In Shanghai in June, electric vehicles have not yet been "unblocked"

2022 is destined to be a magical year full of twists and turns.After 60 days of silence in the city, Shanghai finally lifted the lockdown.

During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday that just passed, I also decided to pack up my mood, adjust my state, go out for a walk, and see if this familiar and unfamiliar city has recovered from the "heavy damage" it should not have suffered. looks like.

As for the preset specific investigation targets, it is those new forces and traditional car companies who are located in the central business district and open direct-sale stores to sell electric vehicles.

After all, with the rapid expansion of China's new energymarket in the past year, in their established strategy, entering a new year, they should have let go of their hands and feet more and more thoroughly, and took advantage of the situation to pursue greater quantitative and qualitative changes. However, due to many force majeure , the plan can only be disrupted.

In particular, what has been lost for a short time is Shanghai, the market segment with the highest penetration rate of new energy.The emotions of disappointment and regret must be full to the point of overflowing.

So after putting myself in the shoes and thinking about it, with a series of questions in my mind, I finally chose Yangpu Wujiaochang as the destination, a place that brings together many shopping complexes such as Bailian, Paris Spring, Wanda, and Hopson.The first stop is the Tesla Center, which is located on the Central Elevated Road, and you can always notice the huge billboard at a glance.

They are not "unblocked"

At the beginning of this paragraph, the first thing I want to explain is that according to data from the Shanghai Automobile Sales Industry Association, the city’s new car sales in 2021 will be about 638,000, of which 254,000 new energy vehicles will be sold, and the penetration rate has approached the 40% mark. .

In addition, as early as March, before the whole city was silent, due to wild fluctuations in the price of raw materials for power batteries, when all electric vehicles collectively ushered in a "price increase", they went to several stores on Nanjing West Road to investigate.

In the end, the conclusion is: although the end consumer's car purchase cost will inevitably increase, but for strong brands such as Tesla, BYD, "Weixiaoli", it is still a seller's market, and orders are still in a state of short supply Down.

On the contrary, for weak brands, the situation is indeed not optimistic, very difficult, and even must maintain a certain degree of discount to sell cars at a loss in order to attract potential customers.

As for the reasons for expounding the above two points, I still want readers to understand more clearly: the importance of Shanghai's new energy market to various car companies, and their completely different situations since entering 2022.

From this, I pulled my eyes back to the Tesla Center of Chuangzhihui, and it was almost 11:00 noon when we arrived.After consciously scanning the site code, showing the nucleic acid certificate, and entering the store, I found that there were no other customers except for the three staff members who had just resumed work.

After a brief exchange with one of them, I learned, "We resumed work immediately after the unblocking was lifted on June 1, but basically no one came to the store these days. However, we are not worried about sales. If you order a Model now 3. Basically, it takes more than 20 weeks to pick up the car, and the Model Y is slightly shorter.”

As expected, the epidemic has not only caused some troubles on the manufacturing side of the American car company, but it does not seem to have affected its supply side.

Later, the salesman also added: "It is recommended that friends who have a need to buy a car should lock the order now, otherwise, if it is not listed by the end of the year, it is hard to say what policies will be the purchase tax and new energy subsidies next year. Besides, according to the current trend No one can guarantee whether Tesla will continue to increase prices in the second half of the year.”

In contrast, the Xiaopeng Experience Center is the first thing that appears when entering the gate of the mall in Heshenghui, which is across the road from the store.Similarly, passenger flow can only be described as deserted.

"We also just started going to work, and you have seen the situation in the past few days." To be honest, in the conversation with the staff who came to meet, he could feel his helplessness.

However, he still introduced enthusiastically: "At present, it takes about 2 months to order the P7, and about a month for the P5. How to choose the two cars depends on your needs. If you care more about space and Comfort, then I still recommend P5."

Later, when asked if he knew the news of the remodeled P7, the staff member also said sincerely: "We also saw some rumors on the Internet, but we have not received the official notice yet, if there is any follow-up, it will definitely be in advance. inform."

After leaving Xiaopeng, I looked up and found a simple display stand in the atrium of the mall, with NIO ES8 and EC6 on it, and there were still several customers around the vehicle.

After I went to find out, I learned, "Because ES7 and ET5 will be coming to the store this year, and the delivery of ET7 has already begun, the area of ​​NIO Space located in Hopson is already seriously insufficient, so expansion work is underway. Immediately place an order for ET7. The car cycle is about 4 months.”

In contrast, at the SAIC Volkswagen store not far away, because only one staff member was present because it just resumed business, the entire communication process was not smooth.It is just a very scribbled introduction that there are currently no discounts for ID.3 and ID.6, and there is a cash discount of about 10,000 yuan for ID.4.

Similarly, the passenger flow of the Hechuang and Gaohe stores not far away can only be described as bleak.In another atrium of the shopping mall, there are simple booths of Lantu and Ji Krypton.

However, apart from the fact that the vehicle has already arrived, it has not officially started business, and the latter has just replaced the latest limited-time car purchase rights in June.

On the opposite side of NIO Space is the Mercedes-Benz EQ experience store of Guansong Star. For some reason, standing at the rear of the EQA car, looking at the fence that NIO is renovating, the logo symbolizing "Blue Sky Coming" is printed on it. An inexplicable feeling came to my mind.

From here, I walked out of Hopson Club and walked through the sunken plaza in Wujiaochang to Wanda. I found that stores like GAC Aian, Leapao, and Nezha had only a few staff present, and no customers were watching the car.

To sum up, although Shanghai has been unblocked in June, it will take a long time to restore the terminal vitality of the past in terms of the current situation of some new energy vehicle companies.

In other words, electric vehicles have not yet been "unblocked".

They need more "stimulus"

In fact, after the "price increase" in March, it is obvious that in 2022, the extreme stress test that all new energy vehicle companies will face is far more difficult than imagined.The sudden epidemic has undoubtedly made their respective situations more volatile.

"This natural disaster has disrupted everyone's rhythm, and now it is seriously threatening the supply chain and end market. There is not much hope for the whole first half of the year. In the second half of the year, we can'tpredictit now, let's take a step by step. , sales are not expected to be so high.”

Such an answer from a senior executive of a new force can precisely represent the current state of mind of many participants in the same track.In the process of visiting terminal stores during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, after communicating with various staff members, they found that how to boost consumer confidence is what they are most concerned about.

"There is no discount for buying an electric car except for the 10,000 yuan. Besides, if you want to get the corresponding subsidy, the prerequisite must be that you have a Shanghai-branded vehicle before."

To put it more bluntly, although the Shanghai government has officially announced that it will increase the quota of 40,000 non-commercial passenger car licenses within the year, andgive a one-time subsidy of 10,000 yuan to individual users who replace pureelectric vehicles. However, the introduction of relevant policies cannot completely "hedge" the huge impact of similar price hikes and the epidemic.

In addition, Li Pengcheng, vice president of Xiaopeng Motors and general manager of brand public relations, has halved the vehicle purchase tax for passenger cars with a displacement of 2.0 liters and below whose bicycle price has not exceeded 300,000 yuan since June 1. The views expressed on personal Weibo are like that.

"It is indeed a good policy for users who want to buy a car. It should play a certain role in stimulating consumption and promoting the recovery of the auto industry. But objectively speaking, it is more difficult to rely on this policy to stimulate users to generate new demand. In addition, at a time when the penetration rate of new energy is constantly increasing, this policy has no effect on the consumption of new energy, so I hope that there will bepolicies on the consumption ofnew energy vehicles at the national level.”

Indeed, taking Shanghai, which has been hit hard, as an example, if the electric vehicle market wants to return to the grand situation it once was, it may still need more effective "stimulus" related policies.

Fortunately, just yesterday, Li Xiang, the founder and CEO of Lixiang Auto, suddenly officially announced that the Lixiang L9, its second extended-range SUV, will be officially released on June 21, Beijing time. All stores can be test-driven, and mass delivery will be started in August, and it is very confident to announce that the delivery volume in September can exceed 10,000.

Coincidentally, as the first SUV under the NIO NT2 platform, the ES7 will be released on June 15, Beijing time. At that time, it will also be launched with the replacement of the Snapdragon 8155 chip, smart gateway, high-definition camera, and 5G module. Remodeled "866".

As for Xiaopeng G9, although the final date of listing has not yet been finalized, combined with the frequent warm-up information recently, it is also certain that it has entered the countdown stage.

Throughout June, new cars like Wenjie M7 and Nezha S will also meet with end consumers one after another.It can be said that a new feast with high gold content and more and more involution belonging to all the new forces to build cars is about to begin slowly.

With the above-mentioned various products, they have been added to the sales matrix of their respective brands, which will also "stimulate" the purchase desire of terminal potential customers to a certain extent.

"Although this wave of epidemics is very painful, we are still looking forward to the second half of the year, especially with ET7, ES7, ET5, and the remodeled ES8, ES6, and EC6 sold in the same room, and we are not too worried about the order volume. On thecontrary, the real trouble is theproduction capacity, after all, I don’t want users to wait too long to pick up the car.”

Indeed, borrowing the answer from NIO Fellow, I re-emphasize the truth I want to tell you in the end: the pressure and sudden change of the big environment cannot reverse the wave of electrification transformation. Only a good product in the sense can get out of the quagmire and survive.

"Survival of the fittest" is the eternal law of survival.The strong will naturally harvest flowers and applause; the weak will only be left with wailing and sighs.