| "Finance and Economics" weekly Wang Xin
Edit the | Chen Fang
The price of new energy vehicles is fierce.
After the "chip shortage", the shortage of upstream raw materials has intensified the cost pressure of new energy vehicle production. The soaring price of power battery raw materials has led to a sharp rise in the cost of making cars, and since 2022, car companies that cannot bear the pressure have begun to gradually transmit pressure to the consumer side, and mainstream electric vehicles in the market have ushered in another round of general increase.
Following Tesla's three rounds of growth on March 10, BYD, Xiaopeng and Nezha and other car companies have followed up the price increase strategy, on March 19, Zero Run C11, Euler, WM Motors immediately officially announced that they joined the price increase army.
The zero-running car that has just announced its IPO in Hong Kong has previously announced that the price increase of the zero-run T03 is 9,000 yuan, an increase of about 12%, ranking first in the current model increase list, not only that, the zero-run has also carried out a reduction operation for the T03 model. The price increase is the zero-run C11, which is its first SUV model listed in September 2021, after this price adjustment, the price of the deluxe version after subsidy rose from 159,800 yuan to 179,800 yuan, the premium version and the performance version both increased by 30,000 yuan, and the adjusted price was 209,800 yuan and 229,800 yuan.
On the evening of March 19, WM issued a document saying that due to the continuous sharp rise in raw material prices and the tight supply of suppliers, WM Motors will adjust the price of models on sale, and the price increase after comprehensive subsidies will range from 7,000 to 26,000 yuan, which will take effect on March 28.
Great Wall Motor's brand Euler also released a model price adjustment note on the evening of March 19, saying that the price of all models of the 2022 Euler Good Cat (including GT version) will be adjusted, and the comprehensive guidance price after subsidies will be raised by 6,000-7,000 yuan, which will take effect from 00:00 on March 23.
For the reasons for the price increase of electric vehicles, Li Xiang, CEO of Ideal Automobile, gave his own interpretation. "At present, brands that have contracted with battery manufacturers to determine the price increase of batteries in the second quarter have basically announced price increases immediately." If there is no price increase, most of them have not yet been negotiated, and the price will generally increase immediately after waiting for the negotiation. ”
Soon, the ideal ONE model will also enter a new round of price increases.
Some car companies are trying to persuade consumers to accept the reality of price increases, and buying new energy vehicles can save money in the long run. Shen Hui, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, stressed: "Domestic gas oil has risen sharply, and No. 95 gasoline will exceed 9 yuan / liter. According to the calculation of refueling 50 liters, it costs more than 450 yuan. The 450 yuan fuel bill converted can be used to charge the pure electric car for several months. According to the calculation of 100,000 kilometers in 5 years, the electricity consumption of smart pure electric vehicles can save about 80,000 yuan more than the fuel cost of oil vehicles, which is almost equal to four LV or Hermès entry-level bags. ”
In the face of the general rise of new energy vehicles, the reaction of consumers is polarized, and some netizens frankly said that price increases have become a foregone conclusion, and if you want to buy new energy vehicles, you must start early. Some netizens also advised that in the current market situation, what car to buy, or keep the money in your hands; the old car can be maintained for a few more years; the oil car will not increase in price, or buy the oil car reliably.
After financing, production, delivery, delivery and delivery to achieve a breakthrough in the number of new car-making forces, thinking that they have successfully passed the life-and-death line, they did not expect that chip supply, raw material shortage, and power battery raw materials soared, which will become a new problem that the industry cannot but face together.
"The increase in battery costs in the second quarter was very outrageous. War, politics, and the epidemic have made it possible to appreciate the value of buying a car, and the price of used cars in the United States has increased by 30% overall. Lee wanted to say.
How outrageous is that? A year ago, the price of lithium carbonate, the main raw material of power batteries, was maintained at 50,000 yuan a ton, and now each ton has exceeded 500,000 yuan, which shows that the power battery has risen by 250 yuan to 500 yuan per kWh of electricity. As of March 8, the price of nickel, the raw material of ternary batteries, rose by 16,000-25,000 yuan a ton, and the corresponding ternary lithium battery price increased by 31-47 yuan per kilowatt hour of electricity, corresponding to a 70 kWh electric vehicle that is, the cost of the battery rose by 2200-3300 yuan. According to the current LME nickel price calculation, the cost of high-nickel ternary products has the highest increase, and it is expected that nickel sulfate will rise by 80,000 yuan per ton, and the corresponding battery cost will rise by 7,000 yuan.
On March 8, the LME nickel futures March contract climbed as high as a record $101365/mt. In response to the irrational surge in nickel, on the afternoon of March 8, LME announced that all nickel trading on the day was void, and at the same time suspended nickel trading. On March 17, LME issued an announcement that it would increase the limit on the rise and fall of nickel trading to 12%.
On the one hand, the upstream lithium salt price increased by 100%, and the price of power batteries rose by 10%-20%; on the other hand, the domestic high-quality battery supply capacity is limited, the battery factory is in a state of full production and full sales, and the product is in short supply.
To this end, on March 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology presided over the lithium industry operation and power battery upstream material price increase symposium, analyzed the current resource development and expansion of production and supply of bottlenecks faced by the problem, in view of the recent sharp rise in the price of lithium resources and lithium salt products, around the supply and price stability of the discussion, for practical methods, there are suggestions to show that raw material factories can directly sell lithium salt to end customers to reduce circulation links, control the price difference between lithium carbonate factory and plant; on the other hand, It can increase the development of domestic lithium ore resources and increase market supply.
In the face of a series of continuous price increases, Zhu Yulong, an expert in the automotive industry, said that this year is not a question of price increases or price increases, and who can survive smoothly after price increases. "The price increase has led to the decline of orders and sales, but the battery cannot be obtained and the supply is not available and is eliminated in all aspects." At present, it seems that it is a great challenge for the capital reserves of car companies. The development window of emerging pure electric vehicle companies is about to close. ”
For car companies, having a stable market share is the short-term goal of these new forces car companies, although the price increase strategy of car companies lags behind the cost increase, and the price increase is also smaller than the cost increase, but the general rising tide that appears in the market this time indicates that the price increase will become the "realistic choice" of more car companies.
"Because the new energy vehicle market is now in a period of rapid growth, most car companies pay more attention to market share than the current profits, so they would rather sacrifice profits to maintain market share." A person in charge of a new energy vehicle company said.