Writing | Roomy
Editing | Zhou Changxian
The story of “returning to the top of the A-class car market in a single month of sales” has been awaited by BYD for 12 years, and also by Chinese auto brands for 12 years.
In 2010, BYD won the single-month sales crown of the A-class sedan market with the F3, and now, 12 years later, history repeats itself. In the just-passed September, the BYD Qin PLUS won the sales crown of the A-class sedan by a landslide, with a dazzling achievement of 36,058 units sold in a single month, beating the Dongfeng Nissan Sylphy.
Stories of reaching the top are always fascinating, because they come with inherent brilliance.
The victory of the Qin PLUS is more like a fruition of all the hard work that wasn’t wasted. Whether for the market or for BYD, winning the sales crown of the A-class car market is of great value and means that Chinese auto brands represented by BYD have officially broken the monopoly of joint ventures.
For the past 12 years, people have been asking, “When will Chinese auto brands break the monopoly of joint ventures?” Waiting for the answer and looking for solutions.
The dilemma and passion have given rise to new opportunities in this era of transition, and BYD was the first to find the answer.
Breaking the monopoly pattern is not the only breakthrough
Xu Zhiyuan asked Ma Dong: Do you like this era? Ma Dong used “like” three times in succession to emphasize, “This era never lets us down, it just polishes us.”
Polishing, a word that BYD deeply understands. Since acquiring Qinchi Auto in 2003, BYD has been steadily building a foundation and firmly going through the 0-to-1 process, despite being underestimated.
In 2010, BYD F3 broke the defense line of joint venture brands, stood at the top of the A-class car monthly sales championship, and everyone was surprised, but they also knew that it was an immensely difficult and hard-won achievement.
All along, Chinese auto brands have not had it easy before the A-class sedan market as a major obstacle.The A-class sedan market, which accounts for about a quarter of China’s passenger car market and is also one of the largest sub-markets for new car sales in China, has always been dominated by joint venture brands. It is difficult to find any trace of independent brands on the sales charts. “He who gets the A-class sedan gets the world” has always been the case for independent brands looking to rise to the top.
The higher the sales volume of a brand, the higher the proportion of A-class car products in their sales, and during peak periods, over half of the top 20 brands by sales volume have a proportion exceeding 50%. The A-class car market has always been dominated by Volkswagen, Japanese, and American brands taking turns. Over the years, a few familiar faces have long monopolized the sales charts.
Under crushing competition and an unassailable market structure, Chinese car brands have been trying to break through with a variety of car models, but all have failed. Under repeated setbacks, they had to tilt their resources to the lucrative SUV market.
As a result, for many years, Chinese car brands have been criticized as “A-class sedan hollowing out”. Even now, entering a new era of new energy vehicles, the core of competition has not changed. Only by truly conquering the A-class sedan market can they be considered to have opened up the situation in the sedan market.
After all this context, one will realize that BYD Qin PLUS’s achievement has not come easily, and it holds a high value.
# Qin PLUS: A New Era of A-Class Car Market in China
Qin PLUS has stood out from the siege and created a sales miracle with its own efforts, which is a memorable day for Chinese automakers. Because the long-term monopoly of A-class sedans by joint ventures has been subverted, and the subverter is BYD Qin PLUS, a new energy car.
A sign of clear progress appeared in May, and Qin PLUS’s sales rapidly increased. From 17,900 in May to over 36,000 in September, it took just four months to take the top spot in the A-class car market, doubling its sales.
According to official data, backed by DM-i hybrid and EV pure electric “dual-wheel drive”, Qin PLUS sold 36,058 vehicles in September alone, surpassing the long-time A-class car market leaders, the XuanYi and the LangYi. Currently, the cumulative sales of Qin PLUS have exceeded 400,000 vehicles, less than two years after its launch.
At the same time, Qin PLUS not only won the monthly sales champion of the sub-segment market for the first time since its launch, but also achieved over 30,000 monthly sales for the third time. From July to September, it achieved a breakthrough of 100,000 vehicles in just three months. This can be described as a breakthrough achievement of Chinese auto brands in the A-class car market.
Finally, the A-class sedan field’s dominance has changed.
Qin PLUS is not only the cornerstone of BYD’s annual sales surge since its launch but also continued to dominate in its respective sub-segments, with 24,452 units sold in DM-i and 11,606 units sold in EV in September.
Breaking the monopoly of joint ventures is the first significance; for BYD, the more important significance is that Qin PLUS, as the “fuel car subverter,” defined a new era for the A-class car market in China.## Redefining the New Era of A-Class Cars with Technology
BYD loves this era.
The importance of the A-class car market was self-evident during the era of gasoline cars. However, in recent years, the A-class car market has undergone an obvious change. The rigid structure, declining market share, and impact of new energy transformation have all left the A-class car market struggling.
The first struggle was that in recent years, many A-class car models have been caught up in price wars.
In the sales ranking of many automakers, the A-class car market is of great importance. However, since 2017, the market structure has undergone an obvious change. The fiercely competitive A-class car market has been pulled into an even more intense price war.
Many car models, stained with the chill of one price reduction campaign after another, have been phased out without even saying goodbye, such as the fallen Ford Focus, and the struggling Cruze and Excelle. The kingdom is perpetually changing, but there is no new to replace the old.
Why has the A-class car market almost come to a standstill? The main reason is that consumers’ intention to buy such cars has rapidly decreased. Research found that in 2017, consumers’ intention to buy A-class cars was over 40%, but by 2022, it is only 10%.
The biggest reason for the decline in purchasing intention is that the A-class car models have been “resting on their laurels”. For example, the biggest change between the Lavida ten years ago and the “new generation Lavida” ten years later is the “comprehensive upgrade of configuration”. After stopping production for 684 days, the second coming of the Excelle brings back memories and emotions, but it did not bring revolutionary innovations.
It is like falling into a vicious circle, where car makers have to use “price cuts” to keep customers “emotionally stable”.“`
The second struggle is that in the current wave of new energy pouring in, A-grade vehicles need a technological upgrade.
Let’s start with an old story.
The battle for sales crown between Nort-South Volkswagen and General Motors, in which General Motors was always able to have a better move due to holding cards like the Kai Yue model in the A-grade car market. The turning point occurred in 2007, the year when Volkswagen launched the golden power combination of TSI+DSG. It was precisely this power combination that pushed Volkswagen’s market share higher and higher.
For the entire market, based on the golden power combination of TSI+DSG and new technologies such as MQB, the decade of Volkswagen’s technological dividend was launched.
However, the decade-long dividend has passed. In 2018, the new generation of Lang Yi was launched, but it did not recreate the glory of the old version. The market performance of technologies such as T power and dual-clutch transmission, which were once popular in the field of fuel vehicles, were weak. At the same time, the mediocre design and the emphasis on economy became the fixed thinking of the car industry in the A-grade car market.
The A-grade car market needs new technologies to “break out”.
So, what to rely on to recapture the A-grade car market? In recent years, various automakers have been asking this question, including Volkswagen, which has always been adept in the A-grade car market, is also seeking answers.
In fact, Volkswagen had already answered this question more than a decade ago. In 2022, BYD, with nearly 20% of the car purchase intention, successfully took over the answer to this question beyond Volkswagen.
The new DM-i super hybrid, blade battery, and new technological breakthroughs have made it possible to revitalize the A-grade car market. At the same time, the structure of the automotive market, with A-grade fuel vehicles as the core representative, has undergone drastic changes.
“`”A-level market is where new energy vehicles really shine, so car manufacturers are more inclined to target that market,” said a market analyst. From a market demand perspective, the A-level market is the main consumer market for new energy vehicles, and therefore a critical segment for manufacturers’ new energy layout strategies.
BYD, with its sharp acumen, identified the importance of this market as the “world to be had” when it won the A-level monthly champion with F3 12 years ago. The company’s efforts have never stopped since then. In March 2021, BYD unveiled an upgraded version of its flagship model, the Qin, which was the company’s first vehicle to enter the new energy market.
Based on new technologies such as plug-in hybrid DM-i and pure electric EV, the Qin PLUS successfully switched the competition from a new car price war to technology upgrades and a “cost reduction” battle throughout its lifecycle. In other words, the Qin PLUS uses technology and product strength to save consumers money, as A-level market consumers have always been price-sensitive.
The Qin PLUS DM-i is the first sedan to feature a super hybrid DM-i system, with an impressive electric fuel consumption of 3.8L per hundred kilometers, only half that of equivalent gasoline sedans. It can reach 0 to 100 km/h in just 7.3 seconds, 2-3 seconds faster than equivalent gasoline sedans, and it can travel over 1245 kilometers, more than twice that of traditional gasoline sedans.
With the Qin PLUS DM-i, the automobile bids farewell to the “just enough” level and launches a dimensional attack on traditional gasoline sedans. Starting at a low price of 111,800 yuan, it is no different from gasoline-powered models of the same level.The Qin PLUS EV, equipped with BYD’s latest blade battery, boasts four major advantages of super safety, ultra-high strength, ultra-long life, and super temperature control, and has a range of 600 kilometers and can accelerate from 0 to 50 km/h in just four seconds. With the combination of “the appearance of a sports car, blade battery, and a super spacious interior,” plus intelligent configuration, it leads the way by several lengths among domestic sedans. The Qin PLUS EV truly achieves comprehensive affordability.
From the increase in sales of the Qin PLUS, it is not a coincidence that it has become the best seller, but rather the result of technology, product strength, and the right timing. It can be said that BYD Qin PLUS has redefined a new era for A-class cars in its own way. The rise of the Qin PLUS is a subversion in itself.
In conclusion, thanks to BYD’s overall layout in the entire industry chain, sales of models such as the Qin, Han, and Song exceeded 30,000 units in September. In the current mainstream trend of new energy, BYD’s product strength is gradually being released. From January to September of this year, BYD was also the only automaker to break through the one million unit sales mark, reaching 1.18 million units.
AutocarMax believes that BYD’s overall layout reflects two points: technological innovation is the source of product strength and can turn a competitive red ocean into a blue ocean; customer-centricity is not an empty slogan. The Qin PLUS of BYD is the best example of breaking the monopoly of joint ventures in less than two years.
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.