New energy vehicle "national supplement" withdrawn from local relay? Many places have successively introduced policies to promote automobile consumption

Economic Observation Network Reporter Zhou Ju In 2023, the implementation of 13 years of new energy vehicle subsidies will withdraw from the historical stage, and consumers will have to pay more when buying most new energy models. Under these circumstances, local governments have successively introduced policies to promote new energy consumption since January, some have extended car purchase subsidies with real money, and some have issued large amounts of automobile consumption coupons, which has the trend of relaying state subsidies.

According to incomplete statistics from the Economic Observer Network reporter, in the first month of 2023, more than a dozen local provinces and cities have issued policies to promote the consumption of new energy vehicles, including Shanghai, Zhejiang, Henan, Shanxi, Yunnan, Jilin, Shenyang, Hainan, etc., which shows the urgent attitude of various places to continue to boost the development of the new energy automobile industry. Specifically, the way to promote car sales varies from place to place.

Fancy stimulus is out

Henan Province directly extended the time for car purchase subsidies. In the "Notice on Printing and Distributing Policies and Measures to Vigorously Boost Market Confidence and Promote Economic Stability" released by Henan in early January, promoting automobile consumption occupies the first position, and proposes to extend the car purchase subsidy policy until the end of March 2023, giving consumers subsidies at 5% of the purchase price of newly purchased cars in the province, up to a maximum of 10,000 yuan / unit, and half of the provincial and municipal financial subsidies. This means that consumers can still enjoy an additional 3 months' allowance.

However, the subsidy ceiling (10,000 yuan/unit) in these three months is slightly lower than the previous national subsidy ceiling in 2022. According to the previous policy, the standard of new energy vehicle subsidies in 2022 is: 9,100 yuan for pure electric passenger vehicles with a pure electric cruising range of 300-400 kilometers; A subsidy of 12,600 yuan for pure electric passenger cars with a range greater than or equal to 400 kilometers; The subsidy for plug-in hybrid models is 4,800 yuan.

Shanghai has also continued the financial subsidy policy of up to 10,000 yuan, but it can only be used under replacement conditions. Recently, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued the "Shanghai Action Plan for Boosting Confidence and Expanding Demand and Promoting Steady Growth and Promoting Development", indicating that it will continue to implement new energy vehicle replacement subsidies, and before June 30, 2023, individual consumers who scrap or transfer out of small passenger cars registered in Shanghai and meet relevant standards, and purchase pure electric vehicles, will be given a financial subsidy of 10,000 yuan per vehicle.

Some provinces and cities extend the time of car purchase subsidies, while others issue consumption coupons, including Wuxi, Shenyang, Heilongjiang, Hainan Sanya, Hebei Shijiazhuang, etc. Among them, according to the news released by "Wuxi Release" on January 23, Wuxi issued 12 million yuan of new energy vehicle consumption coupons, and the application standards are: pure electric new energy vehicles 3,000 yuan / vehicle, other power new energy vehicles 1,500 yuan / vehicle (including: plug-in hybrid vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles).

On January 20, Heilongjiang issued Several Policies and Measures to Promote the Comprehensive Recovery of Economic Growth in the Province, in which the province issued 600 million yuan of government consumption coupons, emphasizing that automobile manufacturers in the province were encouraged to carry out profit promotion activities, and guided the sale of passenger cars to implement a discount of no more than 10% of the price of naked cars; Shenyang announced on January 9 that it will issue 100 million yuan of Chinese New Year consumption coupons to individual consumers in Shenyang from January 10 to February 28, 2023, of which 40 million yuan will be used for cars, accounting for the highest proportion.

At the same time, many provinces and cities have proposed multi-faceted support for the development of new energy vehicles, mainly by encouraging the introduction of new energy consumption subsidies and issuing consumption coupons, including encouraging the development of new energy rural activities, giving new energy vehicles in driving restrictions, license plate indicators, parking fee restrictions and other support policies. For example, on January 29, the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on the Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of the New Energy Vehicle Industry in Zhejiang Province, proposing to guide all localities to optimize the policy of banning and restricting new energy vehicles in accordance with the law, and provide support in terms of road authority and license plate indicators. Encourage the implementation of government-priced public parking lots (points) to park new energy vehicles free of charge within the first 1 hour (including charging time) on the day.

On January 28, the Department of Commerce of Shanxi Province and other 17 departments issued the Notice on Further Invigorating Automobile Circulation and Expanding Automobile Consumption, which mentioned that it is necessary to fully implement support policies such as new energy bus purchase subsidies, new energy vehicle purchase tax reductions, parking fee reductions, traffic convenience, and right-of-way guarantees.

On January 17, the People's Government of Yunnan Province issued policies and measures to promote economic stability and quality improvement in 2023, proposing to increase the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging piles and charging stations, encouraging prefectures and cities with conditions to introduce new energy vehicle consumption support policies, and encouraging taxis (including ride-hailing and cruise cars), tourist buses, scenic spots, urban logistics and other fields to promote the use of new energy vehicles.

The withdrawal of "national subsidies" has not reduced local growth expectations

Behind the active stimulation of the automobile consumer market is the hope of various places to maintain the rapid growth of the new energy vehicle market. On the one hand, this is because in the local finance, the output value of the automobile industry occupies a higher share, which can drive the growth of the overall industrial chain. On the other hand, the development of new energy vehicles has become an important pillar and goal of national economic development, and support for new energy vehicle consumption was mentioned for the first time at the Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2022, highlighting the importance of new energy vehicles. Data show that in 2022, domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles will be 5.674 million units, a year-on-year increase of 90%, becoming a highlight of the annual car market.

However, in 2023, the growth of new energy vehicle sales has slowed down, according to the latest data from the Passenger Association, new energy retail sales in January 2023 are expected to be 360,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1.8%, a month-on-month decrease of 43.8%, and a penetration rate of 26.5%. There are two major reasons behind this, one is the factor of the Spring Festival holiday, and the other is that the upcoming withdrawal of the national supplement at the end of last year has overdrawn the consumer demand for new energy vehicles in January this year to a certain extent. Under this circumstance, since 2023, various places have successively introduced policies to promote automobile consumption, hoping to continue to drive the growth of new energy vehicle sales.

Based on the continuous and rapid development of the new energy automobile industry and the support of national policies, although the new energy vehicle subsidies will be fully withdrawn in 2023, various places have not reduced their development expectations and goals for new energy vehicles, but are collectively bullish. At present, some provinces and cities have issued medium- and long-term targets for new energy vehicles.

In the latest notice, Zhejiang said that it will strive to produce more than 1.2 million new energy vehicles annually by 2025; Jilin said in a document released on January 19 that by 2025, the scale of the automobile industry will reach the trillion level, and the introduction of a new energy vehicle enterprise and brand will basically form a new ecology of the new energy vehicle industry; On January 12, Hubei issued the "Hubei Province Three-Year Action Plan for the Breakthrough Development of New Energy and Intelligent Networked Vehicle Industry (2022-2024)", indicating that it will strive to achieve the output value of Hubei's automobile industry exceeding one trillion yuan by 2024, of which the output value of the new energy automobile industry will exceed 300 billion yuan. In addition, Shenzhen, Shandong, Guangzhou, Tianjin and other places have also proposed to vigorously develop new energy vehicles, accelerate infrastructure construction, and build industrialization clusters.

After the withdrawal of national new energy vehicle subsidies, the stimulus policies of local governments may help new energy vehicles stabilize the growth trend. However, it is also worth noting that the subsidies and consumption vouchers introduced by local governments may have decreased in strength compared with previous state subsidies, and the stimulus effect needs to be re-evaluated. In addition, the current subsidy stimulus policies introduced by various places are concentrated in the short term, and in the medium and long term, how new energy vehicles will continue to grow in fully market-oriented operation will still be a major test.

For 2023, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers expects that new energy vehicle sales can achieve a 30%-40% growth in 2023, and China is expected to become the first country in the world to enter the era of annual sales of new energy vehicles. The National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Conference predicts that the overall narrow passenger car sales in 2023 will reach 23.5 million units, of which new energy passenger vehicle sales are expected to reach 8.5 million units, with a penetration rate of 36%, a year-on-year growth rate of more than 30%.