Since 2022, affected by factors such as soaring raw material prices, the new energy automobile industry has ushered in a wave of price increases.
The "International Finance News" reporter combed and found that in the past March, nearly 20 new energy vehicle companies have announced the price increase of their models.
Specifically, in early March, GAC Aean, Tesla, BYD, Chery New Energy and Nezha and other new energy vehicles have issued price increase announcements, this round of price increase coverage is wide, not only new car-making forces, but also veteran car companies, China's own brands, there are also joint ventures, imported brands.
The reporter's statistics found that as of now, this round of price adjustment involves a total of nearly 40 models, with an increase of 1,000-30,000 yuan.
(Draft: Wu Di)
Tesla rose a lot
Among them, GAC Aean took the lead in opening this round of price adjustment.
On March 4, GAC Aeon announced that due to the sharp rise in raw material prices and the decline of new energy car purchase subsidies, the official guidance price of its AION Y, AION S Plus, AION V Plus and other related models will be adjusted, effective on the same day, this round of adjustment price increase ranges from 4000-10000 yuan, and customers who have signed contracts will not be affected.
6 days later, Tesla to keep up with the pace of price adjustment, its March 10 announced the price increase information, and then less than a week, Tesla rose the price twice, the model Y part of the two price increases reached 30,000 yuan, and the Model 3 part of the model price increase also reached 28,000 yuan.
On the same day that Tesla announced the second price increase, BYD also announced the price increase information, and the price adjustment model was as high as 17 models, and the price increase ranged from 3,000-6,000 yuan.
Subsequently, on March 18, 4 car companies successively announced price increase news, including Nezha Automobile, Xiaopeng Automobile, Zero Run Automobile and Geely's geometric cars, with price increases ranging from 3,000-30,000 yuan.
Among them, the C11 of zero-running cars rose to 30,000 yuan, not only leading the rise of the above four, but also the largest increase in all known price-increasing models.
WM Motor and Euler Automobile announced price increase information on March 19, and WM's WM EX5 also rose by 26,000 yuan. The black cat under Euler announced on February 23 that it would stop receiving orders due to the lack of core and lack of electricity, and the price increase was for the price adjustment of the whole series of Euler good cats (including GT version).
With the announcement of the price adjustment of ideal cars on March 23, only Weilai Automobile in "Wei Xiaoli" did not announce the price adjustment information, and the market was also curious about whether it could carry it to the end.
On March 21, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of WEILAI Automobile, stated that "WEILAI will not increase prices, at least not yet." Ideal ONE is its main brand, and the price adjustment is only for this model, and the adjusted price is 10,000 yuan.
BYD and Wuling play "Blitzkrieg"
Lantu Automobile announced the price increase on March 24, and announced the specific price increase details seven days later. This time, Lantu adjusted the price of the pure electric version, pure electric city version and pure electric version + exclusive luxury set of Lantu FREE, all of which increased by 10,000 yuan.
The price increase of new energy vehicles has also brought tension and anxiety to consumers who want to start new energy vehicles, and some netizens have posted that "saving money without skills, all depending on buying early".
Many car companies have taken less than 24 hours from announcement to effective, including Tesla, BYD, Nezha Automobile, Geometry Automobile and so on. Wuling Automobile does not give the market time to consider, on the evening of March 23 issued a price increase announcement, March 24 at 00:00 officially took effect, the same BYD, only left to the market ten minutes of respite, began to implement the new price.
Some users complained to the "International Finance News" reporter, "Oil prices have risen, and new energy vehicles are being considered recently, and the price has suddenly increased before it has been decided." ”
In contrast, the "deferred price adjustment" of Lantu Automobile and SAIC Roewe has been praised by many car buyers.
On March 31, the two car companies announced the details of the price increase at the same time, and it will take effect on May 1, giving consumers a month to act.
Looking at the collective price increase of new energy vehicles, the reasons are all pointing to the soaring price of raw materials, and when the car companies have not adjusted the price, the loss of some car companies producing a new energy vehicle even reached 10,000 yuan. Ideal Auto CEO Li Xiang posted on Weibo on March 19, saying, "The increase in battery costs in the second quarter was very outrageous. ”
In 2021, the average monthly increase in battery-grade lithium carbonate is about 22,000 yuan / ton, the fastest increase in December, the increase reached 71,000 yuan / ton, while the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in early 2021 was only 50,000 yuan / ton. As of now, the price of lithium carbonate has exceeded 500,000 yuan / ton, and the increase this year has reached 87%; the price of nickel has risen from less than 150,000 yuan / ton at the end of last year to the highest point of 300,000 yuan / ton in March this year; the price of cobalt has also risen from less than 300,000 yuan / ton in early 2021 to about 500,000 yuan / ton now.
At the same time, the power battery to use the separator, positive and negative electrode materials, electrolyte and other battery-related raw materials have different ranges of price increases, the increase is basically more than 100%. For example, cathode materials are the main components of lithium-ion batteries, which determine the energy density of the battery, and also occupy most of the cost of the power battery, the price has doubled, and it also brings greater cost pressure to the power battery manufacturing enterprises.
Prices increased, sales increased
At the same time as car companies have raised prices, there has been a "strange" phenomenon.
The price increase of new energy vehicles has not "extinguished" the enthusiasm of consumers to buy cars, but has appeared in the terminal market "rush" phenomenon, and many car companies have been scheduled for delivery of new car orders after three or four months.
From the car companies that have released the March sales data so far, Xiaopeng Automobile, a new car-making force, sold 15,414 vehicles in March, an increase of 202.12% year-on-year and 147.6% month-on-month; Nezha Automobile sold 12,026 vehicles, up 270.49% year-on-year and 69% month-on-month.
This phenomenon is not only in the new forces of car manufacturing, but also in the day after the veteran car company BYD Automobile announced the price increase, it received nearly 30,000 orders across the country. On March 30, BYD said that the company's cumulative undelivered orders reached 400,000 units, and it is still increasing month by month. BYD Han EV and Han DM series price increased by 5,000 yuan, in March Zhonghan EV bicycle sales exceeded 10,000, and Han DM increased by 524.9% month-on-month, while BYD's full series sales reached 104338 vehicles, becoming the most known new energy sales.
Some relevant car sales staff told reporters that after Tesla's two consecutive rises, many consumers are worried that the price of new energy vehicles will continue to grow, so they preemptively placed orders and locked the price before growth.
The rise in raw material prices has also aroused great concern in the industry.
At the beginning of this year, the Association predicted that the cumulative sales of domestic new energy vehicles in 2022 are expected to exceed 6 million, although the current price increase of new energy vehicles will inhibit the sales of new energy vehicles to a certain extent, but the problem of raw materials in the future can not be solved in the short term, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, suggested that car companies can improve product technical indicators, increase the scale of sales of bicycles to reduce costs, improve the structure of battery suppliers and other aspects to cope with cost increases.
At the China Electric Vehicle 100 People's Meeting on March 25, many car company representatives also raised the issue of raw materials, and Dong Yang, vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, suggested that the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain should be coordinated to share the cost increase caused by the price increase of raw materials.
Reporter: Fan Mengcheng Intern: Wu Di
Edit: Zuo Yu
Editor-in-Charge: BiDandan
Cover source: Xiao Yisi
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