Last year, the impact of "lack of core" on the automotive industry is believed to be fresh in people's minds. Unexpectedly, a few days after the Year of the Tiger went to work, the car market reported a price increase. Last weekend, BMW spread the news of the price increase because of the "lack of core" throughout the circle of friends, making people feel that a new round of price increases seems to be coming in the car market again.
Did BMW really raise prices? Are there any other brands following suit? Will the shortage of automotive chips continue this year?
01 BMW price increase because of chip shortage?
Last weekend, many sales consultants of BMW 4S stores in Hangzhou forwarded a message in the circle of friends: because of the shortage of chips, BMW's main models (including domestic and imported) will raise the market price, the previous quotation will be invalidated, the follow-up booking will implement the new price, and the delivery time may also be delayed.
On Monday, an insider of a BMW 4S store in Hangzhou revealed that since the weekend last week, the offers in the store have indeed been raised, such as the BMW 5 Series currently offers 7 points, bmw X3 and 3 Series currently offer 8 points, and compared with the Spring Festival, it has generally increased by 6,000-8,000 yuan. The person revealed that the current price adjustment range is actually not large, depending on the supply situation in the later stage, "if the chip shortage can not be alleviated, it is possible to continue to raise." Judging from the results of the inquiry posted by netizens, BMW's offer in the past two days has indeed been raised, and the highest is more than 10,000 pieces.
For the reason for the price increase, the insider said that the main reason is that the chip shortage has led to the supply of new cars that cannot keep up, "Customers who have recently booked cars, we will also leave room for delivery time on the order, so as not to cause complaints." ”
The news of the "first shot" of the price increase in the year of the tiger launched by BMW has also become a hot topic in the main forum of BMW. Some netizens believe that this is BMW dealers playing a routine, the purpose is to speculate on the price increase news, the increase in the price of the car price at the end of last year to rise again; some netizens believe that if the chip is really in short supply, why did Mercedes-Benz and Audi not increase prices?
But a BMW 4S store manager said that although some consumers do not believe that there is still a shortage of chips, the information obtained by dealers is that production has been affected, and some models may not be able to go offline on time according to the previous scheduling plan, so everyone will adjust the price in advance according to the wave of chip crisis in May last year. ”
02 Some new energy vehicles have also recently announced price increases
However, it is indeed the same as what netizens said, and only BMW has increased its price at present. Judging from the reporter's understanding, the current market price of Luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Lexus in the Hangzhou market is relatively stable, and many main models have existing cars.
But news of new energy vehicle price increases has been steady recently. Since the decline of the new energy subsidy policy at the end of last year, many car companies have successively announced the increase in price. Since December last year, a number of new energy vehicle brands, including Tesla, Xiaopeng Motors, GAC Aean, ZeroCar, Euler, Volkswagen ID., etc., have either officially raised the prices of some of their models or announced the timing of the insurance policy.
On February 1, BYD announced that due to the sharp rise in raw material prices and the decline of new energy car purchase subsidies, the official guidance price of BYD Dynasty and Ocean series new energy vehicles will be raised by 1,000-7,000 yuan. SAIC Roewe also recently announced that it will raise the official guidance price of many of its new energy models from March 1. SAIC Roewe said that the price increase was mainly affected by unfavorable factors such as the global chip shortage and the decline of the national new energy subsidy policy.
An industry insider said that although the price increase of new energy vehicles in this round is mainly related to the decline in the amount of new energy subsidies, the supply of chips and the price of raw materials do have a greater impact on electric vehicles. Tesla motors are the victims of the chip shortage. According to reports, in order to cope with the intensifying chip crisis and complete the order delivery in the fourth quarter of 2021, Tesla plans to "reduce" some of the Chinese-made Model 3 and Model Y - remove one of the two electronic control units in the bogie of the vehicle, and under normal circumstances, a total of two electronic control units will be installed in the standard configuration of the above models.
According to feedback from some Tesla customers, delayed deliveries have become the norm for Tesla. A Model 3 booking customer known to the reporter said that the promise he got when he booked the car was delivered at the end of February and the beginning of March, but after waiting for two months, there was no movement at all, "Some people in the group have been waiting for 100 days and have not moved, crazy!" ”
03Can automotive chips continue to be in short supply this year?
Although it has entered 2022, the impact of the chip shortage has not passed. Up to now, the global automotive industry has been affected by the shortage of automotive chips for nearly a year, and last year the global auto market has reduced production by more than 10 million vehicles, which is equivalent to the global sales of the entire Toyota Group in 2021 (10.5 million units).
Due to the shortage of chips, many multinational car companies are forced to adopt short-term suspension of production or production cuts and allocation reductions in 2021 to cope. For example, since May 2021, BMW Has put forward a product delivery warning prompt to customers, some of its models will have "reduced" behavior, some cancel the optional automatic driving assistance system Pro function, some temporarily do not provide the function of opening the trunk cover; some domestic Audi models can only provide a mechanical key and a remote control key when delivered, and after the production capacity is restored, the remote control key will be reissued one after another Some of the Langyi models produced since the first half of last year had to cancel the central control screen because of the chip shortage, install non-original after-sales navigation, and have no MOS function and CRS3.0 related functions after installation.
In the impression of many people, with the development of the epidemic and the continuous expansion of foreign chip manufacturers, the crisis of chip shortage seems to have passed. But the truth is that the "lack of cores" is still the biggest threat to the auto industry in 2022, and the chip shortage has not improved this year. According to the latest data from AFS, a company that forecasts automotive industry data, as of February 13, the shortage of chips has led to a cumulative reduction in production in the global automotive market this year by about 527,400 units, a sharp increase of 42% from the cumulative production reduction (370,500 units) as of February 6.
Judging from the recent 2021 financial reports of global semiconductor manufacturers, the current global chip inventory is still lower than normal, and many manufacturers believe that the industrial chain is still difficult to get rid of the supply shortage. The judgment of each family is also different as to the time when this situation will end. Optimists such as Infineon believe that they are expected to say goodbye to chip shortages this year, while NXP has given the complete opposite opinion, believing that this year will be difficult to finish.
A survey released jan. 25 by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that the inventory of key chips from U.S. manufacturers and other semiconductor companies has been reduced from 40 days in 2019 to less than five days, and the global chip shortage will continue at least until the second half of this year.
According to foreign media reports, the impact of the "lack of core" on the production lines of multinational car companies is still continuing: Ford Motor last week took temporary suspension or production reduction measures against 8 of its U.S. factories; Toyota Motor also suspended production for 7 production lines in 6 factories in Japan for 2-13 days this month.
In order to get rid of the crisis, some multinational car companies are also trying to find ways. The latest news is that South Korea's Hyundai Motor is conducting tests to determine whether home appliance chips can be used on less critical automotive systems, such as headlamps and taillights. If feasible, it will be possible to reduce the number of automotive chips used per car, ultimately reducing the impact on its manufacturing operations.
In order to meet the supply of chips, a number of major international chip manufacturers have started plans to build new factories and expand the capacity of existing factories. According to the China Automobile Center, it will not be until the third quarter of this year that the supply of chips will be greatly alleviated. From this point of view, the crisis of "lack of core" in the automotive industry may continue for some time.