Lead:
In the past, the total, are the prologue, before talking to you about the 2021 joint venture, independent, and luxury car market, today we continue to talk about the new energy vehicle market that everyone is most concerned about.
According to the data recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2021, in the case of a severe external economic environment and a lack of upstream and downstream supply chains, the mainland new energy vehicle market bucked the trend, selling 3.521 million new energy vehicles throughout the year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years, and China's new energy automobile industry has transitioned from policy-driven to market-driven. Below, I will analyze the unprecedented changes in the new energy vehicle market in 2021 from the five dimensions of rights protection, automatic driving, cross-border car manufacturing, market penetration, and comprehensive civil war.
Keyword 01: rights protection
Although rights protection is an old concept, but the car safety problems reflected behind the rights protection incidents every time affect everyone's nerves, in 2021, the Shanghai Auto Show Tesla female car owner rights protection incident completely detonated the whole year, becoming the most concerned event in the whole network.
On April 19 last year, on the media day of the Shanghai Auto Show, a woman wearing a T-shirt with the words "brake failure" stood on the roof of the Tesla Model 3 exhibition car and shouted "brake failure" to publicly ask Tesla for rights protection. For a time, the term "Tesla brake failure" instantly rushed to the hot search of the whole network, but although the incident had a significant impact, it was not properly handled in the follow-up, and the contradiction between consumers and car companies was extreme, and until today, the matter has not been resolved, and the situation of a proper lose-lose situation has been appropriate.
Similar to the situation with the owner of the deadlock, Tesla is not a case, the ideal mercury door, Xiaopeng stall incident, Euler good cat core door, Weima lock electricity, etc., coincidentally, a magical law surfaced - this year's accident, as if new energy vehicles accounted for the vast majority.
Although the basic plate of fuel vehicles at this stage is still very large, and there are many incidents of fuel vehicle owners protecting their rights, why new energy vehicle rights protection incidents can frequently rush to the hot search, it also shows from the side that the attention of new energy vehicles in the domestic car market is significantly higher than that of fuel vehicles. From another point of view, this also proves that with the rise of the younger generation of consumption, their awareness of rights protection is also gradually improving, whether it is a new car-making force or a traditional manufacturer, if you want to be as confused as ever, it is not so easy to solve things.
In addition, these rights protection incidents in 2021 have also sounded the alarm for China's new energy vehicle companies, in the process of brand development, enterprises must adhere to the bottom line, avoid the common diseases of large companies in the process of rapid development, and should uphold a more cautious attitude, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and do a good job in products and services.
Keyword 02: Autonomous driving
As we all know, there are many definitions of the term "new four modernizations" in the automotive industry, but all of them contain the two keywords of intelligence and electrification, and therefore, in the early stage, in order to emphasize the recognition and selling points of their new cars, the new forces of car-making often deeply bind electric vehicles to intelligent cars, and the most important indicator of the latter is "automatic driving".
There is no doubt that autonomous driving has become a major disruptive innovation since the invention of the human automobile, which has had an indelible impact on social development and human mobility. Whether it's Huawei, Baidu, or a growing number of domestic car companies that have set up technology innovation centers, autonomous driving will be the next area they compete for. It can be said that with the guidance of policies and the concentration of many enterprises, China's automatic driving technology has entered a new stage.
However, in the process of the rapid development of autonomous driving technology, the tragedy of this technology has also been accompanied. In August last year, there was a traffic accident in the Hanjiang section of the Shenhai Expressway, and a WEILAI ES8 that turned on the NOP (Pilot Assistance System) state failed to identify the road maintenance vehicle in operation, which led to the tragedy. Afterwards, the owner's friend questioned that Weilai misled consumers at a certain level, and deliberately blurred the concept of automatic driving and assisted driving in the promotion of vehicle product functions, which led to the death of his friend Mr. Lin.
This accident has sounded the alarm bell for the new car-making forces and all car companies, which have changed the definition of "assisted driving" and "automatic driving" in the vehicle brochure and established a more standardized classification of automatic driving levels. All in all, when driver assistance technology becomes the standard of smart cars, car companies should grasp the marketing scale of automatic driving technology, and at the same time correctly guide and supervise drivers to use driving assistance systems, and then avoid the occurrence of similar vicious accidents.
Keyword 03: cross-border car building
Under the impetus of national policies and the guidance of the market, the new energy automobile industry is becoming the hottest track, there is no one, in the face of such a trillion-level outlet, more and more industry giants have played cross-border car-making, millet, Jidu, Maverick, Foxconn, Skyworth, light orange era, Midea, Lalala and so on emerge in an endless stream, new energy tracks continue to pour into new entrants, cross-border car manufacturing has become the norm. While these newcomers continue to promote the continuous heat of the new energy market, they also make the industry more competitive.
Unlike the first batch of new forces, these cross-border car-making enterprises are all branching out from the company's main business to the automotive field, and the team behind these cross-border car-making forces is stronger and more abundant. These second batch of new car-making forces based on the promotion of the "new four modernizations" have a more open thinking and have established a new value dimension for automobiles. The addition of these Internet giants, mobile phone manufacturers, and home appliance manufacturers has promoted the technological progress of smart electric vehicles and injected new vitality into the entire industry.
Of course, there is also an industry giant who is unique and distinctive, and it is Huawei. Huawei, which claims that it will never build a car, has been flaunting "building a good car for car companies", from Xilis, Polar Fox, and then to Avita and AITO, although it is trying to cover up, but the powerful facts have proved that Huawei's participation in the production and manufacturing process of the whole vehicle is getting higher and higher. Some people joked that the AITO new car Q&A M5 released by Yu Chengdong personally on the platform is completely a model produced by Huawei, and Xilis is just a "foundry".
But in any case, the entry of technology giants such as Huawei, Baidu, and Xiaomi is bound to catalyze the intensification of competition in the new energy vehicle market, and the traditional car giants who are tired of dealing with the first batch of new car-making forces such as Wei Xiaoli are estimated to have a headache for a while. As for us consumers, we just need to sit firmly in the Diaoyutai fishing and enjoy better new energy vehicle products.
Keyword 04: Market penetration
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, china's new energy vehicle sales reached 3.521 million units in 2021, an increase of nearly 160% year-on-year, while sales are rising, new energy vehicles continue to seize the share of traditional fuel vehicles, and the market penetration rate continues to rise. It is reported that the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 22.6% in December 2021, and the annual market penetration rate averaged 14.8%, more than double compared with 5.8% in the previous year.
Although there is a consensus in the industry about the rapid momentum of the new energy vehicle sector, it is still unexpected that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles can double in 2021, according to this momentum, it is not impossible for new energy vehicles to achieve the goal of 20% penetration rate in advance in 2022.
Thanks to the first-mover advantage of independent car companies in the field of new energy, independent brands contribute the most to market penetration. According to the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in December last year, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 39%, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 32.7%, while the penetration rate of joint venture brands was only 3.3%, which can be seen that the development of the new energy vehicle market is very uneven, showing a trend of two large and small in the middle.
But in general, in the field of new energy vehicles, independent brands are still in front of the joint venture brand, occupying absolute domination in the low-end market, and the high-end market also has the world's top luxury electric vehicle brands like Gaohe, which has become the top luxury electric vehicle sales champion of more than 500,000 yuan for two consecutive months, whether it is Porsche or Tesla has failed to catch up with its pace.
Keyword 05: Full-scale civil war
Before 2021, the three leaders of Wei Xiaoli were surprisingly uniform in interviews with the media, emphasizing "to seize the market for fuel vehicles". But this attitude has changed last year, on the one hand, traditional car companies have accelerated the transformation of pure electricity, either launching pure electric new cars, or releasing new pure electronic brands, which is bound to compete with the new forces of car manufacturing; on the other hand, the new forces of car manufacturing have also begun to dabble in other model segments because of product layout and business expansion needs.
Taking the first camp of the new car-making forces "Wei Xiaoli" as an example, before 2021, their respective ways of playing are very distinct, Weilai's ES8 and ES6 are mainly focused on the pure electric luxury medium and large SUV market, as well as their own unique power exchange services; Xiaopeng is mainly attacking the market segment below 300,000, and the positioning of the main sales force Xiaopeng P7 is a medium and large pure electric sedan; the ideal is the main anxiety-free range extender medium and large SUV, and the ideal ONE also lives up to expectations to become the best-selling medium and large SUV (including fuel vehicles) in the domestic car market. It can be seen that between the three wei xiaoli and the short, they all have their own main market segments and accurate user positioning.
However, starting from 2021, Weilai's first sedan ET7 opened reservations, as well as the release of the luxury pure electric medium-sized sedan ET5, Weilai officially entered the car market, is bound to compete head-on with Xiaopeng P7; Xiaopeng is not willing to show weakness, and released the brand's first medium and large SUV Xiaopeng G9 at the Guangzhou Auto Show last year, which will directly benchmark weilai ES8 and ES6. Although the ideal is far from the dispute, the second car X01 (internal code) is still a range extender power, but in its product planning, pure electric models will also be released later.
The change in the competition pattern of Wei Xiaoli can also represent that the competition in the entire new energy vehicle market is intensifying to a large extent, and the entry of cross-border giants and the accelerated transformation of traditional car companies are facing severe challenges. But then again, this kind of healthy competition will also further promote China's new energy vehicle industry to a new height.
Write at the end
It is estimated that in 2022, domestic electric vehicle sales will reach 5 million, at that time, the hardware, intelligent software, brand services, product iteration, innovative concepts, etc. of new energy vehicles may become one of the elements of industry reshuffle, which provides a perfect opportunity for Chinese auto companies to catch up.
With the increasing attention of human beings to the environment and energy, new energy vehicles have become the main field of competition in many countries, and new energy vehicles will become one of the largest outlets in the world for a long time to come. As the carrier of the "new four modernizations", the future mobile Internet, the important terminal of intelligent development and the main object of decarbonization, the automobile will inevitably become the focus of competition in various fields. Finally, repeat the old tune, carbon neutrality is the battle of national fortune, and I hope that China's new energy automobile enterprises will achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible while attacking the city.