On April 1, new car-making forces successively announced the delivery volume in March. Among them, Xiaopeng delivered 15414 vehicles, Nezha delivered 12026 vehicles, Ideal delivered 11034 vehicles, Zero Run delivered 10059 vehicles, and Weilai delivered 9985 vehicles, ranking first to fifth respectively.
The biggest variable is the zero-run car. The new force, which was previously in the second-tier camp, exceeded the 10,000-unit mark for the first time in monthly deliveries, up 193% month-on-month. In the first quarter of 2022, the cumulative delivery volume of zero-run vehicles was 21,579 units, an increase of 410% year-on-year.
The amount of delivery can best reflect the data of market appeal, and the monthly delivery volume of more than 10,000 is a dividing line that distinguishes the camp of car companies. In the past, "Wei Xiaoli" firmly controlled the first camp of new car-making forces, and now, zero-run and Nezha delivery volumes have soared all the way, and "Five Tigers" have officially replaced the "three strong", reshaping the market pattern of new domestic car-making forces.
Stir up the new power structure
Driving the delivery volume of zero-run in the first quarter is mainly C11 and T03 models, each with its own strengths.
The C11 is a pure electric SUV with zero-run main push. Based on the advantages of global self-research, C11 is equipped with the only self-developed vehicle-grade intelligent driving chip independently developed by Chinese car companies, and at the same time achieves the longest wheelbase design within 200,000 yuan, focusing on "cross-level full matching".
T03 is a smart electric car that emphasizes cost performance, as a model priced at 73,900-89,900 yuan, it is equipped with L2 level auxiliary driving function and a relatively higher design in the mini car, which are not available in the same price model, which also makes T03 a pillar model for zero-run delivery growth.
Industry insiders analyzed that because the delivery volume of the above two models is still rising, Zero Run is expanding the production line. With the increase in production capacity, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the delivery volume of Zero Run in the future period of time.
According to the plan, Zero Run will also launch a pure electric medium and large sedan C01 this year, and a total of 8 models will be launched by the end of 2025. Industry insiders believe that the trend of the impact of the number of models on the delivery volume has begun to appear, and with the gradual improvement of the layout of zero-run products, there is great potential to become one of the leaders of the new forces of future car manufacturing.
The growth rate of zero running in the past two years proves the strength of this rising star from the side. In the whole year of 2021, a total of 43,748 electric vehicles were delivered by zero-run, an increase of 443.5% over 2020. Today, the year-on-year growth rate of zero-run monthly delivery has exceeded 200% for 12 consecutive months, and the cumulative delivery volume in the first quarter of 2022 has increased by 410% year-on-year, the highest growth rate among the new car-making forces, and has quickly rushed into the first camp of the new car-making forces.
"Zero running has the advantage of global self-research that other new forces do not have, and with the expansion of delivery scale, the advantage of zero running is gradually emerging, which will help it rise in the second half of the new energy track and become one of the five tigers of new car manufacturing forces," an industry insider said.
Acceleration tips for the second half
Zero run does have a unique set of "growth tips".
Different from the so-called "Internet car", Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Zero Run Technology, has the technical background of Dahua Shares, and from the very beginning, he decided that Zero Run should adhere to global self-research.
The so-called global self-research refers to the entire intelligent driving system and intelligent electric drive system from hardware to software all self-developed. In contrast, the self-research of other new car-making forces pays more attention to applications and algorithms, and the hardware mainly relies on third parties.
Zhu Jiangming believes that only when all software and hardware are self-developed, software can more fully exert the performance of all hardware, which is the core competitive advantage of zero-run participation in car manufacturing. Although this obviously requires higher R&D costs, and longer R&D cycles. However, by opening up the various components of the bottom layer, Zero Run believes that the performance of the car can be polished to the optimum and achieve "thick accumulation and thin hair".
The soaring growth rate of zero-run delivery is the result of this quantitative change to qualitative change, which also proves the effectiveness of its global self-development strategy to some extent. As the scale of delivery expands, the cost structure of zero-run is expected to be optimized faster and also release more friendly prices. In addition, the performance advantages brought by global self-research will also become a weapon to attract consumers with zero running.
In fact, the improvement of technical control is also an important reason for the rise of China's new energy vehicles.
In the era of fuel vehicles, the delivery volume of domestic independent brands has gone through several ups and downs. In the confrontation with joint venture brands, there is a certain gap in product research and development, process level or quality control of independent brands, and can only attack the market through low prices and policy advantages, and the right to speak in the industry is controlled by foreign brands.
But now, the wind has changed.
According to the data released by the Association, in February 2022, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles of independent brands was 38%; for comparison, the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury brands was 17.4%, while the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles of mainstream joint venture brands was only 3.5%.
What has contributed to it is not only the traditional independent brands represented by BYD and Changan, but also the new car-making forces such as Xiaopeng, Ideal, and Zero Run, which have soared in delivery. With the strong growth of delivery, their role in the industry will become more and more important, and it will also help Chinese car companies to have more voice in the world.
According to the research report of E-Car Research Institute, the new energy progress of overseas brands in 2022 is still lagging behind, and the new energy strategy and the evolution rhythm of the Chinese auto market are very misaligned, and the market share of Chinese brands is expected to rise to 50%.
However, the demand for new energy vehicles is still rising, and the competition in the industry is bound to become more intense. At the time of changes in the new car-making power structure, the opportunity may only be left to the prepared car companies.