As a product of the era of electrification, micro-electric vehicles are developing in a better and healthier direction, and are about to complete the transition from the embryonic period, the full-scale outbreak period to the rectification and standardization period.
On April 8, at the International Summit on Automobile Evaluation and the Annual Meeting of C-NCAP, China Automobile Center officially released the "Special Evaluation Procedures for Micro Electric Vehicles", which is an important test topic tailored for micro-electric vehicles that comprehensively considers product characteristics and market demands, aiming to strengthen vehicle safety supervision and quality testing.
It is reported that the regulation is scheduled to be officially implemented in July this year.
When I saw this news, I thought to myself: Finally here! At a time when the micro-electric vehicle is developing rapidly and there is no standardized system, I feel that the normative system for the micro-car market should soon be released, and at present, this "regulation" is not early or late, it can be said that it is just right.
What's the good part? On the one hand, the current micro-electric vehicle market has developed, and it will not be fragile enough to be broken by the "Regulations"; on the other hand, it will accelerate the orderly development of the market.
As Zhang Xiang, an automotive analyst and researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, said: "The release of the Regulations will play a normative role in the mini-car market, and helping the healthy development of this market is a good thing for car companies and consumers." ”
What is the biggest problem with micro-electric vehicles?
This question should be considered from both the consumer and the market.
The biggest issue for consumers is safety! safe!! safe!!! Say important things three times.
According to the data of the Association, the wholesale sales of A00-class in March 2022 were 119,000 units, an increase of 75% month-on-month, accounting for 32% of pure electric vehicles; the wholesale sales of A0-class were 55,000 units, accounting for 15% of pure electric vehicles. From this data, micro-electric vehicles have a large volume, but in terms of safety, the performance of micro-electric vehicles has become a potential concern for consumers.
Take a traffic accident in Qinhuangdao in early 2021 as an example, when a Hongguang MINIEV collided with an Audi A4, both cars were damaged, but the terrible thing is that the Hongguang MINIEV was directly hit and destroyed, and a mother and daughter on the car died of serious injuries, while the body part of the Audi A4 was only damaged, and the people on the car were not in danger of life.
To know that Hongguang MINIEV is the main owner of more than 20,000 vehicles per month, this safety guarantee is too reassuring.
Zhang Xiang also said that the current scope of use of mini cars is changing, previously only in the third, fourth and fifth-tier cities, now like Hongguang MINIEV mini cars have entered the first and second-tier big cities, like Shanghai there are many of this car, but this micro electric vehicle and Audi, Mercedes-Benz this kind of car on the same highway, there must be a safety hazard.
The second is the market problem, although the current momentum of micro-electric vehicles is just right, but the product can be described as uneven, because the industry threshold is too low, large and small brands are numerous, resulting in serious homogenization of products, which is not conducive to the development of the industry.
Zhang Xiang believes that the "regulations" can effectively improve the above two problems, he said that the safety guidelines of the "regulations" allow consumers to have a basis for choosing a brand when buying a car, and also prompt manufacturers to actively improve the safety of products, thus playing a normative role in the entire industry.
What exam questions are set in the Regulations?
The "Regulations" are mainly aimed at pure electric passenger cars with a body length of less than 4 meters, that is, A0/A00 levels.
The specific test questions are divided into three sections: collision safety, use safety and battery life charging.
In terms of collision safety, the main evaluation of the vehicle in the process of collision accident, body structure and restraint system (such as seats, seat belts, airbags / air curtains, etc.) for the protection effect of internal drivers and occupants, the evaluation content mainly includes frontal collision, side collision and whipping test three items.
In terms of use safety, it mainly involves the safety of the user's daily use of the car process, such as charging safety, braking, electromagnetic immunity, wading battery safety and human body electromagnetic protection and other items.
In terms of endurance charging, the main evaluation of user pain points includes four items: room temperature endurance, low temperature endurance, low temperature charging and charging compatibility.
The three tests first showed that they have certain hard requirements for body structure, body materials, batteries, etc., which also means that the cost of micro-electric vehicles will further rise.
The evaluation purpose of the "Regulations" is also the same as the evaluation of conventional models, which emphasizes the need to guide manufacturers to improve the safety of the body structure in the early stage, increase the necessary safety configuration such as airbags, solve the problem of user pain points, and gradually guide the performance of micro-electric vehicles to finally align with conventional size vehicles.
Although they are all basic evaluations that are very common in the automotive circle, this can be said to be a "life and death test" for the micro-electric vehicle market.
What is the impact on the micro-electric vehicle market?
Only when the tide recedes will you know who has been swimming naked.
In fact, even if the China Automobile Center does not come forward, the micro-electric vehicle market will also open a phase-out system, because first of all, due to the increase in the price of battery raw materials, the mini-car has also begun a series of price increases, and consumers will not necessarily pay for it; secondly, when the mini-car market is saturated, marginalized brands will face elimination; and finally, the upgrade of the whole consumption will inevitably eliminate some inferior brands.
Zhang Xiang also said that in the future, smart may also be regarded as a micro-electric vehicle, beam car will also launch a micro-electric vehicle of less than four meters, their price may reach more than 200,000, and the cheapest micro car price of Wuling Hongguang is below 30,000 yuan, you can see that the price range is uneven, then there must be a more comprehensive regulatory management method.
Therefore, the release of the Regulations only raises the entry threshold for the entire market while accelerating the elimination system.
It can be expected that after the release of the "Regulations", many brands can not come up with models with strong product strength, and they will easily be eliminated by the market. But this also means that this may be followed by an increase in car prices.
Some media and netizens joked that if you want to buy a micro-electric vehicle, you can wait first, and it is recommended to start after July! What do you think?