In the early morning of April 24, Changan New Energy's official WeChat public account issued an announcement that due to the impact of the shortage of upstream raw materials and the limitation of vehicle and parts production capacity, the delivery cycle of the model was long, and the order collection of the E-Star national version model would be suspended from 00:00 on April 25. For users who have previously ordered through officially designated channels such as Changan New Energy Public Account and Benben Booking Mini Program, Changan Automobile will adjust production resources to meet the scheduling plan of existing orders and ensure that the user who has booked a car can pick up the car as soon as possible.
The Ben E-Star National Edition model is a miniature electric vehicle launched by Changan New Energy, which is a cost-effective model suitable for urban transportation, which makes it gain many orders as soon as it is listed. The price of this micro-electric vehicle is low, and the requirements for cost control are extremely high, so after the launch of the vehicle, many people commented that Changan New Energy was "losing money and making money".
Ben E-Star was officially listed in April 2020, and the guidance price is 69,800-74,800 yuan. In January 2021, Changan Benben E-Star National Edition was listed, priced at 29,800-43,800 yuan. In November 2021, the National Edition of Ben Ben E-Star was listed, and the price was increased to 49,800 yuan. According to the official website, there are currently 9 models of Changan Benben E-Star, which are divided into a total of 9 models such as Qingxin Edition, Appreciation Edition and National Edition Colorful Edition, with a price range of 5.38-7.48 million yuan.
With the influence of multiple negative factors in 2021, the price of raw materials for new energy vehicles continues to rise, resulting in rising vehicle costs. Changan New Energy, which cannot withstand the pressure, announced at the end of 2021 that it would stop ordering orders for some E-Star models and E-Rock models, and raised the price of the brand's models on sale in early 2022. On April 1, affected by the supply of parts and raw materials, Changan New Energy officially announced a price increase, and the Ben E-Star National Edition of a number of models raised by 4,000 yuan. As a result, the price of Changan Benben E-Star has also risen from 49,800 yuan to 53,800 yuan. However, in the first quarter of 2022, the raw material prices in the upstream of new energy vehicles did not stabilize, but rose further, which made the cost of the Ben E-star more passive, so suspending the sale of vehicles is the best strategy at present. The reason for this suspension is basically the same as that of Euler Motors, which was previously announced to be discontinued.
On the evening of February 14, the Euler brand issued a notice to the 4S store: from 00:00 on the 15th, all dealers stopped receiving orders for the black cat and white cat models of Euler Automobile.
In response to the reasons why Euler Black Cat and Euler White Cat no longer accept orders, Euler Automobile responded on the official Weibo: "Due to chip shortages, spare parts supply can not guarantee production and many other reasons, resulting in a large backlog of black and white cat models orders, the customer purchase cycle is too long, affecting the customer experience, in order to avoid trusting Euler models of the car owners to bring more bad car buying feelings, manufacturers will coordinate internal resources to meet the existing order scheduling plan faster, to ensure the existing car order customers to pick up the car speed and car purchase benefits." Subsequently, Euler Automobile CEO Dong Yudong revealed the deeper reason for the suspension of sales on the APP: due to the sharp rise in raw material prices, Euler Black Cat lost more than 10,000 yuan per sale, and the more it sold, the more it lost.
In fact, it is not only Euler Changan, but also the media reported that the new car brand Nezha also announced that some of its models would stop receiving orders. According to the information provided by a Nezha dealer to the Economic Observer reporter, it has received a notice from Nezha Automobile on February 16, the main content is: Nezha U pro400 cruise version accepted orders on the last day of February 16, and no new orders were accepted thereafter, and the specific recovery time is expected to take 3-4 months.
With the listing of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV in 2019, the A00-level new energy vehicle market ushered in explosive growth. The data shows that in 2021, the share of A00-class pure electric cars in the overall sales of pure electric vehicles is as high as 33%. However, under the pressure of rising costs, the growth rate of A00-class pure electric cars began to come under pressure. Affected by factors such as rising raw material prices, new energy vehicle companies have recently raised prices.
With the price center moving upwards, some low-end models (A00-level) with meager profits are mired in losses and stop taking orders, and the pattern of "dumbbell type" in the mainland new energy vehicle market has quietly changed. Industry insiders expect that the structure of the domestic new energy vehicle market will gradually tilt towards high-end models in the future. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, expects that the increase in the new energy vehicle market in 2022 is mainly reflected in the A-class car and B-class car market represented by BYD. (Source: Wired New Energy)