At the beginning of the new year in 2022, the new energy vehicle track continues to be hot. Unlike traditional car companies, automakers focusing on new energy vehicles are eager to release their sales results in January. According to the incomplete statistics of the reporter of China Business Daily, a number of automobile brands in South China, including BYD, Dongfeng Nissan, Xiaopeng Automobile and GAC Group, have shown considerable sales data in January.
Although from the quantitative point of view, fuel vehicles are still the main force of sales of major car companies, it cannot be ignored that hybrid series models have joined the product matrix extended by fuel models, and the market response is good. At the same time, with the implementation of the "double carbon" goal, in January 2022, the sales growth rate of new energy vehicles of major car companies far exceeded that of fuel vehicles, according to the sales data released so far, BYD's new energy passenger car sales reached 92,926 units in January, an increase of more than 300% year-on-year, temporarily ranking first in the sales of new energy passenger cars in the month.
Even if subsidies for new energy vehicles are declining, the market's enthusiasm for new energy vehicles is increasing. Looking forward to 2022, the Association believes that the sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles will reach 5.5 million units in 2022, and the penetration rate will reach a higher level, reaching 25%.
New energy vehicle companies are scrambling to report good news
In 2021, new energy vehicles have become a hot word in the automotive market, and the penetration rate was once close to 20%. At the beginning of 2022, the heat of new energy vehicles continues to heat up.
According to BYD's January 2022 production and sales express, in the same month, BYD's new energy passenger car sales exceeded 90,000 units, an increase of 367.6% year-on-year, and a slight increase from the previous month. Among them, EV models sold 46,400 units, up 220.7% year-on-year;D M models sold about 46,500 units, up 760.6% year-on-year.
According to GAC Aeon news, its sales of the whole series reached 16,031 vehicles in January 2022, and the sales volume exceeded 10,000, and the year-on-year increase reached 117.93%. In the GAC Group's production and sales report for the month, GAC Aegian became the automobile brand with the highest sales growth rate under the GAC Group.
In addition, Xiaopeng Motors also recently announced the delivery volume in January 2022, which is about 12,922 units, an increase of 115% year-on-year. It is not difficult to see that the above three new energy vehicle companies took the lead in disclosing their performance from the rapid rise in sales. It is worth mentioning that although the sales volume of most new energy vehicles in January exceeded 100% year-on-year, the overall market for new energy vehicles was still in its infancy, and the current sales volume was still in the climbing stage.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, said that the global sales of new energy passenger cars in the generalized sense reached 9.37 million units in 2021. Among them, the global sales of plug-in hybrid, pure electric, and fuel cell narrow new energy vehicles reached 6.23 million units, an increase of 118% year-on-year. For the whole of 2021, China's new energy passenger vehicles accounted for 53% of the global new energy vehicle market, of which 60% in the fourth quarter.
Under the general trend of the new four modernizations of automobiles, the new energy vehicle market is still optimistic about capital. According to the forecast of the China Automobile Association, the total sales volume of China's automobiles in 2022 will be 27.5 million units, an increase of 5.4% year-on-year, of which the sales of new energy vehicles will be 5 million units, an increase of 47% year-on-year.
While the market demand is rising, the subsidies for new energy vehicles are gradually declining. While the sales of new energy vehicles have increased rapidly year-on-year, the sales growth of new energy vehicles has slowed down. In January 2022, due to factors such as the Spring Festival holiday, the sales volume of car companies including Xiaopeng Automobile and GAC Aean fell month-on-month.
From another perspective, the competition in the new energy vehicle market is intensifying. Comparing models horizontally, GAC E-An, BYD and Changan Automobile have all launched compact SUVs for the Z generation, and the price has dropped to 100,000 to 150,000 yuan. In addition, the tendency of new energy vehicle companies to make the appearance design of models more technological and feminine has gradually emerged.
In 2022, the focus of competition among new energy vehicle companies is still on high-end models. In terms of price, including GAC Aean and Xiaopeng Automobile, they have launched models priced at more than 400,000 yuan, while BYD is more interested in exploring the price plan of high-end brands to the level of one million yuan.
The product matrix of fuel vehicles has changed
While new energy vehicle companies are full of ambition to move towards high-end brands, car companies based on traditional fuel vehicles are thinking about transformation strategies. Traditional car companies choose to extend hybrid models and pure electric vehicle models on existing fuel models, or expand the new energy vehicle business segment.
From the perspective of sales volume, the sales volume of models with hybrid dual engine series or new energy series models is more dominant. Dongfeng Nissan sold 111,300 units in January 2022, of which the Xuanyi combination sold nearly 50,000 units. Previously, Xuanyi has launched a pure electric version. In addition, Venucia, a subsidiary of Dongfeng Nissan, has now launched three new energy models, and the data shows that in January 2022, Venucia's new energy EV model sales soared by 126% year-on-year.
Transformation has become an inevitable direction for traditional car companies to move forward. Gac Motor Group's current sales force "Two Fields" (Toyota, Honda) has already laid out the hybrid series, and intends to extend the pure electric model. In January 2022, GAC Toyota sold 99,900 vehicles, making it the highest-selling car brand under the GAC Group that month. Among them, the Sales of the Camry series reached about 28,000 units, an increase of 39.9% year-on-year; the sales of Ralink approached 20,000 units; and the sales of the Veranda series reached about 17,500 units, an increase of 42.5% year-on-year.
The above-mentioned top-selling model series have launched dual-engine hybrid versions. In December 2021, Toyota Motor corporation has wisely proposed a development strategy to shift to the electrification of automobiles, and plans to launch a variety of new energy vehicles such as hybrid, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles, and plans to sell all new vehicles in electric vehicles by 2035.
Guangqi Honda in the "Two Fields" also sold quite a considerable amount of 78,489 vehicles that month. Among them, Binzhi sold about 18,400 vehicles, Accord sold about 17,600 vehicles, and Haoying sold about 11,600 vehicles. It is worth noting that the Haoying series also has a hybrid e+ version. In addition, Guangqi Honda also has new energy models such as the Shule and VE-1.
Obviously, traditional car companies with good sales of fuel vehicles also want to share a piece of the new energy vehicle market. GAC Trumpchi has opened the curtain of full hybridization at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, according to january 2022 sales, GAC Trumpchi sales exceeded 30,000, of which GS4 sales exceeded 10,000, and GS4 has also launched a plug-in hybrid version to expand the product matrix.
Subsidy decline is controversial
Although the sales of new energy vehicles are growing, the subsidies are gradually declining. At the end of 2021, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued that the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles in 2022 will be reduced by 30% on the basis of 2021, and it will be clear that the subsidy for new energy vehicles will be terminated on December 31, 2022, and the vehicles on the license plate will no longer be subsidized.
The decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles is followed by an increase in the price of new energy models. According to public information, GAC Aean LX increased by 4,000 yuan, and the new AION S Plus increased by more than 7,000 yuan compared with the 2021 model. In addition, the xiaopeng P7 series rose by 4300 ~ 5900 yuan, the price of Xiaopeng P5 increased by 4800 ~ 5400 yuan, and the Xiaopeng G3i rose by 4800 ~ 5400 yuan.
In February 2022, BYD Automobile's Dynasty Network and Ocean Network series models increased their price by 1,000 to 7,000 yuan, including Qin PLUS DM-i, Qin PLUS EV, Song PLUS DM-i, Song PLUSEV, Song ProDM-i, YuanPro, Han EV, Han DM, Tang DM-i, 2021 Tang DM and Dolphin models.
At present, the industry is worried about the decline of subsidies for new energy vehicles. Auto analyst Zhang Xiang said that according to the data at the end of 2021, the sales volume of new energy vehicles accounted for about 13%, and if there is no government subsidy and preferential policies, new energy vehicles have no way to compete with fuel vehicles.
This is also confirmed by Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group. Feng Xingya proposed to continue the comprehensive subsidy policy for new energy vehicles until 2025, saying: "It is recommended to continue the comprehensive subsidy policy for new energy vehicles according to market and consumer demand, and accurately set subsidy standards for eligible models." At the same time, we can refer to the practice of introducing subsidy policies for many years at the national level, extend the subsidy policy to 2025, release a good guidance signal, and enhance the predictability of consumers and car companies. ”
In the face of the global lack of cores, power battery prices and other factors, the subsidies of the decline have exacerbated the uneasiness of new energy vehicle companies. GAC Aean employees told reporters that the industry is now in a difficult situation to ensure supply, and the company is already expanding production and capacity. BYD employees said that BYD's orders are full, and the self-developed chips and power batteries are given priority for their own use.
In 2022, with the further expansion of the ownership of new energy vehicles, how to ensure supply and sales in the increasingly fierce market competition, new energy vehicle companies and traditional car companies need to speed up their self-research capabilities or strengthen the upstream supplier cooperation chain, use technology to support product strength, and seize market share.