On March 1, the new car-making forces collectively released the February delivery data. On the whole, in February, there were new changes in the delivery ranking of new forces, among which Xiaopeng Automobile, which has been ranked first in the delivery list of new forces for 4 consecutive months, fell to third, and Nezha Automobile once again squeezed into the first camp to rank second, ideally winning the monthly sales crown with a single model.
Judging from the overall trend of each brand, the delivery volume of new forces in February has dropped sharply month-on-month, and compared with the same period last year, the decline of each brand this year is even greater. The reason is that on the one hand, due to the impact of the Spring Festival in February, on the other hand, the new power brands are still facing supply challenges in terms of parts.
Specifically, ideal cars delivered a total of 8,414 vehicles in February, an increase of 265.8% year-on-year. However, its deliveries in February decreased by 3,854 units compared with January, and in addition to the Spring Festival factor, the ideal February was also affected by the epidemic in Suzhou, resulting in a shortage of parts supply affecting production.
Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Auto, also mentioned this matter in the company's earnings meeting a few days ago, saying that Ideal has been affected by Bosch supply in the past two months, but this situation will improve in the next month. It is understood that Bosch AutoMotive Parts (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. was confirmed by staff in mid-February, and then Bosch expects that the epidemic will have a short-term impact on manufacturing and post-production operations.
However, despite supply chain challenges, Ideal remained the highest in the February delivery rankings of the new forces, reflecting the strong product strength of its single model Ideal ONE and the success of Ideal's continuous cultivation of the family car market. Ideal Auto founder Li Xiang said in the earnings conference a few days ago that the current ideal has only been verified in a small price range in the market, and in the home user market of more than 200,000 yuan, the ideal currently accounts for only 2.5% of the market share (the data is based on the entire passenger car market), and the company's goal is to reach more than 20% in the home user market. In the future, Ideal will continue to focus on the home user market.
After the ideal car, Nezha Automobile showed the trend of "dark horse" in February, and it delivered 7117 new cars in the same month, an increase of 255% year-on-year. Among them, Nezha U Pro delivered 3044 vehicles in the same month; Nezha V series delivered 4073 vehicles. At present, after the U Pro delivery gradually climbed, the two models reached a relatively balanced state.
It is understood that behind the good delivery performance of Nezha Automobile in February is its continuous investment and layout in terms of products and channels. In terms of products, in February, Nezha U Pro ushered in the first PIVOT OS OTA upgrade in 2022, the new wake word "Hello, Nezha" was officially launched, and unlocked many intelligent voice functions, bringing more intelligent voice interaction experience and human-vehicle interaction to Nezha U Pro owners. In addition, as of February 2022, Nezha V-series models have accumulated more than 80,000 OTAs, constantly refreshing users' car experience.
In terms of channels, Nezha Automobile added 22 direct-operated stores in 20 cities in February, and so far it has opened more than 80 direct-operated stores in 28 cities, covering all provinces and first- and second-tier cities across the country.
Nezha Automobile said that 2022 is a very critical year for the development of Nezha, and the current achievements in products and channels will lay a solid foundation for Nezha Automobile's strategic goals such as brand uplift and Nezha S listing in 2022. According to the existing news, Nezha will not only launch the brand flagship model Nezha S this year, but also will go all out to sprint for the IPO this year.
After Nezha, Xiaopeng Automobile's month-on-month decline in February was the most prominent among the new forces. According to the data, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 6225 vehicles in February, a decrease of 6697 vehicles compared with January, a decrease of about 51% month-on-month, for which Xiaopeng Automobile has not explained more about this. However, from the existing news, during the Spring Festival holiday from the end of January to February this year, Xiaopeng Automobile carried out a technical transformation of the Zhaoqing production base and fully resumed production in mid-February.
In addition, Xiaopeng Automobile also had the problem of tight parts supply affecting production in February, and some Xiaopeng P5 users reflected that the order was not delivered on schedule, which Xiaopeng said was mainly due to the extreme tight supply of major components such as lithium iron phosphate batteries. Combined with the fact that Weilai also faced a shortage of battery cell supply when delivery was higher last year, this year's head new forces further increased the delivery volume or will face the challenge of "double core" supply.
In addition to the first echelon of delivery of new car-making forces, the delivery volume of Weilai Automobile after entering 2022 is not high. According to the data, NIO delivered a total of 6131 vehicles in February, an increase of 9.9% year-on-year, and the reason for the smaller year-on-year growth rate than other brands is that NIO's delivery base in February last year was relatively high.
From a month-on-month point of view, Weilai fell by 36.5% month-on-month in February, for which Weilai did not explain too many reasons, but according to the relevant person in charge of Weilai, the Weilai factory was shut down during the Spring Festival, and some ET7 sample cars, exhibition cars and test drives were produced in February, and the user experience of ET7 in March will begin one after another. It is reported that NIO ET7 will open delivery on March 28, which means that NIO's current relatively flat delivery trend will usher in new opportunities for growth.
Compared with the above brands delivered more than 6,000 vehicles in February, the delivery performance of zero-running cars in February was not outstanding, affected by the tight supply chain of chips and batteries and the Spring Festival factors, and the delivery volume of zero-run vehicles in the month was only 3435 vehicles, an increase of 447% year-on-year.
However, from the perspective of product planning, Zero Run will also release 4 new models this year, including C01 pure electric sedan, C11 four-wheel drive performance version, C11 extended range version, T03 redesign & export version and other models. Coupled with the zero run T03 and zero run C11 currently on sale, the product matrix of zero run this year will be more perfect.