When the "price hike" strikes, can you still buy a car happily?
BYD announced a price increase of 3,000 to 6,000 yuan, Tesla announced a price increase of 18,000 to 20,000 yuan, and Mercedes-Benz increased its price by 3,000 to 121,000 yuan... Since March this year, "price increase" has become a key word in the automotive industry.
According to incomplete statistics, at least 20 auto companies have announced an increase in car prices.
Moreover, this "price increase" involves many companies, from independent brands to joint ventures, from new energy vehicles to traditional fuel vehicles, all of which have officially announced price increases.
When people have become accustomed to getting cheaper and cheaper cars, "price increases" have swept the entire auto industry by surprise, and it seems to be becoming the norm in the auto market.
New energy vehicles lead the rise of traditional car companies to follow up
On March 4, GAC Aion announced that it will adjust the official guide prices related to its AION Y, AION S Plus, AION V Plus and other models on sale from April 8, and the overall increase of new cars will be between 6,000 and 10,000. Yuan varies.
As early as March this year, GAC Aian raised the price of some models by 5,000 yuan.
Xpeng Motors released an official announcement on March 18, stating that it will adjust the prices of its models on sale. The price increase before subsidies will range from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.
As early as January 11 this year, Xiaopeng Motors announced that the P7 will increase by 4,300 to 5,900 yuan, and the subsidy price will be 224,200 to 409,900; Yuan; G3i rose 4,800 to 5,400 yuan, and the subsidy price was 154,600 to 193,200 yuan.
Tesla, a big seller of new energy vehicles, has raised prices twice within five days. According to the latest display on Tesla’s official website in China, the current price of the Model 3 high-performance version has been adjusted to 367,900 yuan, up from 349,900 yuan before. 18,000 yuan; Model Y long-life and high-performance versions are priced at 375,900 yuan and 417,900 yuan respectively, an increase of 18,000 and 20,000 yuan respectively from the previous 357,900 yuan and 397,900 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that on March 10, Tesla China just adjusted the prices of the above products, and the prices of the Model 3 high-performance version and the Model Y long-range and high-performance version were increased by 10,000 yuan.
This means that in just five days, the price increase of the Tesla Model Y high-performance version has reached 30,000 yuan.
In addition to the second price increase announced by domestic Tesla this year, as of the end of last year, the domestic Model 3 had undergone six price adjustments.
On March 15, when Tesla raised prices for the second time this year, BYD, the leading domestic new energy vehicle company, also raised prices for the second time.
BYD released "Notes on Model Price Adjustment" through its official Weibo account.
The statement stated that the official guide prices for new energy vehicles related to Dynasty.com and Haiyang.com will be adjusted, ranging from 3,000 to 6,000 yuan.
This is the second time BYD has announced a price increase this year.
On January 22, BYD Auto adjusted the official guide prices for new energy models related to Dynasty.com and Haiyang.com, ranging from 1,000 to 7,000 yuan.
Since this year, BYD's new energy vehicles have risen by 4,000 to 13,000 yuan.
On May 13, NIO released the ET7 price adjustment instructions.
Affected by the recent continuous rise in global raw material prices, NIO will increase the starting price of all ET7 models by 10,000 yuan from May 23, 2022.
The price of the adjusted NIO standard battery life version will rise to 458,000 yuan.
Previously, NIO had released product price adjustment instructions on April 10.
Starting from May 10, the starting price of ES8, ES6 and EC6 models will be increased by 10,000 yuan.
Since NIO's recent price adjustment for the second model, at present, only the ET5 has not been adjusted for the price of the entire series.
Judging from the "price increase" of car companies, new energy vehicles such as Weilai, BYD, Tesla, Ji Krypton, Xiaopeng Motors, Nezha Motors, Leap Motor and Geely's Geely Auto are affected by the shortage of chips. Price hikes have been announced.
According to the official announcements issued by various car companies, some car companies have raised prices for the second time this year.
This price hike can be described as a raging storm. Not only are new energy car companies deeply affected by the rise in raw materials, but many traditional car companies have also officially announced price adjustments under the influence of various factors.
As the pressure of rising prices of steel, rubber, cobalt, aluminum and other automotive materials continues to surge, the production costs of many traditional fuel vehicle companies have also risen sharply. Therefore, most traditional fuel vehicle companies have also joined the price increase camp.
In April this year, luxury car brands represented by BBA, such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, also officially announced price increases.
Mercedes-Benz has announced an increase in the manufacturer's suggested retail price of some Mercedes-Benz E-Class, C-Class, S-Class, GLC, CLA and other models on sale. The price increases for different models range from 3,000 to 121,000 yuan.
Among them, the biggest increase was the Maybach GLS600, which was raised by 121,000 yuan.
"Due to rising raw material costs such as rhodium, palladium, and steel, BMW's overall manufacturing costs may increase by $1.2 billion," said Nicolas Peter, director of finance and China affairs at BMW Group. The BMW Group will officially increase the BMW X3, BMW X3, and BMW X3, palladium, and steel prices from June 1. The prices of X4, 4 Series, 5 Series, 6 Series GT and other models have increased by 1,000 to 11,000 yuan.
Traditional car brands such as Volkswagen and Great Wall have also joined the price increase.
The Volkswagen brand announced that it will officially increase the suggested retail price of all models from May 11.
New energy models (including ID. pure electric series, PHEV plug-in hybrid series) range from 3,000 to 5,000 yuan; fuel models range from 1,000 to 3,000 yuan.
Before Volkswagen announced the price increase, the Wei brand of Great Wall has announced to adjust the official guide price of some models.
Wei Brand stated in the "Instructions on the Price Adjustment of Wei Brand Products" that it will adjust the official guide price of some models in the coffee series, ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 yuan. Among them, Macchiato DHT-PHEV The maximum increase is 12,000 yuan, and the adjusted Macchiato DHT-PHEV special version starts at 178,800 yuan.
Through sorting out, it is found that many car companies including Lynk & Co and Ford have also joined the camp of price increases. It remains to be seen when the inflection point of this round of price increases will come.
Cost pressures lead to higher car prices
Of course there is a reason for such a massive price increase.
"In addition to the continuous rise in the cost of chips and battery materials, since this year, the prices of metals such as rubber, lithium batteries, aluminum alloys, and steel have been rising, coupled with the increase in production costs such as logistics and transportation, inventory costs, etc., leading to the overall procurement of enterprises. Costs are rising." Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Association, said in an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, "Because companies cannot effectively resolve the pressure caused by the increase in overall costs, they can only be effectively alleviated by adjusting the official car price guide. With further contraction, the price increase situation of car companies may be effectively improved.”
Fu Yuwu, chairman of the China Society of Automotive Engineers, told the Beijing Youth Daily: Our automobile industry is developing rapidly, and most of the cars have been upgraded to electrification.
The penetration rate of battery materials used to be only 1% to 3%, but now it is close to 20%, which is an explosive growth.
From the perspective of supply and demand, at present, the domestic production and sales of positive and negative materials are very fast, but our own industrial chain has not fully met the needs of the fast-growing, transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry.
For example, manufacturing new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles requires batteries and chips.
Moreover, not only the production of the automotive industry requires battery and chip raw materials, but the development of other industries also requires such materials. Therefore, the insufficient supply of chips cannot be fully improved.
In addition, the high degree of uncertainty brought about by the Russian-Ukrainian war broke the original global supply chain order.
For example, rising prices of automotive metals such as nickel and palladium and rising unemployment are exacerbating the overall cost increase.
Some upstream material suppliers have the phenomenon of hoarding, and unreasonable material price increases have occurred in the entire supply chain. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant departments are required to take the lead in cracking down on such phenomena, and resolutely oppose abnormal changes in material prices and random adjustment of market prices, etc. Abnormal behavior.
Strictly punish vicious price increases from the policy level, and rectify the "hype-style" price increases in the market.
"Price hike" makes consumers choose to stay put
Auto companies choose to use price increases to ease cost pressures, while consumers do nothing to respond to price increases.
Mr. Zhang, who was planning to buy a car recently, revealed to the Beiqing Daily that he originally planned to buy a favorite traditional fuel car at the 4S store, but encountered many car companies announcing price increases. In addition, affected by the epidemic, the epidemic prevention policies in various places have been upgraded. It may be that the plans for work, life and even play in the near future will be affected.
Due to the epidemic, the original travel arrangements may not be realized in the short term, and the frequency of car use will naturally decrease.
Rather than buying a car on the cusp of a wave of price increases, it is better to wait and see, and wait for the price increase to stabilize before buying.
Mr. Zhou, who is looking at new energy vehicles, told the Beijing Youth Daily that at present, he already has a fuel car at home and is considering buying a new energy vehicle for short-distance travel.
However, BYD, Weilai, Ideal and other brands that he likes have all announced price increases, which makes Mr. Zhou a little afraid to take action.
On the one hand, whether the price of cars will fluctuate in the future, Mr. Zhou has doubts in his mind, and the commercial insurance of new energy vehicles is also increasing in price; on the other hand, due to the influence of the supply chain, the waiting period for new energy vehicles may be somewhat extended.
From the increase in car purchase price to the extension of the car delivery cycle, Mr. Zhou believes that it may be better to continue to pay attention to the changes in the new energy vehicle market in a short period of time.
Mr. Hu, who is looking at the car in the 4S store, told the Beijing Youth Daily that in recent years, the performance and appearance of self-owned brand cars have been greatly improved, and the cost performance is higher.
Although car companies have been raising prices recently, as a rigid demand, they will still consider buying a traditional fuel car in the near future.
However, the price increase may affect the choice of some favorite models.
In the future, when car prices stabilize, new energy vehicles may be considered when purchasing a second car.
Because, as a short-distance travel tool, new energy vehicles may be more cost-effective.
Beiqing Daily found through interviews that with the effective control of the epidemic situation, the flow of people entering 4S stores has rebounded significantly, and consumers still have a large demand for car purchases.
However, the "price increase" still delayed consumers' car purchase plans. Many people said that they intend to continue to pay attention to car prices in the near future, and then start when the price stabilizes.
Auto consumption is one of the important manifestations of the upgrading of the consumption structure. Affected by uncertain factors such as the epidemic situation and the official announcement of price increases by major auto companies, the consumer market is not optimistic.
Consumers, as the main force in the market, will definitely consider carefully and study repeatedly when purchasing high-consumption products.
The recent "price surge" has brought a certain impact to the recovery of automobile consumption.
Multiple measures are needed to deal with the "price surge"
Rising raw material prices have led to higher vehicle transaction prices, which have led to a setback in consumer demand.
Fu Yuwu believes that if this situation cannot be effectively alleviated, it will cause a vicious circle in the market.
He said that automobile production, as a complex industry with a large volume, a wide range and a long cycle, requires the entire chain of production to be interlinked.
Therefore, the local production environment is affected, which brings a huge challenge to the orderly production of the entire industry, and the production shock is bound to bring dual pressures on the supply side and the consumer side.
Affected by multiple factors such as the international situation and consumer demand, my country's auto industry is currently in an important period of industrial restructuring.
As one of the end-consumer products, automobiles have the characteristics of socialization and matching.
It is particularly important to optimize the layout of the industrial chain and supply chain.
It is necessary for enterprises to adjust their strategic layout in a timely manner and appropriately change the industrial production environment.
If my country's national auto enterprises want to become a global brand, they need a more complete production system.
From the perspective of the company itself, at present, the situation of my country's auto companies is different. Some auto companies have a complete production chain system and can independently develop and produce.
Some car companies are highly dependent on social support, and some car companies have very stable and solid partners. Due to the different situations of car companies, their ability to cope with sudden external changes is also different. Correspondingly, the impact on production and sales is also completely different. different.
At present, it coincides with the major changes in the industry unseen in a century, and car companies should have their own way of survival.
For example, in the cooperation and selection of suppliers, re-adjustment.
In the past, some car companies completely relied on foreign suppliers for their chips.
Now, we can reconsider and choose to cooperate with domestic suppliers. Through the domestic and international dual cycle, we can appropriately adjust the focus of the supply chain to the domestic market, enhance the right of choice in important fields such as automobile R&D and production, and break through the blockages and barriers in the entire production process.
In addition, some companies have only a single supplier. Due to the recurrence of the epidemic, the epidemic prevention and control policies have been adjusted from time to time. In the event of an emergency, it may hinder the normal production and manufacturing of car companies.
Such enterprises can consider the cooperation of multiple suppliers, consider regional supporting production in the north and south, and reasonably plan the layout of the supply chain.
Establish a more long-term and stable strategic relationship with manufacturers of key components and core fields, and reserve inventory ahead of time.
Nowadays, the international situation is complicated and various uncertain factors are increasing. Enterprises should improve their ability to resist risks.
For example, in the past, car companies paid different attention to technology research and development or capital. It is particularly important to accelerate independent research and development of the entire industry chain and form integrated production.
Qualified companies can increase their independent research and development efforts, increase production and management in key areas, and put core technologies in the hands of car companies themselves.
Innovation is the primary productive force. To increase innovation and research and development efforts, under the guidance of the thought of preparing for danger in times of peace, and occupying the commanding heights of the market, enterprises can last forever.
In addition to enhancing the core competitiveness of enterprises themselves, the central government and governments at all levels have also introduced policies to boost consumer confidence to ease the pressure on the auto market.
In late April, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Unleashing Consumption Potential and Promoting Continued Recovery of Consumption". The "Opinions" encourages qualified areas to carry out new energy vehicles to the countryside, promote the construction of charging piles (stations) and other supporting facilities, relax Restricting car purchases and other efforts to speed up the orderly circulation of supporting facilities in the field of auto consumption and the automotive aftermarket, guide auto companies to carry out new energy vehicles to the countryside, improve the circulation system of the auto consumption market, and support the recovery of auto consumption.
A few days ago, the executive meeting of the State Council further deployed a package of measures to stabilize the economy, which mentioned that the purchase tax of some passenger vehicles will be reduced by 60 billion yuan in stages.
Fully release the consumption potential of the automobile market, so that more people can enjoy the benefits brought by policy benefits.
Local governments have also introduced relevant policies to boost auto consumption.
According to statistics, 20 provinces and cities across the country have clearly issued policies to promote automobile consumption. For example, from April 27 to September 30, Tianjin issued automobile consumption coupons in multiple districts, with a maximum of 5,000/vehicle; Shandong Province will purchase existing new energy vehicles. The subsidy policy is extended to the end of 2022, with a maximum subsidy of 50,000 yuan per vehicle for eligible non-public sector new energy vehicles, and a maximum subsidy of 57,000 yuan per vehicle for public sector new energy vehicles; Guangdong Province has launched a car trade-in subsidy policy, 5 to 6 In January, the maximum subsidy for new energy vehicles is 10,000 yuan per vehicle, and the subsidy for fuel vehicles is 5,000 yuan per vehicle, and 30,000 new car purchase indicators are added in Guangzhou and 10,000 car purchase indicators in Shenzhen.
The introduction of a series of favorable policies will further unleash the potential of the auto market and boost consumer confidence.