"Lack of core" for a year, the car market finally breathed a sigh of relief!
Fu Linghui, spokesman of the National Bureau of statistics, said that at present, the lack of core in the automobile industry has eased. In November, the automobile output decreased by 7.1% year-on-year, 1.2% lower than that of the previous month, and the decline has narrowed for three consecutive months.
The chip crisis, which began in 2020 and continued until this year, is like a "black swan", giving a "blow to the head" to China's auto market under the strong recovery. This once again sounded the alarm for Auto Enterprises: in the event of an unexpected crisis, to maintain the development trend of growth, its root lies in the autonomy of core technology. How to get rid of chip dependence? The key behind the "lack of core" is - "strong core".
"lack of core", unable to bypass the topic
"Chip shortage" is no longer a new word. This year, affected by the epidemic, the "chip crisis" has been enveloping the entire auto industry.
The development characteristics of automobile products determine the higher and higher requirements for intelligence, and the influence of "lack of core" on automobile is becoming more and more obvious. In October, due to the tight supply of chips, the sales volume of Xiaopeng P7 did not increase but decreased, only 6044 vehicles were sold, and the delivery of P5 was also affected. Similarly, it is reported that the ideal car purchases a large number of electronic parking chips from the "black market", and the purchase price of a single chip reaches 5000 yuan / piece, which is 800 times higher than the normal price. Although ideal automobile denied the news for the first time, there is no doubt that the new power automobile enterprises are affected by the "lack of core".
From Xiao Peng's ideal situation, we can see that this year's chip crisis has a wider scope. On March 29, Weilai automobile announced to suspend the production of "Jianghuai Weilai" Hefei manufacturing factory for five days because of the insufficient supply of chips and other key electronic parts.
The automobile leader "big brother" Volkswagen is also doomed in this wave of "core shortage tide". In the second quarter, FAW Volkswagen reduced the production of 20000 ESP chips due to the shortage of 10 kinds of chip resources, which affected the production of 29 models, resulting in a 30% reduction in the second quarter. Beijing Hyundai, Byd Company Limited(002594) , Dongfeng Honda, Chery and other auto enterprises also encounter the challenge of tight supply of auto chips.
The continuous tension of the chip not only surprised the car companies, but also caught them off guard. Jia Xinguang, executive director of China Automobile Circulation Association, said earlier, "from the demand side, the market underestimated the recovery of the automobile market, and the demand for chips soared. In addition, the car enterprises ordered according to the production plan, and the orders included the annual chip consumption, and some car enterprises adopted Toyota's' zero inventory 'supply chain management mode, resulting in a serious shortage of chip inventory."
At the beginning of this year, many people in the industry predicted that the chip crisis in the third quarter could be alleviated, and believed that the lack of core would be comprehensively improved from the fourth quarter. However, due to the low scale of China's independent chip industry and complex chip production process, independent chips can not cover the market demand on a large scale in a short time, and the "pain of chips" did not break in the fourth quarter as expected.
how to break the core! Each manifester
It can be seen that although the "lack of core" has been alleviated, auto enterprises still need to accept the fact that there is a long-term supply shortage of chips.
In the past, automobile manufacturers hardly cared about the details of chips and other parts. However, under the influence of lack of core, automobile enterprises communicated more and more with chip enterprises, and even cooperated directly with chip enterprises, from supplying a single chip to formulating the whole intelligent scheme. The chip also has an important impact on the whole automobile supply chain system, which is not only related to the production capacity, but also affects the retail sales. Car companies are looking for chips everywhere, dealers have no cars to sell, consumers' wait-and-see mood is getting stronger, and the balance between car supply and demand is broken.
From "missing core" to "patching core", it has triggered in-depth thinking in the industry. To establish a more resilient and risk resistant supply chain system, we should find the answer from the source.
In February 2020, 11 departments including the national development and Reform Commission jointly issued the intelligent vehicle innovation and development strategy, emphasizing the promotion of R & D and industrialization of vehicle specification chips and other products. In July 2020, the State Council issued several policies to promote the high-quality development of integrated circuit industry and software industry in the new era, which further proposed to accelerate the R & D and industrialization of vehicle specification chips and focus on the R & D of key core technologies of high-end chips.
From the government to enterprises, how to strengthen "China core" has become a new way out of the current chip crisis.
Recently, the key technology and industrialization of high performance electric vehicle power system led by Byd Company Limited(002594) won the second prize of the national science and technology progress award.
The project has developed the "China core" of electric vehicle power system with completely independent intellectual property rights, and promoted the core technology of China's electric vehicle industry from "relying on import" to gradually opening "domestic substitution". Relying on the continuous breakthrough of self-developed technology, the "China core" is strongly empowered with Byd Company Limited(002594) . The cumulative sales volume of Byd Company Limited(002594) in the third quarter exceeded 200000, and set a new sales record again, leading China's independent brand automobile market.
More independent brands also take "strong core" as an important strategy to gradually get rid of chip dependence. Zero run self-developed and self-made Lingxin 01 automatic driving chip, and the three electric system is fully self-developed and self-made. GAC invested hundreds of millions of R & D funds to independently build an advanced and perfect power battery cell laboratory and trial production line, accelerate the independent R & D layout of the industry, and realize the rapid progress of independent innovation technology.
Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) GAC capital also stepped up the improvement of the layout in key core areas such as vehicle chips by investing in chip projects such as horizon and Yuexin company. SAIC and its ecological partners continue to cooperate in areas such as automotive chips, strengthen the "neck" technology weakness and ensure the safety of the industrial chain.
will chip supply ease next year?
Although the "lack of core" has been alleviated, the future chip supply situation is still uncertain.
Due to multiple factors such as covid-19 pneumonia and international trade friction, on the one hand, the global semiconductor production capacity has decreased, resulting in difficulties in the production of ESP and ECU from Bosch and Continental, the main sources of car enterprise chips; On the other hand, China's auto market is still rising against the trend, and the demand is soaring.
According to the data of the passenger Federation, from January to November, the retail sales of passenger cars reached 18.041 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%. At present, the constraints of insufficient total supply and structural imbalance brought by chips have not been completely eliminated, the resources of best-selling models are still tight, and the constraints on terminals still need time to be adjusted.
Intel CEO Gail Singh previously said that the global chip shortage will continue until 2023. He stressed that although semiconductor manufacturers are rapidly expanding their production, with the epidemic not ending for a long time, semiconductor demand continues to soar, which will lead to a delay in solving the supply gap.
Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the Federation, is optimistic about this. He believes that the darkest moment of chip supply in the passenger car market has passed, "the low base impact of chip interference factors has subsided, and the types of chip shortage are mainly fuel vehicles. At present, it seems that the chip problem has a greater impact on joint venture brands, and independent brands can be filled through flexible adjustment of supply."
This also means that in the case of uncertain global chip supply in the future, the significance of "patching" lies in "strengthening the core" to deal with the potential risks in the supply chain with strong R & D capabilities.
"Automobile enterprises should firmly grasp the initiative of industrial development in their own hands, run through all links of R & D, production, circulation and consumption, break through the breakpoints and blocking points of the industrial chain, and ensure the safety and stability of the industrial chain supply chain," said Wu Zhixin, member of the Party committee and deputy general manager of China Automotive Technology Research Center Co., Ltd, "At the same time, we should also actively cultivate the strengths and advantages of the industrial chain supply chain, gain a voice in the global automotive industry division system, and greatly improve the safety and reliability of the industrial chain supply chain."
(South plus)
