April 1 is April Fool's Day, but it is an important day for new car companies to announce March deliveries. At present, the new forces of head car manufacturing that have announced the delivery volume in March are Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Zero Run, and Nezha. These five car companies are also precisely the new car-making forces that are currently attracting more attention, from the perspective of their respective March deliveries, Weilai, which used to be in the first camp of the new car-making forces, was slightly left behind, and the other four single-month deliveries have successfully entered the 10,000-car mark, of which the delivery of zero-running cars in March reached 10,059 vehicles, and the single-month delivery volume exceeded the 10,000-vehicle mark for the first time in history, successfully entering the first camp of new car-making forces.
With the release of deliveries in March, the cumulative deliveries of zero-run cars in the first quarter of 2022 also appeared. According to the data, the delivery volume of zero-run cars in the first quarter of this year has exceeded 21,000 units, an increase of 410% year-on-year. According to the official disclosure of zero-run cars, its monthly delivery volume has increased by more than 200% year-on-year for 12 consecutive months. From this point of view, as the representative of the original second-tier new forces, zero-run cars have launched an attack on the veterans of the first camp with a high growth rate in the past year. In March this year, the monthly delivery volume of Zero Run and Nezha both squeezed into the 10,000-car club, which also means that many new forces in the original second-tier began to get the "admission ticket" to the first camp.
The first camp of the new car-making forces changed from "three strong" to "five tigers"
Last year, under the dual pressure of the epidemic and the lack of cores, the production and delivery of new energy vehicles in China still exceeded 3.5 million units, achieving a year-on-year increase of 1.6 times. Among them, as an important new force in the domestic new energy vehicle market, the new car-making forces are encroaching on and disintegrating the traditional fuel vehicle market with an ever-expanding scale. Last year, the annual delivery volume of Wei Xiaoli's three car companies was close to 100,000 vehicles, which released a signal to the outside world that the new car-making forces have bid farewell to the stages of "paper talk" and "scattered soldiers", and they are "loaded" into the market and collectively grab the market share of traditional fuel vehicles.
However, for new brands that cross-border from other industries to enter the automotive industry, it is not easy to deliver more than 10,000 monthly deliveries in the case of limited brand recognition and products. Even the veteran player "Wei Xiaoli" in the first camp of the new car-making forces, according to the annual delivery volume of more than 90,000 vehicles accumulated last year, its average monthly delivery volume still does not reach the scale of 10,000 vehicles. However, since the fourth quarter of last year, with the easing of the pressure of lack of core in the automobile industry, the monthly delivery volume of the first camp of the new car-making force has gradually become the norm.
Facing the transformation of the automobile industry to electric intelligence, the new forces of car-making have gradually become large-scale in terms of volume, which has made the expectations of the industry and consumers for the new forces of car-making higher and higher, and the monthly delivery volume exceeded 10,000, which began to become one of the criteria for measuring whether the new forces of car-making have greater development potential.
Nowadays, the zero run and Nezha in the original second-tier new forces have also entered the Ten Thousand Vehicles Club, and the old players in the first camp are advancing hand in hand, which means that the overall scale of the new car-making forces is rapidly expanding, and the team of the first camp has also grown rapidly, and the pattern of the previous "three strong" has gradually been replaced by the "five tigers". For the original second-tier new forces represented by zero-run cars, the reason why they can rank among the first camp with a higher growth rate is inseparable from the gradual completion of the product system construction and the independent control of core technologies.
Entering the mid-to-high-end market
Analysts pointed out that the reason why Wei Xiaoli, the first camp of the original car-making new forces, has grown rapidly is because it is more inclined to high-end in product and brand positioning, and the setting of this high starting point makes its products have more premium space, which is also in line with the user's demand for high-end pure electric products under the trend of consumption upgrading. Based on this, the industry believes that brands that were originally in the second camp of the new car-making forces should move closer to the first camp, but also polish on brands and products to increase the market share of high-end products.
At present, there are three models on sale under the zero-run car, and the main sales models are the zero-run T03 and the zero-run C11. Among them, zero-run T03 is an A00-class pure electric vehicle, focusing on the pure electric vehicle market below 100,000 yuan. Although the price is not high, the zero-run T03 is equipped with a rare intelligent driving assistance system of the same level, and it is also the first new car-making force to explore the intelligent driving assistance system to the pure electric vehicle market below 100,000 levels. It is precisely because of the high cost-effective advantage that the zero-run T03 showed a hot selling trend after its listing, and its cumulative delivery volume exceeded 40,000 units last year, ranking among the top five in the delivery volume of A00-level pure trams.
Zero Run T03, Image source: Zero Run Car
After zero-run cars opened the market with T03, they did not stop at affordable electric vehicle products, but continued to enter the mainstream high-end market by elevating product positioning, so as to enhance their brand power. One of the most representative products is another main model it is currently selling, the zero-run C11.
The zero-run C11 was officially launched in September last year, positioned as a pure electric medium-sized SUV, and the price has also entered the 150,000-200,000-level market. The higher positioning also enables the zero-run C11 to better play the label of "technology" at the product level. For example, the zero-run C11 performance version is equipped with two "Pangu" oil-cooled electric drives developed by zero-run, which also makes its 100-kilometer acceleration time less than 4.5 seconds, with a 550km NEDC endurance, and the comprehensive strength performance is outstanding. It is understood that the current delivery volume of zero-run C11 accounts for more than 40% of the total delivery of zero-run cars. This means that zero-run cars have already gained a foothold in the mid-to-high-end pure electric market with the C11, which will become the fulcrum of its further expansion.
Zero run C11, image source: zero run car
This year, Zero Run Auto will launch a medium and large pure electric sedan Zero Run C01. It is understood that this model is based on the zero-run car C platform, will be the first to build a mass production CTC battery technology, with a length of more than 5 meters and a long endurance of 700km, and its zero hundred acceleration is expected to enter the 3-second level.
From the perspective of the rapid expansion of the product lineup of zero-running cars, it is gradually attacking the mid-to-high-end market from affordable models, and will achieve full coverage of cars + SUVs in the product category and full coverage of the high-, medium- and low-end markets in the market category.
Work hard in the "stuck neck" place
The transformation of the automotive industry to electric intelligence provides new opportunities for the reconstruction of the automotive value chain and supply chain. Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, pointed out at the 2022 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum: "The bottom of the automotive power is the parts power. The subversiveness of future automobiles to traditional cars will make more than 50% of the traditional parts system face restructuring. "In this context, the scope of auto parts has undergone many changes, of which the intelligent part of the chip, system software, computing platform, video sensors, lidar, etc. are an important part of the automotive industry chain.
In some short boards and "card neck" places, the state encourages enterprises to increase independent research and development, and zero-run cars have always adhered to the global self-research technology and have established complete independent research and development and manufacturing capabilities.
At present, zero-run is the only car company other than Tesla that has achieved global self-research in core technology. It is understood that in addition to the three electric technologies including batteries, motors, and electronic controls to achieve comprehensive self-development and self-production, zero-run will also automatic driving perception hardware, automatic driving algorithms and chips, as well as automatic driving actuator algorithms in the whole line. For example, zero-run C11 opens up the entire intelligent driving system from the chip level, and adopts a complete set of intelligent driving solutions with completely independent intellectual property rights.
Since last year, the topic of "lack of cores" has not decreased in the industry, and the core problems behind it are the supply chain crisis and the lack of technology in high-end chip research and development in China. Nowadays, the new car-making forces represented by zero-run have joined the ranks of global self-research, which will undoubtedly help break the phenomenon that the core technology in the automotive field is "stuck in the neck" and help China move from an automobile power to an automobile power.
Write at the end:
At present, the ongoing epidemic situation and the instability of the geopolitical situation are two sharp blades hanging high above the head of the automotive industry, bringing many uncertainties to the healthy development of the industry. Despite this, under the pressure of the "double carbon" background and the "double integration" policy, the general trend of rapid growth of new energy vehicles can still not be reversed. Under the background of the accelerated transformation of the industry, the new forces of car manufacturing have entered a stage of rapid growth after years of market polishing, continuous improvement in brand awareness, product lineup and mastery of core technologies. Nowadays, the first camp of the new forces has also rapidly expanded from the previous "Wei Xiaoli" three to the "Wei Xiaoli Zero Which" five tigers. As more and more new car-making forces get the "admission ticket" to the first camp with a monthly delivery volume of more than 10,000, the substitution effect of new energy vehicles on traditional fuel vehicles will also be rapidly promoted.