Article by: Leng Zelin

Editor: Wang Pan

Two years ago, the BYD Han was launched and its price of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan made most people think that BYD’s ceiling was just here. In May of this year, the NIO ET9 started pre-sales with prices ranging from 3.35 million to 4.6 million yuan.

Yesterday, Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD Brand and Public Relations Division, got up early again and revealed the latest movement of another high-end brand, which is expected to be priced between 800,000 and 1.5 million yuan.

BYD has repeatedly exceeded consumers’ expectations of the “ceiling”, and the Dynasty and Ocean series have given positive feedback. But can NIO and the upcoming new brand get enough market response?

First of all, let’s talk about the NIO brand. On May 16th, the NIO ET9 officially started pre-sales, with a total of four configurations for the DM-i version and two configurations for the EV version. The former has a NEDC comprehensive range of 945-1040km, while the latter has a CLTC range of over 600km.

As a new energy MPV, the NIO ET9 obviously does not have many competitors in the new energy market. The current MPV market is still dominated by fuel vehicles, and competitors must be found in this direction.

It is obvious at a glance when compared with good-selling models in the MPV market at the same price. The NIO ET9 has almost achieved comprehensive surpassing in body size, just like the comparison result between the dolphin and Model 3 earlier. The body size is fully surpassed but the pricing is cheaper. With the e platform, blade battery, and DM-i, the advantages of traditional fuel vehicles are almost gone.

Now let’s take a look at the new brand. According to media reports, BYD’s high-end brand may be named “Starry Sky”, and its first model will be a hard-core off-road vehicle (non-load-bearing SUV) similar to the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, which will achieve mass production and sales in the first quarter of 2023.

In the past, the best-selling domestic hard-core off-road vehicle models were none other than Tank 300 and 500, but even their highest selling price was only 400,000 yuan, while the starting price of Starry Sky is directly twice the top price of Tank 500.In the current new energy market, apart from traditional luxury brands, only the brand “Highlander” has the confidence to “price” at 800,000 yuan. The first model of Highlander, HiPhi X, was released last year and was directly priced between 500,000 to 800,000 yuan. However, looking at the sales volume of Highlander, a total of only 5765 units were sold from April last year to April this year.

It is reported that Xingtu will use Huawei’s MDC computing platform, equipped with dual LiDAR, wheel-hub motor, and can turn around on the spot by reversing the front and rear tires. However, it is difficult to sustain the price of 800,000 yuan according to current news.

The Tank 500 also has the “turning in place” function. Tank 500 is a fuel-powered car equipped with a 3.0T+9AT powertrain. It can achieve turning in place similar to compass by locking the right/left rear wheel (basically keeping still).

While many people are focused on Huawei’s participation, Huawei’s MDC computing platform has also cooperated with other Chinese car companies such as BAIC, GAC, Hongqi, Great Wall, Geely, and Changan. This means that BYD is not the exclusive cooperation partner, and Huawei is just a supplier.

It is not difficult to find that both DENZA and Xingtu have taken a somewhat unconventional route, one from MPV and the other from tough off-road vehicles. However, DENZA is not a brand that focuses on MPV, and it also plans to launch SUVs, sedans, and urban sports cars.

BYD seems to have an inclination to rush into the high-end market with offbeat strategies, but it appears rather lackluster in reality.

At the same time, the positioning of high-end brands cannot only be based on the configuration of the models, there are also many brand deposits and historical factors involved. We can look at NIO, a new car manufacturer, which spent a lot of money such as establishing NIO House in CBD, spending tens of millions on NIO Day, and making supercars, before establishing its high-end image.

Li Yunfei stated that the high-end brand will be completely independent in brand, product, sales service network, and operation team, which means that the current Ocean Connect and Wangchao Connect of BYD cannot be used as is.And so does TESLA. It announced at a previous press conference that it will establish nearly 200 flagship stores in 2022.

BYD strides towards the “luxury” door, yet it remains unknown how high the threshold of this door may be.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.