■ Xia Jinbiao, reporter of China Economic Times
New energy vehicles set off a wave of price increases. A few days ago, WM Automobile announced that the price of its products will be raised from 7,000 yuan to 26,000 yuan, and the price effective date is 00:00 on March 28. At least 7 car companies announced price increases within a week. On March 18 alone, Xiaopeng Motors, Geely's Geometry Cars, and Zero-Run Cars issued price increase notices. Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 car companies have raised the price of nearly 50 models of their models, and among the major new energy vehicle companies, only a few such as Weilai Automobile and Ideal Automobile have not yet announced price increases.
Industry insiders believe that the price increase of new energy vehicles is mainly due to the decline in subsidies and the rise in the cost of upstream raw material prices. The gradual decline of mainland subsidies has long been the consensus of new energy vehicle companies, the impact on the market is expected, the impact on new energy vehicle companies is limited, and the price increase of raw materials such as power batteries has brought huge pressure to new energy vehicle companies. A number of car companies said in the price increase announcement that the main reason for the price adjustment is the sharp rise in raw material prices.
Photo credit:Xinhua News Agency
It is understood that as the main raw material of power batteries, lithium, cobalt, nickel have seen a sharp increase in prices. Taking the lithium required for new energy vehicle power batteries as an example, the lithium price has risen from 50,000 yuan / ton in early 2021 to the current 500,000 yuan / ton, achieving ten-fold growth in more than a year.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology presided over a symposium on the operation of the lithium industry and the price increase of upstream materials for power batteries, and analyzed the bottlenecks faced by the current resource development and expansion of production and supply. The symposium required that upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain should strengthen the docking of supply and demand, work together to form a long-term and stable strategic cooperation relationship, jointly guide the rational return of lithium salt prices, increase efforts to ensure market supply, and better support the healthy development of the new energy automobile industry in the mainland.
Soochow Securities Research Report pointed out that due to the strong demand for downstream power batteries and energy storage batteries, the short-term new supply of lithium carbonate is limited, and the price of lithium carbonate has accelerated due to the impact of some manufacturers hoarding goods. However, the recent increase in the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has gradually slowed down. At the same time, in the long run, the global nickel production capacity is gradually released, the supply tension will be alleviated, and the new production capacity is mostly integrated, which can effectively reduce the cost of the lithium battery industry chain.
Industry insiders believe that in order to cope with the rise in raw material prices, new energy vehicle companies in the choice to increase prices at the same time, but also hope to maintain market share, the price increase is generally less than the cost increase, some low-end products are facing a lot of market pressure.
At present, the domestic new energy vehicle market presents a "dumbbell-type" development pattern, one is the high-end path of Tesla, BYD Han, Weilai, Xiaopeng and other brands; the other is the A00-class models launched by brands represented by Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, Euler Black Cat and White Cat, which have spread sales in the low-end market. The tide of price increases is accelerating the differentiation of the new energy vehicle market, and the development pattern of the "dumbbell type" in the domestic new energy vehicle market has begun to change quietly.
In the low-end market, Euler announced that its two main models, the white cat and the black cat, will stop taking orders. Euler said that after the sharp rise in raw material costs in 2022, Euler Black Cat lost more than 10,000 yuan per vehicle. Previously, small electric vehicles accounted for half of the new energy vehicle market. Relevant data show that in the past two years, the average market share of small pure electric passenger cars has exceeded 40%. After the launch of the new energy vehicle to the countryside, its market share is further expanding. However, under the influence of multiple factors such as the repeated new crown pneumonia epidemic, chip shortage, and rising raw material prices, small electric vehicles have begun to face a lot of survival pressure.
Industry insiders pointed out that compared with other levels of models, the A00-class small electric vehicles have limited profit margins, mainly relying on the benefits brought by large-scale production. When the cost rises sharply, its profits will inevitably be squeezed, and the existential crisis will be exposed first.
The market generally believes that the new energy automobile industry is shifting from policy-driven to market-driven. The price increase is accelerating market differentiation, some new energy vehicle companies that hold pricing power, their price adjustment will not affect the demand for their products in the terminal market; and low-end car companies that lack technology and brands will only fall into the price war and become the fate of being eventually eliminated.
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