With the New Year's bells ringing in 2022, 2021 is a thing of the past. Although everyone's daily life is back on track in 2021, it is facing an unprecedented challenge for the automotive market. Problems such as lack of chips and local epidemic prevention and control have led to different degrees of increase in the price of cars of all joint venture brands, and sales have also declined significantly. The independent brands seized the opportunity to achieve a counter-trend, especially the performance of independent new energy brands is very eye-catching, and major brands have gradually entered the "monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles club".
The new energy vehicle market is the same as the traditional fuel vehicle market, and the industry and consumers divide the entire market into the first echelon represented by Ideal, Xiaopeng, GAC Aean and Weilai, and the second echelon represented by Nezha, Weima and Zero Run. From the data performance point of view, although each brand has a lot of sales increases, there is still a big gap between the two echelons.
Among them, GAC Aeon's sales performance was the most eye-catching, with annual sales reaching 123,660 units, up 119% year-on-year, and sales in December alone reached 16,675 units, ranking first in the sales list of autonomous new energy vehicles in the month. At present, Aion has a total of three models, AION Y, AION S PLUS, and AION V PLUS, and sales are good. At the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2021, Aion's new medium-sized SUV AION LX PLUS was also officially unveiled, with a 1008km endurance level and a 2.9s 0-100km/h acceleration time that many consumers are looking forward to, and it is expected that after the new car is listed, Aeon's sales will be raised to a higher level.
In addition, the annual sales of the three independent new energy brands that belong to the first echelon, Xiaopeng and the future, are also approaching the 100,000 mark, which has risen sharply compared with 2020. Among them, the annual sales volume of Xiaopeng Automobile is 98,155 units, an increase of 360% compared with 2020. Among them, the net red model Xiaopeng P7 is still the main force of sales, and the fashionable and dynamic shape and rich technology configuration have won the favor of many young consumers. WEILAI's annual sales reached 91,429 vehicles, an increase of 109.1% year-on-year, and has doubled its sales for two consecutive years, and WEILAI's breakthrough power exchange model has been well received by many consumers, and also provides a new solution mode for technical bottlenecks such as limited battery life and slow charging speed of new energy vehicles. With the policy's tendency to replace the power model in 2022 and the continuous enrichment of the product sequence, the sales volume of Nio Automobile will usher in further increases. As a "miracle" in the entire new energy market, ideal ONE model alone achieved annual sales of 90,491 units, an increase of 177.4% year-on-year.
Compared with Xiaopeng, Weilai and E-An, the ideal product series is too single, but the drive mode of the extended range and the comfortable driving experience and the endurance of more than 1000km are still sought after by many consumers, but in the next few years, if the ideal is still only this product, it is expected that its sales performance will decline. The products of Xiaopeng and Eian cover the three major markets of low, medium and high, which can provide choices for consumers with different economic strengths, and are more inclined to the product layout of traditional fuel vehicles, which also lays the foundation for their high sales.
In the second echelon, Nezha Automobile's annual sales reached 69,674 units, an increase of 362% year-on-year, and it was in an absolute leading position in the second echelon. There are three models on sale, Nezha U Pro, Nezha V and Nezha V Pro, of which Nezha V is still the mainstay of Nezha's sales, with annual sales reaching 49,640 units, accounting for 71% of total sales. The annual sales volume of zero-run cars was 43,121 units, and there were two models on sale, the Zero-Run T03 and the Zero-Run C11. The zero-run C11 has only been delivered since October 2021, and only 4,021 units have been delivered in three months, and the sales of zero-run are expected to increase significantly under the joint efforts of the next two models. WM's annual sales of 44157 units, has reached the sum of the past three years of sales, WM under the total number of WM EX5, WM EX6, WM W6 and WM E.5 four models on sale, the main focus on the low-end market, of which WM EX5 is the main sales force, its excellent cost performance attracted the attention of many young consumers. The main models of the three second echelon brands are aimed at the new energy market segment in 2021, so they have a good sales performance, with the upgrading of future products and the enrichment of models, sales are expected to catch up with the footsteps of the first echelon.
Judging from the sales performance of each independent new energy brand, there has been significant progress, and the development trend is also very clear. With the continuous improvement of new energy infrastructure and the continuous improvement of consumers' acceptance of new energy products, independent brands will have better sales results in the future by surpassing the product strength of joint venture brands.