Sales fell 9% in the first half of the year, Mercedes-Benz counterattack： R & D investment 14 billion, GLE domestic

The current mainstream public opinion is that the prospects for joint venture brands are not optimistic. But in the spirit of not abandoning or giving up, there are still many foreign brands ready to take up the ante Chinese market.

Last month we said that the shareholders of Changan Mazda have planned to invest 10 billion continue to build trams in China. Even the waist brand is so fierce, how can the head brand lag behind. This month Mercedes-Benz also announced a major decision, let’s first draw the key points:

· Plans to invest over 14 billion yuan in China with Chinese partners to put into production a variety of local exclusive models in China to accelerate the transition to new energy;

Mercedes-Benz GLE and pure electric long wheelbase CLA based on the MMA platform will be domestically produced next year, and Fujian Benz will produce new luxury pure electric MPVs based on the VAN. EA platform in the future;

The all-new no-map end-to-end smart drive will debut with the new model in 2025.

Sales slump, Mercedes-Benz is tested in China

Among all overseas brands, the German brand is the most dependent on the Chinese market. If other overseas brands dare to say they are giving up the Chinese market, the German brand is the least willing to give up.

Mercedes-Benz’s global sales, the Chinese market sales account for more than 30% of the share. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz’s investment in China up the ante, on the one hand, is of course to continue to be optimistic about the Chinese market, on the other hand, it also shows that the market competition has reached a critical stage of life and death, and the technology of pressing the bottom of the box must be taken out.

Data show that in the first half of this year, Mercedes-Benz’s global overall sales 1.168 million, down 6% year-on-year. Sales of passenger cars were 959,700, down 6% year-on-year. Among them, sales in the Chinese market were 341,500, down as much as 9% year-on-year, and the decline was much higher than that in Europe and North America.

Horizontally, although BBA’s sales in China fell in the first half of the year, Mercedes-Benz’s sales fell the most. BMW fell 4.3% year-on-year in the first half of the year, and Audi fell 2% year-on-year.

There are two reasons. In terms of new energy, although Mercedes-Benz has come up with products in new energy very early, the market performance so far has been unsatisfactory.

The early pure electric models had a poor reputation due to "oil-to-electricity"; although the new EQ series had improved performance, the technology was not as good as that of domestic independent brands, and the pricing still maintained a high brand premium, which made it at a disadvantage in the competition with competitors at the same level in the context of price wars.

In terms of traditional fuel vehicles, the long-wheelbase C-Class and long-wheelbase GLC relied on significant discounts to stabilize sales and achieve year-on-year growth; but another pillar of sales and profits, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, has just been replaced and is still in the production capacity climbing stage, which has dragged down the broader market.

The decline in sales and the negative effects of the price war have also put Mercedes-Benz’s domestic sales channels under great pressure to lose money. In the past two years, Mercedes-Benz has repeatedly paid to subsidize dealers to stabilize the channel’s military heart.

The good news is that after half a year of climbing, with the gradual release of discounts, the E-Class has returned to the normal level of monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles. In July, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class has regained the sales champion in the luxury medium and large car market. But new energy is still the biggest challenge for Mercedes-Benz to face. And the basic disk of Mercedes-Benz fuel vehicles is also under great pressure. Not only does it need to reduce prices to ensure sales, but the luxury reputation and value are also being tested.

The new plan still faces many challenges

Looking at Mercedes-Benz’s official announcement plan in detail, there are still several issues to be observed.

In terms of user experience, the next few upcoming domestic models all emphasize that they are China’s local R & D team and customized for the Chinese market, demonstrating Mercedes-Benz’s sincerity in attaching importance to Chinese user requests.

However, the so-called "local research and development" and "Chinese exclusive customization" models launched by car companies in recent years have received mixed reviews. In particular, some models that were once regarded as classics by car fans often lose their original characteristics after being replaced and changed, and are easily sprayed because of "domestic special supply".

Secondly, in the field of pure electricity, domestic brands are still leading and joint venture brands are catching up. Even if foreign brands come up with the latest technology, there is still a gap with domestic brands.

Take the CLA-class concept car that has been unveiled before, for example, the comprehensive energy conversion efficiency is 93%, the battery life is 400 kilometers in 15 minutes, and the energy efficiency performance of 12 kWh/100 kilometers is very good in the existing product lineage of Mercedes-Benz, but it has not yet reached the leading level among a large number of domestic new energy sources.

Finally, the domestic Mercedes-Benz GLE has long been the imaginary enemy and benchmark in the PPT of many domestic luxury new energy vehicles. For example, Ideal, Ask the World, NIO, etc., they have surpassed the second-tier luxury brands in terms of brand and sales, and have begun to approach the BBA. In terms of price, they have always had the advantage of domestic cars.

After the localization of the domestic Mercedes-Benz GLE, after all, still have to bear the task of profit, pricing can not be too radical. The current import GLE market end point price is about 60-700,000, the domestic GLC is in the 40-500,000 range, so the domestic GLE is likely to fall to about 500,000, it is difficult to say that there is an absolute attraction in the face of domestic new luxury.

The final end-to-end smart driving, Mercedes-Benz still needs to race against time. Domestic new energy brands have begun to shift to end-to-end smart driving on a large scale this year, and have devolved pure visual smart driving solutions to various price segments. For example, the price of Xiaopeng MONA M03 using pure visual solutions is only below 200,000 yuan. Equipped with Huawei pure visual smart driving, it will be on the bus in many brands such as Wenjie and Deep Blue. High-end end-to-end ADS 3.0 is also being popularized one after another.

By the time Mercedes-Benz’s end-to-end smart car launches in 2025, even if the technology and experience can compete, there is no preconceived advantage in the user’s mind.

Conclusion:

Cowardice before battle is a taboo for military experts. Overall, although facing many difficulties in the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz continues to invest heavily in the Chinese market at this stage, indicating that it still has confidence in its own development in the Chinese market.

It’s just that the current Chinese market value standards and price system have changed. The era of luxury brands making money lying down has passed, and the old-fashioned things can no longer be played. This means that Mercedes-Benz needs to face up to this change. The most important thing next is to see if the new product can restore the confidence of the market and users in Mercedes-Benz, so that users can re-enter the arms of Mercedes-Benz.