The once-cooled A00-class micro-electric vehicle has returned to the "peak" and has also ushered in a number of "players". Recently, on the March car sales ranking released by the Association, Hongguang MINIEV once again returned to the first position of sales, selling a total of 41,980 vehicles, and even squeezed the "sales crown" regular Nissan Xuanyi to the second. Under the background of rising oil prices, QQ Ice Cream, Benben E-Star, Lynk & Co T03 and other scooter electric vehicles have performed well. However, in the current high cost, is the A00 class pure tram still a good business?
On April 22, LUMIN debuted the first product created by Changan EPA0's new pure electric platform. The new car is not only equipped with a 10.25-inch full LCD HD intelligent touch screen, a collection of reversing images, mobile phone interconnection, voice control and other human vehicle interconnection systems, but also made sufficient efforts in the weak safety quality of A00-level micro-electric vehicles.
Just last month, Xiaokang also launched the scenery MINIEV. The car is not only a model positioning mini car, but even the appearance, configuration, and pricing are in line with the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV.
Coupled with chery QQ ice cream, Changan BenBEN EV, Chery eQ, Sihao E10X, Easy Jet BBG, Lingbao BOX, Punk Duoduo, Reading Mango, Punk Meimei, Euler Black Cat, White Cat, BAIC S3, S5, etc., the A00-class new energy vehicle track has become more and more crowded.
According to incomplete statistics, as of last year, there were more than 40 micro-electric vehicles on sale in the mainland automobile market, and in 2022, a number of micro-electric vehicles, including Hongguang MINIEV, began to launch derivative models.
According to the data of the Association of Automobile Associations, from January to March, 264,000 pure electric mini vehicles were sold in China, accounting for 24.7% of the entire new energy vehicle market. A00-class new energy vehicles have become the "sales code".
However, in the face of the consumption upgrade of fuel vehicles, A00-class micro-electric vehicles seem to take the opposite route - low-end.
Oula brand CEO Dong Yudong frankly said that the current A00-level market has "4 lows" - low price, low endurance, low performance, and low safety.
For example, in the case of The Wuling Hongguang MINI EV, airbags and esp were not standard at the beginning of the market. In 2021, the new version of the Hongguang MINI EV only added the front airbag of the main driver, and the price rose by about 5,000 yuan without more high-cost configuration increases.
At the same time, Chery QQ Ice Cream announced a price increase of 3,000 yuan on March 17, Wuling Hongguang's new car was 6,000 yuan higher than the current model, and Euler black and white cat stopped orders... This is all because the price of raw materials has soared.
The data shows that in the more than one year from the beginning of 2021 to February 27, 2022, the price of power battery electrolyte and positive and negative electrode materials is also growing rapidly, of which lithium iron phosphate has risen by 332%, and the price of electrolyte has risen by 189% driven by lithium hexafluorophosphate. Driven by metal prices, ternary cathode materials have increased by more than 100% in 1 year, reaching 116.43%. For pure electric vehicles, when the price of lithium carbonate rises to 300,000 yuan / ton, the cost of each pure electric vehicle rises by about 8,000 yuan; when the price of lithium carbonate rises to 400,000 yuan / ton, the cost of each electric vehicle rises by about 11,000 yuan.
Some insiders said that in the case of A00-class models with 30 kWh of electricity and 300-400km of endurance, the price increase of the battery pack is between 3100-3500 yuan. In addition, the new energy subsidy will decline by 30% in 2022. In these two cases alone, an A00-class electric model will lose about 7,000 yuan. This is a heavy blow to A00-class electric vehicles, which are generally priced at 40,000 yuan to 60,000 yuan.
At the same time, the continuous improvement of new energy vehicle sales and the sharp reduction in the price of carbon credits, which is an important source of profits for new energy vehicle companies, will further weaken their gross profit space.
In this regard, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Association, said in an interview that the A00-class new energy vehicle market will maintain growth this year, but the growth rate will not be too fast, "In 2022, the growth rate of A00-class new energy vehicles will be about 60%. Cui Dongshu expects, but the increase is mainly reflected in the A-class car and B-class car market.
Similarly, the Ping An Securities Research Report shows that the incremental pattern of new energy vehicles will change in 2022, and the growth rate of the A00-level new energy market will be under pressure.
In addition, the "Special Evaluation Regulations for Micro Electric Vehicles" is expected to be implemented in July this year, setting a higher safety threshold for future micro-electric vehicles, which also means higher car manufacturing costs. When the starting price of future micro-electric vehicles skyrockets, will consumers still pay? Only let the market speak.
Upstream journalist Yan Wei