Xiaopeng is trapped in the "eventful spring": delayed delivery, battery Rashomon, sales have been surpassed

Writing/condensation rain

Editor/Chen Jiying

As one of the three giants of the new domestic car-making forces, Xiaopeng Automobile can be described as a unique scenery in 2021.

According to public data, the delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 will reach 98155 vehicles, which will overwhelm 91429 vehicles and the ideal 90491 vehicles of Weilai.

In January 2022, Xiaopeng Automobile once again topped the sales list of the new car-making forces in the month, with a single monthly delivery of 12,922 vehicles, exceeding the delivery of 12,268 ideal cars and 9,652 weilai automobiles in the same period.

Just when everyone thought that "Wei Xiaoli" was going to rearrange the throne, the situation reversed in February. In February 2022, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered a total of 6,225 vehicles, which was not only a 51.83% decrease from January's sales, but also far lower than the delivery of 8414 ideal cars in the same period, and even surpassed by Nezha Automobile with 7117 deliveries.

This is probably related to Xiaopeng's recent "delayed delivery", "battery Rashomon" and a series of storms.

Sales can not be exchanged for the volume of sound, the owner believes in "Ning Wang" does not believe in "Xiao Peng"

Xiaopeng P5 was placed high hopes by consumers at the beginning of its birth, and in the new energy head camp "Wei Xiaoli", with super high cost performance, it can be said that it accurately grasped potential car owners with weak consumption power, known as "a very competitive dark horse in 200,000 cars".

When asked why xiaopeng was chosen in the first place, a car owner who is currently defending his rights said, "At first, I thought that about 200,000 people could buy models equipped with dual lidar and Ningde era batteries. Moreover, Weilai and ideals can't afford it. ”

Probably the deep responsibility of love, after experiencing last year's sales surge, at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the rights protection incidents about Xiaopeng P5 have not been flattened and have risen again.

On the black cat complaint platform, with "Xiaopeng Automobile" as the keyword, the inspection office received nearly 500 complaints, and basically all of them were published in the past two months.

These complaints fall broadly into two categories.

The first category is the problem of delayed delivery that has been making a lot of noise in the past few days. Many owners who booked the P5 460 version reported that the car booked in October last year has not yet been delivered, and after several reminders, Xiaopeng has delayed it again and again.

The second type of complaint is that many owners of the P5550 version question the Counterfeiting of Xiaopeng Battery OEM, and promise that the battery brand is "Ningde Era" before purchasing the car, but the delivery list shows "Zhaoqing Xiaopeng".

For the problem of "delayed delivery", it is reported that the official has given a plan for reassignment, cancellation, and continued waiting, and said that there is no compensation plan.

In this regard, many car owners do not buy it, one is that the reassignment will exceed the car purchase budget; the second is that the new energy subsidy is declining, and the cancellation of another purchase will increase the cost of car purchase; the third is that continuing to wait means more time costs.

Some car owners also accused Xiaopeng Automobile of using the expression "within a reasonable period of time when the purchase price of the car has been paid in full" in the car purchase agreement to be vague about the specific time limit for delivery and cleverly avoiding it, resulting in difficulties in consumer rights protection.

(Image from Black Cat Complaint)

The "battery sticker door" is more complicated, the owners claim that whether it is the early media publicity, or in the communication with the sales, the "Ningde era" power battery is one of the important selling points of P5, but the "compulsory product certification vehicle conformity certificate" in the "power battery production plant name" column when picking up the car, but marked "Zhaoqing Xiaopeng Automobile Co., Ltd." In this regard, they also asked about sales or customer service, and the response was inconsistent.

(The picture is provided by the owner of the rights protection car)

Rabbit Sister was one of the first car owners to order the Xiaopeng P5 in October last year. Her good friend is a Xiaopeng P7 user, and when she chooses the car, she frantically gives her the new model P5 launched by Amway Xiaopeng.

After the rabbit sister browsed the relevant parameters on a car purchase website, there was a sales initiative to contact her to the store to see the car test drive, after seeing the car twice, the rabbit sister hurriedly placed an order for a Xiaopeng P5 550E.

According to Rabbit Sister told the "Financial Story Club", "In the communication process before the purchase of the car, when the other party introduced the vehicle battery brand, he said without hesitation that it was the Ningde era, plus the Internet has been so publicized, I did not think that the battery would cause controversy." Even for a long time after picking up the car, I did not pay attention to the battery brand on the vehicle-related certificate. ”

After the delivery of the car in early January this year, the rabbit sister was pulled into the "Xiaopeng P5 official owner group" by the staff of Xiaopeng, usually everyone will exchange issues such as the number of the car on the group, and the Xiaopeng official will also release some activities, and the atmosphere in the group is happy and harmonious.

By the middle of February, there began to be owners in the group, reflecting that the battery brand is not the Ningde era but Zhaoqing Xiaopeng, "I also turned out the purchase bill, only to find that the battery manufacturer is also Zhaoqing Xiaopeng." ”

Rabbit Sister also asked the sales staff who docked with herself when buying a car, and found that the other party was also in the clouds, and even had a sales reaction "Huh? Is it not Ningde that is Xiao Peng's own? I didn't say it during the training. And does Xiaopeng still make batteries himself? Later, H, the owner of the purchase of Xiaopeng P5550E, released the chat records with the official customer service and the feedback information of the 12345 service platform in the rights protection group, showing that "the supplier of the model P5 550P battery pack (package) is Zhaoqing Xiaopeng, and the battery cell manufacturer: AVIC lithium battery." At this point, car owners, including Rabbit Sister, began to speculate that "the battery brand is not the Ningde era."

(Courtesy of activist owner H)

Tang Feng was one of the first car owners to join the rights defense group. As a configuration control, he learned about the parameter configuration of P5 through various channels before purchasing the car, and the NINGDE era battery was one of the important reasons for his choice of this model. "Before buying a car, I repeatedly asked about the sales battery brand, and the reply I got was the Ningde era."

Therefore, last year's double twelve, Tang Feng ordered a Xiaopeng P5 550P model with great anticipation. In January, after receiving the notice of the success of the car, Tang Feng and his family happily went to pick up the car, he carefully checked the vehicle consistency certification certificate delivered with the car, and keenly found that the column of "Power Battery Manufacturer Name" was impressively written "Zhaoqing Xiaopeng Automobile Co., Ltd."

An angry Tang Feng immediately asked about sales, "The other party replied that all the vehicle certificates on the power battery are marked Xiaopeng, Xiaopeng assembly, but the battery is from the Ningde era. ”

Tang Feng believed this explanation for the time being. The turning point came in mid-February, and more and more car owners reflected the battery brand problem in the official owner group of Xiaopeng P5, "Everyone even began to share and compare vehicle consistency certificates in the group." ”

Tang Fengye suddenly found that on the vehicle conformity certificate posted by the owner of P5 600P, the battery manufacturer was "Ningde Era".

At this time, Tang Feng deeply felt deceived, "The vehicle conformity certificate of the P5 600P model is marked with the battery brand as the Ningde era, does not it mean that 'everyone's battery brand is marked as Zhaoqing Xiaopeng but the battery cell is still the Ningde era' This statement is not true? ”

So he contacted xiaopeng store again to inquire about the situation, "I showed them the vehicle conformity certificate of the P5 600P model provided by a car friend and questioned it, and the other party finally admitted that the battery was not the Ningde era, but pushed the responsibility to the sales, saying that the sales were wrong, and proposed to give me 3w points compensation." ”

After Tang Feng refused, the other party raised the point compensation to 5w, but he still did not accept it. "My appeal is to change the battery or the car and compensate for the loss according to the law."

He believes that "the brand inconsistency has led to a change in the responsible party, which was originally guaranteed by the Ningde era, and now it has become Zhaoqing Xiaopeng, the battery life, attenuation are not accurate, and the value of the second-hand car in the future will certainly be different, and considering the previous spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles, it is difficult for us to accept that the battery is replaced by the brand." ”

(The picture shows a screenshot of the P5 600P model "Compulsory Product Certification Vehicle Conformity Certificate" purchased by a car friend provided by Tang Feng, a rights protection car owner)

At present, the owners of the rights group are trying to resolve the battery dispute through legal channels, and they are full of resentment:

"The car purchase agreement also stipulates an arbitration clause, and we can only entrust lawyers to arbitrate in Guangzhou, which further increases the cost of rights protection."

"When the initial publicity was based on the 'Ningde era' as a gimmick, but did not mention the 'AVIC lithium battery' and 'Zhaoqing Xiaopeng', if you know before buying the battery is not the Ningde era, you will not buy it."

"Does zhaoqing Xiaopeng packaging and battery cell supplier brand random practice conform to the trademark law?" Moreover, is the consumer's right to know respected? ”......

(Image from a screenshot of the web page)

Behind Rashomon, it actually points to the subtle psychology of Xiaopeng car owners - in terms of battery supply, they prefer to believe in "Ning Wang" than "Xiaopeng".

Consumers' obsession with Ning Wang has a long history. On the contrary, for Xiaopeng, some car owners questioned, "Xiaopeng does not have a self-developed battery at all, and the uncertainty of its batteries and other components is even more worrying if it is assembled." ”

Many car owners believe that other battery manufacturers, including Zhaoqing Xiaopeng, compared with the Ningde era, the gap in supply chain, product research and development, engineering design, testing and verification, process manufacturing, after-sales service and other aspects is far from a millimeter.

Obviously, the huge sales of Xiaopeng P5 did not win it a huge amount of voice and good reputation, but because of the owners' obsession with "Ning Wang", Xiaopeng was trapped in "Rashomon".

According to the statistics of Pacific Auto Network, since the launch of the Xiaopeng P5 in September last year, the delivery volume in September, October, November and December has increased month by month, reaching 244, 437, 2154 and 5030 respectively; into 2022, that is, after the outbreak of "delayed delivery" and "battery doubt", sales have continued to decline, and the delivery volume in January and February has fallen to 4029 and 2059 vehicles, respectively, and even higher than the Xiaopeng P7 with higher pricing.

Under the "battery shortage" dilemma, it is not only Xiaopeng who has a headache

Xiaopeng's "delayed delivery" and "battery replacement door" are, in the final analysis, related to the shortage of power battery supply. The power battery is the core component of new energy vehicles, which directly determines the mileage of the vehicle. However, the shortage of upstream raw materials and the continuous rise in prices, the rise of downstream car manufacturing surge demand, two-way squeeze led to "battery shortage".

On the one hand, the explosive growth of new energy vehicles has led to a rapid expansion of demand for power batteries in a short period of time, resulting in a serious imbalance between supply and demand.

According to the Statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, an increase of 159.5% and 157.5% respectively year-on-year, and it is expected to reach 5 million units in 2022. As early as the beginning of 2021, Tesla CEO Musk mentioned that the shortage of power battery supply will become a key factor restricting the development of the current new energy vehicle industry.

In March last year, Weilai founder Li Bin also said that battery supply limited its car delivery; there are also rumors that Xiaopeng Automobile CEO He Xiaopeng in order to seek battery supply, at the expense of a week of squatting in the Ningde era; Hive Energy CEO Yang Hongxin in an interview with the media believes that the battery gap in the power battery market may be 30% to 50%.

On the other hand, lithium carbonate, as the main raw material for power batteries, is not only in short supply, but also in price. Nearly 70% of China's lithium raw materials rely on imports, since 2020, affected by the epidemic, trade wars and even the Russian-Ukrainian war and other factors, the price of lithium carbonate, as the most important component of batteries, has continued to soar, from less than 50,000 yuan per ton to nearly 500,000 yuan in one year, thus greatly increasing the production cost of new energy vehicles.

In addition, China's power battery industry also has the structural imbalance of supply and demand mismatch, the overall overcapacity but insufficient high-quality production capacity, the market share of power batteries is more concentrated, and the oligopolistic effect is significant.

Known as the "King of Ning", the Ningde era is a big one, and the second- and third-line battery companies have low brand power and are not trusted. Some time ago, Xiaopeng Automobile was repeatedly rumored to introduce other suppliers outside the Ningde era, to which the official special response, "The news of transferring suppliers or a supplier to do our core battery suppliers is a huge difference from the facts." Xiaopeng Automobile will, as always, choose a strong supplier such as CATL to become our core partner. "On the other hand, the head manufacturers are full of orders, and they are competing with major car companies to please and even invest in cooperation to establish production lines." It is reported that SAIC, GAC, Changan, Geely and other car companies have reached joint ventures and cooperative relations with CATL.

According to the "Top Ten Domestic Power Battery Enterprises installed in January-December 2021" list released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the battery loading volume of the Ningde era in 2021 accounted for 52.1% of the entire country, exceeding the total installed volume of the 2nd-10th battery companies, including BYD.

(Picture from China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance)

In this regard, many car manufacturers have begun to lay out their own batteries in order to reduce their dependence on upstream battery manufacturers, thereby stabilizing battery supply and controlling the cost of the whole vehicle.

Tesla built its own power battery factory; Volkswagen steadily promoted its own battery plan; Ford prepared to build a battery research center; BYD's genetic advantages with its own battery origin; Geely's automotive power battery project settled in Jingzhou, Hubei Province...

However, the technical difficulty of the power battery, high research and development costs, long cultivation cycle, and interlaced such as the mountain, the current new energy car manufacturing forces are mostly rooted in Internet companies or traditional car companies, the lack of battery involves the electrochemical technology foundation, want to achieve production and use through self-built battery production lines and even large-scale mass production can be described as a long road, difficult and difficult.

The policy has declined, the giants have poured in, and the pattern has not yet been determined

In addition to the shortage of power batteries, the field of new energy vehicles is also facing many challenges such as subsidy decline and the influx of new forces, and market competition has further intensified.

The vigorous development of new energy vehicles in China is inseparable from the government's policy guidance and strong support.

As early as the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, the government has put the new energy vehicle plan on the agenda, and has successively introduced many preferential policies, and the recent "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly mentions focusing on strategic emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, and organizing future industry incubation and acceleration plans in hydrogen energy and other industries. The high subsidy reduces the cost of car purchase, improves the enthusiasm of consumers to buy cars, and greatly boosts the production and development of car manufacturers.

However, at the end of 2021, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on the Financial Subsidy Policy for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles in 2022", clarifying that "in 2022, the subsidy standard for new energy vehicles will be reduced by 30% on the basis of 2021"; "The subsidy policy for the purchase of new energy vehicles in 2022 will be terminated on December 31, 2022, and vehicles licensed after December 31, 2022 will no longer be subsidized." ”

The retreat of the policy dividend means that the market enthusiasm has cooled and the difficulty of sales has increased.

In addition, with the transformation of traditional car companies and the influx of technology giants, the competition in the new energy vehicle track is becoming increasingly fierce, and the car industry is facing a reshuffle at any time.

First, the original car-making forces have fierce internal competition. In terms of new car-making forces, "Wei Xiaoli" has long dominated the top three of the top three, but this situation has been loosened since the second half of last year;

In February this year, Nezha Automobile, which was originally located in the second echelon, even squeezed into the top three, and the delivery volume overwhelmed Xiaopeng and became the second in the industry after the ideal.

Second, traditional car companies are also competing to transform into new energy vehicle tracks, and even put forward the slogan of "late starter first". In June 2021, at the 11th China Automotive Forum hosted by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, traditional car companies such as FAW, BAIC Group, SAIC Motor, Changan Automobile, and Jianghuai Automobile announced their new energy strategic plans for the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

China FAW said that it will launch more than 50 new energy models during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period; BAIC Group proposed to actively promote the "pure electricity, hybrid, hydrogen fuel" multi-line technical route led by a comprehensive new energy strategy; SAIC Motor proposed to focus on strengthening the new generation of electric vehicle platform; Changan Automobile plans to build 26 new intelligent electric vehicles; Jianghuai Automobile announced that it will increase investment in construction and research and development in intelligence, electrification, networking, etc., and continue to promote product iterative upgrading.

Third, major manufacturers have also set their sights on the cake of the car-making track, and technology giants such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Baidu, and Ali have entered the market to share a piece of the pie.

Intelligence is an important direction for the development of new energy vehicles, so it involves a large number of software development content, which provides a possibility for Internet companies to join.

The intelligent driving function of the arcfox alpha S new HI version model jointly developed by Huawei and the ARCFOX Jihu brand was unveiled and pre-sold on the whole network in April last year; Xiaomi also officially announced that it has entered the car manufacturing field, and CEO Lei Jun will concurrently serve as the CEO of the intelligent electric vehicle business; Baidu and Geely Automobile have established Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd.; Alibaba, SAIC Motor and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech co-founded Zhiji Automobile has entered the mass production stage... These tech giants have a strong advantage in terms of capital and technology, and although it is unknown how much waves they will make in the future, they will undoubtedly increase the intensity of competition – in fact, He Xiaopeng was also from the Internet before, and did not have any automotive industry experience before founding Xiaopeng.

On the trillion-level car-making track, a series of challenges such as battery shortage, policy decline, and intensified competition are parallel. Wei Xiaoli and other new car-making forces eat crabs for the first time and grasp the first-mover advantage; traditional car companies have a deep accumulation and have the ambition to be the first to come later; Internet giants rely on their financial advantages to catch up... The intensifying battle for deer has only just begun.