At the end of each year, for the car market, it means "time to hand over the papers". Looking back at the auto market in 2021, the automotive industry should be said to be surging and mixed, the so-called "hi", hi in the new round of scientific and technological revolution to accelerate the evolution and transformation of the auto industry, the current auto industry is being reshaped. The "worry" lies in the current repeated epidemic situation, shortage of chip supply, and many factors are invisibly affecting the development of the automotive industry. But no matter what, after all, another year has passed, whether it is a lot of money or a grain of grain, it must be put on the table for review by everyone.
And this kind of unexpected rise and fall is actually the most obvious in the new energy vehicle market. Back three years ago, when everyone was still questioning whether pure electric vehicles could survive. Nowadays, pure electric vehicles are getting better and better, and there is a great potential to replace fuel vehicles. However, after various changes, today's new energy vehicle market has long become a "new world". So, in 2021, what is the point of view of the new energy vehicle market?
Xiaopeng: Winning the crown, the future can be expected
Just after the end of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile announced its own sales data. According to the data, the delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile in December 2021 reached 16,000 units, while the cumulative delivery volume of the whole year reached 98,155 units. This data, although it does not look like much at first glance, has successfully won the top spot for the new car-making forces.
Perhaps some friends will wonder, compared with the louder Weilai and ideal, why can Xiaopeng Automobile leap to become the pin crown with the trend of a dark horse? In fact, Xiaopeng has been silently laying out the market according to his own ideas. Counting the products of Xiaopeng Automobile, it is not much. However, on the whole, the characteristics are obvious, that is, the price is not high and the quality is not low.
Take the Xiaopeng P7, for example, a good example. At the beginning of its birth, Xiaopeng set the benchmark product of P7 as Tesla's Model 3, compared to Tesla, Xiaopeng has better interior workmanship, larger size, more local intelligent functions and lower prices, which is a good share of the Model 3 customer base.
Secondly, it is the so-called "human design". It is often described that The side business of Xiaopeng Automobile is selling cars, and the main business is selling software. On the other hand, this can also reflect the level of Xiaopeng Automobile in terms of technology. In addition to the better use of the intelligent driving system, Xiaopeng Automobile is also very aware of the positioning of its own brand, and has also deliberately set up a brand's science and technology day to refresh people's cognition of Xiaopeng in the field of science and technology over and over again. In fact, on the whole, it is also very simple, no one is casually successful. The seemingly inconspicuous person may always come up with amazing results in the end, just like Xiaopeng Motors.
WEILAI: Production capacity is limited, and the next year is expected
Before the release of the year-end sales ranking, many people, including me, thought that the year-end sales crown would belong to Weilai, but they did not expect that Weilai would eventually come second. According to the data, the delivery volume of Weilai Automobile in the last month of 2021 barely exceeded 10,000, only 10,489 units, which is still a lot of gap compared with the 16,000 units of Xiaopeng Motors. The cumulative delivery volume of NIO for the whole year was 91,429 units. Unfortunately, WEILAI Automobile failed to complete the original small target of 100,000 vehicles.
What restricts the breakthrough of NIO's sales? First, it comes from the issue of capacity. Affected by the epidemic, the shortage of chips has led to a serious limitation of WEILAI's production capacity, coupled with the transformation of production lines, which has caused a considerable impact on the delivery volume. According to industry insiders, Weilai Automobile's cumulative orders in 2021 have actually exceeded 100,000 vehicles, but the delivery speed cannot keep up, and finally failed to achieve a breakthrough.
Of course, in the author's opinion, the key factor affecting Weilai's automobile sales is by no means just the shortage of chips, after all, everyone is in the same environment, this statement is obviously untenable. If you really want to pick out the problem, Weilai's product structure also needs to be optimized. Counting the products currently on sale in Weilai Automobile, ES8, ES6, EC6, the practical use of these three models has a high degree of overlap, coupled with a slightly longer time, weak sales are inevitable. However, Weilai's good days are just around the corner, and when ET5 and ET7 enter the battlefield, perhaps next year's Weilai sales will be on a higher level.
Ideal: Bicycle explosion, it is not easy
Compared with pure electric products such as Weilai and Xiaopeng, the ideal car that ranks third in the list is slightly different from them. The first difference is that the ideal product is currently a range extended electric vehicle, which is technically fundamentally different from pure electric models, but belongs to the same new energy model category. The second difference is that the sales volume of Weilai and Ideal is composed of a variety of models under various brands, while The Ideal Car has entered the top three sales, completely alone, relying on only the Ideal ONE model.
How good is the ideal ONE? According to the data, in December 2021, the delivery volume of the ideal ONE reached 14,087 units, which means that this model is comparable to the delivery volume of the entire Weilai Automobile series in December. The annual result, the ideal ONE also reached 90491 vehicles, which is undoubtedly a huge success for the ideal car with only a single model.
The ideal ONE's way to success is actually very simple, summed up in two words: Almighty. Where is the Almighty? Consumers like the big space, there is; everyone hates the endurance anxiety, solved; consumers want the high configuration, give; want low prices, but also satisfied. Although the ideal ONE is not the strongest in its class, its all-round comprehensive product strength is beyond doubt, which is also the reason why it is hot.
However, for the ideal car, the popularity of the single model of the ideal ONE is bound to bring more pressure. The next road, how to go? Where to go? This question is worth Thinking About.
The second echelon: another way, there are still opportunities
If you've ever seen the sales charts of the new car-making forces in 2021, you'll find out. In fact, today's new energy vehicle market has already shown a clear watershed. The "Wei Xiaoli" of the first echelon has a cumulative delivery volume of more than 90,000 vehicles throughout the year. The second echelon, even if it reaches the fourth place in the list, has already been divided.
In fourth place is Nezha Automobile, which is also fourth, but the annual delivery volume is only 69674 vehicles. But if you look at the situation of Nezha Automobile itself, it can keep this fourth place, which is already a good result. Compared with the "Wei Xiaoli" that continues to move towards the high end, the second echelon seems to have its own gameplay and observations.
Take Nezha Automobile, its main product Nezha V PRO is aimed at the customer group is the low-cost electric vehicle market. At present, the effect is not bad, Nezha V PRO can basically break through 5,000 vehicles in a single month. In this way, this is also a different direction of the wind outlet. And the same to eat this outlet dividend is the sixth place zero-running car, with a T03, so that the zero-running car completely in the new energy market to gain a foothold.
According to the data, the delivery of zero-run cars in December was 7807 units, reaching 43121 units in the whole year. However, unlike Nezha Automobile, zero-running cars have launched an impact on the mid-to-high-end market, and the order of zero-running C11 has exploded, which may be a new beginning for zero-running cars.
The reason why WM Motors, which ranked fifth, is at the end is because it is really not the same as the above two. As the head car company of the first batch of "new forces", WM Automobile is slightly lonely in the short term. But fortunately, after the launch of W6, the brand began to regain market attention, and finally saved WM and water and fire. As for whether it can completely turn back to the head with the W6, I think there is still a chance.
Conclusion: Polarization is the most appropriate to describe today's new energy vehicle market. Wei Xiaoli, who ranks at the head, is full of hope. Most of the car companies in the second echelon, represented by Weima, Zero Run, and Nezha, are still looking for opportunities. As for the new forces like Extreme Kr, Skyworth, and Lantu, it can only be said that the road ahead is long. But no matter what, the new year is still on time, and we will wait and see the performance of each car company in 2022.