In the second half of 2021, the rise in domestic power battery raw materials has already triggered a price increase in power batteries, including BYD Fodi Power, Ningde Times and other battery suppliers have seen a certain increase in foreign prices. But this upward trend, like today's oil prices, doesn't seem to stop. Relevant data and reports show that in March, the price of lithium carbonate, a very important raw material for power batteries, soared, and the highest quotation we can see has been 50.04 yuan / ton, and the industry generally believes that the price of lithium carbonate has soared, mainly because the battery scheme used by many automakers is lithium iron phosphate batteries, coupled with the surge in shipments of new energy vehicles, so the demand for lithium carbonate has increased significantly, which eventually led to the upside down of the supply and demand level, and the price has soared.
Of course, the price of lithium carbonate has skyrocketed, to a large extent, and the upstream industrial chain, including mining and other links have a great relationship, but as a direct impact, in fact, the price of lithium carbonate has been extended to the downstream industrial chain, if placed at the power battery level, now the price of lithium carbonate has directly promoted the price of power batteries and the price of related models.
Entering 2022, with the further decline of new energy subsidies, coupled with the further growth of battery prices, some of the more well-known domestic new energy vehicle companies and brands have risen in product prices, including Tesla, BYD, Xiaopeng, Wuling New Energy and many brands of electric vehicle prices have risen, the price increase is between 1,000-20,000 yuan.
In recent times, the prices of some models of SAIC Roewe, Geometric Automobile and Euler Automobile have also risen. The price of RX5 eMAX PHEV Fearless Premium Edition, Ei5 and i6MAX EV increased by 2,000 yuan; the price of the Geometry A Pro model increased by 1,100 yuan; the price of the Geometry EX3 Kung Fu Cow series increased by 7,000 yuan; and the official guidance price of the Euler Good Cat GT Edition was adjusted to 147,000 yuan. In the face of rising battery prices, many car companies that cannot digest and bear the cost increase can only maintain profits through price increases, but there is a problem, that is, many electric vehicles are still in the climbing stage at the market level, and price increases may affect sales to a large extent.
Of course, the more extreme situation is that some low-end electric vehicles with low profits themselves, the rise in battery prices has directly led to a significant increase in costs, and manufacturers are still unable to balance the contradiction between price and sales after weighing price increases and other means. For example, Euler Automobile, Euler Automobile announced in late February that its Euler black cat and Euler white cat suspended receiving orders, causing an uproar among netizens. After that, Euler Automobile issued an announcement that these two models were not directly discontinued, but temporarily suspended, because these two cars encountered difficulties in the production process, and the suspension of production was also a helpless move. Euler Automobile CEO Dong Yudong even said bluntly that due to the sharp rise in raw materials this year, Euler Black Cat will lose ten thousand yuan for every one sold, so the more it is sold, the more it will lose.
So in fact, this year for many electric vehicle manufacturers, especially the price advantage of the low-end electric vehicle manufacturers, may need to bear a lot of cost pressure. In a short period of time, for various reasons, the supply of lithium carbonate is difficult to supply the growing demand for power batteries, so in the case of short supply, the price of lithium carbonate can only continue to grow, and as a competitor and user, these cost growth will eventually continue to the downstream industry chain, and even consumers. For those electric vehicle products with greater influence and higher prices, some price increases may not affect sales, but for some electric vehicle products whose prices are very low and win at price, the slight increase in product prices may affect consumers' purchase decisions for these models.