BYD and Xiaomi engage in a fierce battle during the Golden Week

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

October 8, 2024, is a memorable day for many people.

On the first day after the "National Day Golden Week", the three major A-share indexes opened higher across the board, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising by more than 10% at one point. Many automotive and industrial chain companies' stocks also reached new highs.

As of the close on the afternoon of October 8, power battery manufacturer CATL surged by 18.7% to 299 yuan/share, while the stocks of complete vehicle companies such as NIO and BYD also rose by over 5%. In the past half month, the entire automotive sector has shown a significant rebound, with leading stocks like BYD seeing their stock prices rise by over 30%.

In addition to the great harvest in the capital market, auto companies also received many orders during this "National Day Golden Week". After all, compared to the gains and losses in the stock market, selling cars brings real cash flow.

For the auto market, this is a long-awaited feast. In the past year, except for a few new cars that were able to achieve soaring orders shortly after their launch, the overall auto market has been in a state of "not dull in the off-season, not booming in the peak season" due to prolonged price wars.

This year, following the success of "Golden September" with all companies making a profit and even achieving record high sales volume, the potential of "Silver October" can be glimpsed from the bustling situation during the "National Day Golden Week".

Similar to the monthly sales reports, the craze of the National Day Golden Week is also concentrated in new energy vehicle companies.

During last year's National Day, Aito's new M7 single-handedly staged the "resurrection" of the entire Aito brand. A year later, the Huawei ecosystem has already had a new brilliant story.

Data released by Huawei Smart Car BU shows that during the National Day holiday, the cumulative number of pre-orders exceeded 28,600 vehicles, with the pre-orders for Aito R7, Aito M9, and Aito M7 exceeding 9,600 vehicles, 7,800 vehicles, and 9,000 vehicles respectively.

The performance of Aito R7 made Richard Yu, Chairman of Huawei Smart Car Solutions BU, sigh with emotion: "Aito R7 has risen, it is really difficult to build a brand from scratch, the Aito brand rises with R7."

Leapmotor also received many orders. On the evening of October 7, Zhu Jiangming, Chairman of Leapmotor, couldn't wait to share the order situation during the National Day holiday on his social media. According to the backend data he provided, Leapmotor's locked orders on that day were 3,576 vehicles, and the locked orders in the past seven days were 17,397 vehicles. Among the new forces in car manufacturing, Leapmotor has always been relatively low-key, but since the beginning of this year, its orders have frequently broken records, making it difficult to remain low-key in the future.

It was also revealed by industry insiders that BYD added over 160,000 orders during the "National Day Golden Week", while Li Auto received over 20,000 orders, both achieving fruitful results.

Although the overall sales volume of pure electric models is not as high as hybrid and extended-range models, many brands that sell pure electric vehicles also garnered a large number of orders during this "National Day Golden Week".

Lei Jun, Chairman of Xiaomi Corporation, confirmed that during the National Day period, orders for Xiaomi SU 7 exceeded 6,000; XPeng is still immersed in the warmth of XPeng MONA M03. After setting a record of 21,352 units in September, it was revealed by insiders that XPeng received 16,000 new orders during the National Day period; the newly redesigned IM Motors LS6 also received approximately 3,500 orders in three days The popularity to this extent is thanks to the dual boost of policy subsidies before National Day and preferential benefits from car manufacturers.

As early as the end of July, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the latest policy of replacing old cars with new ones. Based on the original implementation rules for subsidies for replacing old cars with new ones, the subsidy for scrapping and purchasing new cars was once again increased.

After the update, for individual consumers who meet the relevant requirements, scrap old cars and purchase new cars, the subsidy standards for purchasing new energy passenger cars were increased from 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan, and for purchasing fuel passenger cars from 7,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan.

In addition, during the National Day holiday, about 20 cities held car exhibitions, and many places also issued time-limited car consumption vouchers, all of which promoted car consumption. For example, the 2024 Hefei International New Energy Vehicle Exhibition ended on October 5th. According to statistics, during the exhibition, a total of 550,000 visitors entered, 50 million yuan in city-level car consumption vouchers were issued, driving sales of over 20,000 vehicles, with sales of approximately 3.79 billion yuan.

Car manufacturers also prepared many promotional activities for this "Golden Week" of National Day.

For example, Hongmeng Zhixing, with nearly 30,000 orders, offered tens of thousands of yuan in limited-time discounts for several models under its brand. In addition to the benefits of up to 35,000 yuan for ZhiJie R7, EnjoyJie S9, and WenJie M7, there were also National Day lucky draws (with the first prize being Huawei's latest foldable phone) and some minor benefits. Many joint venture brands also directly launched a "fixed price" policy that is tens of thousands of yuan lower than the previous selling price.

Moreover, since September, dozens of new models and facelifted models have been released before the festival, and many new car launch events include the "Golden Week" of National Day, naturally driving a wave of pre-orders.

For example, another brand under Nio, LeDao, launched its first model LeDao L60 on September 19th, with a price range of 206,900 yuan to 235,900 yuan. If purchased using the battery rental method, the price starts at 149,900 yuan. Until October 8th, consumers can also enjoy founding user benefits worth about 41,500 yuan, which is a great temptation for users.

For consumers, the rise brought by the bull market has also changed their expectations, making them more willing to consume, which also has a certain stimulating effect on consumption during the "Golden Week" of National Day.

"Golden September and Silver October" is a key stage for car manufacturers to boost annual sales, to a certain extent determining whether they can achieve their annual sales targets. The "Golden Week" of National Day is a crucial window period, prompting car manufacturers to work even harder, leading the auto market into a season of bountiful harvest.

However, it can be seen that the auto market has long entered a stage of competition based on existing stock, and today's brilliance comes from the dual stimulation of policies and car manufacturers.

The current release of demand also means that there will be greater challenges ahead, and car manufacturers must drive towards larger market opportunities in order to achieve sustained growth