Price war in Poland? Not yet, but long-missing discounts have begun in the salons

In recent weeks, the term “price war” has begun to appear in comments on the situation in the global automotive markets. They were initiated by Tesla’s aggressive policies and reinforced by reports of discounts introduced by Chinese electrical manufacturers, including the announcement of BYD, which wants to compete for the title of the world’s cheapest electric car with its new Seagull model (the car debuted in the Chinese market with a price corresponding to less than USD 11,000, which is less than PLN 50,000). ). The American portal TrueCar, in turn, calculated that in March the average discount provided for the sale of cars in the United States was 3.5 percent, and bold incentives for car buyers are considered one of the main reasons for the recovery in demand for cars in the local market.

Tesla puts pressure on

Can buyers in Poland also count on the fact that cars will finally start to get cheaper in Poland? Unfortunately, it’s not that obvious. “Tesla is starting to put pressure on other manufacturers with their discounts. The market is divided into two camps: some brands are starting to fight for customers more boldly, going for discounts to stimulate low sales of new cars in Poland. But there is also a large group of importers who, still remembering the situation a year ago, when customers simply snatched cars out of each other’s hands, took a wait-and-see attitude, says Michal Knitter, vice president of Carsmile.

Tesla has already reduced the prices of its vehicles in Poland by an average of 15 percent, analysts estimate. compared to the middle of last year. For example, Tesla Y in the LR version was 55,000 rubles cheaper. PLN (currently it costs less than 260,000 PLN, and a year ago it cost 315,000 PLN). The most popular Tesla 3 model in the RWD version was reduced from PLN 230,000 to PLN 206,000 during the year. Such large cuts caused Tesla’s share of new car registrations in Poland to jump, causing a lot of confusion in national statistics. For example, in March, the Model 3 jumped to the second position of the most purchased premium cars, which, perhaps somewhat exaggeratedly, includes IBRM Samar in the “troika”.

small steps

Tesla is not the only example of a brand slashing the prices of its cars in Poland, although no one else is doing so with such publicity. - In the case of other brands, we are not talking about lowering catalog prices, but about a gradual, still very selective, return of the discount policy. An example of a brand that has been valiantly fighting for a customer in Poland for several months is Audi. Others do it in very small steps or not at all. Buyer incentives usually only apply to select models and only certain versions of equipment, they are not all-inclusive, as is the case with Elon Musk’s company, explains Michal Knitter. In his opinion, brands that have decided to relax their pricing policy are currently offering discounts of 5-10 percent, although there are cases of occasional discounts of up to 20 percent. However, list prices are still rising, albeit much more slowly than in 2022.

List prices continue to rise

According to IBRM Samar, in March the average price of a new car was PLN 166.6 thousand. zł and amounted to 8 percent. more than last year. According to the Institute, the market is approaching another barrier - PLN 170,000. The rise in list prices comes despite disappointing new car sales data. In April, 35.5 thousand people were registered in Poland. passenger cars, slightly more than a year ago, but still 23 percent. less than in April 2019, that is, before the pandemic.