Recently, a number of new EV manufacturers released their delivery data for February. Affected by the Spring Festival holiday, the delivery volume of new EV manufacturers was generally lower than in January. Except for the two car companies, AITO Wenjie and Ideal, the sales volume of the other new car-making forces did not exceed 10,000 units.
With BYD and Tesla, the two new energy head car companies, kicking off a new round of price cuts on March 1, the "best war" in the year of the dragon continues to heat up, or will further accelerate the market reshuffle. According to incomplete statistics from reporters, since March, 9 car companies have officially announced price cuts or opened limited-time discounts, with a maximum price reduction of 470,000 yuan.
From an industrial perspective, the new energy vehicle market is shifting from incremental development to stock competition. Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told reporters that on the one hand, because of the survival of the fittest in the new energy automobile industry, on the other hand, the game between new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles has reached the decisive stage, and the competition between independent brands and joint venture brands has also reached a white-hot level.
AITO is ranked No. 1 in the world
Judging from the delivery data, AITO Wenjie, Ideal and Aion are still stable in the first camp. In February, AITO Wenjie delivered 2 new cars110,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 50320%, of which 18,479 new M7 deliveries, accounting for 874%。AITO has once again surpassed Li Auto to rank first among the new forces that have announced deliveries.
It is worth noting that AITO's third model, the M9, has officially started nationwide large-scale delivery on February 26. According to the official data, the M9 has exceeded 50,000 units in 62 days after it was launched. The increase in new products has become the next sales growth point of AITO.
Li Auto delivered a total of 20,251 new cars in February, a year-on-year increase of 218%, narrowly lost to AITO. On March 1, Li Auto held its 2024 spring press conference, and its first pure electric model, MEGA, and the 2024 Li L series models were officially launched. Li Xiang, Chairman and CEO of Li Auto, said, "With the release and delivery of new models, we aim to return to the level of 50,000 units per month in March. "This means that the battle for the top spot in the delivery volume of new car manufacturers will continue.
As the third place on the list, GAC Aion's sales volume in February was 1670,000 units, down 4457%。Compared with the two companies in the first camp, AITO and Ideal, GAC Aion's delivery situation has shown fatigue.
Except for AITO, Li and GAC Aion, the "second generation" of several other new car-making forces and traditional car companies have not maintained the previous trend of breaking 10,000 units or hitting new highs, and the delivery volume in February was all below 10,000 units.
Specifically, several other car companies that have released their deliveries in February, in order of delivery volume, are NIO, ZEEKR Automobile, Leapmotor, Nezha Automobile, Xiaopeng Motors and VOYAH Automobile, with deliveries of 8,132, 7,510, 6,566, 6,085, 4,545 and 3,182 respectively, all of which declined month-on-month, and the year-on-year changes were .32%、-39.59%、-24.38% and 187%.
From the perspective of the whole industry, the new energy vehicle market was relatively sluggish in February, and the sales of new energy vehicles of traditional car companies such as BYD and Geely showed a significant month-on-month decline. Previously, in February or the lowest point of the annual auto market sales, the domestic retail sales of narrow passenger cars were about 1.15 million, down 435%, showing a regular seasonal trend; Domestic retail sales of new energy vehicles are expected to be 380,000 units, down 43% month-on-month, with a penetration rate of about 33%, and the market penetration rate has declined significantly from the end of last year.
The head car companies set off a "** war".
It is worth noting that at the beginning of March, BYD and Tesla, two new energy vehicle giants, set off a new round of "** war".
Following the launch of the "Glory Edition" model in multiple market segments by BYD in February, on March 1, BYD once again shouted the slogan of "electricity is lower than oil" and launched the BYD Song Pro DM-i Glory Edition, with a starting price of 10980,000 yuan. This also means that the A-class SUV model equipped with DM-i technology has officially entered the 100,000 yuan range.
Li Yunfei, general manager of the brand and public relations department of BYD Group, said that thanks to BYD's large-scale effect and the advantages of the whole industry chain, BYD's plug-in hybrid can be lower than that of fuel vehicles of the same level. At the same time, Li Yunfei also said that this move will completely open the decisive battle with fuel vehicles, and he even bluntly said, "Next, who will buy fuel vehicles?" ”
On the same day, Tesla followed suit and announced three discounts for Model 3 and Model Y models, including an 8,000 yuan limited-time existing car insurance subsidy, a 2,000 yuan limited-time existing car with designated car paint*** and a limited-time current car financial low interest.
According to the reporter's incomplete statistics, since then, car companies including Geely, SAIC Volkswagen, Feifan Automobile, Chery, etc., have successively announced price cuts and launched preferential policies for time-limited car purchases. For example, Geely launched the 2024 Spring Car Buying Festival, with cash discounts of up to 4 during March70,000 yuan. SAIC Volkswagen Touron family opens a limited-time offer, and at the same time 20T models can enjoy 2,000 yuan cash vouchers or 3-year maintenance**; Feifan Automobile announced that its Feifan F7 model has launched a limited-time car purchase policy, with a maximum discount of 30,000 yuan, and the price of advanced version, advanced Pro version, long-term Pro version, and performance Pro version has been reduced by 250,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan.
Guan Mingyu, McKinsey Global Managing Partner and Head of McKinsey & Company's automotive consulting business in China, told reporters that the development of China's and even the world's new energy vehicle industry is at a crossroads, and the cost reduction brought by technology iteration will promote the popularization of new energy vehicles into the fast lane. "At present, the new energy vehicle market is evolving at a rapid pace, and car companies can only occupy more market share by catching up with technological changes and seizing consumer trends. ”