Author: Jeff
On April 3, 2022, BYD announced that it would "close" its fuel vehicle business and focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle business in the future.
(Image from BYD Auto's official Weibo)
Production was stopped in March and officially announced in April, ANDD caught many peers "off guard", after all, the car companies that have officially announced the "stop burning" will not be as early as 2025. BYD's move is bound to accelerate the automaker's "stop fire" plan, so who is most likely to fire the second shot of "stop fire" after BYD?
The first to shout the slogan of "stop burning" was actually Changan Automobile
Although BYD is the first car company to stop production of fuel vehicles, it is not the first to shout the slogan of "stop burning".
As early as October 2017, Changan Automobile released the "Shangri-La Plan", which opened the prelude to the transition to new energy, with the goal of completely stopping the sale of fuel vehicles in the traditional sense by 2025 and realizing the electrification of full-spectrum products.
Since Changan Automobile has not disclosed the specific sales data of new energy vehicles every year, it is impossible to know what the proportion of new energy models in its overall sales is. However, from the perspective of the models currently on sale of Changan Automobile, the proportion of new energy models is not high, about 25.4% (Changan brand is 5/19, Changan Auchan is 2/8, Changan Kaicheng is 6/18, and Changan span is 2/14).
According to public data, the annual sales of "Changan Series" Chinese brand cars in 2021 exceeded 1.75 million, and in terms of new energy vehicles, only a data of the annual sales of The Ben E-Star exceeded 70,000 vehicles. As the pillar of Changan's new energy sales, Benben E-Star accounts for only 4%, and such data also makes people think about how many new energy vehicles Changan Automobile can sell in a year.
Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, once said: "2022 is a big year for Changan's products in the field of new energy, with a sales target of 300,000 vehicles, of which Changan New Energy aims at 200,000 vehicles. ”
The swear Beijing Automobile
Changan Automobile was followed by BAIC Motor, and in December 2017, Xu Heyi, then chairman of BAIC Group, publicly stated: "By 2020, BAIC will stop selling its own brand of traditional fuel passenger cars in Beijing; by 2025, it will completely stop producing and selling its own brand of traditional fuel passenger cars in China." In 2018, Xu Heyi once again reiterated the above goals and made it clear that BAIC should fully move towards new energy.
In 2017, BAIC BJEV sold 103,000 units, only about 10,000 units behind BYD, when Geely's sales of new energy vehicles were less than a quarter of BAIC's. In 2018, BAIC BJEV ushered in a highlight moment, with new car sales reaching 158,000 units. In 2019, it once again exceeded 150,000 vehicles (150601 vehicles), and at the same time completed the seventh consecutive championship of domestic pure electric vehicle sales.
In the eyes of many people in the industry, BAIC was originally the most promising car company to follow BYD and fire the second shot of "stop burning", but now I am afraid to put a question mark. Although new energy vehicles have completely exploded in China in the past two years, what is unexpected is that BAIC, which was once domineering, has gone downhill. According to the data, in 2021, BAIC Motor New Energy Co., Ltd. will produce more than 6,000 vehicles and sell more than 20,000 vehicles.
As for the goal of stopping the sale of self-owned brand traditional fuel passenger cars in Beijing in 2020, no one has mentioned it at present. In 2021, many BAIC 4S stores in Beijing are still selling fuel vehicles, but compared with Changan Automobile, the proportion of new energy vehicles in the current sales model of Baizhou Automobile is higher than that of Changan Automobile.
Geely Auto: Get up early in the morning and catch a late set
Geely Automobile started early in new energy vehicles, and in 2015, Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, released a very bold "Blue Geely" strategy: that is, by 2020, the sales of new energy vehicles will account for more than 90% of Geely Automobile's overall sales. In 2016, the total sales volume of new energy passenger cars in China was about 320,000 units, and Geely Automobile ranked first among domestic car companies with a performance of 48,000 units.
However, Geely Automobile has not been able to maintain the first-mover advantage, and while becoming the crown of autonomy, the road to upward breakthrough is getting smoother and smoother, and new energy vehicles have gradually become a short board for it. According to the data, the total sales volume of Geely Automobile in 2021 was 1.328 million units, of which the sales of new energy vehicles were 82,000 units, accounting for 6.23%. The ambitious goal to be achieved in 2020 has also been replaced by 2025, Geely's intelligent electric vehicles account for more than 30%, that is, more than 1.09 million, and the sales volume of extreme krypton has reached 650,000, and the market share of high-end electric vehicles is among the top three in the world.
In the second half of 2020, the "Two Blue Geely" action plan landed: one is to focus on high-end intelligent pure electric vehicles, and the other is to focus on intelligent energy-saving and small-displacement new energy vehicles, including hybrid, extended range plug-in hybrid, to achieve a 9:1 product structure ratio of new energy hybrids and traditional energy-saving small-displacement vehicles.
The "Two Blue Geely" action plan clarifies Geely Automobile's new energy strategy, and the SEA Haohan pure electric platform architecture released in 2021 and the launch of Extreme Kr 001 are an important step in Geely Automobile's transformation to electrification. Meanwhile, Thor Hi X technology has also begun to be rolled out in the Geely model matrix, and the high-end brand Lynk & Co has launched PHEV models throughout the series.
In 2022, Geely Automobile plans to launch 13 new energy models including plug-in hybrid, alcohol-electric hybrid, and pure electric, and according to the "Longwan Action" plan released in 2021, in the next three years, Geely Group's models equipped with the Leishen Zhiqing hybrid system will reach more than 20 models.
Great Wall Motors' ambitions
Compared with Changan Automobile, BAIC and Geely Automobile, Great Wall Motors' ambitions in new energy vehicles are very large.
On June 18, 2021, at the 8th Great Wall Motor Science and Technology Festival, Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Motor, announced the strategic goal of 2025: to impact the global annual sales of 4 million new cars, new energy vehicles accounted for 80%, and operating income exceeded 600 billion yuan.
According to the data, the total sales of Great Wall Motors in 2021 was 1.2809 million units, of which the sales of new energy vehicles were 139,000 units, accounting for 10.85%. If according to the strategic goal proposed by Chairman Wei Jianjun, the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 3.2 million in 2025, Great Wall Motors must achieve an annual compound growth rate of new energy vehicle sales of not less than 120% in these four years, and the challenge is quite arduous.
At present, in the layout of new energy models, Great Wall Motors only has Euler, a compact pure electric brand that is biased towards personality, in carrying the girder, and the hybrid of the Wei brand has just been rolled out, and in addition to the Haval brand, in addition to the red rabbit and the divine beast, the hybrid version of other models is still unknown.
Fortunately, Great Wall Motor's new energy vehicles have accumulated a lot of money, and the lemon platform, DHT hybrid system, and honeycomb energy are all technical reserves that can make the market optimistic for a long time. In addition, compared with other independent brand car companies, Great Wall Motors is also more "rich", which can ensure that it can make bold investments in the field of new energy vehicles.
For any car company, the transformation must be based on market sales, profit composition and brand positioning. After years of hard work, BYD has matured the conditions for abandoning the production of fuel vehicles. Blade battery, DMi has become BYD's trump card in the market. Giving up the fuel car that he is not good at is like a "natural success" for BYD, and it is like a "bet" between himself and himself, and whether it can succeed will take time to verify.
However, unlike BYD, independent brands such as Great Wall Motor, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, and Chery Automobile still need to continue to work on fuel models to ensure their market position and not rush to "stop burning". After all, fuel models are still an important sales pillar and source of profits for these car companies, and too radical transformation is likely to result in "losing the wife and folding the soldiers".