Consumer Awakening and Deep Blue's Counterattack: A Two-Way Pursuit of "Value"

In 2026, China's new energy vehicle market officially bid farewell to the era of unrestrained growth. Endless price involution, homogeneous configuration stacking, and increasingly tight industry profit margins have trapped countless automotive companies in a dilemma: following price cuts hurts profitability, while sticking to products leads to market elimination. Industry elimination races are intensifying, and all players are seeking survival rules suited to themselves.

On June 13, at the "Market Transformation -- Reshaping China's Automotive Market Competition Pattern" brainstorming session organized by Buycar Net during the 2026 China Automotive Chongqing Forum, Deep Blue Automotive Vice President Yang Yuanyuan said: "The most unexpected change in the market this year is the awakening of consumers. Chinese car consumers are becoming increasingly rational and mature. No longer choosing cars based simply on specs and parameters as in the past, but seriously considering whether every penny spent is worth it."

This statement might have sounded like a beautiful wish a few months ago. But placed on Deep Blue in June 2026, it looks more like a belated verification report.

Just a few months ago, Deep Blue was a typical sample surrounded by pessimistic voices. In Q1 2026, Deep Blue's sales declined by over 17% year-on-year, and even in February, total model sales were not directly announced; for the whole year of 2025, it incurred a loss of 899 million yuan, with cumulative losses exceeding 8 billion yuan over the past four years. At the same time, Li Auto, Nio, and AITO all maintained positive growth; even the sibling brand Qiyuan within the Changan system delivered a performance report in February showing a 96.3% increase month-on-month—Deep Blue's "falling behind" stood out remarkably.

The turning point appeared in March 2026. Deep Blue quickly reversed the situation with 31,742 units, a month-on-month surge of 87.8%, and maintained the "monthly sales 30,000+" threshold for three consecutive months thereafter. Cumulative sales from Jan to May reached 130,531 units, up 15% year-on-year, with global cumulative deliveries exceeding 850,000 units. The core driving force of this counterattack precisely validates Yang Yuanyuan's judgment at the forum.

The first driving force is the Deep Blue S05. This compact SUV found a precise balance point in the core battlefield of 100,000 to 150,000 yuan: 620 km CLTC range, standard 3C supercharging across the entire series, and a 2,880 mm long wheelbase. Global sales in April reached 17,269 units, up 96.1% year-on-year, with cumulative sales exceeding 220,000 units since launch. Consumers proved with orders: in this price segment, what they want is not "cheap", but "worth it".

The second driving force is the intelligent upgrade of the Deep Blue S07. On June 13, the all-new Deep Blue S07 Extended-Range Edition went on sale, with a limited-time rights price starting from 154,900 yuan, equipped with Huawei Qiankun Intelligent Driving ADS Pro, and for the first time, high-level intelligent driving was brought down to this price segment. In the past, this was a configuration only available for 300,000 yuan-level models. Yang Yuanyuan particularly emphasized this logic at the forum: "Enterprise technology inclusivity and consumer habit adjustment have just begun, far from the bottom."

The third driving force is the explosion of the overseas market. Deep Blue's cumulative overseas sales from Jan to May reached 28,704 units, up 167% year-on-year. The Deep Blue S05 has entered 66 countries and regions including Europe and Southeast Asia, and the right-hand drive version is in production at the Rayong factory in Thailand. While the domestic market is still debating "price war or value war", overseas users have already voted with their orders.

Putting these three things together forms a complete logical chain: Consumer "value awakening" is a change on the demand side, and enterprise "technology equality" is a response on the supply side. When both happen simultaneously, the market will give positive feedback.

In Yang Yuanyuan's view, the consumer transition from "pursuing price-performance ratio" to "valuing quality-price ratio and intelligence-price ratio" is the industry's most valuable turning point. For Deep Blue Automotive, which consistently adheres to long-termism and practices technology equality, this is not a challenge but a once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity. The era of extensive low-price involution has come to an end; the era of high-quality competition winning through value, technology, and experience has arrived.

Regarding the strategy for the second half of this year, Yang Yuanyuan also gave his own judgment: "There are three battles in the second half - Experience War, Ecology War, Global War." The Experience War is to let customers have a better experience, the Ecology War is to change the buying-selling relationship into a partnership, and the Global War is to "represent China's new energy vehicles to the world".

"Whether there is a brand new car model launched this year does not affect Deep Blue's sales this year at all," said Yang Yuanyuan. Unlike most brands in the industry relying on new cars to drive short-term incremental growth, Deep Blue does not blindly follow frequent high-frequency iteration of new products, but instead cultivates existing inventory products and polishes overall product comprehensive strength. Relying on previous product project initiation and platform architecture layout, Deep Blue achieves long-term product vitality, avoids R&D waste and inventory risks brought by frequent car manufacturing, and at the same time relies on mature main force models to thin out costs, achieving a two-way balance between profitability and sales.

In the general environment where industry overall profits continue to decline and most car companies see revenue increase but not profit, Deep Blue, which does not rely on new car involution, still maintains a healthy business state.

Regarding the "elimination race" widely discussed in the industry and the future main battlefield of value competition, Yang Yuanyuan gave Deep Blue a clear long-term strategy: Future cars will no longer be simple commuting tools, but "AI terminals with wheels". Based on this ultimate judgment, Deep Blue will long-term adhere to the dual-line strategy of Globalization on the left hand and Youth on the right hand, building a differentiated competitive barrier.

Deep Blue's goal "definitely not just to survive, but to become a business card for China's new energy vehicles"—this sentence came from a company that was questioned a few months ago about "whether it can survive", somewhat of a contrast. But precisely this contrast gives this counterattack deeper meaning: it is not just Deep Blue's comeback story, but a footnote of the entire industry moving from "price involution" to "value competition". When consumer awakening and enterprise technology inclusivity form resonance at the same frequency, the market will naturally give the answer.