Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | Mumi
Editor| Xiaohan
Tesla price increased three times in 7 days, BYD Xiaopeng has followed up, and a new round of electric vehicle price increases is coming!
Just today, Tesla's official website shows that the Model Y rear-wheel drive version of the model has risen by 15,000 yuan, and the latest price is 316,900 yuan. And just on March 10th and March 15th, Tesla has carried out two rounds of price increases, Model 3, Model Y versions of the model are involved, of which the model Y model has the highest cumulative price increase of 30,000 yuan, which means that Tesla has risen 3 times in a week!
▲ Tesla's official website Model Y rear-wheel drive version price screenshot
Coincidentally, BYD and Xiaopeng also announced in recent days that they want to increase prices.
Yesterday, the car was learned from BYD's sales office that BYD's new energy models officially increased in price today, which will be the lowest price in the next two days.
In addition, there are rumors that Xiaopeng will also start a sharp price increase on the 21st of this month, Xiaopeng P7 rose by up to 20,000 yuan, and Xiaopeng even asked employees to stop and go all out to carry out the last wave of promotional invitations before the price increase.
In fact, many car companies such as Euler, Weima, and Geometric Automobile have also raised prices after the decline of new energy subsidies, but soon a new wave of price increases has come again.
This wave of price increases is menacing and the price of power battery raw materials is inseparable, and the current prices of lithium and nickel have soared in a very short period of time. If the price of power battery raw materials cannot be stabilized at a reasonable level, new energy vehicle companies may have a new round of price increases.
First, Xiaopeng rose up to 20,000 by BYD's prices of many models
The car thing learned from relevant channels that at present, many models of BYD have been adjusted in price, among which Tang DM-i, Song Pro DM-i, Song PLUS DM-i and other models have risen by about 3,000 yuan, while pure electric models such as Yuan PLUS and Song PLUS EV have risen by about 6,000 yuan.
In addition, according to the news of Xiaopeng's sales staff, Xiaopeng will also increase prices in the near future. Among them, Xiaopeng P7 is expected to rise by 20,000 yuan, and Xiaopeng P5 and G3i are expected to increase prices by about 10,000 yuan.
In addition, the car thing found on Tesla's official website today that the Model Y rear-wheel drive version model, which originally did not increase in price a few days ago, also quietly rose by 15,000 yuan, and the latest price was 316,900 yuan. You should know that Tesla's last price increase was two days ago, which means that Tesla achieved a record of 3 consecutive price increases in a week or so.
▲Domestic Model 3 price changes
Second, the price of power batteries rose The price of core raw materials continued to rise
This time the price increase tide is so fierce, in addition to the decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles that has been paying close attention before, there must be other more important reasons.
In order to understand the real reason for the price increase, the car thing also asked the relevant people in the automotive industry and got some answers.
The first thing that is more obvious is the impact of the power battery. Since last year, the price of the core raw material of the power battery has continued to rise.
▲Power battery pack
Whether it is a ternary battery or a lithium iron phosphate battery, lithium element is required in the positive electrode, a ternary lithium battery also needs to use nickel and cobalt at the same time, and others also involve electrolyte and anode material. And these raw materials are facing a certain degree of price increase.
Lithium carbonate is currently the main source of lithium metal, and the price increase of this product is very obvious. According to data from Shanghai Steel Federation today, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose by 0.65 million yuan again, and the current price of one ton of lithium carbonate has reached 494,500 yuan, just one step away from the 500,000 yuan / ton mark.
If you only look at this data may not have a very strong cognition, we can look at another set of data, at the beginning of this year, Shanghai Steel Union data show that the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate is 290,000 yuan / ton.
In just two months, the price of lithium carbonate has increased by 70%, which is a very surprising increase. If you look back further, at the beginning of 2021, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was only 48,000 yuan / ton, and in just over a year, the average price increased by 10 times.
▲Lithium carbonate
The price of lithium iron phosphate battery core raw material lithium iron phosphate is also rising rapidly, industry data show that on February 28, the average price of domestic power-type premium lithium iron phosphate has reached 150,000 yuan / ton, and in early 2021, the price of lithium iron phosphate is less than 40,000 yuan / ton, an increase of more than 200% in one year.
In addition, the prices of raw materials such as lithium hydroxide, cobalt, lithium hexafluorophosphate, and graphite anodes are also growing rapidly.
The continuous rise of the core raw materials of power batteries has obviously affected power battery companies. When the car thing consulted with a power battery company, the other party said that the continuous price increase of raw materials will have an impact on consumer psychology and business operations, and the battery company will discuss product price adjustment according to the price increase of materials and car companies, and has carried out some price increases according to the situation of different car companies.
Another power battery company's reply to the car thing is: the enterprise needs to follow the economic law, and the implication is that the price of the power battery has been adjusted.
However, there are also exceptions to the enterprise, the reply of CATL times is: "The company ensures the supply of lithium resources through long-term cooperation, investment cooperation, recycling, self-mining and other ways." Among them, in terms of recycling, the lithium recovery rate has exceeded 90%, and lithium recycling has now played a certain role in supply security; in addition to the previous overseas investment cooperation, the company has also invested in lithium resources in Yichun and other places and mined lithium mines on its own. ”
From this point of view, the Ningde era has been laid out for the price increase of lithium ore, and is alleviating this problem.
However, in general, the price adjustment of many new energy vehicle companies should be affected by the price increase of power battery raw materials.
Third, the impact of the chip famine is still in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict or intensified
In addition to the impact of the price increase of power batteries, the price increase of new energy vehicles is also affected by chips.
In fact, the problem of chip shortage has always existed, and the lack of chip supply has also led to a significant increase in the price of multiple chips.
According to relevant media reports, the ST L9369 chip produced by STMicroelectronics (ST) belongs to the automotive chip, and there is no substitute at present, and the impact of the epidemic in Southeast Asia last year led to a significant reduction in production, and the price of this product has soared from 20 yuan to 2800 yuan without tax.
More importantly, the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict will further affect chip production. Ukraine is a large supplier of rare gases such as neon, while Russia is a large exporter of metal materials such as palladium, nickel and aluminum. Rare gases such as neon and krypton are essential materials in semiconductor lithography, while palladium can be used in some encapsulation processes.
According to the report of Omdia, an internationally renowned market research organization, Ukraine has enterprises such as Iceblick, Ingas and Cryoin, accounting for more than 70% of the global supply of neon gas.
If the Russian-Ukrainian conflict cannot be ended in the short term, the chip industry may face a more serious crisis.
In addition, due to the shortage of chips, some suppliers choose to stockpile goods, which leads to further increases in chip prices. Similar things happened many times last year, and the State Administration of Market Regulation also punished relevant enterprises, but this situation still exists.
At present, the chip shortage may not disappear in the short term, which will have many adverse effects on the automotive industry.
Conclusion: The new wave of new energy vehicle price increases will continue
After entering 2022, price increases have become the main issue in the new energy automobile industry, initially because of the decline in subsidies and thus trigger price increases, and at this stage it is because of the price increases caused by the supply of core raw materials and chips for power batteries.
From the current situation, whether it is the price increase of power battery raw materials or the problem of chip supply, there is no good solution in the short term, and more companies may be affected in the future.
From this point of view, a new wave of new energy vehicle price increases may have just begun.