Ducati is respected in the industry as the "Ferrari" of the motorcycle industry. Who would have believed that you could buy a Ducati at a 50% discount? ! Now, the depressed motorcycle market makes this possible. Recently, Ducati announced price cuts, with discount rates of more than 50% on many older models, and the prices dropped by more than 100,000 yuan.
Sina Technology called offline stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places to inquire and found that in many first-tier and new first-tier cities mentioned by the official, relevant price reduction measures have been carried out as scheduled. Among them, many store staff reported that "many products have been sold out after the price reduction."
However, such a large price reduction promotion will inevitably mean a decrease in profits while increasing sales. In the view of some store staff, "this is more like a passive measure to reduce prices to save lives", rather than narrowing the distance with fans as officially stated.
Behind the forced trade-off of volume for price, what happened to Ducati, whose price was cut in half?
“If we don’t lower prices, we won’t be able to save our lives.”
Recently, Ducati launched several policies for its entire series of models in the Chinese market for the first time, and the official guidance price was reduced by 10%-20%. In addition, some models can also provide further discounts of varying magnitudes based on the adjusted official guide price. Among them, the discount rate of many models reaches 20%-35%. Some dealers have even reduced the price of the old model Diavel 1260 by more than 50% compared to the previous official guide price. Some models have been directly reduced by 134,000 yuan.
According to Ducati's statement, the price reduction of all models in the Chinese market aims to bring Ducati closer to its fans and further expand the scale of the Chinese Ducati community.
However, this is not the case. When communicating with Sina Technology, a staff member of Ducati’s Beijing offline store talked about the reason for the price reduction. The answer given was that the price involution in the industry has been too intense this year. Other brands are reducing prices, and we must do the same, otherwise “our lives will not be saved.”
According to front-line employees, industry price involution has become the main reason why Ducati has to cut prices and promote sales.
In fact, starting from December 12, 2022, as Honda officially announced that the domestic price of the CB650R motorcycle will be reduced by 7,000 yuan from 105,800 yuan, the price reduction wave in the domestic motorcycle market has quietly begun. Since then, in January this year, Honda once again announced price reductions for three models of CRF1100, NT1100, and CM1100 in China, pushing the price of motorcycles down for the second time.
Around July, domestic manufacturers Qianjiang Motorcycle, KTM, Dongfeng Motorcycle, Qingqi Hyosung and other brands successively announced price cuts, with the highest price reduction reaching 20,000 yuan. As of August this year, big trade brands such as BMW and Triumph have also begun to passively join the wave of price cuts. Although this was viewed by the outside world as a move to clear inventory, the magnitude of the downgrade also amazed many motorcycle enthusiasts. Among them, BMW's price cuts started at an average of 10,000 yuan, with the largest reduction reaching 70,000 yuan.
Now, with Ducati officially announcing that it will join the price reduction camp, price reduction has become the norm among the mainstream motorcycle brands in the domestic market. Among the many reasons for price cuts, the most direct reason is that the sales growth rate of the motorcycle market is declining.
According to data released by the China Motorcycle Chamber of Commerce, in 2022, my country's motorcycle production and sales will reach 21.2922 million units and 21.42 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 16.08% and 15.55%. Among them, the production and sales of fuel motorcycles were 13.6815 million and 13.7873 million, down 16.75% and 16.14% year-on-year; the production and sales of electric motorcycles were 7.6107 million and 7.6327 million, down 14.86% and 14.46% year-on-year. At the same time, as of January to May 2023, China's motorcycle production and sales have totaled 829.28 units and 8.0189 million units, respectively, with cumulative declines of 3.2% and 7.88% respectively.
The overall growth rate has declined for two consecutive years, which to a certain extent reflects the fact that the market demand for motorcycles has declined and consumption has been sluggish. In this regard, a senior motorcycle enthusiast said with emotion, "The price war in the motorcycle industry is actually more serious than that in the automobile industry, but not much attention has been paid to this area at present."
Experts say motorcycle bans and other factors have led to price cuts for motorcycles
In the motorcycle industry, Ducati has the title of "Ferrari" in the motorcycle industry. However, in the domestic market, Ducati's current sales situation is not optimistic.
According to Ducati's financial report for the first half of 2022, China is currently Ducati's fifth largest market, ranking after Italy, North America, Germany and France. In the first half of 2022, Ducati sold 2,411 vehicles in China. In the latest annual report for the first half of 2023, the Chinese market was not highlighted.
As Ducati also joins the price reduction bandwagon, what impact will this have on the industry?
In communicating with Sina Technology, Du Wei, a senior motorcycle industry insider, said, "In China, medium and large-displacement motorcycles were mainly sold to first-tier cities before. However, as some cities began to ban motorcycles and the market gradually became saturated, medium- and large-displacement motorcycles are now being dumped in cities outside the first-tier cities. However, the consumption capabilities and concepts of people in these areas are different, and the epidemic in the past two years has affected public consumption expectations, which has ultimately led to a decline in sales in the entire industry, and the industry has to negotiate prices."
Du Wei pointed out, "In order to improve efficiency, mid- to large-sized motorcycles can either continue to improve product quality and introduce more new features to attract users to buy; or they can only reduce prices to attract more people to consume. However, launching new features means new capital investment, which will inevitably further increase product prices, which also puts Ducati in a dilemma. In today's environment, price reduction is obviously more appropriate. Therefore, price reduction has become a common choice among motorcycle brands."
So, under the wave of price cuts, the majority of motorcycle enthusiasts have finally waited for the best time to buy?
In Du Wei's view, many domestic motorcycle brands have previously had too high profits, but now that market sales are sluggish, there will still be room for price cuts in the future. Especially with the decline in motorcycle consumer demand in winter, manufacturers hoping to clear inventory will also launch more promotional measures. Those "money-making days" of Ducati may be gone forever.
Text丨Sina Technology Zhou Wenmeng