The B-segment car market has become extremely competitive with prices dropping to the 80,000 yuan range. The plug-in hybrid market has entered a "three-way battle." A salesperson said, "I never dared to imagine this before."
"The self-owned brand B-class sedans have entered the price range of 80,000 yuan, which was unimaginable before." Recently, a car salesperson from BYD in Shanghai told a reporter from National Business Daily that the competition in the current niche market has become extremely fierce.
As the salesperson said, the B-class sedan market is witnessing a new round of "price war."
Recently, the Roewe M7 DMH was launched. With a limited-time price ranging from 85,800 to 102,800 yuan and the size of a mid-large sedan, it has launched an offensive in the 100,000-yuan plug-in hybrid sedan market. In this niche market, competitors such as the BYD Qin L and the Geely Galaxy A7 are also eyeing the opportunity. The starting prices of these two models in the terminal market are also focused on the 80,000-yuan price range.
He who wins the B-class sedan market wins the world. This fierce competition in the sedan market not only concerns the market share of car companies in this niche area but also indicates that self-owned brands are constantly seizing the high ground and reshaping the market landscape in the competition with joint-venture brands, leveraging their advantages in price, technology, and intelligent configurations.
1
The B-class Plug-in Hybrid Market Enters a "Three-way Battle"
In response to the offensive of the Roewe M7 DMH, the "competitors" are not sitting idle.
"As the National Day holiday approaches, we also have promotional activities. The official price of the 2025 BYD Qin L DM-i Intelligent Driving Edition 80KM Leading Model is 99,800 yuan. Now, we are offering a 10,000-yuan cash discount and an additional 2,000-yuan local government subsidy. So, the actual price is 87,800 yuan. If you trade in your old car, the price can be negotiated further." The aforementioned BYD car salesperson said. "The starting price of the Geely Galaxy A7 is 89,800 yuan, and the current actual terminal price is around 81,800 yuan." A salesperson from Geely Galaxy revealed.
The BYD Qin L and the Geely Galaxy A7 are the "hot favorites" in the B-class plug-in hybrid sedan market. The former's official price range is from 99,800 to 153,800 yuan, and its monthly sales fluctuate between 16,000 and 20,000 units. According to data from Dongchedi, it and its sibling model, the Qin PLUS DM, have long occupied the top two positions in the plug-in hybrid sedan niche market. The latter's official price range is from 89,800 to 125,800 yuan. After its launch in August this year, its monthly sales reached 12,000 units, ranking fifth in the plug-in hybrid sedan niche market.
If we focus only on the B-class sedan market, the BYD Qin L and the Geely Galaxy A7 will be strong competitors to the Roewe M7 DMH. Judging from the current market feedback, the order volume of the Roewe M7 DMH exceeded 10,000 in the first week of its pre-sale. In the future, it may form a tripartite confrontation with the BYD Qin L and the Geely Galaxy A7.
Image source: Dongchedi
"This car fully reflects that what we care about is what products users want and what pursuits they have. The new Roewe M7 DMH aims to allow consumers to purchase a 200,000-yuan level B-class car experience with a 100,000-yuan price." Yu Jingmin, the executive deputy general manager of SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company, said in an interview with a reporter from National Business Daily. From the product design of the new Roewe M7 DMH, the sales volume of this car "can't be bad." A Roewe dealer also said that the price of the new car "is already right," and he has a positive outlook on its performance in the terminal market.
2
Self-owned Brands
Occupy Most Positions in the B-class Plug-in Hybrid Ranking
The B-class sedan market has a large capacity and high profits. For a long time in the past, it was basically dominated by joint-venture brands.
However, now, self-owned brands are taking away the market share of joint-venture B-class sedans head-on. Especially in the plug-in hybrid niche market, self-owned brands such as the BYD Qin L, the Geely Galaxy A7, and the Chery Fengyun A9L have long occupied the top positions in the B-class plug-in hybrid sedan sales ranking.
Image source: Company-provided
Qian Yang, the general manager of the Roewe brand division, believes that this is the result of continuous improvement in technology and service by self-owned brands such as Roewe. "The competition in this niche market is extremely fierce. The criteria for users to choose plug-in hybrid models are basically the cruising range, fuel consumption, and vehicle usage guarantee. So, these three aspects must be done well." For example, the Roewe M7 DMH is equipped with SAIC's self-developed DMH 6.0 super hybrid system, with a CLTC pure-electric cruising range of 160 km and a comprehensive cruising range of over 2,100 km.
However, joint-venture brands have also launched plug-in hybrid models in the B-class sedan market, such as the Honda Accord e:PHEV and the Volkswagen Passat PHEV. In terms of price, joint-venture models are still concentrated in the 200,000-yuan price range; in terms of monthly sales, the sales of these two models remain in the three-digit range.
"In the high-end sedan market, joint-venture brands such as Japanese brands are shrinking, while self-owned brands are rising rapidly." Cui Dongshu, the secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, mentioned this trend.
Beyond price, which is the "killer weapon" of self-owned brands, intelligent configurations are also an important means for self-owned brands to cater to current consumers. "Now, the workmanship and quality of self-owned brands have become very mature. More importantly, the intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit configurations of self-owned brands are higher than those of joint-venture brands, which are more popular among consumers." The aforementioned BYD salesperson said.
"The Roewe M7 DMH also achieved the world's first installation of the Doubao deep thinking large model, enabling in-depth AI (artificial intelligence) voice conversations. Currently, all intelligent connected devices require a wake-up word, but we aim to break through this. We want the car system to be able to hear, see, and serve users at any time." Yu Jingmin said.
3
The Industry Is Optimistic about the Future Trend of the Plug-in Hybrid Market
According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, in July 2022, the sales volume of B-class plug-in hybrid sedan models was 9,925 units, with monthly sales of less than 10,000 units, accounting for 2% of the new energy vehicle sales market share that month. In July this year, the sales volume of B-class new energy sedans reached 124,000 units, accounting for 12.6% of the overall market share. Although the China Passenger Car Association did not specifically announce the sales volume of plug-in hybrid sedans, the sales volume of plug-in hybrid sedans has increased rapidly in the past two years, and the monthly sales volume of popular models once reached 20,000 units.
However, different from the previous "blind rush," the growth rate of plug-in hybrid models has shown a slowdown trend. In August, the domestic sales volume of plug-in hybrid cars was about 310,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 8%.
A research report from Dongxing Securities believes that in August, the overall trend of the domestic automobile market was strong, and the trends of models with different power forms showed differentiation. The sales growth rate of pure-electric models was relatively high, while the growth rate of plug-in hybrid and extended-range models slowed down. This was mainly because the subsidy policy promoted the increase in the proportion of small pure-electric models, and the proportion of higher-priced hybrid and extended-range models decreased, resulting in a structural pull.
However, in the long run, the industry still maintains a positive outlook on the future trend of plug-in hybrid models.
"During daily trips, pure-electric vehicles don't have to worry about charging on the highway, but during the Spring Festival, consumers will experience the difficulty of queuing for charging. Considering such vehicle usage scenarios, hybrid and fuel vehicles will still exist in the future market structure and maintain a certain proportion, but it's still hard to judge the specific structural ratio now." Shao Mingfeng, the CBO of Voyah and the general manager of its sales company, told reporters.
It's worth mentioning that going global has become another breakthrough for plug-in hybrid models. Data from the Gasgoo Research Institute shows that in the first half of this year, the export of plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles showed a doubling trend, with a year-on-year increase of up to 165%, replacing pure-electric vehicles as the new growth engine. A research report from Dongxing Securities said that due to the differences in overseas charging infrastructure construction, plug-in hybrid models have gained more market share due to their better economy and intelligent advantages compared to fuel vehicles, and the industry continues to be optimistic about their overseas performance.
Xu Changming, the former deputy director of the State Information Center and a senior economist, said at a recent industry forum that since 2021, the sales volume of hybrid vehicles in China has achieved leapfrog development, with an annual growth rate of at least 50%, increasing from less than 1 million units to nearly 6 million units. Among them, the high-speed growth is mainly driven by plug-in hybrid and extended-range models. The proportion of plug-in hybrid models in hybrid vehicles has been continuously and rapidly increasing, reaching 62.6% last year and 62.7% in the first four months of this year. In the next two or three years, plug-in hybrid models will still maintain good development and may even exceed the proportion of pure-electric models in the short term.
This article is from the WeChat official account "NBD Auto," written by Huang Xinxu and reprinted by 36Kr with permission.