Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

In November 2013, Tesla opened his first car store in China on the B2 floor of Fangcao Shopping Center, Dongdaqiao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing.

Different from the traditional 4S stores on the outskirts of the city, it relies on shopping centers, with a dense flow of people and an inch of land. People who come and go can see the exquisite sample cars in the exhibition hall from afar through the glass. Whether you have a need to buy a car or not, you can go in and test drive: imagine that you are the owner of the car, comment on these cars, experience them, and finally shake your sleeves and say, "look, don't buy it for the time being."

Nine years later, it is nothing new for new energy vehicles to enter the business circle. Car experience stores, like Starbucks, have become "standard" in many shopping centers.

(new energy cars displayed in front of Starbucks stores on the first floor of Shanghai Century Trade Center)

However, on November 2, several media reported that Tesla had closed the experience store in Beijing Qiaofu Fangcao, the first store in China. A staff member of Beijing Qiaofu Fang Lawn Mall confirmed to Renhe Island: "their contract with us has expired and Tesla decided not to renew it."

On the one hand, new forces are still pouring in, and on the other side, Tesla, who was the first to start the dispute in the mall, quietly retreated.

What is the future of new energy vehicles in shopping malls?

Entrance: new energy vehicles entered the shopping center the year Tesla opened a direct store, China sold a total of 21.9841 million cars, of which 17600 were new energy vehicles, accounting for about 8/10000. Nine years later, in the first nine months of 2022 alone, car sales reached 19.47 million, of which 4.567 million were new energy vehicles, accounting for 23% of the market.

With the rise of new energy vehicles, there is also the location of stores.

@ Tiantian, who likes to go shopping, has obviously felt the changes in the shopping center in the past two years: "in the past, the standard features on the first floor of the mall were luxury goods such as gold and jewelry, as well as big-brand makeup, but later there were more online celebrities such as milk tea, boutique coffee, and trend blind boxes. Now you can see the new energy car in two steps."

We counted the popular shopping malls of Dianping Shanghai Top20, and found that there are 44 new energy car stores in a total of 17 shopping malls in 20 shopping malls. And 41 of them are located on the first floor of the mall.

In shopping malls such as Global Port, Nanxiang impression City and Hesheng Huihui, you can even see four or five different brands of new energy vehicles on the same floor.

There is a price to compete with established luxury goods for the first floor of the mall.

The winner Yun think tank has summed up the rental model of the shopping center. generally speaking, the shop on the first floor of the mall needs to bear about 50% of the total annual rent, the rent of the second floor is about 50% of that of the first floor, the rent of the second floor is about 50% of that of the second floor, and the rent of the fourth floor is 50% of that of the third floor. the rent on the fifth floor is about 50% of that on the fourth floor. By analogy, the B1 floor is 50% of the rent on the fifth floor.

Regardless of the high price per unit area, there is also enough space for different models. According to statistics, new energy car stores usually display two to four different models, and rent an underground garage to facilitate multiple customers to test drive.

But even so, after Tesla launched his first shot in the business circle in 2013, new energy car brands such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and ideal entered the shopping mall one after another. Winner big data counted shopping centers with a commercial area of 50,000 square meters or more in 23 major cities and found that the number of new energy car stores in 2019 was 425, and the number almost doubled from 2020 to 2021.

A more widely circulated story is: "ideal once beat a tide card for five times the rent to enter a store because the area is near an online celebrity milk tea shop."

"face": the most direct reason for the entry of new energy vehicles into shopping malls is to attract people against the rising trend and expand the influence of brands.

The first floor of the shopping mall is an excellent vanity fair. As long as the brand spends money, it can show its new car in the clean and bright glass window, let the soft light on it, set off the smooth new car surface and bright lines, and the air is full of the smell of money and technology.

Winner big data compared the distribution of new energy vehicle stores in different tier cities between 2019 and 2020-2021 and found that they were mainly opened in mid-range and mid-to-high-end shopping malls in first-tier and new first-tier cities.

In these cities, the flow of customers who come to shopping malls coincide more with the portraits of consumers of new energy vehicles, which are mostly concentrated in first-tier and new first-tier cities compared to consumers of fuel cars. higher proportion of women, younger, more spending power.

On the other hand, new energy vehicles have also become a new hope for shopping malls.

In 2019, the vacancy rate of shopping centers in first-and second-tier cities was only 6.1%. With the arrival of the epidemic, the vacancy rates reached 11% in 2020 and 9% in 2021. Vacancy rate, the proportion of the total area of a vacant house to the occupied area of a house. It is generally believed that the vacancy rate of more than 6% may affect the healthy operation of shopping malls. )

In the first quarter of 2022, the total number of shopping malls opened in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Tianjin, Chongqing and Chengdu was less than the number of stores closed. At a time when the overall operation of the shopping center is not ideal, car experience stores have bucked the trend, with the number of new stores opening 2.13 times the number of stores closed, ranking first in all store categories.

In addition to the considerable rent, new energy vehicles have also brought high sales to the mall. A staff member of a shopping mall in Pudong, Shanghai, once told China Business YiMagazine: "Weilai can generally contribute 20% of our mall sales target, and one month's sales are even equal to the one-year level of some brands."

From this point of view, new energy vehicles and shopping malls are "mutual achievements": the former wants fame and the latter wants profit.

"Li Zi": the traditional 4S store is being divided into two. If fame and popularity are the "face" needs for new energy car brands to enter the mall, then the reason for "Li Zi" is that the store shape and sales mode of new energy vehicles are completely different from those of traditional oil vehicles.

At the annual shareholders' meeting held by Tesla in Mountain View, Calif., in June 2013, Musk said firmly: "working with dealers will not come to a good end." From then on, the road of automobile direct operation represented by Tesla began.

In the past, the traditional car sales mainly adopted the franchise authorization model, which was handed over to the 4S store to operate. (4S refers to the store model that sells Sale, spare parts Sparepart, after-sales service Service and information feedback Survey. )

Now, the direct store model is dividing the experience, sales, after-sales service and information feedback of the traditional 4S store into two and three-- the direct store in the shopping center mainly undertakes the function of display and experience. "selling cars" in the store is no longer the only purpose.

The benefits are obvious.

In the traditional 4S store, it is not the brand side that directly sells cars and deals with customers, but different dealers. In the case of opaque information, dealers often use various means to engage in a "price war" for sales.

Even if you buy the same car of the same brand in the same city, you will find that the prices, discounts and service packages of different 4S stores are completely different. Just like you go to buy skin care products and find that in different platforms or different stores, some offer direct discounts, some are full of discounts, some give you samples, and some give you points back.

However, once the sales of the 4S store find that you have no intention to buy a car, the dislike of you will be very obvious.

Weilai owner @ Funfan told DT Finance that at that time, a large part of the decision to buy Weilai was due to its "user-friendly service": "I read a lot of brands, including Audi and Toyota of oil cars, and Wei Xiaoli of new energy cars. At that time, I was still pregnant, the sales of 4S stores were very indifferent to me, and some people were absent-minded and kept playing with their mobile phones."

Do not care about the brand image, do not care about customer feelings, sales, is the only indicator of the 4S store.

In quite a long period of time, in order to improve sales, the competition among dealers has entered a white-hot stage. By 2019, overall car sales fell sharply, and dealers even had a "price upside down" phenomenon in order to maintain sales, resulting in heavy losses. At this stage, the main source of profit for dealers is not the sale of new cars, but after-sales service.

Therefore, in the past two years, there were more and more complaints about the after-sales service of 4S stores, and people complained that the after-sales principle of 4S stores at that time was: "if you can fix it, you can change it."

According to the research conducted by the car-changing Research Institute, the important reasons for the loss of 4S store users are "4S store man-hour fee is too expensive", "accessories price is high", "far away from home", "complex process, long waiting time" and "excessive maintenance".

The direct store model is different. First of all, it solves the problem of price disorder, and the brand takes back the "pricing power" directly from the dealer: whether it is a car or car accessories, the price is uniform and transparent across the country.

Secondly, the mechanical structure of electric vehicles is different from fuel vehicles, which does not need routine maintenance such as changing oil, and the after-sales service problems such as repair and maintenance which often occur in traditional 4S stores are also reduced. Even if it needs to be sold after sale, because it is the direct marketing of the brand, it is equivalent to consumers taking the original factory accessories directly from the brand, which is more secure.

Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, publicly shared his experience of buying Tesla Model S, and he was fascinated by two points: "first, the price is unified and transparent, without bargaining, simple and direct; second, you can choose colors and configurations according to your own needs, and all links can be realized online, which is no different from Taobao. In the traditional model, it is impossible to achieve these two points."

New normal: buying new energy cars, also "shopping" new energy cars, as Li Bin said, the days of "shopping around 4S stores all over the city" are a thing of the past. Entering the store with milk tea and shopping bags to experience new energy cars is becoming a new shopping norm.

@ J, who likes to talk about new cars this year, went to several new energy car stores in the mall and found that:

"in the car store, the service staff directly represent the brand image. (from 4S store) A big difference is that it is not a salesman who takes you from beginning to end, testing you openly and secretly and urging you to buy a car. Different needs correspond to different service personnel. For example, one person is responsible for the introduction of cars and brands, one is responsible for taking you to test driving, and the other is responsible for sales and taking orders with you. "

In fact, these new energy car stores, which rely on large shopping malls, are not so much building stores that sell cars as creating a public space.

The most typical of these is Weilai. Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, who often studies Starbucks, Wework, Apple and Airbnb in his startup stage, has publicly stated that Starbucks founder Schultz is his idol, and he hopes to be like Starbucks, "not only to sell real products such as cars, but also to sell spiritual values such as space and aesthetics, and become a lifestyle company."

In his view, "if you buy a car, you are not just buying a car, you are buying a ticket to a new lifestyle."

At the end of 2017, at the Wukesong Sports Center in Beijing, the international rock band Imagine Dragons (Menglong) performed on the stage.

Yes, this is the car press conference of Weilai, the high-profile opening of Li Bin and Wei to depict a "new way of life".

In the same year, Weilai opened its first store in Beijing's Wangfujing New Oriental World. The store is located in the prime location of Changan Street. It has not only car sales areas, but also rest areas, cafes, shared workspaces, children's parks and other space areas. Weilai calls it a lifestyle community that grows together.

There have been media reports that its annual rent alone is close to 100 million yuan.

Facts have proved that a considerable number of car owners like this.

@ Funfan, who lives in Shanghai, noticed the Weilai car show a long time ago and was surprised that "the original auto show could still be like this."

After becoming the owner of Weilai, shopping in the Lulai Space has become a way of life for her: "now when I take my baby to the mall, I will give priority to the mall with NIO House, because there is a mother-and-baby room, a children's park, and people will take care of it. I was chatting with my friends in the rest area, and the baby was playing."

Shopping in new energy cars seems to be getting lighter and lighter again. In the podcast island car talk, "Why are electric cars sold in every shopping mall, while Tesla is always pulling out the store?" The audience described it like this directly:

"now the electric car is getting better and better, and it's more like an electronic toy."

"Yes, both the consumer experience and the transition cycle are becoming more and more similar."

Cooling: new forces are still entering the arena, Tesla began to retreat on one side, new power car companies are still entering the arena, and on the other side, Tesla, once a pioneer in shopping malls, frequently spread the news that he wanted to withdraw the shops from Shang Chao. One of the reasons is to reduce costs. After all, the cost of Shang Chao stores is much higher than that of 4S stores in the outer suburbs.

On November 2 this year, a staff member of Beijing Qiaofu Fangcao Mall confirmed to Renhe Island: "Tesla's contract with us has expired and Tesla has decided not to renew it."

As of the date of publication, Tesla has not officially released a response to "evacuating the fragrant grass." some self-media contacted Tesla, the person in charge of China, who mentioned that the reason for the store closure was that the store rent was too high and the contract was not renewed, which was not an online strategic adjustment. The car is selling well now. The store will be relocated to Dongzhimen Raffles Store, which is about 1 km away.

As of the first half of this year, the number of Tesla city exhibition halls in shopping malls has been surpassed by Xiaopeng, ideal and Wei. Nezha, Zhiji, Avita and other new power brands are also accelerating their layout. In shopping malls, in addition to the regular "supermarket stores" for the purpose of car display and car sales, many brands will rent aisle booths to open "pop-up stores" for a short time.

Compared with other brands, Tesla has the courage to "withdraw from the business circle".

The financial report shows that in the second quarter of 2022, Xiaopeng posted a net loss of 2.709 billion yuan, ideal Motor made a net loss of 641 million yuan, and Lulai made a net loss of 2.557 billion yuan.

By contrast, Tesla has made profits for 13 consecutive quarters as of Q3 in 2022. Although Tesla's sales declined in the third quarter, the gross profit margin of the auto business was as high as 27.9%, the same as the previous quarter. On October 24 and November 8, Tesla announced price cuts one after another in order to increase sales and better seize the Chinese market.

Whether it is to enter the mall, retreat to the mall, or price reduction, in fact, are based on Tesla's existing profits, even if the price reduction, there is not a small profit space.

Interviewee @ Kevin of DT Finance made an interesting analogy. New energy cars spending money into shopping malls is like stars spending money on marketing, so that they can be seen that once they have the core strength and establish a good reputation, "it is not so necessary to burn money to earn eyeballs."

Brand frenzied into the shopping center, in essence, want to rely on the popularity of the business circle, with a good service experience to win attention first, wait until the brand is done, the sales of new energy vehicles will naturally change from the current "store looking for people" to "people looking for stores". It is natural to reduce the proportion of business circles in order to reduce costs.

At present, it is a general trend for new energy vehicles to enter the shopping center.

Perhaps when the tide of carnival recedes, we will know whether what is floating on it is real gold and silver, or a bubble that burst with a poke.

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: DT Finance (ID:DTcaijing), text: Zhang Chenyang, Editor: Tang Yiqin, data: Zhang Chenyang, Dong Daoli, Visualization: Qi Tongyi, Operation: Su Hongrui, producer: Tang Yiqin

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