The collapse of joint venture cars is real: Sylphy sold for 68,000 yuan and still no one is interested, domestic new energy sources have lost money

The collapse of joint venture cars is real: Sylphy sold for 68,000 yuan and still no one is interested, domestic new energy sources have lost money

The Sylphy sold for 68,000, but it still couldn’t be sold. Three years ago, this would have been even more outrageous than winning the lottery. But now, this is the real quote from a 4S store in Guangzhou in January 2026 - the lowest configuration of the 2023 classic Sylphy directly broke through the 70,000 mark. As a result, sales in January plummeted 38% year-on-year. This isn't about cutting prices to survive. It's clearly a fire sale with no one taking over.

The collapse of joint venture cars is real: Sylphy sold for 68,000 yuan and still no one is interested, domestic new energy sources have lost money

The Sylphy sold for 68,000, but it still couldn’t be sold. Three years ago, this would have been even more outrageous than winning the lottery. But now, this is the real quote from a 4S store in Guangzhou in January 2026 - the lowest configuration of the 2023 classic Sylphy directly broke through the 70,000 mark. As a result, sales in January plummeted 38% year-on-year. This isn't about cutting prices to survive. It's clearly a fire sale with no one taking over.

The last fig leaf of joint venture cars has been completely torn off. In the past, everyone always said, "No matter how bad a joint venture car is, its chassis tuning is better than that of domestically produced cars." Now, looking at it, this is simply the biggest joke. The data for 2025 has just been released. Geely Xingyuan sold 466,000 units and Xiaomi SU7 sold 258,000 units. Although the once best-selling Sylphy still ranks fourth, its sales volume is only 320,000 units, which is more than 20,000 units less than last year. What's even worse is the Camry. The hybrid version was directly discounted by 40,000 yuan. It didn't cause any splash, but orders fell by 45%.

The logic behind this is not as simple as a price war at all, but a comprehensive crushing of technological generation differences. On January 27, BYD Qin L ran a measured range of 2,517 kilometers in an environment of minus 5 degrees Celsius. What is this concept? This means that if you fill up a tank of gas, you can drive from Beijing to Guangzhou without refueling in between. As for the hybrid vehicles of joint ventures, they are still complacent about “saving 1 fuel per 100 kilometers”. There is also Xiaomi SU7, which has been modified to directly support "car-to-home appliance discharge". Your home's induction cooker, electric heater, and car can supply power. This is not a car, it is simply a mobile power station.

Joint venture cars now can't even understand "copying homework". Volkswagen ID.7 recalled 12,000 vehicles on January 25 due to a black screen on the car, and the automatic driving was directly disabled. The pure electric version of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class has simply been postponed to 2027. The reason is that "the competition in the Chinese market is too fierce" - to put it bluntly, it just can't be beaten and evaded. In contrast, for domestically produced cars, the penetration rate of smart driving users has reached 72%, while that of joint venture cars is only 19%. This gap is no longer a "generational difference" but an "era difference."

The most worrying thing is that domestically produced cars are no longer even exported as joint venture cars. In 2025, Geely, BYD, and Xiaomi will account for 85% of domestic new energy exports, and joint venture car exports will be cut in half. Wuling Hongguang MINIEV is an "old man's delight". If the overseas version adds fast charging and ESP, the export unit price can rise to 80,000, which is twice as expensive as domestically. It used to be "Made in China = cheap goods", but now it's "Chinese electric cars = high technology". In exchange for this label, joint venture cars can't even see the taillights.

So, stop talking about "a joint venture car with a stable chassis" and "high value retention rate". In the car market in 2026, there are only two types of cars: one is a smart mobile terminal that can run 2,500 kilometers, power home appliances, and drive itself; the other is an industrial antique that can do nothing but "chassis tuning." No one wants the Sylphy when it sells for RMB 68,000. It’s not that consumers have become picky, but that everyone finally understands: spending RMB 68,000 to buy an “antique” is worse than adding RMB 20,000 to buy a “future”.

The "death spiral" of joint venture cars has begun. There is no solution to this cycle of price reduction - sales volume drop - price reduction again - no one will buy it anymore. Will 2026 be the "first year" when joint venture fuel vehicles withdraw from China? I think it's almost the same. After all, even Mercedes-Benz is hiding, Volkswagen is closing its stores, and Nissan is cutting production capacity. Who still believes in the "joint venture myth"?