BMW shines at Chengdu Auto Show

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

After taking the lead in launching a price war in July, Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) has rethought how to win in the fierce price war in the Chinese market. Providing more valuable products to users is the core of BMW's response to competition.

At the Chengdu Auto Show on August 30th, a total of 13 new cars from the BMW BMW and MINI brands made their debut at the Chengdu Auto Show, the most new cars BMW has ever showcased at the Chengdu Auto Show over the years. In this relatively "quiet" Chengdu Auto Show this year, BMW also became one of the most eye-catching car companies.

Gao Xiang, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, also spoke at the event, interspersing a few sentences in Chengdu dialect to introduce their new products. By providing a rich array of products, BMW intends to meet the needs of different consumers and offer them desirable products.

Although the competition in the luxury car market is fierce at the moment, brands like Li Auto, Huawei's Aito, etc., have captured a significant market share from traditional luxury car brands. However, for companies like BMW, their brand influence is significant, and Chengdu and the southwestern cities it radiates will be one of their key focus areas.

In terms of sales volume, as of July 2024, Chengdu surpassed cities like Beijing and Shanghai with a sales volume of 332,000 vehicles, becoming the city with the highest car sales volume in China.

In terms of the sales rhythm for the year, the Chengdu Auto Show will also kick off the traditional "Golden September, Silver October" sales peak season, and BMW's efforts at this time will also help stimulate subsequent sales.

For BMW, in the turbulent luxury market, many new energy brands have entered the luxury market, with an average selling price exceeding 300,000 RMB, and some brands even reaching 400,000 RMB. Therefore, BMW needs to leverage its advantages in performance and luxury to introduce new products.

At this auto show, the all-new BMW M5 made its debut in China, equipped with the M high-performance hybrid system for a driving experience that offers "easy horsepower, elusive driving pleasure" to performance enthusiasts.

In BMW's system, the three letters "BMW" represent different product lines. Among them, "M" stands for the first letter of the engine, representing a driving experience focused on performance.

In this new era, BMW combines electrification, intelligence, and its driving experience in its products.

The all-new BMW M5 also actively embraces the modern consumers' demand for digital driving pleasure, providing an exclusive M interface and the unique M Elite driving mode for M models, bringing professional sports driving settings and track driving assistance functions to users who love pure driving pleasure.

In terms of performance, BMW has a long history of dedication. According to official BMW data, the BMW M Owners Club in China has over 50,000 members, with 40% of customers having track driving experience.

BMW has introduced that 2024 is a big year for M products, so there is continuous news about the BMW M series of new cars.

In addition to the debut of the all-new BMW M5, the new BMW M2 two-door coupe and the new BMW M3 were also launched this year, with power upgrades, aiming to challenge the limits of the BMW M six-cylinder "engine king." The first domestically produced BMW M performance car, the all-new BMW X1 M35Li, and the refreshed BMW M240i two-door coupe also made their debut and were launched at the auto show By the end of this year, BMW will offer 23 high-performance and performance models in China, covering almost all BMW's segmented markets.

In addition to the M series, at this auto show, the all-new BMW X3 long-wheelbase version made its global debut, emphasizing larger size, higher value, and more driving pleasure.

At the same time, BMW announced at this auto show that the BMW M Carnival, a festival shared with fans, will return to Chengdu in November this year, igniting the passion for the track with an immersive BMW M brand experience.

Gao Xiang believes that BMW is not only delivering satisfactory products to customers today but also preparing for the future with clear product planning, showing confidence in BMW's future development direction.

Currently, BMW's investment in the Chinese market is increasing. At the end of April, BMW announced plans to increase investment in its Shenyang production base by RMB 20 billion.

This investment will mainly be used for the large-scale upgrade and technological innovation of BMW's origin production site in China, the Dadong Plant. By 2026, BMW's next-generation models will be officially produced in China.

The industry is still very competitive. However, recently, many automotive industry executives have begun to emphasize that every automaker should have its own pace.

Although consumers have more and more choices, the number of cards that each company can play is different, and the level of consumer satisfaction varies. This requires automakers to bring out many cards at different stages.

BMW is one of those automakers that still have many cards to play, with several new BMW and MINI models in the pipeline for launch.

Moreover, as an international automaker, BMW's pure electric models have achieved good sales in the international market. A few days before the Chengdu Auto Show, BMW also announced that its pure electric models ranked first in sales in the European market.

BMW at least does not need to develop new markets from scratch but only needs to consolidate with new models continuously, which is also where BMW's strong competitiveness lies