What is the price increase of new energy vehicles

GAC Aean intelligent ecological factory production line. (File photo)

"Not only is there no discount, but it is also 5,000 yuan more expensive than half a month ago." On March 18, at Beijing Jintai Kaidi Automobile Sales Service Co., Ltd., located in the Asian Games Village Automobile Trading Market, a consumer who had taken a fancy to the GAC Aean V70 Smart Collar Edition regretted that he had not started before.

Since entering March, the reporter has visited a number of 4S stores and business district stores, and found that there have been more than 40 electric vehicles from nearly 20 new energy vehicle companies that have announced price increases. The price of upstream raw materials soared, and after the conduction of power battery manufacturers, it eventually spread to the vehicle enterprises.

Car companies have raised their prices

On March 17, Nezha Automobile released a model price adjustment instruction, affected by many factors such as the rise in upstream raw material prices and the tight supply chain supply, Nezha Automobile adjusted the price of the models on sale from 00:00 on the 18th, and the increase range ranged from 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan.

On the same day, Tesla's official website in China showed that the starting price of the Model Y rear-wheel drive version was raised to 316,900 yuan, up 15,060 yuan from the previous one. This is the third time since March this year that Tesla China has raised the price of its products. Previously, on March 15, Tesla China just completed a round of price adjustment, and the starting price of the Model 3 rear-wheel drive version and the high-performance version rose by 14,200 yuan and 18,000 yuan respectively, while the long-endurance version and high-performance version of the Model Y rose by 18,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan respectively. On March 10, Tesla also rose a round of prices, the same model, including model 3 high-performance version, Model Y long-endurance version and high-performance version, the starting price rose by 10,000 yuan each.

On March 16, BYD Automobile adjusted the official guidance price of new energy models related to Dynasty Network and Ocean Network, ranging from 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan. It is understood that BYD's price increase this round involves a total of 39 configurations of 10 models. Among them, the models with an increase of 3,000 yuan are mainly DM-i models, and the main models with an increase of 6,000 yuan are pure electric vehicle models, and the latest models such as Dolphin and Yuan PLUS are also within the range of price increases. This is bydir's second official price adjustment this year. In January this year, due to the sharp rise in raw material prices and the decline in subsidies for new energy vehicle purchases, BYD has made a round of price increases to the official guidance price of its new energy models, ranging from 1,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan.

At the same time, Chery New Energy also issued an announcement that due to the continuous sharp rise in raw material prices, Chery New Energy Vehicle will adjust the official guidance price of small ant-related new energy models, ranging from 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan, which has taken effect from 00:00 on March 17.

In this round of price increases, on March 1, the Euler good cat GT rose by 12,000 yuan; on the same day, the geometric EX3 rose by 7,000 yuan. On March 4, GAC Aion AION Y increased prices by 10,000 yuan, GAC Aion V Plus by 5,000 yuan, and GAC Aion S Plus by 4,000 yuan.

In addition, WEIO also announced that the whole series will no longer provide a subsidy of 5400 yuan from March 31.

The rise in raw materials is the driving force

Compared with the decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles, many car companies said in the price increase announcement that the main reason for the price adjustment is the sharp increase in raw material prices.

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, told reporters that since the beginning of this year, due to the increase in the price of raw materials, the speed of the price increase of power batteries has greatly exceeded the expectations of the industry, and many car companies have negotiated low prices with battery suppliers, and the pressure on car companies is not prominent, but the pressure on car companies that sign new orders after the price increase of power batteries is very large, and they can only alleviate cost pressure by price increases.

As the main raw material of power batteries, lithium, cobalt and nickel have all seen a sharp increase in prices. Business agency data show that on March 17, the comprehensive quotation of the battery-grade lithium carbonate market was 480,000 yuan / ton to 522,000 yuan / ton, while the price of lithium carbonate in early 2021 was only 50,000 yuan / ton. At the same time, the price of cobalt has also risen from less than 300,000 yuan / ton at the beginning of last year to 568,000 yuan / ton, nearly doubling. In addition, affected by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia, as the world's third largest nickel producer, has seen a sharp rise in nickel prices. The price change of nickel sulfate alone has caused the price of ternary materials to rise by 160,000 yuan to 250,000 yuan per ton. Correspondingly, the price of ternary lithium batteries rose by 31 yuan to 47 yuan per kWh. Taking a 70 kWh electric vehicle as an example, the recent battery cost of an electric vehicle has risen by 2000 yuan to 3300 yuan.

"In addition to the price increase of power batteries, the lack of cores has also increased the purchase cost of chips." Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, explained, "Some car companies have to buy chips at high prices in the market in order to solve the chip problem. ”

Even more worrying is the fact that two Ukrainian neon suppliers, which account for about half of global neon production, have interrupted production, and neon gas is an indispensable gas in the chip manufacturing process, exacerbating the tight global chip supply shortage. The magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the eastern waters of Japan's honshu island late at night on March 16 also affected global automotive chip suppliers, including Renesas Electronics, Sony, and Murata Manufacturing. Among them, Renesas Electronics is the world's largest supplier of automotive microcontrol units, and Murata Manufacturing is a leading manufacturer of chip multilayer ceramic capacitors, with a global market share of more than 30%.

Industry insiders said that although Tesla has not publicly disclosed the reasons for the several increases in product prices, combined with Tesla's pricing logic and the previous statements of the company's executives, it is largely related to the challenges encountered in the supply chain. Under the background of repeated global epidemics, complex international situations and frequent natural disasters, the automobile industry, as one of the industries with the longest supply chain and a high degree of globalization, is facing more and more difficulties, and perhaps more car companies will join the price increase team in the future.

The synergy of the industrial chain needs to be deepened

At the beginning of this year, the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference predicted that the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China are expected to exceed 6 million in 2022, and the market penetration rate is about 22%. Among them, the cumulative sales of new energy passenger cars in China will exceed 5.5 million in 2022, and the market penetration rate will reach about 25%.

"The price increase of new energy vehicles will inhibit demand to a certain extent, and in the future, if the price of raw materials for power batteries continues to rise, the association may adjust the forecast sales of new energy vehicles throughout the year according to the actual market conditions." At the same time, Cui Dongshu suggested that car companies can cope with rising costs by improving product technical indicators, increasing the scale of bicycle sales and reducing costs, and improving the structure of battery suppliers.

Dong Yang, vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred Association, said that most of the current new energy vehicle manufacturers have not yet made a profit, and the market will not accept that the price of new energy vehicles is significantly higher than that of traditional cars of the same level, "the rise in raw materials is too large, it is difficult to absorb all the increases in the industrial chain alone, and the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain should be coordinated in unison to share the cost increase brought about by the price increase of raw materials."

"In addition to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to overcome difficulties and overcome difficulties together, we also need to work hard to improve the energy efficiency of new energy vehicles and appropriately set the mileage in order to save resources." Dong Yang added.

Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, believes that the exploration and development of domestic lithium resources should be accelerated at present to ensure the safety of the supply chain, and at the same time, independent innovation and scientific and technological research should be strengthened to improve the level of efficient utilization of resource recycling.

Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aean, said that appropriately reducing the use of energy storage batteries, especially the use of export energy storage batteries, is also conducive to alleviating the current shortage of domestic power battery raw materials and achieving "stable supply and price".

Under the pressure of tightening power battery supply brought about by many uncertainties, domestic vehicle companies have also begun to take a variety of ways such as investment, equity participation and cooperation, and join hands with upstream power battery companies to stabilize the supply chain. On March 1 this year, Sunwoda Auto Battery Parent Company Sunwoda Electronics Co., Ltd. issued a capital increase announcement, a total of 19 companies to the Sunwoda Auto Battery capital increase of 2.43 billion yuan, including Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal and Dongfeng, SAIC, GAC and other vehicle companies. (Economic Daily reporter Yang Zhongyang)