"Car Circle Layer" Chen Siying
Edited by Ge Fanmei
Recently, the Association of Passenger Vehicles released data showing that the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 272,000 units in February 2022, an increase of 180.5% year-on-year. GAC Aean New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "GAC Aeg"), as an independent brand under Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "GAC Group", 601238.SH), has a spin-off and listing plan, and its delivery volume in February 2022 was 8526 units, an increase of 163% over the same period last year. However, due to the sales record of 16,034 units in January 2022, the delivery volume in February was close to the waist.
In addition, GAC Aeon also issued an announcement on March 4 to adjust the prices of its AION Y, AION S Plus, AION V Plus and other models, generally based on price increases, with the highest increase of 10,000 yuan. However, GAC Aean's products have repeatedly exploded the problem of locking electricity.
Sales exceeded 10,000 for seven consecutive months
In recent years, gac Aeon's sales growth momentum can be described as strong, and auto home data shows that GAC Aeon's cumulative sales in 2021 reached 123,000 units, an increase of 119% year-on-year. In January 2022, GAC Aean sold a total of 16,034 new vehicles, an increase of 117.93% year-on-year and 10.56% month-on-month, and has sold more than 10,000 for seven consecutive months from July 2021 to January 2022.
However, the record of continuous sales exceeding 10,000 was interrupted in February this year. Gac Aeon delivered 8,526 units in February 2022, down 46.8% month-on-month.
In this regard, GAC Aeon said that the main reason for the decline in sales in February was due to factors such as the Spring Festival holiday and the completion of the second phase of production capacity expansion at the E-An plant from January 31 to February 14 this year.
It is worth mentioning that GAC Aeon's sales volume in the second half of 2021 "continuously exceeded 10,000", and the average capacity utilization rate in 2021 exceeded 140%. In the face of the rapidly expanding new energy vehicle market, GAC Aegon launched the above-mentioned phase II capacity expansion project. On February 18, 2022, GAC Ae-on announced on its WeChat public account that the second phase of the capacity expansion of the Ae-On Intelligent Ecological Factory was completed in only 15 days.
2021 is known as the beginning of the rise of new energy vehicles, with major car companies have joined the competition in the field of new energy vehicles, the competition for car companies will be more intense in 2022. The Association predicted in early 2022 that the sales of new energy vehicles in 2022 are expected to exceed 6 million units, and the penetration rate will reach about 22%. Compared with the retail sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 of 2.989 million units, this means that the output of new energy vehicles in 2022 will be nearly double that of 2021. From this point of view, it is no wonder that GAC Aean is eager to expand production capacity.
However, GAC Aeon's product line does not seem to be rich. From the perspective of subdivision products, GAC Aeon currently has only 5 products, which basically cover the mid-end market. As a compact electric vehicle, the AION S is priced at 139,600-183,800 yuan / unit, while other mid-range SUVs such as AION Y and AOIN V are priced at 109,600-167,600 yuan / unit and 177,600-239,600 yuan / unit, respectively, and the most expensive car series, AION LX, is currently priced at 286,600-459,600 yuan / unit.
GAC Aean models and quotations
Screenshot source: Pacific Auto Network
The AION S and the launch of the new SUV electric vehicle AION Y in April 2021 have played a crucial role in GAC's AEAN sales growth. According to Pacific Auto Network, AION S sold 7,049 units in January 2022, and its sales have remained stable since February 2021 throughout 2021. As a rising star launched in April 2021, AION Y has maintained a growth trend, and in January 2022, its sales have increased to 6413 units.
Sales of the AION V and AION LX, both gazc AEAN models, were not as good as the above two, with 2,230 AION V units sold in January 2022. The AION LX reached a new high in January 2022 and only sold 339 units, after the previous average monthly sales of the series did not exceed 100 units in 2021.
In addition, from the perspective of the same series of automobile markets, the sales of GAC Aegean S and Y series are still slightly inferior. According to the data of the Association, compared with the AION S car series of GAC AE, BYD "Qin" occupies the top spot in the price range of 100,000-200,000 yuan / new energy car with a sales figure of 187,000 units in 2021. Byd's brand BYD", "Tang, Song, Yuan" three models are listed in the top ten sales of Xinyuan SUV, a total of 194,000 SUV series sales in 2021, which is the same as 100,000-200,000 yuan / new energy SUV series AION Y is not comparable for the time being.
Independent operation seeks to spin off and list
GAC Aeon has been operating independently for less than two years now. On November 20, 2020, at the press conference of GAC Group, Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, announced that the "GAC Aean" brand will operate independently, and the company will change its name to "GAC Aean New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd." Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aean, said that after independence, GAC EAN will first focus on innovation at the technical level and develop in the direction of the most high-end technology.
After operating independently, GAC Aean has indeed made breakthroughs in core technology and research and development. On March 10, 2021, GAC Aeon released a new generation of power battery safety technology - magazine battery system safety technology (hereinafter referred to as "magazine battery"), saying that it has achieved the ternary lithium battery package of needle puncture can not be ignited, overcome the recognized industry problems, and redefined the ternary lithium battery safety standard.
Then, in July 2021, GAC Aeon launched sponge silicon anode chip battery technology, saying that it can reduce the volume of lithium-ion battery cells by 20% and reduce the weight by 14%, which can not only improve the energy density of the battery, but also reduce the weight of the battery.
On August 30 of the same year, GAC Aeon once again released the super-double-speed battery technology and the A480 supercharger pile, saying that the voltage of its super-double-speed battery can reach 880V, and the maximum charging efficiency is 480kW, which is currently the highest charging efficiency charging pile in the world, and the future may increase the mileage of 5 minutes of charging by 200 kilometers.
Although GAC Aean claims to have mastered the above technology, it is not yet officially put into use that the charging pile, and whether it can reach the power in the future remains to be verified.
While continuously releasing technological innovations, gac Aeon is approaching the day from independent operation to spin-off listing. On November 29, 2021, GAC Group issued an announcement showing that the company's new energy vehicle subsidiary, GAC Aian, officially launched an insider asset restructuring and capital increase plan, and employee shareholding and strategic investment are expected to be completed before the end of the year. At the same time, GAC AEG will actively seek to list at an appropriate time, but there is still uncertainty about the listing.
At the same time, in another subsequent "Announcement of the Resolution of the 6th Meeting of the Sixth Board of Directors of GAC Group", it was indicated that the board of directors of the company had deliberated and passed the "Proposal on the Mixed Reform of the Subsidiary GAC Aean and the Introduction of Strategic Investors".
Screenshot source: GAC Group Announcement
Gac Group said in February 2022 when accepting institutional research that regarding the proportion of strategic investors introduced by GAC Aeon, its mixed reform is divided into three stages, the first stage of asset restructuring has been completed and announced in 2021, the second phase is employee shareholding and the introduction of war investment, the employee stock ownership plan was completed in the first quarter of this year, and the introduction of strategic investors will be carried out after completion, the specific list and share are currently being studied and determined, and are expected to be completed in the second half of this year. The third stage is to choose the opportunity to enter the capital market, and after the completion of the third stage, GAC Group will still maintain an absolute control over GAC Aean.
GAC Group said that the listing of GAC Aegean after the spin-off does not involve competition in the same industry. GAC Aeon will focus on electric models, GAC Trumpchi will focus on fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles and hydrogen energy and other power forms of models, in the process of asset restructuring in 2021, all new energy-related assets have been injected into GAC Aeon.
The problem of locking the power has been repeatedly complained about but the price has generally increased
While GAC Aean is achieving sales growth and seeking to go public, some of its product quality problems are revealed. Its main model, AION S, has been facing quality problems such as locking power and limiting output power since 2021. On related complaint websites such as the car quality network, many AION S users complained that the manufacturer locked the power on a large number of AION S models without informing the owner and without permission, resulting in a significant reduction in battery life.
"Locking power", that is, by upgrading and rewriting the battery management system, locking the battery power system and chip window, redefining the voltage range of the battery, to limit the upper charging limit and power consumption of the battery.
GAC Aeon complained about the situation
Screenshot source: Car Quality Network
On the car quality network, the owner of AION S complained, "After the first insurance in November 2020, GAC Aeon Automobile Co., Ltd. has applied to a large number of GAC AION models (claiming NEDC mileage of 460KM, without informing customers and with the customer's permission. Battery capacity of 58.8KWh), through the background OTA upgrade battery management system (BMS), etc., artificially reduce the available capacity of the car power battery, GAC Aean this way of secretly OTA upgrade led to the shrinkage of assets purchased by customers (when purchased in accordance with 460KM endurance, now the car can only run less than 300KM; 58.8KWh of power can only use less than 40KWh, equivalent to spending 460KM endurance money to buy a car with less than 300KM endurance), completely unable to meet the publicity and technical indicators filed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. ”
In this regard, "Circle Layer" contacted GAC Aean, but has not received a reply from GAC E-An.
The above-mentioned power lock problem still persists and has not yet been effectively solved. However, at the same time, GAC Aeon also announced the adjustment of some models, including the above-mentioned product AION S series models, which were complained about, and the price will increase by 4,000 yuan / car. On March 4, GAC Aeon issued an announcement that GAC Aeon will adjust the official guidance price of its AION Y, AION S, AION V and other related models, and this round of price adjustment will take effect from the announcement on March 4, and the price increase of some models in this round of adjustment will range from 4,000-10,000 yuan.
In this regard, GAC Aeon explained that the price adjustment was mainly due to the sharp rise in raw material prices and the decline of new energy car purchase subsidies. (Produced by Thinking Finance)■