Zhongxin Jingwei, December 16 (Peng Linli, Yan Shuxin) "If you have non-compliant electric vehicles at home, hurry up and complete it!" In recent days, in a community chat group in Beijing's Dongcheng District, community workers have repeatedly reminded nearby residents.
According to the notice previously issued by Beijing, from January 1, 2024, illegal electric three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles will be completely banned. Most of the popular "old man music" (low-speed electric three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles) among the elderly group are such vehicles.
Not only Beijing, but all parts of the country are speeding up the removal of "old man music". "Old Man Music" has entered the countdown to exit, where should the manufacturer go?
The 2 to 5 year exit transition period has arrived.
On July 12, 2021, the five departments of Beijing jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Illegal Electric Three- and Four-Wheeled Vehicles", and from January 1, 2024, illegal electric vehicles.
3. Four-wheeled vehicles are not allowed to drive on the road, and are not allowed to be parked in public places such as roads, squares, and parking lots. If you drive or park on the road in violation of regulations, the law enforcement department will investigate and deal with it in accordance with the law.
The "Circular" also clearly stipulates that it is prohibited to produce and sell illegal electric three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles within Beijing.
The so-called illegal electric three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles refer to three-wheeled and four-wheeled motor vehicles that are produced without the permission of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, are not listed in the "Announcement of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products", do not meet the technical standards for motor vehicle safety, and use electric power to drive three-wheeled and four-wheeled motor vehicles used to carry passengers or goods. This type of vehicle cannot be registered to apply for a license plate, nor can it be insured with compulsory motor vehicle traffic accident liability insurance.
Because of the characteristics of cheap and simple procedures, "old man music" has been deeply loved by the elderly.
According to data from the Shandong Automobile Industry Association, since 2013, China's low-speed electric vehicle market has maintained a rapid growth of more than 50% for several consecutive years, and soon formed an industrial scale with an annual output of 1 million vehicles, an economic drive of 100 billion yuan, and about 1 million upstream and downstream employees.
However, due to the existence of large traffic safety hazards, many places have strengthened the control of "old man music" in recent years.
In March this year, the second meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress reviewed the "Jiangsu Provincial Road Traffic Safety Regulations (Revised Draft)", which strengthened the management of non-road vehicles and other power-driven vehicles, as well as the supervision of the production and sales of vehicles that do not meet national standards. No unit or individual shall produce or sell motor vehicles (including motorcycles and tricycles and four-wheeled vehicles driven by power units) that do not meet the technical standards of motor vehicles and are not licensed by the national competent department of motor vehicle products.
The "old man's music" in the charging shed. Photo by Peng Linli.
Since April this year, Wuhu City, Anhui Province, has begun to set up electric three- and four-wheeled vehicles ("Lao Tou Le" manned three- and four-wheeled electric vehicles, industry and ordinary freight three- and four-wheeled electric vehicles) in the main urban area to strictly manage road sections, and comprehensively strengthen management, including stipulating that "Lao Tou Le" is prohibited from driving on strictly controlled roads.
Previously, Shanghai and Puyang City, Henan Province also issued a strict ban on old-age scooters on the road and illegal electric vehicles.
3. Relevant provisions on the "zero" of four-wheeled vehicles.
As early as November 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other six departments issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Low-speed Electric Vehicles", making it clear that the old scooters belong to the category of low-speed electric vehicles that are included in the supervision, and at the same time mentioned that in accordance with the work idea of "upgrading a batch, standardizing a batch, and eliminating a batch", accelerate the formulation and release of national standards such as "Technical Conditions for Four-wheeled Low-speed Electric Vehicles", and accelerate the research and implementation of specific management measures for the production, sales, taxes, insurance and use management, and after-sales service of low-speed electric vehicles. Establish and improve the management system of low-speed electric vehicles. In addition to requiring all localities to clean up and rectify existing production capacity, the "Notice" also strictly prohibits the addition of new low-speed electric vehicle production capacity.
At the beginning of 2019, all provinces and municipalities across the country successively issued relevant policies to give a transition period of 2 to 5 years for low-speed four-wheeled vehicles in the market.
Players are in a crisis of transformation.
In the "Old Man Music" market, many players have emerged, including Reading Automobile, Jinpeng Automobile, Hebei Yujie Automobile, Shandong Litz, etc.
Among them, Reading Motors, founded in 2008, is the "big brother" of the industry. According to public reports, from 2016 to 2018, Reading Automobile won the sales championship of low-speed electric vehicles for three consecutive years, with sales of 150,000, 210,000 and 28 respectively70,000 units.
After the issuance of the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Low-speed Electric Vehicles", the sales of related products declined, and players such as Reading Motors began to seek a new way out.
According to a report by the Lithium Battery Research Institute (GGII), the production scale of four-wheeled low-speed electric vehicles began to shrink to 123 in 2018Around 30,000 units, sales of low-speed electric vehicles declined for the first time. In 2019, due to the impact of clean-up and rectification, a large number of enterprises stopped production for rectification, and the production of low-speed electric vehicles was reduced to 850,000 units. In 2020, the market environment for low-speed electric vehicles will be more severe, and the production will further decline to 710,000 units, and the industry output will shrink to 320,000 units in 2021 due to the impact of policies and market prosperity.
There are still some "old man" models parked in a community in Chaoyang, Beijing. Photo by Peng Linli.
The above report mentions that since the second half of 2018, low-speed vehicle companies have carried out self-rescue, and enterprises with technical conditions have begun to transform to high-speed vehicle business, and have obtained the relevant production qualifications of national passenger cars and commercial vehicles through mergers and acquisitions of traditional car companies, application for production qualifications, and cooperation with traditional car companies; Some companies with weaker conditions have begun to transform their business and switch to electric motorcycles.
In 2018 and 2019, Reading Automobile acquired new energy vehicle qualifications through the acquisition of Shaanxi Qinxing and Sichuan Mustang; Shandong Litz of Fulu Group also entered the new energy vehicle market in 2018 through strategic cooperation with BAIC Manufacturing; Jinpeng Automobile obtained the production qualification in 2019 by launching the passenger car brand Jimai New Energy; In 2017, Hebei Yujie Automobile received investment from Great Wall Motor, and changed its name to Lingtu Automobile in the following year to deploy new energy vehicles.
Judging from the current situation, if the 'old man' manufacturers want to continue to survive, they can only transform and upgrade to micro electric vehicles. The A00 class electric car will be its replacement. As far as the current market segment is concerned, micro electric vehicles have a lot of consumer demand, such as Wuling Hongguang MINI, Binguo, Great Wall Ora series and so on. Zhang Hong, secretary general of the new energy branch of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said to Sino-Singapore Jingwei.
However, the transformation of these companies has not been effective. Taking Reading Automobile as an example, since 2019, the company has successively launched three products: Reading Mango, Reading Mango Pro, and Reading Mango MAX, focusing on the A00 pure electric mini vehicle market. Sales data shows that in 2022, Reading Motors' sales of all micro electric vehicles will be less than 8,000 units.
In May 2023, Reading Automotive Group*** filed for bankruptcy; In December, Reading Automobile added information on equity freezing, and the amount of frozen equity was 258.8 billion yuan, the company currently has a number of executed information, with a total amount of 9547710,000 yuan; In addition, there are also a number of consumption restriction orders, judgment defaulters (lai) and final case information.
After changing its name to Lingtu Automobile, Hebei Yujie Automobile Industry has successively launched pure electric small SUVs-ONE and a variety of micro and small electric sedans since 2018, but finally stopped production due to poor sales. In May 2020, Lingtu Auto embarked on the road of bankruptcy reorganization.
After cooperating with BAIC Manufacturing, Shandong Litz jointly launched mini vehicles such as Yuanbao and Chang'e EV. According to the data of the owner's home, from January to October 2023, the cumulative sales of ingots will be 6,566 units. In addition, the Chang'e EV has not yet been launched, and no sales data has been released.
Jinpeng Automobile's Jimai New Energy officially rolled off the production line of its first product in April 2020. At present, the official website shows that there are four mini cars on sale, including Lingbao BOX, Lingbao COCO, Lingbao UNI, and Lingbao Box Pro. According to the October sales data released by the Passenger Association, in October 2023, the sales volume of Lingbao Box will be 687 units, and the sales volume of Lingbao UNI will be 358 units. The cumulative sales volume of Jimai New Energy this year reached 9,727 vehicles.
Judging from the overall situation, the cumulative annual sales of Litz and Jinpeng are around 10,000 units.
Zhongxin Jingwei called Antke, a sub-brand of Jinpeng Automobile, as a consumer, and the relevant personnel said: "At present, only the cloud model of the Antke brand is compliant, and it is an electric tricycle that is produced with the permission of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is included in the list of "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products". With the change of policy, we may only focus on the production of electric tricycles in the future. ”
It is reported that the list of "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and has been updated to the 377th batch. According to the latest list, more than 70 companies such as Jinpeng, Yadea, Zongshen, Wuyang, Shifeng, and Emma are among the compliant electric tricycle manufacturers.
For the difficult transformation of low-speed electric vehicles, Yuan Chengyin, general manager of the National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center, said to Zhongxin Jingwei, "First of all, the core technology, now the domestic independent new energy intelligent vehicles are becoming more and more cost-effective, and low-speed car companies do not have core technology, and the product strength will be affected." Secondly, it is also related to the ability to control resources. The overall strength and capital of these enterprises are weak, and they will definitely face the survival of the fittest in the future. Their competitors are not only a county-level enterprise, but may also be a large-scale national automobile group, and the challenges and competitive environment are naturally greater. ”
Zhang Hong also believes that for most of the "old man" manufacturers, transformation and upgrading is not easy. "In the absence of policy support and technical support, most of the 'old man' manufacturers, after all, will complete its historical mission and withdraw from the historical stage. ”
For more information about the report, please contact the author of this article, Peng Linli: [email protected]) (China-Singapore Jingwei APP).
The views in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. )
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