When it comes to luxury brands, it is well known that higher prices, better performance and better service are thought of, but one function of luxury brands is often overlooked-a more forward-looking technology trend.
as the technology locomotive of the automobile industry.
When the Chinese market launched a wave of PHEV plug-in hybrids, replacing pure electric as the highest growth sector, luxury brands seem to be missing-is plug-in not high-end? Brands with high specifications such as Porsche and even Koenigsegg are equipped with plug-in technology.
However, from BBA to second-tier luxury brands, those who are really still working in the mixed market-apart from Volvo, which has always adhered to the two new energy technologies of PHEV+ pure electricity, it will never find a second luxury car company that really works hard in this area.
Including the previously good sales of the BMW 5-Series PHEV and Mercedes-Benz E-Class PHEV, have stopped production.
On the one hand, the lack of product supply, on the other hand, strong consumer demand, seems to be a pair of irreconcilable contradictions, in fact, there are huge business opportunities behind.
In the face of the onslaught of high-end new forces, how long will traditional luxury brands hesitate and repeat? Fortunately, Volvo continues to dig deep into new energy, especially never relax its efforts to plug in the PHEV route, which was once famous for being at peace with the rest of the world, not only defending the face of luxury brands, but also looking for the value direction of the next stage for the entire automobile industry.
PHEV, the Blue Ocean Market for luxury cars? According to the pace of market development, there are two major trends are bound to come.
First, automobile consumption will upgrade with the iteration and elimination of generation after generation of products, and the basic disk that undertakes the biggest upgrade of automobile consumption is luxury cars.
Second, the irresistible trend of new energy, PHEV is currently the fastest growing, but also refers to the largest demand in the field.
This means that China’s auto market is already competing in the Red Sea, and the luxury PHEV is still an urgent and potential blue sea market.
First of all, there is the definition of luxury.
In the minds of most consumers, when it comes to luxury brands, they are naturally familiar car brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volvo, Lexus and so on.
One of the most important indicators is the precipitation brought by time, huge user base and word-of-mouth, which can not be replaced by any newcomers.
Including the current so-called rise of Chinese cars, it is almost very difficult for independent brands to surpass the 300000 yuan + market where luxury cars are located.
New power brands can really penetrate the 300000 yuan + market, there are only questions and ideals, but they still get more people who taste fresh.
For future automobile consumption, such as new energy, which has entered the mature mainstream and returned to the rational stage, large factories with background and historical experience, especially luxury brands such as Volvo, which are more successful in safety and quality, after making up the strength of their products, it should be more popular with consumers.
The second is about new energy and PHEV.
Narrow passenger car sales data from the Federation of passengers show that in the first eight months of this year, new energy completed wholesale 6.
62 million vehicles, an increase of 30.
2% over the same period last year, of which pure electric sales were 3.
837 million, up only 7.
1% from the same period last year, while PHEV products (plug-in hybrid and add programs) soared 85.
4% to 2.
786 million vehicles compared with the same period last year, which shows that PHEV is becoming more and more popular in the new energy field and has become a new force in the growth of new energy.
Including looking at the rankings of some market segments, such as the medium and large SUV market, which best represents the upgrading trend of user consumption, with the exception of the BMW X5 and Volkswagen Touon, the top 10 are basically monopolized by hybrid products of new power and own brands.
The reason for the monopoly is also simple, because consumers want to upgrade demand, but luxury brands do not seem to be able to come up with products that have a competitive advantage.
It has to be said that the core of the lack of supply of luxury PHEV is the strategic mistakes represented by BBA, because they almost gave up PHEV technology and turned to pure electrification, thus missing the best opportunity at present.
According to the logic of the development of things, traditional luxury car giants like BBA have natural advantages in the field of PHEV.
Because PHEV uses internal combustion engine and motor as driving device, and they have worked hard in the field of internal combustion engine for hundreds of years, and have profound R & D experience and strong financial resources, if they are willing to increase investment on the road of PHEV, a further breakthrough is just around the corner.
BMW 530Le, a luxury PHEV that entered the domestic market earlier, once ranked first in sales of luxury cars PHEV in China for a long time.
In that era when the PHEV was still in the initial stage of development, the market performance of the 5-Series PHEV, which sells more than 3000 vehicles a month, is already quite good.
But with BMW’s announcement of the ALL in pure electric, the “plug-in sales king” became a flash in the pan.
It also includes Mercedes-Benz, its most representative E-Class, which used to be a product portfolio of fuel + mixing + pure electricity.
However, from the sales volume of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class PHEV far exceeding that of the EQE for a long time, we can see that even if the Mercedes-Benz E-Class plug-in technology is relatively backward and more expensive than Mercedes-Benz pure trams of the same class, it is still sold better than pure electricity, which is enough to see the high-end plug-in market demand.
The reason is that plug-in technology deviates from the mainstream market of 10-200000 yuan between luxury brands and ordinary brands, the main demand of which is to save energy and reduce emissions and reduce the cost of car ownership.
while from the perspective of luxury brands, plug-in pursues “adding a drive system outside the engine” in order to strengthen power, and even Porsche’s flagship cars 918 Spyder and Koenigsegg Gemera are equipped with plug-in systems.
BMW 530Le and other luxury brands plug-in cars, once sold in the “price is the same as pure fuel cars”, but higher investment is naturally difficult to provide enterprises with generous profits, it is reasonable not to be taken seriously.
This directly leads to the mainstream luxury brands hesitating between the two demands and finally betting on pure electric power, missing the advantage and explosive growth opportunity of taking into account energy consumption, performance, safety, reliability and the texture of fuel vehicles.
However, the change of the automobile era changes with the consumer demand.
No products priced more than 400000 can be found in the first half of the pure electricity market, which seems to be verifying the inherent boundaries and gaps in high-end pure electricity products.
But the PHEV is different.
For example, the Tengli D9 DM-i, which sells for 400000, has replaced the dominant position of Buick GL8, the king of the MPV market for many years.
The price of the blue mountain DHT-PHEV of Wei brand has also broken through the upper limit of the original price system.
To 2 months cumulative sales have exceeded 10,000, and become the support of Wei Brand.
Ideal not to mention, take the lead to eat the market blank dividend, its four models together, a month can reach a maximum of 50,000.
High-end PHEV is selling like hot cakes.
All this shows that this stage may be the main position for the transformation of traditional luxury brands into new energy.
Why did Volvo take the lead in solving the problem? In early September, Luo Wenlin, the head of Volvo, revealed that Volvo decided not to stick to its plan to achieve full electrification by 2030.
He said that although the company still believes that the future will be electric, in reality, the road to electrification is not smooth and market acceptance is uneven.
In particular, Volvo decided to continue its research and development of plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and mild hybrid (MHEV) technologies, as these products are still popular with consumers.
Although overseas car companies have recently re-examined their electrification plans and slowed the development of pure electric vehicles, Volvo, one of the luxury brands, has really put PHEV, which is considered to be a compromise, on a very important position.
This means that Volvo has become the only luxury brand to persist against the backdrop of traditional BBA abandoning the PHEV track.
It makes one wonder, why Volvo? Perhaps this is the strategic vision of diversified path from idea to innovation, and then to the first principle of consumption.
Fuel, light mix, pure electricity, plug-in-in fact, Volvo has always adhered to the multi-path of power, especially in the field of new energy, Volvo has moved very early.
This also enables Volvo to take into account the two performance demands of “enhanced power” and “energy saving and emission reduction”, and strike a balance in the dimensions of reliability and cost.
As early as 1976, Volvo developed the first electric technology prototype.
After nearly 40 years of technology accumulation, Volvo has a profound accumulation in new energy vehicle technology, especially in PHEV technology.
Volvo mass-produced the V60 plug-in hybrid in 2012 and has since optimized the product experience around the core needs of users.
In 2017, Volvo is ready to step into a new era of new energy vehicles, becoming the first automobile company to announce a comprehensive electrification strategy.
Before the decision was announced, Volvo’s new energy products had already come out.
When China’s new energy market was still in its infancy in 2015, Volvo realized that plug-in hybrid was a key step in electrification and launched a series of plug-in models with P1+P4 exclusive architecture.
Unlike the way most traditional car companies launch PHEV products from oil to electricity, Volvo has coordinated the development of PHEV technology and platform technology from the very beginning.
For example, Volvo adheres to the safety concept and places the PHEV battery in the middle to maximize protection from collision damage.
Volvo’s SPA architecture is a symbiotic structure of oil and electricity, and now many models in the Chinese market are the logic of the dual-power form of oil cars and streetcars, which is exactly the way Volvo has taken a long time.
At the same time, the P1+P4 scheme adopted by Volvo PHEV is in line with the positioning of luxury brands, which is the perfect combination of battery life (comprehensive life of super 1000km), performance (709N ·m comprehensive maximum torque, fastest 4 seconds acceleration), and control (intelligent all-wheel drive control and distribution), which is also the essential needs of luxury car users.
This layout not only gives Volvo a head start in the field of new energy, but also lays a solid foundation for its follow-up market competition.
Today, Volvo’s XC60 PHEV has become the highest-selling plug-in hybrid in Europe.
Volvo is by far the most comprehensive new energy company among all multinational automobile companies.
Its 60 and 90 series cars and SUV all have PHEV models, while the 40 series also have pure electric products, including MPV EM90, large electric SUV EX90 and small pure electric SUVEX30, covering different market segments and providing users with a variety of high-quality new travel experiences.
With such a thoughtful, perfect and diversified layout of new energy products, there is no doubt that Volvo has become a leader in the transformation of new energy in the field of traditional luxury cars.
If China’s new energy market and opportunities lead the world, then Volvo, which takes diversified energy forms as its development path, can naturally come in handy.
Especially in the current fierce competition for high-end electric cars and the general lack of traditional luxury cars in the PHEV market, which is the driving force to meet the key needs of consumers, PHEV will become an important direction for Volvo to develop in China’s new energy market.
At this year’s Chengdu Auto Show, the Volvo mixed-up family made a collective appearance, including XC60 mixed, Volvo S60 mixed, Volvo XC90 mixed, Volvo S90 mixed and so on, showing its deep accumulation and technical strength in the new energy field and revealing to consumers the real charm of luxury mixed models.
Of course, compared with the traditional luxury brand BBA in Europe, where new energy technology is at a low ebb, Volvo also has a strong advantage, that is, the Great Geely holding Group, which relies on ploughing China and stands at the forefront of new energy technologies and trends, has natural technological leadership and forward-looking advantages, including consumer insight.
Betting on PHEV with the fastest speed is an opportunity for Volvo Station to challenge BBA again in the new energy era.
It is understood that next year will be the first year of Volvo’s entire new energy transformation, including not only the addition of new energy products, but also the carding of previous new energy products, such as bringing out PHEV models separately into a series, and will continue to launch brand-new, long-range PHEV models in the later stage, continue to expand PHEV’s product line, and constantly strengthen brand advantages.
They all say: the man who counts in the temple, the one who calculates more wins.
For mainstream luxury brands, the once undervalued layout of mixing technology will determine the market pattern of tomorrow.
, return to the first electric network home page >.
