BBA price drop, Xiaomi SU7 Ultra cools down, the landscape of high-end cars priced at 500,000 Yuan changes drastically

Price cuts and dealer reaction

Traditional luxury brands — BMW (宝马), Mercedes‑Benz (奔驰) and Audi (奥迪), collectively known as BBA — have opened the year with steep discounts, with some models cut by more than 100,000 yuan in an apparent bid to reclaim high‑end buyers. Can big rebates restore their momentum? Dealers say the cuts have drawn showroom traffic, but domestic new‑energy vehicle (NEV) makers have largely held their ground and not copied the deep markdowns, offering only conventional incentives such as trade‑in subsidies or interest‑free financing.

Where consumers are shifting

Field reporting from Shanghai shows clear segmentation in the 400,000–600,000 yuan bracket: family‑friendly luxury EVs are seeing steady interest while pure performance flagships are cooling. Xiaomi (小米)’s SU7 Ultra — which launched to rave initial orders and a blistering 0–100 kph time — has moved from “one‑car‑hard‑to‑get” hype to significantly lower demand; it has been reported that monthly deliveries slipped from thousands in the peak months to just dozens by December. Xiaomi denied reports that the SU7 Ultra specialist sales team was disbanded, saying sales and after‑service responsibilities have simply been redistributed across its national dealer network.

Numbers and market logic

Third‑party industry data show a clearer reshuffle at the top of the 500,000+ yuan NEV market: Zeekr (极氪) 9X and Li Auto (理想) MEGA reported strong full‑year deliveries and average transaction prices above the 500,000 yuan threshold, while Xiaomi SU7 Ultra’s cumulative volumes lagged those two despite an early surge. It has been reported that the SU7 Ultra followed a classic “spike and slide” trajectory — initial demand driven by performance and novelty, then rapid saturation as mainstream buyers judged the performance premium “overkill” for family use.

Policy and outlook

Policy shifts are amplifying the rebalancing. It has been reported that the change from full purchase‑tax exemption to half taxation on NEVs has tempered speculative buying and pushed consumers toward vehicles priced for long‑term ownership rather than headline performance. For Western luxury marques, deep discounts may buy customers in the near term, but analysts warn that without matching NEV‑style connected features and family‑oriented value propositions, BBA’s price play alone is unlikely to reverse the broader structural gains new Chinese EV makers have made in the 500,000 yuan segment.