The tide of rising raw material costs has made the "god car" unable to bear it.
Image source: Wuling Automobile's official website Weibo
On the night of March 23, Wuling Automobile's official Weibo announced, "Affected by comprehensive factors such as the continuous sharp rise in upstream raw material prices, SAIC-GM-Wuling will adjust the official guidance price of its Wuling Hongguang MINIEV series models, Wuling NanoEV models, and Baojun KiWi EV models, ranging from 4,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan, and the price adjustment will take effect from 00:00 on March 24." ”
The "Daily Economic News" reporter found that after this round of price adjustment, the starting price of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV has been raised from the previous 28,800 yuan to 32,800 yuan, of which the highest increase in the price of the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV easy model increased by nearly 14%; the starting price of Wuling Hongguang MINIV Macaron Version, Wuling Nano EV model and other models was also raised by 4,000 yuan; and the price of Baojun KiWi EV model was directly raised by 8,000 yuan, from 69,800 yuan to 77,800 yuan.
As one of the most representative new energy models in China, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV is favored by consumers for its relatively low price. According to official data, as of December 31, 2021, the cumulative sales of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV have exceeded 550,000 vehicles, of which the annual sales volume in 2021 was 426,000 units, winning the first place in the annual sales of new energy models in mainland China in 2021.
However, in the face of the recent surge in raw material costs, the huge production and marketing scale of Wuling Hongguang MINIEV has not been able to offset the rise in marginal costs. Take the Wuling Hongguang MINIEV easy version model as an example, which is only equipped with a 9.3kWh lithium iron phosphate battery, but the price has been raised by 4,000 yuan in this price adjustment, and the increase in the cost of the current power battery can be seen.
Image source: Photo by reporter Li Shuo (data map)
According to the reporter's incomplete statistics, in less than two weeks from March 15 to March 24, 11 car companies such as Tesla, BYD, Chery New Energy, Xiaopeng Automobile, Nezha Automobile, Zero Trot Car, Geely's Geometry Car, WM Automobile, Great Wall Euler, Ideal Automobile, and Wuling have successively announced the increase in the price of their new energy models. Lantu Automobile, which is "entangled in whether to increase prices", also announced a few days ago that it will announce a price adjustment plan on March 31.
The reasons for the price increase announced by various car companies are generally concentrated in the impact of "a sharp rise in raw material prices" and "national subsidies". According to the reporter's understanding, the rising cost of raw materials for power batteries may be the main reason for the "price increase tide" of new energy vehicles.
As the core component of pure electric vehicles, the cost of power batteries accounts for about 40% of the cost of the vehicle. Some people believe that once the price of power batteries rises, it is bound to bring huge pressure on the cost of car companies. Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of Hive Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters that the price increase of battery products needs to be taken step by step, and battery companies should negotiate with vehicle companies in a friendly manner, and everyone should jointly bear the cost pressure.
"The price of the whole vehicle cannot be raised by one or two million yuan at once, and I think there must be a process of product structure adjustment and slowly accepted by the market." So the price adjustment is dynamic and not ends in one go. We will continue to communicate and negotiate with the vehicle company, dynamically adjust, and share the pressure of cost changes between the two sides. Yang Hongxin told reporters that the price increase of many new energy vehicle companies has exceeded his previous predictions.
Before the "price increase tide" of this round of new energy vehicles, the price of power battery raw materials has gone through several rounds of soaring.
"Now customers use the grab model, as long as they say that there is a stock will be bought immediately." Sometimes the goods we just pulled from the factory are not too late to unload to the warehouse, and they are directly loaded into another car to send logistics, and the inventory in the warehouse is basically very small. Wang Hong, head of sales of Jiangsu Nantong Yuehua New Material Technology Co., Ltd., said, "The increase in lithium prices in the two weeks after the Spring Festival resumed work was very crazy, and it could rise by 10,000 yuan in half a day." At present, the payment cycle requirements for customers are also very short, and generally if the payment is not enough, the contract will have to be annulled. ”
Image source: Visual China
According to Baichuan Yingfu data, on March 18, the mainstream quotation range of the domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate market was between 514,000 and 520,000 yuan per ton, an increase of 95% during the year, and a year-on-year increase of more than 500%.
Not only lithium metal, since the beginning of this year, the spot price of nickel, one of the raw materials of ternary precursors, has also risen rapidly, and has risen by more than 15% so far. The data shows that the recent price change of nickel sulfate alone has caused the price of ternary cathode materials to rise by 160,000 to 250,000 yuan per ton, and the price of ternary lithium batteries per kWh has increased by 31 yuan to 47 yuan. Taking electric vehicles equipped with 50 kWh battery packs as an example, the increase in nickel prices alone has increased the cost by 1550 to 2350 yuan. The price of cobalt, another major battery raw material, has also increased by more than 10% this year.
The rising price of raw materials has also surprised many heads of power battery companies. "Lithium carbonate was only 50,000 or 60,000 yuan per ton in 2019, and now it has risen to 4.5 million yuan per ton, up 10 times." What level can be risen in the future, it is still uncertain, and the pressure on us from rising raw material prices is very large. Yang Hongxin said frankly to reporters.
Zhu Yuanzhi, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering of North China University of Technology, said: "Recently, due to factors such as government regulation and increased supply, the price of lithium carbonate has gradually stabilized. However, in the long run, lithium ore is a non-renewable resource, and the price of lithium carbonate will still be subject to supply and demand. Therefore, while adjusting the market price by increasing the supply, it is also necessary to find new alternative battery material sources and recycle existing materials. ”
Reporter | Dong Tianyi
Editor| Pei Jianru Cheng Peng wang jiaqi
Proofreading | He Xiaotao
Cover image source: Wuling Automobile official website Weibo
| the original article of the daily economic news nbdnews |
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