Inventory increase luxury car dealers or face the risk of capital chain fracture

With the slowdown in the growth of luxury car sales in Guangzhou in April, the inventory of dealers, especially luxury brands, is also increasing. According to data from China Import & Export Trading Co., Ltd.: Many imported car brands are facing greater inventory pressure, reaching 2.7 in April this year, a record high in the past year, compared with only about 1.5 in the same period last year. Inventory pressure forces distributors to make profitable sales. Information Times reporter recently visited Guangzhou Auto City and found that the recent luxury car market in Guangzhou can be described as “a bitter sigh:” Japanese lawmakers are quite satisfied with “high price” sales, and they cannot digest high inventory, while Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other German brands Have to join the price war to "make money to lose money." The industry is generally concerned that there is already a risk of capital chain breakage in luxury car brand dealers on the market. If the stocks continue to increase, the business crisis may expand.

Guangzhou market luxury car sales growth rate in April than the chain fell It is understood that the current 4S stores in Guangzhou, the stock is almost saturated, dealers not only have to face heavy financial pressure, but also face the price reduction and quantity, the fact that profits decline .

Market participants believe that the inventory growth of the luxury car market this year is not unrelated to the manufacturers' optimistic forecast. “The industry forecast for the beginning of this year is that the imported car market is expected to exceed 1 million vehicles this year. All manufacturers have raised their sales targets, among which there are no less than 30% growth plans,” the source said.

It is worth noting that the supply and demand of the luxury car market in Guangzhou is not balanced. In sharp contrast to the continuously increasing supply, the imported car market in Guangzhou has been shrinking this year. According to statistics, Guangzhou sold a total of 2,100 imported vehicles in April, which accounted for 6.7% of the total new-vehicle transactions during the month, a decrease of 1% from the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 29.4%, a decrease of 2.3%.

Using price changes to digest inventory information The reporter recently visited the major luxury car brand dealers in Guangzhou City. Recently, some German brands such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have lowered their prices one after another. Under their pressure, Infiniti, Lexus, and Yangge Such Japanese brands exhibited serious shortage of competitiveness, and they had to join a price war. The luxury car market has been staged with price changes, but the effect is not satisfactory, but it has aggravated the wait-and-see mood of consumers. The inventory of major luxury car brand dealers is still at a high level.

As the number of imported cars continues to increase, the inventory at the terminal market is continuously increasing. At present, the secondary distributors of some imported cars in Guangzhou have already refused to purchase goods, and continue to increase preferential efforts to digest inventory as soon as possible.

“We are now estimating that the order system is more flexible than ever before. It was previously estimated that the orders for the second half of the year would be needed six months ago. It is now reported every month, but even if we quickly understand market conditions to avoid excess inventory, we cannot digest the OEM. "Impression of goods." An import car dealer frankly told reporters.

According to statistics, in Guangzhou, a total of 2,100 imported cars were sold in April, which accounted for 6.7% of the total new-vehicle transactions during the month, a decrease of 1% from the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 29.4% and a month-on-month decrease of 2.3%. This shows that the import car market in Guangzhou this year has been shrinking.




Inventories are approaching the alert line. In addition to the large backlog of major luxury brand 4S stores, the auto market is full of cars. Recently, the reporter visited a 4S shop in Dongfeng Nissan, a city in Guangzhou, and saw the sky full of sights and stops in the open space behind the shop, which is in stark contrast to the deserted market. According to industry sources, at present, the majority of luxury brand dealers in Guangzhou have an average stock of more than 100 stores per store, which is already approaching the number of alert lines.

A person in charge of a Lexus 4S store told the reporter that the recent sales conditions were not good and the inventory was somewhat large. According to the person in charge, when the market is good, the monthly sales volume of the store is about 80, but now the stock car has reached more than 200 vehicles. The sales manager of another BMW 4S shop told the reporter that the stock of the store in early May was about 400 cars, and the monthly pressure on the BMW single store was generally about 200 units. The pressure was obvious. The inventory of Lexus 4S stores is relatively small, but it is also common in more than 100 vehicles. A dealer with a good sales situation in a Lexus 4S store told the reporter that it was more difficult to sell cars recently and can only maintain the monthly sales of more than 60 vehicles.

Dealers' Japanese luxury car prices fell by the pressure of double-inventory inventory, indicating that dealers had more cash at their disposal. However, according to distributors, for everyone, the profit that is hit harder still is decreasing step by step.

As early as mid-April, under the pressure of inventory in the previous period, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and other brands have successively cut prices, and other luxury brand distributors have also to join the price war.

According to the person in charge of the Infiniti 4S store, due to the successive price cuts of the "Germany's top three", the competitiveness of the Infiniti model has been severely reduced. “We have already lost money to sell cars, but the price of the same-level models is still higher than the German three-line competition products 70,000 to 80,000 yuan, how to compete with others?” The person in charge admitted that the Japanese luxury cars do No match for the German brand, "the brand is not competitive, the price is not to force, simply can not compete."

The situation with the Japanese luxury brand Lexus is better than Infiniti. According to its dealers, Lexus’ customer base is slightly different from other luxury brands because of its hybrid technology and its technical route. However, due to the changes in the main models ES and RX, new models are on the market, old models are cleared, so the recent sales pressure is also relatively large.

"The dealers with good warehouse clearance and quick sales of vehicles will have more new models and hot models to sell, which will give them more support." A sales manager of a Lexus 4S store told the reporter that in order to win more manufacturers' support, At the same time, it is also under the pressure of the "Germany's top three" to snatch the market. At present, various dealers are competing to launch various promotional methods to sell cars.

Ashkenazi's top three "lose money and drink"

Although relative to Japanese luxury cars, the “Germany's top three” has a lot of strength both in terms of brand recognition and consumer acceptance, but its situation is actually worsening. "The competition is too fierce. There is no way to reduce prices because you don't cut prices. Naturally, some people drop." An German luxury brand dealer told reporters that consumers who buy luxury cars now valuate the majority of prices, while in Guangzhou , A brand is not only you a shop, you no matter how good the service, the price is no other low, consumers will not hesitate to go to other home 4S shop to buy more cars for a few thousand dollars.

An Ashkenazi luxury brand dealer told the reporter that, although compared with the past, the number of sales in the store has almost no change, and even there has been an increase, but the profits have fallen seriously. “There used to be more money models and it is now more competitive. The more fierce, the more money-losing models, so the profit is not as good as when the models are less."

Obviously, the luxury brands have become more and more expensive. The situation of “losing money and making profits” often seen in domestic brands has now begun to appear in luxury cars.

Industry Voices Are the Cause of Internet Expansion The analysis of the industry believes that inventory growth is not unrelated to the sales network of each luxury car brand to accelerate the expansion of the Chinese market.

Taking the "Germany's top three" as an example, there are statistics, in order to increase channel coverage, Audi, BMW added nearly 100 new outlets in 2011, and will maintain an annual increase of 50 to 80 outlets in the next few years; while Mercedes-Benz is accelerating At the same time as the introduction of products, we are also intensively weaving nets and we plan to add 35 to 40 dealers each year. On the 21st of last month, BMW set up a 4S shop in Guangzhou, which is located in Huadu. So far, there are 6 BMW 4S stores in Guangzhou.

Some analysts believe that the "Germany's top three" approach is being followed by other brands. This year, Lexus, Infiniti and other luxury car brands have announced the latest sales targets in China, and the expansion of the public to become the only choice for manufacturers to increase sales.

Some dealers who have long operated domestically-made cars have also begun to move into the “arms” of imported cars because of the current lack of growth in the domestic car market. According to a person in charge of a 4S store, about 20% of domestic car dealers currently increase the distribution of imported cars, which virtually increases the number of imported car outlets.

However, the luxury importers did not expect that due to the slowdown in China's macroeconomic growth, their expected 50% market growth rate did not appear at the beginning of the year. “The result is that the network layout of imported cars has increased and the number has increased, but sales growth has slowed down. This situation will inevitably lead to increased dealer inventory, thinning profits, and further price erosion,” said some insiders.