Are traditional luxury cars losing their appeal?
On July 1st, Hongmeng Zhixing couldn't wait to release its new car sales volume for June, which was 52,700 vehicles.
Among them, the best - selling Wenjie contributed 44,600 units. Below the sales poster of Hongmeng Zhixing, two lines of small characters were particularly noticeable: "Reached 800,000 cumulative deliveries within 39 months, setting a new speed record."
On August 7th, the six - month import data of Chinese cars from the Passenger Car Association was released belatedly.
In the first half of the year, 220,000 imported cars were sold, and in June alone, 43,000 vehicles were imported. In an article written by Cui Dongshu, the secretary - general of the Passenger Car Association, the end of the first sentence was also eye - catching: "This is a rare decline from January to June recently."
Based on the above information, it's not difficult to draw a conclusion: In June, the total volume of imported cars in China was still less than the sales volume of a single brand, Wenjie.
The dilemma of traditional luxury cars is not only reflected in the "collapse" of the number of imported cars and the rise of independent luxury brands.
In the first half of the year, the prices of Jaguar and Cadillac dropped to 150,000 yuan, and the price of Maserati shrank to 400,000 yuan. The net profits of traditional luxury brands such as Porsche and BBA showed no growth...
Under pressure, the transformation of traditional luxury cars is extremely urgent.
Successive "Huge Declines"
"From January to May 2025, 180,000 imported cars were sold, a year - on - year decrease of 33%. This is a rare huge decline from January to May recently."
"From January to June 2025, 220,000 imported cars were sold, a year - on - year decrease of 32%. This is a rare huge decline from January to June recently."
With the same opening and the same huge decline, the downward trend of imported cars is no longer rare. Looking back at history, the sales volume of imported cars reached a historical peak of 1.43 million in 2014.
However, since 2018, the market scale of imported cars has been continuously shrinking, and there are no signs of recovery so far. As of last year, the total volume of imported cars has shrunk to about 700,000, and it mainly relies on luxury brands to support.
In the first half of this year, the downward trend of imported cars has further intensified, with sales volume only reaching 220,000. Among them, Lexus stood out, with a sales volume of 91,000, almost accounting for half of the market, a year - on - year increase of 12.2%. However, "one flower does not make a spring." Except for Lexus, there were few highlights in the imported car camp, and the decline of some luxury brands even exceeded 50%.
Even Lexus, which showed relatively stable performance, has hidden crises. In just a few years, the ES series, its sales pillar, has fallen from the peak of being in high - demand with price increases to a situation of trading price for volume. The naked car price of the newly launched 2025 ES has dropped to the 200,000 - yuan range.
Lexus is not the only brand adopting a price - cut strategy. In May, the newly launched Cadillac XT4, the entry - level 1.5T version was priced at 159,900 yuan, and even the top - end version was less than 200,000 yuan.
In July, Jaguar officially launched a preferential policy. The limited - time price of the 90th - anniversary limited - edition Jaguar XEL started from 159,800 yuan. Compared with the guiding price of 334,600 yuan, it was reduced by 174,800 yuan, and the reduced price was even higher than the current selling price of the vehicle.
Also in July, Maserati dealers launched a limited - time exclusive price of 388,800 yuan for the SUV model Grecale. Compared with the official guiding price of 650,800 - 1,038,800 yuan, the starting price was reduced by 262,000 yuan.
However, different from Lexus, which achieved sales growth through price cuts, the sales volume of the above - mentioned brands still showed a downward trend in the first half of the year, only with a narrower decline.
More seriously, in terms of revenue and profit, which are the core concerns of enterprises, traditional luxury brands generally performed poorly: the net profits of the three BBA brands dropped sharply, Porsche lowered its annual performance forecast, and some brands even turned from profit to loss.
Independent Luxury Brands Seize Market Share
The decline of traditional luxury brands is not due to the shrinkage of the market. Data shows that from 2016 to 2024, the domestic luxury car market showed a strong growth momentum. The sales volume of luxury cars increased from 1.45 million to 5.113 million in 2024, and the penetration rate also increased from 5.9% to 18.5%.
The market is expanding, but the share of traditional luxury brands is getting smaller. Behind this seemingly contradictory phenomenon is the precise layout and strong rise of independent luxury brands in the new energy field.
In 2020, the new energy penetration rate in the luxury car market was only 10.8%. Just four years later, independent luxury new energy models have snatched more than 60% of the market share from traditional luxury brands, staging a drama of seizing food from the tiger's mouth.
In the first half of this year, the growth of the Chinese luxury car market did not continue. According to statistics from multiple parties such as the Passenger Car Association, in the first half of 2025, the total sales volume of luxury cars (including domestic and imported) in China was about 1.6 million, a slight year - on - year decline of 5% - 7%. The high - end demand still exists, but the growth rate has significantly slowed down.
The rare shrinkage of the luxury market may be related to tariff trade and consumption downgrade.
Data from the Bankruptcy Data Terminal shows that in the first half of 2025, a total of 4,135 bankruptcy - related cases (including various types such as bankruptcy applications, bankruptcy appeals, and bankruptcy supervision) occurred, involving 23,035 enterprises. Geographically, the eastern coastal areas accounted for 56.57%, and the central and western regions accounted for 43.43%, showing a characteristic of "dense in the coastal areas and spreading inland".
According to the statistical characteristics of the regional changes of luxury cars by the Passenger Car Association, the eastern coastal areas are the main force in the sales of imported luxury cars.
Take Shanghai, the region with the largest number of imported luxury car purchases in 2025, as an example. During this year's "May Day" holiday, Silead, a local Shanghai brand launched in the First Food Store, used to export its products to more than 50 countries and regions, with an annual export sales volume of about 50 million US dollars, and 80% of its products were exported to Europe and the United States.
However, under the high - tariff policy of the United States, Silead's orders from the US market almost dropped to zero, and the factory has had a backlog of inventory for half a year. Shifting from exports to the domestic market has become a "life - saving straw" for foreign trade companies. A product that was once exported with a label price of 1,800 yuan is now sold for only 219 yuan, and customers can also use a store coupon of 20 yuan off for every 200 yuan spent.
From 1,800 yuan to 200 yuan, Silead's situation is a microcosm of many foreign trade companies in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions under the tariff stick. In the past, when profits were acceptable, enterprises could avoid consumption tax and deduct part of the tax by purchasing luxury cars. However, against the background of a significant decline in profits, the demand for luxury cars has dropped sharply, and corporate customers have also decreased significantly.
However, judging from the performance of independent luxury brands, they have been relatively less affected.
In the first half of the year, the sales volume of Hongmeng Zhixing reached 204,600 vehicles, and the Wenjie brand alone contributed 154,000 vehicles; NIO delivered 114,100 new cars, a year - on - year increase of 30.6%. In addition, brands such as Zeekr, Li Auto, Xiaomi, IM Motors, Avita, Fangchengbao, Denza, and Yangwang are also working together, jointly forming an important force for Chinese brands to break through.
Correspondingly, in the face of domestic market adjustments and tariff barriers, independent luxury brands have not only held their ground but also achieved breakthroughs in exports. In the first half of 2025, China exported 3.083 million cars, a year - on - year increase of 10.4%, among which 1.06 million new energy vehicles were exported, a year - on - year increase of 75.2%.
This also means that more sales concessions need to be made by traditional luxury brands.
Transformation Is Imminent
"When you fail to achieve your goal, look for the reasons within yourself."
The continuously retreating traditional luxury brands ultimately cannot avoid their own lag in transformation in the wave of the times. The reconstruction of the external market and the rise of independent brands are like a mirror, reflecting their faltering steps on the new energy and intelligent tracks.
On the new energy transformation track, independent luxury brands have already completed the breakthrough from 0 to 1. From NIO's battery - swapping ecosystem to Hongmeng Zhixing's full - stack self - research, Chinese brands have built an all - industrial - chain advantage from batteries, motors to electronic controls in ten years.
In contrast, most traditional luxury brands still relied on the "fuel - to - electric" conversion of fuel - vehicle platforms in the early stage of electrification, resulting in frequent problems such as false range claims and poor user experience. Even when they later launched pure - electric platform models, the product iteration speed was far behind that of independent brands.
The gap in the intelligent field is even more significant. When independent brands take "intelligent cockpits", "urban NOA", and "driver large models" as their core competitiveness, the intelligent driving systems of traditional luxury brands still stay at the high - speed assistance stage, and the localization adaptation is seriously insufficient, making it difficult to compete with independent brands.
The good news is that leading traditional luxury brands have begun to accelerate their efforts to catch up. For example, in recent years, BBA has intensively reached in - depth cooperation with Chinese intelligent driving enterprises:
BMW has joined hands with Momenta to develop a truly "indigenous" intelligent driving assistance solution exclusive to China based on the intelligent architecture and hardware platform of future domestic BMW Neue Klasse models.
The next - generation all - electric Mercedes - Benz CLA will be equipped with L2++ map - free high - level intelligent driving technology led by Momenta and adapted by the Chinese team, and it is expected to be produced domestically in 2026.
Audi has reached in - depth cooperation with Huawei's Qiankun. Multiple models equipped with Qiankun's intelligent driving technology are ready to be launched.
At the same time, the pure - electric platform models of these three brands have been gradually launched, and the proportion of their electrified products is increasing year by year. Long - standing problems cannot be solved overnight. Although the chemical reaction from technical cooperation to product launch still needs time to be verified, their determination to transform after "learning from the pain" is very firm.
In contrast, the reaction of super - luxury brands is still a bit slow. Brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bentley have been less affected so far. Since their customer groups value the "irreplaceable" factors such as century - old brand heritage and handmade customization processes, the electrification wave has limited impact on them in the short term.
However, this "safety" is being broken by the rise of independent super - luxury brands. The large - order data of more than 10,000 units of Zunjie and the high - end attempt of Yangwang U8 are all impacting the long - standing moat of super - luxury brands.
For super - luxury brands, the real crisis may not lie in the current sales volume, but in their neglect of the attempts of independent super - luxury brands to break through.
In the Chinese market, from traditional luxury to super - luxury, the cruel reality is that there is no eternal moat, only respect for trends and rapid responses.
The gap torn by independent brands with new energy and intelligent technologies is forcing the entire luxury car camp to redefine the connotation of luxury.
The key to this reconstruction has always been in the hands of those who actively embrace change.