On January 2, the Financial Association News reported (by journalist Xu Hao) that the "price war" in the Autos market began on the first day of 2025. Unlike before, under the backdrop of the expiration of the national level "double new" subsidy policy for 2024, the promotional schemes from manufacturers have become more diversified.

On the first working day of the New Year, Ideal Motors, which just surpassed the milestone of 0.5 million vehicle deliveries in the past year, announced that for users who order and deliver Ideal Motors from January 1 to January 31, if the local replacement subsidy has not been launched in the invoice location by March 31 or if the local replacement subsidy exists but users do not meet the conditions, they can enjoy a cash subsidy of 15,000 yuan per vehicle from Ideal Motors. If local replacement subsidy policies are published in the region before the vehicle is delivered, the above guarantee will be terminated.

In response to the transition of subsidy policies, NIO officially announced on the first day of 2025 that in order to support the State Council's promotion of "replacement for old items" policies on consumer goods, NIO and LeAuto launched a limited-time "replacement for old items" subsidy guarantee policy—users who purchase from January 1 to February 28, if the invoice date of the new vehicle is earlier than the government's requirements for the "replacement for old items" policy for 2025, NIO and LeAuto will provide full subsidy coverage in the form of points and equivalent electricity subsidies.

According to industry analysts, the "subsidy guarantee" policies launched by NIO and Ideal differ in terms of consumer rights, but fundamentally they are both aimed at the transition period of related policies.

According to the policy implementation deadline announced in July 2024, the "double new" subsidy will expire on December 31, 2024. Although national level policies for 2025 have not yet been clarified, many regions have already introduced local subsidy measures. Recently, the Hainan Provincial Department of Commerce released an announcement regarding the arrangement for the transition of consumer goods "replacement for old items" policy in 2025. According to the announcement, from January 1, 2025, Hainan will continue to implement subsidies for home appliances, home decoration, and Autos "scrap update", autos "replacement update", and other "replacement for old items" subsidy policies. Earlier, Nanjing City also announced that to further promote Autos consumption, it will continue to issue Autos consumption subsidies from January 1, 2025.

In addition to the subsidies specified by local governments in Hainan, Hubei, Nanjing, and major manufacturers like Ideal and NIO during the transition period, more car companies have opted for "simple and crude" price discounts or rights upgrades targeting the festive consumption peak before Spring Festival.

On January 2, 2025, reporters from Financial Association News learned at a Lantu Motors sales center located in Peking that for the Lantu Dreamer, the replacement subsidy for Lantu brand car owners is as high as 0.015 million yuan, and they can also enjoy a cash discount of 3,000 yuan. Furthermore, from December 16, the Mentougou District of Peking has been distributing a total of 3 million yuan in Autos consumption vouchers in two batches, while supplies last; and Lantu Dreamer buyers in Peking can still enjoy a subsidy of 4,000 yuan.

There were no discounts before C16, but starting from January, the cash discount can reach 9,000 yuan." Another salesperson from the LEAPMOTOR Peking sales center told reporters. The day before, on January 1st, LEAPMOTOR's Chairman Zhu Jiangming stated that all users who purchase LEAPMOTOR cars during the 2025 New Year activities can enjoy a maximum cash red envelope of 150,000 yuan and multiple car purchase benefits.

In an internal company letter at the end of 2024, it was predicted that the "price war" would begin in January with Xiaopeng Motors, which took the lead by launching a limited time new spring gift activity on New Year's Day, including a 10,000 yuan cash red envelope and an 888 degree electricity card; WULING MOTORS announced on the same day that the price of multiple models of the WULING Bingo SUV would be adjusted, with the 401 km range version reduced by 2,000 yuan to 82,800 yuan, and the 510 km range version reduced by 6,000 yuan to 89,800 yuan; FAW Toyota will launch a limited-time subsidy of 3,000 yuan in January and a maximum replacement subsidy of 20,000 yuan. In addition, GAC Aion and Geely Yizhen also successively announced promotional policies of varying degrees on January 1.

Earlier, on December 27, 2024, BYD announced that from now until January 26, 2025, the second generation Song Pro DM-i and Qin PLUS EV Glory Edition models would launch discount activities, with maximum reductions exceeding 11%. Tesla launched the "Choose Existing Vehicles, Final Payment Reduction" activity, offering a 10,000 yuan reduction for purchasing Model Y existing vehicles, which can also be combined with a five-year 0% interest financial plan valid until January 31 next year.

"Personal estimates indicate that the total number of Autos scrapped and updated nationwide in 2024 will definitely exceed 3 million units." Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association, published an analysis on January 1, believing that the national car market trend in 2024 will show a U-shaped growth pattern, with the subsidy policies for "trade-in" and "scrapping and updating" in the second half of the year being particularly strong, driving the expected retail of 22.94 million units in 2024, an increase of 5.7%. "Currently, the overall policies and operational documents for the central 'scrapping and updating' program and local 'trade-in' for 2025 have not yet been released. January is a transitional period for policies, so various local 'promotion fee' incentive policies will continue in the spirit of 'no interruption, no fire out'. Therefore, the best time to purchase a car is before the 2025 Spring Festival."