Abstract: In the face of increasingly severe supply chain security problems, Yin Tongyue suggested that new energy power battery materials should be included in the national strategic reserve resource management. For Chery, Yin Tongyue insisted on "technology Chery" at the same time, and strived to build Chery into a "user-oriented enterprise"
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Wen | Guo Huaiyi
Editor| Zhao Cheng
"The shortage of battery supply is becoming more and more severe, the cost has risen sharply, and it is also linked to the shortage of upstream raw materials and their mineral resources, which has become a bottleneck in the development of new energy." Yin Tongyue, deputy to the National People's Congress, secretary of the party committee and chairman of Chery Holding Group, emphasized the safety of the supply chain of power battery raw materials in an exclusive interview with Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche).
In the first two months of 2022, Chery Group sold 31,000 new energy vehicles, an increase of 235.6%. But behind the rapid growth, as the raw material for power batteries, the prices of lithium carbonate and nickel are rising rapidly.
Data from Shanghai Steel Union shows that since 2022, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has risen from 290,000 yuan / ton to 500,000 yuan / ton. Nickel is rising even more rapidly.
In just six trading days in March, the price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange rose from $24,275/ton to $82,136/ton, an increase of 238%. The London Metal Exchange had to announce the suspension of nickel trading on March 8, which has not yet resumed.
In Yin Tongyue's view, the gap in power battery raw materials may be further enlarged in the future, and in terms of core raw materials, China relies heavily on imports. Therefore, Yin Tongyue submitted a proposal to "Incorporate new energy power battery materials into the national strategic reserve resource management to ensure the safety of the new energy vehicle supply chain" at the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2022.
In the proposal, Yin Tongyue believes that new energy power battery materials should be included in the national strategic reserve resource management, and special funds should be set up to support and encourage domestic enterprises to acquire foreign battery material resources to ensure the safety of the new energy vehicle supply chain.
In addition to the pressure of the supply chain, Chery's other major pressure comes from corporate transformation.
At the 2020 Internet Conference, Yin Tongyue once laughed and said that he was an old man who represented the old era. But in fact, Chery is one of the earliest independent car companies to lay out on the new track of intelligent networking. Now, Chery is accelerating its transformation into a "user-oriented enterprise." ”
Yin Tongyue said that Chery Group's auto brands are doing innovations to "make friends with users", and the company is also adjusting around the user-centered middle office empowerment + front desk mobility. Under such adjustments, Chery Group's automobile sales in 2021 reached a historic 961,000 units, an increase of 31.7% year-on-year.
But while emphasizing the transformation, Yin Tongyue did not give up the business card of "Technology Chery". He believes that "technology Chery" is the housekeeping foundation of Chery's establishment, and user thinking and Internet thinking are the "two wings" for Chery to accelerate its take-off. ”
▲ Deputy to the National People's Congress,
Yin Tongyue, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Chery Holding Group
The following is the main content of the interview with Yin Tongyue of Caijing Automobile (ID: caijingqiche):
Secure your supply chain
Power battery raw materials should be included in the national strategic reserve resource management
Caijingqiche (ID: Caijingqiche): In a proposal, you proposed that new energy power battery materials be included in the national strategic reserve resource management to ensure the safety of the new energy vehicle supply chain. On March 8, Lun Nickel rose to the exchange was forced to suspend its trading, can you talk about the dilemma of power battery raw material supply?
Yin Tongyue: With the increasing heat of the new energy vehicle track, the demand for new energy vehicle power batteries is naturally rising. In 2021, the installed capacity of global automotive power batteries has increased significantly compared with the same period last year, making the shortage of battery supply more and more severe, the cost has risen sharply, and it is also linked to the shortage of upstream raw materials and their mineral resources, which has become a bottleneck in the development of new energy.
According to authoritative agencies, by 2025, the supply gap of power batteries will reach about 40%. The core materials such as nickel, cobalt and lithium required to manufacture power batteries are scarce resources and rely heavily on imports.
Due to the vigorous development of domestic new energy, foreign countries have gradually controlled these resources. Therefore, from the perspective of ensuring the safety of the supply chain of new energy vehicles, I propose to include new energy power battery materials in the management of national strategic reserve resources, set up special funds, and support and encourage domestic enterprises to acquire foreign battery material resources.
Caijingqiche (ID: You mentioned to the outside world that the supply of chips in January and February this year was worse than in the fourth quarter of last year. But Chery continued its growth in January this year, how do you and your team secure the supply of chips?
Yin Tongyue: In the past year, the impact of chips on us is huge, and now it even meets about half of our actual demand, which will cause huge losses to our business activities, our market share, and our investment in new products and new technologies in the past.
Now the country also attaches great importance to this problem, so the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are also taking the lead, on the one hand, coordinating with some foreign chip tier suppliers to increase the supply capacity of the Chinese market.
The second is to coordinate some domestic chips, domestic chip design companies to increase investment in vehicle-grade chips and capacity retention, we hope that the second half of this year the chip can gradually improve, reduce the negative impact on the healthy development of the automobile industry.
How to make Chery not abandoned by the times?
Caijingqiche (ID: Caijingqiche): At the Internet Conference in November 2020, you once jokingly lamented, "I am an old man who represents the old era, and the times are abandoning me, too fast." But Chery hit a record high with 960,000 units sold in 2021, do you still feel abandoned by the times?
Yin Tongyue: I was at the venue to see, there are a lot of new car-making enterprises, there are also a lot of new faces, I am a veteran of the automotive industry, so jokingly said this sentence. In fact, Chery is one of the earliest independent car companies to carry out layout on new tracks such as intelligent network connection and new energy.
The needs of the new generation of users are not the same as those of the past. In the past, car companies emphasized development performance, quality and cost, but today we want to develop emotions, develop ecology, and develop different lifestyles of young people.
Therefore, at present, Chery is accelerating to become a "user-oriented enterprise", "all technology development, product design, business model and even business operations, all around creating value for users. As a company that adheres to the user-centric and strives to create value for users, whether we can meet the needs of users is to judge whether we can catch up with the standards of the times.
Chery Group's major passenger car brands such as Xingtu, Chery, and Jietu are all doing marketing innovations such as "making friends with users", and the company is also adjusting its organization around the user-centered middle office empowerment + front desk mobility.
Caijingqiche: You think user-defined cars are more accurate than software-defined cars, and you often attend riders' clubs. So what do you gain when communicating with Chery owners? What views do car owners have that impressed you?
Yin Tongyue: Chery insists on user-centricity, strives to create value for users, provides accurate services around their "pain points" and "itch points", and develops users' emotional needs into products, so that users are excited and moved.
The user is the center of all the business work of Chery. Chery proactively invites customers to participate in product definition, product co-creation, and participate in the process of continuous "evolution" of enterprises. The company's budget on user research has been increasing in the past two years, and last year's expenditure on user research increased by 8 times compared with the previous year, providing in-depth insight into customer needs. In the 2021 China Automotive Sales Service Satisfaction Study (SSI) released by J.D.Power, Chery won the second place in the sales satisfaction ranking of its own brands with 732 points.
Caijingqiche:Technology Chery is a business card created by Chery for many years. But in your 2022 New Year's address, you emphasized that Chery people should plug in the two "wings" of Internet thinking and user thinking. So, how do you see the relationship between technology Chery and the "wings" of the Internet? How do you balance the two?
Yin Tongyue: "Technology Chery" is the housekeeping foundation of Chery's establishment, and the user's thinking and Internet thinking are the "two wings" of Chery's accelerated take-off. ”
In terms of invention patents, Chery is now carrying out a large number of innovative activities around a series of new technologies such as new energy, intelligent networking, automatic driving, software, chips, and many sensing technologies.
These innovative activities have also brought us a lot of sweetness, so that our products in the market performance is getting better and better, so in the follow-up we still have to adhere to technological innovation, management innovation is the main line, continue to achieve the Process of China's automobile industry from big to strong, from scattered to concentrated through innovation.
Chery insists on using Internet thinking to continuously expand the technical boundaries, cooperation boundaries and business boundaries of enterprises. Chery has established a "cross-border alliance" with Haier, JD.com, iFLYTEK and other enterprises to jointly explore the new format of "Internet of Things + Automobile"; promote industrial innovation, and cooperate with Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Horizon and other enterprises to accelerate the pace of industrial upgrading.
Chery has also built an open co-creation platform, the iCar ecological platform, which links everyone's global life scenes with cars and creates a symbiotic ecology of intelligent life. At present, iCar Ecology has cooperated with Alibaba, Tmall and other enterprises to cooperate in digital marketing, blockchain finance, intelligent car connection, intelligent services and intelligent manufacturing.