In the history of China's automobile consumption, this is an unprecedented sight.
According to the Association of Passenger Vehicles, retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 445,000 units in March, up 137.6% year-on-year and 63.1% month-on-month.
Under the favorable situation, Tesla and independent brands occupy nearly 97% of the market share of China's new energy vehicle market, while in the joint venture brand camp, only Volkswagen is left with a single seedling swaying in the wind, and people have witnessed the absence of traditional joint venture brands for the first time.
In the past, Chinese consumers often preferred joint venture brands with mature technology when purchasing fuel models; in the new energy era, consumers purchased pure electric and plug-in hybrid models, which seemed to exclude traditional joint venture brands first.
The competitiveness of fuel vehicles depends on the engine, gearbox, chassis, and the competitiveness of new energy vehicles looks at the battery, intelligent cockpit, and assisted driving, so that the "three major pieces" that the traditional joint venture brand is proud of can no longer hold its own brand.
From this contrasting situation, it can be seen that independent brands have formed a trend that is difficult to reverse by relying on the new energy vehicle market to counterattack the joint venture brand.
01 Tesla, independent brands dominate the list of new energy
In March's new energy vehicle sales rankings, BYD, which exceeded 100,000 units per month for the first time, became the undisputed champion with a score of 103,000 units, followed by Catfish Tesla, achieving sales of 66,000 units (including export sales).
Looking down at the sales ranking, you will find that in the top thirteen new energy vehicle sales list, except for Tesla, the rest are all independent brand car companies; and FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC Volkswagen, which are the only representatives of joint venture brands, are at the end of the list with monthly sales of 7230 vehicles and 6543 vehicles, respectively.
In the January-March new energy vehicle sales ranking, SAIC Volkswagen became the only pride of the joint venture brand with quarterly sales of 188.47 million units, and FAW-Volkswagen could not even rank in the top 15.
In contrast, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Automobile, GAC E-An, Geely Automobile, Great Wall Motor, Changan Automobile and other self-owned traditional car companies have achieved good performance in the new energy vehicle market since 2022, with average monthly sales of more than 10,000 vehicles.
In terms of new forces, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Nezha, Weilai, Zero Run and other five, except for Weilai, which is slightly behind and stuck at the threshold of 9985 vehicles, the remaining four have exceeded 10,000 vehicles in March.
From the perspective of market segmentation, in the top 15 of the new energy car sales list in March and the first quarter, in addition to the Tesla Model 3, the rest are independent brand products, and in the March new energy SUV sales list, in addition to the Tesla Model Y, only one FAW-Volkswagen ID.4 CROZZ ranked 14th with 2912 units.
Overall, retail sales of new energy passenger cars reached 445,000 units in March, up 137.6% year-on-year. Among them, the sales volume of pure electric models was 360,000 units, an increase of 126.7% year-on-year, and the sales of plug-in hybrid models were 85,000 units, an increase of 198.6% year-on-year. Among them, the outbreak of plug-in and mixed models is mainly due to the strength of independent brand products represented by BYD.
In the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the entire first quarter, independent brands accounted for 88.1%. From the perspective of the overall sales scale, independent brands have opened up a gap of nearly 50 times with traditional foreign brands in the new energy vehicle market.
In terms of penetration rate, the retail penetration rate of domestic new energy vehicles in March was 28.2%, an increase of 17.6 percentage points year-on-year. Even throughout the first quarter, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has reached 21.8%.
Among them, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in independent brands reached a staggering 46% in March, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in luxury vehicles was 32%, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in mainstream joint venture brands was lower than the overall level of the market, only 4.3%. It is enough to see the difference in the growth rate of independent brands and mainstream joint venture brands in the new energy vehicle market.
02 Why don't you buy a joint venture new energy vehicle?
Why are the joint venture brands that once dominated the traditional fuel vehicle market now no one in the era of new energy vehicles?
In fact, most consumers have a good idea, nothing more than less variety, expensive price and no highlights of the experience.
Among them, too few products to choose from are the most immediate reasons. At present, among the transformation brands and new car-making forces of independent brand traditional car companies, there are many people who release more than two new cars a year, and many of them have nearly 10 new cars a year like BYD. In contrast, in the past two years, there has been no shortage of joint venture brands that have been indifferent in the new energy vehicle market.
According to the rough statistics of Dadajun, there are currently as many as 113 new energy models on sale by independent brands, while there are only 54 joint venture brand products, and the gap between the product lineups of the two is obvious.
Among the 54 models of the joint venture brand, in addition to the Volkswagen ID series, Toyota iA5 and other sporadic products can be regarded as pure new energy models, the remaining more than 40 products are plug-in hybrid vehicles and pure electric models based on the transformation of fuel models; and among independent brands, the proportion of such products is only more than ten.
Moreover, among the 113 products in the independent brand camp, there are 62 models with monthly sales of more than 1,000 vehicles, while of the 54 products of the joint venture brand, only the top ten have sales of more than 1,000 vehicles, of which the 20 products after the 34th place have monthly sales of less than 100 vehicles.
Less choice is only the surface of the problem, and the lag in new energy technology and product strategy is the core pain of foreign brands.
Due to the lack of attention to the new energy industry in the early days and the late investment in research and development, the mainstream joint venture brands and foreign luxury brands on the market are either rare in new energy products or plug-in hybrid models or pure electric models based on the transformation of the original fuel vehicle products. Such as BMW iX3, Mercedes-Benz EQC, Honda CR-V PHEV (Honda CRV Sharp Hybrid e+), Toyota C-HR EV and so on.
Taking the Honda CR-V PHEV as an example, as a compact SUV, the fuel version cr-V guidance price is between 169,800 yuan and 276,800 yuan, while the Honda CR-V PHEV manufacturer guidance price is 273,800-299,800 yuan, and the dealer quotation although there is a certain discount, the starting price also reaches 238,800 yuan, which is nearly 70,000 more expensive than the pure fuel version, and the top configuration reaches 264,800 yuan
In terms of product strength, the length of this car is 4694mm, the wheelbase is 2660mm, and the pure electric endurance is 85 kilometers; among the independent brands, the length of the car is 4650mm, the wheelbase is 2712mm, and the pure electric endurance of 110 kilometers of BYD Song PRO DM-i top configuration only needs 163,800, and in terms of voice interaction, driving assistance, and the configuration of the machine screen, it is all underpowered.
In terms of pure electric models, taking the GAC Toyota C-HR EV as an example, this car has a range of 400 kilometers and is priced at 225,800-249,800 yuan after subsidies. The same price in the independent brand to buy a larger size, more than 100 kilometers of Xiaopeng G3, in exchange for a year ago, buy a Tesla Model 3 is no problem.
Such oil to electricity phenomenon abounds in traditional foreign brands, not only the price is high, the configuration, endurance, space and other products are difficult to compete with the positive research and development of new energy products, but also in the safety and stability of the product is also inherently insufficient.
The native electric vehicles built based on the exclusive platform of new energy will be strengthened by structural design in the battery pack shell and the outside of the battery pack, while the "oil to electricity" model cannot be given comprehensive protection due to its cramped spatial structure and the battery pack layout. On the other hand, the power battery of the original electric vehicle has almost been integrated with the body; and the battery pack of the "oil to electricity" model is more like hanging under the chassis of the vehicle, so the ground clearance of the battery pack is also smaller, and it is easier to drag the bottom under complex road conditions, thus bringing more safety hazards.
Who would spend a fortune choosing a product with such a technical compromise?
Of course, not all foreign brand products are oil to electricity, or there are brands like Volkswagen that are keen to reform and strive to achieve positive research and development, launching a new energy exclusive platform such as the MEB platform and the SSP platform, in addition, GM has also launched the Ultium pure electric platform. This may be the core reason why the Volkswagen brand can become the only joint venture brand to rank among the top 15 sales.
However, although the route is correct, foreign brands such as Volkswagen are still in a weak position in terms of the intelligent configuration of the key strength of new energy vehicle products. Not only is the computing power of the car machine, auxiliary driving, human-computer interaction and other aspects obviously weaker than the new forces that dare to develop themselves, but also in the configuration of the intelligent large screen, it is not better than most independent brand products. The car quality network shows that among the five models of the Volkswagen ID series, the most complained about are the Internet of Vehicles, the car machine Caton, the black screen and other issues.
Then there's the problem of cost control. Similar to the fuel vehicle market, the price of joint venture brand new energy models with similar performance and configuration is often tens of thousands of yuan different from that of its own brand peers. For example, the Volkswagen ID.3, which is being developed in a positive direction, is nearly 50,000 yuan more expensive than the BYD dolphin with similar size and endurance.
Different from the fuel vehicle market ten years ago, the current independent brands in the quality of new energy vehicle products have been completely enough to surpass the joint venture brand, in the power battery, intelligent cockpit and other core technologies are no longer choked by the joint venture brand throat, and even began to joint venture brand technology output, coupled with the independent brand in cost control, increasing aesthetic design and other aspects of the advantages, beyond the joint venture brand is the trend of the times.
In addition, as far as the consumers themselves are concerned, today's post-90s generation is no longer like the older generation of "car standardism", but pays more attention to the appearance, configuration, experience of products, and is more inclusive of new technologies, which also gives bold and innovative independent new energy brands a broader space for growth, and traditional foreign brand products that follow the old tradition are inevitably cold.
03 New energy vehicles will become the key to overtaking by independent brands
Of course, traditional foreign brands are not static.
With the intensification of carbon emission pressures around the world, and in order to maintain the country that has been in the Chinese auto market for many years, foreign brands have also begun to consciously accelerate the transformation of electrification in recent years.
In terms of Japanese brands, Honda Motor plans to invest about 8 trillion yen (about $64 billion) in research and development over the next 10 years, and a total of about 5 trillion yen (about $40 billion) in electrification and software, and launch 30 pure electric vehicles in the global market by 2030, with an annual production volume of more than 2 million.
For the Chinese market, Honda plans to launch 10 pure electric vehicles by 2027.
In terms of U.S. forces, GM plans to launch at least 30 electric vehicles by 2025, of which, for the Chinese market, more than 40% of the new models launched in the Chinese market in the next five years are new energy models, and will gradually promote and upgrade the Super Cruise super intelligent driving system in the Chinese market.
As a representative of the Korean system, Hyundai Motor's latest medium- and long-term electrification development strategy points out that Hyundai Motor and Genises plan to complete the product layout of 17 pure electric models by 2030 to achieve global electric vehicle sales of 1.87 million units. It will invest $79.3 billion in hardware and software technology research and development.
Among them, for the Chinese market, from 2022, Hyundai and Kia brands will launch pure electric special models in China every year, not only introducing IONIQ5, EV6 and other models, but also launching exclusive pure electric vehicle models in the Chinese market.
In addition to the above-mentioned car companies, a number of foreign brands, including Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and BMW, have also released their own electrification transformation products and technical plans in recent years.
It is undeniable that the pace of transformation and electrification of traditional foreign-funded car companies is indeed accelerating, but it is also an indisputable fact that the products and technical conservatism in the past few years are also indisputable, and it remains to be seen whether these follow-up "acceleration" strategies can break this cognition.
Moreover, compared with the former to look forward to the layout of new energy products that can be built in five years and ten years, independent brands currently have a leading layout and status in the field of new energy vehicles, and will continue to move forward quickly.
From the current known foreign brands for China's new energy product launch plan, it can be seen that the future annual product launch progress of foreign brands is basically maintained at the level of 1-2 models per year, in contrast, the current independent brands not only have the leading BYD, Wei Xiaoli and other new forces, but also the traditional car enterprise transformation brand and Xiaomi, Baidu, Niuchuang and other cross-border new forces, as these new brands gradually gain a foothold, the expansion speed of the follow-up independent brand new energy new car lineup will be n times today.
In this way, although foreign brands press the acceleration button, it is difficult to catch up with the growth rate of independent brands.
It is worth mentioning that the current independent brand new energy not only has a strong lineup in the pure electric market, but also has a continuous layout in the hybrid market ignored by foreign brands. According to the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0", by 2035, energy-saving vehicles and new energy vehicles will account for 50% of sales; traditional energy-powered passenger cars are all hybrid.
Nowadays, the successive efforts of independent brands in plug-in hybrid and oil-electric hybrid technology are not only expected to subvert the leading position of Japanese brands in this field, but also become a key advantage in seizing the market of energy-saving vehicles and new energy vehicles in the future.
Not long ago, Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, predicted at the forum that by 2030, China's new energy vehicle sales will exceed 15 million, compared with 3.3 million in 2021 There is still 350% room for growth.
Nowadays, independent brands have taken the lead in taking the lead and conforming to this momentum to take advantage of the chase, and in the near future, independent brands are likely to successfully grasp the discourse power of China's automobile market by virtue of the advantages of the new energy vehicle market.