New car-making forces collectively dropped in February deliveries
How New Energy Vehicles Cross the "First Pass" in 2022
On March 1, a number of new car manufacturers, including NIO, Xiaopeng, Lili, Nezha, and Leapmotor, announced the delivery data for February.
Different from the collective "starter" in January 2022, the delivery volume in February fell, and none of them failed to break the 10,000-unit monthly delivery mark.
"On the one hand, the Spring Festival holiday will affect the production and sales of enterprises, so there is no need to be too nervous about the fluctuation of delivery volume; but on the other hand, since 2022, the supply of parts and components has been tight, raw material prices have risen, subsidies for new energy vehicles have declined, and some The regional new crown pneumonia epidemic situation rebounds frequently, and relevant companies must attach great importance to these challenges." Some industry experts pointed out that the gap between new car manufacturers is gradually narrowing, so the ranking in sales will also change frequently, while This further intensifies the competition among new car companies.
In addition to paying attention to monthly sales, companies are more than endurance
NIO delivered a total of 6,131 new cars in February, a year-on-year increase of 9.91%.
It is worth noting that NIO's new model ET7 is scheduled to be officially delivered at the end of March.
Some analysts predict that this new car will not only further boost NIO's sales performance, but also make the product layout more reasonable, laying the foundation for future diversification strategies.
After the monthly delivery exceeded the 10,000-unit mark for five consecutive months, Xpeng Motors delivered 6,225 units in February, a year-on-year increase of 180% and a month-on-month decrease of 51.5%.
Xiaopeng Motors stated that during the Spring Festival holiday this year, Xiaopeng Motors carried out technical transformation on the Zhaoqing base, so product delivery was affected to a certain extent.
According to the data disclosed by Li Auto, in February this year, Li Auto delivered 8,414 units, a year-on-year increase of 265.8%, and the monthly delivery volume ranked first among the new car manufacturers.
Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Motors, said that due to the Spring Festival holiday and the impact of the Suzhou epidemic, the shortage of some parts and components has affected production. At present, Ideal Motors is taking more measures to ensure the supply of parts and shorten the number of users as much as possible. Pick-up waiting period.
As early as Li Auto's 2021 fourth quarter financial report performance meeting, Shen Yanan revealed that in order to cope with the shortage of IC chip supply, Li Auto has taken pre-guarantee measures to supply chain partners to ensure upstream supply resources for IC products.
In addition, Nezha delivered 7,117 vehicles in February, a year-on-year increase of 255%.
Leapmotor delivered a total of 3,435 new cars in February, down 57.5% from the previous month.
The relevant person in charge of Leap Motor said that the month-on-month decline in deliveries in February was mainly due to the Spring Festival holiday and the tight supply chain of chips and batteries.
"Building a car is actually a marathon, which requires competition of physical strength and endurance. Especially for new car manufacturers that claim to be user-oriented enterprises, larger-scale mass production and delivery often means the beginning of greater challenges." Senior Auto Media person Yang Xiaolin reminded that with the development of the market situation, the product quality control, sales channels and after-sales service teams of the new car manufacturers will face more challenges.
Facing the "must answer" of cost management, which tasks should be put on the agenda
In fact, concerns about tight supply of new energy auto parts and rising raw material prices are not new.
In March 2021, due to the sharp rise in the prices of many automotive raw materials such as steel, chips, and lithium batteries at that time, analysts at JPMorgan Chase published a calculation.
Calculations show that a $40,000 car would have to increase in price by 8.3% to offset the profit impact from rising raw materials at the time.
Especially in the field of new energy vehicles, power batteries account for about 30%-40% of the total cost of new energy vehicles, and are the most important part of new energy vehicles.
Among them, the cost of the cathode material accounts for the largest proportion in the power battery, and the cost of raw materials accounts for 90% of the cost of the cathode material.
Over the past year, the prices of upstream metal raw materials such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, and lithium and their compounds have risen dramatically, which in turn has affected the cost of power batteries.
Ma Xiaoli, deputy secretary-general of China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, analyzed not long ago that compared with the public price in June 2020, the cost of 523 ternary batteries has risen from 0.52 yuan/Wh to 0.77 yuan/Wh, lithium iron phosphate batteries The cost rose from 0.47 yuan/Wh to 0.66 yuan/Wh, an increase of 48.1% and 40.4% respectively.
On one side is the pressure of rising raw material prices, and on the other side is the fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market. Many power battery companies have begun to actively deploy upstream materials to alleviate the tight supply and demand in the market.
This problem has also caused problems for many car companies.
According to the reporter's understanding, the heads of car companies such as Guangzhou Automobile Group and Xiaopeng Motors have expressed their concerns about rising raw material prices in public.
At the same time, according to the "Notice on the Promotion and Application of Financial Subsidy Policies for New Energy Vehicles in 2022", the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles in 2022 will be reduced by 30% on the basis of 2021.
Taking into account factors such as the development plan of the new energy vehicle industry, market sales trends, and the smooth transition of enterprises, the subsidy policy will be terminated on December 31, 2022.
Under the influence of multiple factors, it seems that car companies have become an inevitable choice to raise the price of new energy vehicle products.
According to incomplete statistics, since 2022, Tesla, Nezha, Xiaopeng, GAC Aian, Leapmotor, BYD and many other new energy vehicle brands have announced price increases for their models.
"At present, this round of price increases will not last for too long." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Association, told reporters that the new energy vehicle market is still in a period of rapid growth, and automobiles are typical large-scale industry.
"The continuous expansion of the new energy vehicle market will inevitably bring about economies of scale, thereby improving cost pressures." He predicted that in 2022, China's annual sales of new energy passenger vehicles are expected to reach 5.5 million.
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Xu Yajie Source: China Youth Daily