[News-Oxcart Network]
In the past two years, we have witnessed the earth-shaking changes in the domestic automotive industry. The new car-making forces led by "Wei Xiaoli" bravely moved forward, and traditional car companies did not want to fall behind and began to catch up. In such a fierce competitive environment, domestic models of various levels such as pure electric SUVs, pure electric cars, and even some pure electric MPV models have stood at the forefront of the world. However, pure electric pickup truck models are not one of them.
Pickup trucks have always been the strength of the old United States since the fuel era, and models such as the Chevrolet Solod, The Ford F150 Raptor and the Dodge Ram have dominated the top of the sales list in the US market for many years. In today's era of electrification transformation, the wave of pure electric pickup trucks has once again been set off by the United States.
First, the electric pickup truck in the US market
In 2021, the pure electric pickup truck market in the United States seems to be like a smokeless war, and new and old forces are using "feelings" or "concepts" to attract potential consumers.
Tesla Cyberruck
The first shot of this war was not fired by Tesla, who fired a cannon.
In 2019, Tesla released the Cyberruck electric pickup truck, which adopts the styling style of "cyberpunk" and subverts the definition of traditional pickup trucks. Its powerful performance makes this car have a supercar-level acceleration of 2.9 seconds and 100 kilometers; and as a pickup truck, the drag capacity of up to 6.3 tons also causes a dimensionality reduction blow to the traditional pickup truck. Not to mention that the low-end model starts at less than $40,000, which is quite attractive to american pickup enthusiasts. According to rough estimates, Cybertruck has received more than 1 million orders so far. According to Tesla's capacity plan, these orders will take at least 5 years to fully digest. Although Cyberteruck has not yet been able to start delivering, the car has completely ignited the electric pickup frenzy.
Rivian R1T
A while ago, Rivian, a new force in the United States, suddenly came into our field of vision. Rivian's market value soared after its U.S. stock market listing, once surpassing automotive groups such as Ford, General Motors, Daimler, and Volkswagen. This also makes Rivian considered the new power brand with the most potential to beat Tesla.
The car has a sleek look and a variety of innovative designs in terms of storage practicality. But underneath its traditional pickup-shaped shell, there is an independently developed modular pure electric platform. The high-performance model is equipped with four independent hub motors, a combined power of 562 kW, a maximum torque of 1120 N·m, and an acceleration time of only 3 seconds per 100 kilometers, which is no less than Tesla Cyberruck.
Ford F150 lightning
When it comes to traditional fuel pickup models, the Ford F-Series has an unrivalled status. In this new era, the Ford pickup truck is naturally not far behind, launching the F150 lightning pure electric pickup.
As a continuation of the fuel version of the F150, the appearance of the new car does not need to be modified too much, but the power has completely increased by one level. Ford had previously shown the F150 lightning towing a train car with 42 F-150 fuel pickups. Although Ford has not yet released the power data of the new car, it is enough to make people expect.
general
In the face of the two-sided attack between the new forces and old friend Ford, GM group also brought its own Ulitum pure electric platform. However, I did not expect that the first pickup truck model to be launched with the new platform was a big Hummer, a Hummer EV model brought by GMC. The appearance of the new car is still the original taste of the Hummer, dragging such a huge body, but still achieving a 3-second package kilometer acceleration performance. And the Hummer EV is about to start delivery, or it will become the first electric pickup truck to complete delivery.
In addition, GM Group's Chevrolet and GMC will each bring a pickup truck model, form a product matrix, and seize market share with other new and old forces.
A new american power
Like the domestic market two years ago, new car-making forces in the United States have sprung up like mushrooms. Such as Lordstown Endurance, Nikola Badger, Atlis XT and other second-tier and third-tier new forces, some are already preparing for the final mass production, and some are still only in the PPT stage. But what is certain is that in the United States, this electric pickup boom will continue to intensify.
Second, why is there no excellent electric pickup truck in China?
1. Insufficient demand
Not only electric pickups, but also the demand for traditional pickups in China and the United States is completely different, especially the enthusiasm of American consumers for pickup truck models is unimaginable.
From the sales volume of the global pickup truck market in 2020, the United States contributed more than 2.93 million pickup trucks, while the sales of pickup truck models accounted for 20.2% of the entire US car market, while China's pickup truck sales accounted for only 1.9%.
Such exaggerated sales are mainly due to the huge demand for pickup trucks with American consumers. The United States is sparsely populated, and the large plains also make American agriculture very developed. For the average consumer, a family only needs a pickup truck to meet the needs of daily travel and farm work to pull goods. What's more, the price of pickup trucks in the United States is relatively affordable, and most families can afford it.
Of course, our domestic people also have the demand for people to pull goods, so why don't many people buy pickup trucks?
Because at home, we have a more affordable option - a van. Taking the domestic SAIC-GM-Wuling as an example, in 2020, the Wuling Hongguang mini-van alone received sales of more than 280,000 vehicles, which is still in the case of the epidemic last year and the sharp decline in car sales. The right choice for vans has limited the use of pickup trucks in The country.
2. Policy Restrictions
The domestic restriction policy on pickup truck models is also one of the reasons why pickup trucks cannot be popularized on a large scale.
In China, pickup trucks are positioned as minivans and are classified as commercial vehicles; chartered cars belong to minibuses, that is, passenger cars. The policy of forced scrapping of trucks for 15 years or 600,000 kilometers naturally puts pickup models at a disadvantage and is destined to be accepted by most people.
Electric pickups are more affected. As a new energy model, the cost of electric pickup trucks is more expensive and the price is higher, and the owner needs to bear more losses after reaching the service life.
On the other hand, imported pickup trucks are also sold as high-end play models to first- and second-tier large cities, but in the same way, the identity of the truck also makes it subject to unequal treatment, such as the need to apply for an entry permit to enter the city, and there are a large number of restrictions on driving into the area in the city. Beijing issued the strictest restrictions last year, allowing pickup trucks to drive only in the early hours of the morning in some areas.
In addition, the owner of the pickup truck also has to consider the annual inspection system of the pickup truck, if the future Tesla Cyberruck enters the country, can you bear a red and white reflective strip and white spray lettering it?
3. Limitations of the new energy market
In the past two years, domestic new energy vehicles have developed rapidly, and electric vehicles have been accepted by more and more urban consumers with their advantages of intelligence and convenience, but they cannot be popularized on a large scale in rural and rural areas.
At present, there are also many pickup truck models in the market "oil to electricity" products, but the price is much higher than that of traditional fuel pickup trucks, and there is no cost performance.
And the properties of pure electricity also make the stability of electric pickup trucks yet to be examined. The freight use of pickup trucks makes it inevitable to use in harsher environments, and there are more stringent requirements for performance and stability. In contrast, traditional fuel vehicles are more leather and durable, and even if they are damaged, they can be repaired in any garage.
Third, the future development prospects
Someone once analyzed that electrification is the best development path for pickup truck models in the future.
Electric cars have an advantage that is easily overlooked: high torque. As we all know, electric vehicles can easily make a fast start, not only Tesla, but many affordable self-brand models can complete the 100-kilometer acceleration in less than 4 seconds, reaching a level close to supercar. This is the overwhelming advantage of electric motors over conventional fuel engines in terms of torque.
From this point of view, the electric motor and pickup truck model are simply a perfect match. Pickup truck models have a high torque demand, for tool pickup trucks, people often need pickup trucks to carry heavier goods, and more often in complex road conditions; for consumers of high-end fun pickup trucks, they enjoy the off-road capabilities of pickup trucks, requiring a lot of operations such as compacting dirt roads and climbing. The torque advantage of the electric motor can perfectly meet the various power needs of pickup truck consumers. In the future, electric pickup trucks may become the mainstream development direction of pickup trucks.
In addition, the potential demand for pickup truck models in the Chinese market is also huge. According to last year's sales data of the global pickup truck market, we can't just see the gap between the Chinese market and the US market. After all, China's auto market has a huge scale and sales base, and pickup truck models can reach 410,000 sales with only 1.9% market share. In the future, with the development of new energy technology, electric pickup truck models will also have strong power and long endurance, and their competitiveness will far exceed that of traditional fuel pickup trucks. The potential of this segment will also be immeasurable.
However, in order to broaden the pickup truck market, we may also need a blockbuster. When we look at the electric pickup trucks in the US market, we can find that almost all models have strong power and avant-garde design, which is also quite attractive to domestic consumers. In 2019, the launch of the Great Wall Gun allowed a large number of off-road enthusiasts to discover new "big toys", and once the model was launched, it obtained very optimistic sales, and also made the market share of the Great Wall pickup truck account for 44.4%. Needless to say, the market potential of playful pickup trucks is considerable, and as the scale of modified enthusiasts expands, pickup trucks are increasingly becoming a popular category for off-road enthusiasts.
Nowadays, with the continuous opening of policies, many cities have begun to pilot unban pickups or relax pickup restrictions, and many regions are soliciting opinions on lifting the ban on pickup trucks, which will be more and more conducive to the development of pickup trucks in the future, and it is more likely to usher in the spring of the era of electric pickup trucks.
Several independent brands have also seen the development prospects of new energy pickup trucks in the future, and have begun the layout of the electric pickup truck market.
Great Wall
Electric pickup trucks are also the key development direction of the Great Wall. In September last year, the Great Wall launched the Great Wall Cannon new energy electric pickup truck, 204Ps power and 405 km endurance is not eye-catching in the data, but it is also at the forefront of the domestic electric pickup truck market.
In the future, the Great Wall electric pickup truck will continue to develop in five directions, passenger, intelligent, integral, customized, and clean, and rely on existing technology to make the Great Wall electric pickup truck more prominent in terms of intelligence and safety.
lucky
Recently, insiders of Geely Commercial Vehicles revealed that the Geely pickup business has become independent and is in the internal incubation stage.
There is also news that Geely Pickup plans to transform into an independent high-end, electrified brand, will release a pure electric product in the second half of next year, and brew a high-end product benchmarking Rivian.
The domestic high-end electric pickup truck market is still a blank, and Geely's entry will be the first to get this "cake". And Geely is not the first time to try the pickup truck market, the previous remote FX pickup truck has also more or less accumulated experience for Geely.
BYD
BYD has also expanded the layout of the model to the field of pickup trucks. In the future model plan, BYD plans to launch DM plug-in hybrid and pure electric pickup truck products in 2023. At present, the positioning of the new car is not known, if it can be sold under the high-end brand to be released by Ocean Network in the future, then the new car will become another masterpiece in the high-end pure electric pickup truck market.
summary
It is certain that in the future, China will usher in a new wave of electric pickups, and perhaps in 2023 we will see the first growth point of the electric pickup truck market.
However, due to a variety of factors, we may not expect the domestic pickup truck market to have an overly prosperous scene. But at least for a small number of consumers, the huge performance potential of electric pickup trucks is exhausted for off-road pickup players,