Author | Chai Xuchen Editor | Zhou Zhiyu Faced with the trend of new energy electrification and the loss of market share under price wars, joint venture car companies have been "Renovating" their famous cars in an attempt to mount a strong counterattack. On May 30, SAIC Volkswagen's Touareg L Pro was launched. The car, which is said to be "the smartest gasoline car", had been preheated for nearly two months prior to its launch. The launch invited representatives from DJI Car and Tencent Travel, as well as the person in charge of iFLYTEK, all of whom attended in person to demonstrate the strength of its smart driving and smart cabin. As a "meritorious model" of SAIC Volkswagen, Touareg has been synonymous with Volkswagen SUVs for the past 15 years and was once the best-selling joint venture SUV. With a monthly sales volume of nearly 20,000 units for a long time, it occupies a 20% share of SAIC Volkswagen. SAIC Volkswagen hopes that the new Touareg will become a disruptor in the current market, from gasoline car intelligence to a stable price system with value-added buyback policy. In the view of Yu Jingmin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of SAIC Volkswagen, new energy vehicles still have range anxiety and gasoline cars have an advantage that needs no explanation, but the biggest difference between them and electric vehicles lies mainly in their appearance and intelligence. After fulfilling the core needs of contemporary consumers, this once "famous car" seems to be reborn. Thus, from DJI's advanced intelligent driving solution to iFLYTEK's smart cabin voice assistant, this 200,000 yuan-level SUV brings together the strengths of various parties, aiming to break through the industry's perception that gasoline cars are less intelligent than electric vehicles. The launch of the new Touareg marks the beginning of SAIC Volkswagen's counterattack. In a post-event interview, Yu Jingmin mentioned several times that due to external cooperation and the accumulation of joint venture partners, SAIC Volkswagen's technology center is actually ahead of many independent brands, but unfortunately the rhythm is too slow. The company will now accelerate its efforts to catch up and even surpass in electric, hybrid or gasoline cars. Yu Jingmin revealed to Wall Street News that the new Touareg is the first gasoline car product in the Pro series, which is focused on intelligence, and that the Passat and Touareg Pro versions will also be introduced within the year. While polishing its technology, it is also preparing for the intelligence of its A-class cars. A counteroffensive war ignited by a gasoline fueled chariot seems to be brewing rapidly. But to be fair, SAIC Volkswagen's intelligence still lags far behind new forces such as Huawei, Xiaopeng, and Ideal. At the same time, in the current context where BBA is crazy about price cuts and the BMW electric car at over 180,000 yuan is setting a new industry low price, the 236,800 yuan Touareg L Pro seems somewhat out of step and the counterattack is difficult to achieve. In response to the challenge, SAIC Volkswagen has given a three-year 20% discount buyback plan. Users no longer need to worry about the fluctuation of vehicle purchase costs and second-hand car prices. SAIC Volkswagen locks in the difference between the purchase and final selling prices of users' vehicles, in a move to crack the price war. This also buys precious time for SAIC Volkswagen to speed up product and intelligence catch-up. This is the backdrop of the efforts to win back the former "king" of the Chinese car market.

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

With only one month left until the end of 2024, Ideal has launched a year-end final battle in the luxury car market.

On November 29th, Ideal announced a 3-year 0% interest policy for all its models, lowering the threshold for car purchase to the minimum. Among them, the entry-level L6 requires a down payment of less than 0.07 million yuan, while the flagship MPV MEGA requires a down payment of less than 0.16 million yuan. This policy will last until December 31st of this year.

Liu Jie, the President of Ideal's product line, stated that this interest-free policy is jointly launched with partner banks. If users need a 5-year loan, Ideal also provides a low-interest plan (0.99%), with rates that are less than half of typical financial plans available on the market.

This means that with monthly payments of three to five thousand, one can drive an L6, while payments from six to ten thousand can buy a MEGA. For wage-earning families still on the fence, it is indeed attractive.

This is the strategy to solidify the high-end market share of ideals. Under the surface, a comprehensive attack against BBA is quietly underway.

In the first half of the year, due to the impact of the MEGA incident, Ideal's share in the most valued 0.2 million yuan + market was lower than the 16% at the end of last year. Fortunately, the surge of the L6 and the empowerment of intelligent driving quickly reversed the decline, rebounding to 17.3% in the third quarter.

Data shows that with the surge of the L series, Ideal has consecutively ranked first in sales of Chinese brand cars above 0.2 million for 31 weeks. Currently, the L6 has surpassed the BBA mainstays such as Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3 Series, and Audi Q5. Driven by the sales crown, in the third quarter, Ideal's sales in the price range above 0.2 million exceeded Audi and BMW.

This is a crucial moment for domestic brands to break the traditional competition pattern in the luxury car market. Currently, Ideal has just crossed the one million sales mark, and whether it can stabilize its growth, aiming for the second million, will also test its capabilities and strength in the luxury market.

However, Ideal has entered the year-end product gap period and the sales off-season of the market. It must ensure that it can maintain an upward trend and wait steadily for next year when pure electric models take over, it will inevitably need to show more sincerity to the market.

Even before this round of preferential policies, Ideal was already looking for incremental growth to further penetrate the high-end market.

Meng Qingpeng, Vice President of Ideal's supply chain, revealed that by the end of this year to early next year, Ideal will continue to unleash the potential of the L6, aiming for a monthly sales volume of 30,000 units; on the other hand, Ideal has finally made up its mind to catch up with this round of overseas expansion trend, and has established a Tier One department at the end of October this year, currently targeting the Middle East and Latin American markets.

Apart from products, Ideal is also actively refining its intelligent driving functions. Recently, with the introduction of the end-to-end + VLM large model, Ideal's intelligent driving experience has rapidly improved, which in turn has driven the sales growth of high-end, high-margin AD Max models of all series.

Behind a series of measures is the urgent desire to secure a leading position for idealism.

Insiders of idealism bluntly stated that the goal of idealism is to capture 25% of the market with prices above 0.2 million yuan. Meng Qingpeng pointed out that the annual sales volume in the domestic market for vehicles priced above 0.2 million yuan is over six million units. Holding a 1/4 market share would mean 1.5 million units. The three major BBA brands together account for about 2.3 million units, with an average annual sales volume of 0.773 million units last year.

Currently, idealism has the capacity to sell approximately 0.6 million new cars per year. If it continues its current momentum and adds the launch of a pure electric series next year, surpassing BBA comprehensively may not be far off.

However, in the eyes of industry insiders, next year the automotive market will see intensified competition, pricing battles, and escalating tensions. Huawei, Xiaomi, NIO, and other competitors are watching closely from behind, while brands like Avita and SmartMe are preparing to enter the extended range race. Even joint venture brands like Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are brewing multiple new models, gearing up for a comprehensive showdown in the next few years.

Ideal's automotive product line leader, Zhang Xiao, has mentioned before that by 2030, Ideal will need to capture a 30% market share in the domestic market for vehicles priced above 0.2 million yuan to be considered secure, equivalent to a scale of over two million units. At that time, Ideal will be able to stand as one of the few top winners, remaining at the top table of the luxury car market.

For Ideal, which has just crossed the million-unit mark, this remains a significant challenge. In the future, beyond surpassing BBA, it still needs to compete with its rivals to secure a small share in the endgame, meaning that the arrival of its pure electric series next year must be flawless.

For Ideal, next year will be a crucial moment to determine whether it can become a 'big player' and maintain its position as the king of domestic luxury cars.