JD.com wants to reshape the logic of selling cars.
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Author | Wang Xiaojuan
Editor | Chai Xuchen
An ordinary household electric car saw its price bid up to 78.19 million yuan in just four hours. JD.com’s carefully orchestrated auction frenzy once again showcased the “aggressive” internet methods in China’s auto market.
On October 22, JD.com’s “Popular Car” Special Edition No. 001 auction concluded. This electric car, originally expected to sell for only 100,000-120,000 yuan, started at just 1 yuan. After 23,733 bids, it was ultimately sold for a sky-high price of 78,193,399 yuan.
Of course, the winning bidder’s deposit can be used towards payment; participants can opt to forgo payment or cancel the order after paying, in which case a 100-yuan deposit is withheld. In other words, failing to complete the purchase only results in losing a 100-yuan deposit.
When JD.com set the starting bid at 1 yuan for the “Popular Car” Special Edition No. 001, it was clear this was no ordinary car sale. The low deposit threshold of 100 yuan encouraged a large number of users to join the bidding “just for fun.” During the auction, the price broke 800,000 yuan in under a minute, hit 10 million yuan in 16 minutes, and exceeded 25 million yuan in less than an hour.
JD.com fueled the hype through social media notifications and topic interactions, turning a standard car sale into a phenomenon-level marketing event. Ultimately, the rarity of “No. 001” was the core driver behind the frenzied price increase. In both collector and capital circles, “first edition” and “limited edition” often mean premium pricing.
In recent days, JD.com’s collaborative “popular car” finally made its debut, named Aion UT super. Based on currently released information, this car also features several highlights on the product level.
In terms of its “three electrics,” it’s equipped with a 500km range battery using CATL’s chocolate battery swap technology, enabling a quick 99-second battery change. This replenishment plan addresses electric car users’ range anxiety and is one of the car’s biggest selling points.
For the smart cockpit, the Aion UT super is equipped with GAC-Huawei cloud car technology, supporting cloud computing resource allocation and terabyte-level storage space, capable of running large apps and quick uploading of mobile phone apps.
In terms of space design, the car is built on a standard A-class car platform but also stands out for space versus same-class models. As for dimensions, the Aion UT super has a wheelbase of 2,750mm; rear legroom of 905mm; lateral space of 1,385mm; and the front seats can lie flat.
High-profile auctioning of Car No. 001 is just one step in JD.com’s determined move into the auto industry. JD.com’s ambition is to reshape the auto consumer market using internet logic, letting users “buy cars like buying phones.”
JD.com’s automotive dream actually goes back several years prior to this headline-grabbing selloff. As early as 2015, JD.com invested in NIO. In 2018, it launched a complete vehicle trading platform. By 2022, it upgraded “JD Car Club” to “JD Auto Care.” In 2023, its auto department began independent operations, once again showcasing JD.com’s automotive ambitions.
Currently, JD Auto Care has nearly 3,000 directly operated stores and over 40,000 partner outlets, and these offline stores will become important channels for its car sales operations.
JD.com’s role in this collaboration is crystal clear—it’s the exclusive seller, not directly involved in car manufacturing. This highlights JD’s even greater ambition: not to become a heavy-asset manufacturer, but a light-asset ecosystem integrator, building a closed-loop, full-lifecycle auto service covering “buy–equip–service–use–replace.”
This time, JD.com relied on its over 600 million active users and consumer insights to participate in product definition. In the “Popular Car, Defined by You” activity, JD.com collected user suggestions, drawing in over 300,000 participants. In other words, selling cars via JD is not only a change in the sales channel, but reflects a value chain reconstruction in the auto industry, shifting from manufacturing-led to user-centered.
With the growth of the NEV (new energy vehicles) market, the value chain in the automotive industry is also shifting. The trend of software-defining automotive value is increasingly clear; subscription services, data monetization, and personalized services are becoming new avenues for added value in automotive products.
By 2030, it’s expected that the value proportions of automotive products will be: hardware 40%, software 40%, and content/services 20%.
JD.com’s light-asset model matches this trend. It avoids the risk of heavy manufacturing, instead embedding itself in the high-value end of the automotive value chain through user insights and service systems. The shortcomings of traditional automakers are being amplified, while JD has the hope of claiming a share in the high-end value segment thanks to its user data and service channel control.
Industry insiders comment that the real challenge for JD.com in selling cars is how to change consumer car-buying habits and perceptions, and deliver quality after-sales service. After all, cars are big-ticket goods and consumer decision-making logic is fundamentally different versus ordinary products.
Today’s younger consumers are increasingly rational, focusing not just on price, but also on product quality and after-sales service. JD.com’s past after-sales service reputation relative to other e-commerce platforms is quite good, but whether this ability can carry over to car sales remains unclear. For instance, if there are quality issues with the cooperated models, how responsibilities will be divided can’t be determined yet.
This 78.19 million yuan auction frenzy will inevitably end, but JD.com’s automotive ambitions have only just begun. The moment the hammer fell on that sky-high price, JD.com issued a challenge to the traditional automotive industry.
In the future, as the Aion UT super officially debuts during the Double Eleven shopping festival, JD.com’s car sales model will face a true market test.
With competition in the NEV space ever more intense, whether JD.com can truly shake up the age-old auto sales landscape remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the boundaries of the automotive industry are dissolving, and a channel revolution led by internet companies has already begun.
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