Chinese cars are out of the beautiful ascending line

Source: Economic Daily

In the assembly workshop of an automobile company in Jinhua New Energy Automobile Town, Zhejiang Province, employees are operating in an orderly manner.

Photo by Hu Xiaofei (Xinhua News Agency)

2021 is an extraordinary year for Chinese cars.

Even in the face of the "lack of core" that makes global car companies crazy, the high price of raw materials, and the new crown pneumonia epidemic, China's auto industry has still stepped out of a beautiful upward line, showing the strong development resilience and endogenous power of the industry.

At the "2022 China Auto Market Development Forecast Summit" held recently, Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said that under the promotion of the technological changes of "electrification, networking and intelligence", in 2021, the vitality of Chinese car companies has been significantly enhanced, market consumer demand continues to show a trend of quality improvement and upgrading, and the overall production and sales of automobiles have maintained stable growth, and there is no lack of bright spots. He expects that China's total automobile sales will exceed 26 million in 2021.

New energy vehicles grew strongly

Once upon a time, the annual sales of one million was still an astronomical amount for the new energy automobile industry. In just the past few years, new energy vehicles have stood firmly on the basis of millions of sales.

According to the economic operation of the automobile industry released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in November, from January to November 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.023 million units and 2.990 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.7 times year-on-year, and the market penetration rate was 12.7%.

How hot are new energy vehicles, Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, concluded: "At the 2021 auto show, the new cars released by major car companies are basically new energy vehicles. ”

Fu Bingfeng said that especially since June 2021, the monthly sales of new energy vehicles have continuously refreshed historical records, and the penetration rate has continued to increase. In the first 11 months, the cumulative production of new energy vehicles exceeded 3 million units, with sales of nearly 3 million units, and it is expected that the annual sales volume of 2021 is expected to reach 3.4 million units, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year. He judged that the new energy vehicle market has entered a new stage of explosive growth, and has shifted from being mainly policy-driven in the past to being market-driven.

The rapid growth of investment also confirms the market's continued optimism in the field of new energy vehicles. According to the data of Tianyancha, the new energy vehicle-related enterprises in China in 2021 are 2.4 times that of 2020, and the total financing in related fields exceeds 80 billion yuan. At the same time, power replacement is becoming a new business growth point for new energy vehicle manufacturers, with 39,000 new related enterprises adding in 2021.

The feelings of new energy vehicle companies are more direct. Xiong Tianbo, director of BYD's passenger car industry office, told reporters that in 2021, from the perspective of the entire new energy vehicle market, there are good and bad. Happily, many automotive OEMs are showing strong demand and rapid growth in orders. Take BYD as an example, the order demand in 2021 will exceed one million vehicles. The worry is that, in the case of BYD, due to insufficient forecasting of demand, the production capacity preparation is insufficient, and many orders cannot be delivered in time. Because the supply chain cannot keep up, the entire production of many OEMs has been greatly affected and cannot meet the market demand.

"In 2021, new energy vehicles show a strong growth trend and have a relatively good performance in various market segments." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, predicts that 2022 will continue to improve, and new energy vehicles are expected to become one of the good development opportunities for China to lead the world.

The pace of "going out" has accelerated

Since 2021, with the gradual recovery of overseas market demand, Chinese auto brands have continued to grow in exports in overseas markets with increasing quality, technology and services, and the pace of "going out" has accelerated significantly.

According to data released by the China Automobile Association, the cumulative export volume of Chinese automobiles in the first 11 months of 2021 reached 1.793 million units, an increase of 1.1 times year-on-year. Among them, the export volume in November reached 200,000 units, an increase of 59.1% year-on-year.

Exports of a number of Chinese auto brands have increased significantly, hitting new highs. From January to November 2021, SAIC Motor exported 245,000 passenger cars, exceeding the total export sales of last year; Jiangqi Group exported 68,000 units, an increase of 112.8% year-on-year; Chery Automobile exported 237901 units, an increase of 137.6% year-on-year.

"Exports are a big growth point in 2021." Chen Shihua analyzed that on the one hand, because of the epidemic, overseas local supply can not keep up; on the other hand, China's automobile cost performance is indeed very high, and the product grade has improved.

While exports are growing, Chinese auto brands have also achieved breakthroughs in more overseas markets, and their rankings in multiple markets have been rising. Taking Geely Automobile as an example, the first batch of geometric C models that went to sea reached 2486 cumulative orders in the month of listing in Israel; in the Philippines, Geely Automobile's monthly sales set a new record; in Qatar, Geely Automobile's market share ranked in the top ten.

Chen Shihua introduced that now China's new energy vehicles are exported to South America, Southeast Asia, West Asia, And Europe, and the number of new energy vehicles exported to Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany and other markets is still growing rapidly.

Marketing is grounded, accurately matches local road conditions and use needs, which has become a major feature of Chinese car companies going overseas. Li Bin, founder of NIO, said at the 2022 NIO Day that in 2022, NIO's products and system-wide services will be officially implemented in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. At the same time, NIO plans to provide services to users in more than 25 countries and regions by 2025.

Xia Heng, co-founder and president of Xiaopeng Automobile, also explained the internationalization strategy when releasing the new model Xiaopeng G9, "The G9 is our first model that fully considers globalization from the beginning of design, and the design of this model not only pays attention to the regulatory certification and environmental protection issues of various markets around the world, but also considers the needs of many overseas users in terms of function."

Fu Bingfeng said that thanks to the gradual recovery of the international market, the stability of domestic supply capacity, and the explosive growth of new energy vehicle exports, China's automobile exports have continued the growth trend since the fourth quarter of 2020, breaking the historical record for several consecutive months, and it is expected that exports in 2021 will exceed 2 million vehicles.

Independent brands are rising against the trend

The car market competes, and there is progress and retreat. Since 2021, the market share of Chinese brand automobiles has risen all the way, while the previous Chinese auto market double-male - German and Japanese brands have declined to varying degrees.

According to data released by the China Automobile Association, passenger car sales in November were 2.522 million vehicles, down 9.1% year-on-year. From January to November, 19.06 million passenger cars were sold, up 7.1% year-on-year. Among them, from January to November, the market share of independent brands reached 44.1%, an increase of 6.4 percentage points year-on-year, the highest market share in history.

"The share of Chinese brand passenger cars has maintained growth for eight consecutive months year-on-year." Fu Bingfeng said that driven by the "dual drive" of new energy and automobile exports, more than 8.4 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold in the first 11 months of 2021, accounting for more than 44% of total passenger car sales, returning to a historical high.

Macro data comes from the specific performance of each car company. Under multiple pressures, Chinese brand cars have collectively bucked the trend, with Geely, Great Wall, Changan, Chery, and BYD all performing well.

More noteworthy, unlike the previous route of relying on the low-end circle market, today's independent brands, especially new energy companies, seize the opportunity of China's consumption upgrading and accelerate their progress in the high-end field.

On November 15, Avita, a high-end intelligent electric vehicle jointly built by Changan Automobile, Huawei and NINGDE Times, was officially unveiled, positioning a medium-sized pure electric SUV; on November 17, Great Wall Motor's high-end electrification brand salon launched its first model, the Mech Dragon, priced at 488,000 yuan, 3.5 hours after the opening of the reservation, 101 limited editions were announced to be sold out; on November 19, baiqi Jihu Alpha S Huawei HI mass production version made its first public appearance...

Cui Dongshu believes that today's automobile consumer market is more diversified, and consumers prefer independent brand new energy vehicles. Young people account for a large part of the consumers of new energy vehicles, and they have more trust in their own brands. With the impact of the reshaping of the consumer population and the upgrading of consumption, independent brands are expected to take the opportunity to get rid of the low-end image of the past.

It is undeniable that with the first-mover advantage of new energy vehicles, China's auto industry is no longer a catch-up behind, and some companies have become one of the leaders in the global new energy vehicle field. The pattern of high-quality development of China's automobile industry is accelerating, and China's automobile industry is ushering in a new era of great development. (Economic Daily reporter Liu Jin)