Nowadays, when it comes to American cars, it is certainly not only the three traditional giants of GM, Ford and Chrysler in the traditional impression, Tesla, Lucid Air and Rivian, three new forces in the United States, which are becoming the new representative enterprises of American cars. Looking back at 2021, it seems that except for Chrysler, which is classified as Stellantis, there is not much action, and other car companies are speeding up and hoping to get a piece of the electric vehicle market.
Tesla leads the way
In 2021, Tesla's development can be described as smooth sailing. Although it also suffered from a chip shortage crisis and international logistics were greatly affected by the epidemic, Tesla terminals delivered more than 930,000 electric vehicles. The scale of the upcoming million vehicles also gives Tesla a greater confidence to pursue the completion of the new corporate strategy.
At present, Tesla has built two main models, The Model Y and the Model 3, and is far ahead in the global electric vehicle sales rankings. However, the sales of model S and Model X models have declined a lot, on the one hand, Tesla's lack of production capacity, on the other hand, Porsche Taycan and other models have diverted many customers.
In 2022, with the commissioning of factories in Berlin and Texas, Tesla's production capacity problem will be well solved. In addition, the listing of Tesla Cyberruck and Roadster models will further improve Tesla's product matrix and lay a solid foundation for the pursuit of greater sales.
The unsatisfactory GM expects OT to be empowered
In 2021, it will not be smooth for GM. In the field of electric vehicles, the Bolt EV, which GM has high hopes for, has suffered the biggest challenge since its launch. The ongoing fire accidents forced GM to recall all the Bolt EVs that had been sold, and at the same time, GM also suspended the sale of the electric vehicle when it did not find the root cause of the problem.
As a battery supplier of Bolt EV, LG New Energy, which was spun off by LG Chemical, has also encountered greater challenges. This is not only the $1.9 billion in damages paid by LG New Energy due to the recall of up to 143,000 electric vehicles, but also a major setback to LG New Energy's road to listing and valuation.
For GM now, the Bolt EV is a thing of the past, and the Ultium Aotene platform is the future of GM.
At present, Cadillac LYRIQ, which was born on the Aotene platform, has been listed. As a platform with great scalability, in the future, GM can continuously launch various models based on the Aoteneng platform to compete for the share of the electric vehicle market and sweep away its decline in the electric vehicle field in the two major markets in the United States and China.
Another thing that has to be mentioned is the departure of Cruise CEO Dan Amman. This seems to be a contest between GM head Mary Bora and Dan Amman, but behind it is the dispute over whether traditional OEMs should list autonomous driving technology companies separately or put them under their own umbrellas.
From Cruise or Dan Amman's point of view, once Cruise can get rid of the general constraints, it will inevitably get a higher valuation and also take on more business.
From Marie Bora's point of view, Cruise can indeed gain a lot of benefits by listing alone and seeking an IPO. But today's GM stock price needs Cruise to drag in. Once Cruise is completely stripped out of GM's system, the stock price of the entire GM will face greater pressure. Therefore, keeping Cruise in the common system will help the general use the most.
The bland Ford also has highlights
In 2021, in terms of stock gains, Ford overpowered Tesla and became the company with the largest stock gain among American car companies. For Jim Farley, who took over Ford's CEO, at least in the most important indicator of stocks, it can be explained to shareholders.
In terms of model layout, Ford's Musk Mach-E, which is fully benchmarked against model Y, is gradually increasing sales, and has now become the fourth model in the US market after model 3, Model Y and Bolt EV. If you consider the recall of the Bolt EV, the competitive strength of the Mustang Mach-E should not be underestimated.
In addition, Ford also built an F150 Lightning pure electric pickup. SUVs, pickups, and light commercial vehicles are Ford's three major products, contributing significant sales and profits to Ford every year. In particular, the F-series pickup truck is the mainstay of Ford. After Rivian and Tesla have unveiled their pure electric pickup trucks, Ford naturally will not miss such an outlet.
Rivian and Lucid Air, who will become Tesla killers?
In addition to Tesla, there are also many new power car companies in the United States, which have greatly activated the US electric vehicle market.
Among them, Rivian, which relies on Amazon behind it, is the most optimistic by all parties. On the one hand, Rivian already has three products, SUVs, pickups and commercial vehicles, and has built a relatively complete product matrix. On the other hand, Rivian's pure electric commercial vehicles have also received a large order from Amazon, and there is no need to worry about sales.
For Rivian, though, the early shareholder Ford gave up on developing a new car with Rivian as a sign that it deserved Rivian's vigilance. At present, Rivian can build a relatively complete model matrix, in which Ford not only gave the initial multi-round investment, but also has a lot of technical output, which is the key to Rivian's IPO listing.
In addition to Rivian, Lucid Air and even Jia Yueting's FF91 have made some progress. In particular, Lucid Air has surpassed Tesla's benchmark model in terms of product strength, and whether tesla can be removed has become a hot spot in 2022.
The strong rise of Tesla has allowed American cars to regain their self-confidence in the PK with Japanese cars and German cars. At the same time, under the impetus of Tesla, the electrification process of GM and Ford is also significantly faster than that of other traditional car companies. In this context, the performance of GM and Ford in 2022 is very worth looking forward to.