After car companies have announced price increases, Weilai finally can't bear the pressure, announcing that since May 10, the starting price of some of its models has been raised by 10,000 yuan, and the battery service products have also been slightly adjusted.
Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, said frankly that the raw materials had risen too much, and "the epidemic was even more unbearable." What is even more devastating is that due to the impact of the epidemic in Jilin, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places, Weilai's supply chain partners have stopped production one after another and have to suspend vehicle production.
Weilai had no choice but to suspend vehicle production
In fact, there is more than one car company that has been forced to stop production due to the epidemic.
A number of car companies stopped production
Tesla's Shanghai factory has been affected by the epidemic control and has been shut down several times in March.
According to media reports, Tesla's Shanghai factory announced a two-day suspension of production on March 16, and planned to suspend production for four days until March 31 on March 28, and then cancelled the production plan from April 1 to April 3 due to policy changes, and changed it to a plan to resume production on April 4.
But in light of the situation in Shanghai, people familiar with the matter revealed that Tesla's plan to resume production on April 4 has been canceled, and it is uncertain when production will resume. If tesla's Shanghai factory averages a daily production capacity of 2,000 vehicles, Tesla's production capacity loss in March may exceed 10,000 vehicles, and the later production capacity loss is still difficult to predict.
Also shutting down due to the outbreak at the plant location was the Volkswagen Group. It is reported that FAW-Volkswagen currently has five major production bases, of which the Changchun base is FAW-Volkswagen headquarters; SAIC Volkswagen is headquartered in Anting, Shanghai, and SAIC Volkswagen's first, second, third plants and new energy plants are all in Shanghai.
Volkswagen spokesman previously said that due to the impact of the epidemic, Volkswagen's Changchun factory was closed until April 5, and the resumption time was still uncertain, and it needed to be arranged in accordance with the government. On April 11, Sun Jian, director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Jilin Province, said that China FAW has fully resumed work today, and the first batch of 47 parts and components companies are resuming work in an orderly manner.
SAIC Volkswagen's Shanghai plant will cease production on April 1. However, in fact, as early as mid-to-late March, SAIC Volkswagen's Shanghai plant implemented two 48-hour closed-loop isolation controls. It is reported that during this period, the production capacity of SAIC Volkswagen's Shanghai Anting First Plant has dropped from more than 320 vehicles per day to about 200 vehicles; the annual production capacity of its new energy vehicle factory put into operation in 2020 is about 300,000 vehicles, and the impact of suspension of production is bound to affect the terminal delivery in the later stage.
According to the data, in March, the national passenger car production was 1.823 million units, down 0.3% year-on-year, of which the production of joint venture brands fell by 10% year-on-year, and the retail sales of mainstream joint venture brands in March were 590,000 units, down 30% year-on-year.
Supply chain pressure escalates
In addition to the suspension of production of car companies with factories and bases located in the area where the epidemic is located, there are also a large number of car companies like Weilai that are subject to the supply chain. As Li Bin said, "a car is not as good as a part can not be produced", the epidemic has brought many uncertainties to the supply and logistics of parts, making the already under pressure supply chain management worse.
Great Wall Motors told Yinxi Finance, "At present, factory production is still in progress, subject to the epidemic situation in Changchun, southern Jiangsu and other places where the production of auto parts is relatively concentrated, there will be some impact on the company's material supply, but it will not stop production." ”
GAC Motor Group said, "If the closure of the epidemic in Shanghai and Changchun continues and the supply of spare parts inventory is not available, there may be a risk of downtime." At present, the parts are in a state of consumption, the company is also continuing to track the local progress, once the logistics, production resumed, we will replenish the warehouse in time. ”
According to the production data of various provinces released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Shanghai and Jilin Province each account for about 11% of the country's production, and the production of some enterprises in Shanghai is running at full capacity, so the production and sales of passenger cars in the core areas will be greatly affected in April. Due to the long automotive industry chain, high coordination requirements, and a wider range of suspension radiation in the core production and logistics bases, the production and marketing pressure in the automobile market in April may be very large.
According to the analysis of the Association, the consumption momentum under the influence of the epidemic has weakened, and the retail sales of the automobile market in April are expected to be significantly lower than in March.