Nearly 40 new energy models of many brands have recently completed price increases, and some models have risen more than once, and WM Motors also issued a price increase description on March 20, with an increase of 7,000-26,000 yuan. But Weilai Automobile said that there is no price increase plan in the short term, what is the reason for this?
The reason for the recent price increase of new energy vehicles
It is reported that the recent price of lithium batteries has risen all the way, battery-grade lithium carbonate has exceeded 500,000 / ton, and the cost pressure of midstream battery factories has increased, resulting in the entire industrial chain began to increase prices, and even stopped production. In addition to lithium batteries, chip price increases and shortages are also major problems that have plagued car companies recently, and the key factor of subsidy decline has jointly promoted the price increase.
The price increase is more proportional to the original price, and the higher the price, the larger the battery, the greater the increase. On the one hand, the reason is that the cost of models with large batteries has risen a lot, and users who buy high-priced models are less sensitive to price changes. However, one of the cases is the zero-run C11, the original price of 17.98-22.98 million on the basis of the increase in price reached 20,000-30,000, I am afraid that it will have a significant impact on sales.
The reason why Weilai Automobile does not increase prices
We analyze the reasons why WEILAI Automobile has not increased its price in the near future, mainly in the following three points.
First, Wei comes from the research of three electric technology, the cost of high controllability. In the era of electrification, batteries, motors and electronic control systems are collectively referred to as the "three components". These three components determine the most basic and important qualities of electric vehicles, such as power, energy consumption and battery life. The research and development of "three major components" is also regarded by car companies as the cornerstone of car manufacturing. WEILAI chose the "full-stack self-research" route of the three-electric system, and also set up an independent research and development company - XPT WEILAI Drive Technology. For example, WEILAI's ternary iron lithium batteries and semi-solid-state batteries have been used, the silicon carbide flat motor on the ET7 is produced by NIO's Azuran Power, and the key technologies of intelligent driving are mostly completed by its subsidiaries and invested companies, self-developed and self-produced, and the cost is relatively controllable.
Second, although Weilai is losing money, it is not short of money. NIO's financial report shows that it lost 9.638 billion yuan in 2018, 11.295 billion yuan in 2019, 5.304 billion yuan in 2020, and 1.873 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2021. However, NIO had cash reserves of about 47 billion yuan at the end of the third quarter of 2021, and completed a financing of 2 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter of the same year, with sufficient cash reserves, and even said that there was no urgent financing need in the short term. Cash reserves are sufficient so choose not to increase prices, and companies come to make up for the loss of this part of the rise in battery raw materials and pay for consumers. Although consumers who buy Weilai models are less sensitive to price, insisting on not increasing prices will certainly help stabilize the market and boost users' buying confidence.
Third, WEIlai positions luxury brands, has a high product premium ability, and has high bicycle profits. The medium and large SUV NIO ES8 is priced at 468,000-62.40 million, the medium-sized SUV NIO ES6 is priced at 35.80-526,000, the medium-sized CAR NIO ET5 is priced at 32.80-38.60 million, and the medium and large car NIO ET7 just listed in January is priced at 448,000-52.60 million, and the price of these cars has not lost to the BBA brand of the same level (size). And judging from the recent sales of several cars in Weilai, it is already good in the luxury car camp. The main expenditure of the current loss is the construction of the replacement power station, as of November 2021, Weilai replacement power station more than 600, the cost of a single replacement power station reached about 1.5 million -2 million, compared to the input of the replacement power station, the impact of battery price increases on Weilai is relatively small.
Write at the end
No matter what the reasons, Weilai can insist on not raising prices in this price increase tide, which is certainly worth affirming. In addition, due to the increase in production costs, the slight increase in the price of entry-level models that are mainly cost-effective is also understandable, and we look at it rationally. It is expected that the chip shortage can be solved as soon as possible, and various price increases will pass as soon as possible, and consumers will eventually get benefits.