Following Tesla, BYD and Ideal, the "Wuling God Car" also announced a price increase.
On the night of March 23, SAIC-GM-Wuling will adjust the price of its Wuling Hongguang MINIEV series models by an increase of 4,000-8,000 yuan.
In addition to Wuling, since March, more than 20 new energy vehicle companies in the market have announced price increases, involving nearly 40 models.
Brands such as BYD, Xiaopeng, Zero Run and Nezha have even completed the second round of price increases, ranging from 3,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.
From March 10 to 17, Tesla has raised prices three times in less than 8 days, and the cumulative increase of the Model Y after-drive version has reached 36,000 yuan.
"The increase in battery costs in the second quarter was very outrageous." Ideal Auto CEO Li Xiang said bluntly, and then said: "At present, there is no price increase, most of them are that the price increase has not been negotiated, and the price will generally increase immediately after waiting for the negotiation." ”
In other words, this wave of price increases is just the beginning, and new energy vehicles will usher in the third round or even the fourth round of rise.
When price increases begin to become "normalized", who pays for the increased costs? Which brands that cannot withstand the pressure will take the lead in "surrendering their weapons"?
After all, while the new energy vehicle market is officially playing the main theme of price increases, the rules of the game of internal competition in the industry are quietly changing.
How to continue to attract the majority of "just need" consumers may become a key issue to determine the future new energy market pattern.
This wave of "rising tide"
Why should consumers take over?
Batteries are the most direct reason for the concentrated price increase of new energy vehicles in this round.
In fact, since the second half of 2021, catheter has raised prices for 2 rounds, with each round of price increases of 10,000 yuan.
In this regard, CATL said that due to the sharp rise in the price of upstream raw materials, the company dynamically adjusted the price of some battery products accordingly.
In addition to the Ningde era, other domestic power battery manufacturers are also raising prices. In the fourth quarter of 2021, a number of battery manufacturers such as BYD and Guoxuan Hi-Tech have issued price increase notices.
The rise in the price of lithium battery raw materials is mainly due to the soaring prices of lithium and nickel, which in turn leads to a surge in the cost of new energy vehicles.
After that, there will always be a person to pay for the increase in costs, either the industry will eat it or transfer it downward to consumers.
The first is the battery manufacturer, as the source of the industry, which has been "bleeding" last year.
As we all know, the price of raw materials has risen since last year, but most of the costs have been silently undertaken by battery manufacturers, and there is no further transmission to the downstream.
The consequence of this is that the profit margin of power battery manufacturers has been greatly compressed, and even losses have occurred.
For example, Sunwoda's gross profit margin also fell from 6% in the first half of the year to 1.3%, a decline of 88.81% in the same period; Fu Neng Technology's single-quarter net profit loss of 194 million yuan; and the gross profit of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Q3 also fell by 59.98%.
In other words, the "big head" of the early increase in raw materials has made power battery companies "nibble down". Today, in the face of the continuous rise in the cost of raw materials, they are probably already "weak".
Since the battery manufacturer is powerless, as a car company downstream of the long industrial chain?
Maybe even worse.
As we all know, most of the domestic car-making forces such as Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng are still in a state of loss, and the annual loss is hundreds of millions.
If the cost of raw materials and subsidies is re-borne this year, it may be a loss of several hundred million, even if the management is willing, it is estimated that investors will not.
In addition, the decline in subsidies and the reduction of points prices have also greatly reduced the income of new energy vehicle companies.
Therefore, in the face of upstream price increases and the two-sided attack of policies, even car companies are unable to make profits, and the result can only be to pass the cost to the consumer terminal.
After the price increase, another question also arises - whether new energy vehicles are cost-effective, and will consumers buy it?
In the understanding of Kung Fu Automobile, the price increase is certainly not a "good plan", after all, if it rises less, it will still lose money, and consumers will not passively take over the market.
Secondly, not only the price soared, but also the delivery time of some new energy vehicles and new energy vehicles was generally lengthened.
The product pick-up cycle of many brands has exceeded 10 weeks, and some popular models even need to wait 4 to 5 months to pick up the car. Bydir, GAC Aeon, Great Wall Euler, Geely Geometry and other brands of popular models have a pick-up cycle of more than 3 months.
In the case of services that are not long, it is necessary to increase prices, is it not to change to suppress consumer demand?
It is not difficult to see that there are many challenges in the development of the new energy market in the future.
The collective price increase of new energy vehicles this time can also be regarded as a "test" of the bottom line of consumer acceptance by car companies to some extent.
The "rising voices" continue
Who is the "naked swimmer"
Of course, no matter what the result of the "temptation", the impact of price increases on the new energy market is inevitable.
The price of vehicle terminals has risen, especially for new energy vehicles that are mainly cost-effective, and the difference of tens of thousands of yuan will directly affect the user's choice.
In this "big rising tide", compared with traditional car companies, the new car-making forces that have not yet made a profit will undoubtedly be more affected.
In the case of limited sales of the new car-making forces themselves, if the "test" results are not good, they may directly fall into the dilemma of "selling out the price increase and not losing money without increasing the price".
After this, there will inevitably be some brands that can't bear the pressure and start to decline.
Therefore, how to "increase prices" has both "cost performance" and "volume", which may be the core proposition that new car-making forces need to solve in the future.
Especially in the future of the new energy vehicle market gradually changing from dumbbell type to rugby type, for new car-making forces, improving the competitiveness of differentiated products can obtain a stable share in the rapidly developing new energy market.
After all, the new energy vehicle business, large capital investment, long production cycle, many technical challenges, supply chain, policy turmoil may crush a new force.
In the final analysis, only by selling more cars and forming a certain scale can we have a strong ability to resist risks.
In addition, how to make good use of the "grain, grass and ammunition" delivered by the capital boom to enhance the R & D strength, sustainable financing ability, product iteration speed and industrial chain integration of enterprises is also a problem that new car-making forces need to think about.
Therefore, whether they can get the entry ticket to the mature market of new energy vehicles and not become "naked swimmers" need to see whether they can run faster than the market.
Wisdom drives public opinion
After two rounds of rise in new energy vehicles, both market sentiment and policy have changed.
Kung Fu Auto learned from major auto communities that for users who are anxious about whether to buy electric vehicles for the first time, waiting for the first time seems to have also begun to become a "preferential option".
This also means that at the moment when prices are soaring, the group of "waiting parties" will become larger and larger.
However, consumers can afford to wait, and the new forces of car manufacturing cannot afford to wait.
At the moment of the rapid development of the new energy market, the new forces of car manufacturing can still race against time.