"May Day" car market: chasing new energy vehicles

The "May Day" holiday just passed, with the implementation of new regulations on motor vehicle registration and other favorable policies, the auto consumption market continued to heat up, and the sales of new energy vehicles were not affected by factors such as limited capacity and rising prices, continuing the good momentum since the first quarter. Experts said that the consumption of new energy vehicles is still in a period of rapid growth, and the trend of continuous strengthening of the new energy vehicle market has been formed.

The car market heats up, and the popularity of new energy vehicles continues

In the past, the "May Day" holiday was one of the few "low price periods" in the car market, but this year's situation is different. Except for Shenzhen and other cities that launched "promotional packages" and car consumption subsidies, most regions and most car enterprises in China did not take action on the eve of the May Day holiday, and some brands even announced price increases in April or early May.

However, the lack of price preference did not affect the warming of the May Day car market. The reporter saw in many automobile 4S stores in Tianjin that on the basis of taking measures to prevent and control the epidemic situation, there was an endless stream of consumers in the exhibition hall to watch cars and negotiate. The sales director generally said that the passenger flow and the number of orders signed generally increased significantly than usual.

"Through online browsing on mobile phones, we locked a car early in the morning and came directly to place an order when we had time during the holiday." At the Tianjin Jinhui Ditong 4S store in Xiqing District, Mr. Li, a citizen, told reporters, "Now is a good time to buy a car. The epidemic has stabilized. Children need to use the car when they resume classes and adults need to use the car to go to work. We should hurry to buy the car while there is also national subsidies, for fear that the price will rise again. ”

Yu Boyuan, the sales manager of a 4S store, told reporters that during the "May Day" holiday, there were a lot of people coming to see the car. On average, more than 20 cars were ordered every day, about twice as many as before the festival. "In the first two years, the new energy vehicle is usually the first choice of the second family vehicle. Since this year, the number of consumers who purchase and exchange new vehicles has been increasing. In terms of model selection, the sales of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles are almost equal."

Such a hot new energy vehicle sales scene is just a profile of this year's "May Day" car market, and the substantial growth of new energy vehicle sales is a highlight of this year's car market. According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first quarter of this year, the production and sales of domestic new energy vehicles reached 1.293 million and 1.257 million respectively, with a year-on-year growth of 1.4 times and a market share of 19.3%. In the context of the decline in the growth rate of the national automobile production and sales, the production and sales volume of new energy vehicles increased significantly year on year, showing its strong market advantage. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicts that the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China will reach 5 million in 2022.

The sales volume of new energy vehicles has increased significantly, and the contribution of independent brands is indispensable.

Benefiting the continuous development of the automobile industry

From May 1 this year, the newly revised Regulations on Motor Vehicle Registration by the Ministry of Public Security came into effect. The reporter found that the new regulations have launched a series of facilitation measures in terms of vehicle registration and inspection, which is expected to further help the development of the automobile industry.

First, motor vehicle registration can enjoy "one-stop service". For car owners, the cumbersome process of vehicle registration is a major problem, and there are many materials to prepare, even one time can not complete the registration. Article 69 of the new version of the Provisions on the Registration of Motor Vehicles proposes to simplify the registration process: motor vehicle sales enterprises, second-hand car trading markets, motor vehicle safety inspection institutions, insurance institutions and other units can set up motor vehicle registration service stations, which means that the procedures of buying, selling, buying insurance, annual inspection and other procedures can be handled in a one-stop manner, so that owners can run less errands.

Second, small and micro non operating vehicles can be "one certificate for all" nationwide. From May 1, the registration of private cars and other non operating vehicles in other places will be carried out nationwide, and the "One Certificate Pass" will be implemented. Owners can quickly handle the registration without providing other certificates by holding their ID cards.

Third, new car registration realizes inspection free registration. In the past, the registration of new cars needed to be inspected by the staff of the vehicle management office before they could be registered. After May 1, the vehicle management office can share the new car information provided by the manufacturer without inspection. For car owners, the process and time of license plate registration are saved. New car registration is expected to be reduced from the original 8 processes and 5 working days to 3 processes and 2 working days, greatly improving the efficiency of the process.

Fourth, the information of motor vehicle changes can be "handled across provinces". After May 1, vehicles will no longer set the regional threshold for handling the business of changing information, and vehicles will not have to return to the original registration place to achieve "trans provincial office", which will facilitate the circulation of vehicles and personnel.

Fifth, realize the license plate exchange system. Previously, a car had to correspond to a license plate number, and replacement was not allowed. In case of any change, it will be included in the range of licensed cars. Nowadays, with the improvement of people's living standards, each family often has more than one car. The idle vehicles caused by other factors, such as limited number, cause troubles to owners. After the implementation of the new regulations, if the owner owns two cars, the license plates can be exchanged. This is expected to reduce the idle rate of vehicles and facilitate the daily driving of owners.

Guo Yan, director of the China Automotive Strategic Development Research Center of Tianjin University, believes that the implementation of the new regulations on motor vehicle registration is of positive significance for the inclusive benefits of various types of motor vehicles, including fuel vehicles and electric vehicles, and is expected to have a positive impact on the development of the automotive industry, and will also improve the activity of new and used car transactions.

The sustained growth of new energy vehicle sales cannot be separated from the support of industrial policies for new energy vehicles. In recent years, China has comprehensively supported the development of new energy vehicle industry through vehicle purchase subsidies, improving the construction of charging piles, controlling vehicle electricity prices and other measures, and consumers' recognition of new energy vehicles has continued to increase. Now, despite the gradual decline of subsidies, new car consumption benefits continue to come.

On April 25, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Releasing Consumption Potential to Promote the Continuous Recovery of Consumption, which defined the development direction of automobile consumption. It is mentioned that the state supports the accelerated development of new energy vehicles, advocates green travel, increases the proportion of urban buses and trolley buses, and promotes the electrification of public service vehicles. At the same time, encourage qualified regions to carry out new energy vehicles and green smart home appliances to the countryside, and promote the construction of charging piles (stations) and other supporting facilities. Industry insiders said that the policy will promote the consumption of new energy vehicles to a new level.

Supply under pressure continues to strengthen

Due to the continuous impact of the epidemic at home and abroad, the supply of chips and other parts is limited, which has become a major problem for many automobile enterprises. Some high-end models or intelligent new energy vehicles often need to wait for a long time to place orders or receive goods. The longer the supply cycle of vehicles and the higher the price, it may curb the purchase demand of some consumers.

The reporter found that since this year, many automobile enterprises have announced price increases, among which the price of pure electric vehicles has increased significantly. Wang Wei introduced that affected by the rise of raw material prices, BYD Auto raised prices twice this year, with each increase ranging from several thousand yuan to more than 10000 yuan. At the same time, due to the accidental events such as the Shanghai epidemic, the uncertainty of the supply of key parts such as chips increased, which brought certain risks to the automobile production in the second quarter.

Compared with the limited output, the market demand is still strong. Yu Boyuan said: "BYD's car sales have not been affected by the price rise, and many consumers have stepped up their orders in the near future with the mentality of 'buying up, not buying down'. The order cycle of some popular models has been extended to three months, and some models can no longer be booked. But we believe that as long as they can produce them, they can sell them."

Guo Yan believes that although the shortage of chips and the rise in the price of raw materials have had some impact on the production of new energy vehicles and pushed up the manufacturing costs, the rise in the price of new energy vehicles is relatively rational at present, and has not had a significant impact on sales, which indicates that the trend of continued strengthening of the new energy vehicle market has taken shape.

A recent survey conducted by the China Automotive Strategic Development Research Center of Tianjin University shows that online search for new energy vehicle concepts continues to heat up. From 2014 to 2021, the percentage of the search index of new energy vehicle concepts in the overall vehicle market search index is 6.15% in 2014, 7.69% in 2015, 11.13% in 2016, 18.12% in 2017, 14.86% in 2018, 18.85% in 2019, 28.89% in 2020, and 36.37% in 2021, respectively, New energy vehicle charging pile The growth momentum is rapid.

Guo Yan believes that in recent years, China's new energy vehicle market can be divided into three stages: slow growth, rapid growth and stable growth. From the trend of consumer search index, since 2019, China's new energy vehicle consumption has been in a rapid growth period, and the market is transforming the cumulative diffusion of cognition into the growth of actual commodity sales. Without the impact of the epidemic, the production and sales data of new energy vehicles in the past two years might be more eye-catching.

Li Wenlong, chief economist of Huanya Digital Economy Research Institute, said that with the growing maturity of a series of independent automobile brands represented by new energy vehicles, China's automobile industry has broad prospects, which will not only gain recognition from consumers in China, but also be the advantage of Chinese manufacturing to further "go global"