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When the destruction of tens of thousands of vehicles became the main theme.
On April 1, the report card of the new car builders arrived as scheduled.
In the past March, coinciding with the traditional sales off-season, coupled with the epidemic, raw material price increases and other factors, the report card has not yet been released, the car bosses have been bitter, predicting this monthly sales war that is not easy to fight.
However, from the results, each family still gained a lot, and the seat ranking of the newly built car also changed again. Among them, Xiaopeng won the new car sales championship with a score of 15,414 vehicles, and Nezha Automobile, which announced the results early, once again advanced to the top three with 12,026 vehicles, and the last seat was ideally won with 11,034 sales.
It is worth mentioning that there is one more member in the camp of new cars. Zero-run car deliveries rose 193% sequentially to 10,059 units, ranking fourth.
Although the production and manufacturing end in March was under supply and cost pressure, after Tesla opened a new round of price increases with a rhythm of three consecutive rises, almost all new energy vehicle companies followed up to complete this round of price increases, and potential car owners also staged a "buy down not buy up" rush at the end of the month.
This also means that in the new January, the more intense qualifying matches are more worth looking forward to.
A bad March sales war
As the first contestant to turn in his homework, The extreme krypton's report card is not very eye-catching.
Affected by the epidemic and chip supply, the delivery volume of Extreme Kr 001 in March was 1795 units, a decrease of nearly 40% month-on-month. However, Extreme Kr said that with the arrival of a new batch of core components at the end of March, it is expected that production and delivery in April will be significantly improved.
Since the second half of 2021, the big brother Weilai, who has lost the championship position many times, has not fully recovered.
Compared with February, Weilai's deliveries in March have improved, reaching 9985 units, an increase of 37.6% year-on-year, but still less than Xiaopeng and Ideal. In the first quarter of 2022, NIO delivered 25,768 vehicles, which is still a gap of 5,948 units compared with ideal.
"2021 is the empty window period for NIO's new products, and most users with purchase intentions will give priority to ordering new products," a NIO salesman told Future Auto Daily. Official data shows that after the first car ET7 began delivery on March 28, 163 units have been delivered in four days.
However, among the new car-making forces, Weilai took the lead in approaching the 200,000 mark. By the end of March 2022, NIO had delivered a total of 192,800 electric vehicles, followed by Xiaopeng with more than 170,000 vehicles, ideally 155,800 vehicles.
Source: Future Automotive Daily Charts
However, in terms of monthly delivery, among the three brothers of "Wei Xiaoli", Xiaopeng and Ideal have always played a relatively stable role.
In the 2021 earnings call, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, revealed that in late February and early March this year, new orders have quickly recovered to the peak season level of December last year, and "March deliveries are close to last year's peak".
The results were also as expected. In March this year, Xiaopeng Automobile took the throne of the qualifying champion with 15,414 vehicles. Among them, P7 is a well-deserved top pillar, with 9183 deliveries in March, accounting for nearly 60% of total sales; Xiaopeng P5 delivered 4398 vehicles in March.
"In order to speed up the delivery of orders in hand, as well as the new orders added this year, we completed the technical transformation of the Zhaoqing factory during the Spring Festival." Xiaopeng said.
The ideal ONE of the ideal car continued the strong explosive product force, and the delivery volume once again exceeded 10,000 units, reaching 11,034 units, an increase of 125.2% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2022, Ideal Cars delivered 31,700 units, up 152.1% year-on-year.
Even if the results of more than 10,000 vehicles in a single month have been outstanding, Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Automobile, still said that "the epidemic in the Yangtze River Delta has led to a shortage of parts and components, and production has been implicated."
On March 26, when participating in the event, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, also poured bitter water, "The epidemic has affected many important towns in the automotive industry chain, and there has been a local blockade in many parts of the country, which is a huge blow to the automotive industry chain." ”
In the difficult supply chain environment, there are also "dark horses" that staged a counterattack.
In March this year, zero-run cars also joined the camp of more than 10,000 vehicles in a single month, with deliveries reaching 10,059 units, an increase of 193% month-on-month. It was also the best result in the history of zero running.
At present, there are three main models on sale, including the coupe S01, the mini car T03, and the medium-sizeD SUV S11. Among them, the T03, which has a price of 69,000-85,000 yuan after subsidies, is the "sales responsibility" of zero running. In 2021, T03 sales accounted for nearly 80% of total sales.
For the rise in sales, Xiao Lei, the manager of a zero-run experience store, explained to the Future Automobile Daily, "Mainly because the production capacity has increased, and the monthly order itself is not worried, that is, the order cycle is too long." ”
According to the zero-run prospectus, as of the end of 2021, there were 22,536 C11 orders, of which 3965 were delivered that year, and at least 20,000-40,000 C11s were not delivered. "By adjusting production lines and expanding the production capacity of the Jinhua plant, the Jinhua plant has a production capacity of more than 10,000 units in March. Previously, the monthly production capacity was about 60% of the current one. ”
In terms of supply chain, since Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Zero Run, left Dahua in December last year, "the boss personally grasped production", and in the face of the chip shortage, "Zero Run self-developed chips also have certain advantages", Xiao Lei believes.
After the delivery volume exceeded 10,000 vehicles in January, the delivery volume of Nezha, which focuses on "building cars for the people", continued to climb.
In March, Nezha's car delivery volume once again crossed the benchmark line of 10,000 vehicles, reaching 10,059 vehicles, an increase of 270% year-on-year. As early as 2021, Nezha Automobile won the runner-up position many times, and Wei Xiaoli was surpassed by it to start a counterattack offensive.
In the view of Daniel Zhang, CEO of Nezha Automobile, the main reason why sales can rise sharply is the cost performance. "Pure electric SUVs (market) in the range of 60,000 to 80,000 and 100,000 to 150,000, we have achieved the first cost performance."
However, for Nezha's sales counterattack, Daniel Zhang's performance is particularly sober, "there is no point in briefly surpassing, (Nezha's delivery) can only be said to be stronger than it if it is 3 times the ideal."
Will the second quarter be good?
Now at the beginning of the second quarter of 2022, many problems do not seem to have improved.
After more than 20 days of lockdown in Changchun, Shanghai also announced a "shutdown" in recent days. As two cities that gather many parts companies and car companies, the large-scale sealing and control has undoubtedly brought a lot of impact to the automobile industry. Qin Lihong, president of WEILAI, also felt this deeply, "The Shanghai delivery center has been extinguished for several days and will continue until after the Qingming Dynasty. ”
"At present, the factory supply chain is tight, and there has been a certain reduction in production in the past four days, and it is expected to recover in three days." On March 31, sources close to NIO's Hefei plant told Future Auto Daily.
The manufacturing side is working hard to minimize losses. In contrast, the sales side has fallen into a state of complete stagnation, and almost all offline stores in Shanghai are closed and managed.
More than that, the core shortage crisis that began in 2020 has not yet subsided. "The chip is still a depression," Qin Lihong described. At the earnings call on March 25, Weilai founder Li Bin explained that Weilai is currently facing the problem of basic chip fluctuations, "If these chips are missing, we have no way to produce cars, of course, there will be alternative materials to do, but this will make it a little more complicated."
The impact of the price increase of raw materials directly makes car companies "hurt their bones", and almost all new energy vehicle companies have completed this round of price adjustments. Ideal CEO Li Xiang once said that "the increase in battery costs in the second quarter will be very outrageous." Li Bin called on upstream raw material manufacturers to "start from long-term interests and not make personal speculative price increases."
Even if there are many difficulties, since the second quarter, new cars have entered the most critical moment of the year. From the perspective of product planning, many new cars will push new cars this year to set the time for April this year. In 2022, when Tesla is in the empty window period, it undoubtedly provides an opportunity for new cars to catch up.
After selling 100,000 life-and-death lines, new cars have sought new breakthroughs and begun to enter each other's tracks.
On March 28, with the opening of the ET7 delivery, Weilai's "Product Year" also officially kicked off. In addition to the release of the ES8, ES6, ecs 6 2022 RY redesign model in May, by the third quarter of 2022, NIO will also deliver two other products based on the NT2.0 platform ET5 and ES7.
Nio's ET7 and ET5 are both positioned as sedans, the ES7 is positioned as a large five-seater SUV, and the new product portfolio is responsible for opening up new markets. Among them, the price of ET5 has dropped, and it is the cheapest model under Weilai. The PRICE OF ET7 (starting from 366,666 yuan) using the BaaS solution has also come to the price range of Xiaopeng P7 (239,900-429,900 yuan).
Brokers have also given NIO higher expectations. Huaxi Securities said that IT is expected to sell 193,000 vehicles in 2022, and the replacement of existing models and ET5 will enter the volume market, and it is expected that WEILAI is expected to enter a stronger product cycle in 2023.
Xiaopeng will sail the bow to the medium and large SUV market, which is the field where NIO ES6 and Ideal ONE are located.
As the fourth model of Xiaopeng Automobile, the Xiaopeng G9 unveiled at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show shoulders the determination of Xiaopeng to take the high-end route. According to the plan, the G9 will start delivery in the third quarter of this year. "In the short term, the delivery volume of the Xiaopeng G9 is expected to be close to the level of the Xiaopeng P7." In the 2021 earnings call, Gu Hongdi, president of Xiaopeng Automobile, predicted.
"Intelligent driving, high endurance and competitive pricing are the keys to Xiaopeng Automobile's medium- and long-term sales growth." Huatai Securities analysis said. In 2022, Xiaopeng will continue to strengthen this label. According to He Xiaopeng, in the second half of this year, Xiaopeng will open up the city's NGP function.
As the only car company that relies on only one model to "hit the world", Ideal also has a new plan. The second new car, the Ideal L9, will debut on April 16 and begin deliveries in the third quarter. With the arrival of the ideal L9, the ideal sales scale is expected to further expand.
Second-tier new forces have also planned new models. WM's first sedan, the WM M7, will be delivered in mass production in 2022, with three solid-state lidars and a NEDC cruising range of 700km. Nezha S will be mass-produced in the third quarter; Zero Run's Sedan, code-named C01, is also expected to debut in the first half of 2022. Together, these three cars will challenge the high-end sedan market.
As the product lineup gradually enriches, each company also proposes higher goals. Xiaopeng Motors plans to deliver 250,000 new vehicles in 2022 and hit 300,000 vehicles. With the delivery of the ideal car approaching the 100,000 mark in 2021 with a single model, although it did not put forward a specific sales target, it also said that "2022 will be a very important year for the overall growth of the ideal car".
But it's not easy to win. Taking Xiaopeng as an example, in Q1 2022, The delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile was 34,600 units, accounting for only 13.84% of the minimum sales target for the whole year. To complete the target of 250,000 vehicles, in the remaining 9 months, Xiaopeng needs to maintain a delivery level of more than 20,000 vehicles, which is not easy.
From the perspective of the entire market, the new energy vehicle market in 2022 is still worth looking forward to. According to the association, in 2022, the sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 6 million, with a penetration rate of 22%. "Fight and go," Qin Lihong sighed.
(At the request of the interviewee, Xiao Lei is a pseudonym in the article)
The author | Wu Xiaoyu
Edit the | Wang Yan