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

"people think MPV is a niche market, but I don't think so." CEO an Conghui said at the launch of Polar Krypton 009.

There are not a few people who share the same ideas with an Conghui. Since the beginning of this year, from Lantu dreamer, Teng Teng D9, Red Flag HQ9 to extreme Krypton 009, there are not a few mid-and high-end electric MPV that are newly listed or planned to appear on the market, which also makes the niche market MPV bustling and showing a different kind of charm. But it can not be ignored that compared with the car and SUV market, the position of MPV is still relatively marginal. Since sales surged to 2.4 million at the end of 2016, the MPV market began to decline year by year, and by 2020, MPV terminal sales had fallen below 1 million, with a market share of only 5 per cent.

According to the latest data from the Federation of passengers, MPV sales in October were 82000, down 6.4% from a year earlier and 8.1% from the previous month, which is not at all the same order of magnitude as the car market with monthly sales of 920000 and the SUV market with 841000 vehicles. As of October, cumulative MPV sales were just 770000, down 14.3 per cent from a year earlier.

Research and development of a new car, often a huge cost, research and development cycle is long, automakers can not ask for a return. Choosing to kill each other in a rather remote market makes people wonder what makes car companies aim at the MPV market and launch new products one after another.

01, car, SUV two major markets, there is no volume throughout the passenger car market, the major car brands in the car, SUV field layout is quite strong, the rise of independent brands is also due to the omni-directional accurate layout of these two major market segments, so that the joint venture brand sales are slightly weak. Judging from the sales data in October, the domestic retail share of independent brands has accounted for 51.5%, an increase of 6 percentage points over the same period last year.

If we focus on the new energy vehicle market, the competition between car companies in the car market and SUV market will be more fierce. The current industry form has developed into: BYD and Tesla ride the dust, the new power brand and the electric brand under the independent brand compete with each other. According to traffic insurance data, BYD, Tesla and SAIC GM Wuling accounted for 31.62%, 8.31% and 7.99% of the top new energy car companies in the third quarter of 2022, respectively.

In the car field, in the A00-class car market, it is almost difficult for a car company to compare its control with Wuling's costs, and affected by the rising pressure on spare parts costs, the profits of this market have been compressed to the extreme, and then go up. BYD's Han, Dolphin, Seal and Tesla's Model 3 swept the market with strong technological advantages. The total sales of these models in October are close to 100000, while the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles in October are only 676000. The rest of the market share is basically eroded by Eian AION S, Changan Lumin, Deep Blue SL03, Geometry A, Ulai ET5 and other products.

The competition in the new energy SUV market is even more brutal. From the low-end Nezha U, Nezha V, Zero run C11, to BYD Song PLUS, Yuan PLUS, AION V, Xiaopeng P5 with about 150000 yuan, to Model Y, M5, M7, L9 and other products, all over the market segments at all prices.

Corresponding to these automakers, they meet the market demand in all aspects from the business model, technology, service and even the layout of the industrial chain, and try to enhance their strength to the extreme from the perspectives of products, safety, cost, intelligence and so on. However, judging from the delivery results of new energy vehicles in October, even though the competition has been so fierce, the former head new power brand "Wei Xiaoli" still retreated to the second line, with Ulay and ideal delivering 10059 and 10052 respectively. Xiaopeng directly halved to 5101 and fell out of the top 15. Changan Automobile, Guangzhou Automobile Ean, Geely Automobile, Nezha and Cyrus have developed steadily with the delivery results of 32446, 30063, 28574, 18016 and 12047 respectively.

Superimposing the price war recently started by Tesla, enterprises are already in a passive position under the rising trend of raw materials, and their peers are still actively compressing their own profit margins and racing to occupy more market share. it is imaginable that it is very difficult to create a new hot model in such a crowded market. After polar krypton 001, polar krypton chose to avoid the car and SUV market and turn to MPV instead, perhaps taking into account the pressure of the car and SUV market. Just like the new energy car companies huddled out to sea, everyone is aware of the obvious Matthew effect in the industry, and it is better to open up new markets to seize opportunities rather than scramble for cake in a fixed market.

02, high-end electric MPV: new Blue Ocean, the new journey focuses on the MPV market, this market segment has already transitioned from function-oriented to experience-oriented in the past decade of development, consumers pay more and more attention to the comfort of MPV, and require MPV to meet the needs of more family car scenarios. This market demand led to the growth of mid-and high-end MPV sales. By 2021, after nearly five years of decline, the MPV market began to grow, with annual sales rebounding to 845000 vehicles, an increase of 7.2% over the same period last year, with the growth share mainly coming from mid-range MPV.

According to the report of Automotive Home Research Institute, the decline in overall annual MPV sales after 2017 is due to the rapid contraction of the low-end MPV market, with low-end MPV annual sales falling by 410000 over the past five years, while interrupted MPV annual sales rose by 150000. It can be seen that the original low-end MPV users flow to a clearer positioning of the high-end MPV and peer SUV market. By 2021, the middle and high-end MPV priced at more than 150000 yuan in the MPV market has occupied 52% of the market share.

Looking back at the MPV market between 2011 and 2017, the introduction of the two-child policy was a huge social factor. Many brands launched MPV models at this stage. At that time, consumers emphasized the seating function of MPV. The biggest confusion when buying a car was also 7 seats, MPV or SUV? This is the beginning of the market competition between MPV and 7 SUV, Honda Odyssey, Ericsson and other products began to take into account the business scene to the home scene.

Today, with the further liberalization of the fertility policy, the travel demand of families with many children has become more prominent, the MVP market has become more mature, and the boundary between MPV and SUV has been further broken, especially when extreme Krypton 009 is listed on Weibo. Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holdings Group and CMO of polar krypton intelligent technology, and ideal car founder Li Xiang and Teng Teng general manager Zhao Changjiang on Weibo It has also led to a head-on confrontation between the two major species in the electric car market.

Why should polar krypton II do MPV instead of large pure electric SUV? An Conghui responded in an interview that the car-building idea of extreme krypton is, "seize the opportunity to change, start from the most difficult, start from the high end." Extreme Krypton 009 not only entered the middle and high-end MPV market, but also the six-seat luxury car market with more than 500000 yuan. "009 has room for MPV and combines the cross-country force of SUV and the maneuverability of sports cars," Polar Krypton said. " In this way, Polar Krypton uses a model to capture the MPV and medium-and large-scale SUV markets.

Of course, what polar krypton does not explain is that the electric MPV market is a blue ocean that is still under development. In the middle and high-end MPV market, the foreign brand MPV product lineup composed of Buick GL8, Ericsson, Odyssey, Sena and even Mercedes-Benz V-Class and Elfa still occupies the mainstream market, and is higher than Chinese brands in terms of influence and user base. It is difficult for new entrants to compete against these products in terms of brand strength and product competitiveness, but taking the electric circuit as a breakthrough may challenge the inherent form of the traditional mid-and high-end MPV market.

The price range of MPV products that have been on the market in the past three years is mainly between 150000 and 350000 yuan, while the pricing of individual products, such as Buick GL8 Avenir and Lexus LM, goes a step further. At the beginning of November this year, SAIC GM launched the new flagship MPV-- Century CENTURY, priced between 529900 yuan and 689900 yuan, with four versions specifically for luxury business travel and six versions for family travel. Special emphasis is placed on privacy and intelligence. Middle and high-end MPV puts more emphasis on interior decoration and comfort, which is also a key factor affecting consumer satisfaction and repurchase.

Some industry insiders believe that Buick launched Century CENTURY this high-end MPV at this moment in order to consolidate its leading position in the MPV market. After all, the launch of electric MPV on the other side has become a trend. In addition to the several high-end electric MPV mentioned above, more manufacturers will join the emerging market of electric MPV, and the MPV planned to launch in 2023 includes products such as ideal W01, Weimar MPV and Roewe's new MPV.

In addition to the middle and high-end trend of the MPV market provides a schemable space for the entry of electric MPV, consumers' emphasis on comfort and privacy also makes manufacturers pay more and more attention to cut in from an intelligent technical perspective, to enhance the intelligent configuration of MPV to enhance product performance, so as to achieve corner overtaking, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons for the gradual conversion of traditional MPV to electric circuit. With the popularity of new energy vehicles, self-driving and intelligent cockpit have become the most common configuration of smart vehicles, as well as extending to the MPV market.

Electric MPV has natural advantages in energy saving and economy. The price range of the Tengli D9 is between 329800 and 459800 yuan, and the order has exceeded 30, 000 vehicles after three months on the market. A booming sales consultant said that the two most attractive advantages of the Tengli D9 are energy saving and comfort. Large space, coupled with intelligent and comfortable cockpit, and "appropriate business IKEA" product positioning, make the Teng Teng D9 in the 300000 yuan or so medium and large automobile market like a fish in water. The sales consultant even said directly: "Teng Teng D9 has no competition." In the middle of November, the head of the Shanghai Teng Teng Center said that about 1000 new cars are expected to be delivered in Shanghai this month.

According to the data provided by Tengli, home users account for 62% of Tengli D9 orders, and many business users will also use this car for family travel in their spare time. And 50% of the car owners were converted from BBA, 15% were originally owners of fuel MPV such as Buick GL8 and Elfa, and 25% of car owners used to drive 6-7-seat SUV. It can be seen that electric MPV is constantly encroaching on the market share of medium and large SUV and fuel MPV at the speed visible to the naked eye.

According to the "Chinese Household MPV Market Insight report" released by iResearch Consulting, the traditional SUV and cars can no longer meet the needs of the car scene under the new family population structure at the expense of ride comfort and convenience at the same time. In this context, the demand for household vehicles with multi-function, large space and high safety is prominent. At present, household MPV products are improving and upgrading in the direction of intelligence, networking, high-end, energy saving and younger age.

The electric MPV market, which is still full of imagination, provides entrants with more possibilities to win, as Zhao Changjiang, general manager of Tengli Automobile, said, "because today's market, Tengli has more opportunities and challenges, and say goodbye to the past."

This article is from the official account of Wechat: automobile News Agency (ID:automobile-news), by du Qiu.

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