Since the automotive industry has been regarded as the main carrier for promoting industrial advancement and technological revolution in the new era, everyone wants to rely on consumption to complete a new round of industrial leap and elevate their own brand as the business card of Chinese automobiles. Compared to the past, Chinese cars now have the confidence to be proud. Compared to before, when they only sold cheap cars, Chinese cars that cost hundreds of thousands of yuan can make many users willingly pay for them. Even with the support of new energy technologies, in just a few years, new cars such as the U8/U9 and the S800, which cost over a million yuan, can enter the market one by one. But looking back at the progress of the car market in 2025, under the bombardment of price wars and public opinion debates, Chinese car companies seem to have simply focused on sales for development. Under the topic of "life and death", any action that is not related to sales has almost become meaningless. That is to say, since for most Chinese consumers, compared to the so-called brand story, the key factor in deciding to buy a car still depends on the price, what car companies can do is naturally cater to this trend. In the face of competition, timely launch of new cars that are cheaper than their peers has become the main trend in the market.

Many people like to use the term 'roll' to describe this market situation. In China, with the formation of a mature new energy vehicle industry chain, it is always right for car companies to provide consumers with high-quality and affordable products. Standing at the end of 2025, seeing the future of the car market continue with this year's competitive atmosphere, to be honest, it seems that no one wants to see the industry "roll up" to the end, with a vicious cycle where car companies' input and output are not proportional. Here, we cannot help but ask, do Chinese cars have brand value? In the future, as technology enters a stage of unified development, what new standards should consumers use to make choices?

Price wars are unsustainable

Earlier, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Compliance Guidelines for Price Behavior in the Automotive Industry (Draft for Comments)", which stipulates that car companies shall not lower the ex factory price below the production cost in any other way except for legally reducing prices to deal with stockpiled goods; Mandatory clear pricing must be clearly marked, including vehicle configuration, price, and promotion rules, and it is strictly prohibited to add prices beyond the price; The seller shall specify the specific delivery date in the contract and be liable for breach of contract. Subsequently, several car companies including Great Wall Motors, Changan, Xiaopeng Motors, BAIC, and BYD responded by pledging to optimize price management and eliminate price fraud. The China Automobile Dealers Association also pointed out that this move will help curb the industry's "internal competition" price war and promote competition to return to technology, service, and value enhancement. In fact, from the perspective of car companies themselves, a healthy industrial ecosystem cannot be promoted indefinitely through price wars. So, in the face of new industry competition, car companies should think about where to find new development exports if they don't judge heroes by price?

Actually, through observations over the past year, we can find some new signs to set a good example for everyone. The power of the four words' Hongmeng Zhixing 'is definitely not inferior to Tesla. It means that once a product enters homogeneous competition, the construction of a single brand becomes meaningful. In the last month of this year, we have noticed that more and more Chinese car companies are gradually becoming conscious of creating new brand moats for themselves. From the fourth anniversary of BYD Ocean, to the ongoing Lynk&Co Customer Conference, to the HarmonyOS Starlight Festival, we believe that the core purpose of its convening is not only to provide a gathering stage for its own user base, but also to convey the sustainable development of the brand to the outside world. Indeed, the strictness of Chinese users towards products today can be described as the highest in history. For the planning of new products, car companies are already fully committed to exporting all their ideas to the market. But obviously, at this point, single product competition no longer has long-term market dominance. Looking at the Chinese market, there are actually emerging brands that have been advocating for the development of enterprises with a user centric approach, and NIO is a clear example. No matter how much money NIO spends to maintain this, its effectiveness has long been in front of everyone. Although we cannot say that NIO is the only new energy vehicle company with a brand premium, judging from the market performance of the Ledao L90 and Firefly this year, NIO, as the parent brand, must have played a significant role in it. In contrast, Chinese brands that are still struggling with sales and constantly lowering their value are truly helpless. Many Chinese car companies do not have a clear answer to the question of whether brand value has practical significance.

In fact, even if we don't take Weilai as an example, the booming development of China's car market in the past 20 years has given suggestions, but in the Internet, the voice of foreign brands has gradually erased people's memory. At that time, from BBA, Lexus, and Porsche to Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, and others, in addition to providing decent products themselves, the image or charm of these brands was what Chinese consumers cared about. So even now, no matter how much dissatisfaction people have with them, the brand building ideas provided by joint ventures are still something Chinese car companies need to learn from. In 2025, Chinese cars need brand value. We must admit that top companies such as BYD and Geely have a clear understanding of holding user conferences and other activities that can maintain brand image. But it has to be said that as the new energy industry completely changes the industry ecology, consumers' demand for cars is completely different from the past. Chinese car companies need to think about how to timely change the core of user conferences, and there is no need for formal expressions. Once, foreign brands with rich historical stories habitually used their past glory to prove their current development, and infected every user with the iterative spirit since their establishment. To be honest, in the cultural background of China lacking industrial accumulation, such a brand narrative must be attractive. As a car owner, it is easy to bring one's own feelings into the development of the brand. Volkswagen, Toyota, and Honda still have a large number of fans, perhaps due to their large size, but it is indeed closely related to their brand promotion that they have been insisting on from beginning to end. Due to survival reasons, well-known event IPs such as VAG Family have disappeared, but it is precisely because of years of brand transmission that these top joint venture brands can still stay in China.

Compared to them, Chinese car companies have had the idea of organizing a clear brand story for themselves since several years ago, and the best example is Geely's Lynk&Co car. Over the years, the core concept of the CO Customer Conference has been to fully align with the brand's original intention of creation. And this has also contributed to the important reason why Lynk&Co can maintain a certain brand premium in the entire independent camp. For example, looking at the current situation, a large number of Chinese brands have clear guidelines for user retention. But it cannot be denied that in terms of how to truly enhance brand value, each company is still somewhat immature. Especially in the booming stage of the new energy industry, what perspective should we approach to find breakthroughs in the absence of brand historical accumulation? Some brands that have achieved success in sales may believe that the growth path of a brand, from accurately meeting the explosive product matrix of segmented markets, to a user centered deep co creation ecosystem, and then to launching flagship sequences that challenge high-end products, is sufficient to provide strong value support to users. However, in the future, facing the real consumer environment, proposing plans based on the development of the enterprise itself can only be one aspect. The embodiment of brand value requires a complete ecosystem built around user needs, rather than simply explaining the current situation. In the era of new energy, when the frequency of maintenance and repair of products is significantly reduced, brand owners need more cohesive actions from pre-sales to after-sales to provide emotional value to users. Holding an annual user conference is certainly important, but what is more crucial is how to prioritize user needs throughout the year's development. As a result, a saturated price offensive may no longer be the survival mindset that car companies must adhere to even if they are fighting to survive.

At the end of the day, when everyone wants to hold their ground with price, for Chinese car companies that are truly willing to rely on their abilities to make a living, the significance of starting a brand value must be far greater than being entangled in pricing. Compared to the past few years, car brands that can survive until 2025 must be players who have undergone multiple technological cleanups and truly achieved self infusion in sales. In that case, when various institutions predict that the competition in the car market in 2026 will be more intense than this year, and there is still a possibility of a decline in overall sales, anyone who can fully utilize their brand value, even if they have put on a layer of protective armor from the source.