Home » New energy vehicles usher in the second “rise” this year, and the price increase involves many brands

New energy vehicles usher in the second “rise” this year, and the price increase involves many brands

by admin

In the new energy vehicle market in the past week, automakers have frequently announced price increases. According to incomplete statistics from “Automobile Weekly”, at least 9 car companies have officially announced price increases, and some have raised prices 3 times in a row in 7 days. The price of the Model 3 was raised to 316,900 yuan, an increase of 15,060 yuan; just two days ago, Tesla China just raised the price of the Model 3 rear-wheel drive version, the high-performance version and the Model Y long-range and high-performance version. The increase ranged from 14,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan; earlier on March 10, Tesla Model 3 high-performance version and Model Y long-range and high-performance version both increased in price by 10,000 yuan.

The 9 car companies that have raised prices this time are very representative, including new energy leading car companies such as Tesla and BYD, as well as new forces represented by Xiaopeng, Leapmotor, Weimar, and Nezha. There are established car companies such as Geely, Great Wall and Chery.

■ The price increase involves many brands

Although car companies announced price increases last week, the tide of price increases has actually been brewing since the end of last year. Since the end of last year, the announcement of a price increase of 8,000 yuan for Lingpao T03, the domestic new energy market has been “rising”, affecting almost all domestic mainstream new energy brands. On January 1, 2022, Chinese and foreign new energy vehicle brands such as Nezha, SAIC Feifan, JKr and Polestar Motors completed price increases on the same day.

Subsequently, automakers including Xiaopeng Motors, BYD, SAIC-GM-Wuling, SAIC Roewe, Great Wall Euler, Geometry, WM Motor, SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen successively announced price increases. Within 10,000 yuan, there are also very few products that have an increase of more than 10,000 yuan.

In the early days of entering China, Tesla, which had been dissatisfied with old car owners because of short-term continuous price cuts, raised prices as decisively as price cuts. Tesla was the most active in this price increase.

After three price increases in 7 days, the Model Y rear-wheel drive version has risen from the previous 301,800 yuan to 316,900 yuan. In the price adjustment on March 15, the Model 3 rear-drive version was adjusted to 279,900 yuan (up 14,200 yuan), the Model 3 high-performance version was adjusted to 367,900 yuan (up 18,000 yuan), and the Model Y long-life version was adjusted to 357,900 yuan (up 18,000 yuan), and the Model Y high-performance version was adjusted to 417,900 yuan (up 20,000 yuan). On March 10, the Model Y long-range version, Model Y high-performance version, and Model 3 high-performance version just announced a price increase of 10,000 yuan.

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BYD is also an important car company in the new energy market. In February, sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 87,473 units, a year-on-year increase of 764.1%. Among them, BYD’s DM-i series models have been in short supply for a long time, which also helped manufacturers to increase their confidence in raising prices. .

Of course, not all new energy brands have joined the price increase army. For example, the ideal car among the new car-making forces, and Lantu, Hongqi, Changan New Energy and other brands have not adjusted their prices at present, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi and other luxury brands Brand new energy vehicles did not participate in this price increase, but it is hard to say whether these car companies will “follow the trend” in the future.

■ Cost pressure is still the main cause

When explaining the reasons for the price increase, various car companies basically focus on two reasons: one is that the price of raw materials continues to rise sharply, and the other is the decline of new energy subsidies.

On March 13, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said through social media that Tesla faces significant inflationary pressures, mainly in raw materials and logistics. And the recent complex international situation has pushed up the prices of various metals necessary for the production of automobiles, including aluminum, palladium and nickel.

On March 19, Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Motors, also stated through Weibo that the rate of increase in battery costs in the second quarter of this year was “very outrageous”. Although Li Auto has not raised prices, from the current point of view, the brands that have signed contracts with battery manufacturers to determine the price increase of batteries in the second quarter basically announced price increases immediately. Most of the brands that have not raised their prices have not yet negotiated the price increase rate, and will generally increase their prices immediately after the negotiation is reached.

According to data released by “Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Agency”, a global battery raw material consulting firm, the prices of battery-grade cobalt, nickel sulfate, and lithium carbonate rose by 119% and 55%, respectively, in the two years from January 2020 to January 2022. And 569% – in ternary lithium batteries, the cost of cathode materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel has reached nearly 50% of the cost of battery materials.

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In addition, the price of the most basic steel in car manufacturing is also soaring. In April 2020, the price of steel futures was about 3,100 yuan/ton, and now it has risen to 6,200 yuan/ton, doubling the price in less than a year.

In addition to the pressure on raw material costs, the decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles has also had a great impact on the profitability of car companies. On December 31, 2021, four ministries including the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a notice, which requires the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles in 2022 to be set in 2021. 30% decline on the basis.

According to the premise that the pure electric cruising range remains unchanged under the subsidy standard, in 2022, the subsidy for each pure electric vehicle with a cruising range of 300km-400km will be reduced by 3,900 yuan; Electric vehicles, each subsidy will be reduced by 5,400 yuan.

In addition, from the middle of 2020 to the present, the automotive “chip shortage” that has lasted for nearly two years continues. The March 16 earthquake in Japan once again affected some of the production lines of Renesas Electronics, the world‘s third largest automotive chip maker, and the situation in Europe has also added uncertainty to the recovery of the automotive supply chain. According to the current progress of production capacity improvement, JPMorgan Chase predicts that automotive semiconductors will reach a general oversupply, that is, the earliest time for automotive chips to return to normal supply is also in 2023.

Xu Daquan, executive vice president of Bosch China, believes that the supply of chips in 2022 will still not be able to meet all the needs of OEMs, and this year’s car production will still be largely constrained by the supply of chips. The shortage of supply makes it more difficult to control the cost of new energy vehicles with greater demand for chips.

■ The rising momentum of new energy vehicles continues unabated

The price increase of new energy car companies will undoubtedly make consumers pay more real money, and even be forced to postpone car purchase plans, or switch to traditional fuel vehicles with greater discounts. In this case, will 2020 be interrupted? What about the vigorous and upward development momentum of the new energy market?

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Judging from the sales data for the first two months of this year, it seems that this concern is somewhat redundant. According to data from the Passenger Federation, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 317,000 in February, a year-on-year increase of 189%. In February, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 272,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 181%. Although the month-on-month decline was 23%, the decline was better than the trend in February of the previous year. The sales in the new energy market still maintained a good momentum of rapid growth.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, believes that the price increase of new energy vehicle raw materials is a cyclical behavior, and the current general increase in car prices is also a reflection of the response to rising raw material prices. “The rise in the price of new energy vehicles will hurt consumers’ purchasing enthusiasm in the short term, but the diversified market of new energy vehicles in China will offset this unfavorable phenomenon. In addition, since it is a cyclical fluctuation, with the recovery of the supply environment at the raw material industry side, To a certain extent, it will also alleviate the unfavorable factors of rising prices. Therefore, the phenomenon of rising prices of new energy raw materials leading to rising prices in the terminal sales market should be viewed objectively and rationally.”

However, there are also views that if raw materials continue to rise in the future, and the new energy subsidies will be cancelled at the end of the year, it does not rule out the possibility that car companies will continue to adjust prices this year. After experiencing the huge cost pressure test this time, the new energy car companies will be more mature in their ability to control the supply chain. The big waves will wash away the sand, and adversity will screen out those car companies that really have the strength to go through the bull-bear cycle.Text / Liu Bin

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