Lixiang ONE and AITO continue their rivalry.

Since last week, with BMW taking the lead in exiting the price war, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have also been rumored to have stopped further price cuts. Subsequently, sales representatives have reported that "orders have increased despite the price hikes."

With the release of weekly sales data, BBA (BMW, Benz, Audi) indeed regained ground.

This afternoon, the sales data for the third week of July (July 15-21) revealed that BBA sales have risen across the board, with varying degrees of improvement compared to the previous week.

Moreover, Audi surpassed both Lixiang and Tesla, finally joining Mercedes-Benz and BMW in the top three.

In addition, the new force rankings are also abuzz with hidden currents, as NIO's sales increased by over 1,000 vehicles last week, making it the most significantly boosted new electric vehicle brand.

Surprisingly, Xiaomi's weekly sales declined significantly, slipping from seventh place in the previous week to ninth, with sales dropping from 2,300 to 1,500 units, surpassed by Xpeng and Denza.

01 Xiaomi Auto Sales Continue to Decline

Compared to last week, overall sales of new forces have declined, but Xiaomi Auto's drop to ninth place is still surprising, with 800 fewer vehicles sold compared to the previous week and only 200 units separating it from IM Motor in tenth place.

In the first week of July (July 1-7), sales of Zeekr, Leapmotor, and Xiaomi were 3,800, 3,800, and 3,700 units respectively. Xiaomi Auto was only 100 units behind the first two, but a week later (July 8-14), Xiaomi Auto's weekly sales fell back to 2,300 units, a 38% decline from the first week of July.

By the third week of July, Xiaomi Auto's sales declined again, with a year-on-year drop of 35% to 1,500 units, marking Xiaomi's worst sales week in the past two months.

The direct reason for two consecutive weeks of poor sales may be production line adjustments.

At the beginning of July, Wang Hua, General Manager of Xiaomi Group's PR Department, responded to rumors of a "shutdown" on Weibo, stating that Xiaomi Auto would soon undergo a new round of production line optimization and maintenance to further increase capacity.

Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's disclosure of the 385th batch of "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products Announcement," four "Xiaomi-branded" pure electric sedans with a rear badge of "Xiaomi" were announced, with the applicant enterprise named "Xiaomi Auto Technology Co., Ltd." This means that the production enterprise has changed from Beijing Automotive Group to Xiaomi, allowing Xiaomi to fully control the production process and flexibly adjust production plans.

Despite the sales decline, an automotive blogger revealed that Xiaomi had accumulated 9,300-9,500 orders in July, with 3,200-3,400 orders accumulated last week.

Last weekend, Lei Jun delivered his annual speech, sharing the ups and downs of Xiaomi's three years in the automotive industry, which generated significant buzz. Additionally, four new sales locations were opened in Jinan, Guiyang, Changchun, and Changzhou, with 13 new stores.

Xiaomi Auto also stated that the production line optimization and maintenance would not affect its goal of delivering over 10,000 vehicles in July, and with one week left, Xiaomi Auto needs to step up its efforts.

02 BBA Wins the First Battle of Price Hikes

Last week, "BBA price hikes" frequently trended on social media.

BMW increased prices across its entire lineup by 30,000-50,000 yuan, making the i3 unavailable for 170,000 yuan, while Mercedes-Benz and Audi also began stabilizing prices. Sales representatives revealed that after the price hikes, store traffic and conversion rates have improved.

The sales rankings confirm this.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi all saw significant sales increases, with Audi leading the way with an additional 2,400 vehicles sold, followed by Mercedes-Benz with 2,100, and BMW, which was the first to announce price hikes, adding 1,400 vehicles.

BMW was overtaken by Mercedes-Benz in sales rankings, taking second place. Meanwhile, Audi surpassed Tesla and Lixiang, rising from fifth to third place, with a sales gap of 1,600 units compared to Lixiang in fourth place.

From this ranking, we can also observe a detail: compared to the second week of July, the weekly sales gap between BBA and Lixiang/Tesla was less than 1,000 units, but last week's gap reached up to 3,000 units.

Although BBA's change in sales strategy from price cuts to value preservation has indeed boosted sales collectively, BMW, the first to exit the price war, has also sent a considerable number of potential customers who were waiting on the sidelines to Mercedes-Benz and Audi. Moreover, the shortage of BMW's previously heavily discounted models like the i3 is one of the factors contributing to its smallest sales increase.

Interestingly, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are also raising prices. While Audi's price hikes last week were not significant, all models have seen price increases of roughly 10,000 yuan, with the Audi Q7 3.0T version rising by nearly 40,000 yuan, and prices are expected to rise further.

Mercedes-Benz's prices are relatively more stable, and although official notices are still pending, some dealerships have already withdrawn price discounts in anticipation of future price hikes.

Based on current sales rankings, BBA's strategy of reducing production to maintain value appears to be the right move, but relying solely on traditional luxury brand benefits may not be sustainable in competition with domestic autonomous brands.

03 Tesla, Lixiang, and AITO: A Love-Hate Relationship

Last week, Tesla China's sales performance was weaker than the second week of July, surpassed by Lixiang with 10,500 units sold. Lixiang sold 10,900 units, with the weekly sales gap expanding from 100 to 400 units. AITO continued to follow closely, selling 9,300 units this week.

Lixiang Auto has ranked first in weekly sales for 13 consecutive weeks. Automotive blogger Sun Shaojun stated that Lixiang accumulated 30,000 orders in July, with around 12,000 orders accumulated last week. With customers ramping up purchases in the latter half of July, the proportion of high-end intelligent driving models exceeded 55%, and the 1.99% low-interest weekly sales policy had a significant stimulative effect.

HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving accumulated around 16,000-16,500 orders in July, with around 6,500 orders accumulated last week. The proportion of AITO M9 has continued to increase, reaching 50-55% in the third week.

In the new force brand rankings, Lixiang and AITO firmly occupy the first and second positions, with AITO becoming the perpetual runner-up.

Behind this success lie the support of popular models, such as the all-new Lixiang L6, which has delivered over 50,000 units in less than three months since its launch, and AITO's new M7 Ultra, which surpassed 30,000 orders within 20 days of its launch and delivered over 30,000 units within 50 days.

Lixiang Auto delivered 188,981 vehicles in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 35.8%, with 47,774 vehicles delivered in June, up 46.7% year-on-year.

AITO is neck and neck, delivering 181,153 vehicles in the first half, with a gap of only 7,828 units from Lixiang. The brand delivered 43,146 vehicles in June, including 17,241 AITO M9s, 18,493 new M7s, and 7,046 new M5s.

From the delivery results, AITO customers tend to prefer high-end models, while Lixiang customers favor the more cost-effective Lixiang L6.

Based on the current trend, AITO still has considerable room for growth.