Original title: The price competitiveness of new energy brands of traditional car companies is highlighted
Text | Yang Zi, an intern reporter of this newspaper
Since March, affected by the rising prices of raw materials such as batteries, new car manufacturers such as Tesla, Ideal, Xiaopeng, Nezha, Zero Run, and Weima have raised the price of new energy vehicles, with a single increase of more than 10,000 yuan. In stark contrast, the new energy brands of traditional car companies have risen less, mostly below 10,000 yuan, or have not increased prices.
Rising battery prices are not the only incentive
On March 18, Xiaopeng announced an adjustment to the price of models on sale, raising the price by 10,100 yuan to 20,000 yuan before subsidies, and the price adjustment took effect from 00:00 on March 21. On March 21, CATL said that due to the sharp rise in upstream raw material prices, the company will dynamically adjust the prices of some battery products. At the same time, at the end of March, Weilai, which just said that "there is no price increase plan", announced on April 10 that the starting price of its ES8, ES6 and EC6 versions of the model was raised by 10,000 yuan, and the starting price of ET7 and ET5 remained unchanged; choosing the BaaS battery rental service, the long-endurance battery pack (100kWh) rental service fee increased by 200 yuan to 1680 yuan / month; the purchased car users were not affected by this adjustment; the battery pack was flexibly upgraded to a long-lasting battery pack on an annual basis, and the price was adjusted to 9800 yuan / year.
"At present, new energy vehicle brands that have determined the price increase of batteries in the second quarter have basically announced price increases. There has been no price increase, mostly because there is no negotiation with the battery manufacturer about the price increase, and the price will also increase after the negotiation. Battery costs are expected to rise by a very outrageous amount in the second quarter. Ideal CEO Li Xiang recently said publicly. Subsequently, Ideal announced that from April 1, the price of Ideal ONE will be raised by 11,800 yuan.
Some people in the industry were surprised by the price increase of the ideal ONE of more than 10,000 yuan. As an extended-range electric vehicle, the ideal ONE pairs a smaller power battery capacity of 40.5kWh. It is understood that the price increase of power batteries depends on capacity, and the lithium battery capacity of high-end pure electric power vehicles is higher and the increase is also greater. Ideally, the ideal ONE vehicle costs higher, and the battery pack capacity is also the highest among plug-in hybrid models and extended range electric models, so the price adjustment has been minimally carried out.
It is understood that Lantu, which previously said that it was "still entangled", also announced a price increase recently. On March 31, Lantu officially announced that the price of its pure electric vehicle models will be raised by 10,000 yuan, and the range extender model will not be adjusted for the time being, and the above changes will take effect on May 1.
In addition to the rising price of raw materials for power batteries, the price increase of chips and body raw materials cannot be ignored, and the impact has spread to fuel vehicles. On April 2, some Mercedes-Benz dealers said that Mercedes-Benz raised the official guidance price of each car series in the Chinese market. A price adjustment table transmitted online shows that the price increase range of Mercedes-Benz covers a number of models of Maybach, AMG and other sub-brands, as well as Mercedes-Benz CLA, E-class, GLC, S-class and other models, with an increase ranging from hundreds of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.
The advantages of dealer price adjustment appear
At present, the price increase of new energy vehicle brands such as BYD and Great Wall is basically 3,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan, and the price of new energy models under FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen has not increased.
At present, new car manufacturers are in the stage of rising development, and the overall sales volume does not reach the volume of traditional car companies. At the same time, the sales and profits of traditional car companies mainly come from fuel vehicles, so they have a strong cost-sharing ability. Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, pointed out: "There are fewer models of new car manufacturers and weaker ability to resist cost increases, so the increase is larger than that of traditional car companies. ”
"The price of a well-sold fuel vehicle is going down." Some traditional car company insiders told reporters that the current profits of fuel vehicles have been gradually compressed. Citing an example of one of the company's fuel vehicles, he said that the most popular configuration of the car has dropped from 250,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, and the company's best-selling fuel vehicles are currently less profitable. It can be seen that the competition in the fuel vehicle market is equally fierce, and when the cost rises, it is mostly borne by the car companies themselves, and there is no collective price increase. Industry insiders also believe that although the price increase of the above-mentioned Mercedes-Benz-related models, there will be no collective price increase of fuel vehicles.
In addition, new car manufacturers generally adopt a direct operation model, while traditional car companies sell more vehicles through dealers and play an active role in the current new energy vehicle market. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, said that the core means of regulating supply and demand in the automobile market is price, and dealers have strong price adjustment capabilities, which is conducive to achieving stable demand under cost and supply changes.
Rising prices on popular models can boost sales
Industry insiders said that traditional car companies that have been operating for many years have better control over the supply chain and may usher in new development opportunities in the current market. It is worth noting that GAC Aean, which is incubated in traditional car companies, raised the price of its Aion S Plus and Aion V Plus by 4,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan respectively, and in March, it overpowered many new car manufacturers with a sales performance of 20,317 vehicles. However, at the same time, the A00-class (mini-car) and A0-class (small car) electric vehicle markets are mostly occupied by traditional car companies, and the hidden worries brought about by rising raw material prices cannot be ignored, and it is urgent to upgrade products.
Cao Guangping, an independent researcher of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, believes that the current high prices of raw materials have put pressure on various technical routes such as new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles. In addition to the power battery itself to develop new low-cost battery technology, accelerate the research and development of low-cost battery material recycling technology, he also suggested that new car manufacturers should open up ideas and pay attention to the market segments of other technical routes.
It is reported that this year, traditional car companies and new car manufacturers will successively launch heavy models, and the domestic new energy vehicle market competition will become more intense. The sales data of new energy vehicles in March shows that the price increase has not affected sales. Among them, Xiaopeng continued to lead the new car manufacturers with a sales performance of 15,414 vehicles, and Nezha caught up with the obvious trend, with sales of 12,026 vehicles in March and 10,059 zero-run sales. Zhang Xiang believes: "For the already best-selling models, car companies have a large number of orders, and moderate price increases will not affect their sales, but will play a positive role, which increases the confidence of car companies to increase prices." ”
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Produced by | China Energy News (ID:cnenergy)
Trainee Editor | Li Zemin
Edit | Li Huiying