In March, the sales volume of new energy vehicles picked up, and gac-e’an took the lead in crossing the threshold of 20000 monthly sales. Zero run became the dark horse in March, and Weilai came to the bottom unexpectedly.
On April 1, the monthly “drying list” of new car manufacturers arrived as scheduled.
After a short downturn in sales due to the Spring Festival holiday in February and a month on month cut, March ushered in a recovery. The delivery volume of Xiaopeng automobile, Nezha automobile, ideal automobile and Zero run automobile exceeded 10000. Gac-e’an, which threatened to turn “Wei Xiaoli” into “Ai Xiaowei”, took the lead in crossing the threshold of 20000 monthly sales. However, Wei Lai unexpectedly came to the bottom in March and became the only new car making force whose sales failed to exceed 10000 in that month.
While the sales volume reported good news frequently, in March, the production and manufacturing end was still under the pressure of the supply chain such as the rise in the price of raw materials, the contradiction between supply and demand of power batteries and the lack of cores. Following the rise of Tesla three times a week, the prelude to a new round of price rise was opened, and a number of new energy vehicle enterprises followed up the price rise one after another. However, this round of large price increases did not have a significant impact on the sales volume of the month, but gave birth to a wave of “rush order tide”.
Looking forward to the second quarter, factors such as rising raw material prices and lack of core still perplex auto enterprises. However, with the continuous launch of traditional auto enterprises and heavy models of new forces, the pattern of new energy vehicles may be reshaped.
new car qualifying changed again
In March, Xiaopeng automobile returned to the top of monthly sales with 15000 units. Nezha automobile broke through 12000 units, ranking second, ideal automobile delivery 11000 units ranked third, Zero run automobile ranked fourth in the club of 10000 units for the first time, and Weilai automobile became the only new automobile manufacturing force that failed to break through 10000 units in that month, ranking fifth.
In terms of monthly delivery volume, the ideal performance of “Wei Xiaoli” Xiaopeng and Xiaopeng is relatively stable. Wei has delivered less than 10000 vehicles for three consecutive months after repeatedly losing the championship in the second half of last year. Some insiders believe that the higher price of Weilai bicycle, the longer listing time of the main selling models es8, ES6 and ec6 and the decline in market attraction are the main reasons for its slowdown.
In the first quarter of 2022, Xiaopeng, ideal and Weilai delivered 34561, 31716 and 25768 vehicles respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 159.08%, 152.13% and 28.45% respectively. It is worth noting that among the new forces of car building, Weilai took the lead in approaching the 200000 vehicle mark. By the end of March 2022, Weilai had delivered a total of 192800 electric vehicles, and Xiaopeng had more than 170000, with an ideal of 155800.
Nezha automobile and Zero run automobile, which have long been called the new forces of second-line car making by people in the industry, have continued to grow in sales in recent months, gradually approaching and even surpassing the “Wei Xiaoli” at one time.
Since the second half of last year, the monthly delivery volume of Nezha automobile has been stable in the top three of the delivery list of new forces of car making for many times. It has surpassed the ideal automobile in September, October 2021 and March this year, and has won the runner up for two consecutive months. From January to March this year, the cumulative delivery of Nezha vehicles was 30152, a year-on-year increase of 305%.
“In the range of 60000 to 80000 and 100000 to 150000 pure electric SUVs (market), Nezha has achieved the first cost performance.” Zhang Yong, CEO of Nezha automobile, believes that the main reason for the sharp rise in sales is cost performance. “It doesn’t make any sense to surpass for a short time, and Nezha’s user group is more popular. According to this logic, it can only be said to be better than it if it reaches three times the ideal.”
Zero run became the dark horse in March. In March this year, Zero run achieved monthly delivery of more than 10000 vehicles for the first time, with monthly delivery reaching 10059 vehicles, with a monthly year-on-year growth rate of more than 200%; In the first quarter of 2022, 21579 vehicles were delivered in total, with a year-on-year increase of 410%. At present, there are mainly three models on sale: sedan S01, A00 car T03 and medium-sized SUV C11. The sales volume of T03 accounted for nearly 80% of the total sales volume in 2021.
The quantity of zero running cars this time may be related to the release of orders accumulated in the early stage. According to its prospectus submitted in March, by the end of 2021, there were 22536 C11 orders for Zero run cars, of which 3965 were delivered that year, which also means that at least 20000 C11 had not been delivered.
In addition, among the new energy vehicle brands incubated by traditional car companies, Geely’s polar krypton delivered 1795 vehicles in March, falling month on month for three consecutive months; Dongfeng’s lantu delivered 1553, 740 and 1400 vehicles respectively from January to March, with a total of 3693 vehicles delivered in the first quarter.
Gac-e’an, which threatened to turn “Wei Xiaoli” into “Ai Xiaowei”, performed well. The sales volume in March was 20300, an increase of 189% year-on-year, breaking the threshold of 20000 for the first time. “On the one hand, the rapid breakthrough in the sales volume of ai’an is that the expansion and upgrading of the factory’s capacity has been completed in February, and the capacity scale has doubled to ensure the supply guarantee; on the other hand, it is due to the innovative playing methods of ai’an in science and technology, products and other aspects, especially the comprehensive innovation and reform brought by the mixed reform.” Ai’an said.
Insiders pointed out that “the sales volume of new forces of car making is a process full of dynamic changes, one after another, which depends on a variety of factors such as the product cycle and the grasp of the market.”
price increase has not affected sales yet
Compared with the delivery volume in February, the delivery volume of new energy vehicle enterprises picked up significantly in March. However, affected by the rise in raw material prices in March, a number of new energy vehicle enterprises, including Tesla, Xiaopeng, ideal, Nezha, Zero run and ai’an, once again started the price rise boom. According to incomplete statistics by the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, about 20 enterprises and 40 brands joined the price increase army, with an increase of 3000 yuan to 30000 yuan.
However, at present, the price rise has not had an impact on sales.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng automobile, said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald reporter at the end of March, “at present, Xiaopeng’s sales have not been affected. For cars with weak intelligence, large number of batteries and relatively cheap prices, the price increase is estimated to have a certain impact. I think it will take another 2-3 months to see a clearer impact.”
“At present, the price rise has not had much impact, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) has better advantages in stabilizing the supply chain and cost control, and has taken a variety of measures to digest the pressure brought by the rise of raw materials.” Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) deputy general manager Wang Dan said, “at present, the orders of ai’an have returned to the level before the price rise, and the increasing orders every day are about 1 Yihua Healthcare Co.Ltd(000150) 0.”
“Most of the new energy vehicles belong to order sales. In March, the orders of last December and January and February this year are generally digested. Therefore, the sales volume in March is not affected by the price rise in that month.” On April 2, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the all China Passenger Transport Federation, said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, “the price increase has little impact on the sales volume in the first quarter. The price increase in January was relatively rational. Some manufacturers raised prices in the case of strong production and sales and strong demand. With the end of the Spring Festival holiday, the market gradually recovered, and consumers’ acceptance of the price increase was relatively good.”
A Xiaopeng automobile sales manager told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that more than 80 orders were received within four days from the official price adjustment announced by Xiaopeng automobile to the official increase. “Many consumers are worried that the price will rise again and decide to buy early and offer early.” In addition, the sales personnel of Byd Company Limited(002594) , GAC ea’an and Zero run automobile all said that despite the price increase, the order volume in March still increased significantly compared with the same period last year.
However, there are also views that the price rise in March consumed part of the demand in advance, superimposed on the factors of insufficient capacity supply and early release of orders caused by the epidemic in March and April, April and may may may usher in the “late spring cold” of the new energy vehicle market.
supply chain challenges remain severe
Bid farewell to the first quarter and stand at the starting point of the second quarter. Factors such as rising raw material prices and chip shortage have not improved.
Ideal CEO Li Xiang wrote that “the increase in battery costs in the second quarter will be very outrageous.”
He Xiaopeng sighed, “there are still big challenges in battery supply this year, and the proportion of price increase is beyond our imagination. We are communicating. It is expected that China’s battery supply will be greatly improved in the second or third quarter of next year.”
In addition to the shortage of raw materials caused by the rise of chip enterprises in 2020, the price of raw materials has not been alleviated. A number of people in the automotive industry said that the current chip shortage is still serious. The chip supply in the fourth quarter of 2021 has eased compared with the third quarter, but there is no significant relief at this stage compared with the fourth quarter of 2021.
Li Bin, founder of Weilai, said at the 2021 earnings conference call a few days ago that the main challenge is chip supply, especially the fluctuation of basic chips. “Weilai needs about 1000 chips per car, of which 10% will face the problem of tight supply from time to time, mainly some basic chips. If we lack these chips, we can’t produce cars, but we will use alternative materials or buy them in the spot market, but it must be a little more complicated.”
In addition, the epidemic has also affected some important cities in the automobile industry chain. For example, many automobile enterprises and parts enterprises have gathered in Changchun and Shanghai. Some factories have stopped production, and production and sales have been affected.
Shen Yanan, co-founder and President of ideal automobile, said, “due to the impact of the epidemic in the Yangtze River Delta, the production is affected by the supply shortage of some parts. More measures are being taken to ensure the supply of parts, ensure production as much as possible, and shorten the waiting cycle for car collection of ideal one users.”
However, despite the severe challenges facing the supply chain, new car manufacturers have launched heavy-duty models since the second quarter, and the pattern of new energy vehicles may be reshaped.
With the market scale of Weilai, ideal and Xiaopeng approaching 100000 units, the three auto companies have begun to attack each other’s territory in the key stage of new energy vehicles entering the qualification competition.
After the product window period in 2021, Weilai ushered in a new year of product sprint in 2022, based on NT2 0 platform, among which the delivery of medium and large cars et7 was started on March 28, and 163 have been delivered as of March 31; The price of intermediate car et5 is going down, and delivery is expected to start in September this year; The medium and large five seat SUV ES7 will be delivered in the third quarter of this year. In addition, Weilai is expected to release 2022 es8, ES6 and ec6 in late May.
Xiaopeng automobile began to explore. The fourth model, medium and large SUV G9, is progressing smoothly. The PT production sample car has been offline from the factory and will be put on sale in the third quarter of this year, entering a higher price range and improving Xiaopeng’s overall gross profit margin.
With the ideal of a single model, one’s ideal of going around the world will release the second new car ideal L9 on April 16, which will be delivered in the third quarter.
The second echelon of the new forces building cars is also accelerating the counter offensive. Nezha’s first pure electric car, Nezha s, entered the trial production verification stage in March and will be on the market within the year; Zero run’s medium and large pure electric car Zero run C01 may debut in the first half of this year; Weima’s first car, Weima M7, will be mass produced and delivered in 2022.
“With the launch and delivery of new cars by many car companies, the performance of new forces or new energy vehicles in the second quarter was generally good.” Cui Dongshu finally said.
