Behind the rising sales of new energy vehicles, it is indispensable to the credit of marketing and financial product innovation. Nowadays, many consumers not only choose the way of financial leasing when buying new energy vehicles, but also the batteries. This change in consumption habits has spawned the enthusiasm of car companies to launch financial products.
Recently, FAW Leasing announced that the first battery rental product of the Hongqi brand was successfully lent. Unlike the general 3-5 year lease cycle of the whole vehicle, the lease period of the battery is as long as 7 years (84 periods). Coincidentally, Volkswagen Finance (China) Co., Ltd. also recently launched a battery rental business for ID. series products. Compared with traditional car companies, the new car-making forces are obviously more active in the field of automotive battery financial leasing.
Traditional car companies and new forces are competing to test the waters
2020 is the first year for new car-making forces to enter the field of battery leasing. On August 20 last year, NIO launched the long-simmering battery rental service (BaaS), which separates the cost of batteries from the price of the car.
According to the sales staff of Weilai Automobile, weilai battery rental is a car purchase scheme that only buys a car and does not buy a battery. Taking the ES8 seven-seat version as an example, the car price for buying a battery is 468,000 yuan; if you choose to rent a battery, the car price can be immediately reduced by 70,000 yuan, and then subtracted from the subsidy of up to 18,000 yuan, and finally the actual payment of 380,000 yuan, and then pay the battery rent of 980 yuan per month. Nio launched a battery rental program, which is intended to reduce the cost of car purchase and allow consumers to flexibly replace the battery capacity according to their own needs, which is equivalent to helping WEI TO help car owners do battery management. More importantly, the battery is completely separated from the car, and the used car will be more valuable.
Less than half a month after Weilai launched battery leasing, Xiaopeng Automobile also launched a battery financial leasing plan. Like Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile's battery rental service is also to price the car and the battery separately, and then consumers only need to pay the price of the car removing the battery when buying the car, and promise to pay the monthly rent of the battery on a monthly basis. Xiaopeng Automobile sales staff told reporters that unlike Weilai, after the end of the 84 payment, users can fully own the battery, while Weilai's solution consumers always do not own the battery, only the right to use the battery.
WM Motor first launched the "WM Direct Purchase" program in March 2020, under the premise of "buying a car without buying a battery", to achieve half-price car purchase, using the form of monthly package package to lease the battery, the lease period is as short as two years, after the expiration of the two years, users can choose to buy out the battery at one time for 39,900 yuan, sublease for purchase, which is equivalent to reducing the cost of the initial purchase of the vehicle, or directly repurchased by WM.
After seeing the attempts of new car-making forces, traditional car companies have also begun to promote the battery rental model for their electric vehicle models. Recently, SAIC Volkswagen launched a battery rental program. Specifically, if the battery rental is used to purchase ID.3, the purchase cost will be reduced by 60,000 yuan. Taking the pure version of the ID.3 entry-level model as an example, the original price was 159,888 yuan, the price after subtracting 60,000 yuan was only 99,888 yuan, the lease repayment time was up to 5 years, and 1,000 yuan was paid every month, and the ownership of the battery and the whole vehicle belonged to the owner after five years of leasing.
GAC AION Automobile AION LX full range of models launched a battery rental program, "vehicle-to-electricity separation, half-price car purchase", the price of the vehicle immediately reduced by 80,000 to 100,000 yuan, battery rental program for 60 phases.
In October this year, BAIC Motor launched a vehicle-to-electricity separation scheme for its Beijing EU5 PLUS, and users only need to pay part of the body, which is equivalent to saving 1/3 of the car price. The body part supports installment payment, and the power battery part enjoys 6 years of installment service, through 72 installments to share the cost, after the expiration of 6 years the user has the battery property rights. Of course, if you want to change the car in the middle, you only need to buy out the remaining lease term in advance.
Battery rental or the trend of the times
Why are major car companies focusing on the battery rental business? Li Bin, the founder of WEILAI, once said that before founding WEILAI, he did research to study why consumers are not interested in electric vehicles. The final results show that the vast majority of consumers reject electric vehicles for two major reasons, charging is not guaranteed and battery prices are too high. After Li Bin founded WEILAI Automobile, he began to focus on solving these two pain points, and launched a battery rental service shortly after the product delivery was on the right track to solve the problem of high battery cost.
Limited by technology, the current electric vehicles have high battery costs, irreversible natural attenuation, and limited capacity resulting in less than three major drawbacks of driving range, so only buy vehicles without batteries, batteries through the way of leasing seems to have become a more reasonable choice, on the one hand, can save 100,000 to more than 100,000 yuan of car purchase costs, on the other hand, there is no need to worry about replacement and maintenance costs after battery attenuation.
A car company R & D personnel told the "China Automotive News" reporter that the battery cost is too high, making it difficult to reduce the price of the whole vehicle, which is one of the reasons why electric vehicles are difficult to popularize. If new energy vehicles want to be recognized by the market, they must ensure that the purchase price is not higher than that of traditional cars, the cost of use is low, and the use of batteries can achieve these three points. Therefore, battery leasing must be one of the trends in the commercialization of new energy vehicles in the future. In foreign countries, BMW, Nissan, Honda and other companies have successfully practiced the business model of battery leasing in Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries.
It can be seen from the battery rental services launched by major domestic car companies that unlike the vehicle financial installment of 3 to 5 years, the lease period of battery leasing is as long as 7 years. Mu Hailong, a veteran of the auto finance industry, believes that the longer the battery lease term, the more confidence is given to consumers, which is essentially a marketing means, and the core purpose is to establish consumer confidence in the brand and recognition of quality services.
At the same time, the separation of vehicle and electricity is indeed a better choice for the current new energy vehicle financial business. The problem of the financial development of new energy vehicles is the low residual value of vehicles and consumers' concerns about the efficiency of batteries. Independent battery leasing makes the secondary sale of separate vehicles relatively simple, and will also reduce consumer concerns, which has a positive role in promoting the development of the new energy vehicle market, which can be described as a blue ocean market.
Zhang Junyi, managing partner of Oliver Wyman of Oliver Wyman, also believes that battery leasing is the future development direction, which is beneficial to consumers and the upstream and downstream of the new energy vehicle industry chain. Some people question why Tesla, the leader of electric vehicles, has not yet set foot in such a good business. In Zhang Junyi's view, Tesla does not currently have a leasing business license in China, and its model structure is a vehicle-electric integration, using an integrated chassis battery pack, so it will not pursue long-term battery spin-off and leasing. At present, car companies are the dominant players in the battery leasing business, but let car sales make money first or auto finance first, or whether the battery leasing business can be profitable, depends on the consideration and exploration practice of car companies.
The pattern is questionable and needs to be re-optimized
Of course, battery rental is in the ascendant, and there is still a lot of room for optimization. Mu Hailong believes that a single battery lease only alleviates the use and replacement costs caused by consumers for the one-time purchase of new energy vehicles (including batteries), as well as some inconveniences in the process of second-hand car trading. However, the development of the new energy automobile industry still focuses on the improvement of battery performance and the convenience of use. Therefore, battery leasing is only one of the many basic supporting facilities for the development of the new energy automobile industry. If the battery rental service is equipped with more convenient power exchange technology, it can greatly improve the customer experience, but how to layout the replacement power station, what kind of business model to adopt, and whether the vehicle factory can make the replacement more convenient in the vehicle design in the production process are all problems that industry practitioners should actively consider.
At the same time, Mu Hailong also pointed out that the participation threshold of the battery rental business is actually very high, and it is necessary to form an overall team to participate in it. The relatively ideal model is that the model can be formed by car companies, battery production companies, commercial banks that provide funds, financial leasing companies that carry out business, and management service companies that carry out daily services, so that the model can develop healthily.
However, there are also voices of doubt about battery rentals. An industry insider said bluntly that in theory, battery rental services are indeed a solution that is conducive to promoting sales, but it may not be cost-effective for consumers, but more like a test of IQ. The monthly battery fee of nearly 1,000 yuan is equivalent to or even higher for fuel owners than a month;, coupled with the fact that many car owners have the need to change cars, because the subsequent owners cannot enjoy the same benefits as the first car owner, so the retention rate of vehicles without batteries is actually worse.
Huang Chengwei, founder and CEO of Chejiayuan, is also not very optimistic about the battery rental model. He speculated that the motivation of some car companies to launch a battery rental model includes, first, financial institutions are reluctant to give battery loans, because the battery performance will gradually decay, depreciation is serious, car companies have no choice but to divide the car into two parts, body loans let financial institutions undertake, and their own financial leasing companies do battery financial leasing business. Second, in order to bind customers for a long time, if the customer buys a car in full or after the body loan is paid off, it is difficult to sell the second-hand car, because the battery financial leasing business has not ended, and can only continue to use.
Huang Chengwei said bluntly that if it is to reduce customer pressure, customers have bought hundreds of thousands of yuan of cars, will they still care whether the battery is repaid in 3 years or 7 years in installments? It is not as good as the 3-year installment like the body. The battery rental business is a helpless move under the premise that battery technology is not yet mature, and once there are other better solutions or breakthroughs in battery technology, this business is difficult to sustain.
Zhang Junyi expressed concern about the current performance of the car's power battery. He analyzed that this year, the National Energy Administration issued the "New Energy Storage Project Management Specifications (Interim) (Draft for Comment)", which tightened the echelon utilization of batteries from a policy perspective. If in the process of battery leasing, consumers choose to give up the ownership of the battery, then whether the lender can recover the cost of the battery, and the reuse of second-hand batteries are also worth thinking about.
Text: Hao Wenli Editor: Jiao Yue Layout: Liu Xiaoye