Will BBA, a luxury brand, really not build electric cars?

Compared with the hand-to-hand combat of the new forces building cars, luxury brands are simply peace and love in the new energy vehicle market.

Calm is also reflected in sales.

The data shows that in June 5438+February last year, the insurance data of Mercedes-Benz EQC and Audi e-tron were 73 and 44 respectively. This achievement is negligible in the sales of BBA in China.

With the bleak sales volume, there has been a "price diving".

A car vertical website, Audi e-tron straight down 10- 12980 yuan; BMW iX3 and i3 have been reduced to less than 300,000, which is cheaper than the same class tanker. There is also EQS, the flagship product of Mercedes-Benz new energy, which will cut 200,000 with one knife.

There are indications that BBA, which occupies 75% of the luxury goods market, is losing its brand "magic" in the field of new energy. In the face of this big cake, are traditional luxury cars sure not to take a bite seriously?

In fact, it is not too late for BBA to lay out new energy sources.

In 2007, the third year of Tesla's establishment, BMW launched the "Project i" project. 20 1 1, BMW i, a brand-new sub-brand of BMW group, was established. Two years later, the first pure electric BMW i3 and plug-in hybrid sports car BMW i8 were officially launched.

Not to be outdone, Audi released the first electric concept model Audi e-tron in 2009.

Mercedes-Benz is more attractive. In 2009, Mercedes-Benz and BYD established Tengshi brand; In 20 10, its smart was powered on, and it was not until 20 19 that a brand-new EQ series electric vehicle was launched.

But the result is "loud thunder, little rain", and BBA's vigorous transformation has not ushered in the "explosion" mode.

On the contrary, Tesla, which entered the China market in April of 20 12, became the industry benchmark in only eight years, with the highest monthly sales approaching 80,000 vehicles, crushing the total annual sales of all new energy vehicles sold by BBA in China.

If they can't sell it, they will still reduce their prices and even be attacked by the new forces. Why are the "halo" of the three luxury cars no longer there?

From a deeper perspective, in the new energy era, the luxury "anchor" disappeared.

At one time, the power system composed of engine and gearbox was the technical "high wall" set up by luxury cars, and the value of luxury cars could be simply and roughly measured by the number of cylinders.

Take Porsche for example. It has various high-end engines such as v6, v8, v 10. For example, Rolls-Royce and Bentley, ultra-luxury brands that never flaunt how fast they can run, may have a 6.75L double supercharged version of V 12 "Heart of the Beast". These are absolute "monopoly" areas that ordinary automobile brands can't catch up with.

However, in the field of new energy, a high-performance version of Tesla Model 3 with a distance of less than 330,000 kilometers can accelerate for 3.4 seconds, easily killing millions of Porsche 9 1 1.

As a result, after tearing up the value system accumulated by this old luxury car for a hundred years, users began to think rationally. Are BBA's new energy vehicles really more valuable than others?

Unfortunately, the answer is not as good as expected.

Judging from several new energy products launched by BBA at present, whether it is cruising range, intelligence or acceleration performance, almost all of them are new forces.

Taking the endurance of users' deep perception as an example, compared with the driving range of more than 600 kilometers in Tesla, Weilai and Tucki, the driving range of BBA Mercedes-Benz EQC NEDC is only 4 15 kilometers, and its guide price is as high as 499,800 ~ 622,800 yuan; Audi e-tron will have a good battery life of 500km, but the price will reach 546,800-648,800.

In terms of acceleration performance, the new energy BBA can't even compare with its own oil car. BMW iX3' s 100 km acceleration is the same as BMW X3' s, which is 6.8 seconds, while Mercedes-Benz EQE's 100 km acceleration is only 0.2 seconds faster than Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

In the same period, the acceleration of Tesla Model Y high-performance version reached 3.7s, Weilai ES6 was 4.7-5.6s, and Krypton 00 100km was only 3.8s.. ..

In the field of intelligence, BBA's car-machine interaction experience lags far behind today's "Mini Li" and even its own brand in car-machine interface design, operation logic and system fluency.

In terms of intelligent driving, compared with wandering in L2 Lane, the experience is not good, and adaptive cruising requires BBA to pay extra money. Tesla NOA, Tucki NGP and Weilai NOP have been able to achieve high-order functions such as automatic overtaking, automatic lane change and on-ramp.

As for the "rolling" configuration with the new forces, whether it is heating/ventilation/massage/lumbar support/leg support "family bucket" seats, refrigerators, color TVs and small tables, I'm sorry, this is not the strength of luxury cars.

In addition to product experience, the competition in the new energy market also extends to energy replenishment, service and even circle operation.

In other words, before holding 400,000 to 500,000 yuan, there was no choice but BBA. Now, if the value of the three major fuels is anchored, no one is nobler than anyone else.

But there are not a few electric cars that are better than your experience and cheaper than you. Against the background of peers, the new energy BBA is so mediocre and so confident.

Although the landlord's family is easy to have a "stupid son", at least the thin camel is bigger than the horse, and the BBA family is also famous for its great cause.

According to the data of the 2022 financial report released by BMW 15 in March, the total revenue of BMW Group exceeded142.6 billion euros and its net profit was about1858.2 billion euros (about RMB135.6 billion yuan). In 2022, the turnover of Mercedes-Benz was 65.438+05 billion euros, and the net profit was 65.438+04.8 billion euros (about 65.438+00.85 billion RMB).

They are all hundreds of billions of businesses per minute, which is much stronger than the new forces struggling on the loss line. Coupled with the mature supply chain and brand premium, BBA's new energy transformation is still slow. What is the reason?

First, compared with BBA's fuel empire, the share of new energy is really too small, and it is still very sweet to "lie" on the fuel car to make money.

Mercedes-Benz sold 2.02 million new cars worldwide in 2022, of which 654.38+046 million were pure electric vehicles, accounting for only 7%. Even if the sales volume of pure electric vehicles of BMW next door doubles, it only accounts for about 9% of the total sales volume of the group. In other words, compared with many traditional car companies that cannot sell fuel vehicles and are forced to transform, BBA can still rely on fuel vehicles to support a magnificent empire.

More importantly, the fuel vehicle technology has almost peaked, and no new vehicle companies will invest in the research and development of internal combustion engines to squeeze the thermal efficiency that has been pushed to the limit. In this way, it can be predicted that BBA's fuel monopoly position will not be threatened for a long time to come.

There are neither immediate worries nor long-term worries. As a long-term leader, BBA can hardly have a strong enterprising spirit in the transformation of new energy.

Secondly, for a listed group like BBA, profit is the key, and the organization is not allowed to carry out the Great Leap Forward reform.

Taking the supply chain system as an example, BBA's century-old management system has squeezed the cost of the supply chain to the extreme, and it can earn the most lucrative profits with the sales of existing fuel vehicles, and the transformation of new energy production lines will undoubtedly occupy the profit space of fuel vehicles.

Therefore, it can be seen that almost all BBA pure electric vehicles sold in the early days were transformed from fuel vehicles.

Through the "oil-electricity * * * line", the cost of production line transformation is reduced to the utmost extent.

In such a huge and sophisticated organizational structure, behind any reform is actually the accurate measurement of business, which is called taking the lead and moving the whole body.

Finally, I think it is also the most crucial point: BBA is actually maintaining a delicate balance, and it is wary that the launch of new energy vehicles will break the previous price system of fuel vehicles.

Simply put, new energy means that BBA gives users one more choice as a supplement to the power system, but BBA will never actively push users to new energy.

If you actively "educate" users, its new energy vehicles are better than fuel vehicles, which is equivalent to putting yourself on a brand-new track that has not yet established bargaining power.

The logical basis of this "squeezing" naturally determines that luxury brands will only adopt the innovation of "squeezing toothpaste".

As mentioned above, in terms of power performance, vehicle-machine interconnection and intelligent driving, you will find that BBA's new energy vehicles are not better than fuel vehicles of the same level, as long as everyone maintains the same level. In short, new energy vehicles must not "internal friction" with fuel vehicles, and it is better to "have two bloom flowers, one for each table".

Of course, in the face of the irreversible wave of new energy, BBAs is not indifferent.

At present, BBA's technical determination remains firm. For example, BMW announced two years ago that it would not outsource the new three-electricity system and adhere to the independent research and development route. It is predicted that by 2030, the energy density of batteries will double.

At present, Mercedes-Benz has put into operation or planned 9 battery factories, and plans to build another 8 battery factories with global partners. Audi predicts that in the next five years, the total investment will be about 35 billion euros, half of which will be used for automobile projects and innovative automobile technologies.

It can be found that BBA is more inclined to hold the core three-electricity technology in its own hands and build new technical barriers through self-research.

But all this needs time and market feedback. On the one hand, it sticks to the share of fuel vehicles, on the other hand, it is afraid of falling behind in the new technological revolution. The mode of walking on two legs determines that BBA can't "all in" and jump into the gamble of electric transformation.

There is a view that BBA is waiting for the popularization rate of electrification to reach the turning point of profit, waiting for everyone to step on the pit, waiting for the subversive breakthrough of battery technology, waiting for the market foundation to be relatively complete, and then entering the track with a century-old brand accumulation and corresponding products.

To put it bluntly, old luxury cars want to fight a "protracted war" that they are good at, consuming resources, talents and even time. However, what needs to be vigilant is that countless industries have verified that the market may be discontinuous in the face of explosive innovation by new forces.

Technology can make up for it, but the formation of market concept is not overnight. When young users begin to accept more players to enter the new energy luxury car market, when they make the purchase decision of 400,000-class electric vehicles, they will not think of BBA for the first time. It is hard to say whether traditional luxury cars will really miss this historical opportunity.

Just like there is a company called "Apple" in this world.

The former Nokia Empire, however, fell apart overnight.

This article comes from the author's school of Yiche number, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.