Written by Wu Jing
Editor/ Zhang Nan
Design / Shi Yuchao
Entering March, we officially ushered in the "two sessions time" of the whole country.
On March 5, Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview at the Great Hall of the People that the sales of new energy vehicles in the mainland in the first two months of this year were very good, more than doubled, and it is expected to reach the expected target this year, which may significantly exceed the expected target.
As he said, the sales volume of China's new energy vehicle companies hit a new high. BYD's passenger cars sold 90,268 units in February, up 336.2% year-on-year. Among them, 87,473 new energy passenger cars were sold, an increase of 764.1% year-on-year. In addition, new car-making forces such as Ideal, Xiaopeng, Zero Run and Nezha have almost all created an increase of more than 200% year-on-year.
Under the haze of the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict", the prices of commodities such as oil, aluminum, palladium and nickel soared. In this regard, some people in the industry believe that with the continuous increase in the price of basic energy sources such as oil, gas and coal, the new energy era may come in advance.
Traditional auto giant Ford began a Jedi Strike Back. On March 2, Ford Motor Co. announced that it would formally divide its automotive business into three parts – the fuel vehicle business, the electric vehicle business, and the Ford Pro business unit, which provides exclusive one-stop service for commercial and government customers. In addition, Ford CEO Jim Farley also stressed that Ford motor's investment in electric vehicles plans to increase by another $20 billion, that is, a total investment of $50 billion by 2026.
On the evening of March 1, Stellantis Group also announced the "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan. It said it aims to achieve by the end of 2030 all cars sold by the group in Europe to be pure electric models, and 50% of the cars sold in the United States are pure electric models.
Zhidou Automobile, which had been dormant for a long time, suddenly had new news. On March 2, Yinyi Co., Ltd. issued an announcement that the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the manager of Zhidou Automobile and intends to invest no more than 400 million yuan to participate in the restructuring of Zhidou Automobile. In this regard, the automotive business review has covered it in more depth. (For details, see "Veterans Don't Die, Know The Beans Rekindle").
In addition to Zhidou, a PPT involving chery commercial vehicles and Southeast Automobile was leaked to the Internet, and the PPT content showed that Chery Commercial Vehicles may acquire Southeast Automobile. This also means that southeast cars, which are struggling on the edge of life and death, may usher in a new turnaround.
Since the collective landing in the US stock market, the three new car-making forces of "Wei Xiaoli" have finally "met" in the Hong Kong stock market. According to HKEx documents, NIO has applied for a secondary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and expects its Class A common stock to commence trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, 10 March 2022.
There was also a "heart-wrenching" news in the automotive circle. According to foreign media reports, recently, the burning freighter carrying thousands of luxury cars of Volkswagen has sunk into the Atlantic Ocean. The freighter had 1,900 Audis, 1,100 Porsches, 189 Bentleys and 85 Lamborghinis, as well as 500 Volkswagen brand models. The cargo on board is worth approximately $438 million.
In this regard, some auto media people joked that what sank into the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean was not only a lot of luxury cars, but also a lot of chips. As of now, the global automotive supply chain crisis has not been lifted. In the supply chain is in jeopardy today, any accident that causes production interruption may have a significant impact on the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, a few days ago, Taiwan Hsinchu Science Park sudden power jump accident, industry insiders pointed out that the area of the wafer may be fully scrapped, automotive supply chain safety issues, still obstructed and long ...
Sales of new energy vehicle companies reached a new high
Just entered March, many new energy vehicle companies have posted their own report cards.
In February 2022, the sales ranking of "Wei Xiaoli" continued to shuffle. Ideal Car successfully won the crown, and Nezha successfully entered the first camp of the new car-making forces, surpassing Xiaopeng and Weilai, and only located behind Ideal Automobile.
The data shows that in February this year, Ideal Cars delivered 8414 Ideal ONE, an increase of 265.8% year-on-year. Since delivery, the cumulative delivery volume of Ideal ONE has reached 144,770 units. As of February 28, 2022, Ideal Auto has 220 retail centers in the country, covering 105 cities, and 279 after-sales maintenance centers and authorized sheet metal spray centers, covering 204 cities.
It is Nezha Automobile that creates surprises for the current new energy market. In February this year, Nezha Automobile delivered 7117 new cars, an increase of 255% year-on-year, ranking first in the new car-making forces. In the first two months of this year, Nezha Automobile delivered a total of 18,126 vehicles, an increase of 332% year-on-year.
Xiaopeng lost the championship, and Weilai fell out of the top three of the new car-making forces, and its performance was slightly unsatisfactory. According to the data, in February this year, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered a total of 6225 vehicles, an increase of 180% year-on-year. In terms of single-model deliveries, the Xiaopeng P7 delivered 3537 units, an increase of 151% year-on-year; the Xiaopeng P5 delivered 2059 units; and the Xiaopeng G3 series delivered 629 units.
In addition to the transformation of the production base, Xiaopeng Automobile also had the problem of tight parts supply affecting production in February. In late February, some Xiaopeng P5 owners' orders could not be delivered on schedule, and Xiaopeng responded that the extreme shortage of supply of major components such as lithium iron phosphate batteries caused the Order for Xiaopeng P5 460 models to fail to deliver according to the expected delivery cycle.
In February this year, Weilai Automobile ranked at the bottom of the new car-making force camp with a year-on-year growth rate of 10%. Through further combing the data, it was found that its sales growth was weak, on the one hand, due to the high base of the same period last year, and on the other hand, because the company was in the gap period of new cars.
In 2021, NIO Day, Li Bin released two new cars, ET7 and ET5, which will be delivered in March and September this year. Coupled with the ES7, which is expected to be released in April this year, with 3 blockbuster new cars, Weilai may return to the "throne" of new car-making forces.
In the field of new energy, there is also a strong teammate - BYD, BYD passenger cars in February sold 90,268 units, an increase of 336.2% year-on-year. Among them, 87,473 new energy passenger cars were sold, an increase of 764.1% year-on-year.
Chery Commercial Vehicle may acquire Southeast Automobile
On March 4, a PPT involving Chery Commercial Vehicle's cooperation plan with Southeast Automobile was leaked to the Internet, and the PPT content showed that Chery Commercial Vehicles may acquire Southeast Automobile. And according to the plan, the two sides will formally cooperate in 2022, will continue to use the main body of Southeast Automobile, and operate under the Southeast Jietu Automobile brand, joint development, base production, in-depth cooperation, and will strive to achieve an annual production and sales of 400,000 units within 3-5 years.
The above-mentioned PPT also revealed the planning of chery Commercial Vehicle and Southeast Automobile for the next three years, including sales targets, channels, new factories and models.
The PPT also shows that according to the plan, the cooperation between Chery and Southeast Automobile is divided into three steps:
The first stage is that in 2022, Chery New Energy models will be sold under the Southeast Automobile brand; at the same time, to improve the performance of Southeast Automobile products, Jietu will be sold at home and abroad with the Jietu brand and network after the bid change, with a sales target of 24,000 units;
The second phase is 2023, which will put into production three remodeled products, use domestic and international channels for sales, and locally produce Southeast brand new energy or OEM Chery models, and jointly achieve the sales target of 75,000 units;
In the third phase, in 2024, the two companies will jointly develop three new models and achieve sales targets of 150,000 to 400,000 units in 2024, and will also build a new plant with an annual production capacity of 250,000 units.
If the news is true, the dying Southeast car may usher in a new turning point.
Ford is divided into three
On March 2, Ford Motor announced that it would spin off the company's fuel vehicle and electric vehicle business units to operate separately. Among them, Ford Blue will become the main body of the fuel vehicle business, responsible for the profitable growth of the company's iconic automobile business, and provide vehicle hardware engineering and manufacturing support to other business units of Ford Motor.
Ford Model e is an electric vehicle business unit that supports the development of software, intelligent networking technologies and services for each of Ford's business units. Ford said that although Ford Blue and Ford Model e will operate independently, they will also share resources at the technical, practical and other levels to promote the company's scale efficiency and continuous improvement of operational efficiency.
Add to this the previously announced Ford Pro business unit, which provides exclusive one-stop services for commercial and government customers, including a full range of fuel and electric vehicle products, a full range of software systems, charging and services. So far, Ford expects three new business units to be independently operated and self-financing by 2023.
Jim Farley, CHIEF executive of Ford Motor, said Ford's expectation is that it will not only give Ford Model e the efficiency and speed of a start-up, untethered innovation, but also allow Ford Blue to continue to leverage our experience in the industry and the advantages of production scale.
Ford motor said that the company has realized that the promotion of change is an inevitable trend, in order to accelerate the development and delivery of pure electric, digital, vehicle networking and services, to give full play to the advantages of the company's iconic fuel vehicle product line, it is necessary to adopt different ideas in the way of business operations, talent selection, and even organizational structure.
So, at the same time as the spin-off of the business unit, Ford also announced a series of senior management team appointments:
Jim Farley, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ford Motor, will also serve as President of Ford Model E. Doug Field has been named Chief EV and Digital Systems Officer at Ford Model e, with overall responsibility for product development, in addition to leading the development of software and embedded systems for all Ford Motor Company business units. Marin Giaia will serve as Ford Model e's Chief Customer Officer, overseeing product launches, customer experiences and new business initiatives.
Former President of the Americas and National Markets Group, Kumar Galhotra, will serve as President of Ford Blue. Stuart Rowley will serve as Chief Transformation and Quality Officer, responsible for leading Ford to increase efficiency, reduce operational complexity, and roll out a competitive lean cost structure companywide.
HauThai-Tang will serve as chief industrial platform officer, responsible for product development, supply chain and production engineering management for fuel vehicles and common systems for Ford Blue, Ford Model e, Ford Pro and Ford Drive.
With a series of strategic adjustments recently announced, Ford has also raised the company's long-term business operations and financial indicators: by 2026, the company expects the adjusted EBIT margin to reach 10%, which will be mainly due to higher sales and lower costs of electric vehicles, as well as significantly lower structural costs of fuel vehicle products, saving up to $3 billion;
By 2026, annual production of electric vehicles will exceed 2 million units, equivalent to one-third of global sales, and is expected to further increase to half of global sales by 2030. In the leading segment, Ford's electric vehicle market share will reach or even exceed the market share of the company's fuel vehicles. In 2022, Ford's electric vehicle business will reach $5 billion in spending, an increase of 200% compared to 2021.
Nio's Hong Kong stocks were listed for the second time
On February 28, NIO announced that it had obtained the in-principle approval for the secondary listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through the hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and had issued relevant listing documents.
According to HKEx documents, NIO has applied for a secondary listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and expects that Class A ordinary shares will commence trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday, 10 March 2022, with a share code of 9866. In addition, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and CICC are co-sponsors of the NIO IPO. In addition to going public in Hong Kong, NIO mentioned in its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it has submitted an application for a second listing in the form of an introduction to the main board of the Singapore Stock Exchange, and the specific listing date is under review.
"Introduction to listing" is a way for issued securities to apply for listing, and no new shares are issued, but the shareholders of the company apply for listing and trading of their own old shares, and do not involve financing. "Introducing the listing does not involve fundraising (but does not mean that there will be no fundraising in the future), which can greatly simplify the listing process, and only transfer some of the shares originally circulated in the US stock market to the Hong Kong market for trading." Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, told Auto Business Review that weilai can significantly reduce the listing time by separating the time points of corporate financing and securities listing through this move.
In addition, in addition to going public in Hong Kong, NIO mentioned in its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it has submitted an application for a second listing in the form of an introduction to the main board of the Singapore Stock Exchange, and the specific listing date is under review.
For the listing in Hong Kong, WEILAI Auto officially said, "The purpose of this listing in Hong Kong stocks is to provide alternative trading locations for corporate investors, alleviate geopolitical risks, expand investor groups, and at the same time that the purpose of these listings can still be achieved without diluting the interests of existing shareholders."
It is worth noting that in September 2018, NIO landed on the New York Stock Exchange and became the first chinese electric vehicle to be listed in the United States. In July and August 2020, Ideal and Xiaopeng were listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Exchange. Since then, Xiaopeng and Ideal have been officially listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July and August 2021 respectively.
Although NIO was the first to be exposed as a new force interested in listing in Hong Kong, it did not succeed in its IPO in Hong Kong. Some analysts believe that under the strict standards of IPO in Hong Kong, WEILAI failed to successfully IPO or "dragged its feet" due to user trusts.
Why are the new car-making forces opening up their second listings in Hong Kong?
In this regard, Shen Meng believes that although these new car-making forces are car-making enterprises, they also involve a large amount of user data, which may touch the newly introduced "Data Security Law", so the policy supervision risk of listing in the US market has increased, and before the introduction of further regulatory requirements, the first secondary listing in Hong Kong can reduce the subsequent risk management costs. At the same time, the Hong Kong market has a mature interconnection mechanism with the mainland, which can not only obtain new financing, but also facilitate investment transactions for mainland investors. "There is no difference in mechanism for investors, but after listing in Hong Kong, it is possible that the southbound funds will speculate and further push up the stock price (the two places will maintain basic synchronization, otherwise there will be a price difference between the markets, forming a cross-market arbitrage opportunity)." It is further emphasized.
"Without China's new overseas listing regulatory policy, in addition to allowing more mainland investors to participate in the transaction, these companies would not need to be listed in both places because they would need to bear twice the regulatory costs." Shen Meng said frankly, "If the market is normal, the us stock market can be refinanced, there is no need for the US stock market to melt once, Hong Kong to finance again, the money that can be raised in Hong Kong, the United States can also, which will lead to an increase in the cost of financing in the two places." ”
The Stellantis Group has released its "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan
On the evening of March 1, Stellantis Group unveiled its "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan. Officials said this grand strategic plan points the way for the Group's development over the next decade and will push all Stellantis Group employees to create maximum value for all stakeholders in the Group.
In the area of carbon reduction, Stellantis Group said it will reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2038.
Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis Group, said, "As part of this leadership, Stellantis Group is also developing plans to achieve all cars sold by the Group in Europe and 50% of all cars sold in the United States by the end of 2030. According to the plan, by 2030, the Group will have more than 75 pure electric vehicle models, and the annual sales of pure electric vehicles will reach 5 million units worldwide. ”
Specifically, the "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan also revolves around the areas of "foundation, technology, care, value and finance":
Source from the Official Website of the Stellantis Group
Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park suddenly jumps or aggravates chip shortages
In today's global chip shortage and precarious supply chain, any accident that causes production interruption may have a significant impact on the upstream and downstream of the supply chain.
According to Taiwan media reports, on the afternoon of March 1, Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park suddenly jumped, the time was about 100 milliseconds (0.1 seconds), and the accident may be caused by the jumping of ultra-high voltage transformers in the force accumulation power plant area. It is reported that the power jump accident affected the production of LCC, TSMC, World Advanced, AUO Optoelectronics and other manufacturers in the Hsinchu Science Park, and the production of semiconductor and display industries has been affected.
Industry sources revealed that when the pressure drop occurs in the semiconductor factory area, the yellow light area (such as a clean room and other areas should be illuminated with sodium lamps to avoid the reaction of specific wavelengths of light and silicon wafers) there is a voltage stabilization device, and the wafer scrap will not occur, but the thin film, diffusion, etching zone (wafer) is at greater risk, and the wafer in this area may be fully scrapped.
Some media said in the report that from the perspective of the pressure drop amplitude between 79% and 95% at that time, the machine is equivalent to "power off", even if the pressure drop time is less than 1 second, it will still have different impacts on manufacturers. In this regard, Li Jidian responded that the pressure drop time is quite short, only 0.101 seconds, and some of the more sensitive production machines have jumped, and the cause is being identified. However, the power jump time is short, and the machine is also quickly restarted, which has a limited impact on production.
TSMC issued a statement saying that some of its plant areas were affected by the power pressure drop yesterday afternoon, which lasted from about 50 to more than 100 milliseconds, and the cause of the voltage drop has yet to be clarified by Taipower. There are no security threats to employees in the factory area, and the actual impact is being confirmed. UMC said its production operations had not been affected.
World Advanced frankly said that some of its Hsinchu plant areas are affected by pressure drop, and the soldiers have been inspected according to standard operating procedures, and the impact on the company's production and operation is being evaluated. In addition to semiconductor manufacturers, AUO Optoelectronics in Taiwan's panel double males has also been affected by the power pressure drop accident. AUO Optoelectronics revealed that yesterday's pressure drop accident caused some machines in the factory area to be abnormal, and it has been restored in the evening, the standing operation is normal, and the personnel are safe. Since the main production base of another large panel factory, Innolux, is located in Zhunan Park of Zhuke, its production was not affected by this incident.