How can the new energy vehicles that are in the first-hand market become "small transparent" in the second-hand market? /Visual China
2022 is the last year for new energy vehicles to enjoy subsidies, and from next year, all new energy vehicles will compete head-on with fuel vehicles in the market. However, the new energy first-hand car market is becoming more and more hot, and the second-hand car market is cold and cold. In the second-hand car market around the world, many second-hand car merchants dare not accept new energy vehicles, and consumers are also suspicious of new energy second-hand cars.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the automotive industry is now in a period of ice and fire.
On the one hand, the explosive growth of sales and intensive expansion of production capacity of new energy vehicle companies; on the other hand, the camp of traditional car companies has been forced to reduce production due to the Matthew effect, and even sell factories to survive.
Tesla is preparing to expand the factory to promote production. /Visual China
Moving to the sales market, the situation of ice and fire is obviously more obvious.
Under the superposition of still tight supply and demand for automotive chips and rising raw material prices, whether it is a new energy vehicle or a traditional energy vehicle, the delivery cycle of new cars is constantly extending - although car workers are working overtime, they still can't run the market demand speed.
The first-hand car market is in short supply, and the second-hand car market is naturally hot. In addition, the "Notice on Promoting the Registration of Used Car Transactions and Facilitating the Cross-provincial Communication and Facilitation of Used Car Off-site Transactions" promulgated in April last year has solved the problems of long and inconvenient second-hand car off-site transaction cycles from the system, and the circulation of the second-hand car market has been further increased.
The "2021 National Used Car Market In-depth Analysis" report released by the China Automobile Dealers Association in February this year revealed that the national second-hand car trading volume in 2021 was 17.5851 million units, an increase of 22.62% over the same period last year.
Interestingly, it seems that all used cars are very sought-after, except for new energy vehicles. Casually walking into the used car market in any big city, it is not uncommon for buyers to buy used BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi) fuel vehicles at a higher price. Among them, the "explosive" Mercedes-Benz big G has become a "hard currency" of the buyer-seller game - the second-hand car is hundreds of thousands more expensive than the new car, and the rare "spectacle" of the price upside down is still unhindered by the enthusiasm of the buyer and seller.
It has become a "hard currency" Mercedes-Benz big G. /Screenshot of an online trading platform for used cars
If you want to change hands on the new energy vehicle in your hand, it may not be generally difficult.
Not easy to sell
In 2021, the total sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 3.5 million, setting a record of "every 8 new vehicles, 1 is a new energy vehicle". At the same time, the new energy vehicle lying in the second-hand car market is like a "small transparency".
Guangjun used car trading market is one of the largest used car trading markets in Guangzhou. When the New Weekly reporter visited, he found that it is difficult to find new energy vehicles in the trading market with thousands of second-hand cars parked. Around the scene, there are only a few new energy vehicles that can be seen, and the largest proportion is the Net Red Car Tesla. Compared with the densely packed fuel vehicles, these Teslas with green cards also seem out of place under the "cluster" of BBA.
This situation is not alone. Earlier, when the media visited the Huaxiang used car market in Beijing, they found that in this so-called "Asia's largest used car trading market", the number of used new energy vehicles is also very few. Although they are very popular in the first-hand car market, in the second-hand car market, they are basically in a state of no one.
There are many more used cars on online platforms than in offline markets. In a second-hand car platform, there are a considerable number of new energy "quasi-new cars" that have been licensed for about a year, and many of them have been licensed for less than a month. Browsing found that most of these "quasi-new cars" have been transferred within 2 times, and some "quasi-new cars" have been transferred more than 4 times.
Tesla quasi-new car on the online platform. /Screenshot of an online trading platform for used cars
But whether online or offline, the discount rate of these "quasi-new cars" is more rapid than that of fuel vehicles. Whether it is Tesla, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, or the new forces of new energy car manufacturing that have emerged in recent years, none of the new energy vehicles are worthy of the word "value preservation".
In January this year, the "2021 China Automobile Retention Rate Report" released by the China Automobile Dealers Association and Jingzhen Estimate showed that among the current mainstream pure electric vehicles, the retention rate of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, Tesla ModelX and Porsche Taycan ranked in the top three, while the mainstream car-making new forces represented by Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal were all less than 80%.
The "January 2022 China Automobile Retention Rate Research Report" released a month later disclosed that compared with December last year, whether it is a plug-in hybrid model or a pure electric model, the three-age retention rate of new energy used cars increased significantly in January this year. The report believes that the increase in the ownership of new energy vehicles, market recognition and use experience is a macro factor in the rise in the retention rate.
However, not all sellers trade used cars at publicly available retention rates – more often, new energy used cars have much lower retention rates.
Some former Tesla owners complained in an interview with China Automobile News that when they sold a Tesla Model 3 produced in 2021, the price was less than 60% off the landing price of the new car, although the new car was equipped with a lot of configurations, but "it was not reflected in the price of selling second-hand cars." A previous report by Phoenix WEEKLY Automobile said that some notorious "quasi-new cars" have a retention rate of less than 50%, which can be described as a "broken bone" sale.
For example, the most seen "online car" pure electric vehicle on the road, the retention rate is equivalent to "breaking the bone". /Visual China
The "roadblock" behind it
Second-hand new energy vehicles are particularly cold in the market, not only the retention rate is a "roadblock".
After all, the second-hand car industry is a heavy asset industry, just have enough return funds is not enough, the car in hand is sold as quickly as possible, in order to make profits through the price difference, reduce the loss of large amounts of funds on hand.
In the second-hand fuel vehicle market, it is not difficult for merchants to make profits - most of the traditional fuel vehicles usually have a three-year retention rate of 60% or 70%, and some fuel models also have their own value-added attributes, which are more expensive than new cars, and have become the "darlings" that both buyers and sellers like.
But new energy vehicles are diametrically opposed. The battery carried in the car alone has dissuaded many second-hand car merchants - no one knows what the recovered new energy vehicles have experienced before this, and how long they can be used after selling to the second owner.
Unlike fuel vehicles that can open the hood to check, the battery of the new energy vehicle cannot be detected by conventional means, and no one can say whether there is anything wrong with the battery of the new energy vehicle that can be taken back.
At this stage, the price of power batteries is not cheap. According to reports, the current average price of ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries in China is 1.08 yuan / Wh and 0.5 yuan / Wh, respectively. If you replace the lithium iron phosphate battery, it will cost about 40,000 yuan; if you replace the ternary lithium battery, the cost may exceed 60,000 yuan.
The price of replacing batteries for new energy vehicles is not cheap. /Visual China
Changing a battery will cost at least a few months of salary, which consumer's money is blown by the wind? Instead of spending money to pick up a car and then swiping a credit card to repair the battery, it is better to buy a second-hand fuel car at the same price.
This has not yet considered the problem of how to charge. Almost all new energy vehicle brands are promising their first owners that they can install charging piles for free when buying electric vehicles and new cars; but for second-hand owners of new energy vehicles, the door to this right is directly closed. The lifetime warranty rights and interests that the first owners of most new energy vehicle brands can enjoy are basically all invalid after the transfer of the second-hand car market.
Public information shows that among the many new energy vehicle companies at present, Tesla's first and second car owners have an equal relationship in terms of rights and interests, while the rights and interests of the first owners of new car-making forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and Lantu will not be transferred to the next owner with the car.
This explains from another side why there are few new energy vehicles and a single brand in the second-hand car market, because second-hand car merchants dare not collect cars, and consumers dare not buy cars.
After all, for a new energy vehicle, few second-hand car dealers know how to look, look at the engine without an engine, look at the gearbox and do not know how to look, have not had accidents to find out the information, and there is no mature second-hand new energy vehicle monitoring and evaluation system, at most can only look at the appearance and skeleton in accordance with the way of looking at the fuel vehicle, and judge other problems "can only rely on feelings". Once the new energy vehicle sold has a problem, it is easy for the buyer and seller to have disputes.
In the past two years, the mileage of pure electric vehicles has increased rapidly, and some models with low mileage have also become "chicken ribs" in the eyes of second-hand car dealers and consumers - even if someone buys, most of them are used to account for indicators.
Beijing, which ranks first in the country in terms of motor vehicle ownership, is currently the only city in the country that needs to shake the number to get a new energy license plate, and the waiting time for "queuing" to get the number has been queued until 2027. Therefore, when the indicators are in hand, the new energy second-hand cars with low mileage and cheap price have become an artifact that accounts for the indicators. It seems that it is not difficult to explain the reason why the retention rate of the popular "net red god car" Wuling Hongguang MINI EV can be surprisingly high.
I didn't expect it to have such a high retention rate, which is actually the reason. /Figureworm Creative
"It's just getting started"
Relying on the indicators will not save the situation that new energy used cars are rarely favored. Compared with the completion of fuel used cars, new energy vehicles are "still in their infancy".
Jing Wenbing, vice president of Autohome and general manager of the used car business unit, said at a forum that among the more than 100,000 used car merchants in the country, no more than 15% are involved in new energy used car transactions, and there are only a few merchants specializing in new energy used cars.
The business model is not mature, how to operate a new energy used car, whose heart is playing drums.
In recent years, the "number one players" of new energy vehicles have also begun to invest a lot of money to establish their own official second-hand car business, providing users with full-process services such as vehicle testing, evaluation, acquisition and sale, and all the information of the recovered second-hand cars is open and transparent.
New energy used car information on the Little Red Book.
But this used car model, which is self-directed by car companies, is not bought by all buyers. Previously, consumers broke the news to the media that Weilai's official second-hand car was suspected of concealing the condition of the car and the sales process was opaque.
Before this, more car owners bought certified second-hand cars on Tesla's official website and found that the vehicle was suspected of being an "accident car" and went to court with Tesla. In September last year, the second-instance judgment of the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court upheld the previous judgment of "one refund and one compensation for three", in addition to refunding the purchase price, Tesla was also sentenced to compensate the owner of the car 1.1391 million yuan.
Although the second-hand car business has been launched with a lot of money, the new forces are more interested in attracting consumers to become the first owners rather than the second owners. After all, compared with the small money that is difficult to earn in the second-hand car business, it is the most important thing for car companies to expand in the market first. In the final analysis, it is still the result of the rapid iterative update of new energy vehicles.
When new energy vehicles become more and more intelligent and run farther and farther, consumers' cognition of new energy vehicles is more and more like buying electronic products - only with the latest products can we seize the trend of the times; at the beginning of buying old products, it has fallen behind.
"Buying the new and not buying the old" seems to have become the value theory of many consumers looking at new energy vehicles. /Figureworm Creative
Under the role of the merchant's marketing words, the value theory of "buying new and not buying old" determines the status of new energy second-hand cars in the minds of consumers.
Battery is the most fundamental problem. At present, power batteries are still non-standardized products, and the cost of recycling and dismantling is high, and it is difficult to achieve large-scale utilization. The power exchange mode of new energy vehicles seems to be a solution, but how to recycle decommissioned batteries, how to reduce the cost of power exchange, and how to detect battery safety are all lingering doubts on the front of new energy second-hand vehicles.
2022 is the last year for new energy vehicles to enjoy subsidies, and from next year, all new energy vehicles will compete head-on with fuel vehicles in the market. Is this a new opportunity for the cold and cold new energy used car market, or is it "continuing to pour ice"?
In the situation that the primary market for new energy vehicles is becoming more and more hot, no one knows the answer to this question.
Author | Lianghao proofreads | Morning
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