Recently, the most disturbing thing for consumers is the high oil price, and what is not expected is that new energy vehicles have also begun to rise in price, behind this, the continuous rise of power battery raw materials has become a direct trigger for car companies to raise prices one after another.
At the beginning of the year, some car companies have adjusted the price once due to the new energy country's subsidies, this year is the last year of the state subsidy for new energy vehicles, according to the latest subsidy policy, the subsidy for pure electric vehicles will be reduced by 3900 or 5400 yuan, the plug-in hybrid model NEDC endurance is not less than 50km / WLTC endurance is not less than 43km, including the subsidy of the additional program model, will be reduced by 2040 yuan.
From January to mid-February, about 16 car companies have adjusted prices because of subsidies, and the prices of different brands of models have increased by 1,000 to 21,088 yuan. Entering March, nearly 20 car companies have been unable to withstand the pressure of rising battery raw material prices, have come up with price increase plans, in this second wave of price increases, the price of more than 40 electric vehicles on the market began to rise.
Despite this, many consumers who have the ability to buy new cars still set their sights on new energy vehicles, and after calculating the cost of ownership, they are more aware that the cost of using a car is actually very cheap, and as the charging and replacing facilities are more and more perfect, they still can't escape the law of true incense, after all, cost-effective is the last word.
Can't resist cost pressures
First and foremost was Tesla, which raised the price of its products three times in a row from March 10 to 17. The first price increase was on March 10, Tesla's official website showed that Tesla announced that the Model Y long endurance / high performance, Model 3 high performance version each increased by 10,000 yuan: Model Y long endurance version price of 357,900 yuan, an increase of 10,000 yuan; Model Y high performance version price of 397,900 yuan, an increase of 10,000 yuan; Model 3 high performance version price of 349,900 yuan, an increase of 10,000 yuan. Model Y delivery time is 10-14 weeks and Model 3 delivery time is 16-20 weeks.
On March 15, the pricing of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y models was raised again. The Model 3 rear-end drive version is priced at 279,900, a price increase of 14,000; the Model 3 high-performance version is priced at 367,900, an increase of 18,000; the Model Y long-endurance version is priced at 375,900, a price increase of 20,000; the Model Y high-performance version is priced at 417,900, the price increased by 20,000, and the waiting period for all price-adjusted models is 16-20 weeks.
On March 17, the rear-drive version of Tesla Model Y was raised by 15,000 yuan, and the latest price was 316,900 yuan, which was only two days after the previous price adjustment.
BYD, whose market sales continue to rise, also issued a price increase notice on March 15, and since 00:00 on March 16, the official guidance price of new energy models related to Dynasty Andu and Ocean Network has been raised by 3,000-6,000 yuan. This is BYD's second price increase this year, and on February 1, some of BYD's models have increased by 1,000-7,000 yuan.
In this round of price adjustment of BYD, plug-in hybrid models rose by 3,000 yuan, pure electric models increased by 6,000 yuan, from the perspective of specific model price changes, Tang DM-i increased prices by 3,000 yuan; Song Pro DM-i increased prices by 3,000 yuan; Qin PLUS DM-i increased prices by 3,000 yuan; Qin PLUS EV rose by 6,000 yuan; YuanPro increased by 6,000 yuan; Yuan PLUS increased prices by 6,000 yuan; Song PLUS DM-i rose by 3,000 yuan; Song PLUS The price of THE EV increased by 6,000 yuan; the price of dolphin increased by 6,000 yuan; and the price of the E2 increased by 6,000 yuan.
Xiaopeng Automobile, Nezha Automobile and Feifan Automobile followed close behind, and collectively announced price increases on March 18. Xiaopeng Automobile's increase in the price of models on sale is 10,000-20,000 yuan, and the price increase will take effect from 00:00 on March 21. Nezha Automobile's increase in the price of models on sale ranges from 3,000-5,000 yuan. Feifan Automobile adjusted the price of some models of its MARVELL R and ER6 models, of which the adjusted price of MARVEL R was 219,800-24.18 million yuan, and the price of the Pro version increased by 2,000 yuan; the price of Feifan ER6 was adjusted at 15.68-20.18 million yuan, and the price of all models increased by 1,000 yuan.
On March 19, the prices of new energy vehicles of zero running, Euler, Weima, Geometry and other brands also followed suit. Zero-run officially announced that the price of the C11 model series increased, of which the zero-run C11 deluxe version rose by 20,000 yuan, the premium version/ performance version rose by 30,000 yuan, and the price range after the price increase was 179,800-22.98 million yuan. Euler Automobile will adjust the price of the cat models (including the GT version) sold, and the price will be raised by 6,000-7,000 yuan after comprehensive subsidies, and the price adjustment will take effect on March 23. After the comprehensive subsidy, the price of WM Automobile will be raised by 7,000-26,000 yuan, and the price adjustment will take effect on March 28. Geometry Auto will raise the official guidance price of its Geometry APro, Geometry C, geometry EX3 Kung Fu Bull by 3,000-7,000 yuan, and the price adjustment will take effect on March 19.
Shocks in raw material prices
As we all know, the core cost of electric vehicles is mostly power batteries, and the price trend of batteries is mainly determined by raw material prices, Shanghai nonferrous network data show that as of March 21, the average price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate is 503,000 yuan / ton, and at the low point of the price in the second half of 2020, the price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate is about 40,000 yuan / ton, and the price difference is large, at a glance.
Looking at the global market, Wells Fargo analysts said the price of nickel, the key material for batteries, rose 130 percent this year, and prices of cobalt, lithium and aluminum soared 16 to 88 percent.
For the trend of power battery price increases, CATL responded, "Due to the sharp rise in the price of upstream raw materials, the company dynamically adjusted the price of some battery products accordingly." According to the Financial Associated Press, the relevant person in charge of a new energy vehicle company recently said that since the second half of 2021, the Price of Ningde Times has increased twice, "According to the battery cost of a new energy vehicle, the last increase was 10,000 yuan, and it rose by 10,000 yuan not long ago." ”
Recently, the price of nickel has risen sharply, once rising to more than $100,000 per ton, which is jokingly called "demon nickel" by the outside world. The industry said that the nickel price surge is an irrational transaction, if you return to the market supply and demand, how many car companies are willing to pay for such a price? And how much certainty is passed on to the end consumer?
Even if the nickel price of 80,000 US dollars per ton is calculated, the input cost of each electric vehicle will increase by 1,000 US dollars, which invisibly brings huge cost pressure to car companies, not only need to absorb part of the cost by themselves, but also have to increase the terminal price, which is not conducive to the development of the overall electric vehicle industry in the long run.
Tesla CEO Musk commented that Tesla faces heavy inflationary pressures in raw materials and logistics. The recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict has pushed commodity prices to their highest since 2008, with examples of aluminum for automobiles, palladium for motor converters, and nickel for electric vehicle batteries, all of which have continued to soar, forcing Tesla products to pass on high costs to consumers.
Ideal Auto CEO Li Xiang said on his personal Weibo that at present, brands that have contracted with battery manufacturers to determine the price increase 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. He said bluntly that the increase in battery costs in the second quarter was very outrageous.
Due to the unprecedented trend of nickel prices, the "demon nickel" incident has also sounded the alarm bell for car companies, and other battery materials are bound to be imported in the future, and entry-level or low-end models will accelerate the introduction of lithium iron phosphate, effectively reducing dependence on rare metals such as cobalt and nickel. In addition, car companies will also re-examine the origin of upstream battery materials and adjust them to ensure stable supply in the future.
The increase in the cost of battery raw materials has also attracted the attention of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, on March 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed that many ministries and commissions organized a lithium industry operation symposium on March 16-17 and a symposium on the price increase of upstream materials for power batteries. Full exchanges were made around the market price formation mechanism of lithium salt products, production and consumption, the impact of the power battery industry, and the policy measures to ensure supply and stabilize prices. The meeting requested 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 strategic emerging industries such as new energy vehicles in the mainland.
In addition to the problem of coping with the rising cost of key raw materials for batteries, other components such as semiconductor chips continue to outstrip supply, bringing additional unfavorable factors to car companies.
Under the influence of uncertainties such as the global epidemic, geopolitics, and frequent natural disasters such as earthquakes, the supply chain challenges of the automotive industry are becoming more and more complex and the difficulties are increasing. But in the short term, traditional fuel vehicles will have to endure higher oil prices, perhaps seen as a luxury that curbs demand, thereby accelerating the pace of the energy transition.