Our reporter Jiao Yue
Trainee reporter Zhang Xiaoyu
On April 7, Tesla’s US official website showed that it will increase the price of some Model 3 models by at least $1,000.
Among them, the Model 3 long-range version was increased by $1,500 to $55,990; the high-performance version was increased by $1,000 to $62,990.
And just in March, Tesla just made several price adjustments in the U.S. and Chinese markets.
Especially from March 10 to March 17, the prices of products in the Chinese market were raised three times in just 8 days, ranging from 15,060 to 30,000 yuan.
Tesla said it is unclear whether prices will continue to rise in the future.
Ding Shaojian, founder of Ding Technology, said to a reporter from Securities Daily, “Tesla’s price increase is not an isolated incident. In fact, the entire new energy vehicle industry is increasing prices. The direct cause is the increase in upstream raw material prices, including lithium, nickel, Cobalt and other metals and chemical materials, coupled with the increase in logistics and transportation costs due to the epidemic, and the unstable supply chain expectations caused by the international situation, have formed multiple price increases."
Many car companies start price hike mode
According to the "Securities Daily" reporter, since the end of last year, due to cost pressure, Tesla has raised its selling price many times around the world.
In the Chinese market, from March 10 to March 17 this year, Tesla raised the prices of its products three times. Among them, the price of the domestic Model Y high-performance version increased by 30,000 yuan.
Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, said in an interview with reporters that Tesla's price increase was caused by a variety of factors, including the contradiction between supply and demand of upstream raw materials, as well as Tesla's own brand. "Tesla, as the global sales champion of new energy vehicles, has a very high reputation. There are many users and fans around the world. Everyone is willing to pay the deposit and wait in line for the delivery of the new car. This is also a contradiction between supply and demand. Next, Tesla has the confidence to raise prices.”
In fact, in addition to Tesla, some domestic new energy car companies have also announced price increases recently.
On the evening of April 6, the official WeChat account of Jihu Automobile announced that from May 1, 2022, certain price adjustments will be made to all models of the Jihu brand, and the specific adjustment plan will be announced before April 30, 2022. .
On the same day, Chery New Energy announced that it will increase the price of some models by 2,900 yuan to 5,000 yuan. The price adjustment will take effect from 0:00 on April 7.
On April 2, Jikr Automobile announced that it will increase the price from May 1, and the specific price increase plan will be announced before April 30.
On March 31, SAIC Roewe announced that it will adjust the official guide price of some of its Roewe i6 MAXEV models and Roewe Ei5 models from 0:00 on May 1, and the price will be increased by 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan.
According to the statistics of the "Securities Daily" reporter, in addition to the above-mentioned car companies, so far, there are nearly 20 companies including Great Wall Euler, SAIC-GM-Wuling, BYD, Xiaopeng, Nezha, Geely Geometry, Leapmotor, Dongfeng Lantu, and Changan New Energy. Car company officials announced price hikes.
It is worth mentioning that, in the official announcement of the price increase of the car companies, it is mentioned that the reason for the price increase is due to factors such as the continued sharp rise in the prices of raw materials such as batteries and chips.
Mr. Ding told reporters that domestic new energy vehicle companies, like Tesla, are facing cost pressures, so price increases will become a collective action in the industry.
"At present, the rise in upstream raw material prices has not peaked, the demand side is still strong, and capacity expansion also requires a certain period, so the price of new energy vehicles will remain high in the short term."
Zhang Xiaorong, dean of the Deepin Science and Technology Research Institute, told the Securities Daily reporter, "The phenomenon of rising prices of new energy vehicles is not only happening in China, but the global market is facing the same situation. As the industry has entered an outbreak period and market demand has continued to expand, it may still be in the short term. There is an upward trend in prices.”
In Zhang Xiang's view, with the rise in raw material prices, some adjustments have been made within the domestic new energy vehicle industry chain. In the long run, with the release of domestic production capacity, the future price increases of new energy vehicles will ease and gradually becoming steady.
New energy vehicle sales continue to grow
It is worth mentioning that although many car companies announced price increases, the sales growth of new energy vehicles is still unabated.
Since April, a number of new energy car companies have released sales data for March and the first quarter, and many car companies have set new highs in performance.
On April 2, Tesla announced the production and sales situation in the first quarter of 2022. The output in the first three months of this year was 305,407 units, and the global delivery reached 310,048 units, a year-on-year increase of 67.7% and a month-on-month increase of 0.5%.
On April 5, BYD released an express report on production and sales. In the first quarter, a total of 286,000 new energy vehicles were sold, a significant increase of 423% year-on-year and a month-on-month increase of 7.6%.
In addition, the cumulative sales of new car manufacturers such as Xiaopeng, Lili, and Nezha exceeded 30,000 in the first quarter.
Among them, the cumulative delivery of Xiaopeng Motors was 34,561 units, a year-on-year increase of 159%; Li Auto delivered a total of 31,716 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 152%; the cumulative delivery of Nezha Motors was 30,200 units, a year-on-year increase of 305%.
According to an analysis by CITIC Securities, the price of new cars is not the primary factor affecting the demand for new energy vehicles, and there is no need to be overly pessimistic about price increases.
From the perspective of life cycle cost, new energy vehicles still have huge advantages over fuel vehicles, especially the recent sharp rise in oil prices, which highlights the cost advantage of new energy vehicles.
Zheshang Securities also stated that the impact of the comprehensive price increase of new energy vehicles is short-term and limited, the demand for car purchases will not disappear because of the price increase, and the consumption trend of new energy vehicles is irreversible.
(Securities Daily)