As the world's largest single automobile market, Continental has its own brands, joint venture brands, and even purely imported foreign brand models in the Chinese auto market. In fact, in addition to the-for-tat confrontation between major auto brands in China's home market, Chinese automobiles have also had a force that cannot be ignored in automobile exports.
In August 2022, Continental's automobile exports exceeded 300,000 units for the first time under the year-on-year growth momentum of 65%, reaching 308,000 units, according to Chinese enterprise data. In terms of overall sales in the first eight months of this year, Continental has surpassed Germany in terms of automobile exports to become the second largest automobile exporter after Japan.
Among them, the export volume of new energy vehicles from January to August increased by more than 90% year-on-year, contributing greatly to the mainland's automobile exports. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's exports of new energy vehicles from January to October this year reached 499,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 96.7%.
However, whether from the perspective of sales data or the layout of car companies, the main export target of mainland new energy vehicle companies is the distant European market. In fact, not far from the mainland, there is already a blue ocean market more suitable for Chinese car companies to export new energy vehicles than Europe, and it is the Philippines, which is about to cancel tariffs on new energy vehicles.
President Ferdinand Romuldez Marcos will issue an executive order to cut tariffs on all types of imported electric vehicles and parts for the next five years to zero, officials in charge of the Philippine economic planning department said Nov. 24 to stimulate the growth of electric vehicle consumers in the Philippines against the backdrop of high international fuel prices.
It is worth mentioning that this decree covers a wide range of pure electric cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, and even electric bicycles, while the tariffs on hybrid vehicles will remain unchanged. You know, from the current point of view, the size of the new energy vehicle market in the Philippines is almost negligible.
According to Philippine government data, there are more than 5 million cars registered in the Philippines, of which only about 9,000 are electric vehicles. Of the 9,000 electric vehicles, only about 1% are private cars, and almost all electric private cars are owned by the wealthy.
In the professor's view, the Philippines is almost more suitable for the development of new energy vehicles than most countries in the world. However, the main reason for the sluggish new energy vehicle market is the high cost of buying a car. Its decree to cancel tariffs on electric vehicles has great hope to revitalize the new energy vehicle market in the Philippines.
According to Reuters, consumers in the Philippines need to buy an electric car for $21,000-$49,000, while buying a traditional fuel vehicle usually costs only $19,000-$26,000. This means that in the Philippine market, electric vehicles are generally about 10%-50% more expensive than traditional fuel vehicles.
You know, the tariff rate of the models involved in the current decree ranges from 5% to 30%. After the removal of tariffs, there is at least 5%-30% room for price reductions for new energy vehicles in the Philippine market. In the professor's view, this decree is very likely to open up a new energy vehicle market for the Philippines, and even make many new energy vehicle companies led by Chinese brands flock to the market.
In the professor's view, when the Philippines canceled the tariffs on pure electric vehicles and lowered the threshold for consumers to buy pure electric vehicles, this island country can be described as gathering the timing, location, people and people to develop the new energy vehicle market.
In China, even if the cruising capacity of new energy vehicles has generally developed to more than 400km, the cruising capacity of some models even exceeds 700km. However, due to the vast land area of the mainland, range is still the biggest pain point for all Chinese pure electric vehicle consumers.
In fact, from the perspective of daily car use, even mainland car consumers, most of them do not need new energy vehicles to have a long battery life. Because for the vast majority of car users, most of their car use scenarios are daily commuting, and the single mileage will not even exceed 100km.
In addition, for pure electric vehicle consumers in the north, the problem of low-temperature range attenuation of pure electric vehicles has always been a difficult problem. In fact, so far, the range attenuation of pure electric vehicles in low temperature environments has not been well solved.
As early as last year, many media platforms and evaluation agencies conducted a series of tests on the low-temperature range attenuation of pure electric vehicles. Among them, among the 40 pure electric vehicle test results released by Chedi, almost none of the models have obtained test results.
In addition, in the evaluation results of the low temperature driving range of six pure electric vehicles released by the China Automotive Research Institute (CCRT), the endurance of the best-performing BYD Han EV also reached 30.9% at low temperatures, and the worst performing Nezha U reached 42.4%.
However, the Philippines is very different from the mainland. In China, it is okay to let electric vehicle companies and power battery manufacturers want to break their heads, and let pure electric vehicle consumers call "electric daddy" the endurance, but it is not a problem at all in the Philippines. The reason is simple, that is, the Philippines has a unique geographical advantage in the development of pure electric vehicles.
You know, geographically, the Philippines is located in southern China, and its average annual temperature is as high as 27°C. This also means that the pure electric vehicles in the Philippines do not have the problem of low-temperature range attenuation that is quite a headache for consumers in northern China.
In addition, the Philippines is an island country consisting of more than 7,000 islands, with 11 islands including Luzon, Mindanao and Samar accounting for 96% of the country's total area. This also means that the car scene of Philippine car consumers is usually not too far away, and the current mainstream pure electric vehicles have basically been able to meet the car needs of Filipino consumers.
In the professor's view, the Philippines cancels electric vehicle tariffs, Chinese new energy vehicle companies will undoubtedly be the biggest profiteers, and the Philippines after the cancellation of electric vehicle tariffs is also a blue ocean market that Chinese new energy vehicle companies cannot miss.
The Philippines not only has a natural geographical advantage in the development of new energy vehicles, but also has a natural geographical advantage for Chinese new energy vehicle companies. Quite simply, compared with the European market, where the masses are rising, the Philippines not only has less competitive pressure, but is also close to China.
There is a saying on the mainland called "near the water building platform first gets the moon". As a neighboring country, the Philippines is not only suitable for Chinese new energy vehicle companies to export pure electric vehicles to it, but also suitable for Chinese new energy vehicle companies to assemble and produce pure electric vehicles locally. You know, the Philippines is about to cancel not only tariffs on the import of electric vehicles, but also tariffs on the import of electric vehicle parts.