After July this year, the pattern of micro-electric vehicles may change.
Because the "Special Evaluation Regulations for Micro Electric Vehicles" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), it will be officially implemented on July 1 this year.
It is reported that the regulation applies to pure electric passenger cars with a body length of less than 4 meters, mainly including collision safety, use safety and endurance charging.
Some voices in the industry believe that A00-class electric vehicles will face the disaster of extinction. Will this be the case?
"Regulations" for the blue ocean closure?
The A00 class electric vehicle is red, in 2021. At that time, the market was called "the blue ocean in the blue ocean".
In particular, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV has introduced live traffic into this previous edge track, as evidenced by the tens of thousands of po articles on the Little Red Book app.
Another proof is the sales figures. In 2021, sales of new energy vehicles will reach 3.5 million units, and micro-electric vehicles account for 29.8%. Among them, Hongguang MINIEV ranked first with 395451 sales and a 250.7% increase.
In the newly released March data, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV is also the first to bear the brunt, followed by QQ Ice Cream, Benben EV, Chery Eq, Euler Black Cat, Zero Run T03, accounting for 6 places in the top 15 list.
If you want to emerge in the A00 market, you need to understand the logic of the low-end market. Some have described it as "constantly compressing costs to create competitive advantage at low prices."
"Wuling Hongguang MINIIEV will be configured to be very low, some models even do not have air conditioning to ensure their low cost, this car in the domestic third, fourth, fifth-tier cities and rural areas have great demand," Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, told Phoenix Auto, Hongguang MINIIEV with fire A00 level market, basically solved the previous common non-vehicle-level low-speed electric vehicles in Shandong, Jiangsu and counties and cities on the road.
Some industry reviews that MINIEV is "a dimensionality reduction blow to low-speed electric vehicles".
In fact, Phoenix Auto found during the visit that, taking Wuling Macro MINIEV as an example, its "low configuration, no air conditioning" model is not sold in Beijing and other (super) first-tier cities.
In the survey, we also found that after experiencing the price increase in March, the price of some MINIEV models has reached around 80,000.
After the price increase, A00-class electric vehicles have consciously tilted towards quality. However, it is impossible to avoid the chaotic drifters.
When more and more car companies found cheese that had yet to be tapped, and entered the market segment with the goal of "exchanging price for volume", the "Regulations" also came.
Rush to the safety pain point
"With the maturity of consumer car concepts, people's attention to safety will only become higher and higher," Shi Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said in an interview with the media, the safety performance of vehicles has important reference significance for the consumer market to buy vehicles. Some emerging products with different meanings for car companies or the entire automotive market should come up with safety that matches their market performance to meet people's requirements for high safety of vehicles.
Small size, low price and people-friendly cost performance are a large part of the reason for the strong A00-class electric vehicle market. However, in the evaluation logic of "one penny for one goods", consumers are concerned about: is A00 level safe?
Since the existence of the A00-level market, the quality of micro-electric vehicles has been uneven, poor performance, accidents and other problems have occurred frequently. In addition, on the quality complaint website, you can find information about the mileage of micro-electric vehicles, battery failure, etc.
It is reported that in response to the above-mentioned centralized problems, the "Regulations" set up collision safety, use safety, endurance charging and other contents.
Simply put, this is the process of filtration, and in the future, not any company can touch the electric car market.
Among them, collision safety mainly evaluates the protection effect of the body structure and restraint system (such as seats, seat belts, airbags/air curtains, etc.) of the vehicle in the process of collision accidents, and the evaluation content mainly includes three items: frontal collision, side collision and whipping test; the use of safety mainly evaluates the safety problems in the user's daily use of the car, including charging safety, braking performance, electromagnetic immunity, hydropower safety and human electromagnetic protection Battery life charging mainly evaluates the pain points used by users, including four items: room temperature battery life, low temperature battery life, low temperature charging and charging compatibility.
Most of the entry level of micro-electric vehicles on the market are not equipped with airbags, so some voices indicate that a large number of micro-electric vehicles will "hang up".
Once the "Regulations" are activated, will they form a "crackdown" effect?
"In fact, it will play a positive role in promoting", Zhang Xiang said, the current price gap of products in the micro-electric vehicle market is very large, and consumers are unclear. The Regulations can regulate market standards through a judging and scoring mechanism, while helping consumers make judgments.
It should be noted that this "regulation" is a non-mandatory standard, but a voluntary measure of each car company. However, there may be special agencies to buy cars in the market and publish the results of inspection and evaluation", Zhang Xiang said, after the test, the safety level is not up to standard or lower models may be "cool", which may force car companies to strengthen research and development investment to enhance the technical capabilities of products.
The future of electric trolleys
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Automobile Market Research Branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association (CAAC), told Fenghuang Auto that at present, the electrification of travel in small and medium-sized cities, county and township markets and middle-aged and elderly people is not particularly high, or it depends on public transportation. If we can reduce costs while improving the personalization and efficiency of travel modes, micro-electric vehicles will have huge room for development.
"In particular, consumers in the rural market have a high acceptance of electric vehicles, which will release a certain demand for A00-class models," said Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, statistically showing that in 2021, a total of 1.068 million new energy vehicles were sold in the countryside, an increase of 169.2% year-on-year, higher than the overall growth rate of the new energy vehicle market in that year by about 10%.
In addition, in recent years, the mainland's low-speed electric vehicles and other electrification products have developed rapidly in the rural market, and the national ownership of four-wheel low-speed electric vehicles has exceeded 6 million, which further shows that rural consumers have a huge demand for electrified vehicles.
After the "Regulations", will the micro-electric vehicle market suffer heavy casualties?
Many people in the industry have made it clear that they will not, but will filter out some sand.
Perhaps, it is inevitable that micro-electric vehicles will usher in a new round of price increases.
The mini car market still has space and real demand, the market segment will be more clearly divided, and the industry concentration will increase.