Author | Wang Xiaojuan

In today's weather is good. Today's weather is good.

October 8, 2024, is a memorable day for many people.

On the first day after the end of the "National Day Golden Week", the three major A-share indexes all opened higher, with the Shanghai index surging more than 10%, and the stocks of many automobile and industry chain companies also reached a record high.

As of the close of the afternoon on October 8th, power battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology surged by 18.7% to 299 yuan / share, Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock, BYD and other vehicle manufacturers also saw gains of more than 5%. In the past half month, the entire automobile sector has shown a significant recovery, with leading stocks such as BYD seeing a price increase of over 30%.

In addition to the great harvest in the capital markets, auto companies also received many orders during this "National Day Golden Week". After all, unlike the gains and losses in the stock market, selling cars brings real cash flow.

For the auto market, this is a long-awaited feast. In the past year, apart from a few new cars that were able to receive soaring orders shortly after their launch, the overall auto market has been in a state of constant price wars, where "off-season is not light, and peak season is not prosperous" has become the norm.

This year, following the abundant harvest of "Golden September" and even achieving historical record-high sales volume, the quality of "Silver October" can be seen from the lively situation of the National Day golden week.

Similar to the monthly sales boom, the frenzy of the National Day golden week is still centered on new energy vehicle companies.

Last year during the National Day, the then little-known Weltmeister M7 single-handedly staged the "rebirth" of the entire Weltmeister brand. A year later, the Huawei system has already had a new glorious story.

Hongmeng Intelligent Driving released data showing that during the National Day holiday, cumulative orders exceeded 28,600 vehicles. Among them, the Zhijie R7, Weltmeister M9, and Weltmeister M7 all exceeded 9,600, 7,800, and 9,000 orders respectively.

The performance of the Zhijie R7 led Huawei's Smart Automobile Solution BU director Yu Chengdong to lament: "The Zhijie R7 has risen, it's really difficult to build a completely new brand, the Zhijie brand rises with the R7."

Leapmotor also received many orders. On the evening of October 7th, Chairman Zhu Jiangming of Leapmotor couldn't wait to share the order situation during the National Day holiday on his social media. According to the backend data he provided, Leapmotor's single-day order lock-in volume was 3,576 units, and the order lock-in volume over the past seven days was 17,397 units. Among the new forces in car manufacturing, Leapmotor has always been relatively low-key. However, since the beginning of this year, they have been frequently breaking order records, making it difficult to stay low-key in the future.

There are also channel sources revealing that BYD added over 160,000 orders during the "National Day Golden Week", while Li Auto exceeded 20,000 orders, both reaping rich rewards.

Although the overall sales volume of pure electric vehicle models is not as high as hybrid and extended-range vehicles, many brands that sell pure electric vehicles have harvested a large number of orders during this "National Day Golden Week".

Lei Jun, Chairman of Xiaomi Group, confirmed that during the National Day period, Xiaomi SU 7 orders exceeded 6,000; Xiaopeng is still immersed in the warm flow of Xiaopeng MONA M03. After setting a record of 21,352 vehicles in September, it was revealed by insiders that Xiaopeng received an additional 0.016 million new orders during the National Day. The latest facelift of the brand-new Zhiji LS6 also received approximately 3,500 orders within three days...

The popularity can be attributed to the dual boost of policy subsidies before National Day and preferential benefits for auto companies.

As early as the end of July, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the latest policy of replacing old with new. Based on the original guidelines for subsidies for trading in old cars for new ones, the subsidy for scrapping and replacing old cars has been raised again.

After the update, for individual consumers who meet the relevant requirements to scrap old cars and purchase new ones, the subsidy standards for purchasing new energy passenger vehicles have been raised from 0.01 million yuan to 0.02 million yuan, and for purchasing fuel passenger vehicles it has been raised from 7,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan.

In addition, during the National Day holiday, about 20 cities held auto shows, and many places also issued limited-time car consumption vouchers, all of which promoted auto consumption. For example, the 2024 Hefei International New Energy Auto Show closed on October 5th. According to statistics, during the auto show, a total of 0.55 million visitors attended, with 50 million yuan in city-level auto consumption vouchers distributed, driving sales of over 0.02 million vehicles, with sales revenue of approximately 3.79 billion yuan.

Auto companies also prepared many promotional activities for this "National Day Golden Week."

For example, the Hongmeng Zhixing under su 0.03 million orders has tens of thousands of limited-time discounts, with benefits such as a maximum of 0.035 million yuan for the Zhijie R7, a maximum of 0.035 million yuan for the Xiangjie S9, and a maximum of 0.0388 million yuan for the Wenjie M7. In addition to these benefits, there were National Day raffles (first prize being Huawei's latest three-fold mobile phone) and some minor benefits; many joint venture brands directly introduced a "fixed price" policy that is tens of thousands of yuan lower than the previous selling price.

Furthermore, since September, dozens of new cars and facelifted models have been launched before the festival, with many new cars' debut benefit periods including the "National Day Golden Week," naturally leading to a wave of preorders.

For example, nio inc's another brand, the first model under the Leifeng brand Leifeng L60, was launched on September 19th, with a full vehicle price of 0.2069 million yuan to 0.2359 million yuan. If purchased using the battery rental method, the price starts from 0.1499 million yuan. Before October 8th, consumers can also enjoy the founding version user rights worth approximately 0.0415 million yuan, which gives users great temptation.

For consumers, the rise brought by the bull market has changed their expectations, making them more willing to consume, which also has a certain stimulating effect on the consumption during the "National Day Golden Week".

"Golden September and Silver October" is a critical stage for car manufacturers to boost annual sales, to some extent determining whether car manufacturers can achieve their full-year sales target. The "National Day Golden Week" is a key window period within this stage, so car manufacturers naturally work harder, leading the automobile market into a fruitful season.

However, it can be seen that the automotive market has long entered the stage of stock competition, and today's brilliance comes from the dual stimulation of policies and car manufacturers.

The current release of demand also implies that there will be greater challenges ahead, and car manufacturers will have to drive towards larger market opportunities in order to achieve sustainable growth.