New energy sales in May: "Outstanding" is not a good thing

In the past week, themost memorable moment in China'snew energy vehiclesector, most people must vote for Beijing time on June 10, BYD's A shares rose nearly 7% intraday, and the market value exceeded one trillion for the first time. It reached a new record high and became the first independent brand to enter the "Trillion Market Value Club".

Looking at the world, while surpassing Volkswagen, it is catching up with Tesla and Toyota, which are ranked first and second respectively.Focusing on China, it is also infinitely approaching the era of power battery giant Ningde.It is undeniable that such a strong performance is indeed worthy of praise.

But in my mind, in addition to this, there is another set of data worth sharing, and that is the terminal sales in May just announced by the Passenger Federation.Although the entire market was inevitably hit by the epidemic, core shortages, and wild fluctuations in the price of power battery raw materials, thenew energysector still handed over a gratifying and even slightly surprising transcript.

Among them, the wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 421,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 111.5% and a month-on-month increase of 49.8%.From January to May, 1.892 million new energy passenger vehicles were wholesaled, a year-on-year increase of 117.4%.

The retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 360,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 91.2% and a month-on-month increase of 26.9%.From January to May, the domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles was 1.712 million, a year-on-year increase of 119.5%.

At the same time, the wholesale penetration rate of new energy vehicle manufacturers in May was 26.5%, an increase of 14 percentage points from the penetration rate of 12.4% in May 2021.Among them, the penetration rate of self-owned brand new energy vehicles reached 45%.

The retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in May was 26.6%, an increase of 15 percentage points from the penetration rate of 11.6% in May 2021.Among them, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles among self-owned brands reached 51.8%.

In general, it is still developing in a positive direction.In this context, looking at the sales lists of various car companies and subdivided models, we can also find some more interesting phenomena.

Who will compete with BYD?

Not long ago, Li Qian, secretary of BYD's board of directors, officially "revealed" why he chose to cut off the fuel vehicle business this year in an exclusive interview with the media.In his view, "On the one hand, BYD's fuel-powered vehicles are less profitable than BYD'selectric vehicles, so cutting fuel-powered vehicles will improve BYD's overall profitability."

"On the other hand, as a global leader in new energy vehicles, BYD thinks it's time to concentrate on developing electric vehicles; the currentproductionof electric vehicles is completely in short supply, and we need to free up the production capacity of fuel vehicles for electric vehicles."

So far, it is certain that BYD's decision to make the above decision is not a spur of the moment to gain attention, but more like a deliberate choice.

And just after the "break-up" with the fuel vehicle business, the follow-up sales feedback showed that the effect was very immediate, breaking the 100,000 mark in March and April in a row.

In May, according to the statistics of the Passenger Federation, the retail sales reached 113,768 units, a year-on-year increase of 256.6%; the cumulative sales from January to May reached 501,224 units, a year-on-year increase of 349.7%.Both sets of data firmly occupy the champion position of the manufacturer's salesrankings .

Under BYD, there are traditional independent brands like SAIC-GM-Wuling, GAC Aian, Chery, and Geely, as well as new forces like Ideal, Nezha, Xiaopeng, Leapmotor, and Weilai.

Seeing this, I can't help but want to say that only from the sales performance shown by the current car companies, the former can be described as "horror", and the gap with the follow-up pursuers is getting wider and wider, and it is no longer in the same amount. in level.

However, from a more macro perspective, the occurrence of the above trends is not a good thing for China's new energy market to hit 5 million or even 5.5 million vehicles this year, including breaking the penetration rate of 25%.After all, most of the time, compared to thriving, it is true that a hundred flowers bloom.

Then as the subtitle of this paragraph said, it seems that more brands need to come forward and form a mutually reinforcing healthy competition with BYD.

Fortunately, as a bystander, please don't forget the existence of an American new energy vehicle company.In the previous article, it has been boldly predicted that in the next five years, the pattern of China's new energy market will basically be represented by BYD, represented by its own brand, and Tesla, represented by foreign brands. rush to the main.

However, due to the epidemic in Shanghai, the production capacity of the latter has been affected recently, and the sales level has been slightly "silent", but it does not mean that there are any problems on the demand side.As an argument, I visited its terminal stores during the Dragon Boat Festival and found that the current pickup cycle for Model 3 and Model Y takes 3-4 months or even half a year.

And judging from the data from the Passenger Federation, Tesla's wholesale sales in May were 32,165, of which 22,340 were exported, and a total of 9,825 were sold in China. The severel y injured "vigor" is undoubtedly recovering.

According to Reuters, as of June 9, Beijing time, the production capacity of Tesla’s Shanghai plant has reached 100% of the pre-epidemic level, and it is expected to produce 71,000 new cars this month.Converted to a day, more than 2,300 vehicles will be built.

A head-to-head contest seemed to have reopened.

establish a new order

At the beginning of this paragraph, we will first focus our attention on the ranking of new energy cars in May 2022. There is not much suspense. Wuling Hongguang MINIEV, which is still enjoying the dividends of the A00-class market, continues to be the champion with sales of 29,169 units. .

After it, the second and third places are BYD's hot Han family and Qin family, which sold 23,934 and 20,753 new cars respectively.

It must be admitted that, with the help of the dual technology paths of DM-i and EV, this car company, which has long regarded itself as a "global leader in new energy vehicles", has undoubtedly completely mastered the ability to generate explosive models.End consumers can also take the initiative to choose according to their own needs.

Next, similar to the reason for the popularity of Wuling Hongguang NIMIEV, there are also competitors on the track such as Chery QQ Ice Cream, Chery eQ, Changan Benben EV, Leapmotor T03, Euler Black Cat, and Sihao E10X. .

As for Xiaopeng P7 and Tesla Model 3, these smart electric cars in the true sense have been limited in production capacity, supply chain and other reasons, and failed to hand over a sufficiently dazzling transcript.

In contrast, the battle of the new energy SUV rankings in May was more "pure".The top 5 BYD Song family, BYD Yuan PLUS family, Ideal ONE, BYD Tang family and GAC Aion Y, each product is recognized by end users for its own reasons.

Nezha V, Tesla Model Y, Wenjie M5, Leapmotor C11 and Extreme Krypton 001, which are ranked 6-10, also have the potential for further sales.

As for the 11th-ranked FAW-Volkswagen ID.4 CROZZ, it can only be said that there is no advantage in confronting the products launched by many independent brands, and this just reflects that all joint venture brands are located in China. The "dilemma" of the new energy market.

They have never been able to understand: in this new track where the gameplay and rules have undergone great changes, they really want to make a difference, in addition to the product itself in terms of interior and exterior design, electronic and electrical architecture, vehicle safety, comprehensive battery life and energy consumption performance, Multi-dimensional intelligent cockpit and assisted driving need to have no obvious shortcomings, but also need to build many matching systems.

In other words, in its entire business model, the proportion of the car may only be 50%, and the rest is also very important.

For example, whether the matching directly-operated stores, after-sales service system, and energy-replenishing network are mature enough, whether the culture and labels conveyed by the brand, and whether the IP and stories displayed by the founder are moving enough, even as small as the corresponding APP. Whether the boutique mall and daily user activities are rich enough determines the upper limit of a car company that wants to make a difference.

However, for most joint venture brands, as of now, even the top 50% have not been able to catch up with the industry average, let alone the bottom 50%.

At the end of the article, I still want to ask a question: What is the fundamental purpose of the country's vigorous promotion of new energy transformation in the automobile market?

With more and more data as the support, the answer is more and more concentrated: to get rid of the long-term traditional fuel vehicle sector, to take Germany and Japan as the representative of the monopoly of joint venture car companies, and to achieve a true all-round overtake and counterattack.

There is no doubt that the concept of "overtaking on a curve", which once attracted criticism at this moment, is slowly landing and becoming a reality.Otherwise, when Volkswagen Group CEO Diess spoke to all employees, he would never have said earnestly: "In the era of electrification, the next golf must not come from China."

But the reality is that the determination of independent brands to establish a new order has been very firm.A new feast belonging to them seems to be being staged.