Written | Wu Xianzhi
Edit the | Wang Pan
Entering 2022, the competition in the new energy market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the sinking market is bound to usher in a dark war.
In the past few years, Wuling Hongguang swept the market below 100,000 yuan, and when the new and old forces such as Zero Run, Nezha, and Great Wall Euler continued to exert their strength, we saw that in the low-price car market, such as the market below 50,000 yuan, was still in the stage of chaos. This is largely due to the special texture of China's vast townships, and the economic form of any city cannot be directly applied to the townships.
New energy vehicles do have the expectation of accelerated penetration, but it should be pointed out that cities account for a considerable part of them, and in townships, the situation becomes complicated.
A low-speed electric vehicle merchant in northern Jiangsu believes that in the strict sense, the electrification of power in township areas once ran in front of the city, "I believe that many township markets in the country are firmly occupied by low-speed electric vehicles, two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles." From the perspective of the brand, the "fellow villagers" do not think that Wei Xiaoli has replaced the BBA.
Driver's license, consumption capacity, use scenarios, and infrastructure are four problems that are difficult to achieve overnight in front of all new energy OEMs.
It is difficult for electric vehicle owners to return to their hometowns
Chen Ming and his wife work in first-tier cities, but he has not added an electric car to his hometown.
"My wife and I can only come back once every New Year's Holiday, and the two children left behind are all cared for by their parents", the problem that makes him dilemma is that his parents are around 60. Originally, he wanted to buy a Wuling mini, but his parents' cultural level was not high, and he could not learn at all, so he bought a low-speed electric car through the e-commerce platform.
For safety issues, Chen Ming is very concerned, "usually tell parents to drive according to traffic rules." This year, taking the opportunity to go home for the New Year, he walked with his parents, and he sat in the co-driver to correct the operation process of the old couple. "Turning and starting must first turn the lights to give people a psychological advance."
Low-speed electric vehicles in Shandong, Henan killed in all directions, and the southwest region is not the main market in the traditional sense, if it is not the actual situation is special, Chen Ming will not be so painstaking.
Perhaps not all families are as special as Chen Ming, in fact, townships and cities have completely different market needs.
Li Yan, a second-hand low-speed electric vehicle merchant in Taizhou, believes that new energy vehicle companies should not put the weight of townships too high. "No matter how well Wuling Hongguang sells, it can't hide the difference between urban and rural areas." Because the purchasing power of townships is limited, many people do not have and will not go to the driver's license test, and their daily journey is only within a few tens of kilometers. ”
He believes that new energy vehicles are actually benchmarked against fuel vehicles, while low-speed electric vehicles are benchmarked against two-wheel battery cars and electric three-wheelers. "If a Yadi electric car costs four or five thousand, adding two or three thousand can buy an old man's music, without wind and sun, why should I spend twenty or thirty thousand to buy a Wuling Hongguang?" In the words of this businessman, the township crowd tries to save money and trouble.
However, Li Yan also admitted that the current low-speed electric vehicle market is in the stage of "can be built but not opened", which is the main factor hindering its capture of townships. On the one hand, after the introduction of the new regulations in 2020, the industry has clear standards and legal basis, and supply is not a problem; on the other hand, although the license plate problem is unresolved, as long as it is driven in the township and does not violate the basic traffic laws, the local generally turns a blind eye.
"A low-speed electric car is a mule, not a donkey, not a horse, 'not a car, not a three-wheeled'." The above-mentioned merchants believe that even if they are secretly opened, this market is unlikely to fall to new energy vehicles that are more cost-effective. "It's a big deal that I spent two or three thousand to buy a second-hand one, and I don't feel sad to be caught."
According to a person familiar with the matter, there have been differences among regulators, with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology believing that low-speed electric vehicles should be energy-saving and environmentally friendly, and the transportation department believes that according to relevant laws and regulations, drivers should hold driver's licenses and licenses. As the differences reach the local level, the situation becomes more complicated.
At the implementation level, most areas still follow the principle of "as long as you do not enter the city and do not interfere in normal traffic, you generally turn a blind eye.".
In the actual life scene, there are not only gray areas in regulations, but also the difference in the dual structure of urban and rural areas, which also brings many inconveniences to new energy vehicles.
"Big cities have standardized roads, while township roads are tortuous and looping, and it is much more convenient for low-speed electric vehicles, battery cars, and electric three-wheelers to get in and out." Chen Ming encountered a lot of bad things when he returned home during the Spring Festival, and in order to save electricity, he did not dare to turn on the air conditioner along the way. It was difficult to get home, and then my parents went to the town to catch up with the market, because of the large flow of people, unfortunately they were rubbed by the villagers who passed by.
"People carry their own vegetables to the town, and there is not much money, so they just forget it." The troublesome thing is not over, until the sixth day of the first year, due to the lack of residual electricity to return, I had to detour to the city with the recent charging pile early in the morning, and finally turned on the first air conditioner when the electricity was filled. After such a toss, the return trip was late at night.
The problem of new energy vehicle replenishment is a cliché, and most township users need to install charging piles, which involves local circuit transformation. In the city due to the previous charging spontaneous combustion incident caused by the tragic battery car, electric three-wheeler is subject to certain restrictions, but in the countryside this situation does not exist. Low-speed electric vehicles usually have a charging specification of the common 16A, and the general family does not need to do circuit modification.
Interestingly, because most of the low-speed electric vehicles before electric vehicles use lead-acid batteries, the endurance and life expectancy are not ideal, and as the head companies have upgraded to lithium iron phosphate batteries, this problem has also been solved.
The old man le dominates the township
"Counties and towns need more flexible, low-priced and low-barrier-to-drive vehicles, and Old Man Le perfectly matches this demand."
Due to the nature of the work, Li Yan has a considerable understanding of every customer who collects and sells cars, and he even believes that low-speed electric vehicles are an important supplement to travel tools.
Holding the same view is also Wang Luo, who once worked as a micron dealer, he noticed that the cost and price of low-speed electric vehicles have continued to fall in recent years, which indicates that the industrial structure has become mature, and in recent years, new energy vehicle companies have continued to reduce their dimensionality, and they cannot take away their share in a short period of time.
"In the 2019 years, the micron was on the high-end side, the price was between 20,000 and 50,000, and this range encountered the ceiling of a low-speed electric car, and then because it could not sell a few all year round, the factory collapsed, and I changed my business to repair." Now this market is mainly Reading and Li Chi, it is reported that the above two brands have been able to make the price below 10,000 yuan, and The minimum price of Wuling Hongguang Mini is 28,800, which is almost three times that of low-speed electric vehicles.
After several years of development, the above-mentioned enterprises can even compete with new energy vehicle companies in townships. Reading earlier through the acquisition of Sichuan Mustang Automobile, got the production qualification, in the past two years also launched two or three new energy vehicles, sub-brand Mango electric vehicle price and Wuling Hongguang mini price difference of only 1,000 yuan.
Redding, Li Chi, Han Tang and other enterprises survived the introduction of new regulations, and have been struggling for many years in a difficult market environment, practicing the kung fu of both good and evil. "If the car companies are Yangchun Baixue, then they (the above-mentioned enterprises) are xialiba people, and the car companies may not be able to beat in the townships."
We have noticed that new energy vehicle companies often invest more in marketing, as far as possible to create a sense of luxury car for consumers to spend 100,000 yuan to buy luxury cars, in this regard, Yu Chengdong is a master. Low-speed electric vehicle manufacturers are more grounded in marketing, usually in the form of open posts and replies in the form of grass-roots short video numbers, local forums or tie bars, and the picture information is as simple and clear as possible.
In addition, even in gray-zone markets, their profit margins remain attractive. According to Wang Luo, at present, the gross profit margin of a dealer can be about 1000-1500 yuan for models up and down. "The price has dropped from 20,000 to 20,000 over the years, there has been no major change in profit margins, and if you want to make money, you have to open source."
Wang Luo also saw the increase in market ownership, so he focused on the repair and battery replacement business last year, according to his calculations, his stores can completely cover nearby townships.
"In the past few years, most of the lead-acid batteries were installed, and last year, many people had the need to change lithium batteries, I learned online for a while and then hung up the signboard, which not only gained word-of-mouth spread, but also added an income." Wang Luo now operates four or five brands at the same time, and has accumulated a considerable number of old users in the past few years.
New energy vehicles in the township users of the mind is not dominant, the outside world mostly take the BBA to benchmark with, in Henan, Shandong province, some professional stores loaded with low-speed electric vehicles and cars. "I've seen companies that produce old man music build new energy vehicles, but I haven't seen a few car companies make old man music."
Offline stores are an important entrance for brands to reach the minds of users, especially for the middle-aged and elderly people in townships with information deviations.
It is worth mentioning that among the many users of low-speed electric vehicles, there are also a large number of stay-at-home mothers. According to Wang Luo, some manufacturers began to spend their minds on appearance, which won the recognition of many women in their 30s and 40s. "A lot of people are thinking of spending thousands to buy a small one, pick up and drop off children, and buy vegetables for transportation."
The reason for abandoning the Wuling Hongguang mini and choosing a low-speed electric vehicle is nothing more than saving the time and energy of the driver's license, and at the same time saving a lot of money.
The picture shows the model of a platform that favors female users
Not only that, Wang Luo also mentioned that in recent years, small off-road models have been sought after by many people in their 50s and 60s, and they can sell several cars a month on average. In terms of internal settings, although the sparrow is small and complete, the main control screen, music, and reversing images have not fallen, and it is not too much to describe it as "condensed tram".
Photon Planet noticed during the Spring Festival that low-speed electric vehicles that do not have the right of way in the city are rampant in township areas, and many car owners say that they will generally avoid them at intersections. "The driver is either an old man or a female driver, and he has to let it go."
epilogue
With the maturity of the new energy industry chain, more and more car companies have noticed the value of the sinking market. At the same time, low-speed electric vehicle companies will not sit still.
A low-speed electric vehicle dealer in Henan pointed out that if the new national standard is relaxed on the driver's license (rumors are likely to be C3 photos), low-speed electric vehicles may also be able to kill from townships to urban areas. "The price, the appearance is incomparable to the car, and it is also very friendly in the driving environment."
Of course, the old man is not all advantages, some users said, "I see that the official endurance is 100 kilometers, why did I climb two small slopes, and the endurance was 20% off?" ”。 Another user mentioned that the manufacturer's after-sales service is completely incomparable with that of car companies, even if it is a "big brand" that produces both low-speed electric vehicles and electric vehicles, the same after-sales problems occur frequently. Earlier, in Yugan County, Jiangxi Province, there was an incident of a brand dealer defending its rights.
When people pay attention to new energy vehicles, they seem to carry the premise of "urban scene", and the many particularities of townships show that the sinking market is challenging car companies in all aspects.
This year, we have seen that many new energy vehicles have become rare things in the eyes of their fellow villagers, accompanied by considerable stereotypes. In the case of insufficient ratio and surplus, how to make "fellow villagers" willing to pay is not an easy task.
When the new energy vehicle clamors to sink, even the hurdle of Wuling Hongguang has not yet passed, how to challenge the old man Le?
"I will buy a vegetable, go to a scenic spot dozens of miles away to climb the mountain, spend tens of thousands is not cost-effective", a car owner explained the reason why he did not choose transportation, but to buy a low-speed electric car, Leng Buding said a very interesting sentence: only by holding the steering wheel with both hands, you will feel that you are not old enough to rely on others.
This is reminiscent of the movie "Smell the Woman", in which the lieutenant colonel pushes away Charlie who tries to help him.