The impact of the rise in the price of raw materials is still fermenting, and the first to be impacted is the small electric vehicle focusing on cost performance.
On April 24, Chang’an New Energy announced that due to the shortage of upstream raw materials and the production capacity limitation of complete vehicles and parts, the delivery cycle of this model is long. In order to better serve the ordered users, it is now scheduled to suspend the collection of orders for e-star national models from April 25. The company will go all out to coordinate production resources to meet the production scheduling plan of existing orders and ensure that the ordered users pick up the car as soon as possible.
Benben is a popular small electric vehicle. According to the data of the passenger Association, the sales volume of Benz EV from January to March 2022 was 26119, with a year-on-year increase of 147%, ranking seventh in the sales list of new energy cars. According to the official website, the national version of Benben e-star is priced from 29800 yuan to 53800 yuan, and the comprehensive mileage is about 300km.
A similar encounter is the Euler brand under Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) its brand. Not long ago, Euler black cat and white cat stopped receiving orders because of the shortage of chips and the supply of spare parts. The company also revealed that the single black cat model lost more than 10000 yuan, while the average sales price of this car was only 100000 yuan.
This kind of A00 electric vehicle with a price of no more than 100000 yuan was originally a popular product in the market, which played an important role in driving the initial penetration of Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) vehicles.
For example, the popular Wuling Hongguang Mini EV surpassed Tesla, Byd Company Limited(002594) and other models in 2021, ranking first in the sales of new energy vehicles. Among the top 15 models in the list from January to March this year, four are small electric vehicles, namely Wuling Hongguang mini, QQ ice cream, Benben EV and Euler black cat.
Li Jinyong, President of the new energy automobile branch of the automobile chamber of Commerce of the all China Federation of industry and commerce, once said in a public speech that with the blessing of the intelligent cockpit, the A00 electric vehicle is essentially different from the traditional micro fuel passenger vehicle. In the view of consumers, it is the representative of new products and new fashion, rather than the concept of low-end vehicles. Coupled with the low use cost, A00 vehicles armed with intelligent cockpit will replace fuel vehicles of the same level first.
Therefore, Li Jinyong predicts that in the sales volume of 5 million electric vehicles in 2022, high-end intelligent electric vehicles and A00 intelligent electric vehicles will share the largest share, and the annual sales volume is expected to reach 1.5-2 million.
However, the rising price of raw materials challenges the A00 market. The price of lithium carbonate, the core raw material, has risen all the way from the low point of 50000 yuan / ton to 500000 yuan, which means that the cost of a 50 kwh electric vehicle will increase by at least 13500 yuan. The rise of medium and high-end models with high pricing can still be digested by the market, but it becomes an unbearable weight on small electric vehicles.
The diving of new energy integral price has also become a contributing factor. Industry insiders believe that small electric vehicles can exchange a large number of positive points of new energy vehicles by walking volume, which can help fill the negative points brought by fuel vehicles in the early stage of vehicle enterprise transformation, and sell at a good price when the market points are relatively scarce. However, since this year, the price of points has fallen sharply, which has indirectly diluted the economic benefits brought by small electric vehicles.
The disturbance of the recent epidemic to the supply chain can not be ignored Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , Tesla and velai successively announced the shutdown from the end of March to the beginning of April, the parts suppliers were also affected, and the logistics in some regions was blocked. At present, the resumption of work and production of the automobile industry chain is still in progress.
On the whole, the production and sales of new energy vehicles are still growing at a high speed. According to the data of China Automobile Association, in March, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 465000 and 484000 respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times; In the first quarter, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 1293000 and 1275000 respectively, an increase of 1.4 times year-on-year.
With the gradual increase in the supply side, the recent rise in raw materials has slowed down. According to the data of Shanghai Nonferrous Metals network, the price of battery grade lithium carbonate loosened after the high shock, and the latest quotation was 467000 yuan / ton; The prices of lithium hydroxide, lithium hexafluorophosphate, lithium iron phosphate, electrolyte and other materials also fell to varying degrees.
