There is no doubt that the Hongguang MINI EV is definitely one of the highest-grossing electric vehicles in the past two years, and even it has become a phenomenal model in the history of the domestic car market, which can be said to be a model that will surely go down in the history of Chinese automobile development.
Sales exceeded 15,000 units within 20 days of listing, 120,000 units in 2020, 426,500 units in 2021, and a record high of 554,000 units in 2022. Under the continuous steady growth, the cumulative sales of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV have reached 1.11 million units, making it the world's fastest single new energy model to reach one million sales.
Micro electric car "stall"?
With the hot sales of Hongguang MINI EV, many car companies have also launched a lot of micro electric vehicles, such as Chery QQ ice cream, Changan Lumin, Geely Panda mini, these models also achieved good sales results last year.
However, recently, the micro electric vehicle market seems to have "stalled", and the sales of the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV in the first month of the year were only a little over 10,000 units, down 38.5% year-on-year, and sales returned to 30,000 units in February, but in sharp contrast to last year's record of 554,000 units.
Chery QQ Ice Cream's monthly sales in the first month of 2023 were 2,736 units, down 72.6% year-on-year; February sales were 3,134 units, down 51.4% y/y, and sales in both months were "slashed" compared with last year.
Last year, car companies can be said to have launched a mini electric vehicle, and Wuling MINI EV even won the title of "people's scooter", but by 2023, why is it not easy to sell "people's scooters"?
The people's scooter, farther and farther away from the people?
Wuling Hongguang MINI EV is hot-selling, the most fundamental reason is that it greatly reduces the entry threshold of pure electric vehicles, and fundamentally meets the user's rigid demand for low-cost commuting.
Many people began to realize that the most ideal product positioning of pure electric vehicles is urban commuter cars, and in the reality that the per capita disposable income of residents in the country is only 36,883 yuan, and the proportion of households with cars is only less than 50%, Wuling Hongguang MINI EV relies on extremely close to the people's price, so that the group who originally planned to buy electric bicycles and old-age walking bikes can spend an extra 10,000 yuan to achieve consumption upgrades and drive a "car" certified by national compulsory standards.
But now, the entry price of this car has come to 32,800 yuan, behind the price increase of micro electric vehicles, mainly because the price of battery raw materials in the first two years, especially lithium carbonate, has skyrocketed, and the cost composition of micro electric vehicles, batteries account for the majority, so the cost of batteries is very sensitive, coupled with the cancellation of purchase tax subsidies, the attraction of micro electric vehicles is not so strong. And the configuration of the beggar's version is really a beggar, if you want to buy a big difference to meet the configuration of the household, there is no fifty or sixty thousand yuan can not come down, so calculated, many people give up the intention to buy a micro electric vehicle, forget it, or electric vehicles.
Fuel vehicle clearance inventory price reduction
While the price of micro-electric vehicles is rising, fuel vehicles are significantly reducing prices, especially the third- and fourth-tier brands, which have almost broken bones.
Think about it, buy 560,000 or even 780,000 yuan, buy a small space, low battery life, weak power, low configuration, poor safety, can only do nothing else in the urban area, it is better to open the mind, add a little money to buy a fuel car, and even do not need to add money, this budget can buy a used car in good condition in the second-hand car market. Whether it is space, configuration, performance, range, safety, it is much stronger than micro electric vehicles.
Indeed, the driving cost of micro-electric vehicles is a little lower, but the people who buy such models, the mileage run every year is not much, electric vehicles can indeed save money, but calculate the account, can not save much fuel money every year, and the same size and level of models, the price of electric vehicles is much higher than fuel vehicles, and the same price of fuel vehicles are much more functional, so who is more cost-effective, in fact, it is really difficult to say.
For micro-electric vehicles, as a low-cost, extremely low threshold urban transportation tools, its survival magic weapon is the cost performance, in the battery price increase, subsidy decline, fuel vehicle price reduction and other multiple factors superimposed, the cost performance of micro electric vehicles is not so high.
The good news is that the raw materials of power batteries have recently seen a significant price reduction, but it is still unknown when the price reduction of this wave of raw materials can be reflected in the price of micro-electric vehicles.