Behind the soaring new energy vehicles: car companies accelerate electrification

Yangchun has passed away in March, and car companies have successively announced the production and sales of the first quarter. Despite facing a complicated environment, many car companies performed well in the first quarter. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as "CAAM"), from January to March this year, the national automobile production and sales increased by 2.0% and 0.2% respectively year-on-year.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why the production and sales of domestic car companies rose in the first quarter was mainly due to the rapid development of new energy vehicle production and sales, and the production and sales in the first quarter both exceeded one million, completing 1.293 million and 1.257 million vehicles respectively, an increase of 1.4 times year-on-year.

The reporter of China Business Daily found through market research that the new energy vehicles in the first quarter increased significantly year-on-year, especially the rapid development of independent brand new energy vehicles. For example, BYD, which recently announced the abandonment of fuel vehicles, both produced and sold 100,000 new energy vehicles in March, a record high, and the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in the first quarter were nearly 300,000.

Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Automobile Association, had predicted that the production and sales of new energy vehicles in 2022 would reach 5 million, and his leading role in the world would be further highlighted.

Automakers accelerate electrification

Under the comprehensive influence of international geopolitics, chip shortage, power battery raw material prices and other factors, car companies are meeting a new round of opportunities and challenges. According to data from the China Automobile Association, the overall Growth Trend of Chinese automobiles continued to maintain a stable growth trend in the first quarter. From January to March, automobile production and sales reached 6.484 million units and 6.509 million units, up 2.0% and 0.2% year-on-year, but the growth rate was 6.8 percentage points and 7.3 percentage points lower than that in January and February.

At a time when sales in the new energy vehicle market are rising, many car companies are accelerating their journey to electrification. BYD officially announced in early April that it would stop producing fuel vehicles and devote itself to the manufacture of new energy vehicles, setting a new record for sales of new energy vehicles in March.

Gac Motor Group's cumulative production of new energy vehicles from January to March was about 51,100 units, an increase of 139.67% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales volume was about 52,800 units, an increase of 144.8% year-on-year. Among them, GAC Aean's cumulative production from January to March was about 43,900 units, an increase of 150.92% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales volume was about 44,900 units, an increase of 154.85% year-on-year, exceeding the delivery volume of new car-making forces such as Xiaopeng, Ideal and Weilai.

In terms of the above three major new car-making forces, sales from January to March exceeded 20,000 units. Among them, Xiaopeng Automobile has delivered about 34,600 units, Ideal Automobile about 31,700 units, and Weilai Automobile about 25,800 units.

Obviously, when the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeded 28%, the gap between various car companies gradually became clear. In order to catch up with the wave of electrification, traditional car companies are not willing to show weakness and actively transform.

At the end of March, Guangqi Honda released a new electric brand e:NP and unveiled its first all-electric model, e:NP1 (Polar 1). Guangqi Honda said that it will fully exert its electric power business, take the initiative to break its own boundaries, and open the road to advancement in the electric era. At the same time, GAC Mitsubishi launched its first pure electric SUV, Atuka.

Changan Automobile, which ranked second in retail sales in March, also launched a new model equipped with the Blue Whale iDD system in March, UNI-K iDD and Changan UNI sequence models. At that time, Yang Dayong, vice president of Changan Automobile, said that the listing of Changan UNI-K iDD means that The Changan UNI sequence has officially entered the new energy market. In the future, the Changan UNI sequence will bring no less than 5 new energy products, covering all-technology routes such as pure electric, plug-in hybrid, extended range electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.

Luxury brands are also actively promoting electrification. BMW said that by the end of 2025, it plans to deliver 2 million pure electric vehicles worldwide; Porsche, Volvo and other companies have also proposed electrification plans to significantly increase the proportion of pure electric models in 2030.

With the in-depth implementation of the "double carbon" goal, new energy vehicles have shown a good development situation of double improvement in market scale and development quality.

The market share of independent brands has increased again

In the past 1 to 3 months, independent brands have ushered in a "turnaround battle" that surpasses joint venture brands, and has achieved staged success. According to the data released by the Association, in March, 750,000 self-owned brand retail vehicles were sold, an increase of 17% year-on-year and 37% month-on-month. From January to March, the cumulative share of independent brands was 48%, an increase of 9.7 percentage points compared with the same period in 2021.

In terms of joint venture brands, in March, mainstream joint venture brands retailed 590,000 vehicles, down 30% year-on-year and up 9% month-on-month. Japanese brand retail accounted for 20% of the market share, down 3 percentage points year-on-year; Ashkenazi brand retail accounted for 18% of the market share, down 7 percentage points year-on-year; American brand retail accounted for 10% of the market share, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year.

In the competition between independent brands and joint venture brands, new energy vehicles are well-deserved "heroes". According to the data, in March, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands was 46%; the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 32%,, while the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was only 4.3%.

At the same time, the market share of independent brands in traditional fuel vehicles has also increased. GAC Trumpchi told reporters that in the first quarter of this year, the cumulative sales of GAC Trumpchi exceeded 90,000 vehicles, an increase of 21.8% year-on-year, achieving double growth in wholesale and terminals in the first quarter of the whole series. It cannot be ignored that GAC Trumpchi has proposed a comprehensive hybridization strategy in 2021 and laid out hybrid series models.

In terms of Changan Automobile, in March, Changan Automobile sold a total of 236,100 new vehicles, of which the sales of self-owned brand passenger cars were 134,700 units, becoming the "sales crown" of its own brands; from January to March, the cumulative sales of its own brands exceeded 520,000 units, an increase of 1.3% year-on-year.

Specifically, in March, among the best-selling models of independent brands, BYD sold about 26,700 vehicles in the "Song" family and about 24,800 vehicles in the "Qin" family. In terms of GAC Group, GAC Trumpchi GS4 sales exceeded 10,000, an increase of 41.7% year-on-year, and GAC Aian AION Y sales reached 9,501 units, an increase of 218% month-on-month.

In contrast, in terms of joint venture brands, although the overall market share has been caught up by independent brands, the performance of individual companies in the first quarter is still remarkable.

Among them, GAC Honda, a subsidiary of GAC Group, sold about 212,400 units from January to March, an increase of 16.75% year-on-year, and GAC Toyota sold about 247,000 units from January to March, an increase of 23.44% year-on-year. Dongfeng Motor's passenger car business unit sold 242,900 units from January to March.

Specifically, in March, among the best-selling models of the joint venture brand, GAC Group still focused on "Two Fields", with GAC Toyota Camry series sales of about 27,200 units, and GAC Honda Accord and GAC Toyota Ralink series sales of more than 20,000 units. In Dongfeng Nissan, the 14th generation Xuanyi series has sold more than 30,000 vehicles.

Focus on stable price guarantee

Although the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the automobile market rose in the first quarter with the market share of independent brands, whether it is a new energy vehicle company or an independent brand, it is necessary to face the problem of stable price and supply.

At the 2021 performance meeting of GAC Group, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, frankly said that the biggest challenge that GAC Group is now encountering is the supply of parts. "Now we are fully coordinating how to keep the supply chain stable." This is not only the automotive industry, the whole country, the world will encounter these challenges, we believe that the next stable growth will introduce a lot of measures. ”

Zeng Qinghong revealed that the inventory rate of INCLUDING GAC Trumpchi and GAC EIAN is very low, and the current focus is on the supply of parts. When communicating with a number of car companies, the reporter learned that ensuring the stability of the supply chain has become an urgent problem to be solved in the current automobile market production and sales.

Automotive manufacturing "moves the whole body", and upstream suppliers are actively coordinating the supply of parts. A few days ago, Bosch said in a statement that Bosch's auto parts factories in Shanghai and Taicang are still operating normally due to the use of "closed-loop systems", and said: "We see the temporary impact of logistics and supply chain procurement, and are doing everything possible to maintain the supply chain and meet the needs of customers." ”

Relevant people of the Ningde era also said that at present, in order to maximize the protection of market supply, the Ningde era strictly adopts grid management measures to ensure that the Ningde base carries out production in an orderly manner. Catalonia has not stopped production at present.

In terms of policy, we are also actively promoting supply and price stability. In the video conference on industrial economic operations held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in some provinces and cities at the beginning of March this year, it was mentioned that greater efforts should be made to coordinate and ensure the supply chain of the industrial chain, especially for key industries such as automobiles and integrated circuits, to ensure the smooth flow of the industrial chain supply chain.

On April 13, the executive meeting of the State Council mentioned that the expansion of consumption in key areas, the encouragement of bulk consumption of automobiles, home appliances and other bulk consumption, all localities must not add new car purchase restriction measures, and the gradual increase in automobile increment indicators that have been implemented to restrict purchases. Support the consumption of new energy vehicles and the construction of charging piles.