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The penetration rate of trams has exceeded 50% for two months in a row and reached a record high of 53.9% in August. Although fuel vehicles are far from the moment of life and death, joint venture car companies mainly selling fuel cars seem to have been forced into a corner. How to alleviate the current predicament has become a major problem they need to face.

Increasing sales is the top priority, and price reduction has become their most direct means, of which SAIC-Volkswagen is the most direct.

At the 2024 Chengdu Auto Show, a new SAIC-Volkswagen model, the Tuyue Xinrui, was officially launched, with a total of four models, with an official guiding price of 12.59-153900 yuan and a time-limited price of 7.99-106900 yuan, making it the cheapest SUV model under SAIC-Volkswagen.

On September 10th, the new Passat Pro was officially launched, with a guided price range of 19.99-239900 yuan and a time-limited price of 18.99-223900 yuan. The new Passat Pro is the second model of the SAIC Volkswagen "Pro" trilogy, with a new appearance and interior design and a new and old sales model. At the same time, the 2025 Passat launched a popular model with an instructional price of 17.69-192900 yuan and a time-limited price range of 15.99-179900 yuan. Not only that, SAIC-Volkswagen announced at the press conference that it would extend the lifetime warranty of the powertrain to all fuel models.

Due to the use of the traditional dealer sales model, fuel vehicles have flexible market pricing in the terminal market, as long as you have enough strength, you can cut down the desired price, but in the face of the current highly competitive auto market, SAIC Volkswagen still decided to "wield a knife from the palace", directly put the price in place, and directly fill up the market sentiment, otherwise users will spend too much effort and let users decide whether to choose SAIC-Volkswagen.

Compared with a few years ago, the current Passat does have great advantages in price and product competitiveness, but it is also unknown whether the price reduction will allow consumers to choose SAIC-Volkswagen and Passat. First of all, the car companies that cut prices are not only SAIC-Volkswagen, and secondly, they can drop twice once, especially in the context of the continuous decline in the market share of fuel vehicles. Price reduction has become their most direct means.

As a classic medium-sized car under SAIC-Volkswagen, Passat has long occupied a pivotal position in the fuel vehicle market and is favored by consumers among many joint venture cars. In the past, the price range of its main selling models was mostly concentrated at about 200000 yuan, which won wide recognition in the market because of its excellent performance, comfortable driving experience and good brand reputation. However, with the rapid development of the automobile industry and the increasingly fierce market competition, especially the rise of new energy vehicles, the traditional fuel vehicle market pattern is undergoing profound changes. Today, with the launch of the new Passat pro and the outstanding 2025 Passat, the price of a near-compact car makes people sigh that the era of traditional oil cars has indeed changed.

In addition to SAIC-Volkswagen, other joint venture car companies are also following suit to cut prices.

On September 13th, Dongfeng Nissan announced that Teana's sincere version was officially on the market, with a time limit of only 127800 (including factory replacement subsidies, state trade-in subsidies, factory finance, insurance, etc.). Some netizens said that the launch of the true version of Teana is a change of heart. It is understood that the true version of Teana is not a low-cost version of the car, there are all the necessary configurations, such as electric skylights, leather electric zero-gravity seats, 12.3-inch central control screen, reversing radar + reversing images, constant speed cruising and so on.

The new Cadillac XT5 officially opened its pre-sale on Sept. 14. The pre-sale models are all four-wheel-drive models, which are luxury model, noble model and platinum model. The official price range is 39.99-459900 yuan, and the pre-price is 27.99-339900 yuan per mouthful. Compared with the official guidance price, the three new generation XT5 models all offer a discount of 120000 yuan.

In the past, by virtue of brand advantages and technology accumulation, joint venture brands were often able to maintain a higher price system, but with the rise of domestic new energy and the intensification of market competition, joint venture car companies had to re-examine their market positioning and take the initiative to participate in the price war. It is assumed that more and more joint ventures will join the price war in the future, especially those whose development is already in trouble.

The current joint venture car companies, on the one hand, consolidate their market share through fuel vehicles, and on the other hand, accelerate the electrification transformation, but embarrassingly, their oil cars are becoming more and more difficult to sell, and trams cannot be recognized, resulting in a decline in sales of joint venture car companies. Facing a market crisis. Of course, joint venture brands are not without opportunities, and after years of technology and capital accumulation, they are fully able to tide over the current difficulties, but under the embarrassing background of "petrol cars are difficult to sell and trams are not hot", it seems even harder for them to see hope.

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