Since the beginning of March, the new energy automobile industry has erupted in the second round of price increases this year. Up to now, more than 20 companies have issued price increase notices. After insisting on the cost pressure caused by external factors such as the rise in raw materials for more than 2 months, Geely Holding Group's Extreme Kr Intelligent Technology also had to join the price increase army.
On Friday, Extreme Krypton announced the notice of the price increase of Extreme Kr 001——- we version of the model canceled the deposit of 5,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan of the car model deposit expansion rights; you version of the model price increased by 18,000 yuan, and canceled the deposit of 5,000 yuan to 7,500 yuan of deposit expansion rights, comprehensive calculation of you version of the model price increased by 20,500 yuan.
It is worth mentioning that unlike some brands, which take effect immediately after the price increase notice is issued, the price and equity adjustment of Extreme Kr will take effect from 00:00 on May 1, 2022. Officials said that users who paid deposits through official channels such as the Extreme Kr APP before 00:00 on May 1 were not affected by the adjustment.
It can be seen that the price adjustment of extreme krypton has been considered to the greatest extent for the user.
Rising costs have a greater impact on smart electric vehicles
This round of price increases first broke out in the new energy automobile industry rather than the traditional fuel vehicle industry, mainly because of the amazing increase in the price of battery raw materials and chips strongly related to new energy vehicles.
Affected by the high trend of the new energy market, the price of lithium carbonate soared from 50,000 yuan / ton in early 2021 to 500,000 yuan / ton, cobalt prices also rose from 300,000 yuan / ton at the beginning of last year to 568,000 yuan / ton, the rise in raw materials is reflected in the power battery, equivalent to the cost of lithium iron phosphate batteries rose by about 200 yuan per degree, that is, in a 50 degree battery, the cost rose by 10,000 yuan.
Chip price increases and supply cuts are even more serious. Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business and CEO of smart car BU, said in a recent interview that a chip priced at 10 yuan or 20 yuan was speculated to 2500 yuan.
Compared with traditional cars, new energy vehicles rely more on chips. The demand for single-vehicle chips in traditional cars is about 500 to 600, while the number of chips required for each electric vehicle has risen sharply to 1000 to 1200, and the demand for chips for smart electric vehicles is even greater. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, once said that an electric car needs almost 1700 chips.
If traditional fuel vehicles can still rely on the scale advantage to offset the cost pressure caused by the rise of some raw materials, then the cost pressure of new energy vehicles that are not as large as fuel vehicles and are more affected by the rise in raw materials has reached a bottleneck. A more uncertain factor is that no one knows when the price increases of upstream raw materials will stop.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said at the Q1 earnings meeting that the current pricing is to take into account the possible rise in supply chain costs and logistics costs in the next 6 to 12 months.
Similar to Tesla, Extreme Krypton's supply chain is spread around the world. Therefore, Due to the rise in raw materials, the supply of chips and parts from overseas, under the influence of the epidemic, transportation and customs clearance will be affected by the epidemic prevention policies of different regions, and price adjustments will have to be made.
Moreover, people like Xiaopeng P7, Ideal ONE, Weilai ES6, Tesla Model 3, Extreme Kr 001, etc. are representatives of smart electric vehicles, which means that their chip demand is more than that of general electric vehicles, and the pressure on raw materials is also greater. Therefore, the price increase of these electric vehicles is not unacceptable to users.
Even if the price increases, it must surprise users
Since 2021, Tesla has raised its price more than 6 times in important markets such as China and the United States, and even seen the rare case of 3 consecutive rises in a week. In just one week in mid-March this year, Tesla China raised prices three times, of which the Model Y rear-wheel drive version rose by as much as 15,000 yuan, and the price has risen by more than 40,000 yuan compared with more than half a year ago. Depending on the model and level, Tesla's price increase is about 4% to 10% each time.
Even after so many rounds of price increases, Tesla models still show a hot phenomenon that is difficult to find in the market. Tesla China's official website shows that due to different versions, the Model Y's pick-up cycle is within 10 to 20 weeks, Model 3 is 16 to 24 weeks, and Chinese users may not be able to pick up the car until the end of the year; the shortage in the United States is more serious, and ordering model Y now may not be able to mention the car until January next year.
It can be seen that there are excellent products to ensure the bottom, even in the face of round after round of price increases, consumers are still willing to pay for it.
The same phenomenon has happened to the Krypton brand. Just after the announcement of the price increase of Extreme Kr, many netizens left comments calling it "the best financial product of the year". This is because of the "conscience" of Extreme Kr in response to the general price increase trend in the industry.
Just earlier this month, Extreme Kr announced in advance the news that it would raise prices in May, and made it clear that the car purchase rights from March to April this year will not change, and the price will not be adjusted throughout April. This is equivalent to giving users a one-month buffer period, so that those users who are interested in extreme Kr 001 can buy a car before the price increase, avoiding some users from suffering financial losses.
This move also makes the user reputation of Extreme Kr more friendly, and it is more solid that it is a user-oriented enterprise.
Moreover, compared with other lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium battery electric vehicles with prices ranging from thousands of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, the price increase of 20,000 yuan for the 100-degree battery is not unacceptable to users. Because in addition to the price increase, the rights and interests of other users remain unchanged, and more importantly, Extreme Kr has not delivered incomplete products to users due to supply chain pressures.
Therefore, by comprehensive measurement, the price increase of extreme krypton is expected, and the buffer period left for users for one month is a windfall. No wonder some users call it the "best wealth management product of the year".
Start early
After the price increase, the price of Extreme Kr 001 is close to 400,000. However, even so, compared with the same level of models, the krypton 001, which has a hatchback coupe style, a maximum cruising range of up to 712km, the fastest zero-hundred acceleration time of only 3.8 seconds, and a standard air suspension and electromagnetic induction suspension, still has a super cost-effective advantage.
Constrained by production capacity, the current sales volume of The Krypton 001 does not reflect its real market demand. As of March 31, 2022, 14,248 units of the Krypton 001 have been delivered. Officials said that with the arrival of a new batch of core components at the end of March, production and delivery in April are expected to improve.
Even so, since the start of delivery on October 23, 2021, Extreme Kr has exceeded the cumulative delivery volume of 10,000 units in only 110 days, creating a new record for the delivery speed of new domestic brands.
As a high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle with an average price of more than 335,000 yuan in China, The Extreme Kr 001 also continues to surprise users in terms of growable cars. Since its delivery, Kr 001 has undergone 3 OTA upgrades and completed more than 500 optimizations.
The most recent OTA occurred a month ago. On March 23, Extreme Kr officially pushed zeeKR OS 2.0 to all users. The upgrade involves 33 ECU units, adds 5 new functions, and has improved 59 functions for user feedback from ZEEKR OS 1.1.1.
In the new version, the biggest highlight is the first ZAD Extreme Kr Intelligent Driver Assistance System function. The first batch of ZAD functions released this time include ACCQA adaptive cruise with queuing function, AEB forward collision mitigation, LDW lane departure warning, and FCTA front intersection traffic warning function, which brings a new intelligent safety guarantee for high-frequency application scenarios in users' daily driving.
In terms of ecological construction, Extreme Kr is expanding the speed of store construction and accelerating the construction of self-operated supercharging stations.
It is estimated that by the end of 2022, the scale of the national extreme krypton stores will exceed 300, including the extreme krypton center, the extreme kr space, the extreme krypton delivery center, etc.; as of now, the self-built charging station of ZEEKR Power has been launched in 20 cities across the country; the charging map continues to access the mainstream operators in the country, and the third-party charging network has covered nearly 330,000 charging terminals in 331 cities across the country; the electrode delivery help charging service has been launched in 30 cities, and the mobile charging vehicle service has been launched in 6 major cities across the country The home charging installation service has served 285 city car owners in 31 provinces.
Officials said that in 2022, Extreme Kr Energy will continue to increase the construction of the energy replenishment system.
On the whole, backed by the big tree of Geely Holding Group, the growth rate of Extreme Kr is faster than most of the new forces, and its future is unlimited. Although the price increase has been forced by general pressure at the moment, The Extreme Kr 001 is a good choice at the moment, whether it is shape, performance, control, or intelligent experience, it is still a good choice to start.