New car-making forces have successively submitted 2021 annual sales answer sheets The market pattern of new energy vehicles has changed

At the beginning of 2022, the new car-making forces have successively announced the delivery results for the whole year of 2021.

In 2021, the new energy vehicle market will once again enter a stage of rapid growth. According to the China Automobile Association, China's new energy vehicle sales are expected to reach 3.4 million units in the past year, an increase of 160% year-on-year, exceeding expectations. In this favorable macro environment, the sales of major new car-making forces have also risen.

Among the new car-making forces, "Wei Xiaoli" still occupies the top three of the new car-making forces, and all of them have passed the annual delivery mark of 90,000 vehicles, but the seats of the three companies have changed. Among them, Xiaopeng Automobile achieved the first place with the delivery of 98,155 vehicles in the whole year, and has won the single-month delivery championship of the new car-making forces since October 2021. Weilai and Ideal ranked second and third respectively. The second echelon, led by Nezha, Weima and Zero Run, followed.

The new forces of intelligent electric vehicles incubated by traditional car companies have also started to be delivered: Geely Extreme Kr and Dongfeng Lantu have delivered 3,000 vehicles in a single month; BAIC Jihu's monthly sales have exceeded 1,000 units; a number of "second generation" such as SAIC Zhiji and Changan Avita are also stepping up the progress of mass production delivery and joining the race. Baidu, Xiaomi, Didi, etc., which have crossed borders from other industries, are also "eyeing the tiger" for the cake of the new energy vehicle market.

The ranking of the first echelon has changed dramatically

In 2021, "Wei Xiaoli" is still in the first echelon of the new car-making forces, but the market share of the three companies has changed, of which Xiaopeng Automobile, which faces the mainstream market of 150,000-300,000 yuan, has jumped to the first place.

A number of models continue to sell well, driving the total delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 to reach 98,155 units, 3.6 times that of 2020, becoming the delivery champion of new car-making forces. By model, the highest-priced Xiaopeng P7 delivered 60,569 units in the whole year, accounting for 62% of the total delivery volume of the whole year; the cumulative delivery of Xiaopeng G3 series products was 29,721 units, an increase of 148% year-on-year. The Xiaopeng P5 continued to climb after the start of large-scale delivery in October this year, delivering 5,030 units in December.

By the end of 2021, the cumulative delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile has exceeded 130,000 units in history. At the same time, as of the end of November 2021, Xiaopeng has rolled out 661 brand supercharging stations across the country, covering 228 cities, and operated 311 sales stores nationwide, covering 121 cities.

As the brand gradually stabilizes the mid-range new energy vehicle market, Xiaopeng Automobile will also release G9 models priced at more than 300,000 yuan in 2022, entering the large and medium-sized SUV market that Weilai and Ideal are currently focusing on, and transforming to high-end. CICC believes that in 2022, with the opening of the delivery of the new car Xiaopeng G9, the company will further improve the product matrix in the price band of 150,000-400,000. The G9 is not only expected to drive an increase in the average selling price of vehicles and an improvement in gross profit, but also to further accelerate the company's overseas expansion as the company's first flagship model developed for the global market.

Weilai Automobile, which ranked first in delivery last year, fell to second place in 2021 due to factors such as chip shortage and production line transformation. In 2021, the brand delivered a total of 91,429 new cars, an increase of 109.1% year-on-year, doubling for two consecutive years, but slightly inferior to Xiaopeng. However, THE CUMULATIVE DELIVERY OF WEILAI'S HISTORY REACHED 167,000 UNITS, WHICH IS STILL THE MOST POWERFUL CAR-MAKING FORCE.

However, the decline in delivery growth rate has also sounded a "wake-up call" for Weilai. In 2022, NIO will deliver the smart electric flagship sedan ET7 and the medium-sized intelligent electric coupe ET5 to reinforce the product matrix. Among them, ET7 expands WEILAI's product lineup to the car category, enhancing product intelligence advantages and luxury brand power; ET5 uses the battery rental scheme before the subsidy price drops to 258,000 yuan, aiming to reduce the car purchase threshold and cut into the volume market to drive sales.

In addition, in terms of manufacturing, the second production base located in Hefei Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park will be officially put into operation in the third quarter of this year, when THE MAXIMUM production capacity of WEILAI will reach 600,000 vehicles per year. In terms of overseas business, following the Norwegian strategy, NIO's products and system-wide services will be landed in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, opening up the European market.

The third-ranked ideal car still maintains the first echelon position with the single model ideal ONE. For the full year of 2021, ideal ONE delivered a total of 90,491 units, an increase of 177.4% year-on-year. Since its delivery, the ideal ONE has delivered more than 124,000 units. By the end of 2021, Ideal Auto has 206 retail centers across the country, covering 102 cities, and 278 after-sales maintenance centers and authorized sheet metal spray centers, covering 204 cities.

Entering 2022, Ideal no longer relies on "a single product to hit the world", its full-size SUV X01, which is equipped with Orin high-computing chip and lidar and built based on the new X platform, is scheduled to be mass-produced in the third quarter of this year, opening a new round of product cycle. It is worth mentioning that in 2021, Ideal Automobile acquired the Beijing Hyundai plant, which will form an annual production capacity of 100,000 units in the future, supporting its delivery volume to climb further.

He Xiaopeng, founder and chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, once said that selling 100,000 cars a year is the premise of all future possibilities. Today, with its high-speed delivery volume and compact new product launch plan, it will be a high probability event for "Wei Xiaoli" to exceed 100,000 or even 150,000 deliveries in 2022. This means that these three car companies have already gained an initial foothold in the market and are expected to win the final of the smart electric vehicle industry.

Ping An Securities pointed out that in the era of new energy vehicles, the core basis of automotive product differentiation has changed, Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, etc. have seized the opportunity period of industry change, the current delivery scale has completed a breakthrough from 0 to 1, and whether its follow-up products can be rapidly increased will become the key to whether the new forces can win in the next competition.

Second-tier brands are catching up

In addition to the top three of "Wei Xiaoli", Nezha Automobile has become the largest dark horse in the new car-making forces this year, achieving rapid growth, and Weima Automobile and Zero-run Cars have also caught up.

The cumulative delivery volume of Nezha Automobile in 2021 reached 69,674 units, a sharp increase of 362% year-on-year. In the second half of 2021, the monthly delivery volume of Nezha Automobile once rose to the top three, close to the first echelon. At present, Nezha Automobile has 331 offline channels, involving 193 cities. As of November 2021, Nezha Automobile has completed the layout of Nezha power-up in 150 cities across the country, with 1637 free charging stations and 19663 DC charging piles, covering more than 95% of the user use areas. In addition, it is worth mentioning that last year, 360, Ningde Times successively invested in Nezha Automobile, so that this "dark horse" has sufficient resources to sprint to the first echelon.

At the level of future strategy, Daniel Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Nezha Automobile, told the media that the company will first expand its product line and target different market segments of the mass consumer population. This was followed by channel expansion, from 170 cities this year to 250 cities next year. The third is internationalization, driving the sales of Nezha automobiles to reach 300,000 to 500,000 vehicles.

In terms of product line expansion, Nezha Automobile will list the electric car Nezha S next year and enter the 200,000 yuan market. This car is based on Nezha Automobile's full-stack self-developed Shanhai platform, with a pure electric version lasting more than 800km, and will be equipped with lidar and Huawei's MDC computing platform. In terms of globalization strategy, Nezha Automobile is already planning to enter the Southeast Asian market. In November 2021, Nezha Automobile signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with The State Petroleum Corporation of Thailand to jointly explore the new energy vehicle market in Thailand.

WM Automobile delivered 44,157 units in 2021, close to the sum of cumulative deliveries in the past three years. Since its delivery, WM Motors has delivered a total of 88,686 smart pure trams.

Although WM Motors' listing plan has been delayed, it has received a cumulative $457 million in financing for the D round last year, making it the largest amount of financing among new car companies.

In 2022, WM will mass-produce and deliver the smart pure electric sedan WM M7. The new car will be equipped with three lidars and a comprehensive range of more than 700km. With the release of the M7, WM Motor has built a "SUV + sedan" two-line product pattern and formed a new growth point. In this regard, Shen Hui, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, once said that with the current product matrix layout, the company is confident to return to the first camp in 2022, and then become "the Volkswagen of smart electric vehicles, Toyota, and millet in smart phones".

Zero-run cars delivered a total of 43,121 units in 2021, an increase of 278.55% year-on-year, of which the mini car Zero-Run T03 delivered 38,463 units in the whole year, and the Zero-Run C11 delivered 4,021 units since its delivery in October 2021. A few days ago, the 2022 zero-run T03 was listed, and the zero-run C01, which is positioned as a pure electric medium and large sedan, is expected to be launched in the first half of this year to further strengthen the product matrix.

According to the plan formulated last year, the zero-run car aims to become a leading brand in China from 2021 to 2024, of which sales will increase to 10% of domestic electric vehicles in 2024 and become the mainstream brand in the global new energy vehicle market by 2030. This goal is extremely challenging for zero-run, which currently relies mainly on the volume of mini-cars, and the key to its success or failure will depend on the future sales performance of the zero-run C11 and C01.

In addition to the continued increase in sales, Nezha, WM and Zero Run were rumored to be listed in Hong Kong last year. If the three car companies successfully IPO and obtain blood transfusions from the capital market, they are expected to enter the qualifiers and even elimination rounds of new energy vehicles.

The "second generation" collectively counterattacked

In the past year, a number of new smart electric brands that have been incubated from local traditional car companies and rely on mature systems and resources have also begun to exert efforts and achieve rapid results.

Geely's Extreme Kr Automobile delivered a total of 3,796 units in December 2021, an increase of 88.7% month-on-month, which is also its second full delivery month; as of the end of December 2021, its cumulative delivery volume was 6,007 units.

It took only 192 days from the opening of the pre-sale to the official delivery of the product. However, the shortage of raw materials and the epidemic have forced the delivery progress of Extreme Krypton to be delayed, and user complaints have been triggered due to order delays, "standard configuration changes" and other issues.

However, thanks to the support of Geely Holding Group's global system and the gradual return to normal supply of raw materials such as chips, the current slightly passive situation of Extreme Kr is expected to be reversed this year. According to the plan, the annual design capacity of the Extreme Kr Smart Factory has reached 300,000 vehicles, which is still in the stage of capacity climbing, and the delivery volume is expected to increase significantly after the continuous release of production capacity. Extreme Kr also proposed that it will launch 6 new models in the next three years; by 2025, the brand's annual sales will reach 650,000 vehicles, ranking among the top three in the world in the high-end electric vehicle market share.

Dongfeng's Lantu Automobile delivered 3,330 Lantu FREE vehicles in December, an increase of 192% month-on-month. Since the start of delivery in August 2021, Lando has delivered a total of 6791 Landu FREE. With the increase in production capacity in December, Landu Automobile will shorten the pick-up cycle to one month.

In November 2021, Lando also released its second model, the large luxury MPV "Dreamer", which is expected to be launched and delivered as soon as the middle of next year. This also makes Lantu the first brand among the new forces to break into the MPV market.

According to the plan, Lantu Automobile intends to form three category matrices across SUVs, MPVs and cars within three years, and release no less than one new model to the market every year to expand the lineup of high-end electric vehicles. At the same time, Lantu is accelerating the channel layout and service network expansion speed, it is expected that in 2022, Lantu space will increase to more than 100, covering 48 cities, delivery service centers to 40, covering 40 cities.

Although The high-end brand of BAIC BJEV, Jihu, started earlier than JiKr and Lantu, its monthly sales have only recently exceeded 1,000 units for the first time. According to the data, in December 2021, the sales volume of Jihu Automobile was 1186 units, an increase of 76% month-on-month and an increase of 696% year-on-year; the cumulative sales of the brand in 2021 were 4993 vehicles. Among them, the Polar Fox Alpha S Huawei HI Edition just opened a small internal delivery in the same month. The cooperation with Huawei has helped Jihu make up for its shortcomings in the field of intelligence, and will also provide sales channels and brand endorsements. If this model can officially enter the terminal delivery, the sales of the Polar Fox are expected to improve to a certain extent.

Previously, after beiqi Blue Valley released the "Global Partner Strategy of Jihu" at the Shanghai Auto Show, it launched the "Oasis Program Partners" to recruit European car dealers, but as of now, Jihu has not announced the specific progress of its globalization strategy. In this regard, Beiqi Blue Valley responded that the company will comprehensively consider the impact of the epidemic on the economy and export costs, and promote the Polar Fox Europe plan in a timely manner.

It is also worth mentioning that GAC Aeon was founded earlier. The brand sold 123,700 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 119% year-on-year, exceeding the annual sales target. In August last year, GAC Group announced the Aeon Mixed Reform Plan, restructuring its internal assets, so that it can realize the integration of "research, production and marketing" and form an independent operation capability for the market. At that time, the capital structure and business model of GAC Aean will be closer to other newly established "second-generation" brands.

In addition, the first model of SAIC's high-end brand Zhiji Automobile will start large-scale delivery in the first half of this year; Avita Technology, which is backed by Changan Automobile, Huawei and Ningde Era, will be mass-produced and delivered in the third quarter of this year; and the first model of the Great Wall's Sharon brand, The Mech dragon, will also be listed and delivered in this year. The "second generation" of incubation from traditional car companies has accelerated its expansion and launched a counterattack against the new forces of car manufacturing, and it is foreseeable that the competition in the smart electric vehicle arena will be more intense in 2022.

Cross-border forces poured into the arena

In addition to the new forces of car manufacturing and traditional car companies, the intelligent electric vehicle track has also poured into a number of "new faces" of cross-border car manufacturing.

The most eye-catching is the Xiaomi car. In March 2021, Xiaomi officially announced the construction of the car. Lei Jun, the helmsman, said that car building is the last major entrepreneurial project in his life, and he is willing to bet on all the achievements and reputations of his life to fight for Xiaomi Automobile. Not only that, Xiaomi Auto does not seek external financing, but is fully funded by Xiaomi Group to support its development. Lei Jun also said that by the end of 2020, Xiaomi has 108 billion yuan in cash reserves, has a research and development team of more than 10,000 people, has a perfect intelligent ecology, and has enough confidence to build cars.

Subsequently, Xiaomi Automobile entered the intensive preparatory stage, including investment in a number of suppliers such as Hesai Technology, Zhongmu Technology, Ganfeng Lithium, Black Sesame Intelligence, etc.; large-scale recruitment work was launched to expand the team to more than 500 people; the company's headquarters settled in Beijing Yizhuang, which will build Xiaomi Automobile Headquarters Base, Sales Headquarters and R&D Headquarters in Beijing Economic Development Zone, and build a vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases, of which the first and second phases of production capacity are 150,000 units, and it is expected that the first car will be rolled off the production line and achieve mass production in 2024.

An automotive industry analyst told Caijing Auto that the motivation for Xiaomi to build cars is, on the one hand, the growth rate of its main business is gradually slowing down, and the growth potential of smart cars is huge, and the communication points between smart cars and smart phones are increasing, so Xiaomi has a certain technical accumulation; at the same time, the car, as the main scene of mobile intelligent terminals and smart life, is an important piece of the puzzle for Xiaomi to build a 5G +AIoT super Internet vision and practice the AIoT strategy. In addition, the supply chain and consumer market of smart electric vehicles have gradually matured, the risk is reduced, and Xiaomi is now starting to build cars. However, Xiaomi lacks the design and manufacturing capabilities of the vehicle platform, and there is still uncertainty about whether it can create a smart electric vehicle that meets the high expectations of the market.

The Internet manufacturer that made cars in the next game is Also Baidu. In March 2021, Baidu entered the automotive industry as a vehicle manufacturer and joined forces with Geely Group to establish Jidu Automobile. Among them, Baidu holds 55% of the equity and is in a controlling position. In the new company, Baidu will focus on the whole industry chain of design, development, manufacturing, sales and service of intelligent vehicles, and support the development of Jidu.

As the earliest technology company in China to cross-border into the intelligent automotive industry, Baidu ranks at the forefront of domestic autopilot technology research and development and landing process, but the Apollo intelligent car ecology it has built is difficult to get a real response from car companies. Industry insiders told Caijing Auto that car companies are very sensitive to the initiative of smart car core technology and data, so they are vigilant about technology companies like Baidu that seek to build a big ecosystem, which makes Baidu's smart car commercialization progress slowly, which is the main reason why Baidu personally went down to build a car.

The jigzag model, which is expected to be launched in 2023, will become a car capable of L4 level autonomous driving, equipped with Baidu Apollo autonomous driving technology and Geely SEA Haohan intelligent architecture. At the same time, the concept car of the product is expected to be unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April this year. In terms of funds, Jidu Automobile will invest 50 billion yuan in the next five years for overall research and development and the continuous construction of a series of models of Jidu Automobile. With Baidu and technology accumulation and Geely's vehicle manufacturing capabilities, Jidu is expected to become a strong competitor in the intelligent automotive industry in the future.

Ride-hailing company Didi has also joined the ranks of car manufacturers. In the first half of 2021, there is news that Didi has started the car-making project, the internal code name is "Da Vinci", and Yang Jun, vice president of Didi and former deputy general manager of Xiao orange car service, will serve as the project leader. It is reported that Didi Car will adopt independent research and development and find a model of foundry production. In terms of product design, the cars created by Didi may be more inclined to the travel needs of online ride-hailing.

Huawei, which has repeatedly stressed that "do not build cars, help car companies build good cars", is still speculated by the industry that there will be a possibility of personally building cars in the future. Since last year, Huawei has successively reached cooperation with BAIC Jihu, Jinkang Cyrics and Changan Automobile, starting from technical parts, in-vehicle software, sales channels, etc., becoming a pivotal force on the track of intelligent electric vehicles.

However, the Xilis SF5, which has huawei blessings, lost the initial battle. At the end of 2021, Huawei cooperated with Xilix to release the mid-to-high-end brand AITO and the first model, the Q&A M5, at its winter flagship new product launch. This time, Huawei personally went down, from the early product development and design, to the later marketing and sales will be handled single-handedly. Although Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's intelligent vehicle solution BU, reiterated the statement of "no car" at the meeting, in addition to the product does not directly use the "Huawei" car logo and does not participate in the production of the whole vehicle, Huawei has fully played the role of the dominant player, and is infinitely close to personally building cars, vowing to lead the new brand into the "first echelon" of the industry.

Compared with the collective influx of technology Internet companies, the real estate developers who build cross-border cars are in a struggle, among which Evergrande Automobile's parent company is in deep debt danger, and Baoneng Automobile has reported layoffs and shutdown crises. Despite this, the huge growth opportunities of smart cars still attract real estate companies such as Wanda and Agile to enter. In addition, Skyworth, Foxconn, and Midea also joined the "burning money" battle. Obviously, the pattern of new energy vehicles is undecided, and the undercurrent of multi-party forces is surging.

epilogue

The China Automobile Association predicts that in 2022, China's new energy vehicle sales will reach 5 million, accounting for about 20% of total automobile sales, and the penetration rate will continue to increase. At the same time, the subsidy for new energy vehicles has declined, and new energy vehicles have passed the initial stage of relying on policy-driven and turned to a period of high-speed growth driven by the market.

The market cake continues to grow, and the new and old forces of car manufacturing are competing to expand the army. With the announcement of electrification strategies and rapid transformation by local traditional car companies and joint venture car companies, the competitive pressure faced by new car-making forces will further intensify, and the differentiation of enterprises that have fallen behind or even been eliminated may increase. It is foreseeable that the new energy automobile industry is about to enter the Warring States era of "integration and merger" from the Spring and Autumn Era of "Division of the Masses".

Around 2025, it is considered by the industry to be the key node to determine whether the new car-making forces can win from it.

Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of WEILAI, believes that from 2019 to 2024 is the qualifying stage of new energy vehicles, and 2024 and 2025 are the real final stages. He Xiaopeng believes that 2023-2025 may be the key node of the entire intelligent automotive industry, on the one hand, the technology companies that announced the entry into the car have the first generation of products, and the new car-making forces like Xiaopeng have launched their own third-generation or even fourth-generation products, on the other hand, the entire process of automobile intelligence has entered the intermediate stage, and products with a more human intelligent experience will be favored by the market. Ideal Auto expects China to sell more than 8 million smart electric vehicles in 2025, and gaining more than 20% of the market share is a necessary condition for becoming a leading enterprise in China.

In 2022, which leads to the final circle, for new forces such as Wei Xiaoli who have initially passed the scale of production capacity climbing, high walls, extensive grain accumulation and rapid expansion will still be the main theme.