Weekly Index
Weekly News
Multiple Electric Vehicle Manufacturers Announce Price Increases
In 2021, there was a surge in the global market for new energy vehicles, leading to a sharp increase in demand for raw materials for power batteries. However, the price of raw materials has increased significantly due to the previous epidemic and capital speculation. Since March, there has been another surge in electric vehicle price increases. Last week, XPeng, Ideal, Wuling, and other car manufacturers announced specific price increase ranges, while Voyah also announced a forthcoming price increase. The following is an incomplete list of recent price increase information:
Fast Comment:
Since last year, the cost of batteries has increased significantly due to the rise in raw material prices. The cost reduction trend brought about by the expansion of power batteries and technological advancement in the previous few years is no longer sustainable. As cost prices are transmitted to the consumer end, more and more car manufacturers are joining the trend of price increases. In the long run, the demand and supply gap for raw materials are not significant, and short-term price spikes may be influenced more by capital speculation and international environmental turbulence.
2022 China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum Held
From March 25th to 27th, the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum was held in Beijing. The theme of this forum was “Embracing a new stage of market-oriented development of new energy vehicles.” Below are some excerpts from guest opinions, and detailed reports can be found in our related articles released last week.
-
“Three new trends in the new energy vehicle market: maintaining a high-speed growth momentum; continuous improvement in penetration rate; high-quality development.” – Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology
-
“The smart and connected vehicles will decide the outcome in the second half of the Chinese automobile industry.” – Miao Wei, Vice Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
-
“We will moderately accelerate the progress of domestic resource development, resolutely crack down on illegal competition such as hoarding and speculation, guide upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain to strengthen cooperation and win-win development, and promote the return of key raw material prices to rationality.” – Xin Guobin, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology- “Currently, the utilization rate of many charging piles is not high in terms of time utilization rate and total utilization rate. It is suggested to increase the proportion of DC fast charging facilities in the construction of charging piles.” – Wang Kai, Director of China Urban Planning and Design Research Institute
-
“Starting in 2022, traditional fuel vehicles will reach their peak and will continue to decline in the future… The overall trend of new energy vehicles from 2021 to 2030 is rapid growth, and it is expected that the carbon emissions of passenger cars will reach its peak in 2025.” – Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
-
“It is expected that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will reach 28\% in March, with 70\% of the market drive and 30\% of policies. It is expected that the penetration rate of new energy will reach 35\% by the end of this year.” – Wang Chuanfu, BYD
-
“It is recommended that AEB (emergency braking) function be standard on passenger cars.” – Li Xiang, Ideal Automotive
-
“According to policies, XPILOT 3.5’s urban NGP (navigation guided pilot) will be gradually implemented in major cities, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, etc., this year.” – He XPeng, XPeng Motors
Quick Comment:
The Committee of 100 was established in 2014, initiated by officials, scholars, and entrepreneurs from government departments, research institutions, and the industry. It is positioned as an unofficial and non-profit policy and academic research institution that engages in interdisciplinary, inter-industrial, inter-departmental, and inter-ownership research in the field of new energy vehicles in China. At this forum, industry experts put forward many forward-looking opinions on electrification and intelligent connected vehicles, which can provide insights into industry changes in the next few years.
NIO’s 2021 Q4 financial report is released, and the first batch of ET7s has been produced
On March 25, 2022, NIO released its financial report and held a conference call. Key data is as follows:
-
Q4 revenue was RMB 9.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 49.1\%, and a month-on-month increase of 1\%. The total revenue in 2021 was RMB 36.14 billion, a year-on-year increase of 122.3\%;
-
Q4 automotive business revenue was RMB 9.22 billion, a year-on-year increase of 49.3\%, and a month-on-month increase of 6.7\%. The revenue from the automotive business for the whole year was RMB 33.17 billion, a year-on-year increase of 118.5\%;
-
Q4 single-vehicle gross margin was 20.9\%, Q3 was 18\%, and the gross profit margin for the entire year was 20.1\%. For comparison, Q4 2020 was 12.7\%;
-
The overall gross margin for Q4 was 17.2\%, which was basically the same as Q4 2020. Q3 was 20.3\%. The overall gross margin for 2021 was 18.9\%. For comparison, 2020 was 11.5\%;
– Net loss in Q4 was RMB 2.14 billion, a YoY growth of 54% and a QoQ growth of 146.5%; net loss for the full year of 2021 was RMB 4.02 billion, a decrease of 24.3% YoY from RMB 5.3 billion in 2020.
- Net loss attributable to the original shareholders in Q4 was RMB 2.18 billion, a YoY growth of 46% and a QoQ decrease of 23.8%; net loss attributable to the original shareholders for the full year of 2021 was RMB 10.57 billion, an increase of 88.4% YoY.
- R&D expenses in Q4 were RMB 1.83 billion, a YoY growth of 120.5% and a QoQ growth of 53.3%; R&D expenses for the full year of 2021 were RMB 4.59 billion, a YoY growth of 84.6%.
- Sales and administrative expenses in Q4 were RMB 2.36 billion, a YoY growth of 95.4%; sales and administrative expenses for the full year of 2021 were RMB 6.88 billion, a YoY growth of 74.9%.
- As of December 31, 2021, the company’s cash and cash equivalents were RMB 55.4 billion.
- The delivery guidance for Q1 2022 is 25,000 to 26,000 vehicles.
Comment:
According to NIO’s financial report for Q4 2021 and the full year of 2021, although the company is still experiencing losses in delivery data, production capacity, and service system construction, it is gradually realizing a healthy and positive closed loop of “production–sales–R&D–development”:
- The full-year delivery of new cars reached 91,429, almost double that of 2020;
- In the first two months of 2022, NIO delivered 15,783 new vehicles;
- Jianghuai NIO advanced manufacturing base is upgrading its production line in stages, and it is expected that the production capacity of the entire production line will increase to 60 JPH (Jobs Per Hour) in the middle of the year;
- In 2022, NIO will deploy 30 additional power plan destinations. The Chinese market will have more than 1,300 battery swapping stations, 6,000 supercharging stations, and 10,000 destination charging piles;
- NIO plans to add no fewer than 100 sales outlets this year, and over 50 new NIO service centers and authorized service centers.
On March 24, the first batch of mass-produced NIO ET7 vehicles were officially produced at the JAC-NIO Advanced Manufacturing Base in Hefei, and delivery officially began on March 28.
NIO stated that due to the impact of the epidemic, the delivery times in different regions will vary, and delivery commissioners will maintain communication with car owners to confirm the specific delivery times.
Ideal L9 New Exposure: 0-100 km/h in 5.3 seconds, Fuel Consumption of 5.9 L/100 km, and Double Wishbone Suspension
The third official exposure of the Ideal L9 arrived on Wednesday this week as scheduled, and the contents of this exposure include three parts:
-
Self-developed power system
-
New chassis
-
Self-developed domain controller
The new turbocharger has a maximum thermal efficiency of 40.5\%. The fuel efficiency under thermal mode is 5.9 L/100 km. The four-wheel drive system is composed of two permanent magnet motor groups, with a system maximum output power of 330 kW, about 449 horsepower. The corresponding acceleration from 0-100 km/h is 5.3 seconds. In terms of chassis, the front is a double wishbone and the rear is a five-link structure, and it is equipped with air springs and CDC shock absorber system.
The fully self-developed XCU central domain controller has a very high level of integration. It is particularly noteworthy that the latest S32G vehicle grade chip from NXP Semiconductors is used. The hardware, system, and software of XCU are completely self-developed by Ideal, achieving self-developed functions such as the hybrid electric system, air conditioning system, chassis system, and seat control system.
Quick Review:
As Ideal’s flagship model, it increasingly emphasizes self-development in key components. Currently, the exposed information for L9 includes appearance, interior, intelligent cockpit, hybrid system, and chassis, and it has been confirmed that the official launch will take place on April 16th with an expected price of 450,000-500,000 RMB. Whether it can become a star full-size SUV is something we will have to wait for.
Giga Berlin’s Model Y Rolls Off Production Line, Musk Dances Again
At 3 pm local time on March 22, Musk delivered 30 German-built Model Ys to the first batch of owners at the Berlin Super Factory. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Minister of Economy Robert Habeck also attended the handover ceremony to show support to Musk. That day, Tesla’s stock price rose by 7.6\%.
After being “late” for more than 8 months, the Tesla Berlin factory finally opened officially. Since the project was initiated, Berlin factory has been facing various challenges, including but not limited to:- The issue of “cutting trees” in the location selection for the factory has been “tugged” for three months, and Tesla finally passed by planting three times the number of trees cut down;
- Local environmental organizations filed a complaint to the environmental department accusing Tesla of “stealing” local drinking water. Tesla finally agreed to reduce the factory’s water usage by more than one-third. On March 4th, the local government approved Tesla’s production;
- Tesla’s Berlin factory currently only employs just over 3,000 people, while the Berlin factory (including battery factories) plans to recruit 12,000 people, but has difficulty recruiting.
Quick comment:
Obviously, the Berlin factory did not surprise Musk with the “Shanghai mode”. The Shanghai factory took less than one year from construction to delivery, and became Tesla’s most important production base in just two years. However, the production ramp-up of the Berlin factory may still be an extremely slow process, but production has begun after all, and Tesla’s total production capacity has been supplemented.
Finally, welcome to download the Garage App to learn about the latest new energy information. If you want to get more real-time communication, you can click here to join our community.
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.