In recent times, there is only one theme in the new energy automobile circle, that is, price increases! Almost all the new energy vehicle products we can think of have different degrees of price increases, and there are very few new energy head brands that have not yet announced price increases, and Weilai Automobile and Ideal Automobile are two of them. Of course, most new energy vehicle manufacturers for product price increases are very sufficient reasons, that is, the cost of raw materials has risen sharply, which is also a fact, because the price of lithium carbonate, the main raw material of the power battery, has soared to 500,000 yuan / ton, for many manufacturers with large shipments, the pressure brought by the cost increase is indeed very large, such as BYD and Tesla. However, for some new energy brands and car companies outside the head, it seems that price increases are not the only way out, but many such manufacturers still choose to increase prices.
A few days ago, WM Motors announced that it will adjust the models on sale, and the price increase after the comprehensive subsidy will range from 7,000-26,000 yuan, and the price adjustment will be effective at 00:00 on March 28, and the users who have completed the deposit payment before this are not affected by this price adjustment. From the perspective of price adjustment range, the price adjustment range of WM Motor is relatively high in the domestic new energy vehicle price increase tide, because the price increase announced by Biya before is only 3000-6000 yuan, and the highest increase of WM Automobile has reached 26,000 yuan, if you refer to the price increase of other brands of electric vehicles other than Tesla, WM Motor's price increase this time even has the suspicion of "cutting leeks".
Of course, there is another "point" that is particularly interesting, and you can also see the "heart" of the manufacturer, that is, many other manufacturers basically send notices the day before and increase prices the next day. However, WM Automobile issued a price increase announcement on March 19, but the official price increase was after 00:00 on March 28, so the intention of this practice is actually obvious, it is likely that consumers will see this price increase notice, in the time window between the 19th and 27th, quickly place an order to buy a car and increase sales. After the price increase, we believe that there will be a certain impact on the sales of WM Motors, and the time window of these days may be the last "carnival" of WM Motors in the short term.
In fact, the reason is very simple, WM Motors in the field of new forces in the field of car sales, the overall performance is relatively weak, the sense of existence at the product level is not high, in January 2022, WM Motors sales of only 2200 vehicles, February sales are only 3311 vehicles. The sales level of the three major new car-making brands of Xiaopeng, Ideal and Weilai are basically around 10,000 vehicles, and the sales gap between Weima and these three major brands is getting wider and wider. So in our opinion, even if the price does not increase, under such sales, the pressure of cost increase is not particularly large for WM.
Of course, the more difficult problem is that now WM Motors is still in another crisis of trust, that is, the "locking" problem of electric vehicle products. Some time ago, there were many Weima car owners said that the WM models they purchased, after experiencing the maintenance and upgrading of the brand-authorized 4S store, there were different degrees of "endurance" lack of capacity, and the owners suspected that the vehicle was secretly "locked" by the merchant, and WM Car faced a large number of consumer complaints, and has not given a reasonable explanation and solution. The reason why there will be a "locked power" situation, the industry generally believes that WM Motor in order to prevent the vehicle from spontaneous combustion and other extreme situations, for the maximum capacity of the battery and charging speed of the program lock, the result is that the maximum mileage and charging speed of the vehicle is greatly reduced, a large number of "locked" complaints, in fact, has affected the reputation and future of WM Motor.
Therefore, in fact, in our view, although WM Motors, as a new force manufacturer of pure electric models, the sharp rise in raw material prices will indeed form a certain cost pressure, but with the sales data of WM Motors, it is obvious that it is not necessary to neutralize the cost by increasing the price. Because for WM Motors, sales are not high, and the negative impact of the "locking" storm has not yet passed, and now the lowest price increase is 7,000 yuan, and the highest price increase is 26,000 yuan, which may greatly affect consumers' purchase decisions.
Therefore, in our view, WM Motor's price increase is not completely necessary, perhaps for WM Motor, to solve the negative impact of the "lock electricity" storm is the most important, in the sales volume itself is very low, and the product and brand reputation is affected by the "lock electricity" storm, the cost change brought about by the rise in raw material prices may be more meaningful than the price increase. It is very simple, for head brands such as BYD and Tesla, consumers may still choose to identify and buy after the price increase, but for manufacturers such as WM that are relatively weak and are experiencing word-of-mouth "suffering", it is not necessarily the case.