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The Chinese electric vehicle industry exploded in the past several years, but as EVs have taken more and more share of the auto market, companies have been scrapping to outcompete their EV competitors in selling automobiles. One of the big stories of the past year or so has been price wars in the industry there. Things have subsided a bit following the Chinese government stepping in and telling everyone to cool off, but the story isn’t over.
This past week, NIO has come out and slammed the race-to-the-bottom cost cuts. At the same time, rival Li Auto is bringing prices down. Needless to say, the two companies are not seeing eye to eye.
Li Auto cut prices on its L9 SUV by 10%. A day later, NIO senior vice-president Ji Huaqiang said: “The recent spike in raw material prices has had a severe impact on auto assemblers. Some players have turned out to be reasonable, as they planned to raise car prices to cope with the cost issue.” And the automakers cutting prices? I guess they’ve been unreasonable in Ji’s eyes.
That said, with the recent price cut, the Li Auto L9 is very similar in price to NIO ES9 and has even dropped below it, so perhaps there’s a bit of salt and fear in those comments? The Li Auto L9 costs 509,800 yuan ($74,950), while the ES9 goes for 528,000 yuan ($77,630).
