I have to say that micro-electric vehicles are indeed shining in the market at present, especially the performance of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV's average monthly sales of more than 30,000 units, which makes more and more brands aim at this track. While car companies are swarming into this area with great enthusiasm, there has been a lot of bad news lately.
On April 25, Changan New Energy's Ben E-Star National Edition model stopped accepting orders. This is another brand that has stopped selling low-cost micro-electric vehicles after the Euler brand. Under the pressure of rising costs, micro-electric vehicles have announced that they will stop accepting orders, which has also aroused widespread concern and discussion in the industry. There is also a question worth pondering: is a micro-electric vehicle still a good business?
The cost soared, and some cars in Euler and Chang'an were forced to stop selling
This year's new energy vehicle market is really a twist and turn, in addition to the rising price of cars, some low-priced micro-electric vehicles directly "lie flat" and stop accepting orders. Brother Ruan recently learned that Changan New Energy's Ben E-Star National Edition model stopped accepting orders. The price range of the discontinued national version model is 29,800 to 53,800, and the Changan Ben Ben E-Star is still on sale at a price of 69,800 yuan and 74,800 yuan.
The official reason for the suspension of sales is that due to the shortage of upstream raw materials and the limitation of vehicle and parts production capacity, the delivery cycle of the model is long, so the order is suspended. According to the data, Changan Ben E-Star is the best-selling model of Changan New Energy, with sales of 76,381 vehicles in 2021 and 26,119 units in the first quarter of this year. In terms of the entire new energy vehicle market, it is not bad, and it has squeezed into the top three of this market segment.
Coincidentally, the Euler brand recently issued a notice to the 4S store: from February 15, all dealers will stop receiving orders for the black cat and white cat models of Euler Car. For black cats and white cats no longer accept orders, the official explanation given by Euler is, "Due to the shortage of chips, the supply of spare parts can not guarantee production and many other reasons, resulting in a large backlog of orders for the two models, the customer purchase cycle is too long, affecting the customer experience." ”
In fact, whether it is the National Edition of E-Star in Chang'an Ben, or the suspension of the black cat and the white cat in Euler, it is a helpless move. To sum it up in one sentence, that is, the soaring cost has led to too low profits, and even some models are only "losing money and making money". Euler brand CEO Dong Yudong previously made it clear in a statement: "After the sharp rise in raw material prices in 2022, the loss of Black Cat alone exceeded 10,000 yuan. "It can be said that stopping orders should be for the sake of stopping losses in time.
Micro electric vehicle blue ocean "road conditions gradually blocked", selling at a loss
How hot is the micro-electric car? Looking at the Hongguang MINI EV running everywhere on the road is the best answer. According to the latest data, Hongguang MINIEV achieved sales of 41,980 units in the past March, and the cumulative sales have exceeded 680,000 units. In addition, the proportion of micro-electric vehicles in the total sales of new energy vehicles in China has increased from 17.7% in 2019 to 29.8% in 2021, which also proves that the micro-electric vehicle segment is indeed promising in China.
Seeing that Hongguang MINIEV is so popular, various brands are rushing to come, all for a piece of the pie. Like Chery QQ Ice Cream, Zero Run T03, Sihao E10X, Punk Duoduo, Reading Mango and so on. The introduction of many new models is certainly good news for consumers and the automotive market. However, more and more "hands" are probing the micro-electric vehicle market, which has also led to increasingly fierce competition in this market segment.
Another problem with micro-electric vehicles is that although sales are extremely hot, low profits are a common phenomenon. Industry-related research reports show that the gross profit margin of Hongguang MINIEV may only be 2%-3%, such a gross profit margin, it is obviously more difficult to achieve profitability by buying a car alone. What's more, the price of raw materials is also rising, which adds uncertainty to the cost of micro-electric vehicles.
Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles are more dependent on materials such as nickel, lithium and silicon-based chips. However, subject to the lower price, the cost fluctuation tolerance of micro-electric vehicles is very low, and now the price of raw materials has risen so much, if it is sold according to the previous price, the profit space of car companies is minimal. At present, there are many micro-electric vehicles in the market that have adopted price increases to cope with rising costs.
Micro-electric vehicles should be "de-rolled in"
In fact, the reason why micro-electric vehicles are highly accepted and the price is close to the people is an important reason, and most of the micro-electric vehicle prices are concentrated in 30,000-80,000 yuan. Obviously, this group of consumers are more sensitive to price changes, if you do not increase the price on the basis of increasing the configuration, it is easy to cause consumers to resent, they may directly add money to choose a higher level of car.
On the one hand, car companies sell one at a loss, while on the other hand, consumers are unwilling to accept price increases. In this case, car companies are still making a rush of manufacturing step by step, and it will be a high probability event to lose money and make money. In the context of the current sharp rise in costs, car companies give priority to the most scarce resources to supply more profitable models, and stop accepting orders for some models with low profits or even losses, which is also a reasonable decision.
Of course, in order to cope with the current situation, various car companies have made a lot of efforts in product creation and innovation. For example, Euler will directly concentrate car-making resources on high-end models such as good cats, lightning cats, and ballet cats; while Changan's future new energy models will be focused on the deep blue brand, and its first mini car, Changan LUMIN, has been unveiled, and the car has re-targeted the mini car market. In addition, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV has also launched a variety of personalized versions, gradually increasing the price of model products.
With more and more competitors for micro-electric vehicles, coupled with the cost pressure brought about by the rise in raw materials, it is wise to choose to abandon the supply of production capacity to high-priced models. In addition, Brother Reel also believes that it is not necessarily a good phenomenon for car companies to target micro-electric vehicles. Mini car products have low profits and low technical content, which cannot provide too many positive effects on promoting the development of new energy vehicles. Therefore, car companies should not blindly rely on low prices to seize the market, how to be closer to the needs of consumers is the direction of efforts.