When it comes to various year-end summaries, all walks of life will review the work of the past year, and on this basis, adjust the direction of work in the next year, and formulate corresponding small goals, and the Chinese automotive industry is no exception. After experiencing challenges such as the epidemic and lack of cores, the national retail sales of passenger cars in 2021 reached 20.146 million units, an increase of 4.4% year-on-year, ending three consecutive declines.
It is worth mentioning that in 2021, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 2.989 million units, an increase of 169.1% year-on-year, and the penetration rate reached 14.8%, which was significantly higher than the penetration rate of 5.8% in 2020, especially in November and December, the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeded 20%. It can be said that the sales of new energy vehicles have stepped up to a new level, and they are gradually approaching the target of 20% penetration.
However, several joys and some sorrows, from the sales data of new energy vehicles at the brand level, independent brands perform better, and joint venture brands can be described as unsatisfactory, of which in December, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 3.3%.
What is visible to the naked eye is that the joint venture brand new energy vehicles have been pulled away by independent brands.
Sales of new energy vehicles under the joint venture brand have been poor
It is reasonable to say that the joint venture brand has certain advantages in terms of popularity and word of mouth, so why is the market feedback of new energy vehicles not working? This starts with the product itself.
Most of the joint venture brands on the market have the problem of "oil to electricity", these models are often the engine, gearbox, mechanical transmission shaft and other structures of mature fuel vehicles replaced by electric motors and batteries, reassembled, and put on the market as a new energy vehicle. For manufacturers, on the one hand, this kind of operation can save R&D costs, product launch cycle, etc., on the other hand, it can reduce the pressure of "car double integral", why not enjoy it. But the disadvantage is that this type of product does not fully play the advantages of the electric system, there is no advantage in battery life, lack of intelligence and other "defects", which are enough to make consumers scorn.
The other is the cost performance problem, the joint venture brand also has a good performance and configuration of new energy models, but the price is often 20,000-30,000 yuan more expensive than the same fuel version of the model. Take the Dongfeng Nissan Xuanyi pure electric version, its manufacturer guidance price is 238,000 yuan, and the subsidized price is 153,000 yuan, which is 34,000 yuan higher than the starting price of the fuel version of 119,000 yuan; similarly, the FAW-Volkswagen Tanyue GTE (plug-in hybrid, starting from 249,800 yuan) is 44,900 yuan higher than the starting price of the Tanyue fuel version (starting from 204,900 yuan). In unlimited cities, such a price is basically unattractive.
In addition, in the era when automotive intelligence is more and more popular with young consumers, functions such as intelligent cockpit, assisted driving, and human-computer interaction are more common in independent brands, especially in new forces, but it is difficult to operate on most joint venture brand models, or there is no such configuration at all.
All in all, to a large extent, the lack of competitiveness of joint venture brand products has led to snubbing in the new energy vehicle segment.
BYD's new energy vehicle market performance leads its own brand
Among its own brands, BYD has performed well in the new energy vehicle market due to the technical route and product layout of plug-in hybrid + pure electric "two-wheel drive". According to BYD's official data, BYD new energy vehicles are the main source of sales of the brand, with annual sales of 593745 units, an increase of 231.6% year-on-year, of which pure electric models have sold 320,810 vehicles in the whole year, while plug-in hybrid models have sold 272935 vehicles. It is worth noting that BYD's 1 millionth new energy vehicle officially rolled off the production line on May 19, 2021, becoming the first Chinese brand to enter the "Millions Club" of new energy vehicles.
SAIC Passenger Cars, Great Wall and GAC Aean are close behind. SAIC Passenger Vehicles' annual sales of new energy in 2021 reached 161,000 units, an increase of 107% year-on-year, with a penetration rate of more than 20%, ranking among the top five in the domestic market, ranking among the top six in the world, and being in the first camp both globally and domestically. Great Wall Motor's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles last year totaled 136,953 units, accounting for 10.7% of the total sales, of which the Euler brand exceeded 20,000 units for the first time in December, a record high; GAC Anderson's annual sales of 123,660 units, an increase of 119% year-on-year, exceeded the annual target of 100,000 vehicles.
A number of independent brands exceeded the sales target of new energy vehicles, which is also a key factor for independent brands to reach 39% of new energy vehicle penetration in December last year.
The delivery volume of the first echelon of the new forces is close to exceeding 100,000 vehicles
In terms of new car-making forces, Xiaopeng Motors, Weilai Automobile, and Ideal Automobile have sold more than 90,000 vehicles, of which Xiaopeng Automobile has the largest increase in sales. In 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile sold 98,155 units, an increase of 275.2% year-on-year; NIO and Ideal Automobile sold 91,429 units and 90,491 vehicles respectively, an increase of 109.1% and 177.4% year-on-year.
Here we have to mention the ideal, compared with Xiaopeng, Weilai have 3 car delivery, the ideal is only one car, in December, its single month sales reached 14087 units, the annual delivery volume in the new energy SUVs second only to Tesla Model Y and BYD Song (including plug-in hybrid and pure electric), ranking after the ideal ONE BYD Tang sales data is 50116 vehicles, the distance is more obvious.
If you remove the Model Y and Song pure electric version, the plug-in hybrid SUV as a separate market segment, the ideal ONE is undoubtedly the best performer in this market, to know that the main competitor of the plug-in hybrid model is the fuel vehicle. Previously, some netizens also listed a paragraph, as long as enough fixed words are added, no matter which car is the most cattle, but at the same time, it should be clearly seen that if classified by new energy models, there is still a big gap between the ideal ONE and Tesla Model Y ratio.
In addition to Weilai, Xiaopeng, ideal, which is commonly known as the new car-making force three less - "Wei Xiaoli", Nezha and Weima, zero run can be seen as the second echelon, the three brands in 2021 delivery volume of about 50,000 vehicles, monthly delivery can also reach more than 5,000 vehicles.
Written in the end: Although the joint venture brand 2021 new energy vehicle market performance is not good, but it is undeniable that the pace of joint venture car companies to transform new energy vehicles is accelerating, the launch of exclusive new energy vehicle platform, following the Volkswagen MEB platform, Mercedes-Benz launched the EVA electric vehicle architecture platform, Hyundai Motor E-GMP electric global modular platform and the general Ultium Aotene pure electric platform.
Among them, the better performers, such as the launch of the Volkswagen ID series models, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen wholesale volume in December last year was 19,498 units, accounting for 46% of the mainstream joint venture brand new energy market share, some industry experts said that Volkswagen's firm electrification transformation strategy has begun to bear fruit.
In the era of fuel vehicles, joint venture brands use comprehensive factors such as technology accumulation and product layout to gain a head start in the domestic automobile market, but with the continuous acceleration of the new four modernizations of automobiles, independent brands have lagged behind in the field of new energy vehicles, at least from the perspective of market performance. However, with the acceleration of the transformation of joint venture brands, independent brands must also see the future market competition trend and do a good job in product layout in advance. In the near future, the new energy vehicle market may appear in a situation where joint venture brands and independent brands are evenly matched, but as long as there are good products that can be "taken out", it is possible to win the favor of consumers and stand in an invincible position.