BMW prices cut in half! Salesperson: I never dared to say this price before
"The i335L is about 170,000 yuan. I didn't dare to say this price before. Now it is indeed quite suitable. The price can be negotiated at the store." On June 4, when a reporter consulted a BMW 4S store in Beijing as a car buyer, the salesperson said This confirms the recent rumors of significant price cuts for BMW i3 and i5 pure electric models.
The BMW i3 and BMW i5, which have official website price tags of 353,900 yuan and 439,900 yuan respectively, currently only cost about 170,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan for basic naked models. The prices have plummeted, and the price of the i3 is close to being cut in half. Recently, the BMW Group's revenue and profits have both declined, and its sales in China are also facing difficulties.
Recently, many consumers have said that the price of the BMW i3 has "dropped." The actual price of the BMW i335L with a guide price of 353,900 yuan in 4S stores is less than 200,000 yuan. On June 4, the topic #BMW halved price reduction# was trending on Weibo, sparking heated discussion.
A reporter from China Securities Journal consulted a BMW 4S store in Beijing and learned that the store is indeed promoting electric vehicles. The BMW i335L is priced at more than 170,000 yuan, with a heavy discount; the i5 model also has a discount of about 140,000 yuan, and the standard version is priced at less than 300,000 yuan after the discount.
According to BMW's official website, the official price of the current BMW i3 starts at 353,900 yuan, and the i5 model starts at 439,900 yuan. This means that the actual selling price of the i3 has dropped by more than 50% compared to the official website, and the price of the i5, which was only launched this year, has also dropped by more than 30%. Previously, on platforms such as Autohome, the quotes for the i3 model had dropped significantly.
The salesperson told reporters: "I didn't dare to tell you this price before. You can still negotiate the price when you go to the store... It's quite suitable to buy a car now."
Ms. Bao from Shanghai told reporters that as a BMW owner, she was very surprised to see this price. She did not expect that BMW's pure electric models had dropped to less than 200,000 yuan, and she had the urge to change the car.
The salesperson said that the current low-price discounts on cars are only for cars currently in the store and require a loan. If you are not buying an existing car, you need to apply to enjoy the preferential price, which is uncertain.
Behind BMW's price plunge is a decline in revenue and profit in the first quarter and poor sales performance in the Chinese market.
According to the BMW Group's first quarter report of 2024, the BMW Group's revenue in the first quarter of 2024 was 36.614 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 0.6%; net profit was 2.951 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 19.4%. Among them, the revenue of the automotive business in the first quarter was 30.939 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 1.1%; the pre-tax net profit of the automotive business was 270.3 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 29.4%.
It is worth noting that BMW’s delivery volume in China in the first quarter of 2024 was 187,700 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 3.8%, becoming the only market among BMW’s major markets where delivery volume declined. BMW officials attributed the decline in sales in the Chinese market to the fact that the new BMW 5 Series will not be launched in China until February 2024.
But just launching new models may not be of much help to BBA. In the growing new energy vehicle market, established car companies such as BBA have not gained recognition from domestic consumers.
Many consumers who plan to buy cars in the near future told reporters that if they buy new energy vehicles, they will consider more domestic new energy brands and will basically not consider electric vehicles from traditional car companies such as BBA. The main reasons are lack of trust in the product and failure to experience the product’s more cutting-edge technology and design.
Experts say that automobile "electrification" and "intelligentization" are two major trends in the current development of the automobile industry, and the two are closely related. In terms of the application of intelligent technology, electric vehicles are more suitable for intelligent equipment than fuel vehicles. Electric vehicles receive and respond to sensor signals faster, and the data processed by the computer can be directly transmitted to the three major departments of motor, battery, and electronic control, and the movement will be realized more accurately.
As more and more intelligent automotive technologies seize consumption highlands, the range anxiety of new energy vehicles has been basically resolved, and traditional car companies are facing great challenges.
In recent years, Porsche's sales in China have dropped significantly. In 2023, its sales in China were 79,283 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 15%, making it the only market segment with negative growth in the world. In the first quarter of this year, Porsche only delivered 16,340 vehicles in the Chinese market, a year-on-year decline. The range is as high as 24%.
Porsche China said in a statement released on May 27: "The automotive industry is currently undergoing unprecedented major changes. Porsche China and dealers are facing a number of complex issues... We will work together to find effective ways to actively respond to the market. Changes and finding new opportunities in challenges. These discussions involve many aspects, including but not limited to many key areas such as business policy, local customer insights, customer service, and electric transformation.”
