Reshaping the global automotive market
Author | Zhen Yao
Edit | Jane
Produced by | Bangning Studio (gbngzs)
A wave of wind, a wave of brand upwards, has risen as a whole among China's local automobile companies.
This has made the global auto market refresh the cognition of Chinese brands, so that the joint venture brands that have dominated the Chinese market for many years have felt the chill of being broken.
Looking back at the Chinese auto market in 2021, in addition to keywords such as chip shortage, the rise of new energy, and rising car prices, Chinese brands are thriving and stand at the starting point of pattern reshaping.
The intuitive feeling is that whether it is in the dotted parking lots, or on the endless road, or in the crowded large shopping malls, in addition to the traditional "BBA", Hongqi, Weilai, Ideal, Gaohe, Weipai, BYD and other Chinese brands can always win the attention of everyone.
Once upon a time, when China did not have its own automobile industry, the United States on the other side of the ocean has worn the crown of "country on wheels". About 70 years later, especially in just a dozen years, the entire Chinese automobile industry has undergone tremendous changes.
Today, China's auto industry has not only surpassed the United States in terms of volume, but has also become the world's largest automobile producer and consumer for many years. Moreover, in 2021, Chinese brands have taken off the hats of "cheap" and "backward", and replaced them with new labels such as "scientific and technological intelligence", "high-end luxury" and "fashion avant-garde".
"Brand value improvement, brand high-end breakthrough, and market share improvement are three important aspects of China's brand upwards." Liu Yan, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, once said that from the level of national policies, industrial development, enterprise innovation and consumption trends, China's automobiles have achieved brand upwards, and the opportunities are greater than the challenges.
The automotive industry is experiencing major changes unprecedented in a century, which is concentrated in energy, power systems, software and hardware architecture, intelligence and intelligent distribution, application scenarios and user experience. 2021 is a key year of change, standing at this crossroads, Chinese auto brands use their own efforts and hard work, as well as the precise control of users in the new era, to open up the road of upward expansion and expand their territory in a new industry map.
Under the great waves of the times, there are many stories of Self-Improvement of Chinese brands.
01.
The first signs
One of the hallmarks of an automotive powerhouse is that local consumers have reached a high degree of purchase and use of local brand cars.
After nearly 70 years of development, Chinese auto brands have made great progress. In the last 10 years, Chinese brands have stabilized at an average of about 40% in the overall passenger car market share. In recent years, Chinese brands have encountered some bottlenecks in development, and their market share has fluctuated.
However, in 2021, the market share of Chinese brands will increase particularly significantly.
So far, the market share of Chinese brands in 2021 has not been disclosed, but the growth is a foregone conclusion. According to data from the China Automobile Association, from January to November, a total of 8.406 million Chinese brand passenger cars were sold, an increase of 25.1% year-on-year, accounting for 44.1% of the total passenger car sales, and the share increased by 6.4 percentage points over the same period last year. In contrast, the Ashkenazi, Japanese and Korean systems fell by 3.1, 2.2 and 1.1 percentage points respectively.
"The industrial chain of Chinese brand head enterprises is resilient, effectively resolving the pressure of chip shortage and turning disadvantage into advantage." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Joint Association, said that traditional car brands such as BYD and Chery Automobile have achieved significant increases in the new energy market, showing high growth year-on-year.
Orient Securities believes that in recent years, the rise of medium and high-end brands such as Weipai, Lynk & Co, Changan UNI, and Xingtu is one of the important factors to help Chinese brands accelerate their transformation and upward improvement.
This coincides with the annual performance of Chinese brands.
Recently, the "final report card" of major domestic automobile groups and car companies such as new car-making forces has been released. Judging from the data that has been released, Chinese brands have performed well, and the sales volume of most car companies is higher than that of the same period in 2020.
According to the incomplete statistics of Bangning Studio, there were 8 car companies with sales of more than one million last year, and 4 Chinese brands were on the list, accounting for half. Among them, Changan brand sales in China were 1.75 million units, Shanggong Wuling sold 1.6602 million units, Geely Automobile sold 1.328 million units, and Great Wall Motor sold 1.281 million units.
There are 7 car companies with sales of 500,000 to 1 million units, and 3 Chinese brands are on the list. Chery Automobile, SAIC Passenger Vehicle and BYD each sold more than 700,000 units, with sales of 961,900 units, 800,000 units and 730,000 units respectively. The annual sales of the five car companies of GAC Passenger Vehicle, FAW Hongqi, Dongfeng Fengxing, GAC Eian and Dongfeng Fengshen all exceeded 100,000 units, and the growth accelerated.
Moreover, on the new track of electric intelligence, independent brands have emerged, and new car-making forces continue to destroy the city.
In 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile achieved a total delivery of 98,000 units, 3.6 times that of 2020; Ideal Automobile delivered a total of 90,500 units, an increase of 177.4% year-on-year; ANDC delivered 91,400 new vehicles in the whole year, an increase of 109.1% year-on-year, doubling for two consecutive years.
The second echelon of Nezha, Weima and Zero Running Tie followed, with deliveries of 69,700, 44,100 and 43,100 vehicles respectively, with a rapid upward trend.
Defense breakers are not only at home. In 2021, with China accelerating the pace of high-level opening up, Chinese auto brands have handed over an excellent answer sheet for globalization.
At present, in Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other developed countries and regions, there are Chinese brand products and research and development bases. Relying on the global industrial layout, Chinese brands have entered more than 170 countries and regions around the world.
Overseas exporters, such as Chery Group, have exceeded the 20,000-unit mark eight times in 2021 in a single month, and their monthly exports in December have exceeded 30,000 units in a historic period, an increase of 126.7% year-on-year, promoting the new coordinates of the annual export volume of nearly 270,000 vehicles, ranking first in the export of Chinese brand passenger cars for 19 consecutive years.
There are also Great Wall Motors. In 2021, Great Wall Motor's overseas sales exceeded 140,000 units, an increase of 103.7% year-on-year, accounting for 11.1% of the annual sales, and the cumulative overseas sales exceeded 900,000 units, and the complete vehicles were exported to more than 170 countries.
There are also a number of overseas players - Changan Automobile exceeded 110,000 units, SAIC Motor exported 697,200 units, Jianghuai Automobile 73,500 vehicles...
As the production and sales records of Chinese brand cars continue to be refreshed, the pattern of the United States, Japan and Europe in the automobile market is being disintegrated. The former hegemons can no longer be proud of the world, and the huge international market heralds the broad prospects of Chinese brands.
02.
Jump in
2021 is a year of great strides for China's auto independent brands, in which the new brands constitute a dazzling scenery.
In addition to the new car-making forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Zero Run, Gaohe, Weima and Hechuang, a number of new intelligent electric brands that are incubated from local traditional car companies and rely on mature systems and resources have also begun to exert their strength and achieve rapid results.
SAIC's Feifan Automobile and Zhiji Automobile, Great Wall's two new brands of tanks and salons, Dongfeng's Lantu, Geely's Extreme Krypton, Xilis and Huawei's joint launch of The Boundary, Changan Automobile and Huawei, Ningde Times jointly built Avita... Almost all of these new brands are concentrated in the field of high-end new energy - collectively entering the high-end has become an important position for Chinese auto brands in 2021.
It was also this year that China's high-end new energy models, such as Car BYD Han, Hongqi H9, Extreme Kr 001, Ideal ONE, Gaohe HiPhi X, etc., penetrated into the sales list of 200,000 yuan +, 300,000 yuan + and even 500,000 yuan + with the trend of burning the plains.
In November last year, in the top 10 of the 200,000 yuan + new energy sales list, BYD Han surpassed Tesla Model 3, BMW 5 Series New Energy and Mercedes-Benz E-class new energy with 12,800 vehicles, ranking first, and other Chinese brand models such as Xiaopeng P7, JiKr 001, Hongqi E-QM5, AND BAIC Jihu Alpha S were on the list.
In the sales ranking of luxury brand electric vehicles of more than 500,000 yuan, the top three are Baoshi Taycan, Gaohe HiPhi X, and Hongqi EHS-9. "High-end luxury cars are the embodiment of national science and technology and creativity, AndiHi X and Hongqi EHS-9 can simultaneously pick up the monthly sales of this segment and the list, marking the rise of China's power in luxury pure electric models," some netizens said, "The future is no longer the only foreign power." ”
At last year's Guangzhou Auto Show, the Great Wall Mech Dragon with a pre-sale price of 488,000 yuan came, and the tank 500 with a pre-sale price of 335,000 yuan to 395,000 yuan came. Alpha S Huawei HI mass production version priced at 388,900 yuan, the new Hongqi E-HS9 priced at 589,800 yuan to 779,800 yuan, and the gaohe HiPhi Z price is expected to exceed one million yuan.
Obviously, whether from the perspective of price or actual sales, the upward pace of Chinese car brands has been truly on the road.
This is undoubtedly an important sign of the overall upward breakthrough of China's automobile industry.
Results don't happen overnight.
The "awakening era" of Chinese brands began around 2016. At that time, fuel vehicle brands such as Lynk & Co, Weipai, Jietu, and Changan UNI Series took the lead in tearing off low-end, cheap labels, launching an upward charge, and enhancing the brand's premium ability.
Today, the cumulative sales of the Lynk & Co brand have exceeded 600,000 vehicles, and the average price of products has reached 158,000 yuan, which is a veritable independent high-end brand. The sales volume of Jietu and Changan UNI series continues to be hot, constantly encroaching on the joint venture brand market of 100,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan.
Weipai has a total of 450,000 users, and its mocha, latte DHT, Macchiato DHT and Macchiato DHT-PHEV will all be listed in 2021, with an average price of more than 150,000 yuan. In 2022, Mocha DHT-PHEV and Dream Fulfillment will also join the battlefield, at which time, the Wei brand brand will rise to a higher level.
Hongqi's sales successfully exceeded 300,000 vehicles last year, pressing down on luxury foreign brands such as Infiniti and Cadillac, and firmly occupying the luxury array of the second-tier head.
After the development stage of imitators and followers, some head companies have begun a difficult high-end road. Although the process is bumpy, but forward and follow, there will be more Chinese brands in the future.
03.
Thick and thin
Is this accidental? Of course not.
Once upon a time, "big but not strong" and "all but not excellent" have always been the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Chinese brands. Now, the sword has landed.
The core technical strength of Chinese brands can already show muscle. On January 5, 2022, the special program of CCTV Financial Channel's "Consumer Proposition" - the secret of the counterattack of the old brand (3) was launched, and the development status of China's manufacturing was dynamically interpreted.
In the program, the strong off-road ability of the tank 500 is fully demonstrated - on a 60% ramp, the tank 500 can not only climb easily, but also achieve a static start after a deliberate stop.
In this regard, Chen Xiaofeng, vice president of R&D of Great Wall Motors' Honeycomb Transmission, said that (stationary start under a large slope) requires very large power and torque, and in the case of engine idle, it is a test of the ability of multi-speed transmissions. The larger the gear ratio of the transmission and the greater the energy capacity coefficient of the torque converter, the better the climbing ability with the 3.0T engine.
"The Tank 500 uses Great Wall Motor's newly developed 3.0T engine and 9AT longitudinal transmission, filling the gap in China's automotive-related technology field." Mu Feng, rotating president of Great Wall Motors, said in the program that today, Great Wall Motors continues to increase its independent research and development efforts to achieve hard-core catch-up of core technologies, so that good technologies and good products continue to emerge.
This is one of the hardcore technology demonstrations of Chinese brands.
In the field of new energy technology, Chinese brands have performed even better.
For example, motors, electronic controls, batteries, car-machine operating systems, cockpit intelligent systems, and the intelligent ecosystem of human-computer interaction are all the strengths of Chinese brands, and they have a very deep accumulation of technology. Like Huawei is hot, it has become a fragrant food in the automotive industry. The hottest brand at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show is Huawei. Looking back at the whole year, many auto companies held press conferences in an intense manner, deliberately showing their cooperation with Huawei.
At present, in terms of building a smart car ecosystem, Huawei has announced a series of new progress. For example, around the three major platforms of intelligent vehicle digital platform iDVP, intelligent driving computing platform MDC, and HarmonyOS intelligent cockpit, Huawei has developed more than 300 upstream and downstream partners in the industrial chain.
From January 1, 2022, the restriction that foreign capital cannot exceed 50% of the joint venture share ratio for 27 years will be abolished on schedule, which is a milestone in the history of China's automobile development.
For Chinese brands, this is a challenge and an opportunity. "China's new energy vehicles and passenger cars are developing rapidly, and the performance of independent brand new energy vehicles is super strong. In the long run, independent brands will gain a more advantageous market position with the help of the strong growth of new energy vehicles. Cui Dongshu thought.
For more than 20 years, the joint venture road has made China's auto industry once dependent on foreign brands. In the past, Chinese brands were supporting roles; in the future, Chinese brands will surely appear in the center of the world stage and become an important pole of the global automotive industry.
Nowadays, standing at the turning point of the transformation of the automobile industry, the development of electrification, intelligence and networking has provided a huge upward space for Chinese brands, and has added more possibilities for Chinese brands to break out of the circle and go to the world.
The times have given Chinese brands a new mission. The fiery year of 2021 is just the beginning of the upward movement of Chinese brands.