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A few days ago, a hot topic on the social platform # can only drive the BBA if you don't work hard, causing a heated discussion in the automobile industry, and the reason why it can resonate is that the current price of domestic cars is becoming more and more difficult for ordinary consumers to accept. Some netizens said, "in the past, I had no money to buy domestic products, but now I have no money to buy domestic products! I had no money to buy BBA before, but now I have no money to buy BBA!"

On the one hand is the continuation of the price war in the electric car market, and on the other is the intensive release of high-price electric vehicles.

In the last two weeks of December 2023, domestic electric vehicles such as the Lailai ET9, M9 and Xiaomi SU7 have been released one after another. these electric vehicles are extremely expensive, including the pre-sale of 800000 yuan for the new Lai ET9 and the official price of 469800-569800 yuan for the M9. Even Xiaomi SU7, previously known as "the first car for young people", is about to fail. At the press conference, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi Group, publicly said, "Don't say 99000, 149000 is impossible, but this kind of performance and configuration is more than 400000 yuan." this has directly dispelled consumers' expectations for the low price of Xiaomi SU7, while conservatively estimated that the starting price of Xiaomi SU7 will be more than 300000 yuan, because it is estimated according to the formula that battery cost accounts for half of the vehicle cost. The manufacturing cost of Xiaomi car may exceed 200000 yuan.

Of course, as Lei Jun said, there is a reason why it is expensive. The product experience of 300, 000 or 400, 000 domestic electric cars is almost comparable to that of the current mainstream BBA models, but most consumers can jump out from brand recognition. Consumers who buy BBA models pay more attention to identity, while consumers who buy 300, 000 or 400, 000 yuan electric cars pay more attention to product configuration, experience and corporate culture.

Why do domestic electric cars become more and more expensive? In fact, this is also a helpless move in China's auto market!

Before 2022, most of the market share of Chinese cars was occupied by joint venture brands. German brands dominated by Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi and Japanese brands dominated by Toyota, Nissan and Honda accounted for nearly 45% of the Chinese market. FAW-Volkswagen has become the best-selling passenger car manufacturer in the Chinese market for many years in a row. Starting from 2022, with BYD taking the lead in announcing the suspension of fuel vehicles, it began to erode the market share of traditional joint ventures and eventually became the first passenger car company in 2022, ending the 20-year situation in which China's auto market was dominated by joint venture brands.

After entering 2023, independent brands continue to squeeze the market position of traditional joint venture brands through price war, on the other hand, they erode the market share of traditional luxury brands by launching high-end models. Of course, any brand development path is easy from top to bottom, but difficult from bottom to top. Take the ideal car as an example, after the ideal L8 and L7 have sold tens of thousands of cars in September, the L8 and L7 can easily reach ten thousand monthly sales. the ideal L6 with a price of more than 300000 yuan has already predicted the popular style even before it is on the market, while the ideal MEGA priced at 600000 yuan is full of uncertainties. Therefore, we can see that although domestic cars are becoming more and more expensive, most brands want to surpass BBA is a long-term development route, more importantly, the breaking of brand awareness.

It is expensive now in order to sell cheaply in the future. This explanation is not complicated, and the top-down layout is also the development route of many car companies, whether Tesla or Weilai. Take Xiaomi car as an example, its first model, SU7, is expected to sell from 300000 yuan. As a medium and large car, as a "7" generation model, we do not rule out the introduction of medium-sized cars and "5" and "3" generation products in the future. These models are expected to achieve the goal of low price by reducing product configuration.

The introduction of high-price car companies is also the only way for the development of enterprises. If a car company wants to attract attention, it must go to the high-end market. under the background of price war, medium-and low-end models may be more favored by the market, but enterprises' sales of middle-and low-end models are basically in a state of "losing money and shouting". Corporate image can not be improved, which is the reason why more and more car companies continue to launch high-end brands.

Going back to the topic of this article, "you can only drive a BBA if you don't work hard" also has a taste of market anxiety, because there are many low-priced electric cars in the market. BYD Qin PLUS, Guangzhou Automobile AION Y, Geely Galaxy L6, Changan Deep Blue SL07, and the joint venture Volkswagen ID series are all sold for less than 200000 yuan, which are obviously more in line with the needs of the asset class of existing Chinese consumers.

However, for many Chinese car companies, high-end brands and high-end enterprises are the only way to get rid of overseas brands dominating the Chinese market. so it seems to be more like a target for Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Maybach, more like a challenge. Think about it carefully, why do you have to increase the price of 200,000 to 300,000 overseas MPV by hundreds of thousands before you can buy them? why can overseas brands be so expensive, but not Chinese brands?

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