"Under the epidemic situation in April, the semi-suspension state, this number, comrades are trying their best!"
"April is really not easy, but if you work hard together, you can overcome the difficulties and believe that tomorrow will be better."
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Nezha Automobile, and He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, wrote the above two sentences on their personal social platforms on May 1, which expressed the common voice of the new car-making forces under the situation that the epidemic disrupted the supply chain.
Just stepped into May, a number of new car companies have disclosed the april new car delivery report card, in the context of the overall sales growth slowdown, zero run unexpectedly cold, with 9087 units on the top spot.
In contrast, the three "Wei Xiaoli" companies experienced a decline in the previous month, with the ideal car delivering 4167 vehicles, down 62.2% from the previous month; Weilai Automobile delivering 5074 vehicles, down 49.2% from March; and Xiaopeng Automobile delivering 9002 vehicles, down 41.6% from the previous month.
Although Nezha Automobile won Weilai and ideal, it still failed to pass the Xiaopeng pass, delivering a total of 8813 vehicles.
At this point, the top five rankings of the new car-making forces delivered in April suddenly changed: zero running won the first place, followed by Xiaopeng, Nezha, Weilai, and Ideal, but no one's sales exceeded 10,000. If you look at the cumulative delivery from January to April this year, the ranking order is Xiaopeng, Nezha, Ideal, Weilai, and Zero Run.
Zero runs unexpectedly beyond
According to the official data of zero-run cars, a total of 9,087 vehicles were delivered in April, an increase of 228% year-on-year, and for 13 consecutive months, it surpassed Xiaopeng Automobile with a slight advantage of 85 vehicles. However, Zero Run did not announce specific model sales.
In March, the delivery volume of zero-run cars exceeded the threshold of 10,000 vehicles for the first time, reaching 10,059 units, an increase of 193% over February, becoming the fourth new power brand with sales of more than 10,000.
From January to April 2022, Zero-Run Cars has delivered a total of 30,666 new vehicles, with monthly deliveries exceeding 200% for 13 consecutive months.
According to Zero Run Auto, April's results were not unexpected, essentially due to the embodiment of its full-stack self-research capabilities, thereby reducing the risk of core component supply. At the same time, the supply chain is scattered everywhere, so the impact is minimal among the new forces.
On April 25, Zero Run released the intelligent power CTC (cell-to-chassis) battery chassis integration technology. The fourth model, the Zero-Run C01, which will be released on pre-sale in May, will be the first mass-produced model equipped with CTC technology. It is reported that the cruising range of the new car under CLTC conditions will reach 717 kilometers.
At present, zero-run has a total of S01, T03, C11 three models on sale, the addition of C01, will undoubtedly promote the zero-run market to continue to exert overall strength.
Xiaopeng is still steady
Under the dual challenges of the epidemic and the supply chain, Xiaopeng Automobile, which is more and more courageous in the Vietnam War, is still very capable of fighting. In April, 9,002 vehicles were delivered, up 75% year-on-year, but down 41.6% month-on-month.
From the perspective of specific models, the Xiaopeng P7 delivered 3714 vehicles in the same month; the Xiaopeng P5 delivered 3564 vehicles, and the Xiaopeng G3 series delivered 1724 vehicles. From January to April 2022, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered a total of 43,563 vehicles, an increase of 136% year-on-year.
On April 14, He Xiaopeng posted on Weibo: "If the supply chain enterprises in Shanghai and the surrounding areas cannot find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all Chinese automakers may have to stop work and production in May." The good news is that some ministries and authorities are doing their best to coordinate, and we expect the support and joint efforts of more governments and authorities. ”
This remark seems to have laid the groundwork for the delivery results in April, but fortunately, Xiaopeng's performance is not as bad as expected, on the one hand, the product matrix is relatively perfect, the price range is wider, on the other hand, the factory in Zhaoqing is less affected by the epidemic, only some motor suppliers are located in Shanghai, and the epidemic control in Guangzhou is effective and the impact is extremely small.
Xiaopeng Automobile said, "With the severity of the epidemic eased, the automobile industry has resumed work and production in mid-April, and production capacity has gradually climbed. With the help of relevant ministries and competent departments, Xiaopeng Motors has also actively coordinated upstream and downstream to overcome industry difficulties and make every effort to ensure production and smooth delivery."
Xiaopeng's new flagship medium and large SUV Xiaopeng G9 will be officially launched in the third quarter and is expected to become another explosive model after the P7.
Nezha kept the top three
Nezha Automobile delivered a total of 8,813 units in April, an increase of 119.5% year-on-year, a year-on-year increase for 22 consecutive months, but a month-on-month decline of 26.7%. From January to April 2022, a total of 38,965 vehicles were delivered, an increase of 240% year-on-year, ranking first in the new car-making forces.
In terms of specific models, the main sales force of the Nezha V car series delivered 5694 units, an increase of 48% year-on-year; the Nezha U car series delivered 3119 vehicles, an increase of 1746% year-on-year.
Recently, Fang Yunzhou, founder and chairman of Nezha Automobile, said, "Nezha has always made popular products, and the original intention of 'building cars for the people' has not changed." We popularize high-end technology, do not rely on hardware accumulation, and rely entirely on technology and software to achieve the best wisdom-price ratio. ”
Since 2022, Nezha Automobile has maintained its growth trend and has not lacked any points of view in the competition. The two main products of the Nezha V series and the Nezha U series ushered in the launch of the 2022 model in April. Nezha also released the interior of the first model of the Shanhai platform, Nezha S, that month, and this new car that will help the brand upward will be listed within this year.
Weilai resumed production gradually
Since April 9, NIO has suffered a week or so of vehicle suspension, delivering 5,074 new vehicles in April, of which 693 are NIO ET7. As of the end of April 2022, NIO has delivered 197912 vehicles.
Li Bin, chairman of Weilai Automobile, said on April 9, "In mid-March, we cut off some parts and components, relying on some parts inventory to barely support until last week." Recently, there have been epidemics in Shanghai and Jiangsu, and many partners cannot supply goods and can only suspend production. ”
On April 14, Weilai Automobile said, "The supply chain has recovered slightly, the Hefei production base is gradually resuming production, and the follow-up production plan depends on the recovery of the supply chain." ”
To meet the growing demand for orders, it is necessary to further overcome the pressure caused by the epidemic and supply chain. Production is gradually resuming. NIO is working with all parties, including partners, to produce more and deliver more.
2022 is a new year for NIO, which will launch three new models, and the first flagship sedan ET7 mass production car has rolled off the production line. The second sedan, the ET5, is expected to be delivered in September. The ES7 positions a large 5-seat pure electric SUV and is scheduled to be released in the second quarter.
Ideal one night back to before liberation
In April, Ideal Cars delivered 4,167 Ideal ONEs, down 24.77% year-on-year and 62.23% month-on-month, the lowest level of sales since February last year.
35,883 vehicles delivered from January to April 2022. Since delivery, the cumulative delivery volume of Ideal ONE has reached 159971 units.
For the reasons for such an obvious decline, Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Automobile, said: "Affected by the epidemic in the Yangtze River Delta since the end of March, some suppliers located in Shanghai and Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, etc. have been unable to supply, and some suppliers have even completely stopped work and stopped operations, resulting in the inability to continue to maintain production after the existing parts inventory is digested, which has a great impact on the production of Ideal Automobile in April, resulting in the delay in the delivery of new cars for some users. "Ideal Auto's Changzhou base is located in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, and more than 80% of Ideal Auto parts suppliers are also distributed in the Yangtze River Delta region, and most of them are located in Shanghai and Kunshan, Jiangsu. At present, Ideal Auto is working with supply chain enterprises to actively restore production capacity under the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, and shorten the waiting period for booking ideal ONE users to pick up the car.
On April 19, Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Ideal Auto, posted his thoughts on the current supply chain issues on his personal social platform. He said: "In this round of the epidemic in Omicron, all car brands must not only solve the problem of their immediate parts supply, but also do a special management work: analyze in advance the small and medium-sized parts suppliers that you never need to manage, including the three, four, and five levels, and their survival problems in this epidemic." In short, analyze and troubleshoot in advance, and coordinate with first- and second-tier suppliers, and the assistance supports decisive action. ”
At present, Ideal Automobile is working with supply chain enterprises to actively restore production capacity under the requirements of epidemic prevention and control. We strive to keep the delivery delay of users within 3 weeks. In addition, Ideal's second model, the Ideal L9, will be released soon, and the price range is expected to be around 450,000-500,000 yuan.
Looking forward to "Red May"
Since March, the epidemic has led to the stagnation of production of some vehicle and parts manufacturers, the decline in market terminal consumption, and the automobile industry is facing "two-end squeeze", which has been greatly impacted.
The joint survey found that the retail target of major manufacturers in April fell sharply year-on-year, and the preliminary calculation of the narrow passenger car retail market this month was about 1.1 million, and the current white list of resumption of work and production in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai has been released, enterprises have resumed production, logistics and transportation have gradually unsealed, but it will take a long time for the overall industrial chain to recover to the pre-epidemic level.
According to the latest issue of the "China Auto Dealers Inventory Early Warning Index Survey" released by the China Automobile Dealers Association, the inventory warning index of Chinese auto dealers in April 2022 was 66.4%, up 10 percentage points year-on-year and 2.8 percentage points month-on-month, the inventory warning index was above the boom-bust line, and the automobile circulation industry was in a slump range. The severe epidemic situation has led to a cold market in the automobile market, and the crisis in the supply of new cars and the lack of market demand have combined to affect the automobile market, and the situation of the automobile market in April is not optimistic.
Recently, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told CCTV that from April 22 to 28, the average daily output of 15 key automobile enterprise groups across the country reached 45,000 vehicles, an increase of 70% over the previous statistical cycle (April 15 to 22), and the production situation is gradually improving. With the strong resilience of the mainland automobile industry, large market space and deep gradient, with the effectiveness of epidemic prevention and control, the loss of production and sales in the second quarter is expected to be made up in the second half of the year, and stable growth is expected to be achieved throughout the year.
In the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will continue to strengthen coordination and improve policy measures. The first is to stabilize production and reach production as soon as possible, make good use of the "automotive industry chain supply chain smooth coordination platform", and strengthen the monitoring and scheduling of vehicle and parts enterprises in key areas such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. The second is to actively promote consumption, encourage qualified localities to introduce policies to promote consumption with gold content, carry out a new round of new energy vehicles to the countryside, organize the implementation of pilot projects for the application of comprehensive electrification and power exchange models in the public sector, and further increase the promotion of new energy vehicles. At the same time, we will accelerate the completion of shortcomings such as automobile chips and promote the integration and development of electrification and intelligent network technology.
Previously, the General Office of the State Council triggered the "Opinions on Further Releasing Consumption Potential to Promote the Sustained Recovery of Consumption" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing to break down barriers to restricting consumption, steadily increase bulk consumption such as automobiles, and each region must not add new car purchase restriction measures, and areas that have implemented purchase restrictions have gradually increased the number of automobile incremental indicators and relaxed the qualification restrictions for car buyers.
Under the triple force of policy, supply and demand, with the gradual release of pressure, the new forces of car manufacturing will also do their best to meet the new "Red May" in the continuous accumulation of experience.