Summer is usually the trough of the annual automotive market sales. On the one hand, it paves the way for the traditional dealers to achieve their targets in the first half of the year, which is a significant part of their work. On the other hand, it is a busy and challenging time for them in the spring. July has always experienced a decline compared to June in the past, and this trend continues this year despite the increasing number of dealerships.
However, July 2020 has seen the strongest year-on-year growth in the overall auto market in a long time, growing by 14% compared to last year’s numbers. This may be due to the auto market policy in 2019, but the results are still impressive. Pure electric car sales have grown by more than 200%, with a continuous month-on-month growth rate of over 15% for the last three months. Last year, the total number of pure electric cars sold in July was 21,575, while this year saw a jump to 70,715. This year’s numbers are higher than almost all of the data from 2019, which was a year when sales were quite weak in general.
New energy vehicles as a whole have grown year-on-year and month-on-month under the leadership of pure electric cars, indicating a promising start to the second half of the year.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 pure electric and hybrid models in July.
Each Micro BEV Has Its Own “City”
Compared to last month’s rankings, the cute little Wuling car made an appearance in the top five. It reached fourth place during its first full month on the market. Unlike its predecessor, the Baojun e-series, the mini EV is produced by Qingdao, a subsidiary of SAIC-GM-Wuling. From the perspective of new energy micro-cars, Qingdao has the potential to become the next Liuzhou, since the Baojun e-mode can be replicated.
The Roewe Clever EV, which ranks fifth after being launched on the market, is also a small car with a strong local appeal. Its sales are mainly concentrated in Shanghai and Ningbo, with Liuzhou being the third-largest market for the car.
When you think about it carefully, Baojun, Wuling, and Roewe all have “SAIC” in front of their names.
The Three New Energy Vehicle Giants: NIO, XPENG, and Li Auto
The P7 submitted an excellent answer sheet during its first full month on the market, selling 1,719 units, which is impressive. Of course, this number is neither high nor low, but it has also entered the top ten in sales.Before the P7 was released, there was only one new energy vehicle that could consistently remain in the top 10 in pure electric vehicle sales: the ES6. “The ES6 entered the top 10 in the third month after delivery and has since remained in the top 10 for 13 consecutive months.” Furthermore, it has always been the highest priced vehicle in the top 10.
Expensive but good.
XPeng’s previous G3 model entered the top 10 of pure electric vehicles seven times in the past 20 months, but was ranked 17th in July.
The challenge for the P7 is that maintaining high sales figures in comparison to the ES6, which competes heavily against the Model 3, is much more difficult. Additionally, there will be competition from the popular BYD Han in offline stores next month.
However, the P7 also has its advantages. Like NIO, XPeng also has direct sales experience in its physical stores, combined with experience from its G3 model. As a result, the P7 is likely to be the new energy vehicle with the highest offline exposure rate on the market once it is released.
XPeng and NIO also have cooperation in charging networks, which was recently the subject of a discussion between Li Xiang and others. Li Xiang pointed out that “Tesla wins with supercharging,” which caused a heated discussion. The meaning behind this is that the level of solutions to charging problems directly affects maximum market performance.
The goal is to not let consumers shy away.
NIO’s one-click charging, battery swapping, and now BaaS has not only solved “charging anxiety,” but also attempted to eliminate “second-hand battery anxiety.” Although BaaS might be difficult for users to understand, the psychological hurdle has already been crossed.
XPeng has been investing in charging networks from the beginning, but currently the XPeng APP still has more cooperation with third-party charging stations. There is still much work to be done.
Cooperation between XPeng and NIO in this area will definitely be a win-win situation.
If you have experienced the P7, you will feel the dedication that XPeng has put into its creation. With the delivery of the P7 and the listing on the NYSE, XPeng and NIO, the top two new energy vehicle companies in China with valuations of billions of dollars, are expected to shake the dominant position of Tesla in the high-end intelligent electric vehicle market for both market value and sales.
The Ideals of the Three Giants of New Energy Vehicles
When it comes to the top new energy vehicle companies in China with valuations of billions of dollars, XPeng was the first to sound the bell for their IPO and, along with NIO, they are known as the three giants of new energy vehicles.
“Intelligent electric vehicles” are their common genes.
Carrying the ideal of challenging criticisms related to “extended range,” XPeng, unlike NIO, insists on self-operation.
Looking back to April when we looked at the data comparing ONE and the Toyota Highlander, at that time, the ideal store covered only 12 cities nationwide. Looking at it now, this number has doubled to 24 cities and 28 stores. Several new stores opened in July alone.
Compared to NIO and XPeng, this number seems too small, and their product exposure is still very limited.After delivering the pre-orders of the first half of the year, the rapid expansion of the Ideal channel during these months ensured the stable sales of ONE as a new brand during the transition period to the import stage, entering a new normal.
Therefore, after the completion of the June orders, the digital comparison of Ideal ONE skyrocketed by more than 33% in July, maintaining its position as either the first or second plug-in hybrid model. The data is positioned between ES6 and P7.
Self-operated or not does not have a simple good or bad categorization. It is only a matter of suitability for oneself and for the current stage, whether or not it has achieved the intended effect.
Ideal once stated that they plan to open 60 stores by the end of this year. Later on, we can examine the numbers and see how much they have increased from 28 to 60, and check the changes in the results.
If you have been watching Douyin recently, you may have noticed that Ideal ONE’s products are more dependent on online traffic. The effectiveness of different methods of promotion can be judged by their performance.
The new forces of the three giants, similar in the era they emerged, their establishment time, market value, internet background, sales, and judgments, have played different ways… An interesting and passionate era is quietly unfolding and the audience is just waiting to applaud.
Together with the Model 3, the three giants have collectively boosted the growth of the new energy market in the first half of 2020.
This month, the total sales of the five car models of the three giants were 8619, while the Model 3 sold 11452. Keep it up.
Traditional Brands and New Energy: Pioneering Unique Paths
Aion S
Previously, a reader complained that the Data Intelligence Bureau’s observations did not praise Guangzhou Automobile New Energy’s Aion S, which has consistently ranked high – it is indeed an interesting model. The main reason why we did not discuss it is because it is still far away from C-end (individual consumers).
If you have recently been in Guangdong, you may have noticed that taxi fleets have switched to the low-end version of the Aion S, resulting in the phenomenon that three-quarters of Aion S are sold in license-restricted cities, with 70% sold to operating taxis.# Guangqi New Energy
Guangqi New Energy has been following the trend of electrification for several years, from GE3 to Aion S, LX, V… The actions are very fast, and the progress is also very rapid. However, the brand has always lacked a product that is good enough to show off in the to C market, which inevitably leads to the brand having to take some old and winding roads. For the new energy dynamics in traditional independent brands (including “new forces” products such as Hozon Auto Neta N01 that are closely related to Guangqi New Energy), both the brand side, the audience, and users all hope to see it have a good product that users are willing to pay for.
Roewe and R
SAIC’s independent sector is also a player who moves quickly in the field of new energy, from oil-electricity conversion, Marvel X, Ei5, Ei6… to the recently released new R flag and ER6, the rounds of polishing have enabled SAIC to maintain a leading position in independent camp technology reserves in the new energy era. Although these rounds of product launches did not cause too much splash in the market.
The new R flag is independent of Roewe, providing more flexible and easier sales and operational space. The change of traditional giant companies often starts from the outside and then the inside. Compared to the Neoheadquarters that NIO sees day by day, SAIC’s independent expects to adopt some of the new power models and means for future sales, and the gradual high-endization of products may also be brewing.
As for whether these models and means can achieve better market effects, for independent brands that have just started transformation and reform, they still need a period of adaptation and trial and error. After all, short-term new and unique tricks can be introduced, but long-term products are the king.
BYD
Several cars from BYD appeared on the list this month, especially DM, but the actual sales were very low (less than one thousand units), which highlighted it with the comparison of other competitive brands.
The updated Qin EV, like Aion S, took the road of to B as the main focus. Short-term market performance has risen rapidly.
Recently, there have been endless news of people queuing up to see and test drive the BYD Han, and expectations for it have become higher and higher. The level of the actual car is also quite attractive, and the stunning level is no worse than the first appearance of Tang with Dragon Face. Even friends from Tesla’s first-line say they don’t know how to answer the question of “which is better between the Han and the Model 3.”
Next month, the sales volume of Han will come out, and the sales ratio of DM and EV on the Han side is the most important thing to worry about. If it is still in the same state as Tang back then, it may also repeat Tang’s short life.
Tesla
The Model 3 continued to rank first and exceeded ten thousand. Is there anything special to say? Let’s give the title: nothing to say.
Conclusion
The purpose of this column is not to compare different new energy vehicles with each other. This kind of competition is extremely boring in a cramped arena. What we need to see is how they will step by step cut open the traditional market. Before this, we remain optimistic, believe, and keep a diverse spectrum of flowers blooming.The following data will be left at the end as the conclusion.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.