2024.0329

Number of words in this article:1569, the reading time is about 3 minutes

introduction：小米SU7的确“有点贵”。

** Author| ** First Finance Wei Wen

The "Spring Festival Gala" at the beginning of 2024 has come to an end, and the price dispute over Xiaomi cars that has lasted for several months has finally come to fruition.

On March 28, Xiaomi Automobile's first product, SU7, was officially launched. The standard version sold for 215,900 yuan, the PRO long-life version sold for 245,900 yuan, and the MAX version sold for 299,900 yuan. But the controversy over the price of Xiaomi SU7 did not end there.

Extreme cost performance has always been Xiaomi's trump card in attracting users. In an era when Apple, Samsung, and HTC mobile phones often sold for more than 4000 yuan, Xiaomi's mobile phone price dropped to 1999 yuan with close configurations, successfully making Xiaomi's name. In the following ten years, Xiaomi's ecological chain has gradually evolved into many fields such as digital wear and home appliances, and related products can offer highly competitive prices.

Everbright Securities said in a research report that from the comparison of user profiles of Huawei and Xiaomi's mobile phone customer groups, Huawei and Xiaomi have differences in the target groups corresponding to the mobile phone price band, and Xiaomi's "affordable and intelligent" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people; Compared with Huawei, the target user group of the mobile phone market may extend to cars, and "Huawei's mid-to-high-end + smart" versus "Xiaomi's mid-to-low-end + cost performance ratio" will become the main tone of the brand IP.

But when it came to Xiaomi Automobile, Lei Jun was unusual. Since December 26 last year, Lei Jun has repeatedly emphasized that Xiaomi SU7 "will be a bit expensive." Near the launch, Lei Jun repeatedly emphasized that the price of the SU7 "will be a little expensive", but "there are reasons for it to be expensive." He said that the Xiaomi SU7 standard version configuration far exceeds that of the Model 3, and in the early stages of the product's launch, the purchase cost is also very high, which does put pressure on pricing.

People from the marketing and product planning departments of many automobile companies believe that Lei Jun repeatedly conveys this message to raise consumers 'price expectations. If the final listing price is lower than consumers' psychological expectations, it will create a feeling of value for money. Judging from the final released price, the Xiaomi SU7 has not reached the "slightly expensive" level. Lei Jun also said at the press conference that the price of the Xiaomi SU7 is cheaper than the Terras Model 3.

Of course, many people think that the Xiaomi SU7 is a bit expensive, even twenty to thirty thousand more expensive than expected.

From the perspective of pricing and model positioning, Xiaomi SU7 has entered the hottest "532" pure electric sedan market in China. 532 refers to a product with a body length of 5 meters, a wheelbase of about 3 meters, and a price of 200,000 yuan. In this market segment, many new models such as Gekrypton 001, Gekrypton 007, Huawei Intelligent S7, and Star Era ES have been gathered.

"From the overall configuration, the configuration of Xiaomi SU7 has certain latecomer advantages, but under this pricing, the cost-effective advantage is not obvious." Cui Yi, product planning director of a new energy vehicle company, told reporters.

The Xiaomi SU7 standard version adopts a 400V electrical architecture, and the power battery is a 73.6kWh Verdi lithium iron phosphate battery. It does not use lidar. Although the NVIDIA Orin chip is used, it is a version with low computing power at 84TOPS. The ultra-krypton 007 rear-drive version is priced at 209,900 yuan and uses an 800V electrical architecture that is more advanced than the 400V architecture. The power battery uses a 75kWh lithium iron phosphate battery. In terms of smart driving configuration, the Extreme Krypton 007 rear-drive version also does not have a lidar, but it uses the NVIDIA Orin-X chip and has a computing power of 254TOPS.

In comparison with models of the same price range such as Jikrypton and Geely, the core configuration of the Xiaomi SU7 does not have a clear advantage. Cui Yi believes that the pricing of each version of the SU7 will have to be lowered by 15,000 to 20,000 yuan to be called "cost-effective".

In the fierce price turmoil in the past two years, most Chinese car companies except Tesla are "piling up" configurations to improve product competitiveness through arms races, and users 'expectations and requirements have also been raised to a higher level.

Before Xiaomi SU7, Huawei's intelligence community had already made a less successful attempt. In 2023, Huawei and Chery will set the starting price of the Smart S7 model at 249,800 yuan. However, due to various reasons, the sales performance of the car is not satisfactory. On April 8, the car will be re-launched. According to informed sources, the smart S7 may replicate the path of the smart M7 when it is launched for the second time, and achieve a reversal of sales through price cuts and additional allocations.

It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi's discussions on prices in recent months have indeed played a role in rapid communication. Many industry insiders said that there has never been a new car launch conference with such high attention. A management person from the marketing center of an independent car company told reporters that under the surging traffic, Xiaomi Automobile hopes to quickly harvest good orders by taking advantage of the "information gap" that consumers do not understand about other brand products.

The next test that Xiaomi Automobile will face is production capacity, product quality and the second batch of channel investment. Huge traffic is valuable, but water can carry a boat and it can also overturn it. If there is a problem with product quality or sales and service links, it will also be amplified.

Competition in the automobile industry is a marathon, and Xiaomi Automobile has just started.

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