When some foreign media began to question the problem of overcapacity in China's new energy vehicle industry, China's new energy vehicle industry chose to use data to speak. According to recent data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first quarter of 2024, China's new energy vehicle production and sales reached 2.115 million and 2.09 million respectively, a year-on-year increase of 28.2% and 31.8%, and the market share reached 31.1%. It can be seen that the so-called overcapacity statement really can't withstand the beating.
In terms of policy, the "Implementation Rules for Automobile Trade-in Subsidy" jointly issued by 7 departments not long ago pointed out that from the date of issuance of the detailed rules to December 31, 2024, a one-time fixed subsidy will be given to individual consumers who scrap fuel passenger vehicles with emission standards of China III and below or new energy passenger vehicles registered before April 30, 2018, and purchase new energy passenger vehicles or fuel passenger vehicles with a displacement of 2.0 liters and below that are included in the "Catalogue of New Energy Vehicle Models Exempted from Vehicle Purchase Tax". It can be seen that the country has always been increasing the importance of the new energy vehicle industry.
Of course, with the rapid development of China's new energy vehicle industry, some netizens have begun to question whether the country's purpose of vigorously developing the new energy vehicle industry is fully in the best interests of the public because they see the problems encountered by new energy vehicles in terms of battery life and energy replenishment and value retention rate.
However, if we can put this issue in some more comprehensive but also more in-depth perspectives to explore, I believe you can also see that the country's vigorous development of the new energy vehicle industry is really "more pros than cons".
Question 1: Can the development of the new energy vehicle industry really protect the environment?
Because the electric energy or hydrogen energy used in new energy vehicles will produce some environmental pollution in the production and production links, some people have begun to suspect that the country's development of new energy vehicle industry is difficult to have a positive impact on the protection of the ecological environment.
However, if you dig deeper, you will also find that new energy vehicles, such as electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles, are more likely to transfer small-scale scattered pollution emissions (such as vehicle exhaust) to large-scale concentrated emissions (such as emissions from thermal power plants) than traditional combustion vehicles. Although this will produce some pollutants, the overall emission of pollutants will be easier to control due to the higher efficiency of centralized treatment.
It is worth mentioning that with the reduction of vehicle emissions, the urban environment deteriorated due to smog has also improved significantly, so that we can continue to fight the "blue sky battle".
Question 2: Won't the development of the new energy vehicle industry exacerbate the shortage of electricity?
With the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles, seeing that more and more families are using home charging piles, or queuing up at public charging stations, I believe that some netizens will begin to worry that the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will exacerbate our electricity pressure.
However, from the actual effect, the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will not only not exacerbate the shortage of electricity consumption, but also help the power system optimize and improve its own operation capacity. At present, China's dependence on thermal power is still relatively heavy, accounting for 72.3% of the total in 2019. However, the operating efficiency of thermal power plants will also be greatly reduced during the low period of electricity consumption, which will directly lead to a reduction in the load on the grid.
Nowadays, the demand for charging for new energy vehicles is steadily rising, and if the popularization can be accelerated in the future, it can also increase the load of thermal power plants during the trough period, so as to improve the operating efficiency and economy of thermal power plants, so that energy can be used more efficiently.
Question 3: The technology of self-owned brand fuel vehicles is also constantly improving, is it really necessary to develop new energy vehicles?
When Great Wall Motor became the only independent brand with self-developed 3.0T+9AT technical capabilities, and when Kunpeng Power boosted Chery Automobile's best-selling products at home and abroad, it is not difficult to find that the technical strength of independent brands in the field of traditional fuel vehicles is indeed constantly improving and growing.
In fact, the country's vigorous development of the new energy vehicle industry is not a complete denial of the technology research and development of independent brands in the field of traditional fuel vehicles, because the development of the new energy vehicle industry has more far-reaching and important strategic significance for the entire local automobile industry and manufacturing industry.
In the early days of reform and opening up, in order to rapidly improve the technical level and production capacity of the domestic automobile industry, we also boldly adopted the great attempt of "market for technology". However, after so many years, these multinational car companies that have "benefited from the Chinese market for many years" may not all provide us with their own technological achievements without reservation. On the contrary, if we can "change lanes and overtake" in the field of new energy vehicles, it is more likely to avoid the negative impact of such problems.
In fact, at the 2024 Beijing International Auto Show, we also saw that the majority of independent brands held a feast of new energy vehicles. Judging from the data, there are as many as 278 new energy models exhibited, an increase of 70% over the last Beijing Auto Show, and at the same time, the proportion of new energy models in the first new cars is more than 80%, in addition to as many as 20 new energy brands have achieved the debut of the Beijing Auto Show.
It is worth noting that the executives and experts of multinational car companies that we used to "look up to" in the past have now lowered their posture at the booths of their own brands. They either took out their mobile phones to take pictures and record them carefully, or took out a tape measure to measure carefully. In the past, we learned from multinational car companies in the field of fuel vehicles, and this time we used new energy vehicles to "feed" multinational car companies. Such a famous scene also gives us no reason to doubt, that is, to doubt whether it is right or wrong for China to vigorously develop the new energy industry.