In 2021, China's auto market finally stepped on the "brakes" of three consecutive years of decline and returned to the upward channel.
On January 12, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced at the press conference on the development of the automobile industry in 2021 that in 2021, China's automobile production and sales reached 26.082 million units and 26.275 million vehicles, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% respectively year-on-year.
Looking back at the 2021 car market, it can be described as a "surprise". Among them, there are panics that spread throughout the industry from large to missing cores and difficult to produce, and there are also false alarms brought about by individual car companies endorsing stars "rolling over". Of course, there are also exciting events that we are taking the lead in the new energy "track" and accelerating the upward movement of domestic automobile brands.
To this end, we have combed through 15 keywords to get a glimpse of the changes in the car market in 2021.
【Carbon Peak】
In 2021, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality have become hot words. The 2021 government work report mentioned that it is necessary to do a solid job in carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and formulate an action plan for carbon emission peaking before 2030.
Under the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, China's new energy vehicles have ushered in development opportunities. On the afternoon of January 12, 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released data showing that in 2021, China's new energy vehicle sales reached 3.521 million units, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.
On the policy side, the central and local governments continue to introduce policies to support the supporting infrastructure of new energy vehicles such as charging piles to enhance the convenience of new energy vehicles. According to the data, as of November 2021, the member units of the China Charging Alliance reported a total of 1.092 million public charging piles, an increase of 30,000 units from the previous month, an increase of 57.1% year-on-year. From December 2020 to November 2021, about 33,000 new public charging piles will be added every month.
【Missing core】
Chip shortages have been running through the auto industry in 2021 and have led to a series of chain reactions. Car companies around the world have stopped production due to chip shortages, and even Tesla, which uses a large number of self-developed chips, has not been spared. First-tier manufacturers such as GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota, and Great Wall have also been affected by the lack of cores, and production has been reduced to varying degrees. In addition, the lack of core has also led to a crazy price increase in the second-hand car market.
【Hydrogen Energy】
In 2021, in the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the Outline of Long-term Goals for 2035, it is stated that the hydrogen energy industry has become one of the six future industries. In August 2021, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Demonstration City Cluster, which was led by Beijing Municipality, was jointly approved by the five ministries and commissions of the state as the first batch of demonstration city clusters.
In the field of transportation, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, as an important carrier for the landing of the hydrogen energy industry, have ushered in an unprecedented new opportunity for development. In particular, due to the high energy efficiency of hydrogen energy, commercial vehicles represented by heavy trucks and buses will take the lead in realizing hydrogen power transformation.
【User Co-creation】
The concept of user co-creation, which originally originated from Internet companies, has rapidly penetrated into the automotive industry and has become one of the core initiatives of car companies' user operations.
Niolai's car owner welfare partner project, Geely's user co-creation brand "we", Great Wall's "Thousand People Co-creation Conference", Chang'an's "UNI Planet"... Under the concept of brand marketing, users began to gradually participate in the design of peripheral products and even new models of major automobile brands, and also more actively participated in the production, distribution and interaction of brand-related content, making a new interaction mode between automobile brands and users.
【Subsidy decline】
On December 31, 2021, the four ministries and commissions issued the Notice on Improving the Financial Subsidy Policy for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles, according to which the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles will be reduced by 30% on the basis of 2021 in 2022. For vehicles that meet the requirements in the field of urban buses, road passenger transport, taxis (including online car-hailing), sanitation, urban logistics and distribution, postal express delivery, civil aviation airports, and party and government organs, the subsidy standard will be reduced by 20% on the basis of 2021. At the same time, the notice also shows that the subsidy policy for the purchase of new energy vehicles in 2022 will be terminated on December 31, 2022, and vehicles licensed after December 31, 2022 will no longer be subsidized.
【New Energy Vehicle Exclusive Car Insurance】
On December 27, 2021, the "Exclusive Clauses for Commercial Insurance for New Energy Vehicles (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Exclusive Clauses") issued by the China Insurance Industry Association was officially implemented, which means that new energy vehicles will officially enter the era of exclusive auto insurance. Since then, whether it is a new insurance or a renewed new energy vehicle, it can only be insured with the content of the "Exclusive Terms". It is reported that compared with the traditional commercial insurance of fuel vehicles, the exclusive insurance of new energy vehicles increases the coverage of batteries and energy storage systems, motors and drive systems, other control systems, and all other equipment leaving the factory, and the coverage includes natural disasters and accidents.
【National Tide】
In 2021, under the influence of the epidemic and the lack of core, the Chinese auto market has once again encountered challenges, but the performance of Chinese brands representing the "national tide" is extremely prominent, and the data shows that the sales of four car companies including Wuling, Great Wall, Changan and Geely have exceeded one million, while Chery, BYD, SAIC passenger cars and other brands have ushered in substantial growth in sales. In terms of models, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV has become the crown of pure electricity market sales, while Haval H6 and Wuling Hongguang continue to firmly occupy the first position in the SUV and MPV market segments.
【L3】
In December 2021, Mercedes-Benz passed the approval of the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), becoming the world's first automobile enterprise to obtain the UN-R157 certification, and the L3 automatic driving system was approved for the first time to be legally on the road, and it is believed that more car companies will join the ranks of L3 autonomous driving applications in 2022.
【TAKE】
With the diversification of consumer demand, starting in 2021, driven by Tesla, Xiaopeng, Weilai and other new forces car companies, FOTA began to popularize, FOTA remote upgrade can achieve the vehicle's power, braking and other all-round function upgrade, was ridiculed by many netizens as "buying a car is the beginning", in 2022, I believe FOTA will be more popular.
【Hegemony】
The new cars released in 2021, without exception, use super large screens, such as the Mercedes-EQS series, which use triple screens plus integrated glass covers to bring cars into the full-screen era with 1.41 meters of through-line curved screens, and I believe that cars will be the next large-screen smart terminals after mobile phones.
【Car name chaos】
Speaking of the chaos of car naming, we have to start from The Great Wall Motors, which took the lead in launching a series of dogs, cats, rabbits, tanks, coffee, cannons, etc., and then began to follow suit like Dongfeng Citroen Versailles, BYD Dolphin, Jietu Three Kingdoms, Chery Ice Cream and so on. In general, the naming of this category not only impresses consumers at the same time, but also greatly improves the communication effect.
【1000 km】
When consumers choose to buy new energy models, the most concerned is still the mileage, of which pure electric endurance is considered to be the threshold for electric vehicles to enter the monthly charging era. Since the beginning of 2021, some car companies have announced that they will launch heavy models with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, but unfortunately, until the end of 2021, there will be no mass production models. It was not until January 2022 that GAC AION LX Plus, the first mass-produced model with a range of 1,000 kilometers, was officially launched.
【Internet Car】
With the rise of new energy vehicles, rich tycoons and startups from all walks of life have flocked to embrace this emerging market.
In this vigorous Internet car-making movement, there are not only well-known Internet giants, such as Apple, Google, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, etc., but also spawned a number of newly joined technology upstarts, such as Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, etc.
【Celebrity Endorsement Public Opinion】
In recent years, celebrity endorsements have repeatedly overturned, there is a growing trend, problems emerge in an endless stream, often apologize and terminate the contract afterwards, and consumers and fans are difficult to recover the losses caused by believing in celebrities to buy products, bringing extremely bad influences and negative comments in the field of public opinion. On July 19, 2021, Porsche China decided to terminate its partnership with Mr. Wu Yifan, "Porsche China Motorsport Spokesperson", and on December 18, 2021, Infiniti and Wang Lihong terminated their partnership, which caused great controversy.
【City Exhibition Hall】
When Tesla abandoned the traditional 4S distribution and opened a risky automobile direct operation model and was recognized by the market, more and more new car-making brands and new energy products of traditional car companies have also focused on the bustling business circles with more concentrated traffic and stronger consumption power. Taking Chengdu as an example, in Chunxi Road, Jinhua Wanda, Yintai IN99 and other places, the number of major automobile brand experience stores is not uncommon.
Cover news reporters Liu Nian, Li Jilong, Li Sijing, Zhang Haijun, Zhang Fuchao