I witnessed gasoline cars being outperformed at the Chengdu Auto Show

Pinjia, Author: Dong Nan, Image Source: AI Generation

On August 30th, the first day of the Chengdu Auto Show media day, almost all media outlets were lamenting: the popularity of the Chengdu Auto Show is declining year by year.

"Thinking back to the first time I attended the Chengdu Auto Show, there were queues to enter. Now, on the first day of the media day, it was empty all the way from the entrance to the exhibition hall."

It's unclear whether the drop in media day attendance is due to fewer exhibitors or fewer media attendees.

Image Source: Pinjia Photography

Whether in terms of the number of participating brands or car models, this year's Chengdu Auto Show did not reach a new high. Official data shows that nearly 130 companies were concentrated in the exhibition, displaying over 1600 vehicles, similar to last year.

During the traditional peak car-buying season in China, exhibitors at the Chengdu Auto Show seemed more focused on selling cars!

Selling cars means the focus is on the cars themselves, so there wasn't much emphasis on new technologies and industry trends. It's not hard to understand why many media outlets did not receive invitations to attend the auto show this year.

BMW is an exception.

Among the BBA trio, Mercedes-Benz and Audi sent regional dealers to participate directly, while BMW not only had the President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, Gao Xiang, take the stage, but also extended sincere invitations, maintaining a bit of dignity for the media attending the auto show.

Just a month before the Chengdu Auto Show, the Chinese auto market reached a historic turning point - the penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeded 50% for the first time.

This means that in terms of market supply and demand, new energy vehicles have taken the initiative for the first time.

Therefore, the enthusiasm for new energy vehicles at the exhibition stands remained high.

BYD secured the entire Hall 9 - the first time this hall was used, and even built an outdoor pool to demonstrate the U8 emergency water-floating performance, making it the most powerful new energy vehicle company at this year's Chengdu Auto Show.

Among the new cars unveiled before and during the Chengdu Auto Show, the XPeng MONA M03, ZEEKR 7X, Aito 07, BYD's first MPV in the Dynasty family, Xia, all garnered significant attention.

The highly anticipated BMW M5 was the center of attention, representing the glory of the era of fuel-powered cars with its plug-in hybrid system, which has now continued into the era of new energy vehicles.

New cars were unveiled in the morning, and car sales were live-streamed in the afternoon. The rhythm of new energy vehicles was fast-paced

On the day of the media, the booth started live streaming to sell cars. Source: PDrive Photography

In contrast, traditional fuel car brands that have been continuously declining in the past Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou auto shows, not only did not have many new cars at this year's Chengdu auto show, but even seemed indifferent to selling cars.

Among the fuel cars, the all-new BMW X3L and the new Cadillac XT5 are relatively heavyweight updated models at this year's Chengdu auto show. They are also fuel models highly dependent on the Chinese market, and of course, the prices are sensitive to Chinese consumers.

A few days ago, He Xiaopeng, the chairman of XPeng Motors, mentioned in an interview that very expensive fuel cars actually do not have high costs, have cost advantages, and have the ability to lower prices. As for whether they will compete, how they will compete, it is still difficult to judge at the moment.

The luxury fuel car market is also a battleground for the fierce attack of new energy vehicles. Previously, BMW announced its withdrawal from the price war. Whether luxury fuel cars will release price potential remains to be seen, and we have not felt it this time.

In addition, the popularity of most joint venture brands' booths was low.

Guangzhou Honda's booth had almost no presence, and when it comes to selling cars, joint venture brands also seem indifferent. When various brands of new energy vehicles offered unprecedented discounts, fuel cars also gave up lowering prices to sell cars.

Source: PDrive Photography

Of course, there are also some fuel cars and brands worth paying attention to that have not given up their control over the fuel car market.

Volkswagen brought the Touareg Nova with a price as low as 79,900-106,900 yuan, making many people exclaim that Volkswagen is already so cheap.

However, compared to the newly launched XPeng MONA M03 with over 30,000 orders in the first 48 hours, fuel cars lowering the price threshold have already found it difficult to bring such market shock.

On the eve of the Chengdu auto show, a topic surged to the hot search:

In 2024, who will still buy fuel cars?

The soul-stirring question raised by Li Bin at the beginning has once again soared at the Chengdu auto show.

Author: Dong Nan