Behind the sudden cessation of hot-selling models to receive orders: car companies can't deliver, and car owners can't wait

Economic Observation Network reporter Zhou Ju "The black cat in the store now has no car, and the manufacturer's side has not accepted reservations, and we can't receive orders here." On February 17, the Economic Observer reporter called the sales staff of an Euler automobile dealership in Beijing in the name of hoping to buy a black cat, and got such a reply. It said that not only the black cat, but also the white cat is currently unable to receive orders, but the white cat has two test drives, if you want to give a certain discount.

The above-mentioned sales staff said that not only their stores, but also dealers in Euler across the country have been unable to accept orders for black cats and white cats. The Economic Observer reporter immediately contacted Wu Wei (pseudonym), the person in charge of a dealer in Oula Shandong, and also got a reply that he could not receive new orders from black cats and white cats.

Wu Wei confirmed the news that has come out of the industry recently: the Great Wall Euler brand has issued a notice to the 4S store, requiring all dealers to remove the promotional materials and exhibition vehicles of the black and white cats of Euler Automobile from 00:00 on February 15, and asking to stop receiving orders for black and white cats of Euler Automobile, and clearly informing the manufacturer that it has no longer accepted orders.

Black cat and white cat are the two most popular models of Euler Automobile, and the data shows that Euler will sell 135,000 vehicles in 2021, of which the cumulative sales of black cat and white cat models exceed 88,000 units in the whole year, accounting for 65% of the total sales of the Euler brand. The sudden fact that the two popular models did not accept new orders surprised the outside world.

"Due to the shortage of chips, insufficient supply of spare parts, national subsidies and many other reasons, the black and white cat models have a large backlog of orders to be delivered, and the waiting cycle for customers to buy a car is too long, which affects the customer experience." In order to avoid bringing more bad car buying feelings to car owners who trust the Euler brand, we decided to stop accepting new orders for Euler black and white cat models based on various factors. On February 18, Great Wall Motor insiders said in an interview with the Economic Observer. As the current theory of difficult delivery, the repeated delays in delivery of the Great Wall Tank 300 Cyberpunk Edition and the possible postponement of the launch of the Tank 500 have caused anxiety among prospective owners.

In fact, not only Euler, but also the new car brand Nezha also announced that some of its models will stop receiving orders. According to the information provided by a Nezha dealer to the Economic Observer reporter, it has received a notice from Nezha Automobile on February 16, the main content is: Nezha U pro400 cruise version accepted orders on the last day of February 16, and no new orders were accepted thereafter, and the specific recovery time is expected to take 3-4 months.

In this news, the Economic Observer reporter asked Nezha Automobile for verification, but as of press time, there was no reply. Under the umbrella of Nezha Automobile, Nezha U is also one of the best-selling models.

According to the Economic Observer reporter's inquiry, the official Mini Program booking page of Euler Automobile has no order channel for black cat and white cat models, and among the models that can be ordered by the Nezha Car APP, there is no Nezha U pro400 cruise version. Why, at this time, these hot-selling models began to collectively play "missing"?

What is the curse of the lack of core?

For the reason why Euler White Cat and Black Cat stopped production, the dealer revealed that it was because of insufficient production capacity, resulting in too much backlog of orders in the early stage. "Because of the limited production capacity, he (the manufacturer) had too many previous orders, and now he has suspended the closure of the order entrance." The sales staff of the above-mentioned Euler Beijing dealership told the Economic Observer Network reporter.

Wu Wei also said that the reason why Euler white cats and black cats are not taking orders now is that there are too many orders in the early stage and the materials cannot keep up. "The reason given by the manufacturer is because there are too many orders in the early stage, coupled with the lack of chips and many other raw materials, so it is not dare to accept new orders at present, because after receiving new orders, there is no way to confirm the delivery time to customers." Therefore, we will stop taking orders first, and as for when to accept orders later, we will be notified separately. Wu Wei dictated the content of the notice issued by Euler to the Economic Observer reporter.

So what is the deep reason behind the tight production capacity and too much order backlog? It can be seen that whether it is Euler or Nezha, in the explanation of the relevant products to stop receiving orders, the lack of cores is mentioned as the main reason. Among them, the first sentence of the notice issued by Nezha to dealers pointed out that it was "affected by the overall chip supply of the industry".

According to Wu Wei, in his city, Euler's orders three or four months ago have not been delivered, that is to say, customers have waited for three to four months after booking, and the car has not yet been obtained.

Although institutions have previously said that the chip shortage problem has eased, the chip shortage is still one of the problems plaguing the automotive industry. In addition, the shortage of raw materials such as batteries and rising prices are also important influencing factors.

The cost pressure and price increase options caused by the subsidy decline are another important reason why black and white cats have stopped receiving new orders. It is reported that after the price of these two mini cars rose, the market competitiveness has declined.

Wu Wei revealed that in 2022, white cats and black cats have begun to sell at the guide price, and there is no discount. This directly led to a decline in orders for both cars. In his view, at present, the acceptance and consumption capacity of domestic consumers for electric vehicles is not enough, so for small cars such as black cats and white cats, once the subsidies decline, the price will be high, and sales will obviously drop.

"Now there are not many black and white cats per month, because there is no discount and no subsidy." Before the basic model was the cheapest when it sold for more than 60,000 yuan, now it is more than 70,000, up more than 10,000 yuan, so it is said that they have begun to wait and see. Wu Wei told the Economic Observer reporter.

According to the data, in January this year, Euler automobile sales of 13229 vehicles, of which black cat and white cat sales were 4209 vehicles, down 58.90% month-on-month; good cat series sales of 9020 vehicles. It can be seen that in the new year, the proportion of white cats and black cat sales has dropped significantly, and good cats have become "rising stars".

In fact, Great Wall Motors is also pushing a good cat with higher positioning. In the case of subsidy decline, Euler announced in January that it would launch a one-year insurance policy for Good Cats: from January 1 to December 28, 2022, new users who purchase Euler Good Cats will continue to enjoy the same comprehensive subsidy price as in 2021. The 5400 yuan of the national subsidy slope is all borne by the manufacturer.

But Wu Wei told the Economic Observer that according to its latest understanding, the price of good cats will also rise, "by March may also rise by more than 5,000 yuan."

According to the statistics of the Economic Observer reporter, as of now, 16 car companies have issued price increase notices for their new energy models. However, for cars with lower prices such as black cats and white cats, consumers are most sensitive to price increases, and they are directly reflected in the sharp decline in sales in January.

Shuffle your products?

In addition to the objective therefore, from the perspective of car companies, the stop of receiving orders by white cats and black cats is interpreted as related to the profit preferences of car companies. Taking Euler as an example, Wu Wei said that Euler may be hoping to cede production capacity to its more expensive products. Although the black cat and the white cat are the two highest-selling models under Euler, they are also the lowest-priced models, both between 60,000 and 80,000 yuan, while the current sales of good cats on the slope are more than 100,000 yuan.

In this case, Euler Motors seems to want to allocate more capacity to the better cats with higher prices and the new models that follow.

"This year Euler will have new models of ballet cats and lightning cats, and the sales of good cats are also good, so the large production will be given to the models behind." The above-mentioned Sales Staff of Beijing Dealers told the Economic Observer reporter. The price of the two models of ballet cat and lightning cat is expected to be more than 150,000 yuan.

The salesperson strongly recommended that the reporter buy a better cat in the car with a higher price, "If you think about it, you can look at the good cat, and order a car for a month and a half or two months to arrive at the car." After the loan is almost the same as the highest price of the black cat, it is about 70,000 or more. The salesperson said.

At a deeper level, behind the black cat and white cat's cessation of receiving orders this time, it is also believed to be related to Euler's brand attack plan. According to the new product released by Euler, it is no longer satisfied with producing only small electric vehicles, but has extended its tentacles to a higher market.

According to the planning previously announced by Great Wall Motors, this year the Euler brand will launch at least four models such as ballet cat, lightning cat, punk cat, cherry cat, etc., and the price range is expected to be between 150,000 and 300,000 yuan, which is much higher than black cats and white cats.

However, Great Wall insiders said that the Euler black and white cat models are still in the intensive production of the Baoding factory and the Tianjin plant, and will continue to be produced, and have not stopped production.

Under the umbrella of Nezha Automobile, the Nezha U pro400 cruise version that stopped receiving new orders is not the lowest positioning model, and its price is higher than that of Nezha V, and the Nezha U pro400 free travel version, priced at 104,800 yuan.

For why only the Nezha U pro400 cruise edition stopped receiving new orders, and whether the chips it needed were special, the Economic Observer reporter interviewed Nezha Automobile, but as of press time, there was no reply.

But Nezha also has the ambition to attack, its stop receiving Nezha U pro400 cruise version is at the level of 100,000 yuan, the latest information shows that Nezha automobile has set the goal of launching more than 200,000 yuan of products in the future to participate in higher-level market competition. Among the car companies that have announced price increases, Nezha Automobile has the highest increase, reaching 10.59%.

It can be seen that a series of factors such as subsidies are prompting these brands to adjust the product matrix in advance.

The industry consensus is that more car companies may join the team to adjust orders. Wu Wei believes that there will be more car companies whose models will gradually enter the ranks of stopping receiving orders, because they are all short of raw materials, except for those brands that have just launched products, or companies that have a large number of stock cars before.

It is still uncertain when these temporarily "missing" models will be able to return. "At the specific time, we are waiting for the manufacturer to notify, and the manufacturer does not put the port there, so we cannot make a reservation." In response to the time when the black and white cat re-received the order, the sales staff of the Euler Beijing dealer told the Economic Observer reporter. According to the notification content provided by the dealer, the recovery time for the specific receipt of the order of the Nezha U pro400 cruise edition is expected to take 3-4 months.

It is worth noting that the stop of hot-selling cars to receive orders is a rare phenomenon in the era of fuel vehicles, although this "suspension" is related to the special factor of chip shortage, but it is more closely related to the new energy "de-subsidy" process and the rapid iterative upgrading of electric vehicles. In the era of fuel vehicles, it is common for multiple generations of hot-selling cars to share the same house; and in the era of electric vehicles, the rapid iteration of technology is doomed to greatly shorten the life cycle of a generation of models. ■