In the Chinese auto market in 2021, the performance of Chinese brands is quite eye-catching. If the previous Chinese brand models are one of the three points of the world, then after 2021, Chinese brands are close to the performance of "half the world". With a cumulative sales volume of more than 9.54 million units in the whole year, it achieved a year-on-year increase of 23.1% and increased its market share by 6 percentage points to 44.4%. The Chinese brand passenger cars that started out inferiorly did not have much emotion and old roots to use. To achieve such results, relying more on the breakthrough and precipitation of technology and word of mouth. One of the most eye-catching is the "blowout" of Chinese brands in hybrid technology.
Whether it is policy orientation or market acceptance, hybrid models are one of the best solutions that automakers can give at present. Chinese brands have shown the ability of the eight immortals to cross the sea in it, so many people will also call 2021 the first year of hybrid power of Chinese brands. Geely, Great Wall, Chang'an and other first-line manufacturers are poised for the momentum on the basis of stabilizing the basic disk, and BYD, which is suspected of "rushing away", has reaped rich market returns. However, "rushing to run" also depends on strength, and SAIC, which is also one step ahead, seems to be caught in self-denial. What's going on here? Let's look back at the technological development path of Chinese brand car companies in 2021.
BYD: DM-i + blade battery = hot sale?
BYD is not the most prominent Chinese brand in terms of overall sales in 2021, but it must be one of the brands with the largest sales growth. The annual sales report card of more than 730,000 vehicles means that BYD achieved a year-on-year increase of 75.4%. Among them, the sales of new energy vehicles are close to 600,000 units, an increase of 231.6% year-on-year, and sales account for more than 80%. Regardless of the specific situation, from these figures alone, BYD's sales structure may be the most "advanced" among domestic traditional automobile manufacturers.
The reason for the surge in BYD's sales can mainly be attributed to the recognition of DM-i technology and the popularity of blade batteries. The former is not BYD's first experience in hybridization, and the early BYD's SET of DM technology that often refreshes the zero hundred acceleration results is still fresh in people's minds. However, excessive energy consumption is obviously not a suitable way to open the hybrid on a large scale, and DM-i technology has received a large number of orders from the consumer market with excellent fuel economy and excellent driving experience in daily operating conditions.
As for the blade battery, in addition to being the companion of BYD's DM-i technology, it is also of great significance to its pure electrical product line plate. First of all, in terms of economy, BYD has a unique advantage. Secondly, for blade batteries that have been concerned about safety since the beginning of their birth, they have also withstood the test in the year of popularization. Especially at the end of last year, the "exclusive insurance" of new energy vehicles also came to a wave of assists. From the current situation, the impact on BYD's new energy product line using blade batteries may be the weakest.
Geely: Your uncle or your uncle, low-end, high-end I want
Geely Automobile once again won the "sales crown" of Chinese brands without suspense, and brought 1.328 million sales results in the hands of Geely, Geometry, Lynk & Co, JiKr and other brands, of which Geely's single brand reached 1.06 million units, which can be called a strong basic plate. Specifically, including the 4th generation of Emgrand and the renewal of derivative product lines, Geely continues to consolidate its leading position in the Chinese brand family car market within 100,000 yuan. In addition, it also brings incremental products like Geely Star Yue L that strike through leapfrog space and power.
In terms of high-end, the Lynk & Co brand contributed more than 220,000 vehicle sales results, and is still one of the most stable performing brands among China's high-end brands. In particular, the emergence of Lynk & Co 09 has brought the Company brand to a price range of more than 300,000 yuan, which is of epoch-making significance for the overall high-end market of Geely Automobile. The same expression also applies to the Extreme Krypton brand, although the delivery volume has little impact on the overall situation, but it is of extraordinary significance to Geely's new energy model C-end + high-end.
At the same time, in terms of hybrid technology, Geely's Thunder God Intelligence Engine Hi · The X-Hybrid is ready to go. The first model of this technology to be equipped with this technology chose the aforementioned hot-selling SUV, the Geely Star-Vietnam L. This technology is bound to be equipped with a number of Geely's hot models in the future, and it is expected to become an important source of Geely's sales growth in 2022.
Great Wall: If you all forget about H6, it means that I have succeeded
Talking about Great Wall Motors' 2021, let me ask a question first, do you remember the Haval H6? For a considerable period of time, the Haval H6 is not only the guarantee of the lower limit of Great Wall Motors, but also acts as the existence of its own ceiling. How to make consumers "forget" haval H6 has become the goal of Great Wall Motors for many years. This goal can be said to be achieved in 2021. Last year, Great Wall Motor handed over a sales report card of more than 1.28 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%, which seems to be not so eye-catching when looking at the performance of Chinese brands last year. But the birth of a series of blockbuster models under Great Wall Motors has definitely earned enough eyeballs in the past year.
Haval's Red Rabbit, Divine Beast, Wei Brand's coffee series, and the derived tank series, and even the Euler brand cat series. The whimsical naming gives these new cars an unparalleled degree of recognition and topicality. In particular, the newly established tank brand, its first model, the Tank 300, has been in short supply since its listing. The blowout of the new product coincided with the pressure on the supply chain of the automotive industry last year, which led to Great Wall Motors being in a state of flashing and turning in terms of production capacity for a long time. Excluding this objective reason, the report card of Great Wall Motors in 2021 is even more eye-catching.
In particular, Weipai, a high-end brand under Great Wall Motors, which has not been able to find a suitable breakthrough, has finally used DHT and DHT-PHEV powertrains to achieve brand transformation. The application of the new hybrid technology, in addition to reversing the power and fuel consumption reputation of the Wei brand model that was once criticized a lot, was reversed in one fell swoop. It even helped Great Wall Motors to grab the front of many competitors on the hybrid track, and used the technology to try to tear open the mouth of the European market.
Changan: Lying to win the fuel car, will not become a shackle
Changan Automobile's overall sales in 2021 exceeded 1.2 million units, an increase of more than 23% year-on-year, and from the perspective of achievements, it is the first echelon of China's passenger car brands. Specifically, the CS series SUV models of the Changan brand, as well as the UNI high-end series and auchan brand, are almost three arrows at the same time, and they have a place in their respective market segments. It has to be said that changan automobile, with the blessing of blue whale engine, has covered the mainstream fuel vehicle price range through a very subdivided product line.
However, the "lying win" state in the field of fuel vehicles does not seem to make Changan Automobile take it lightly. In the middle of last year, Changan Automobile released the iDD hybrid system based on the Blue Whale engine. Its first Changan UNI-K iDD equipped with this system just opened pre-sale earlier this year. From the perspective of the development path of technology, iDD hybrid will further improve its internal combustion engine part and make it reach a new height in efficiency, which may also help Changan Automobile further consolidate its fundamentals in the field of fuel vehicles.
SAIC: As long as you can go, it doesn't matter if you don't do high-end
In recent years, SAIC passenger cars in the pursuit of volume on the road can be said to be "crazy", at the end of last year a wave of the situation, SAIC passenger cars with Roewe, MG two brands, in one fell swoop won 800,000 vehicles of total annual sales results, but also set a new sales record. Among them, the low-end models of the two brands are indispensable. Looking at their sales tables, MG ZS, MG 5, Roewe i5, these main models priced within 100,000 yuan occupy the main position. As for the efforts that have been high-end, it seems to have been forgotten, and the last update of the Roewe RX8 with higher positioning was already in 2019. It seems that SAIC Passenger Vehicle has absorbed its joint venture brand's marketing strategy of "price for volume" more thoroughly.
However, the strategy of exchanging price for volume will also affect the control of costs, which is more typical in saic's hybrid technology. In fact, SAIC motor for the hybrid start earlier, the original technology is subject to the three-cylinder 1.0T engine factors, in the power and sales of some lose one or the other. But with the passage of time, new technologies can repair the shortcomings of the past, just like BYD. But in order to compromise its current mainstream 1.5T power, SAIC's second-generation EDU technology directly removed a motor in order to leave more space and control costs. Faced with the ensuing weakening of the electric drive and the so-called combined 10-speed transmission experience, SAIC chose to increase the battery capacity and improve the operating logic, full of patching feelings.
Written in the end: The local combat of Chinese brands can be said to not account for much of the host's advantage, on the contrary, due to reasons such as late start-up, Chinese car brands often suffer greater pressure on word of mouth. However, in recent years, the performance of Chinese brands making great strides forward indicates that the precipitation of technology has reached a new stage. Coupled with the process of vehicle electrification, it has accelerated the development of Chinese brands.