The sales champion has been upgraded once again.

According to online rumors, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was set to unveil several new heavyweight vehicles this week. However, Tesla beat the official announcement by launching its new Model Y.

On January 10, Tesla's official website revealed all product details of the new Model Y, including pricing for the first edition: the rear-wheel-drive version is priced at 263,500 yuan, and the all-wheel-drive version at 303,500 yuan. Compared to the previous versions, these prices represent an increase of 13,600 yuan and 12,600 yuan, respectively. Deliveries are anticipated to commence in March.

Screenshot: Tesla official website

Notably, Tesla also published an article titled "New Model Y, Despite Comparisons." Lei Jun personally responded with "Okay," while Yu Chengdong, President of Ledao Automobile, Ai Tiecheng, and the official account of Zeekr all accepted the challenge.

By merely releasing the new vehicle on its official website, Tesla garnered significant attention from major automakers, achieving excellent publicity without spending a dime or even holding a special press conference.

Screenshot: Weibo

Recently, XPeng also unveiled official images of its new product, the XPeng G7. Perhaps realizing that the XPeng G6 alone might not suffice to compete with the Model Y, they introduced another new vehicle with a traditional SUV body. Additionally, new vehicles launched last year, such as the IQI R7, Zeekr 7X, AITO 07, and Ledao L60, all target Tesla's Model Y as their competitor.

Model Y is envied by its peers due to its impressive sales volume. The latest sales data has been released, with Model Y securing the sales championship in the domestic market with an annual cumulative sales volume exceeding 480,000 vehicles, surpassing popular family cars like the BYD Seagull, Nissan Sylphy, Volkswagen Lavida, and Qin PLUS DM-i.

The old Model Y could still hold its own despite facing numerous competitors. Now, the question arises: does the new Model Y maintain its competitiveness despite the price increase?

Why is the new Model Y more than 10,000 yuan more expensive?

The most striking change in the new Model Y is its design, which seems to have a stronger "XPeng flavor." Through-type daytime running lights are common in many new energy vehicles, including Tesla's Cybertruck. However, the model that intermittently processes the left and right one-third of the lamp cluster is currently more representative of XPeng's P7+. Furthermore, the lines of the engine hood are very similar to those of the XPeng P7+.

Image source: Electric Car Channel

Regarding this point, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng does not seem to have any objections, believing that "good design always has a mind of its own."

Screenshot: Weibo @XP- He Xiaopeng

Apart from the front design, the new Model Y's coupe SUV body remains unchanged, featuring new wheel hubs and rearview mirrors. It also sports new through-type taillights, but what stands out is the use of through-type diffuse reflection taillights, giving the central "TESLA" logo a faintly visible effect.

Officials stated that the new Model Y is equipped with AI 4 hardware and 8 cameras, replacing the current combination of 2 HW 4.0 chips and 7 cameras. This year may witness the mass production of FSD for the new Model Y.

The current Model Y and Model 3 share the same design language. Regardless of whether netizens' evaluations of the new Model Y are positive or negative, at least the new Model Y is no longer ridiculed as a "stretched version of the Model 3."

Screenshot: Tesla official website

The interior offers relatively fewer surprises, being essentially the same as the currently sold Model 3. This means it adopts a touchscreen shift system and removes the steering paddle and shift paddle. In terms of configuration, it adds seat ventilation, rear seat electric adjustment, and a rear screen, significantly enhancing comfort.

This 8-inch rear screen has drawn some criticism. If it stays within its limits and is only responsible for controlling basic functions like air conditioning and in-car entertainment systems, there wouldn't be major issues. However, the official uses the screen's gaming function as a highlight in its promotion. Setting aside the fatigue of bending over for a long time to operate the screen, isn't it more enjoyable to use current smartphones and tablets?

Screenshot: Tesla official website

Getting back to the main point, the new Model Y adds many configurations, but the fundamental reason for the price increase lies in key parameters. Compared to the currently sold Model Y, the new Model Y's rear-wheel-drive version is equipped with a higher-capacity battery pack, increasing the vehicle's range to 593km and reducing its energy consumption per 100 kilometers to 11.9kWh. The long-range all-wheel-drive version maintains the same battery capacity but reduces its energy consumption per 100 kilometers by 0.6kWh, extending its pure electric range to over 700km.

Improving hard power is more attractive than adding "pseudo-demands," and the new Model Y also sees improvements in suspension, active and passive safety configurations, and NVH performance. In this regard, the price increase of over 10,000 yuan does have a certain degree of persuasiveness.

Who among domestic automakers can challenge the new Model Y? Very few.

In 2024, Tesla's Model Y was pursued by multiple domestic new energy vehicles, including those with similar positioning such as the IQI R7, AITO 07, Zeekr 7X, Ledao L60, IM Motors LS6, XPeng G6, and HOVO Auto Zhiyin, as well as the recently troubled Jiyue 01.

These products all consider Model Y as a crucial competitor. However, to date, only the Tenzing N7 shares the same positioning and price range as Tesla's Model Y. Other models leverage their superior advantages to compete with Model Y.

Table made by: Electric Car Channel

This strategy of outpacing competitors with superior advantages is very effective. XPeng G6 and Zeekr 7X, which focus on low-price strategies, as well as the IQI R7, which emphasizes large space and dual-power advantages, have quickly gained recognition from many users after their launch. Moreover, domestic vehicles priced at the 200,000 yuan level generally outperform Model Y's "barebones" interior in terms of configuration and materials.

Even in such circumstances, Model Y still became the sales champion in the domestic market last year, which already indicates that the so-called advantages of low price, dual power, and large space grasped by domestic brands have not directly threatened Model Y.

Now that the price of the new Model Y has been announced, does it mean that other domestic brands have no chance this year?

That's not necessarily true.

Image source: Tesla official website

Once upon a time, Model 3 enjoyed the same market position as Model Y, but now the sales champion in the 200,000 yuan pure electric sedan market has been seized by Xiaomi SU7.

Since its launch in 2017, the Model 3 has only undergone upgrades and iterations in 2023, but there is still a significant gap in overall strength compared to competing models. Even with Tesla's brand influence, users' freshness and expectations for the Model 3 have decreased. Although Xiaomi SU7 is a latecomer and lacks years of technological accumulation from major manufacturers, it relies on Lei Jun's personal charm and Xiaomi's reputation in the technology field to surpass Model 3 in sales.

In other words, Xiaomi YU7, which is expected to be released this year, has the potential to become one of the products that surpass Model Y in sales.

Lei Jun revealed that Xiaomi YU7 will be launched as early as June this year. Following Xiaomi SU7's release schedule, Xiaomi YU7 may hold a press conference around March. Some may argue that since Xiaomi YU7 will be launched half a year later, won't Model Y seize the dividends of the pure electric SUV market?

Indeed, it will. However, for Lei Jun, Xiaomi YU7 has a greater chance of surpassing Model Y if it is launched in June. The key lies in production capacity. According to the Daily Economic News, Xiaomi's second-phase automobile factory will be completed in mid-June this year.

Image source: Xiaomi Automobile official

At this stage, Xiaomi Automobile has allocated all its production capacity to Xiaomi SU7. If Xiaomi YU7 is launched earlier, it will compete with Xiaomi SU7 for production capacity, potentially leading to a decline in Xiaomi SU7 sales or low market enthusiasm for Xiaomi YU7 at the outset. It would be better to slightly delay the launch of Xiaomi YU7.

Of course, many new energy SUVs priced at the 200,000 yuan level will be launched this year, such as the XPeng G7 and AITO 06, which have confirmed their launches. Moreover, as Hongmeng Intelligence and Li Auto gradually improve their ultra-fast charging systems, these two high-volume new force brands will also launch pure electric SUVs this year, such as the new IQI R7 and Li Auto i series, etc. These will weaken Model Y's market influence.

However, if these new vehicles continue to adopt the old tactic of outpacing competitors with superior advantages, the results may be the same as last year. This requires automakers to find new selling points and marketing methods to seize the market.

Final thoughts

From the perspective of pure electric SUV consumers, they more or less have range anxiety. Apart from its widespread brand recognition, Tesla has a relatively complete energy replenishment system, which is the fundamental reason why Model Y can always remain popular despite its unimpressive performance in configuration and materials. Moreover, the new Model Y has significantly improved its comfort configuration, making it even more difficult for other competitors to surpass Model Y.

There is also bad news for other automakers: the new Model Y has not yet been fully launched. Currently, the official version is only the first edition, and a lower-priced standard edition may be introduced in the future. Additionally, to clear the inventory of the current Model Y, Tesla has extended its "5-year 0% interest" financing plan, which may maintain good sales data in the first two months of this year.

Image source: Tesla official website

Therefore, domestic brands need to quickly identify the key factors that truly affect Tesla's market share. Otherwise, it will only become more difficult for automakers to surpass Tesla in the future, and the significance of accepting this challenge will diminish.

(Cover image source: Tesla official website)

Source: Leitech