With a sales growth rate that surpasses Audi and Mercedes-Benz, can they really lead BBA in the country in 2017?

Looking at the luxury car market, we have to look at the three German giants BBA, and among BBA, Mercedes-Benz's position as the leader seems to be becoming more and more stable.

In the comparison of global sales of the three major BBA brands in 2016, Mercedes-Benz topped the list with an annual sales volume of over 2.08 million units. Its global market growth rate of 11.3% was also the only brand among BBA with an annual growth rate exceeding 10%.

In the domestic market, although Mercedes-Benz, with an annual sales volume of about 470,000 units, still cannot shake Audi's total sales volume of nearly 600,000 units last year, and cannot even surpass BMW's annual sales volume of over 510,000 units, its year-on-year sales growth rate of 26.6% is enough to make its competitors ashamed. This figure is not only more than twice the year-on-year growth rate of BMW, but if compared with Audi's data of 3.73%, the four rings were completely "overthrown" by the three-pointed star this time.

From this point of view, although Mercedes-Benz still has a gap of more than 100,000 units in total domestic sales compared to Audi in 2016, and is still tens of thousands units away from second-place BMW, the growth rate of nearly 30% still gives Mercedes-Benz the confidence to extend its global market victory to the domestic market.

Of course, whether the result will be what Mercedes-Benz wants depends on what the three giants of BBA will plan in 2017.

Upgrading + transforming, are BMW and Audi preparing to fight back?

Whether Mercedes-Benz can take the first place in the domestic BBA camp naturally has to start with its competitors.

First, after BMW secured its future with its i series models, it made the development of new energy vehicles an important brand strategy in 2017. In addition to launching new energy models such as the BMW X1 Hybrid, the number of basic supporting facilities, Instant ChargeTM charging piles, is also planned to be increased from 1,500 in 2016 to 2,500, and the private charging network will be promoted to 54 cities.

In addition, not only will the Apple CarPlay system be installed, which is of concern to many BMW owners, but BMW will also launch cloud-based Internet technology that provides four major service categories, including "journey management", "vehicle services", "high-end travel services" and "lifestyle and entertainment services". It can be seen that behind the banner of sportiness, creating a more futuristic and technological brand image will be BMW's main task in 2017.

Audi's goal is even simpler and more direct, which is to get rid of the inherent image of official cars in the country and move closer to younger consumers. For example, in the new product planning, it plans to introduce more high-performance models represented by RS3 and RSQ3 to further highlight the brand's sporty connotation.

At the same time, 2017 is also expected to be a year in which Audi will accelerate its rise in intelligence and car networking, especially in the domestic market. After the launch of the new Audi A4L earlier, FAW-Volkswagen joined hands with Audi to sign a tripartite memorandum of cooperation with Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, respectively, planning to jointly engage in dialogue and discussion in the fields of big data mining, e-commerce ecosystem, automotive Internet finance, car networking platform construction and urban intelligent transportation, so that Audi can take the most down-to-earth step in the field of automotive technology.

Compared with BMW and Audi, Mercedes-Benz's strategy for 2017 seems to be more conventional and less exciting. Apart from the scheduled updates of about 15 models, the other known aspects currently only include the digitization of the entire network of showrooms and the upgrade of the existing Mercedes me intelligent interconnection system.

If BMW and Audi, as veteran automobile manufacturers, can be called reforms in 2017 in terms of everything from vehicle hardware to service software and are worth looking forward to, then it remains unknown whether the slightly conservative Mercedes-Benz can successfully impact the number one spot in the domestic BBA market.

Luxury brands lower their prices, is Mercedes-Benz not sincere enough?

From the perspective of consumers, in addition to positive market stimulation measures such as new energy and vehicle networking, using more affordable prices to impress more users and develop potential consumer groups is undoubtedly another key to determining the market share of automobile brands, and this is no exception for traditional luxury brands such as BBA.

Deeper localization is undoubtedly an effective way for foreign brands to gain price advantages in the domestic market, and it is also a balance point for domestic users with limited budgets to exchange for BBA car logos.

The FAW-Volkswagen Audi A3 and the Brilliance BMW 1 Series, which will be launched soon, are both priced at RMB 200,000 or even below, which is more acceptable to the market. Spending almost the same price as a Sagitar to buy a BBA is obviously what most domestic car owners prefer.

On the contrary, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which is in the same class as the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series, has not seen any actual progress in localization as of 2017, and Mercedes-Benz's determination to explore the market is questionable.

On the other hand, some people will inevitably say that Audi's focus on low-level models such as A3 and Q3 in China has lost its identity as a luxury brand, and BMW's vigorous development of front-wheel drive vehicles is contrary to the original intention of the brand. Such BBA has changed.

But it is also an obvious fact that in the luxury C-class car market throughout 2016, the annual sales of BMW 5 Series of 143,600 units and the annual sales of Audi A6L of about 135,700 units led the most important luxury car market segment in the country, far ahead of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class with annual sales of less than 60,000 units.

Therefore, the so-called "change of taste" of BMW and Audi can be more reasonably explained as, focusing on the BBA camp and facing the rapid growth momentum of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi are being forced to move from low prices to high prices, giving their old rivals all-round pressure.

Mercedes-Benz wants to top the domestic BBA market in 2017? Maybe it's not that easy.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.