing the wall and gilly。
Up to 2024, chissy stated that new energy would be fully developed and that 24 blends and 15 pure electricity products were expected to be introduced over the next two years, with a full-year sales target of 4 million units。
Changan and the wall are also trying to catch up. The data show that changan sold 2. 55 million units throughout the year, of which over 470,000 were sold for new energy under autonomous brands and over 230,000 were sold overseas under autonomous brands; the wall sold 12,307,000 units throughout the year, an increase of 15. 29 per cent over the same period, and exports of 316,000, an increase of 92. 5 per cent over the same period。
For its part, the gilly group has achieved the target of 1. 65 million units with an annual excess of 1. 68 million and set a year-round target of 1. 9 million units for 2024, of which the sales target for new energy sources was 810,000 units。
Co-financing is weak
Retrospect of the joint venture brand, which was the main force behind the promotion of domestic car conglomerates, is now retreating from the second line and has even been slowing down the growth of corporate sales。
Long-term amford and long-amarta, respectively, sold 233,000 and 89,000 over the past year, a decline of 7. 13 per cent and 14. 77 per cent over the same period, slowing down growth in long-term overall sales。
The cumulative sales of the group exceeded 2. 5 million units, with the total sales of the group's main sales sources being 640. 5 million and 950,000, respectively, down from 13. 66 per cent and 5. 47 per cent, both of which accounted for 63. 49 per cent of the group's total sales, compared to 71 per cent in the same period last year。
The main reason for the decline in the sales of the upper steam group, which is a car that has fallen in comparison to a small volume, is that of the upper steam mass, the upper steam general and the upper steam pentagon。
The data show that the total annual sales of the three joint ventures last year was 3,6191,000, a decrease of 11. 54 per cent over the same period, and that the loss of sales by the main force resulted in a decline of 5. 31 per cent over the same period, owing to the fact that the upscaling of the auto-brand sales was still in the climb phase。
In order to integrate more quickly into the chinese market and accelerate the transition, the volkswagen motors group added $700 million to the peng automobile on 26 july last year to buy about 4. 99 per cent of its shares, while the two sides reached a technical framework agreement that foresees the introduction of two volkswagen brand models in 2026。
In addition, stelandis, the world's fourth-largest automobile group, announced an investment of about 1. 5 billion euros in zero-run cars to obtain about 20 per cent of the latter。
The “price war” is only the beginning, and china’s car market is still in the middle of a huge transformation, with no slackening of motorists, technological innovation, reduced efficiency, and more intense market competition。
