Cui Dongshu: New energy vehicle users demand "certainty" to become a key feature of high-end configuration.

Secretary General Cui Dongshu of the China Automobile Association wrote: The Chinese automotive market in 2026 will present clear characteristics of "stock competition" from the beginning of the year. Our prediction in February 2026 is that the sales of passenger car manufacturers will reach 29.64 million units, basically remaining flat compared to 2025, while sales of new energy vehicles are expected to increase significantly by 10%, reaching 16.83 million units. This means that it is estimated that over 50% of new vehicles sold in 2026 will be new energy vehicles, making new energy vehicles the dominant force in the market for the first time. However, high penetration combined with low growth rates does indicate that the increase in new energy vehicles mainly comes from replacing fuel vehicles rather than overall market expansion. At the same time, the "Guidelines for Price Behavior Compliance in the Automobile Industry" clearly prohibits car companies from selling below cost. As the market enters a period of slight growth and price wars are capped by policies, the underlying logic of industry competition has shifted from "price competition" to "value competition." Observing the new car configurations released in the first week of March, it can be seen that high-end configurations are gradually entering the mainstream range of 200,000 RMB, such as the GAC Toyota Borui 7 priced at 179,800 RMB for the dual-chamber air suspension version, while the version equipped with Hongmeng cockpit, dual-chamber air suspension, laser radar smart driving, and a range of 700 kilometers, after subsidies, is priced at only 194,800 RMB. Configurations that used to only appear on luxury cars like Porsche and Mercedes-Benz S-Class are now available for under 200,000 RMB. This confirms my earlier judgment - Chinese car consumption has entered a period of high-endization, but the core characteristic of this period is not the rise of price ceilings, but the reshaping of high-end value standards downward, which is also the mainstream of value competition in the current car market.