11 brands get together in Beijing Heshenghui, and new energy car companies stage a ＂battle for battle＂

It’s hard for people who used to be 4S shops to imagine that today’s shopping malls will become the first entrance to buy cars-in Heshenghui, Chaoyang District, Beijing, the battle for new energy brands is on the verge.

According to the actual visit of Sina Technology, up to now, there are not only mainstream new car-making forces such as Weilai, Ideality and Xpeng Motors, but also new power brands of the second echelon such as Hechuang Automobile, Nezha Automobile, Horizon Automobile and Weimar, as well as new energy brands launched by traditional car companies such as Krypton, SAIC Chase, Extremely Fox and Lantu.

▲ Hesheng Huilantu Exhibition Hall

"After the contract of Weilai and Hechuang expires, they will also move to the fifth floor to form a joint display with other brands." Sina Technology learned from Heshenghui and several new energy sales offices that the fifth floor of Heshenghui will be the area where new energy vehicles will be displayed.

Sina Technology found in Weimar Automobile official website that Weimar Automobile has 24 "4S" outlets in Beijing. Of all the outlets, only Heshenghui Store is on the fifth floor, and the others are on the first floor.

Xpeng Motors official website shows that up to now, Xpeng Motors has 20 experience centers, flagship stores and service centers in Beijing, and only Heshenghui experience store is located on the fifth floor. Previously, the Heshenghui Experience Center in Xpeng Motors was located at the entrance of the south gate on the first floor of Heshenghui, adjacent to Costa Coffee, and now it has become a clothing brand store.

▲ Xpeng Motors Exhibition Hall on the fifth floor of Heshenghui

"We have moved to the fifth floor for more than a month, which really caused some troubles in the early days." A salesperson of Xpeng Motors Heshenghui Experience Center said that a customer came to Heshenghui again a few days after booking a car and saw that the Xpeng Motors store was gone. "He quickly called me and asked if we were out of business."

As a last resort, the staff of Xpeng Motors Heshenghui Experience Center can only hang a notice board at the original store address, reminding customers that the store has moved to the fifth floor.

"Now customers basically know this information, so we removed the signboard." The aforementioned Xpeng Motors salesperson said. However, in comparison, the scale of Xpeng Motors’s exhibition hall on the fifth floor has shrunk a lot compared with the experience center on the first floor.

Heshenghui is obviously not ready for this change. Sina Technology saw on the information guide board on the first floor that Xpeng Motors is still on the first floor, and there are Hechuang Automobile and Weilai Automobile on the same floor.

▲ Heshenghui Weilai Space

On the information guide board, Sina Technology found that the information on the fifth floor has not been updated, even though nine new energy automobile brands have gathered on the fifth floor. On the WeChat service number of Heshenghui, the floor information pushed in April this year is still consistent with the information guide board on the first floor. Even when Sina Technology asked the service desk, it was told that "there is a temporary auto show on the fifth floor."

"We all moved up in June and July, and Heshenghui simply renovated the atrium on the fifth floor to accommodate the exhibition hall of new energy vehicles." A new energy brand salesperson of a traditional car company told Sina Technology.

Sina Technology visited the fifth floor of Heshenghui and found that Lantu Automobile, Xpeng Motors Automobile, Weimar Automobile, Tianji Automobile, Extremely Fox Automobile and Nezha Automobile were adjacent to each other near the cinema, among which Tianji Automobile had a large exhibition area and a reception area on the second floor. The booths of Nezha Automobile and Weimar Automobile are smaller. Among them, Nezha Automobile and Lantu Automobile are adjacent to each other, because the logos are similar, so it is even difficult to distinguish them without paying attention.

▲ Automobile exhibition area on the fifth floor of Heshenghui

On the other side, the exhibition halls of LI, Krypton and SAIC Chase are scattered around the Children’s Park. Similar to Weimar, only one new energy vehicle is displayed.

Sina technology learned from a number of new energy brand sales staff that all major brands began to move to the building in June this year. "After the contract of Weilai and Hechuang expires, they will also move to the fifth floor to form a joint display with other brands." These sales staff and the staff of Heshenghui all said that the new energy brands will be on the fifth floor in the future.

The sales staff of a new energy automobile brand, this arrangement is mainly related to the relevant policies in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

In March this year, Beijing announced the completion of the Beijing New Energy Vehicle Exhibition and Experience Demonstration Center by the end of May. The newly established Beijing New Energy Vehicle Exhibition and Experience Demonstration Center has become a new energy vehicle landmark demonstration project that provides citizens with many functions such as display, sales, test drive experience, knowledge classroom and cultural and creative interaction.

▲ The polar fox exhibition hall and the skyline automobile exhibition hall on the fifth floor of Heshenghui.

According to reports, Beijing New Energy Automobile Exhibition Experience Demonstration Center was planned in Beijing for one year. After many site selections, it was finally decided to settle in the exhibition center on the fifth floor of Heshenghui Shopping Mall.

Heshenghui Shopping Mall has obvious location advantages and is built on the subway, but the rent is slightly lower than that of SKP, Huamao and other shopping malls in the north. West of the international trade circle; East of Baiziwan and Sihui. Surrounded by high-end residential areas including Jinmaofu, Pearl River Dijing and R&F City.

A salesperson of a certain brand told Sina Technology that Heshenghui is really easy to attract some customers with higher net worth. "I once sold three of our high-priced models in a few months, and the price was nearly 400,000 yuan. The corresponding customers were an Internet company executive, a luxury brand owner born in 1996 and a retired middle-aged man." He said.

However, he also expressed some concerns. "I am worried that after moving to the fifth floor, I will not be able to attract some high-net-worth customers, thus selling high-priced models; Of course, the large flow of people is still guaranteed. " He said. Sina Technology has seen that the brand’s exhibition hall still has high-priced models on display.

It coincides with the holiday meal, and the flow of people on the fifth floor of Heshenghui is greater than before. Sina Technology immediately interviewed several consumers who went to the exhibition halls of different new energy brands to see cars, and they all expressed a view that it is difficult to make a decision when buying a car as a big item, while waiting for a meal for almost two hours.

"It’s true that the flow of people is bigger. After all, it’s a dining area, but more people have nothing to do for almost half an hour while waiting for dinner. Looking around, they are not real customers with purchase intentions. Now we are doing brand awareness and sales leads." A salesperson told Sina Science and Technology that, by comparison, salespeople are not so busy during holidays.

Sina Technology met a father who came to experience Krypton 001 with his children in the Krypton exhibition area. During the conversation, the father said that it was time to queue up for dinner, so he took his children to experience these new brands of vehicles, because it was too short to send them to the amusement park and it was a waste of money. It was not until the end that he showed his identity. In April this year, he set his pole to Krypton 001, and now he is only waiting to pick up the car. When he left, he did not forget to ask the staff of the polar booth, "After waiting for half a year, can you pick up the car on time?"

▲ The polar car exhibition hall on the fifth floor of Heshenghui is located next to the Children’s Paradise.

Except for Sky Auto, Weimar Auto, Nezha Auto, etc., which have not seen consumers entering the store, Sina Technology found through observation that almost every consumer has entered the store for less than 10 minutes, and the sales staff can only actively accumulate sales leads, ask for the contact information of the consumers entering the store or add WeChat.

"Of course, moving to the fifth floor also has the advantage that the rent is lower than that on the first floor. Some new energy brands can’t sell many cars a month, and renting the exhibition hall on the first floor is purely burning money. " A salesperson of new energy vehicles told Sina Technology.

As many new energy brands have moved from single-family buildings that were originally set up in the suburbs or far away from the city center to shopping malls in the city center, the rent of the first floor exhibition hall has also been pushed up. After the high rent, many brands choose to walk on two legs, opening service stores such as service centers and delivery centers in the suburbs, and opening smaller brand experience centers and exhibition halls in urban business districts.

Tesla is the leader of new energy automobile brands entering shopping centers. In 2013, Tesla opened its first experience center in China market in Qiaofufang Grassland. According to some Tesla employees, the annual rent of the store is in the order of 10 million yuan. About six years later, Xpeng Motors opened an exhibition hall next to Tesla Qiaofufang Grassland Experience Center, which was less than 20 meters apart.

These Tesla employees also revealed that after 2020, Tesla had planned to open a global flagship store in Sanlitun, and will gradually replace the Overseas Chinese Fufang Grassland Experience Center to reduce the rental cost. But in the end, Xpeng Motors beat Tesla at a higher price and opened a flagship experience center in Sanlitun Garden.

This is just a microcosm of new energy brands rushing to the core business circle and expanding brand awareness. Behind this competition is the fast-growing new energy vehicle market in China.

According to the China Automobile Industry Development Annual Report (2021) recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2020, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China reached 1.367 million, up 10.9% year-on-year, exceeding 1 million for three consecutive years, showing a sustained high-speed growth trend, ranking first in the world for six consecutive years.

According to the data of the Federation, in the first half of 2021, the wholesale and retail of new energy vehicles has exceeded one million. From January to June, the wholesale of new energy passenger cars in China was 1.087 million, a year-on-year increase of 231.5%; The retail sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 1.001 million, up 218.9% year-on-year. In just eight months, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China has surpassed the annual sales volume in 2020.

With the General Office of the State Council issuing the New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan (2021-2035) at the end of 2020, many new energy automobile brands regard 2025 as the first window of China’s new energy automobile development stage-by 2025, the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 20% of the sales of new vehicles, and according to the scale, the sales of new energy vehicles in 2025 will be about 5 million.

However, many new energy brands are more optimistic about this figure, and thus carry out the expansion plan of sales network.

Xpeng Motors’s financial report for the second quarter of 2021 shows that 40 experience centers and service centers were added in Xpeng Motors in the first half of this year. Correspondingly, Xpeng Motors’s sales and administrative expenses remain high, contributing most of the losses. In the second quarter, Xpeng Motors’s sales and administrative expenses reached 1.031 billion yuan, an increase of 550 million yuan.

However, just after the release of the financial report, He Xiaopeng, the chairman of Xpeng Motors, said ambitiously that Xpeng Motors would increase the target of opening 300 new sales stores by the end of the year to more than 350.

By the end of August, LI had 114 retail centers nationwide, covering 69 cities. LI President Shen Yanan once revealed in an interview that LI plans to reach 200 retail centers nationwide this year, covering 100 cities.

When Sina Technology visited other shopping malls, it found that many retail centers in LI were under renovation. For example, in Qinghe Colorful City, LI set up a booth on the first floor, and a LI retail center was under renovation not far from the booth. This is also considered to be LI’s preparation for the listing of more models. Currently, there are only 2021 Li ONE models on sale in LI.

▲ Qinghe Colorful City is an ideal retail center under renovation.

Li Xiang, the founder of LI, once revealed LI’s product update plan. From 2022, LI will release at least two new products to the market every year, and will start to deliver pure electric products in 2023.

Sina Technology has seen in Xpeng Motors and official website, LI that both marketing and sales jobs are the most demanding jobs, with more than 430 jobs in LI and 610 jobs in Xpeng Motors. Others, such as Sky Auto, Weilai Auto and Nezha Auto, also have recruitment requirements for sales (consultant) positions in direct stores.

In addition to the new forces of building cars, the new energy brands of traditional car companies have gradually abandoned the traditional 4S shop model and set up brand experience stores instead, pulling in the distance from consumers. According to official data, Beiqi’s new energy brand Polar Fox plans to open 100 stores in 2021 and 150 stores in 2022. Lantu, a new energy brand owned by Dongfeng Motor, plans to open 40 direct experience stores in China this year.

▲ The Extreme Fox Experience Store in Qinghe Colorful City

In the face of more and more expensive rents, new energy automobile brands that need continuous expansion cannot stop the pace of rushing to the beach shopping center. Because the target group of new energy automobile brands has a high degree of overlap with the target group of shopping centers.

According to the data of Ai Media Consulting, users aged 26 to 45 will be the main force among new energy vehicle users in China in 2020, accounting for 76.09%. The White Paper on Commercial Attraction of Key Cities in China in 2020 published by Tencent Map shows that the age group of 26 to 45 is also the main group of visitors to key shopping malls in China in 2020, accounting for 58.33%.

"The collected sales leads may be repeated for 10 days and a half months in the past (on the first floor), but now it is shortened to 3 days, at most one week. If there is a new test drive to the store or there are activities, it will be more frequent." A salesperson who has moved from the first floor to the fifth floor of Heshenghui said that this is an obvious change in his work, because the time spent dealing with consumers is too short now, and he can only deepen his impression through follow-up communication.

The truth that new energy automobile brands compete for shopping centers is concentrated on the fifth floor of Heshenghui. However, whether on the first floor or on the fifth floor, for new energy automobile brands, it is inseparable from shopping centers, and money burning continues.