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Under the background of the gradual high-end of domestic automobile brands, the sales competition between luxury brands has been concerned by the industry. Especially after entering 2020, under the test of the epidemic and the general trend of the automobile market, the competition among brands such as Red Flag, Lexus, Cadillac and Volvo has become more obvious.

Some time ago, we reported the latest situation of three luxury brands, Red Flag, Volvo and Lincoln. According to the September sales data, Red Flag, Volvo and Lincoln all achieved year-on-year sales growth. In addition to the above three luxury brands, Lexus and Cadillac also reported the latest sales in September, overall achieved sales growth, but the sales of the two brands also reversed.

Specifically, Lexus continued its sales level last month, rising 13.3% year-on-year to 20100 vehicles in September. With that month's sales, Lexus sold about 158400 vehicles in China in the first three quarters. It is understood that the sales task of Lexus this year is 220000 vehicles, an increase of 20, 000 vehicles compared with last year. According to the current sales and growth rate of Lexus, there is basically no problem in achieving the annual sales target.

Some people in the industry have said that Lexus can maintain positive growth. On the one hand, it can effectively control prices and orders through order sales; on the other hand, Lexus begins to reduce the supply of models with large discounts and increase transaction prices by adjusting supply and demand.

As a high-end brand of Toyota, Lexus insists on the sale of imported cars to attract many consumers, but also gives Lexus more strength to raise the price of its models. Unlike Lexus, SAIC GM's Cadillac can be said to play a completely opposite role, selling many of its models at reduced prices in order to boost sales in China.

SAIC GM released the latest figures showing that Cadillac sold 26000 vehicles in September, up 41.7% from a year earlier, setting a new record for brand sales in a single month, with cumulative sales of 152860 vehicles from January to September.

In terms of specific models, Cadillac's current best-selling models are Cadillac XT4 and Cadillac CT5. Of these, XT4 sold 6666 new cars in September, with a cumulative sales of 18383 in the third quarter, while CT5 sold 6012 last month and 14859 in the third quarter. For other models, the XT5 and XT6 sold 3789 and 5986 vehicles respectively in September, while the CT4 and CT6 sold 1673 and 1866 vehicles respectively in September.

Cadillac can't grow without big discounts in the end market. The manufacturer guidance prices of XT4 (2021) and CT5 (2020) are 259700 yuan and 279700 yuan respectively, while the final transaction price of these two best-selling models is about 200000 yuan and 219700 yuan, with the overall discount price between 40, 000 yuan and 60, 000 yuan, so the substantial discounts in the terminal market have promoted the growth of Cadillac sales.

Some professionals said that as Cadillac liberalized the control of dealer invoicing, encouraged dealers to speed up sales, increased market discounts, and increased passenger flow, the final trading volume was also gradually increasing. As Cadillac sales grow, prices will fall further.

It is not difficult to see that there are still great differences in sales strategies between the two brands. Even with price increases for many of its models, Lexus, which insists on selling imported cars, can steadily increase monthly sales, while Cadillac has slashed prices in exchange for sales since it lost the crown of a second-tier luxury brand. In terms of sales of the two luxury brands, Cadillac successfully overtook Lexus in the context of substantial terminal discounts, but this will also lead to a serious decline in Cadillac brand premium, market price chaos, low second-hand residual value and brand loyalty.

According to the reported sales of luxury brands, Cadillac won the top spot of luxury brands with 26000 vehicles, while Red Flag and Lexus ranked second and third with 21500 and 20100 respectively. Volvo and Lincoln ranked fourth and fifth with 17300 and 7300 respectively.

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