AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/07 Report--

A few days ago, German luxury carmakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have announced results for the first half of 2023, and the gap between the three companies is growing.

In terms of revenue, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi in the first half of the year were 74.07 billion euros, 75.76 billion euros and 34.17 billion euros respectively, up 12.4%, 6.0% and 14.4% respectively over the same period last year. In terms of profits, the net profits of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi were 6.62 billion euros, 10.49 billion euros and 3.47 billion euros respectively, with Mercedes-Benz up 7.0% year-on-year, BMW and Audi down 50.0% and 30.7% respectively.

To sum up, it is not difficult to see that Mercedes-Benz's performance in the BBA is the brightest, with revenue and profit growth significantly higher than that of BMW and Audi, while Audi's revenue is only half of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and even net profit plunged by 30.7%.

BMW's profits halved, but there was another reason, mainly because brilliance's combined watch led to higher tax rates than in previous years. In February 2022, BMW Group paid 3.7 billion euros for a 25 per cent stake in BMW brilliance, increasing its stake from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, while net profit fell in the first half of the year, mainly due to a normal decline after a sharp rise in investment income as a result of major acquisitions. Of course, if BMW can maintain a normal and stable state of operation in 2023, theoretically there will not be another sharp decline in profits in 2024.

The rapid growth of new energy vehicles has forced BMW to step up promotion of traditional fuel vehicles, which is also one of the main reasons for the decline in BMW's profits. Oliver Zipse, chief executive of BMW, has said that "the BMW Group is strong enough to remain competitive without resorting to discounts", but from the pricing strategy of domestic models on sale, BMW electric cars are already much lower than the terminal prices of the same class of fuel vehicles in China, which also proves that BMW electric cars are not competitive in the Chinese market.

The performance gap of the three car companies has further widened, in addition to the difference between their original market share and gross profit level, it is also related to the differences in the strategic cognition of the current transformation from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles and the promotion and de-marketing of traditional models under the differences in the intensity of transformation.

In terms of sales volume, BMW Group sold 1.2149 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of the year, an increase of 4.7% over the same period last year, including 152900 pure electric models, an increase of 101.5% over the same period last year. Mercedes-Benz ranked second, with global sales of 1.0192 million vehicles in the first half, an increase of 5% over the same period last year. Among them, pure electric model sales were 102600, an increase of 121% over the same period last year. Audi was at the bottom, with sales of 907100 vehicles, up 15.5 per cent from a year earlier, while deliveries of pure electric models were 75600, up 51.2 per cent from a year earlier.

With the acceleration of global electrification transformation and upgrading, the German luxury three continue to increase the layout, but from all aspects, Audi's competitiveness is obviously lower than that of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, and it is reasonable for Audi to lag behind gradually. this is also the main reason why Audi has recently made great efforts to carry out technical cooperation with Chinese electric car companies in order to achieve technology and market catch-up.

BMW plans that pure electric models will be its main sales growth this year, accounting for 15% of the group's total annual delivery volume. In the second half of this year, BMW iX1, BMW's third domestic pure electric model, will be put into production in Shenyang, while the BMW i5 will be made domestically next year. BMW plans to start production of new generation models in the second half of 2025, and at least six new generation models will be mass produced in the following 24 months. Chipze said that the electrified transformation is a stable and balanced development, and it is necessary to maintain high efficiency and balance in order to maintain competitiveness.

In the first half of the year, Mercedes-Benz launched a new EQS pure electric SUV and a new EQE pure electric SUV. According to its plan, six new pure electric models and plug-in hybrid models will be launched to the Chinese market this year. From the perspective of the global layout, Mercedes-Benz plans to achieve full pure electric power by 2030 and is committed to achieving carbon neutralization of the new passenger car lineup in the full life cycle by 2039 at the latest.

Audi said that the first PPE platform model, Q6 e-tron, will be unveiled in the second half of this year, and the new car will first be imported into the Chinese market, followed by production at Audi's new FAW plant; investment in electrification and digitization will be about 28 billion euros in the next five years.

It is worth mentioning that in July this year, Audi and SAIC further deepened their existing cooperation, and the two sides will quickly and efficiently expand the intelligent network-connected electric vehicle product portfolio in the high-end market through joint development. As a first step in planning, Audi will enter a market segment that has not previously been covered in China by launching new electric models.

In the era of electrification, in the face of the impact of Tesla and so on, with the acceleration of the market share of electric vehicles, BBA, as a traditional fuel vehicle head enterprise, can rely on its own industrial chain, supply chain and market network advantages over the years to quickly obtain technical resources of electric vehicles by means of technical cooperation and mergers and acquisitions, so as to consolidate its traditional dominant position in the automotive field.

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