By ZHOU Shuqi
While Chinese domestic brands have done very well in the EV market, they have yet to establish a foothold at the high end.
A collaboration between Changan Automobile, CATL, and Huawei, known as Avatar, delivered only 1,786 vehicles in July, with monthly sales hovering around 1,500 vehicles since the beginning of this year.
Arcfox, IM and Voyah face similar challenges. In the above-300,000-yuan market, the top three brands are Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, all well-established overseas luxury brands. Emerging domestic brands in the early stages of brand recognition, simply cannot compete.
Taking Avatr as an example, although the products perform well, it lacks differentiation and clear positioning. Despite being supported by prominent brands CATL and Huawei, these added "values" do not convince customers to put their hands in their pockets.
Nio, Li Auto, and Tesla dominate the market with strong characteristics. Nio focuses on high-end pure electric vehicles but entered the market earlier when the competition was not so fierce.
Established high-end brands like Nio have nonetheless performed best when they slash their prices. Tesla went so far as to symbolically reduced prices to below 300,000 yuan.
