Export volume increased by 304.6% year-on-year to usher in explosive growth
New energy vehicles are speeding up out of the country
Shen Dongfang, the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervision Commission, reported that during the two sessions of the National People's Congress, new energy vehicles have attracted much attention. The government work report emphasizes that "continue to support the consumption of new energy vehicles", and proposes policies such as reducing taxes and fees, maintaining the security and stability of the industrial chain supply chain, and increasing support for the real economy, including the new energy automobile industry. At the meeting, a number of representatives and members made suggestions and suggestions for promoting the development of new energy vehicles.
In 2021, China's automobile exports handed over eye-catching answers, and automobile exports exceeded 2 million for the first time, doubling from the previous year and achieving a historic breakthrough. It is worth mentioning that the export of new energy vehicles showed explosive growth, an increase of 304.6% year-on-year. What new features of the mainland new energy automobile industry can be seen from the export data? In the context of global carbon reduction, where will the new energy automobile industry "sail"? The reporter interviewed Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and the relevant responsible persons of SAIC Motor group and Geely Group.
Since 2021, the export performance of new energy vehicles has been eye-catching, and Europe and South Asia have become the main incremental markets
According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, exports of new energy vehicles will reach 310,000 units in 2021, an increase of 304.6% year-on-year. In January 2022, new energy vehicles continued the high growth trend, achieving a bright result of "sales of 431,000 units, an increase of 135.8%% year-on-year", ushering in the opening of the Year of the Tiger.
SAIC Motor, Dongfeng Motor, BMW Brilliance, etc. have become the top 10 enterprises in terms of export volume of new energy vehicles in 2021. Among them, SAIC Motor's sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 were 733,000 units, an increase of 128.9% year-on-year, becoming the vanguard of Chinese brand new energy vehicle exports. In the market of developed countries such as Europe, its own brands MG and MAXUS new energy vehicles have sold more than 50,000 units. At the same time, the export of new energy vehicles of independent brands such as BYD, Jiangqi Group, and Geely Holdings has also achieved rapid growth.
It is worth noting that the European market and the South Asian market have become the main incremental markets for mainland new energy vehicle exports in 2021. According to the data of the General Administration of Customs compiled by the China Automobile Association, in 2021, the top ten countries in China's export volume of new energy vehicles will be Belgium, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, India, Thailand, Germany, France, Slovenia, Australia and the Philippines.
"Only with excellent new energy vehicle products can we dare to enter the mature automobile market in Europe." Xu Haidong told reporters that the mainland's new energy vehicle technology has basically reached the international advanced level, whether it is product appearance, interior, mileage, environmental adaptability, or vehicle performance, quality, energy consumption, intelligent application, have made comprehensive progress. "Exports to developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Norway reflect the competitive advantage of China's independent new energy vehicle products."
The external environment also provides favorable conditions for Chinese brands to develop the European market. In order to achieve carbon reduction targets, in recent years, many European governments have successively announced carbon emission targets and increased subsidies for new energy vehicles. For example, Norway has launched a number of policies to support the electrification transformation, including the exemption of 25% value-added tax on electric vehicles, exemption from import duties, and exemption from road maintenance tax, and Germany will extend the 1.2 billion euros of new energy subsidies that began in 2016 to 2025, further activating the new energy vehicle market.
Fortunately, the high sales are no longer completely dependent on low prices. The price of New Energy Vehicles of Chinese brands has reached 30,000 US dollars per unit in the European market. Customs data show that in the first three quarters of 2021, the export value of pure electric passenger cars reached 5.498 billion US dollars, an increase of 515.4% year-on-year, and the growth of export value was greater than the growth of export quantity.
Workers of Shandong Yuhang Special Alloy Equipment Co., Ltd. are producing battery trays for new energy vehicles. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fan Changguo
Maintaining development resilience under the influence of the global epidemic, the achievements of automobile exports reflect China's strong and complete industrial chain supply chain
The production picture of supply and marketing is being staged in production workshops across the country. In 2021, the total import and export volume of goods from the mainland was 39.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 21.4% over the previous year, and the conversion rate according to the average annual exchange rate has exceeded 6 trillion US dollars, ranking first in the global trade in goods for five consecutive years; the actual amount of foreign direct investment used was 1.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.9% over the previous year, exceeding 1 trillion yuan for the first time.
Affected by the repeated epidemics, tight shipping, chip shortages and other factors, the supply capacity of overseas automakers has declined in the past two years. The British Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) recently released data showing that UK car production in January this year fell by 20.1% year-on-year; data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) shows that 2021 is the third consecutive year of continuous decline in European passenger car sales, down 1.5% year-on-year.
"Under the influence of the epidemic, China's supply advantage has been further amplified." Zhang Jianping, director of the Regional Economic Cooperation Research Center of the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that China's strong automobile exports have benefited from China's rapid exit from the impact of the epidemic, the economy has picked up rapidly, and the automobile industry has quickly restored production capacity and seized the great opportunity of global market demand recovery. While making up for the gap in the supply of products in the overseas auto market and stabilizing the global supply chain, the mainland automobile industry system is relatively complete, the supporting capacity is strong, and it still has a good ability to resist risks in the context of the epidemic, and the stable logistics and production supply capabilities provide a strong guarantee for the export of Chinese auto enterprises.
In the era of fuel vehicles, although China has a huge automotive supply chain system, the lack of key components makes this huge supply chain a security risk. The rise of the new energy automobile industry has given China's automobile industry the opportunity to gain industrial dominance.
"Foreign traditional automobile companies are relatively slow in the development of new energy vehicles and cannot provide competitive products, while Chinese products can meet the needs of consumers, and the cost also has advantages and has good competitiveness." Foreign auto companies cannot make full use of the original strong brands in new energy vehicle brands, so consumers in developed countries are also willing to accept Chinese new energy products. Xu Haidong said.
RCEP has brought policy dongfeng, the circle of friends is getting bigger and bigger, and Chinese car companies are accelerating the layout of overseas markets
With its white body and sky blue logo, BYD electric taxis driving on Thai roads are in harmony with the surrounding natural environment. Departing from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, locals guessed that Wawa chose to take a BYD electric taxi, which was "quiet inside, has a good view, and more importantly, is very environmentally friendly." Charging time is two hours long, and the range is 400 kilometers – four years ago, with the approval of Thailand's Land Transport Agency, 101 BYD electric vehicles were operated locally for the first time as taxis and ride-hailing vehicles.
On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade area, brings great opportunities for China's auto exports. As one of the fastest growing regions in the world for car sales, the potential of an emerging market of 600 million people in ASEAN cannot be underestimated. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, sales of new energy vehicles in Southeast Asia will increase to 10 million by 2025.
ASEAN countries have introduced a series of supporting measures and strategic plans for the development of new energy vehicles, creating conditions for Chinese car companies to open up the local market. The Malaysian government announced tax incentives for electric vehicles from fiscal year 2022; the Philippine government has eliminated import tariffs on all components of electric vehicles; and the Singapore government announced that it will increase the number of electric vehicle charging points from the original set of 28,000 to 60,000 by 2030.
"China actively encourages auto companies to make good use of the RCEP rules, give full play to the trade creation effect and investment expansion effect brought about by the agreement, and expand the export of auto products." As China's auto industry relaxes restrictions on foreign equity ratios and accelerates the pace of 'going global', it is expected that the collaboration between Chinese auto companies and partner members will be closer based on global value chains, and preferential rules of origin will also bring more diversified trade forms and business opportunities for auto exports. Zhang Jianping thinks.
From Southeast Asia to Africa to Europe, Chinese automakers continue to extend their overseas production lines. Chery Automobile has established 10 overseas factories in global R&D bases including Europe, North America, the Middle East and Brazil; SAIC has established three R&D and innovation centers overseas, as well as four production bases and KD (parts assembly) plants in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Pakistan.
"Only by having their own overseas factories can the development of Chinese brand automobile companies overseas be sustainable." Xu Haidong analyzed that in recent years, the overseas investment model of Chinese auto companies has undergone important changes - from the original trade model and some KD models to direct investment models. The direct investment model can not only drive local employment, but also help to improve the recognition of local consumers' brand culture, thereby increasing overseas sales, which will be the development direction of Chinese brand cars "going global" in the future.
Workers work in the assembly workshop of BAIC BJEV Huanghua Branch. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Mou Yu
Increase R&D investment, vehicle, parts, chip enterprises collaborative innovation, and strive to make Chinese cars use China's "core"
With the vigorous development of revolutionary technologies such as new energy and big data, automobiles with a development history of more than 100 years have ushered in a huge opportunity for subversive change. In the field of new energy vehicles and intelligent networking, with years of efforts, the mainland automobile industry has basically reached the level of simultaneous development of mainstream products and core technologies with the international level, and competition with international mainstream enterprises.
However, for some time, the problem of "lack of cores" has plagued China's automobile industry, which has affected the improvement of production and quality to a certain extent.
On February 28, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the press conference of the State Council New Office that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will build an online supply and demand docking platform for automotive chips on the basis of the previous work, improve the upstream and downstream cooperation mechanism of the industrial chain, guide vehicle and parts enterprises to optimize the layout of the supply chain; rational scheduling, mutual help and mutual assistance, improve the efficiency of resource allocation, and minimize the impact of missing cores; further support the collaborative innovation of vehicle, parts and chip enterprises, and steadily and orderly improve the domestic chip production and supply capacity.
"According to the industry's judgment, the chip shortage in 2021 will lead to the suppression of market demand for about 1.5 million vehicles." Yang Qian, deputy director of the Industrial Research Department of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, believes that with the gradual role of the international chip market regulation mechanism, with the joint efforts of the government, OEMs and chip suppliers, the alternative plan for chip localization has been gradually implemented, and the chip supply in the second half of 2022 is expected to be alleviated to a certain extent. At that time, the suppressed demand in 2021 will be released, which will become a positive factor to promote the growth of the automotive market in 2022.
Improving the ability of independent innovation, mastering the core technology, and allowing Chinese cars to use the Chinese "core" has been the direction of China's car companies.
"In 2021, the first high-end intelligent cockpit chip with a 7nm process process in China with our strategic layout was launched, filling the gap in the field of mainland independent design of high-end intelligent cockpit platform main chips." The relevant person in charge of Geely Group told reporters that Geely has invested more than 140 billion yuan in research and development in the past ten years, with more than 20,000 design and research and development personnel and 26,000 innovative patents. Especially in the construction part of the satellite network, Geely's self-built high-precision navigation system for ground orbit satellites has completed the deployment of 305 high-precision spatio-temporal reference stations, and will achieve "global blind zone-free" communication and centimeter-level high-precision positioning coverage in the future. "In the future, Geely will comprehensively promote the process of globalization, realize technology going to sea, and achieve overseas sales of 600,000 vehicles in 2025."
The growth of the new energy automobile industry and the development of electrification and intelligence have brought opportunities for Chinese auto brands to run from follow-up to running and even leading in the future.
The relevant person in charge of SAIC Motor said that around the national strategic goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", the group is continuing to promote the innovation and transformation strategy, and sprinting to the new track of "electric intelligent network connection": accelerating the commercialization process of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, carrying out research and industrialization exploration of technologies such as automatic driving; improving the construction of "five centers" such as software, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, and network security, consolidating the software technology base, and focusing on improving the digital level of automotive products, travel services, and operation systems.