In the first quarter of this year, hybrid vehicles became the hottest topic in the field of new energy. In addition to The Japanese car companies that enjoy this dividend, such as Toyota and Honda, which hold high the "hybrid banner", we also see the rise of national independent brands.
Zhicai Automobile found that it was BYD, which announced a total ban on the sale of fuel vehicles, to carry the banner of blocking the joint venture brand. Whether it is the whole year of 2021 or the first quarter of this year, the sales growth rate of its hybrid models has far exceeded that of pure electric models.
"BYD surpassed the Japanese Shuangtian in one year of launching the DM-i hybrid", which is the industry's amazement. It is precisely because of the temptation of BYD's big cake in the hybrid model that the two major independent brands of Great Wall Motors and Geely Automobile have increased the number of hybrid models, and there is a great trend of sneaking up on BYD's hybrid "Pearl Harbor".
01
BYD hybrid growth rate of more than 3 times pure electricity,
It has become the biggest rival of Toyota and Honda hybrids
In the previous article "The domestic hybrid that Tesla envied, last year made a lot of money, can it be sustained this year" we mentioned that the growth rate of hybrid vehicles in 2021 has exceeded that of pure electric vehicles, and BYD's growth rate in new energy vehicles may even make Tesla some envy. In the hybrid market, Toyota and Honda, the two kings of the wind and rain in previous years, were also hung by BYD last year and the first quarter of this year.
According to the official data released, in the whole year of 2021, BYD's total car sales for the whole year were 730093, an increase of 75.4% year-on-year, and the sales of hybrid vehicles reached 272935, an increase of 467.6% year-on-year! This growth rate even exceeds BYD's pure electric brand sales. The latter's sales growth last year was 144.9% year-on-year, and the sales growth of hybrid models exceeded the growth of pure electric vehicle sales by more than 3 times.
Although it is less than any of the two major Japanese brands Toyota and Honda in terms of total sales, it has far exceeded these four joint venture brands in terms of year-on-year growth rate and hybrid vehicle sales growth. Even the combined sales of hybrid vehicles of the two honda joint venture brands of Dongfeng Honda and Guangqi Honda in 2021 are not as good as BYD's hybrid model sales.
The Toyota system, known as the "hybrid brother", also lost in the comparison with BYD. In 2021, FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota's hybrid model sales were 201597 and 182060 respectively, and they were not as good as the total sales volume of BYD hybrid models, although the growth rate was good, but compared with BYD's 467.6% growth rate, it was also a bit bleak.
In the first quarter of this year, the hybrid models of the four major Japanese joint venture brands were once again hung by BYD.
According to the production and sales data released by major car companies in April, Zhicai Automobile statistics found that in the first quarter of this year, BYD hybrid vehicle sales increased by 857% year-on-year, reaching 141514 vehicles. This figure is also significantly ahead of the joint venture brands of Toyota and Honda, and the leading edge has a tendency to expand.
In particular, it should be pointed out that at present, BYD's hybrid car sales account for 48.57%, nearly half of its total sales. This proportion is much higher than the ratio of Japanese joint venture brand mixing to total sales.
It can be said that in the competition of the hybrid market, BYD has given a sample to the domestic auto independent brand. It also makes more opponents start to jump on the board.
02
The Great Wall and Geely finally woke up,
Shouting "better than Japanese" but is ITD?
The phenomenon of BYD hanging Toyota and Honda hybrid is not without the attention of other domestic independent brands, and Great Wall Motors and Geely Automobile, which are also domestic independent brands, may be the two brands that are most jealous of BYD.
On April 26 this year, Geely Automobile announced that Emgrand L Thor Hi · X was officially listed, and the price after comprehensive subsidies was 129,800-145,800 yuan. Zhizhi Automobile found that this is Geely Automobile's launch of a new hybrid technology "Lei Shen Zhi Qing Hi · The second model after the X". In March this year, Geely Automobile launched the Star-Vietnam L Thor Hi · The X hybrid version was subsequently ridiculed by many car owners as "not a new energy vehicle". In contrast, Emgrand L Thor Hi · X This car can be on the "green card" and enjoy the preferential policy of new energy subsidies.
Geely Automobile Hybrid Technology "Thunder God Intelligence Engine Hi · X" has claimed to be comprehensively superior to the Japanese system
On October 31 last year, Geely Automobile announced to the outside world, "Thunder God Intelligence Qing Hi · The core technology of X hybrid is comprehensively better than that of Japan." However, in the past half a year, only one real hybrid model has been listed, and indeed Geely Automobile's movement in the hybrid market is too slow.
In 2015, Geely shouted out the grand goal of "90% of total sales of new energy vehicles in 2020", but the sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 were 100126, only 7.54% of the total sales (1328029), which had to be surprising.
On the other hand, Great Wall Motors, which was once the biggest rival of Geely Automobile, used "vehicle sea tactics" to accelerate in the hybrid market.
In December 2020, Great Wall Motor released the "Lemon Hybrid DHT" technology, announcing that it will match three sets of powertrains under the heV/PHEV architecture to achieve the goal of "increasing hybrid investment and expanding the hybrid market". In the following year, Great Wall Motors launched five models equipped with lemon-blendED DHTs.
Great Wall Motor's "Lemon Hybrid DHT" technology
At last year's "Great Wall Motor 2025 Strategy Conference", Wei Jianjun, founder and chairman of the company, said that in the field of hybrids, Great Wall Motors will continue to play the "car sea tactics" and launch hybrid models such as latte, Macchiato, Red Rabbit, haval XY and so on.
This is Great Wall Motors' "dead sheep repair" in the hybrid. Wei Jianjun, who was dismissive of new energy and believed in 2016 that "the Great Wall is only a follower of the new energy industry", although he tried to release a new energy concept model as early as 2008, he still held on to the fuel SUV in the past 10 years, resulting in Great Wall Motors' signs of falling behind in the field of new energy.
This time the battle of the chaos, Great Wall Motors did not want to lose, and the founder of the "early and late set" was ready for a precise strike.
(The data content comes from the relevant report of Guotai Junan)
Data analysis from Guotai Junan shows that the horn of the comprehensive hybridization of domestic brands has been sounded. Among the new generation of hybrid models launched by its own brands in 2022, Great Wall Motors, Geely Automobile and BYD have become the most radicals.
Zhicai Automobile found that in this form, Great Wall Motors will launch as many as 8 hybrid models this year, and Geely Automobile also has 3 models on the market, and they seem to have started a "release competition" with BYD for hybrid models. This has been very rare in the past.
Another very obvious phenomenon is that the pricing of many hybrid models of Great Wall Motor and Geely Automobile is mainly concentrated in 100,000-150,000 yuan and 150,000-200,000 yuan, which is very consistent with the pricing of tang, Qin and Song hybrid models of the BYD Dynasty series.
Is this a pricing coincidence, or is it intentional? We don't know. But what is certain is that it is to see that BYD won the first position in the hybrid car market with two new cars last year, and Great Wall Motors and Geely Automobile are unwilling and have invested heavily in hybrid models since last year. In the slogans shouting "better than Japan" and "increasing hybrid investment", these two independent brands that were not active in hybrid cars may have already conceived ghost tires and have already thought of CLOSING with BYD.
03
The hybrid war between Japanese, German and independent brands,
2022 will be an inextricable year
In addition to BYD, Great Wall Motors and Geely Automobile, other domestic independent brands and joint venture brands also regard the hybrid market as a must-compete place in 2022.
According to the analysis from Western Securities, a variety of solutions in the current hybrid market coexist, with Toyota THS, Honda i-MMD and Nissan e-power representing the Japanese leading dual-motor oil-electric hybrid, while the German PHEV is mainly based on the P0 motor and P2 single motor structure of 48V light hybrid technology, focusing on single motor plug-in hybridization. Mainland independent brands are multi-program layouts, and dual motors have become the mainstream.
Comparison of different emphases of Japanese, German and independent brand hybrid technologies (data content from Western Securities R&D Center)
Compared with Japanese and German brands, Western Securities believes that the advantages of independent brands in the field of hybrid are mainly reflected in two aspects: First, cost control advantages. Because a large number of core components of independent brands, such as batteries and motors, are self-supplied parts (such as BYD batteries and Great Wall Hive power), it is conducive to large-scale cost reduction; second, product layout advantages. The new generation of hybrid technology of independent brands revolves around dual motors and multi-stop, and the technical solution is already in the same echelon as the Japanese system and is planned to be put on the market this year and next year. Considering the stages of research and development, testing, initial production, product listing, etc., independent brands have certain first-mover advantages.
However, in the hybrid market that has been very popular, whether it is independent brands such as Great Wall Motors, Geely Automobile, ANDD, or Japanese products such as Toyota and Honda, they will be short-fought in 2022.