When is it a good time to buy new energy vehicles? During the year, more than 10 brands started a price war, and Japanese trains offered 60,000 discounts

Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Lin Qian

The tide of price cuts in the new energy vehicle market continues.

Recently, Dongfeng Nissan officially announced the launch of ARIYA's limited-time promotion. From now until March 31, consumers can enjoy a discount of 60,000 yuan for all ARIYA series, and the price range after the discount is 224,800-282,800 yuan. Not long ago, GAC Toyota announced that its first electric vehicle bZ4X manufacturer will drop 30,000 yuan for a limited time, and the starting price will only be 169,800 yuan after the price reduction, and some dealers of FAW Toyota have also released a limited-time discount of 60,000 yuan for bZ4X, and the price of the new car is only 139,800 yuan.

Regarding the reason for the launch of the limited-time promotion, Times Finance sent an interview to Dongfeng Nissan on the 22nd, but there was no response as of press time. GAC Toyota told Times Finance that the launch of preferential activities, on the one hand, there is market pressure brought by Tesla's price reduction, on the other hand, bZ4X is GAC Toyota's first electric vehicle, which needs to have a certain presence in the market, the company does not care about the gains and losses of a car, and will introduce more products in the future.

Behind the follow-up of Japanese brands, since the beginning of this year, mainstream new energy vehicle brands including Tesla and Xpeng have relevant price reduction sales policies.

For the price reduction tide in the new energy vehicle market since the beginning of the year, Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said in an interview: "This wave of price reduction since this year is mainly affected by Tesla's price reduction, and after Tesla cut prices, many car companies have to reduce prices in order to maintain product competitiveness and increase sales." On February 21, Jia Xinguang, executive director of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told Times Finance that there are many reasons for the price reduction of new energy vehicles of Japanese and other automobile brands during the year, including foreign exchange rates, changes in raw material prices, policy changes, market competition and many other factors, and Tesla price changes do have a greater impact on some enterprises.

Source | Dongfeng Nissan's official Weibo

A wave of price cuts sweeps through 2023

Since the beginning of this year, more than 10 car companies have joined the tide of new energy vehicle price reductions.

In early January, Tesla China announced that it would adjust the price of Model 3 and Model Y, and the starting prices of the two adjusted models were 229,900 yuan and 259,900 yuan respectively, both hitting record lows. Guotai Junan Securities said that Tesla's sharp price reduction has brought direct pressure to some competing models of new forces, especially the latter has raised prices to a certain extent in 2023, and it is expected that some price measures will be taken in the future for competing models.

Under the market pressure brought by Tesla, many car companies, including Qianjie, Xiaopeng, Extreme Krypton, Aion, Zerorun, Nezha, Feifan and so on, have also taken action, some choose to directly reduce the price of products, and some choose to include free exterior options, optional discounts, insurance subsidies, delivery incentives, financial subsidies, deposit inflation and other dark reduction methods.

For example, GAC AION has launched a time-limited delivery incentive of 5,000 yuan per vehicle for some models since February 1, as well as a 3-year 0-interest, low-down payment time-limited financial subsidy, etc. At the end of January, Extreme Krypton Motors also launched the limited-time benefits of Extreme Krypton 001, a limited-time free option for all models of Extreme Blue exterior and a limited-time discount for air suspension sets, with a total discount of 17,200 yuan. On January 19, the poster released by Leapmotor showed that it launched a limited-time subsidy policy for C01 models, and the deposit of 5,000 yuan can be used up to 30,000 yuan, including 10,000 yuan cash discount, up to 10,000 yuan financial discount, and 5,000 yuan of comfortable all-equipped optional package price reduction.

A few days ago, Dongfeng Nissan, FAW Toyota, GAC Toyota and other Japanese brands have also joined the battle and introduced considerable preferential policies. As GAC Toyota said, its preferential policies are affected by the price reduction tide of the industry on the one hand, and its electric vehicles also want to play an influence on the other hand, paving the way for subsequent new energy models.

In fact, under the general trend of electrification, joint venture brands, including Japanese OEMs, are currently making efforts to transform and vigorously launch new energy models. According to public information, GAC Toyota has realized a comprehensive layout in the four new energy technology routes of HEV, PHEV, BEV and FCEV, and will release and upgrade 12 dual-engine products this year. Fenglanda, Leiling and Lingshang equipped with the new intelligent hybrid dual engine system are expected to be launched in the first quarter, and the intelligent hybrid dual engine models such as Xena, Highlander and Camry will be launched later this year. According to the plan, in 2023, Dongfeng Nissan will launch the ARIYA standard endurance version, the new generation of Qijun e-POWER, the new Xuanyi e-POWER and other new electric drive models.

Source | GAC Toyota's official Weibo

Can new energy vehicles be cheaper?

In the industry's view, the price reduction tide of car companies will be good for end consumers, and due to factors such as intensified market competition and raw material price reductions, the price reduction tide in the new energy vehicle market may continue.

According to data recently released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in January 2023, the production and sales of new energy vehicles decreased slightly year-on-year. In January, NEV production totaled 425,000 units, down 46.6% m/m and 49.9% m/m, and down 6.9% y/y, down 6.3% y/y. According to public data, in January, the sales of brands such as AITO and Zerorun all showed a month-on-month decline of more than 50%, and the sales of brands such as Nezha and Lantu fell by less than 25% month-on-month.

According to the analysis of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the decline in production and sales data is mainly due to the decline of the new energy vehicle subsidy policy, coupled with the obvious fluctuation of market prices and other factors. A number of industry insiders said that in the first half of this year, the domestic new energy vehicle market will have a period of pressure, in order to ensure order market share and stabilize production line productivity, many car companies may have a certain price reduction promotion strategy.

Jia Xinguang told Times Finance that the price of new energy vehicles is unstable, mainly because the market is still in the growth period, there are many policy changes, and the upstream and downstream relationships are also unstable, especially the mining investment cycle of lithium, cobalt, manganese and other raw materials is long, the risk is large, and sometimes it is difficult to adapt to the rapid growth of the vehicle market, so the price rises faster for a period of time. In its view, the price changes in the new energy vehicle market in recent years will still be more frequent.

In terms of cost, the price of raw materials such as lithium carbonate has gradually declined, and car companies also have a certain price operation space. It is reported that power batteries account for more than 40% of the cost of new energy vehicles, and in recent years, due to the continuous rise in the price of lithium materials, the cost of power batteries and new energy vehicles has also risen. According to data previously calculated by Guojin Securities, for every 100,000 increase in lithium prices, the cost of lithium iron phosphate vehicles increased by 3,807 yuan, and lithium costs accounted for 1.7%; The cost of ternary vehicles increased by 5,363 yuan, and the cost of lithium increased by 1.6%.

However, the price of lithium resources has shown a downward trend. According to business agency data, on February 21, the benchmark price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 452,600 yuan / ton, down 8.3% from 493,600 yuan / ton at the beginning of this month, and in November last year, the market battery-grade lithium carbonate bulk transaction price once exceeded 600,000 yuan / ton. The business community believes that lithium carbonate production is gradually rising, downstream demand performance is weak, and the power end market still has no obvious signs of recovery, considering the actual inventory digestion, it is expected that the short-term lithium carbonate price downward trend.

At the recently held China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum (2023) expert media exchange, Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, said that due to the reduction in the growth rate of new energy vehicles and the low demand for power batteries in models with low power such as plug-in hybrids, the pressure on lithium battery demand in the market will be eased, and the price of lithium carbonate is expected to fall to 350,000 to 400,000 yuan / ton in the second half of this year; In order to ensure the development of the battery recycling industry, a more reasonable balance price range is 300,000 to 400,000 yuan / ton.

In addition, the power battery industry in the middle of the industrial chain has opened a price war, and the price cost of purchasing batteries by car companies in the future may be greatly reduced. According to 36Kr recently reported, CATL is recently taking the initiative to implement a lithium mine rebate program to car companies to achieve battery price reduction. The core clause is: in the next three years, the price of lithium carbonate for some power batteries will be settled at 200,000 yuan / ton, and at the same time, the car companies that sign this cooperation need to commit about 80% of the battery purchase volume to CATL. At present, Great Wall's Hive Energy has also been exposed to have launched a 10% price reduction plan, and some suppliers have received emails from Hive Energy requesting to cooperate with the price reduction.

Some insiders said that according to the development of the new energy vehicle market, as well as the price war phenomenon that may occur in the power battery industry, the price reduction tide of new energy vehicles has not ended in the first half of this year, which may be a more difficult process for car companies and power battery companies, but for consumers, it is a very good time to buy a car.