Although the shortage of chips has brought challenges to the car market in 2021, luxury car companies still make a lot of money.
In 2021, among ABB (Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz), only the sales volume of BMW Group in the global market increased by nearly 10%, the sales volume of Mercedes Benz in the global market decreased by 5% year-on-year, and the sales volume of Audi was basically the same as that in 2020.
Although ABB's sales volume did not increase significantly, its revenue and profit increased significantly. In terms of net profit, the net profit of Audi group was 5.498 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 114%; The net profit of BMW Group in 2021 was 12.463 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 223.1%; Mercedes Benz group's net profit was 23.4 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 23.4%.
On the one hand, abb has optimized its products, increasing the number of high-end models and reducing the number of low-end models; On the other hand, due to the tight supply caused by the shortage of chips and other factors, although the sales volume did not increase significantly, the price of luxury cars generally rose in 2021. In addition, the development of second-hand car business and the increase of price have also contributed to the growth of overall profits.
While making money, ABB's investment in electrification transformation continues to increase. Although their sales of electric vehicles increased significantly in 2021, there is still a certain gap with the new forces of car manufacturing. From the perspective of pure electric vehicles, only the sales volume of BMW Group's pure electric vehicles exceeds 100000, and the sales volume of Mercedes Benz EQ series pure electric vehicles is 49000, of which the sales volume of EQS reaches 16000, which means that the performance of EQC and EQA, which should have gone, is not optimistic, while the sales volume of Audi pure electric vehicles is 82000.
From the perspective of the Chinese market, the sales performance of ABB electric vehicles is even less optimistic. Tesla has sold more than 300000 vehicles in the Chinese market, and the sales of Weilai, ideal and Xiaopeng cars are also about 100000. It is worth noting that Tesla's sales in the Chinese market in 2021 have surpassed the traditional second-line luxury brands. According to the automobile insurance volume released by the CIRC, Tesla's Insurance volume reached 322000 in 2021, surpassing Cadillac (233000) by about 90000.
In addition, since 2021, the sales of SUV models of the new forces of car making have been rising. In the ranking of high-end SUV sales in individual months, Weilai ES6 and ideal one are among the top 10. According to the data released by the China Travel Association, among the top 15 new energy SUV retail sales in 2021, there are 8 products of the new forces of car making, namely Tesla Model y, ideal one, Weilai ES6, Weilai ec6, Xiaopeng G3, Nezha V, Weima Ex5 and Weilai es8 In the traditional high-end brand camp, only BMW X3 Bev was listed with a total delivery of 21000 vehicles in the whole year.
On the one hand, the transformation burden of traditional car enterprises is heavy, and the speed of product launch and iteration is slower than that of new forces of car making. Taking the mileage as an example, the mileage of many products of the new power of car making has exceeded 600 kilometers, while the mileage of Mercedes Benz EQC and EQB under wltp working condition has not exceeded 500 kilometers. On the other hand, abb only launched products on the new architecture platform around 2025. Taking Audi as an example, its e-tron family is still rooted in the MEB platform. The products on the high-end electric vehicle platform PPE will not be introduced to the market until 2024, and BMW will also launch products on the new platform in 2025.
However, traditional luxury brands have stronger anti risk ability. At present, the shortage of battery raw materials, rising costs and other factors have affected some new forces of car making. The car collection cycle of products is generally long. At the same time, enterprise executives are more anxious about battery supply. For traditional luxury brands, their supply chain system is more perfect, so their anti risk ability is also strong. For the rise in the price of battery raw materials, Wen zeyue, President of Audi China, said that Audi group will coordinate battery production with the synergy of Volkswagen Group. At the same time, we hope to further reduce prices and alleviate the pressure brought by costs through such scale effect. Audi is also cooperating with battery manufacturers in Europe and China to explore future solutions. Qi puce, Global CEO of BMW Group, also told reporters recently that in terms of managing raw material cost fluctuations, some raw materials can be hedged and different methods can be selected according to different raw materials. This year, BMW Group is expected to spend hundreds of millions of euros on the purchase of raw materials for electric cores. BMW does not have raw materials that cannot be purchased. At the same time, it is building a recycling concept and material closed loop.
In addition, in the development of electric vehicle products, traditional luxury brands will take into account the problem of profitability, but the self hematopoietic ability of new forces of car making needs to be improved, and Weilai, Xiaopeng and ideal are still in a state of loss. According to the latest data, in the first three quarters of 2021, Xiaopeng automobile lost as much as 3.58 billion yuan, Weilai automobile lost 1.87 billion yuan, and ideal automobile lost 320 million yuan in 2021. At present, the three new forces of car making are in the process of expansion, including the expansion of channel construction, investment in new factories and investment in R & D, which leads to excessive enterprise expenditure.
