On April 13, Weipai, the high-end brand of Great Wall Motors, officially released a price adjustment announcement. It said that due to the impact of comprehensive factors such as the sharp increase in the prices of raw materials, chips and core components, Weipai will adjust the official guidance price of some models on sale in the coffee series, which will be raised by 5,000-12,000 yuan, and officially take effect from 00:00 on April 15.
What models are involved in this round of adjustment?
It can be seen that the models of Wei brand's price adjustment this round are all new cars of its brand's "coffee intelligence" series. However, unlike the price increase of pure electric vehicle models in the past, this time Weipai not only increased the PHEV model, but also some pure fuel vehicles were involved.
Specifically, the Macchiato DHT-PHEV model has the highest increase, from the current price of 166,800-177,800 to 178,800-189,800, an increase of 12,000 yuan. In addition, the two hybrid models, the Macchiato DHT and the Latte DHT, also raised their prices by 10,000 yuan each, which were 155,800-169,800 yuan (145,800-159,800 yuan before adjustment) and 169,800-189,800 yuan (159,800-179,800 yuan before adjustment). As an earlier fuel-based version of the mocha, its 2.0T model rose by 5,000 yuan, and the adjusted price was 192,800-228,800.
It is reported that the price adjustment will take effect at 00:00 on April 15, 2022. In addition, those who purchase a car at the "Spot Car Purchase" entrance of the Wei APP and pay a deposit before the price adjustment officially takes effect are not affected by this price adjustment. The full text of the announcement is as follows:
Car companies can hardly understand the rising pressure on costs
It can be said that Wei Pai announced that the price increase is also a helpless move, and the reasons behind it have pointed to the rise in raw material prices, especially the raw materials for power batteries: lithium carbonate, nickel, cobalt, etc., the price has continued to rise in the past year, which has also implicated the soaring price of power batteries. At present, the price increase of new energy vehicles is the comprehensive cascading effect of the above results.
The specific raw material price shows that the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has risen from 50,000 yuan per ton to 500,000 per ton in just one year, which can be described as a direct increase of 10 times. On the other hand, the prices of nickel and cobalt have also formed a large increase, and the price of cobalt has directly soared from less than 300,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of last year to 560,000 yuan per ton.
For the rapid rise in raw material prices, Weipai CEO Li Ruifeng also directly said: "It is really impossible to bear it." The decline of new energy subsidies can still stand up, the chip shortage can also survive, even if we have been enduring losses, we have not passed on to users and dealers. But now not only chips, the cost of battery materials continues to rise, the prices of steel, rubber, aluminum alloys are rising, bicycle profits are getting lower and lower, no price increase. ”
It can be seen that the models affected by the rise in raw material prices have gradually spread from new energy to the field of traditional fuel vehicles. In this regard, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Federation, said: "The price of raw materials has risen more than expected, and the shortage of chips has also caused the current model supply to be insufficient, driven by multiple factors, the cost of automobile manufacturing has increased, and the main engine factory is facing great pressure." ”
However, it is interesting that on the consumer side, for those buyers who have just needed it, it seems that they do not care much about the car purchase problem caused by the price increase. At the same time, at the sales level of car companies, its impact does not seem to be very large. According to statistics, from January to March this year, the wholesale sales of domestic new energy passenger cars were 1.190 million units, but they did not fall but rose, and increased by 145.4% year-on-year. Secondly, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars in China were 1.070 million units, an increase of 146.6% year-on-year. Therefore, from the current trend, consumers can rationally look at the price adjustment of the main engine factory, which may be the biggest comfort for the automobile manufacturer.
Write at the end:
At present, Weipai has completed its brand transformation, and with the addition of a large number of PHEV and DHT models, their product matrix has become more and more vigorously developed in the direction of hybrid and new energy. Then, the price of these models is bound to be affected by the above raw material prices, and then adjust the price. However, in the face of technological development and the change of the process of the times, even in such a severe background situation, Weipai still only adjusted those more seriously affected models, and strived to launch new models to provide consumers with more choices, which also showed its corporate responsibility to a certain extent.