He who gets blue wins the world. This is a major trend that the auto market cannot violate.
The penetration rate of new energy vehicles has grown rapidly, and independent brands have overcome the joint venture brands, which have achieved an absolute leading edge, crossed the era of fuel vehicles, and achieved lane change and overtaking.
In the Chinese car market in 2021, we summarize it in four words - blue fission.
Strong independent brands
In the past, China's self-owned brand cars have always been synonymous with low-end, and Chinese consumers are mostly not the first choice when buying cars.
This inherent impression is changing dramatically. Nowadays, on the road, you can see the major mainstream independent brand cars driving in the traffic flow, and even many models will make people shine.
China's own brand cars, after decades of imitation, accumulation, research and development, gradually rise, the overall sales volume, has shown an equal situation with the joint venture brand.
According to the 2021 generalized passenger car wholesale data disclosed by the Federation of Automobile Manufacturers, FAW-Volkswagen still ranked first with a data of 1.851 million units, but fell by 13.1% year-on-year, and SAIC Volkswagen, which had long occupied the position of the third oldest, fell by 17.5% year-on-year to 1.242 million units, and the position was replaced by its own brand boss Geely.
In addition to Geely, among the top ten, there are Wuling, Changan, Great Wall, Chery, and joint venture brands account for five seats each, and the overall sales of independent brands have increased significantly. Among the joint venture brands, except for FAW Toyota, the rest have shown different degrees of slippage, and the gap between this and the other is gradually narrowing.
Within the independent brand, the competition is also increasing.
At the beginning of last year, as the boss of its own brand, Geely set itself a target of selling 1.53 million vehicles for the whole year. However, the company recently released data that the cumulative sales of 1.328 million vehicles for the whole year, a slight increase of about 1% year-on-year, only 87% of the annual target. This year, Geely set itself a higher target of 1.65 million vehicles.
After years of accumulation in design, the state-owned enterprise Changan Automobile has finally completed the iteration from low-end to high-end and ushered in the harvest period. In the whole year, the sales volume of self-owned brand passenger cars was 1.204 million units, an increase of 23.08% year-on-year.
Great Wall Motors is the king of this segment of SUVs, and it is also the most playable independent car company. Last year, the company continued to re-inject SUVs, successively launching a series of sub-brands such as big dogs and tanks, as well as small new energy vehicles mainly aimed at female users. Sales in the full year were 1.28 million units (including pickup trucks), an increase of 15.24% year-on-year.
Chery is the only large domestic automobile enterprise that does not have a listed company. As a "technical house", Chery has gradually come out of the trough, and its jietu, small ants and xingtu have concentrated their efforts, and their sales have increased by 36.8% year-on-year to 865,000 vehicles.
From the current point of view, if there is no major accident, the competition for the position of independent brand boss should arise between Geely and Chang'an.
New energy fission
The future car market is the world of new energy, which is an irreversible fact.
According to the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the penetration rate of new energy in China's automobile market last year has reached 15.7%, compared with only 5.8% in the same period last year. In December in particular, the figure reached 21.3%, breaking through 20% for the first time.
Unlike the dumbbell-type structure in 2020, which is strong and difficult in the middle, the development of new energy vehicles at all levels in 2021 is more balanced.
With its high cost performance, Wuling Hongguang Mini has successfully reached the top with annual sales of nearly 400,000 units, and A00-class new energy passenger cars such as Chery eQ and Benben EV have also performed well.
BYD's accumulation in battery technology continues to exert its strength, especially the use of blade batteries, which is a well-deserved king in the field of new energy vehicles in China. Qin and Han models ranked among the top five in the new energy ranking list, and throughout the year, the company sold 594,000 new energy passenger cars, an increase of 231.60% year-on-year.
Throughout last year, Tesla was almost always negative, which had a greater impact on product sales. Even so, the Model 3 still ranks third on the charts with 150,000 sales. However, the sales growth rate of less than 10% is far inferior to that of China's new energy brands.
Talking about new energy vehicles, we can't avoid the new forces of car-making.
The annual delivery volume of "Wei Xiaoli" exceeded the mark of 90,000 vehicles, which is one step closer to the life and death threshold of 100,000 vehicles. Differentiation is also accelerating.
With the help of a relatively abundant model, Xiaopeng delivered 98,000 vehicles throughout the year, an increase of 263.0% year-on-year, ranking first in the camp; the ideal only ONE single model also won 90,000 deliveries, which is not easy; Weilai's sales in December increased by less than 50%, far less than "Xiaoli", and the number of seats of "Wei Xiaoli" may be rewritten in the new year.
There is also a force that cannot be ignored, that is, Nezha, which Zhou Hongyi invested. It shouted the slogan of "building cars for the people", focusing on price advantages and cost performance, and the single-month delivery volume also entered the 10,000 car club, with annual sales of nearly 70,000, an increase of 361.7% year-on-year.
Traditional car companies, new car-making forces, cross-border outside the industry... The scuffle in the field of new energy vehicles will continue, and the time for the deer to die is far from the time to make up their minds.
Lane change overtaking
Nowadays, when Chinese consumers buy and change cars, new energy will almost become one of the alternatives, which is the result of more than ten years of cultivation of new energy vehicles in China.
According to the relevant departments, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China will exceed 3.5 million in 2021, an increase of more than 160% year-on-year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years.
China's automobile industry started late, the foundation is thin, in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, engine, gearbox and chassis of the three major parts, and foreign companies there is a large gap, in the short term it is difficult to catch up.
But new energy vehicles are a whole new field, and this is a historic opportunity for China's auto industry. The core technology has changed from three major parts to batteries, motors, and electronic controls, and Chinese car companies have changed lanes to overtake and won the first-mover advantage.
At present, China's new energy vehicles have covered almost all models of traditional fuel vehicles, and the improvement of technology and the rise of production and sales are gradually reducing the price of new energy vehicles.
With the rapid breakthrough of battery technology, the mileage anxiety problem of new energy vehicles is gradually alleviating, and with the further encryption construction of charging piles, new energy vehicles will have the same convenience as fuel vehicles in the near future.
Big capital doesn't want to miss this opportunity. Last year, Xiaomi announced that it would invest tens of billions of dollars in the next 10 years to join the car-making army, the factory has settled in Beijing Yizhuang Development Zone, and is expected to achieve mass production in the first half of 2024; Huawei is constantly testing on the edge of car-making, and the cooperation with Xiaokang shares is a small test of cattle knife; not long ago, Wen Wei, the founder of Tuanche, announced the construction of cars, and Li Xiang, the founder of Ideal Automobile, set off a war of words, and did not do the first red... The new energy vehicle market is still bustling.
The mainland has plans to reach about 20% of total sales of new energy vehicles by 2025, and according to the current development trend, this goal is expected to be achieved early.