After experiencing a major short-term downturn and a month-on-month decline caused by the Spring Festival holiday in February, the sales of new car manufacturers rebounded in March.

　　According to the March sales performance announced by various new car manufacturers, the deliveries of Xiaopeng Motors, Nezha Motors, Li Auto, and Leapmotor all exceeded 10,000 units, of which the first monthly delivery of Leapmotor exceeded 10,000 units. ; and Weilai Automobile became the only new car-making force whose delivery volume did not exceed 10,000 units, unexpectedly at the bottom.

　　In addition, judging from the sales of new brands incubated by traditional car companies, GAC Aian’s sales exceeded 20,000 units in March, while Jikr Automobile continued to be weak this year, with deliveries declining for three consecutive months.

　　In fact, in March, various car companies were still under pressure from the supply chain side such as rising raw material prices, chip shortages, and contradiction between supply and demand of power batteries.

Looking forward to the second quarter, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, believes that with the launch and delivery of new cars, the overall performance of new energy vehicles, including new car manufacturers, will be better in the second quarter.

Xiaopeng returns to the top of monthly sales, and Weilai has delivered less than 10,000 vehicles for three consecutive months

　　In March, Xiaopeng Motors returned to the monthly sales champion of the new car-making force.

In terms of delivery volume, in March, Xiaopeng Motors delivered 15,414 vehicles, an increase of 202.12% year-on-year; in the first quarter of this year, the cumulative sales volume of Xiaopeng Motors was 34,561 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 159.08%.

Sales in February were cut in half compared to the previous month. At that time, Xiaopeng Motors said that during the Spring Festival holiday from the end of January to February, Xiaopeng Motors carried out technical transformation on the Zhaoqing base, and has now fully resumed production in mid-February as planned. Higher production efficiency.

　　The ideal car, which won the sales crown in February, ranked third in March.

In March, Li Auto, a model of Li Li, delivered 11,034 units, a year-on-year increase of 125.2%; in the first quarter, Li Auto delivered a total of 31,716 units, a year-on-year increase of 152.1%.

Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Motors, said, "Due to the impact of the epidemic in the Yangtze River Delta, the supply of some parts and components has affected production, and more measures are being taken to ensure the supply of parts, ensure production as much as possible, and shorten reservations. Ideal ONE users have the waiting period to pick up the car.”

　　Among the three companies of Wei Xiaoli, Weilai Automobile performed relatively weakly in March, with the delivery volume of less than 10,000 vehicles, and its ranking dropped to fifth.

In March, NIO delivered 9,985 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 37.59%. NIO’s deliveries have not exceeded 10,000 vehicles for three consecutive months.

In the first quarter of this year, NIO delivered a total of 25,768 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 28.5%.

According to NIO's plan, its pure electric sedan ET7 was delivered on March 28.

Second-tier forces succeeded in ascending, traditional car companies and new brands performed differently

　　In March, Nezha Automobile continued to squeeze into the top three of the monthly sales list of new car manufacturers, surpassing Ideal Auto and NIO with a monthly delivery of 12,026 vehicles, and won the runner-up in the monthly list for the second consecutive month; In the quarter, the cumulative sales volume of Nezha vehicles was 30,152, a year-on-year increase of 305.11%.

Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha Automobile, once said that the main reason for the sharp increase in sales is the price/performance ratio.

From the perspective of market layout, Nezha cars pay more attention to sinking. At present, the overall price range of the two models on sale, Nezha U and Nezha V, is around 60,000-170,000 yuan.

　　Judging from the performance of the overall new car-making forces in March, Leap Motor's performance received the most attention.

In March, the sales volume of Leapmotor was 10,059 units, a month-on-month increase of 192.8%, making it the last company among the five new car-making forces to achieve sales of more than 10,000 units.

In February, the sales of Leapmotor vehicles fell sharply from the previous month. Leapmotor explained that it was mainly affected by the Spring Festival holiday and the tight supply chain of chips and batteries.

　　Some people in the industry believe that the explosive growth of Leapmotor in March is due to the release of the previous backlog of orders; Volume up quickly.

According to the prospectus submitted by Leap Motor in March, as of the end of 2021, Leap Motor had a total of 225.36 million C11 orders, of which 3,965 were delivered that year.

　　Bai Yiyang, manager of the research department of CMB International Securities Co., Ltd., said that through IPO financing, the power of capital can be used to improve R&D strength, thereby maintaining R&D investment and further enhancing brand competitiveness and popularity.

　　The new forces incubated by traditional car companies in March also showed different performances.

In March, GAC Aeon achieved sales of 20,317 units, a year-on-year increase of 189%, exceeding 20,000 units for the first time.

In this regard, GAC Aian said that the factory completed capacity expansion and upgrade in February, and the scale of production capacity has doubled to ensure supply security; at the same time, the mixed-ownership reform has also brought about comprehensive innovation and change.

At the earnings conference call, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, revealed that GAC Aeon plans to complete the A round of financing in the third quarter of this year, and will choose an opportunity to go public next year.

　　Lantu Automobile, a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor, sold 1,400 vehicles in March, an increase of 89.2% from the previous month; according to its plan, it will launch its second model, the Dreamer, in April, which is positioned as an electric MPV.

　　In contrast, Geely Automobile's high-end smart brand Jikr Automobile performed relatively weakly, continuing the weakness since the beginning of this year, with sales declining for three consecutive months.

Affected by factors such as the shortage of chips and the epidemic situation, the delivery volume of Jikr Automobile Jikr 001 in March was 1,795, a decrease of 38.4% from the previous month.

According to the plan of Jikr Automobile, it plans to complete the sales of 70,000 vehicles this year.

　Part of the demand may be consumed in advance in March, and the products will be collectively launched this year

　　Regarding the growth in sales of new car-making forces in March, there is a view that many car companies announced price increases in March, consuming part of the demand ahead of time, superimposing the factors of insufficient capacity supply and early release of orders caused by the epidemic in March and April. May will usher in the "cold spring" of the new energy vehicle market, and the new forces that complete the delivery by order may be particularly obvious.

　　In fact, the current supply chain crisis has not yet fully eased.

Li Xiang, CEO of Lixiang Automobile, said on his social platform that the increase in battery costs in the second quarter was outrageous.

Cui Dongshu also said that since the rise in raw material prices this year, the price of power batteries has risen faster than the industry expected, and the newly signed orders have increased the pressure on car companies.

　　Meanwhile, the problem of chip shortages remains.

Li Bin, founder of Weilai Automobile, said on the earnings conference call that the main challenge currently facing is the supply of chips, especially the fluctuation of basic chips.

Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said publicly a few days ago that the chip shortage is expected to ease in the second half of the year.

　　Despite multiple unstable factors, new energy vehicles still show a rapid growth trend.

Xu Changming, deputy director of the State Information Center, said that the "dual-carbon" strategy, intelligence to form a new pull force, and large-scale interaction between the upstream and downstream industry chains and the vehicle, consumers' awareness and acceptance of new energy vehicles are rapidly increasing Under the joint action of new energy vehicles, new energy vehicles will maintain rapid development for a period of time.

　　This year, brands are accelerating the launch of new products.

According to the plans of various new car-making forces, NIO is expected to release the 2022 ES8, ES6 and EC6 models of the latest smart cockpit hardware in late May; the fourth model of Xiaopeng Motors, the mid-to-large SUV G9, is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter of this year; ideal The car will release its second model, the Ideal L9 in mid-April; Nezha's first high-end model, Nezha S, is scheduled to be launched and delivered within this year; Leapmotor's first pure electric medium and large-sized sedan based on the C platform, Leapmotor C01, is planned to be the first of its kind. Listed in the third quarter.

　　According to the data of the China Passenger Transport Association, the penetration rate of the new energy vehicle market in 2021 will increase to 14.8%, and it is predicted that the sales volume of new energy vehicles this year is expected to exceed 6 million, with a penetration rate of about 22%.

(Beijing News reporter Wang Linlin)