Three of the four show cars at Xpeng's flagship store in Beijing were sold at the beginning of the month and have not yet been restocked.
With China's purchase subsidies for new energy vehicles (NEVs) set to decrease in 2022, some brands are seeing a resurgence of show cars being purchased at their stores.
In 2022, China's purchase subsidies for NEVs will be slashed by 30 percent from the 2021 subsidies, and many consumers are considering locking in their deals early, which has driven recent sales in the NEV market, CCTV reported on Thursday.
At a store in Sanlitun in Beijing's Chaoyang District, there was only one show car in the large showroom, the CCTV report said, adding that three of the original four show cars in the store were sold at the beginning of the month and have not yet been restocked.
The salesperson said they have a total of 25 models of different models and specifications on sale, 21 of which are able to enjoy state subsidies of around RMB 18,000, the report said.
The report did not mention the brand of the store, but the video shows that it is Xpeng Motors' store in Sanlitun.
(Screenshot of CCTV report.)
The Xpeng store, which opened in early June, is its first flagship experience center.
XPeng opens first flagship experience center in major brand upgrade
The store is about 500 square meters in size, and its interior design is completely different from the previous Xpeng stores. The company said the design was inspired by Zhuangzi, an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States period.
"This is a very young, trendy and fashionable part of Beijing, so we've adopted a design style that's full of fashion and technology, which is an area of interest to the young user group today," Xpeng co-founder and senior vice president He Tao said at the store's opening on June 5.
China's Ministry of Finance released a plan on April 23, 2020 that the country's subsidies for NEVs would be scaled back each year, saying that in principle the amount of subsidies would be reduced by 10 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent each year from 2020-2022 on top of the previous year.
Today, an announcement from four departments, including the Ministry of Finance, said that the subsidies for NEV purchases in 2022 will be slashed by 30 percent from 2021.
The NEV purchase subsidy policy for 2022 ends on December 31, 2022, and vehicles with license plates obtained after December 31, 2022 will no longer enjoy subsidies, the announcement said.
The CCTV report cited an Xpeng product specialist as saying that with the 30 percent subsidy rollback next year, consumers will need to pay up to an additional RMB 5,400 to buy a car.
