Since this year, the "involution" problem faced by the Chinese automobile market has attracted widespread attention. In various industry forums and conferences, many car company executives expressed dissatisfaction with the vicious competition within the industry. Many car companies fell into the whirlpool of endless competition under pressure, and finally couldn't bear it anymore and started complaining mode. Recently, in the question and answer session after the NIO nio in event, NIO founder Li Bin expressed obvious dissatisfaction with the weekly sales rankings frequently released by friends.
weekly list has become a new form of "involution"
sales list is of extremely important significance in the automobile industry. It not only provides important indicators for evaluating the market performance of brands and models, but also has a profound impact on consumers' car purchase decisions. . For consumers, the sales list is an important reference for them to understand market trends and make wise purchasing decisions.
At the same time, for car companies, the sales list is also related to the competitive situation of the entire industry. Those models and brands with higher sales can gain more market share and form strong brand influence and scale advantages. This not only helps to increase the manufacturer's brand awareness and reputation, but also strengthens its leadership position in the market. But in the past, the sales rankings we saw were based on monthly units, and weekly lists were rare.
So where does the weekly list start? I believe everyone has only one answer: ideal. Beginning in April 2023, Li Auto began to release weekly sales data. This period coincided with the launch of its three L-series models, and sales performance was stable. Although this move once caused controversy and was temporarily suspended, Li Auto still retained the weekly rankings, prompting other car companies to follow suit. However, on March 26 this year, Li Auto had a mediocre market response after launching and ideal mega. Its L-series models also failed to surpass the market position of aito and . Sales continued to be sluggish, so they decided to suspend the regular release of weekly sales. But just one month later, with the launch of ideal l6 and the steady growth of order volume, Li Auto resumed the release of weekly sales. Obviously, for emerging new energy vehicle brands or new car-making forces, publishing sales rankings is actually a strategic marketing behavior, but the question is, is the weekly ranking data really accurate?
Qin Lihong, co-founder of NIO, pointed out that NIO never makes sales forecasts, does not release any unaudited weekly sales data, and does not authorize any third-party organization to publish weekly sales lists with the NIO brand. one. These data have never been officially recognized by NIO, and the number of people within NIO who know the weekly sales is extremely limited, no more than 10 people.
Qin Lihong further explained that first of all, these data lack seriousness; secondly, Weilai did not grant brand authorization. If it is data from a national statistical agency, that is its responsibility and cannot be avoided. But if other companies use NIO’s brand to publish weekly sales, he hopes these companies will stop this behavior. Of course, he also understands society’s concern for NIO, and believes that companies should race against time to pay attention to their operating conditions on a weekly or even daily basis.
Coincidentally, Zhang Xiaogang, the product manager of Li Auto, posted on social media some time ago in response to netizens’ questions about the authenticity of its sales data. Zhang Xiao explained that the statistics of the automobile industry are quite standardized and comprehensive, including from production planning to actual production capacity utilization, from wholesale sales reports to dealer inventory statistics, to retail sales reports, and the registration volume of compulsory traffic insurance. , even the import, export and second-hand car market circulation, every link is supported by the government's official statistics. These data are true and reliable and cannot be tampered with.
However, Zhang Xiao also pointed out that the authenticity of the order volume data cannot be verified. Due to the lack of unified standards, order volume belongs to the company's internal data and is an internal indicator in the car sales process. In principle, companies have no obligation or responsibility to disclose this data to the outside world.
In fact, Weilai is not the only one who has questioned the weekly sales list of Li Auto.In July last year, an executive from Xpeng Motors also expressed his opinion on the weekly sales data released by Li Auto, reminding the public to pay attention to official information and expressing doubts about data from unofficial channels. At the same time, the executive also believes that there is no need to hype by frequently announcing sales.
However, when everyone was overwhelmed by the "involution", dissatisfaction with the weekly list finally broke out. Ma Lin, assistant vice president of brand and communication of NIO, directly named Li Xiang, "The senior management sets the tone: Don't engage in low-level involution. The weekly list is more or less a bit of low-level involution, brother Xiang @ Li wants to stop. The current mission of Chinese car companies is to achieve technological breakthroughs through research and development, isn’t it? Let’s power up together!” Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, also forwarded relevant content and said, “I am also opposed to the weekly list. That night, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, also mentioned at the press conference that Chinese technology companies are still working on the "weekly sales list" and looking for ways to make money. This is not what technological competition should be like.
Li Xiang, who suddenly became the target of public criticism, naturally did not want to swallow his anger, so he shared an illustration of a fable about hiding his ears and stealing the bell in his circle of friends, and added a "shhh" emoticon, which seemed to be a response to the car companies' boycott of the Ideal Weekly List incident.
In fact, the problem of the weekly list is more complicated. In addition to the issue of authenticity, the sales list has also begun to become "gimmicky", completely losing the reference value it brought to consumers in the past. A single SUV model can be scored as a "square box" Model Sales List" and "New Energy Square Box Model Sales List". But everyone knows that the more attributes, the lower the gold content. If you remove the models with high sales and keep the ones that are not as good as yours, does it really make sense to have such a sales crown? The so-called unhealthy involution competition is probably what it is.
In fact, the same thing has been done by NIO, which was the first to "attack" this time. In the previous sales rankings released by NIO, although they were not as frequent as Ideal's weekly rankings, they were extremely strict in terms of restrictions. High-end sales lists never play with ideals. The emergence of the
customized list means that the involution among car companies has become more serious. Using exaggerated publicity techniques or belittling competitors to improve their sales rankings and brand influence not only increases the instability of the market, but also It also brings additional troubles to consumers when choosing cars. For consumers, if they really want to choose a car on the sales list, it is better to rely on the sales data released by official organizations such as the Passenger Car Association. What is the essence of "involution" of
?
Since 2023, competition in China’s automobile market has become increasingly fierce, and industry involution has become increasingly prominent. Price war has become the primary battlefield. The Tesla at the beginning of last year and the BYD at the beginning of this year have triggered many car manufacturers to join the price war. The entire industry seems to be trapped in endless price competition.
In this increasingly fierce involution environment, the profitability of most automobile companies is facing increasing pressure. As the price war continues, corporate profits have generally declined, and some companies even face the risk of losses. In addition, conflicts within the industry are gradually intensifying, and public disputes have arisen between some automobile companies.
At this year’s 2024 China Automobile Chongqing Forum and the 2024 China Automobile Forum, there were big bosses from the car companies making public comments. Previously, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group , said, "There is no problem with volume. This is the law of the market. Prices are determined by supply and demand. We encourage companies to compete normally. There is no problem with profit sharing, but it will make the industry unsustainable. We need to return to rationality." price war”.
Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holding Group, also directly pointed the finger at BYD, saying bluntly, "I believe that there will be a fair, just and open legal conclusion about the incidents of atmospheric fuel tanks and serious emission substandards that are well known in the industry, and the truth must be "It will be made known to the world." "There is a lack of a good legal supervision atmosphere among peers. If they don't speak up in person, they will talk nonsense behind their backs; if they don't speak out in meetings, they will talk nonsense after the meeting."
When any industry falls into involution, the most intuitive phenomenon is often a drop in commodity prices. In the same level of models, if one company prices it at more than 100,000, another company may price it at 99,800, and then other companies will also lower their prices one after another, resulting in models that originally started with a starting price of more than 100,000 in less than a year. The price dropped to 70,000 to 80,000 yuan.
It is a conventional market competition strategy for manufacturers to lower prices in order to increase sales. In recent years, even luxury brands often offer discounts of 30% off, 20% off, or even lower. It has become normal for mainstream German brands to reduce prices by 30,000 to 40,000 yuan from the guide price - this is a situation where discounts and price increases coexist. era.
However, no one regards these price cuts as "involution".
So the question is, why has the current "price war" become involution? Take BYD as an example. At present, BYD is considered the main target of those who oppose involution. This year's price war also has a lot to do with BYD. The price war launched by BYD's models, to put it bluntly, exceeds the perception of the value of the same products by car companies and consumers. The core is that you must have sufficient product strength to make the price appear cost-effective.
Uncle Che summarizes
So the essence of involution is not the price, but the product. The premise of low price is high quality. Only in this way can it be called a price war. As for whether the current involution is truly survival of the fittest and the fittest, or whether some people are playing a clever involution game and exchanging low quality for low price, no one can tell clearly. Of course, time and regulatory authorities will give us the answer. But no matter what, malignant involution must be wrong. The behavior of "customizing the weekly list" is obviously a manifestation of impetuousness. Let's calm down and realize that transparent, open and fair competition is the key to the healthy development of China's automobile industry.
