Less than three months have passed in 2022, and the discussion about which is good for new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles has changed several times. At the beginning of the year, when the new energy subsidies declined and the collective price of new energy vehicles rose, new energy vehicles were generally looked down upon by netizens, and many netizens began to consider whether to buy new energy vehicles after the oil price soared. Now the second or even third round of collective price increases of new energy vehicles, gasoline prices remain high, new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles compared with the advantage of saving money?
Is it a good time to buy new energy vehicles?
Obviously not, although the recent oil price surge, and according to the international oil price market, domestic oil prices on March 31 ushered in a slight downward adjustment after the follow-up has a high probability of continuing to rise. But now is still not a good time to buy new energy vehicles, because the new energy vehicle GM ushered in a price increase, and GM is likely to continue to rise.
The main reason for the recent price increases of new energy vehicles is that the lithium batteries required for the production of electric vehicles mainly include nickel, cobalt, lithium, graphite and copper, and a variety of raw materials have recently soared. In particular, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate and battery-grade cobalt was about 50,000 yuan / ton in January 2021, and by March this year, the average price rose to 500,400 yuan / ton, a 10-fold increase. In January 2021, the average spot price of electrolytic cobalt was about 270,000 yuan / ton, and now it has exceeded 540,000 yuan / ton, an increase of 100%.
Nickel has been trading at a stable price of $10,000-$20,000/mt for most of the past decade, but rose as high as $50,300/ton on March 7 this year, followed by a surge of more than 100% on March 8 to $101365/ton, for which the London Metal Exchange once urgently stopped trading. At the same time, the "chip shortage" that plagued the production capacity of new energy vehicles last year has become more serious this year, which has directly led to a significant increase in the price of multiple chips. Taken together, it is natural for a number of new energy vehicle brands to raise prices in the near future.
Do new energy vehicles really save money?
In this time period, will buying new energy vehicles really save money? The cost of traditional fuel vehicles is mainly concentrated in fuel costs, insurance costs, maintenance fees and parking fees. However, in addition to replacing the fuel cost with electricity, the new energy vehicle also has insurance, maintenance and parking fees. After excluding the difference between fuel and electricity, the two are actually similar in terms of car costs. In terms of maintenance, new energy vehicles also have three electric systems that need maintenance, and the maintenance cycle and cost are similar to those of traditional fuel models. In terms of insurance costs, new energy vehicles are subsidized, so the price will be higher than that of fuel vehicles at the same price, which leads to new energy vehicles being more expensive in insurance costs, but the price difference is not large. As for the parking fee, there is no difference.
Then, whether buying a new energy vehicle can save money, how much money can be saved is all in the fuel cost. But after the recent price increase, the increase of many models is enough to buy a lot of oil. Tesla three times a week price increase, in just 5 days Tesla Model Y cumulative increase of up to 30,000 yuan; BYD is the second price increase this year, Dynasty Network, Ocean Network new energy models prices increased by 3,000-6,000 yuan; Xiaopeng Automobile's models recently rose by 10,100-20,000 yuan; Nezha Automobile's full range of models recently increased by 5,000 yuan; Zero-run C11 all models of zero-run cars have recently increased by 20,000-30,000 yuan. Only Weilai Automobile said that there is no price increase plan in the near future, but Weilai Automobile is currently limited by the supply chain, and it is difficult for car owners to get their hands in a short period of time even if they have booked WEIlai's models.
summary
At present, it is not recommended to buy new energy vehicles during this special period. For the current high oil prices, people who want to change new energy models are even less recommended, and now the price growth of new energy vehicles is enough to smooth out the increase in fuel costs. Although new energy vehicles are currently developing rapidly, their characteristics and usage habits are not suitable for owners who are accustomed to traditional fuel vehicles, and there are still more or less problems due to technology. However, these situations are only temporary, and the replacement of fuel vehicles by new energy vehicles will be the trend.