Recently, many brands of electric vehicles have increased prices for many reasons, in march of electric vehicle price increases, many "waiting parties" have said that "early buy early enjoyment, late buy money is not enough", when everyone is looking forward to when this price increase tide is a head, there are a number of car companies to tell us with practical actions that the price increase of electric vehicles is still continuing.
Price increases
In April, there are two companies that have carried out price adjustments, first of all, Chery New Energy's small ants and ice cream models, which ushered in the first wave of price increases on March 17, some models carried out price increases of 3000 yuan -4100 yuan, and the second price adjustment was carried out on April 7, and some models had a price increase of 2900-5000 yuan. The second is Weipai, which on April 15, the price of the Macchiato DHT and latte DHT models increased by 10,000 yuan, and the Price of the Macchiato DHT-PHEV increased by 12,000 yuan.
Some of the following 3 brands of models are adjusted on May 1, the first is Extreme Krypton, its operation is more interesting, Extreme Kr 001 ultra-long endurance dual motor YOU version is increased by 18,000 yuan, while canceling 5,000 to 7,500 deposit expansion rights, the remaining two models to cancel the deposit expansion rights of 5,000 to 10,000 to achieve price increases. Some models of Feifan Automobile increased by 3,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan, and Lynk & Co New Energy's PHEV models increased by 2,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan. Friends who want to buy these models should hurry up, and now there are no days until May.
Then there is the AITO car's Q&I M5 will be adjusted on May 5, the specific plan has not been officially announced, the current starting price of Q&I M5 is 25.98 yuan. Finally, in March, Weilai said that "there is no intention of price increase in the near future", ES8, ES6, EC6 and other models increased by 10,000 yuan on May 10, and et5 and ET7, two new cars, did not adjust prices.
Reasons for price increases
The above 7 car companies in the official price adjustment announcement, have appeared such as "by the battery, chip and other raw material prices continue to rise factors" or "by the upstream raw material prices continue to rise and other comprehensive factors" and other words, but there are people who pay attention to the news of related aspects may ask, why the raw material prices of lithium batteries have declined, the price of electric vehicles does not fall but rises? There are the following reasons for this.
1. Supply problems caused by regional disputes and epidemics
The first is the shortage of chips, since the third quarter of last year, the mainstream view of the industry is that the shortage of automotive chips has begun to show signs of easing, and then due to the epidemic, some auto parts suppliers have stopped production. According to the authoritative forecasting agency AutoForecast Solutions (AFS), as of February 14, due to the chip shortage, the cumulative production of cars cut worldwide this year has exceeded 527,000, far exceeding the previously expected 370,000 vehicles.
After a two-quarter transition period, the world's new energy vehicle sales rebounded in March, and the mainland sold about 484,000 new energy vehicles in March, an increase of 114.1% year-on-year; in the European and American markets, the total sales of pure electric vehicles in nine countries, including Germany, France, Norway, the United Kingdom and Sweden, were 203,000 units, an increase of 6.1% year-on-year.
The situation seems to be all the best, but it has ushered in twists and turns. The Russian-Ukrainian problem has led to a supply problem in the raw materials of some auto parts in Europe; due to the epidemic in China, car companies and parts suppliers located in many places have been forced to stop work and production, while logistics have also been affected, and car companies that have not stopped work have to consume the remaining parts inventory to maintain production. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, and Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Automobile, said that "domestic automakers may face suspension of production in May."
Although the current car companies in Shanghai have resumed work and production under the guidance of the government, there is a lag in the impact of the previous shutdown. Musk said that the price increase at the beginning of the year not only includes the impact of current raw material prices, but also takes into account the rising costs of suppliers and logistics costs in the next year.
2. Battery raw material price
According to the Financial Associated Press reported on April 26, data released by Shanghai Steel Federation showed that the prices of a variety of lithium battery raw materials continued to decline. Electrolytic cobalt quotation fell by 6500 yuan per ton; cobalt oxide fell by 7500 yuan per ton; cobalt sulfide fell by 2000 yuan per ton; nickel beans fell by 3500 yuan per ton; lithium manganate fell by 3000 yuan per ton; lithium cobalt oxide fell by 5000 yuan per ton.
In the previous day (April 25), the above materials also plummeted sharply, of which nickel beans plummeted by 15,800 yuan / ton a day, lithium carbonate plummeted by 5,000 yuan / ton, and lithium hexafluorophosphate plummeted by 25,500 yuan / ton. Up to now, the real-time quotation of battery-grade lithium carbonate is 461500 yuan / ton, compared with the highest point of this month 502500 yuan / ton, has fallen by 41000 / ton. The real-time quotation of electrolytic cobalt is 555500 yuan / ton, lithium hexafluorophosphate quotation is 352500 yuan / ton.
The wave of electric vehicle price increases in March made many consumers give up the idea of buying electric vehicles, market demand suddenly declined, and at the same time, the domestic epidemic was repeated, and many car companies stopped work and production temporarily reduced the supply demand for lithium batteries. And according to the analysis of relevant institutions, the price of lithium battery raw materials plummeted, due to the growth of lithium salt supply and the market demand due to the suspension of production of car companies, this decline is estimated to be only temporary. At present, the increase in the mine end is limited, and the price of lithium salt will rise again with the resumption of production and increase of downstream new energy vehicle companies, and the price will continue at a high level.
3. "Because there is demand, the price is increased"
Although the price increase in March dissuaded some buyers, but the orders previously accumulated by car companies have not yet been digested, the demand for electric vehicles is still huge, and now orders to buy electric vehicles still need to wait for months to pick up the car, and the supply and demand relationship is still unbalanced. "Our car purchase list is very long, and some models have even been listed until next year." Musk said, "Therefore, the pricing we are currently giving has actually taken into account the possible supplier costs and logistics cost increases in the next 6 to 12 months, and the cost increases are almost inevitable." This is why we have chosen to raise prices now, after all, it may take a year to order a car now. ”
When the price increase tide stops
After all, car companies sell cars to make money, a series of price increases for them, is an inevitable behavior, but for consumers of course want to buy cheap cars, then when can the price increase of electric vehicles stop?
1. The price of battery raw materials has dropped sharply and the supply of chips is sufficient
Compared with the price of lithium battery raw materials before the surge, its price is still in a high position, and the production cost of lithium batteries is likely to decline under the premise of increasing the production capacity of lithium, nickel and other minerals, supply chain recovery, etc.
At present, the requirements of electric vehicles for chips are getting higher and higher, and chips have also been affected to varying degrees in terms of raw materials, to solve the problem of chip shortage, it is also necessary for domestic related companies to improve the production capacity of chips and reduce dependence on foreign chips, so as to maintain a stable supply of chips.
2. Increase the production capacity of electric vehicles and diversify risks
However, the above two solutions cannot be achieved in the short term, so is there a solution from the car company itself? The answer is yes, that is, to increase the production capacity of electric vehicles and control production costs.
Specifically, tesla can refer to Tesla's approach, Tesla with the integration of casting process and power battery innovation, to reduce production costs while improving part of the performance of the vehicle. At the same time, tesla has opened factories in Shanghai, Berlin and other cities to ensure the stable supply of raw materials for parts and reduce transportation costs. In addition, Tesla has zero investment in advertising, but uses the advantages of today's Internet to publish messages on the Internet to achieve publicity effects.
The epidemic in Shanghai has exposed the drawbacks of the domestic automobile supply chain being too concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta region, and Guangdong has seen this opportunity to actively promote the landing of key supply chain enterprises in Zhuhai, and high-quality projects such as BYD Electronics, Xinwei Communications, Leybold Hi-Tech, Sinoma Lithium Film, and Keheng Shares are under discussion. If it goes well, it will be of great benefit to the healthy development of the automotive supply chain, and the production capacity of electric vehicles will be further released.
3. Balance between supply and demand
In the past two years, the growth rate of electric vehicle consumption demand has been too fast, and there is a problem of climbing capacity, so the relationship between supply and demand is particularly prominent in 2022. Within this year, by BYD and Tesla as representatives of the main engine factory will significantly increase production capacity, the end of the year is expected to usher in a new balance of supply, thereby indirectly adjusting the price of the car.
summary
Now the electric vehicles sold on the market have basically carried out one or more price increases, I believe that in the short term the price increase will still appear, the electric vehicle after the price increase has lost the previous cost performance to a certain extent, if there is no purchase limit indicator of friends, you can consider buying hybrid models, those who must buy green models of friends suggest that it is time to sell.