On December 9th, Xiaomi announced its second new car, the Xiaomi YU7, which is expected to go on sale in June and July next year.
After this car was exposed by the new car catalogue of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it instantly became the most eye-catching “top stream”, with market ambitions directed at Tesla’s Model Y.
Interestingly, the day before Xiaomi YU7 released the “ID photo”, Lei Jun posted video and text on his social platform, saying that Xiaomi would add 50 stores this month and is expected to expand 19 cities, including Urumqi and Nantong.
With the rapid growth over the past year Xiaomi not only has a precise marketing rhythm and has gradually increased market attention but also accelerated the expansion of its sales and service outlets.
Lu Weibing, a partner and president of Xiaomi Group, has previously revealed that as of the third quarter of this year, Xiaomi had about 130 stores, with an average sales of more than 100 vehicles per store– based on the total sales of 20,000 cars.
the average sales per store is about 150, and compared horizontally with competitors, the output efficiency is already very high.
Huawei’s Hongmeng Zhixing, channel is also an advantage.
Dating back to 2021, when Huawei Smart SF5 was launched, Yu Chengdong used a PPT with a powerful distribution network to introduce to the media the channel confidence to enter the new automobile retail.
After three years of operation, Hongmeng Zhihang is even more ambitious in channel expansion, not only making a lot of money on the basic market, but also reverse “courting” the traditional dealer camp in the past.
Take Zhongsheng as an example every important decision and action of the largest car dealer group in China is a weather vane of the dealer system.
Just this year, the group has been authorized by about 50 Hongmeng Zhihang stores to renovate stores in two phases, replacing most of BBA’s 4S stores.
When the German luxury brand represented by BBA was no longer at its peak, a number of new rivals, such as M9, Zunjie S800 and Xiaomi SU7, entered the battlefield from the diagonal thorn.
Both Huawei and Xiaomi have ramped up speed over the past year in terms of product matrix, capacity efficiency and channel deployment, trying to bring down rivals in the car market where bayonets are popular.
The last “defense line” of BBA, with high brand premium, strong after-sales service and value-added service, and high profit return, 4S dealer system has always been a strong fortress of BBA in the Chinese market.
However, no matter how strong the fortress is, at a special point in the transformation of the industry, there is also a trend of “defection” new car-building forces, especially Huawei Hongmeng Zhixing.
In the era of traditional fuel cars, Zhongsheng Group’s profits are “far ahead” thanks to its numerous luxury brand 4S stores.
At the peak of its performance in 2021, the net profit of Zhongsheng Group was as high as 8.
329 billion yuan, which was 1/3 of the 24.
53 billion yuan of SAIC Group, and far higher than the 3.
03 billion yuan earned by BYD and the 7.
335 billion yuan earned by GAC GROUP in the same period.
A few years ago, even if the “price war” between joint venture brands and independent brands was unprecedentedly fierce, the dealer groups represented by Zhongsheng were able to stay out of it by virtue of the strength of the luxury car market and wearing high-profit “amulets”.
However, the wave of new energy is becoming a trend, and in just a few years, the new car business of these dealer groups has gradually changed from a “profit cow” to a “hot potato”.
More and more luxury brand dealers are exposed to crises such as stores, thunderstorms and cash flow crisis.
How to survive has become the most realistic problem for everyone.
Turning the bow is the fastest way to change.
This is a special scene this year when luxury brand dealers collectively cut down the size of BBA stores and instead joined the new forces of car building or Hongmeng’s smart selection camp, flipped the cards and hung up the Logo of brands such as Qijie.
Auto Commune learned that the trend of “defecting” Huawei and “fleeing” BBA has intensified at the end of the year, and luxury brand dealers with high-end car service experience can more quickly become a premium asset for the new track.
In order to adapt to the new market environment, Yongda Automobile Industry is also accelerating to embrace new brands.
Hongmeng Zhixing, Xiaomi Automobile and a number of new car-making brands in China are already among the partners on its website.
However, Yongda’s cooperation with Huawei and Xiaomi is still in its infancy.
so far, there are not many offline stores in Hongmeng Zhixing, and they are mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
It is reported that a number of outlets cooperating with Huawei are still in the application stage, and some are still under construction.
In the first quarter of 2025, as many as 30 stores are planned to be jointly built with Huawei.
Dominoes have been knocked down.
This is the realistic choice of the dealer group.
The top priority is to sell the car, recover the blood, and then seek more benign development.
Just recently, Huayang Audi Automobile sales Co., Ltd., one of the largest Audi stores in Beijing and also Audi’s “top” dealer in China, posted a notice and decided not to carry out the distribution business of FAW Audi brand.
This is an Audi sales network with a history of more than ten years.
Both terminal sales and after-sales service have won many national awards and are the absolute benchmark of Audi dealers.
Local media have learned that after the termination of the partnership with FAW Audi, Beijing Huayang Audi will switch to the Huawei brand.
At present, the stores have changed the “AITO” logo, and the show cars have also entered the store one after another.
The transformation is like eating crabs, pulling more and more luxury brand dealers’ outer walls, hanging the logo of the “AITO” brand, and the new exhibition hall is either in the renovation stage or has been open to the public ahead of schedule.
The first batch of people who eat crabs are very likely to be popular and spicy, testing not only the consciousness and courage of transformation, but also the vision of considering the overall situation of the market.
” A dealer told Auto Commune / “C Dimension” that competing to become Huawei’s partner has become a trend in the second half of the year.
“joining Huawei” is not shameful, in order to stop losses in time and live a better life.
The signboard of BBA was slowly removed and the new power of car building or Huawei’s LOGO Huanxin appeared on the scene.
The rise of one era always comes at the expense of the end of another.
At the scene of this year’s Guangzhou auto show, Wei Jian, senior vice president of Lailai, revealed that from last year to this year, 40 dealers of traditional luxury brands have come, including Guangzhou Jingxi Audi, the first Audi 5S store in South China, which was once Audi’s largest store in the Asia-Pacific region.
Wei Jian said that the brand stores of Weilai also include Porsche, Maserati, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other traditional luxury car dealers.
For these BBA dealers who “defected” to Huawei, they already have a large number of luxury car customers.
It is highly coincident with Hongmeng Zhixing, which is going up by the brand, so you don’t have to worry too much about service and training, and you can also reduce some of the sales expenses.
On the other hand, Hongmeng Zhihang’s car brand has no inventory pressure and has an advantage in profit margins.
Insiders also told China Business recently that the fixed return point for new cars discussed with Zhongsheng Group is 4.5%. At the same time, under the distribution channel model of new energy vehicles, Zhongsheng and other dealers only act as agents for the distribution of models and after-sales service, and do not own vehicles, and vehicle pricing and concessions are implemented in accordance with the manufacturer’s plan.
This also means that dealers do not have to bear the risk of high inventory, the main profit comes from the commission point, the primary goal is to move the volume, and as long as the monthly sales scale is increased, the profit prospect is considerable.
Huawei began to sell cars in 2021 when Huawei took the key first step in testing the waters of new car retail with a smart model.
Over the next three years, Huawei and Cyrus worked together to create a unique sales sample that quickly raised the awareness of the brand, and the confidence behind it was solid new car sales figures.
Three years is not history but for Yu Chengdong and the whole team brand building is an extremely arduous task.
In an interview this year, he said frankly that it took more than three years of careful building and hard work to gradually gain enough market influence.
, among them, experienced the setback of SF5, encountered some problems in M5 from hot sales to strategy, and the later M7, from difficulty to resurgence.
According to public information, the sales channels of Huawei and Cyrus can be simply divided into three types– one is the flagship store run entirely by Huawei, the second is the shift from dealer-led to self-operated intelligent living pavilion or authorized experience store.
Third, Hongmeng Zhihang authorized user center.
Yu Chengdong previously revealed the channel plan that Huawei will build 800 Hongmeng Zhihang stores in 2024 and plans to expand to 1000 by 2025.
, 03, trusting and keeping promises is the first principle of doing business.
In the face of the long-term losses of the traditional dealer system, everyone is trying to become the “first batch of crab eaters”.
However, while fighting for the interests of crabs, there is also a phenomenon of “stepping on two boats” in the industry.
In response to the withdrawal of some Audi dealers, the head of Audi manufacturers once made an explanation in the dealer communication group, the main contents are as follows: Zhengzhou Zhongsheng Huidi, without the consent of the brand party decided to transfer to Huawei, demolish Logo civil decoration, dealers want to transfer the Audi showroom to the second-hand car showroom, the store was once a network-wide top3 store with strong operating capacity.
Beijing Huayang Audong, the original store is “Audi World”, the investment is huge, the brand agreed to asset activation last year, but not long after the completion of the new car showroom, investors hope to revitalize the new car showroom to other brands.
It is reported that both investors want to keep Audi’s authorization, but move to a worse address and take out the original site as a new power brand.
FAW Audi can only implement the agreement of the Dealer Agreement and withdraw from the network without approval.
For this reason, the responsible person “asked” dealers three times– first, in the business world, some new power brands have always treated competition in a wolf way, and wolf nature will certainly treat domestic and foreign partners in the same way.
how many new power brands are profitable? Even the biggest brand by far.
Second, according to the planned network layout, some new brands explode the network in a very short time, except for the first batch of dealers who eat crabs, can those who enter later make a profit? Third, Audi has made dealers profitable continuously and relatively steadily for 36 years.
How long can those new car brands make offline outlets profitable? Zhongsheng Group, as a listed company, has its own specific pressure and valuation considerations, non-listed companies should first consider the profitability of individual stores.
I suggest you make rational analysis and judgment.
” The attitude of the person in charge is very clear.
In the face of the small wave of “defection” of dealers at the end of the year, this is undoubtedly a warning to other dealers.
However, at a time when the whole sales terminal is freezing cold, what people are most concerned about is the immediate interests.
Only when the granaries are full can they know the etiquette.
Considering the pros and cons, distributors will make the most realistic choice.
after all, AITO is ahead enough at this stage in terms of profit margins.
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