The author | Wang Yunpeng
Produced | automotive grand view
No matter how big or small, it is always necessary to be managed by people when they come out of the mix.
Due to the small body, low price and low cost of later use, whether it is a first-tier city or a third-tier and fourth-tier city, micro-electric vehicles have become the first choice for daily work, transportation, grocery shopping, and picking up babies.
In other words, since the old man was "unhappy", micro-electric vehicles have successfully filled this market gap and become an important part of the Chinese auto market.
The same is true from the sales data. According to the data, from 2019 to 2021, the annual sales of new energy vehicles in the mainland increased from 1.21 million to 3.52 million, and the market share reached 13.4%. In the context of the overall hot new energy market, the sales volume of micro-electric vehicles is also rising, and the proportion of sales has risen to 29.8% by 2021.
Since the beginning of this year, the sales of micro-electric vehicles have still been relatively strong. Data show that from January to March, 264,000 micro-electric vehicles were sold, accounting for 24.7% of the entire new energy vehicle market.
Although it has stabilized the market with low price and other advantages, due to the constraints of cost, micro-electric vehicles also have defects that cannot be ignored in terms of active and passive safety, endurance charging, etc. "Due to the size of the body and the cost of manufacturing, the body of a micro-electric vehicle can be used to provide collapse and absorb energy in the event of a collision. At the same time, the price and performance of the on-board seat belt and airbag are different from ordinary cars. Liu Yuguang, senior technical director of the Automobile Evaluation and Management Center of China Automobile Center, has previously said.
Based on this, at the 2022 International Summit on Automobile Evaluation and the C-NCAP Annual Meeting, the China Automotive Research Center (hereinafter referred to as "China Automobile Center") officially released the "Special Evaluation Regulations for Micro-Electric Vehicles" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"). Under the framework of C-NCAP and CCRT assessment systems, the procedure is mainly based on the test questions tailored for micro-electric vehicles in the two dimensions of safety and battery life.
It is worth mentioning that the "Regulations" are scheduled to be officially implemented from July 1 this year. From the current point of view, although the release of the "Regulations" has not caused too many waves, for micro-electric vehicles, it is most likely the tranquility before the storm.
What does the new "paper" test?
From the content point of view, the "Regulations" are mainly based on the original C-NCAP and CCRT assessment items for moderate condensation and simplification.
After the streamlining, the evaluation of the "Regulations" mainly includes three sections: collision safety, use safety and endurance charging, and the applicable models are electric passenger cars with a length of less than 4 meters.
Combined with the industry's division of the car class (the length of the A-class car is between 4.3-4.79m), the model applicable to the "Regulations" is the A0/A00 class, that is, the micro-electric vehicle. Specific to the model, that is, the current hot-selling Hongguang MINIEV, Chery QQ ice cream, etc. are all models within the scope of testing.
So, how will the three sections of collision safety, use safety and battery life charging be evaluated?
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.
Among them, 100% overlapping collisions on the front and side collisions are the same standards as normal passenger cars. Active safety projects such as automatic emergency braking system (AEB), lane keeping assist system (LKA), vehicle electronic stability control system (ESC), lane departure alarm system (LDW) and other active safety projects are "optional projects" for car companies to decide independently.
Overall, the strictness of the evaluation of micro-electric vehicles specified in the "Regulations" cannot be compared with ordinary models, but the three items of frontal collision, side collision and whiplash test can basically meet the safety requirements of daily use of cars.
In terms of safety, the content of the evaluation mainly includes five items: charging safety, braking performance, electromagnetic immunity, hydropower safety and human body electromagnetic protection. In other words, it mainly evaluates the safety of the vehicle itself that consumers may encounter in the process of daily use of the car.
The endurance charging section mainly contains four items: normal temperature endurance, low temperature endurance, low temperature charging and charging compatibility. As for the rating, the rating method of micro-electric vehicles is consistent with other models, which are divided into four levels according to the scoring rate.
In addition, from the purpose of the release of the "Regulations", it is intended to guide manufacturers to improve the safety of the body structure, increase the necessary safety configuration such as airbags, solve the user pain point problem, and gradually guide the performance of micro-electric vehicles to finally align with conventional size vehicles. "Through the evaluation, you can know whether the product is a 'qualified product' or a 'superior product'." Liu Yuguang said.
It can be said that with the continuous expansion of the market share and ownership of micro-electric vehicles, whether it is the three evaluation projects that are subdivided or the "Regulations" itself, it can be said that it is necessary and timely for the micro-electric vehicle market.
Can existing products pass the "exam"?
Public data shows that by the end of 2021, there are more than 40 micro-electric vehicles on the market. In terms of sales, last year's micro-electric vehicles increased by 205.2% year-on-year, exceeding the industry average, with total sales of nearly 900,000 vehicles, accounting for about 30% of sales in the new energy passenger car market.
The most intuitive performance of the hot sale of micro electric vehicles is that in the top 15 new energy vehicle sales list last year, 9 of them are micro electric vehicles, of which Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, Chery QQ ice cream, and Changan Benben E-Star sales are among the best.
Of course, compared with the hard-core technology and product strength, the hot sales of the above models are more due to their direct impact on the user's pain points. Take Wuling Hongguang MINIEV as an example. The price of the car is controlled at about 40,000 yuan, no purchase tax, no restrictions, good parking, and the home 220V can also be charged, the price is cheap, which can be described as solving multiple pain points of users.
Because of this, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV quickly "became popular" shortly after its listing, and handed over a report card of 426,000 vehicles in 2021.
Although the micro-electric vehicle segment is a hot market, models including Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, Chery QQ Ice Cream, Changan Ben E-Star, etc. are also popular with consumers. But with the release of the Regulations, will they really pass the "exam"?
The answer may be no. Take only the active and passive security of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV as an example. At the beginning of the market, the car was not equipped with ESP, EBA and airbags. Even the 2021 Hongguang MINI macaron version is only equipped with a frontal airbag for the main driver's seat, and the ESP body stabilization system is still missing.
In terms of body dogging safety, public information shows that the front anti-collision steel beam of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV is a single-layer stamping part with a thickness of 1.24 mm; the A-column, B-pillar and C-pillar are made of lower-strength C-class and D-grade steel; there is no anti-collision beam on the door and tail. Coupled with the fact that the front energy absorption area and the collapse area of the rear row are very small, it can be said that the safety of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV is quite worrying.
This, on February 23, 2021, Hongguang MINIEV has been shown through a serious traffic accident. As a result, the Hongguang MINIEV could not withstand the violent collision of the Audi A4L and could not effectively protect the people in the car.
In fact, the active and passive security configuration is more "rudimentary" than just the Wuling Hongguang MINI. For example, the hot-selling CHERY QQ ice cream and Changan Benben E-Star are also the same stinginess in the configuration of airbags and ESP body stability systems.
In other words, after the implementation of the "Regulations", the micro-electric vehicles currently on sale only have a crash safety test, and it may be difficult to get a passing score. If you add two other tests, what kind of rating these models will get on the market will be marked with a question mark.
The "Regulations" may promote the accelerated reshuffle of the market
Low prices are the key point for most micro-electric vehicles to quickly seize the market. At the same time, they will also make them the first products to be eliminated.
This can be seen from the fuel models such as Alto, Flair and Xiali that once swept the market, as well as electric models such as Zhidou, Zotye Sesame, and Kandy. In other words, even without the Regulations, the micro-electric vehicle market will be reshuffled.
In fact, this is also true. Due to the limitations of the product itself and the lack of core and less electricity, the rise in raw material prices, subsidies, carbon credit prices and other factors, the halo of micro-electric vehicles entering this year seems to be fading. According to the data, from January to March this year, the sales volume of micro-electric vehicles was 264,000 units, accounting for 24.7% of the entire new energy vehicle market, accounting for a decrease compared with 2021.
In addition, the policy shift will also promote the cooling of the micro-electric vehicle market. For example, Shanghai has begun to tighten the green card policy, and it is difficult to say that more cities will not introduce more policies that are not conducive to the sales of micro-electric vehicles in the future. In terms of car companies, since the beginning of this year, brands such as Euler and Nezha have successively announced the suspension of some of their micro-electric vehicles.
At the same time, the current domestic electric vehicle market is a "dumbbell type" structure, best-selling models are mainly concentrated in the A00, B, C market, A-class market lack of fist products, but this trend has begun to change from 2021. According to the prediction of Soochow Securities Research Institute, the core main line of this year's new energy vehicle market is the A-class car market of 100,000-200,000 yuan, which may usher in explosive growth, with sales reaching 1.7 million to 1.9 million. The rise in sales of A-class electric vehicles is bound to squeeze the share of the micro-electric vehicle market.
It is worth mentioning that if the "Regulations" to be implemented on July 1 are taken into account, the reshuffle speed of the micro-electric vehicle market will most likely be accelerated.
Specifically, the Regulations state that the principle of vehicle selection is determined by the management center with reference to market performance, and that there are no plans to discontinue production of the model in the near future. This also means that the popular micro-electric vehicles currently on sale will most likely be difficult to escape a "test". This will inevitably force micro-electric vehicle companies to choose between maintaining low prices and improving performance.
However, if the latter is chosen, the price of micro-electric vehicles will most likely rise, and it will take time to verify whether consumers are still willing to pay for it.