Blockade Tesla: German Luxury Car "Three Strong" Test Water Pure Electric

On the evening of November 8th, Mercedes Benz's EQ, the first domestic pure electric SUV, Mercedes Benz EQC was listed in Beijing.

As a key vehicle for the transition from Mercedes Benz to the era of pure electric vehicles, Mercedes Benz was fully prepared for a year from its debut in Stockholm to the EQC in Beijing Mercedes Benz Shunyi factory.

As the first pure electric vehicle of Mercedes Benz, the arrival of EQC will also bring Mercedes Benz into the era of electrodynamics. At the same time, this is also Mercedes Benz in the 130 years of the development of the automotive industry, the largest step, the first to start the fight for luxury pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market.

In the near future, the imported version of Audi e-tron, which will be listed in November 18th, the small Tesla Model 3 delivered at the end of the year and the BMW ix3 coming in 2020, will soon join the battle of the luxury brand electrification.

"The future of the car is electric, and China is the starting point for a zero emission future." At the EQC launch conference, Yang Ming, President and chief executive officer of Mercedes Benz sales and Service Co., Ltd., Beijing, said that China has become the world's largest new energy vehicle market, and will be the most competitive electric vehicle market in the future.

In the global automobile industry "new four modernizations" wave sweeping, the Chinese market has become the core of the storm, and has become the forefront of the application of the latest technology, whether it is scale, speed and transformation capability, China is leading the global automotive industry's trend.

Fully open electric strategy

In the industry view, although Mercedes Benz to the electric transformation of the determination is clear. But to this day, the luxury car company, with the title of "car inventor", has launched the first pure electric product in the Chinese automobile market, and its power in the direction of electrodynamics has lagged behind.

In November 7th, according to Hu Jianping, deputy director of the Department of marketing construction of the Ministry of Commerce, under the influence of multiple factors such as the downward pressure of macro-economic growth, the slow growth of residents' income, the increase of resources and environment caused by the sustained growth of car ownership, and the change of automobile consumption concept, the superposition of automobile in China's rapid popularization stage has basically come to an end, and the new car market has entered a new normal of low speed growth.

Meanwhile, since 2019, the sales volume of new energy vehicles has been declining rapidly due to the overall downturn of the vehicle market and the decline of subsidies. In the 7-10 month of this year, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China has declined for four consecutive months, and the rate of decline has been increasing.

But the market prospect of China's new energy vehicles is not pessimistic. "Even if China's new energy vehicle market has been declining for four consecutive months, in the long run, the Chinese market will definitely be the best market. When the international luxury brands are in the market, they will be able to provide the best products for Chinese consumers through full competition." On November 11th, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the information conference of the national passenger car market, said in an interview with reporters.

In November 7th, Luo Junjie, deputy director of the Ministry of industry and information technology, said during the second China International Import fair, the Ministry of industry and information technology is leading the development of the new energy vehicle development plan for 2021 -2035 (hereinafter referred to as the "planning"). At present, the "planning" has entered the stage of soliciting opinions.

According to the plan, by 2025, the competitiveness of new energy vehicles will be significantly improved. Sales will account for 20% of the total sales volume of the year. By 2030, new energy vehicles will form a competitive advantage in the market, and sales will account for 40% of the total sales volume of the year. At the same time, the plan also made provisions for promoting industrial development from the technical line and policies and regulations.

The luxury car brand's ambitions in the electric vehicle market are not small. "According to our localization strategy, Audi e-tron will start localization in Changchun next year. On the same day that Audi e-tron will be listed, we will also introduce localized production of Audi Q2L e-tron, but these are only part of our electric planning. At the Audi press conference at the fair, Audi president of China said that by 2021, Audi will launch more than 9 new energy vehicles in the Chinese market, and more than half of them will be pure electric vehicles.

In the planning of Mercedes Benz to electric transformation, pure electricity, mixing and plug-in mixing technology are included. In the future, EQ, EQ Boost and EQ Power together constitute the overall layout of Mercedes Benz in the field of electrodynamics. By 2030, Mercedes Benz's pure electric and plug-in hybrids will account for 50% of the total vehicle sales.

In addition, Mercedes Benz plans to invest more than 10 billion euros in the next few years to expand the electric vehicle lineup and invest more than 1 billion US dollars in battery production. At the same time, Mercedes Benz is also investing in expanding its charging infrastructure.

How strong is the luxury electric vehicle?

In the pure electric vehicle market, the competition between luxury brands is becoming more and more intense.

"2020 is the driving force of new energy vehicles for international car companies. Tesla's" catfish effect "will bring new energy vehicles to the motor car market. Cui Dongshu believes that in the face of Tesla's impact, it is not a good time for international luxury brands to develop pure electric vehicles in China, but they are facing great challenges. Mercedes Benz BMW Audi new energy vehicle has begun to slow down, and now faces the challenges of Tesla enterprises, so they must accelerate catch up.

If we can not keep the lead in the electric vehicle market, the luxury car brand will not only be backward but will survive in the future.

"For Mercedes Benz BMW, the electric car market in Europe and the United States has been defeated by Tesla and may be defeated by Tesla in China, so they face enormous risks. Although Mercedes Benz, BMW and other luxury brands have strong brand strength, many problems can not be resisted when facing cross-border competition. Cui Dongshu told reporters.

But He Lun, vice president of Automotive Research Institute of Netcom, said that Mercedes Benz EQC and the upcoming Audi import e-tron filled the gap of China's pure electric vehicle subdivision market of more than 500 thousand yuan.

"In addition to Wei Lai, there are no domestic models in this section. Luxury brand is only Jaguar I-PACE, but because of pricing and positioning and brand influence, the sales volume of this car is not good. Audi e-tron and Mercedes Benz's EQC two cars also belong to different market segments. They are just competing for differentiation. This is the right time to open up the space. But in the different market space, how much progress can be made, which is hard to say now. He Lun said.

He Lun believes that on the one hand, luxury electric vehicles are now a blank in the market segmentation. Although subsidies are now facing the downturn, they are not affected by demand. The luxury car market is mainly in the first tier and second tier cities, where the luxury brands are the most advantageous in terms of limit and purchase.

Tesla, on the other hand, is still importing and can be delivered on a large scale next year. At the same time, Tesla's effect has passed. From the material of the product itself, there is still a big gap between the Tesla brand and the German luxury brand.

The key to the development of luxury brands is not the speed of transformation, but the guarantee of brand and quality. Therefore, compared with the new power in the new energy field, there will be more opportunities for the development of luxury brands in the future. He Lun said.