Regular readers of Car News China will know that every week, we publish a listing of the sales of new energy vehicles in China. This information is largely based on the number of cars insured in a given week and has been popularized as a metric by Li Auto. Over the last few days, a growing number of Chinese car producers have taken aim at the weekly list and said it is detrimental to the development of the new energy vehicle market.
Kicking off the move, Ma Lin, assistant vice president of brand communications at Nio, tweeted on Weibo, “The high-level tone should not engage in low-level involution, and the weekly list is more or less a bit of a low-level involution.” This he followed up with a message directed at Li Xiang the CEO of Li Auto saying “Brother Xiang, stop it, the current mission of Chinese car companies is to achieve technological breakthroughs through research and development, isn’t it?”
The general idea is that weekly sales can vary due to many factors, and also, with the data largely dependent on insurance registrations, this doesn’t accurately reflect sales. Furthermore, the fixation means that companies spend too much time focusing on this area rather than sustained growth for the future.
Ma Lin believes that audited monthly delivery volumes far more accurately reflect the business situation and says they are “more effective for users to understand the market situation and help consumers make consumption decisions.” He goes on to criticize that products at different price points, with or without fuel tanks, are put into the same list and that it cannot show an objective situation of the market. However, how this is meant to differ from a monthly sales list is difficult to know as, generally, these also clump such cars together.
Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Group, was one of the first to lend support, saying, “I’m also against the weekly list.” He was joined by Mu Feng, president of Great Wall Motor, who, along with giving support, added, “Great Wall Motor welcomes all allies who uphold high-quality development, stick to the bottom line side by side, and jointly build a Chinese auto brand.”
He Xiaopeng, Xpeng’s CEO, spoke at the Xpeng Motors AI Intelligent Driving Technology Conference on July 30 and joined the chorus. Citing his trip to the US in June, he favorably compared the current situation, saying in the US, people were talking about the technology to do with smart driving and how to make it better, while people in China were still talking about weekly sales lists and trying to find ways of making money. “China’s technology companies are still working on the “weekly sales list” and are trying to find ways to make money. That’s not what tech competition should be. Xpeng is a technology company, and it should be deep enough to make the technology,” said He.
Speaking at the Nio in 2024 Nio Innovation and Technology Day held on July 27, William Li, founder and CEO of Nio, strongly supported monthly sales figures, while Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of Nio, attacked weekly sales figures due to their inaccuracy and likelihood of being misinterpreted.
Editor’s note:
The possible reason for Li Auto’s emphasis on the weekly sales figures might come from Li Xiang being also the founder of Chinese car website, Autohome.
The recent backlash against the weekly sales figures is interesting and perhaps indicates a more widespread change in the way Chinese car companies operate. What will be interesting to see is whether this will extend to the constant price discounting in the industry, which is hurting the profitability of many companies. A number of joint venture companies have already indicated that they are exiting the race for the bottom. One of the first to announce this was BMW earlier this month.
Source: Autohome
