Battery shortage drags car companies to deliver Xiaopeng Automobile fell into the "mark-up" storm

4 months to deliver the car, "mark-up" to pick up the car? Xiaopeng Motors: It's all battery trouble!

A few days ago, in response to recent reports that Xiaopeng Automobile delivered a long time, Xiaopeng Automobile responded to the media that due to the impact of the epidemic, the industry is facing an extreme shortage of lithium iron phosphate battery supply, resulting in Xiaopeng P7 480 models can not be delivered in time within the next timed expected delivery cycle.

On December 9, the sales staff of a number of 4S stores in Shanghai told the "International Finance News" reporter that the delivery cycle of Xiaopeng P7 480 models (equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries) is 15-16 weeks, that is, the delivery cycle is about 4 months, but its P7 670 models (equipped with ternary lithium batteries) will be faster, about 4-9 weeks.

Xiaopeng Automobile: Xiaopeng p 7 (Photo by Zuo Yu)

Caught in the "mark-up" storm

Corresponding to the delayed delivery of Xiaopeng Motors is its high sales.

According to the latest November new energy vehicle market data released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, among the enterprises whose wholesale sales exceeded 10,000 vehicles, Xiaopeng Automobile ranked fifth with a sales performance of 15613 vehicles, of which the Xiaopeng P7 alone delivered 7839 vehicles, accounting for about 50% of the total sales.

It is reported that Xiaopeng Automobile has achieved a single monthly delivery of more than 10,000 yuan for three consecutive months as of November, and has also become the only new energy vehicle brand in "Wei Xiaoli" that has sold more than 15,000 units in a single month, an increase of 54% month-on-month and a year-on-year increase of 270%.

Such a brilliant result should have won public applause and praise, but Xiaopeng Motors could not meet such sales in the supply chain.

Recently, a "Joint Statement of Xiaopeng Automobile P7 480 km Endurance Scheduled Owners to Xiaopeng Automobile Refuse to Deliver Vehicles" circulated on the Internet, which wrote that Xiaopeng Motors treated the market vehicle reservation orders differently, and the Xiaopeng P7 670 km endurance version orders were fully arranged for production and supply, but the 480 version of the order was frozen and did not match the vehicles.

In this regard, Xiaopeng Motors responded that this is not a difference, but because of the lack of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

In addition, or due to the problem of tight production capacity, Xiaopeng Automobile also fell into a "temporary price increase" storm in November.

A few days ago, according to media reports, Mr. Chen, the owner of Xiaopeng Automobile, went to the Nanjing Jingfeng 4S store of Xiaopeng Automobile on November 11 to pick up a Xiaopeng P7 that he had booked with a deposit of 5,000 yuan on October 23, but was asked by the clerk to increase the price by 7,000 yuan to pay the price of the boutique package that had not been confirmed by the owner in the contract.

In the face of Mr. Chen's complaint, the sales director of Nanjing Xiaopeng Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd. said that because new energy vehicles within 300,000 yuan enjoy state subsidies, they deliberately make low contract prices and make up for the costs when delivered, which is a unified operation.

In this regard, netizens questioned, is this not the use of "yin and yang contract" to "cheat compensation"?

On the same day, Xiaopeng Automobile responded that the store staff did not clearly understand the relevant promotional policies in November, causing misunderstanding among customers. At present, the customer's request has been properly handled, and the store and related personnel have been seriously dealt with.

For the fare increase, the reporter also consulted two 4S stores in Shanghai, both said that the specifics are not clear, but they did not have the operation of the price increase, if you encounter similar problems, you can go to the official website to complain.

Industry battery shortage

In fact, with the surge in sales of new energy vehicles this year, the supply problem of power batteries has recently begun to appear.

As early as July this year, there was news that He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xiaopeng Automobile, did not hesitate to go to the front line of the Ningde era factory for a week in order to successfully get the battery of the Ningde era. Although He Xiaopeng refuted this rumor afterwards, the "battery shortage" situation can be seen.

On the other hand, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of the Ningde era, also admitted at the shareholders' meeting held by the shareholders, saying that the customer's recent frequent reminders have made him "almost unbearable".

The tight sales of power batteries have long been reflected in the capital market, the lithium battery industry once became a hot sector in the A-share market, and related stocks have doubled the market. Some analysts believe that this may be the continuous shortage of lithium resources and the long-term rapid growth of the industry brought about by the huge demand for raw materials in the upstream of lithium batteries.

Tibet Everest in Argentina planned a total investment of 1.7 billion US dollars in the two salt lake development projects officially launched, the original Ningde era acquisition target lithium supplier Millennium Lithium was high-profile cut by the American lithium industry, from the current frequent worldwide lithium mine battle is not difficult to see, lithium resources are becoming a crazy food cake.

In this context, many automakers said that they are currently facing the problem of power battery tension, including Volkswagen, Daimler and Stellantis, while South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation executives have also revealed that the shortage of power batteries in the US automotive industry will last at least until 2025.

Lithium battery manufacturers are also feeling the pinch. Zeng Yuqun, chairman of NINGDE Times, believes that "at present, the production capacity supply of the whole industry chain is relatively slow, and the effective supply is insufficient." Ganfeng Lithium has also said that lithium battery production is relatively tight, and there are currently 28 days a month of production at full capacity.

It is worth noting that the shortage of power batteries belongs to the whole industry. As the epidemic continues in some countries and regions, a large number of factories are closed or unable to fully restore capacity, which has exacerbated battery shortages worldwide.

According to Barrenjoey's november 2021 forecast, the supply of lithium will continue to be tight in the next decade, and the supply gap will continue to expand, and by 2030, the supply and demand gap will reach 1.2 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent.

With the tight supply of upstream lithium resources, the price of lithium salt is also rising. In terms of battery-grade lithium carbonate, its quotation at the end of November has exceeded 200,000 yuan / ton, and since August, the cumulative increase has exceeded 127%.

Reporter: Xiao Yisi, intern Gao Xiuxiu

Edit: Wang Ke

Editor-in-Charge: BiDandan