Bitauto Original The first half of 2023 has basically passed, but the most impressive thing about the automobile market is the word "price reduction". In fact, price cuts in the automobile industry occur every year, but this year the scale is a bit large, with almost everyone participating. Recently, Weilai also announced the official downgrade of all series, which is good news for those who are concerned about high-end new energy vehicles, especially those who are interested in battery swapping. But many people must still be hesitant. Will the prices of new energy vehicles continue to drop in the future? Is now the best time to buy new energy vehicles at the bottom?
Weilai starts price reduction, starting from 230,000 yuan
At 10 o'clock on June 12, NIO officially announced that it would adjust the prices and first-owner car rights of all its new cars. The starting prices of all models will be reduced by 30,000 yuan.
At the same time, the car rights of new car buyers as first owners are adjusted to: a 6-year or 150,000-kilometer warranty for the entire vehicle, including a 10-year unlimited mileage warranty for the three-electric system; 6 years of free Internet of Vehicles, 8GB per month; Lifetime free roadside assistance. After June 12, free battery swaps will no longer be used as basic car rights. Users can choose to pay a single payment for battery swaps. NIO will launch flexible power-up and energy-replenishment packages in the future.
It is worth mentioning that the price reduction of NIO's entire series is not to reduce the price of the car, but to separate the power exchange rights from the car price, allowing users to freely choose the free power exchange rights. After the adjustment, the value of NIO vehicles remains unchanged. The purpose is to allow more consumers to own NIO products, enjoy NIO services and community life, and choose a way that suits them to enjoy rechargeable, replaceable and upgradeable energy. service system.
But even so, in the new price system, the competitiveness of NIO's products has also been amplified. It can not only compete with BBA, but also put pressure on brands such as Ideal and Tesla that belong to the new energy track.
Taking Weilai ET5 as an example, the price of choosing the BaaS battery rental plan is only 228,000 yuan, which is lower than the terminal selling price of the BMW 3 Series of 260,000-330,000 yuan, and lower than the Model 3's 231,900-331,900 yuan.
The starting price of NIO's new ES6 has been reduced to 338,000 yuan, competing head-on with the 339,800 yuan Ideal L7 Pro in terms of performance, intelligence, comfort, price, etc. If you choose the BaaS battery rental plan, the starting price will further drop to 268,000 yuan, which is exactly in the same range as the starting price of the Model Y rear-wheel drive version of 263,900 yuan. However, the advantages of NIO ES6 in terms of configuration, battery life, and energy replenishment are beyond the reach of Model Y.
At the same time, for old car owners, Weilai does not "backstab" like Tesla and other brands, but promptly protects the rights and interests of old car owners through "tens of billions of subsidies".
Currently, Weilai offers three options for old users who have already picked up their cars:
In the first type, for users who have already picked up the car, the rights of the first owner remain unchanged;
In the second option, repurchasing users can choose to transfer the car rights and interests of the original car to the new car, or choose to give up their car rights and interests to deduct the car purchase price of 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan. The details are: the original car has a lifetime If the original car has free battery replacement rights 4 or 6 times a month, 30,000 yuan can be deducted from the car purchase price; if the original car has unlimited free battery replacement rights for life, 50,000 yuan can be deducted from the car purchase price;
The third type is users who picked up the car half a month before the price reduction (that is, picking up the car between May 24, 2023 and June 11, 2023). They can contact NIO before August 31, 2023 (inclusive) App exclusive service group, free battery replacement for life,On the premise of changing the three vehicle rights of 10-year unlimited mileage warranty and lifelong free Internet of Vehicles to 6-year 150,000-kilometer vehicle warranty (10-year unlimited mileage warranty for the three electric systems) and 6-year free Internet of Vehicles, you can get 30,000 Yuan refund.
In any case, NIO’s price reduction has catered to market trends to a certain extent and fully transferred benefits to consumers. After this equity adjustment, the starting price of Weilai models has dropped to around 230,000 yuan. This is undoubtedly good news for many people who have been interested in Weilai but were unable to make a purchase. At the same time, for those who originally planned to buy other 200,000 yuan For consumers of high-end new energy, they also have one more choice.
At the same time, NIO chose to proactively adjust its rights and interests when the switch to the second-generation technology platform is about to be completed. At the right time, it will not only boost the sales growth of the entire series of products, but the increase in scale will in turn reduce supply chain costs, thereby increasing The overall gross profit margin will help achieve the goal of restoring the gross profit margin to 15% this year.
Renewable energy prices drop, consumers are the biggest beneficiaries
In fact, since Tesla’s price cuts at the beginning of this year, domestic car companies have also carried out various forms of price cuts. In this game of price and sales, consumers have become the biggest profit targets.
For example, BYD directly lowered the price of the Qin PLUS DM-i model to less than 100,000 yuan for the first time. Under the huge attraction of "same price for oil and electricity", the number of orders increased sharply. It is reported that this new car has only been on the market for 5 days. It has received orders for 25,000 vehicles.
AITO Wenjie has reduced the prices of the four models of Wenjie M7 Comfort Edition and Luxury Edition and Wenjie M5 EV rear-wheel drive standard version and four-wheel drive performance version with poor sales by RMB 28,800-30,000, with a price reduction ratio of 8%-10 %between. At the same time, corresponding compensation will be provided to old car owners.
Xpeng has also offered a price reduction of 20,000 to 36,000 yuan for the G3i, P5 and P7, with the price reduction ratio ranging from 10% to 13%. For first-time car owners who purchased a car within the previous year, Xpeng also provided compensation with extended warranty to 10 years/200,000 kilometers and 4 years of basic maintenance.
In addition to BYD, Wenjie and Xpeng, Leapmotor, Wuling, Geely, etc. have also made disguised or direct price cuts to varying degrees on some of their new energy models. The overall price reduction range is about 10%.
As for luxury brand models, the price reduction is even greater. For example, the Mercedes-Benz EQ series has a discount of more than 20%, the BMW iX3 has a discount of more than 30%, and the starting price of the new Audi Q5-eton has also been reduced by more than 20%. At present, BBA new energy models generally have a discount of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, and the terminal price has basically reached the same price as independent new forces.
So much so that when they saw the BMW iX3, which started at 300,000 yuan, netizens said it was very cost-effective.
Everyone is becoming more and more pragmatic when it comes to pricing new cars. For example, the Buick E5 has directly raised the starting price of the joint venture's medium and large pure electric SUV to 208,900 yuan. Not only is it cheaper than many independent models of the same level, it is even more expensive.It is also much cheaper than its own fuel vehicle of the same class.
The Nezha S and Leapmoon C01 have directly raised the starting price of medium and large sedans to the 150,000 yuan level; in the field of medium-sized SUVs, the Leapmoon C11, Deep Blue S7, etc. have also raised the starting price to the 150,000 yuan level. Not only At the same price as gasoline and electricity, they are even cheaper than fuel vehicles of the same level.
It can be said that in the current new energy market, the "same price of oil and electricity" has gradually moved away. The future is when "electricity" is cheaper than "oil".
The reason why there is such a pricing system is that on the one hand, the manufacturing cost of new energy vehicles is declining. In addition to the scale of the supply chain system, raw material prices are also falling. The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has dropped from 600,000 yuan/ton last year. So far, it is only about 320,000 yuan/ton, which can reduce the BOM (bill of materials) cost of a 70kWh vehicle by at least 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.
On the other hand, in order to seize market dominance, car companies will now try their best to squeeze out premiums when pricing new cars, and increasingly follow the logic of cost pricing, with prices directly aiming for benchmarks in the same class. And this is equivalent to fully transferring profits to consumers.
Now is the best time to buy a new energy vehicle
After experiencing the price adjustment storm in the first half of the year, although many consumers took the opportunity to buy their favorite models, the successive price cuts also made some people wait and see. Will they buy a car today and the price will drop tomorrow? , when is the time to buy the bottom?
In fact, I think now is the best time to buy new energy vehicles. First of all, after a wave of price cuts in the first half of the year, many car companies have been hurt, and it will be difficult to offer greater discounts in the second half of the year.
Secondly, all the models that are to be reduced in price have basically been reduced. Now car companies are more willing to launch new models with lower prices to lower the threshold, rather than multiple rounds of price cuts on old models, because this will harm the brand more. Large, it is also not conducive to product value preservation.
Last and most important, the current discounts for joint venture high-end models can fully satisfy your "experience upgrade" while "consumption downgrade". Under the same budget, the experience can be upgraded to at least one level. What else is not satisfied? Of.
So do it when it’s time to take action. Those who want to spend less money to get a higher-end experience may wish to start with high-end new energy models (such as BBA). The discounts are definitely greater than those of low-end models; those who just want to buy the bottom For family cars, you might as well look at models that are about to be facelifted. The discounts will generally be greater than those of facelifted or brand-new models.
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*Some pictures in the article are from the Internet