In recent times, the price of pure electric vehicles has risen sharply, and almost all new car-making companies, including new energy models under traditional car brands, have risen in price.
This wave of price increases is not actually aimed at a car brand, but for the entire industry. Because all new energy vehicles have to use batteries, and the price of raw materials in batteries has risen. So no car brand has escaped this wave of price increases.
However, the price increase is attributed to the price increase, and we can also find that some car brands have a relatively high price increase, and some car brands have a relatively low price increase. The increase is related to two major factors, the first factor is the new energy vehicle with low price increase, and the battery capacity they use is definitely relatively small. The price increase is relatively high, and its battery capacity is large.
The second factor, that is, the price increase is relatively high, it must be that the brand is more confident in the product, and it is believed that the price increase can also be sold, there is no problem. Then the price increase is relatively low, it may also be that the brand side considers from the perspective of the product itself, if the price increase is too high, then the consumer will not buy. Especially for new energy vehicle users at the level of 100,000 yuan, these users are very price sensitive.
The third factor is that there are some businesses due to adequate funding. Or they predict that the price of batteries will fall in the future, or if their ability to control the upstream and downstream supply chains is relatively strong, then the company may also increase the price by a low margin, or simply do not increase the price, which is equivalent to the company to make up for the loss of this part of the battery raw materials. It is equivalent to the company paying for the consumer.
Then among the many new car-making companies, the only one that has not increased its price is Weilai Automobile. And Weilai also announced that it will not increase prices, Weilai automobile does not increase prices, we can not deny that at this stage of all new energy vehicles are rising prices, Weilai does not increase prices to stabilize the market to boost users' purchase confidence, will certainly be helpful.
But let's put it another way, what is the fundamental reason why Weilai does not bargain? There are no more than two reasons.
The first may be Weilai Automobile, the amount of funds is very sufficient, the control of the upstream and downstream battery supply chain is very strong, can support the day when the battery price falls. Use the company's own funds to make up for this part of the loss of upstream battery raw materials.
The second reason is that NIO itself is positioned as a high-end brand, and the pricing of the model is already very high. It has a high product premium ability, so even if the price of battery raw materials rises, it can still ensure a good profit, so Weilai Automobile does not increase the price.
You think which of the above two reasons is more likely, and I think the second one is more likely.
Why? Because NIO has been losing money until now, we looked up the data from 2018 to 2020, and NIO's financial report showed a loss of 9.638 billion in 2018, a loss of 11.295 billion in 2019, and a loss of 5.304 billion in 2020. The loss for the first three quarters of 2021 was 1.873 billion. That is to say, Weilai Automobile has always been in a state of loss. So in such a situation, I think it is unlikely that Weilai will pay for the loss of battery raw materials. If this is the case, it means that he sells one, loses one, sells one and loses one, and the more he sells, the more he loses. I think that Weilai Automobile, as the first echelon of the current domestic car-making new power company, no longer needs to do this, he already has a certain scale.
So I think the reason why WEILAI Automobile has not raised prices is because its product bargaining power is too high. Even if the price of battery raw materials rises, they can still make money, which means that the price sold by Weilai Automobile before is too expensive. On the contrary, other car brands cannot support the forced price increase under the premise of rising raw material costs, which reflects that they have sold too cheaply before.
So do you still think that Weilai Automobile is thick?