It is the competition of products, the competition of value, and even more the competition of long-term principles.

　　The price war seems to have failed!

　　After the release of sales in April, brands that were hoping to use a low-priced strategy to secure more orders and consumers were disappointed. After the price reduction, sales of several new car manufacturers, including Moupeng and Moujie, actually decreased.

　　It can be understood that many new brands, in order to maintain the normal operation and survival of the system in the cruel market competition, have to resort to the lowest level of competition - price reduction to ensure the growth of enterprise orders and the return of funds.

　　However, for more mature enterprises, although price reduction may occur, the starting point behind it may not be the same, because they have experienced numerous battles in the market and have understood the profound relationship between price, value, and market. They are more aware of the competition between enterprises, ultimately the competition between products, value, and even long-term competition.

　　Recently, Link Motors announced that it has benefited from the price reduction of industrial grade battery raw materials such as lithium carbonate, positive and negative electrode materials, and electrolytes, resulting in a decrease in battery raw material procurement costs. It has adjusted the price of its new energy products (PHEV plug-in hybrid) by up to 8000 yuan, and the price adjustment will take effect from 0:00 on May 1, 2023. It is worth noting that while Lingke announced the price reduction, it also took cash compensation measures for old car owners.

　　LinkedIn stated that "sincere pricing and one-step implementation" is a pricing principle that LinkedIn has always adhered to. A considerable portion of the current price reduction phenomenon in the market is not based on rational behavior made by the overall industry trend. For LinkedIn, only when changes in the raw material end are clearly transmitted to the vehicle manufacturing end is the best time to provide users with reasonable price adjustments.

　　At the beginning of March this year, when the entire industry was considering price adjustments to cope with the cold winter pressure in the market, Link did not follow suit and instead issued a policy of 90 day price guarantee/active refund of price difference. Combined with this price reduction and cash compensation measures, it can be said that Link has also fulfilled its previous commitments.

　　With the fierce competition in the car market entering the deep water zone, the failure of the price war will also drive more enterprises to seek the true essence of market competition.

　　Don't deviate from the market

　　Tesla, followed by BYD, firmly dominates the high-end new energy market as a foreign investment and technology player; The latter continuously reshapes the pattern of the mid to low end market by utilizing the cost advantages of batteries and plug-in hybrids.

　　However, their price adjustments one after another have indeed pushed the market into a more panicky situation, especially in the context of a weak market in the first quarter of this year, with panic, anxiety, and unease spreading throughout the automotive industry.

　　In the short term of price adjustments by many brands and enterprises, there may be a wave of customer flow and orders, after all, the behavior of directly benefiting consumers is indeed popular. However, as the price war has become increasingly popular, consumers who originally held coins to buy have turned their backs on the market, instead of buying up or down. This has turned into holding coins to buy, and the wait-and-see sentiment has intensified, pushing the automotive market into a dilemma of shrinking consumption.

　　So, some car companies' cautious thinking of exchanging price for quantity has not been fully accepted by the market and consumers, and the effect of reducing price for sales is becoming worse and worse. After the significant price reduction, although automobile production and sales recovered in March, the profit margin on automobile sales was only 4.7%. Although there was an exaggerated growth in April compared to the same period under the epidemic, the automotive market still faces severe pressure from the trend of month on month growth rate and continuously strengthening promotion efforts.

　　A few days ago, the China Railway Association praised the price increase of a certain Tesla. Although some consumers may sound a bit "meddlesome", the fact that the price increase reflects the company's concern for business quality and pace, which is conducive to improving consumer wait-and-see mentality, allowing consumers to break out of excessive expectations of price reductions, and restoring normal purchasing rhythm.

　　Without a two-way flow between supply and demand, the market cannot form a healthy development cycle. No company does not have a cost red line, let alone a car company that can continue to fight regardless of the consequences. The price war is not a good thing for any enterprise, and in the long run, it is even worse for consumers. After all, companies can only orderly promote technological research and development, product iteration and updates, while obtaining reasonable profits.

　　Undoubtedly, the reason for the price reduction should not be that others have lowered prices and orders have been affected, but rather the cost effect brought about by technological upgrades. By using technology to drive cost reduction and then overlaying this value on products, consumers can have a sense of gain and value, which is conducive to promoting the development of the entire industry towards a healthier direction.

　　Rational regression, interpolation is the optimal solution

　　When the market experiences a period of downturn, the car market will definitely experience different changes, because from car manufacturers to consumers, after calming down, they will all think about what kind of product truly meets demand, which is called rational return.

　　New energy vehicles are indeed very popular, as can be seen from the fact that new energy products have dominated various segmented market rankings. So what are the different trends in the current new energy market? The choices of consumers and the data presented behind their choices can explain everything.

　　In the first quarter of this year, the plug-in hybrid market grew by 81% year-on-year, while the pure electric market only grew by 6%. The conventional hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and fuel vehicle markets declined by 6% and 24% respectively, while the overall passenger car market declined by 14%. Another retail data shows that in the first quarter of this year, the retail share of plug-in hybrid has accounted for 10% of the overall market. In the new energy market, the share of plug-in hybrid has approached 30%, while the share of pure electric vehicles has compressed from 71% in 2021 to 53% in the first quarter of this year.

　　Plug in hybrid vehicles are becoming a new growth pole in the new energy market and increasingly becoming a preferred category of new energy vehicles for consumers.

　　The reason is simple. In the previous round, the growth rate of pure electric vehicles was very fast, and it was mainly supported by the consumer groups in first and second tier cities. These places have strict license plate restrictions and fast layout of charging facilities, which are very friendly to the development of pure electric vehicles. However, in recent years, the drawbacks of the first batch of pure electric vehicles have gradually emerged, such as the widespread problems of distorted winter mileage, inability to achieve poetry and distance.

　　In the new era of new energy vehicle growth, the vast third, fourth, and fifth tier cities will become the biggest driving force. These places are sparsely populated and have limited charging facilities, providing more consumption space for plug-in and hybrid vehicles that can be powered by oil and electricity. At the same time, the new generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles has greatly solved the fuel consumption problem. Through the combination of large battery life and low fuel consumption through feeding, and the natural advantage of no mileage anxiety, they will become an important force on the future new energy track.

　　So this price adjustment and profit sharing by LinkedIn is expected to become a key measure to drive users to make enthusiastic decisions in the second quarter. Combined with the rational return of the plug-in hybrid market and consumer demand, LinkedIn's 2023 LinkedIn 05 EM-P, as well as the 2023 LinkedIn 01 EM-P, LinkedIn 06 Remix PHEV, LinkedIn 09 EM-P performance version and Far East version, which were just launched in March, are expected to usher in good order growth.

　　Who will lead the new round of value competition?

　　After the price war, returning the car market to value itself is the normal form of the industry. So in the era of the rise of plug-in hybrid, who can truly lead the new round of industry competition? Undoubtedly, Chinese brands are not giving up.

　　If BYD, Geely, Changan, and Chery have already taken the lead in new tracks in the mid to low end market through their first mover advantage, then in the gradually increasing market size of the mid to high end market, they will inevitably become the next competitive red sea. Especially after the awakening of the joint venture, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Honda, whose brands cannot be explored, will defend their share on the track of 150000 to 300000 yuan.

　　However, as a direct competitor of mainstream joint ventures and a global new high-end brand, LinkedIn has not yet waited for mainstream joint venture brands to think clearly about how to deploy their troops, but has already taken the lead in smelling the opportunity and opened a magnificent transformation curtain. At the end of last year, LinkedIn announced that it would stop launching new pure fuel models, with all new products being new energy models.

　　At this year's Shanghai Auto Show, Lingke unveiled the new CMA Evo architecture and the EM-P super extended range electric solution under the architecture, which became a solid foundation for Lingke's brand's comprehensive transformation and acceleration towards new and electric strategies. It is also a new starting point for Lingke's "new energy architecture car building", and will empower Lingke to fully embrace new, electric, and future strengths.

　　Taking the EM-P super extended range electric solution as an example, the entire solution enhances the performance, driving control, and endurance of the EM-P to a higher dimension, meeting users' needs for all scenarios and all operating conditions. The models adopting this plan not only have the popular Lingke 09 EM-P Long Range Edition in the mid to high-end market, but also the upcoming intelligent large five seater super electric SUV Lingke 08. With the support of the "super electric" plan, the Lingke 08 can achieve a pure electric range of 245KM and a comprehensive range of 1400KM under CLTC conditions, with a comprehensive power of over 400kW and a maximum torque of over 900N· m. Accelerate 100 kilometers to enter the '4 second club'.

　　Therefore, although it is a plug-in hybrid product, it solves many pain points such as weak high-speed power, high acceleration noise, and weak off-road ability in single gear hybrid. It also fills the gaps of weak electric feed power, high high-speed energy consumption, and weak off-road ability in extended range hybrid, launching a new challenge and disruption to traditional extended range electric and single gear hybrid, elevating inductance, performance, driving control, and endurance to a higher dimension, Realize the optimal solution of new energy that combines strong inductance and no anxiety.

　　In this level of plug-in hybrid market, Volkswagen brands have basically abandoned the technological upgrade iteration of plug-in hybrid models, while Japanese Toyota and Honda are still in the world of dual engine hybrid. The plug-in hybrid aspect is difficult to have a competitive advantage due to high prices, and more companies do not appreciate this so-called transitional but actually in line with market demand hybrid technology, and have abandoned switching to pure electric. From this perspective, LinkedIn has clearly taken the lead and gained an excellent position, and has become a leader in the mid to high end hybrid new energy market.

　　It is worth mentioning that in the field of intelligence that young people care about the most, LinkedIn is also overturning the negative perception of it from the outside world in the past. The Antola 1000 Pro computing platform built on two 7nm chips on the Special Link 08, as well as the LYNK Flyme Auto's on-board applications, including the LYNK OS N operating system that will be installed on the Link 09 and more models in the future, represent that the smart operating system and cabin experience of the Link started at the ceiling level, and will once again lead the transformation of the new automotive era, as they did 6 years ago.

　　With the precipitation of the past 6 years and the support of 880000 young consumers, Linkac has established a deep "high value" label. In the past two years, Linkac's value retention rate has remained in the top two of Chinese brands, which is the best example. Behind this, everything is closely related to the value foundation, user thinking, and precise pricing that Link has always adhered to. We strive to create truly good products with the utmost sincerity and meet demand at the most suitable price, so that the market and consumers will naturally pay.

　　Starting from last year, the focus of LinkedIn's product system has accelerated from fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles. In 2022, LinkedIn's PHEV sales increased by 165% year-on-year, leading other fuel vehicle brands in the new energy process. LinkedIn's pure electric models will also be available to everyone in 2023.

　　Faced with the wave of travel change, LinkedIn has taken action and stated that it wants to be a leader in the industry, not a follower of its competitors. Taking the evolution of smart electricity as a new track, through various energy solutions such as hybrid and pure electricity, Linke has the ability and motivation to meet the diverse needs of users, freeing travel from dependence on a single energy source, and allowing users to not worry, compromise, or struggle.

　　So returning to the topic at the beginning of the article, it's not just about turning around suddenly after the price war has failed. The essence of the competition in the car market should return to the value itself, and return to the true track centered on technology, brand, and product strength. Instead of falling into a mixed battle of price competition and arms race, it's better to pursue technology, brand, and product with a long-term spirit, through the pursuit of beauty, performance, technology, safety, and value, Empowering high-quality products to meet the diverse and personalized needs of segmented market users, leading the industry's upward development.

　　In the past two years, new energy has been in full swing, and Lingke has been a bit dormant, and its sense of value has been somewhat buried in the changing times. But from now on, the energetic and widely recognized leader in the market, dressed in the halo of new energy and leading a new round of value competition, Lingke, has returned.