Wuling "God Car" price increased by 14% to bid farewell to the 20,000 yuan era, micro electric vehicles to the inflection point?

On August 24, 2021, a powder-blue Wuling Hongguang MINI EV stopped on the street of Hankou Road in Huangpu District, Shanghai. The car is "petite" in size, appearing mini or even a little cute.

Under the tide of rising prices, the "National God Car" has finally bid farewell to the 20,000 yuan era.

On the evening of March 23, SAIC-GM-Wuling announced that the company will adjust the official guidance price of its Wuling Hongguang MINIEV series models, Wuling NanoEV models and Baojun KiWi EV models, ranging from 4,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan.

Shell financial reporter called the 4S store to learn that in the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV series, the lowest price of the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV 2022 easy model price has also risen from 28,800 yuan to 32,800 yuan, the overall increase is close to 14%, and now the booking needs to wait for 2 months. The reporter learned that some users have chosen to give up the purchase of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV.

Prior to this, many people in the industry believed that the micro-electric vehicle market that returned to the "second spring" was about equal to the low-end market, but with the price increase of Wuling Hongguang, Chery QQ, Euler and other brands, the view that "micro-electric vehicles are not equal to low-end cars" has been emphasized again.

For bidding farewell to the price range of 20,000 yuan, SAIC-GM-Wuling also responded to the shell financial reporter that Wuling Hongguang is indeed increasing the price because of the rising raw materials, and the price increase will have a certain impact on the enterprise, but the company has previously improved the added value of the vehicle from the direction of tide reform, hoping that users will not only use it as a scooter.

Euler brand CEO Dong Yudong said that Euler carries a huge loss, and after the sharp rise in raw material prices in 2022, the loss of black cats alone exceeded 10,000 yuan.

Or active, or passive, A00-class new energy vehicles or have reached the inflection point, to bid farewell to the "low-end era"?

Zhang Xiang, a researcher in the automotive industry and a researcher at the Automotive Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, told Shell Financial Reporter that from the perspective of the new car release of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, Wuling Hongguang is not limited to doing low-end markets and playing price cards, but also has the idea of brand upward and personalized development.

The unit price of the top "National God Car" exceeds 70,000, and some users choose other brands

Shell financial reporter learned that the most expensive Wuling Hongguang MINIEV 2022 model, that is, the top version of macaron color and mileage of 170KM, has reached 49,800 yuan.

Wuling Hongguang sales to shell financial reporters said that on March 16, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV just released the GAMEBOY 300km style, the price has reached 73,800 yuan, there have been consumers to pick up the car license, "there are many customers to ask, there are also orders."

"This car has been listed since 2020, there has been no discount, the car is not enough to sell, there is no existing car, how to have a discount", the 4S store sales staff told reporters, even if the price increases, the purchase of a car still needs to wait for more than a month. Another 4S store sales said that it takes about 2 months to buy a car.

People still can't forget the summer of July 2020 when the "National God Car" was just launched, when it was less than 30,000 yuan to buy a scooter!

Today, are consumers willing to spend nearly 50,000 yuan to continue to support Wuling Hongguang to make it sit firmly in the position of "National God Car"?

At present, some car owners have chosen other brands because of price increases.

"At this price, is it not fragrant to buy other brands", a Fujian car owner said, after the price of Wuling Hongguang rose, the price was close to one of Chery's models, but he was more interested in the configuration and interior of that car, and had decided not to buy Wuling Hongguang.

It should be pointed out that in the group of car owners, most of the owners of the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV price increase expressed understanding, and even many car owners said that with the price increase of battery raw materials, new energy vehicles have generally increased prices, and the choice of other brands is the same.

Indeed, Chery New Energy announced as early as March 17 that due to the continuous sharp rise in raw material prices, Chery New Energy Vehicle will adjust the official guidance price of new energy models related to small ants, ranging from 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan.

The price of Chery QQ Ice Cream's entry-level models remains unchanged for the time being, while the high-end models are priced between 29,900 yuan and 47,000 yuan; the price range of Chery Ants is adjusted to between 69,900 yuan and 89,000 yuan.

Euler also announced on March 19 that due to the continuous sharp rise in the price of upstream raw materials, Euler Automobile will adjust the price of all models of the 2022 Euler Good Cat (including GT version), and the comprehensive guidance price after subsidies will be raised by 6000-7000 yuan.

Do not want to just do scooters, price increases or in line with the car company brand upward concept, whether the market recognition is still to be tested

Although customers in this market are more sensitive to price, price increases are not entirely "bad" for Wuling Hongguang.

Zhang Xiang told shell financial reporters that from the price point of view, the impact of price increases on Wuling Hongguang is not very large. He analyzed that the price increase of Wuling Hongguang is about 14%, but in the case of the general increase in the price of new energy vehicles, this increase is still within the acceptable range.

He said that although some users are price-sensitive, it needs to be taken into account that Wuling Hongguang MINIEV is now one of the top three new energy vehicles in the country, and it can compete with Tesla and BYD on the same stage in terms of sales, and the mass base is good. Large sales and large ownership also mean that the brand awareness is higher to some extent, and under the trend of price increases of the whole brand, users will still be more willing to choose brands with high awareness.

Since its launch in July 2020, Hongguang MINIEV has continued to set sales records and is known as the "National God Car" because of its high sales. From July to December 2020, Hongguang MINIEV sold a total of 127,651 units, of which 35,388 units were sold in December, breaking a record high.

In the whole year of 2021, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV achieved sales of 426,452 million, becoming the "sales crown" among new energy vehicles. In December 2021, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV set a record for the sales of a single model of new energy in China with sales of 55,729 units, and won the first place in China's new energy sales for 16 consecutive months.

In addition, Zhang Xiang also pointed out that from the perspective of the release of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV's new car, Wuling Hongguang is not only limited to doing low-end markets and playing price cards, but also has the idea of brand upward and personalized development, from this level, this price increase is also a crooked improvement in the brand value of Wuling Hongguang.

"Compared with other unknown brands, the quality of Wuling Hongguang is relatively reliable, and a slight price increase can open up the gap with some low-quality brands," Zhang Xiang said.

SAIC-GM-Wuling also responded to the shell financial reporter that Wuling Hongguang did increase the price because of the rising raw materials, but it had previously increased the added value of the vehicle from the direction of tide reform, hoping that users would not only use it as a scooter.

"We want to do the user's fashion items and large toys, has been further expanding the subdivision group, enriching the product matrix, and constantly meet the user's personalized, diversified needs", for the industry's analysis of the brand upwards, SAIC-GM-Wuling said that the brand upward can not only rely on price increases to achieve, but brand power is indeed one of the directions pursued by Wuling Hongguang.

On March 16, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV released the details of gameboy configuration, this car is obviously the wuling Hongguang in the pursuit of personalized road to add game elements and the birth of the model. It has four skins, named Hurricane Phantom, Jungle Crossing, Interstellar And Party Sweetheart, corresponding to sports cool, military competitive, cyberpunk sci-fi and simulation games, and the car is also known as "Street Fighter".

The range of this car has also reached 200km and 300km, which is a significant increase from the 120km and 170km of the existing model.

Prior to this, many people in the industry believed that the micro-electric vehicle market that returned to the "second spring" was almost equal to the low-end market, but with the price increase of Wuling Hongguang, Chery QQ, Euler and other brands, the view that "micro-electric vehicles are not equal to low-end" has been emphasized again.

In fact, Li Jinyong, president of the New Energy Vehicle Branch of the Automobile Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, once said that in the mainland non-restricted cities, 58% of new energy vehicle users have purchased A00-level electric vehicles, and A00-level electric vehicles will rely on more stylish shapes, spacious spaces, intelligent experiences and lower use costs to take the lead in replacing the same level of fuel vehicles. Production and sales will reach 1.5 million to 2 million units in 2022.

Jia Xinguang, chief analyst of the China Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Corporation, stressed that the complete equivalent of A00-class cars to low-end was once one of the reasons for the shrinking of the market segment that year. He believes that low-end electric vehicles have huge development potential and market, "now the technological progress and market development of low-end electric vehicles have been very rapid."

However, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Transport Association, also told Shell Financial Reporter that there is still a huge market for A00-class electric vehicles, and this market is actually driven by scooters. The mainland is constantly entering the aging society, and the demand for cars for the elderly and the demand for second cars for families is getting bigger and bigger, so the significance of scooters is extremely significant.

"Car companies are willing to take the personalized route, let the brand upgrade, so as to also increase the price of products, improve profits, this idea is no problem, but this also needs market support", Cui Dongshu said, the current A00-level electric vehicle market and the traditional car market is still different, A00-level electric vehicle market consumers are more pragmatic, more sensitive to price, the products launched by enterprises must go to the quantity, get consumer recognition, if a product can not get consumer support, then the company should still respect the market.

Beijing News shell financial reporter Lin Zi Editor Yue Caizhou Proofreader Lu Qian