Image source @ Visual China
Wen | always makes sense
Recently, some media reported that NIO will enter the US market in 2025 and deploy the first substation in the market as soon as November this year. This is not a whim of NIO, as early as May this year, NIO released its strategy and plan to enter overseas markets.
Like most new energy vehicle companies, WEIlai's first stop at sea is norway. Coincidentally, in June last year, BYD's first batch of 100 Tang EVs set sail from Shanghai Port, the transportation place is also Norway, is expected to be delivered to local customers in August, Europe has become a must for new energy vehicles, in 2022, Weilai auto products and full-system services will be officially landed in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark.
The strength of the automotive industry has always been the epitome of a country's industrial development. Domestic auto exports were the third largest in the world last year, behind Japan (3.82 million units) and Germany (2.3 million units), and have significantly surpassed South Korea (1.52 million units). In the past two years, due to the wind in the field of new energy, domestic automobile exports have become more lively.
Data show that in 2021, domestic new energy exports will reach 310,000 vehicles, an increase of 304.6% year-on-year, if 2022, continue to grow at this rate, it is likely to surpass Germany, it turns out that this is indeed the case. The performance of domestic new energy in the European market and the South Asian market is very outstanding, and car companies are accelerating their going to sea, obviously they cannot put eggs only in the domestic basket.
Domestic aura loses "filter" overseas
New energy vehicle companies cannot lose Norway, just as the West cannot lose Jerusalem.
The vast majority of new energy vehicle companies love Norway. Counting these years, in September 2019, SAIC MG ZS pure electric SUV was listed in Norway; In June 2020, SAIC Maxus announced the shipment of the first batch of 328 SAIC Maxus EV30s to Norway; Later, BYD's trip to Norway with WEIlai was also widely known.
The new energy transformation of the Norwegian automotive market is almost a comprehensive action. It is reported that this is the first country where the sales of electric vehicles exceed that of fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicles, according to the Data of the Norwegian Road Union, the pure electric new energy vehicles sold in Norway in 2020 accounted for 54.3% of the sales of the Nordic countries, higher than the 42.4% in 2019, and Norway will stop selling fuel vehicles in 2025.
It can be said that Norway is the epitome of the entire European tram market, as early as 2020, the sales share of new energy passenger cars in the European market reached 11%, surpassing China in one fell swoop. But when car companies go to sea, a very obvious change is that when they go overseas, whether the glory of the country is written off, taking Europe as an example, it seems that you do not care whether you are a new force that is popular with capital, or a nameless tail junior.
Whether it is BYD or Wei Xiaoli, it will find itself in Europe to compete with the third-tier brands that were once dismissive. A number of domestic car-making forces, who is the sea sales crown? The answer is an obscure name called "Aiways Motors". In China, this brand is not even a car waist.
The data shows that the monthly sales of aiways' main model AIWAYS U5 are only a few hundred on average, and the sales of Skyrim ME7 in the same period have just exceeded double digits, and the sum of the two is still less than a fraction of the second-tier camp Nezha and zero runners. In the last 12 months, AIWAYS U5 sales reached the highest in March 2022, with sales of only 415 units, and in May 2022, AIWAYS U5 sold 367 units.
But overseas is a different world, the Aichi U5 is sold in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Denmark and Israel. By the end of the first quarter of 2021, the number of AIWAYS automobile exports has reached 1056, exceeding the total export volume in 2020. The Aiways U5 has sold only 2,600 units in China in the past year, but the number of new cars exported overseas since 2021 has reached 1,634. As of July last year, Aichi had exported a total of 2,663 new energy vehicles.
Flowers bloom inside the walls, incense outside the walls. Similar to AIWAYS, there are SAIC MG mg and SAIC Maxus MAXUS, in 2020, the independent brand MG and MAXUS new energy vehicles are sold in Europe, with sales exceeding 25,000 units, ranking the forefront in the market segments of the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands and other countries, and achieving revenue of more than 40 million euros through carbon emission point trading.
However, in China, as of August 2022, mg 6 new energy latest monthly sales of 35 vehicles, 2022 cumulative sales of 135 vehicles. In contrast, Norway's new energy sales data in July showed that MG and BYD ranked 4th and 6th in the brand sales list, of which MG sold 455 vehicles, with a monthly market share of 8.5% overBYD's sales of 243 vehicles, and a monthly market share of 4.6%.
In the same way, there is more than one "transmission" of the new energy automobile circle, which is undoubtedly a big challenge for the new forces led by Weilai. The total number of registrations of various brands in the Norwegian market from January to May 2022 shows that Tesla is 5375 vehicles, accounting for 12%; Polestars were 1984 units, accounting for 4.4%; BYD's 644 units, accounting for 1.4%; Xiaopeng was 447 vehicles, accounting for 1%; Nio had 404 vehicles, accounting for 0.9%.
Obviously, there are still thousands of pets in China, why did they start to be dissatisfied when they went overseas? It should be noted that most domestic car companies have not yet established a real brand effect overseas.
In addition to Tesla, once other new energy vehicle companies step out of their own threshold, at least there is no high difference in brand awareness, especially in Europe, which has a long history of car heritage, who wins and who loses is probably not the name of the decision. In 2022, new forces are eyeing overseas markets.
Xiaopeng has publicly stated that he hopes to balance the delivery volume of domestic and overseas markets, and the long-term goal is to sell 50% of the cars abroad and 50% stay in China. For now, after going to sea, they are bound to face a bloody battle, feng shui turns, and their opponents are likely to be the wave they never cared about.
It is better to rely on fame than on strength
China, the United States and Europe are the three most important markets for the automotive industry in the world.
From 2019 to 2021, these three major markets accounted for 65.27%, 66.37% and 65.13% of the total global automobile sales, which has been stable at about 65% for three consecutive years. Car companies want to open up the international market, in addition to their own territory, the United States and Europe are inseparable choices.
However, in the NEW ENERGY MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES, TESLA IS OBVIOUSLY THE EXCLUSIVE, EVEN IN THE ENTIRE CHINA, EUROPE AND UNITED STATES, ONLY TESLA HAS ACHIEVED THE SALES OF NEW ENERGY VEHICLES ACCOUNTED FOR MORE THAN 10% + ITS OWN FACTORY PUT INTO PRODUCTION. A tough battle, starting from the most easy place to break through, Europe's enthusiasm for new energy consumption has been high.
Environmental protection and green carbon reduction awareness are secondary, and it is important that in countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Norway, the purchase of new energy vehicles can receive subsidies of up to 12,000 euros. Domestic new energy vehicle companies are currently going to win the European market, sneaking action is naturally indispensable, foreign countries, the process of making a name for themselves is indispensable.
Taking NIO as an example, NIO's first NIO center outside the Chinese market will open in Oslo, Norway, followed by the construction of four NIO spaces in Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim and Kristiansand. On February 10 this year, Xiaopeng announced that it has partnered with local European partners Emil Frey Nederland and Bilia to establish a sales and service partnership in the Netherlands and Sweden, and that the Xiaopeng brand retail experience store will also open in Sweden and the Netherlands in 2022.
WM intends to mix faces in the online car, it is reported that WM and the European online car operators reached a cooperation to become the preferred model for online car drivers. However, car companies in overseas hard work not only rely on the brand, from the era of fuel vehicles, SAIC, Geely, Chery is actively expanding the European market, but the requirements of this market for products are not easy for every car company to achieve.
How demanding are the automotive standards in the European market?
In 2007, during the NCAP crash test conducted in Europe, Zhonghua Zunchi, which had just entered the German market at that time, received only 1 star rating. In the era of new energy, the standard of automobiles in the European market has only increased. Taking the WVTA EU whole model type certification as an example, this time it was praised by the car industry as the most stringent standard in the world's three major automobile certification systems.
According to public information, the EU WVTA involves a total of 43 vehicle test items such as motor vehicle noise, mileage, crash safety, and pedestrian protection, and the indicators are higher than the domestic regulatory requirements. In addition, to achieve high-volume access, an annual factory review is required to complete all test items.
According to media reports, AIWAYS' U5 took 53 days and traveled through 12 countries to successfully certify. Compared to brand building, it seems that these are the keys to sweeping the European market.
Of course, domestic new energy vehicles have long surpassed the past, there is an automobile consulting company J.D. Power has released the 2020 new energy vehicle experience study, SAIC Volkswagen won the first place in the quality of new cars in the plug-in hybrid vehicle market, BMW ranked second in the plug-in hybrid market, WEILAI won the first place in the quality of new cars in the pure electric vehicle market, and Tesla and Euler ranked second and third in the pure electric vehicle market.
Leaving the greenhouse surrounded by domestic capital, overseas is obviously not favored by anyone, and everything needs time to prove.
Rejected Southeast Asian markets
There is a very obvious problem, car companies are rushing to Europe non-stop, weilai does not hesitate to fight with Tesla, but also to enter the US market. Can't new energy consumption on the Asian side support their ambitions?
First look at the domestic, since 2020, the inner volume of the new energy car circle has not stopped, as for sales, in the first half of 2022, mainland automobile sales have a significant decline, according to the latest half-year production and sales data released by the China Automobile Association, automobile sales in the first half of 2022 fell by 6.6% year-on-year.
Next door, Japan and South Korea, the former's new energy market is narrow to Musk's direct headache, and the latter is already in the pocket of domestic new energy vehicle companies from a certain point of view. Data show that in the first half of this year, South Korea's import car market "Made in China" electric vehicle sales of 5112, an increase of 125.3% over the first half of last year's 2269 vehicles, of which passenger car (family car) sales growth increased by 312%, electric bus market share reached 48.7%.
However, under the constraint of population, the future increase in South Korea's automobile consumption will certainly not attract the attention of car companies, and in the future, the Asian new energy market is bound to find the next piece of land. At present, some countries in Southeast Asia are naturally suitable for the development of electric vehicles due to their climate and environment. The total output of thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia accounts for nearly 93% of the ASEAN output value.
From a certain point of view, the new energy in Southeast Asia is progressing very fast, according to the ASEAN Automobile Federation data, the total sales of cars in Southeast Asia in 2021 reached 2.79 million units, an increase of 14% year-on-year. It is expected that by 2035, the sales of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia will completely surpass that of fuel vehicles, according to The Bangkok Post, Thailand began to reduce the tax rate of pure electric vehicles from 8% to 2% in June this year, and there is another 150,000 baht purchase subsidy per pure electric car.
Indonesia aims to have pure electric vehicles account for 20% of its total vehicle production by 2025; The Philippines is also vigorously purchasing electric buses and asking domestic public transport companies to increase the proportion of their own pure trams to more than 5%. It is reasonable to say that with the sensitivity of car companies, it is impossible not to perceive the market atmosphere in Southeast Asia.
But Rao is so, the car companies are still stepping out of Asia one by one. According to customs statistics, the federation exported a total of 362,200 new energy passenger vehicles in the first half of 2022, of which only 58,400 units were exported to the Southeast Asian market. In the eyes of most car companies, the Southeast Asian market is half seawater and half flame.
First of all, the income level in Southeast Asia is always lagging behind other regions, taking Vietnam as an example, according to the Vietnam National Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly salary of residents in Ho Chi Minh City, vietnam's more developed city, is only 8.44 million VND, about 2532 yuan. Car companies enter Southeast Asia, the price may be in a dilemma.
In June this year, SAIC motor and Thailand's Zhengda Group signed an agreement to invest in the production of MG, in order to quickly occupy the market, SAIC motor in Thailand all four pure electric models reduced prices, of which "MG EP" has been reduced to 760,000 baht, about 144,000 yuan.
In addition, Southeast Asia's new energy facilities are limited, according to the "Bangkok Post" news, as of the end of last year, there were only about 1,000 charging stations in Thailand. Indonesia is even less, with media reports that there are only 240 charging stations in Indonesia, and the government plans to build more than 31,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030, which is expected to require an investment of $3.7 billion.
It can be seen that it is not unreasonable for car companies to dislike here, and southeast Asia, which has a warm climate, cannot feed the ambitions of new energy vehicles, and they are busy rushing to Europe and North America, as if running to a new land of hope.