Looking back on the past year, the domestic new energy vehicle market has far exceeded expectations and has become a "star" in the development of the overall automobile market.
According to data from the China Automobile Association, china's new energy vehicles have begun to grow rapidly in a stepwise manner since the monthly sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 300,000 units in August 2021, and sales reached 450,000 units in November 2021. From January to November 2021, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China have exceeded the annual expectations, approaching 3 million units, and the market penetration rate has increased to 12.7%. It is worth mentioning that in November 2021, the retail penetration rate of domestic new energy passenger cars exceeded 20%, reaching 20.8%.
In the view of Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the sales volume and penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China will increase rapidly month by month in 2021, and the marketization of new energy vehicles in China has entered a new stage of explosive growth.
According to industry forecasts, in the whole year of 2021, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China will exceed 3.4 million. That is to say, in December 2021, the monthly sales of new energy vehicles in China may exceed 410,000.
The transformation of independent brands to speed up and eat away at the market share of fuel vehicles
Looking back on the past year, while lamenting the rapid development of new energy vehicles in China, the biggest surprise is the rapid development of new car-making forces.
Statistics from the China Automobile Association show that in the first 11 months of 2021, the sales volume of major new forces has reached 81.1%, an increase of 226.3% year-on-year; the concentration has reached 3.5%, an increase of 2.3% year-on-year. The new car-making forces represented by Weilai and others are using rapidly increasing sales to play the "catfish effect" in the car market and accelerate the pace of replacing fuel vehicles.
At the beginning of 2022, the new car-making forces represented by Weilai and others have posted eye-catching report cards. Official data shows that in 2021, the annual delivery of new cars under the three car companies of Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile will exceed 90,000 units.
As a representative enterprise of high-end new energy vehicles in China, Weiyuan made it clear from the beginning of its establishment that it wanted to seize the market share of luxury fuel vehicles with higher prices. Official data shows that in December 2021, NIO's new car deliveries reached 10,489 units, an increase of 49.7% year-on-year. In 2021, NIO delivered 91,429 new vehicles, an increase of 109.1% year-on-year, doubling for two consecutive years. As of December 31, 2021, NIO has delivered a total of 167,100 smart electric vehicles.
In the sales ranking of high-end brands in China, WEILAI has always ranked in the top ten. Among the latest models with an average transaction price of more than 440,000 yuan in November 2021, WEILAI is only lower than Mercedes-Benz in the "BBA", and there are Porsche, Land Rover and so on in front. According to the statistics of the global authoritative data agency, in the global high-end electric vehicle (more than 50,000 US dollars) sales ranking, Weilai ranks in the top two.
In the eyes of the outside world, with weilai entering the high-end market, it has formed an alternative to high-end mainstream luxury fuel vehicles. In the past two years, the domestic new energy vehicle market has shown a rapid growth trend of "high and low" models at both ends. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles "Dongfeng", the pace of Transformation of Chinese car companies to high-end is also accelerating. For example, Geely's Extreme Kr and BAIC's Extreme Fox have excellent market records, while Changan Automobile's Avita and Great Wall Motors' salons have also appeared.
The upward exploration of Chinese auto brands has never stopped, from joint venture brands to market for technology, to independent brands out of the cost-effective route, in the past 30 years of rapid development, independent brands have repeatedly launched an impact on high-end.
Low cost of use, high degree of intelligence, good user service experience, etc., so that electric vehicles are recognized by more and more consumers. In the industry's view, Chinese auto brands are using the unique advantages of electric vehicles to achieve intelligence, technology, and evolution, and use high-tech ideas to complete the counterattack on traditional luxury cars and accelerate the erosion of fuel vehicle market share.
The virtuous new energy automobile industry cycle is gradually taking shape to accelerate the replacement of fuel vehicles on a global scale
After years of development, The situation of strong and weak technology in China's new energy vehicle market has been greatly changed, and a complete industrial system of upstream and downstream has been established, breaking through the key technologies in the core "three electricity" (that is, batteries, motors, and electronic controls).
Ouyang Minggao also said that the main reason for the outbreak of China's new energy vehicle market is technological progress, product abundance, and policy strength. In terms of technology, the battery technology of electric vehicles continues to improve, the cost continues to decline, and the structural design of the battery system continues to innovate.
Taking power batteries as an example, domestic power battery companies represented by Ningde Times and BYD have occupied a dominant position in the global power battery industry. South Korean market research agency SNE Research released the latest global power battery installed capacity from January to November 2021, showing that CATL ranked first in the world with a market share of 31.8%, once again consolidating its dominant position in the electric vehicle market. It was followed by LG New Energy, with a market share of 20.5%, a gap of 11.3% compared to the former. Panasonic, BYD and SKI ranked third, fourth and fifth with market share rates of 12.5%, 9% and 5.8% respectively.
In terms of products, as of now, the market has thousands of new energy products to choose from, covering all passenger car levels.
Not only that, while some high-end new energy brands enrich their products, the market price ladder also gives consumers more choice. Taking the two high-end electric vehicle brands of Weilai and Tesla as an example, their models are increasing, and the consumer groups they face are becoming more and more extensive.
Thanks to this, tesla launched the Model 3 and Model Y, which cost less than 300,000 yuan, and its new car sales in China continued to rise. As of November 2021, Tesla's monthly deliveries in the Chinese market have exceeded 50,000 units for three consecutive months. Weilai also launched a new model with a minimum price of 258,000 yuan before subsidies - the medium-sized intelligent electric coupe ET5.
Et5 is the sixth mass production model launched by NIO, and its market positioning is different from other models on sale - ES8, ES6, EC6 and upcoming ET7, and the target consumer group is also different.
According to the plan, starting from 2022, the pace of WEILAI's entry into the world began to accelerate. According to Li Bin, chairman of NIO, in 2022, NIO's products and system-wide services will be officially landed in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. By 2025, NIO will provide services to users in more than 25 countries and regions around the world.
Continuous innovation of products and technologies; user satisfaction remains stable; all-weather marketing advantages appear; and the whole system enters the global market, which is where Weilai quickly seizes the market. With the acceleration of NIO's globalization, CAR manufacturers such as NIO are expected to form an alternative trend to traditional fuel vehicles in the global market.
From the perspective of the development trend of the global automobile market, electrification has also become the consensus of countries and enterprises around the world, and the United Kingdom, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, etc. have successively issued prohibited fuel vehicle watches. As the world's largest producer and sales country of new energy vehicles, China has also clearly put forward the goal of "double carbon" to guide domestic and foreign car companies to accelerate the planning and layout of new energy vehicle products.
With continuous policy support, gradual market recognition, continuous improvement of technology, and increasingly perfect system, a virtuous development of the new energy automobile industry cycle has gradually taken shape. It is believed that as China's new energy vehicle market enters a new stage of rapid development, the development of domestic new energy vehicle companies represented by Weilai and so on may be on a higher level and accelerate the replacement of fuel vehicles.