Source: China Automobile Industry Association.
At the beginning of May, after waiting for seven working days, Tang Mengmeng, who works in a large high-tech company in Beijing, finally got the second car for his family — — All approval procedures for installing charging piles for G3 pure electric SUV in Tucki.
Although more and more consumers are beginning to accept new energy vehicles, there are more and more models to choose from in the market, and the phenomenon that charging is "hard to find" is gradually changing. However, after the subsidy fell sharply in the second half of last year, the new energy vehicle market began to fall into negative growth. In April, the monthly production and sales of new energy vehicles were 80,000 and 72,000 respectively, down by 22.1% and 26.5% respectively. In the first four months of this year, the cumulative production and sales reached 205,000 vehicles, down 44.8% and 43.4% respectively.
Can the government’s policies and measures to promote consumption make the new energy vehicle market regain its upward trend? What new choices will consumers face when buying new energy vehicles?
Subsidies are extended, purchase tax is exempted, and the policy "red envelope" boosts the recovery of new energy auto market.
"The city subsidizes 10,000 yuan, and the manufacturer subsidizes 10,000 yuan. Now it is cost-effective to buy an electric car." Zhao Shun, who runs a decoration company in Guangzhou, has been driving a Guangxi-licensed fuel car around customers for several years. Since last year, Guangzhou has implemented the "four stops and four stops" restriction policy for foreign vehicles entering the control area, stipulating that the longest continuous driving time of foreign vehicles in the downtown control area should not exceed 4 days, and the interval between driving again should be more than 4 days. "I often can’t remember it. If I violate the rules, I have to record 3 points and punish 200 yuan. I have long pondered buying a new energy vehicle." Zhao Shun said that in March, Guangzhou issued a good policy of subsidizing 10,000 yuan for the purchase of pure electric vehicles, and he made a move.
Zhu Zhanying, general manager of Guangzhou Changwei Store of GAC New Energy, told the reporter that the Guangzhou municipal government launched a package of measures to stabilize the economy on March 3, and clearly proposed a government subsidy of 10,000 yuan for the purchase of pure electric vehicles. On the same day, GAC New Energy announced that "the government subsidizes 10,000 yuan and Guangxin supplements 10,000 yuan". When the news came out, the online attention, the amount of visits to stores and the volume of transactions all rose sharply. "More than 200 units were sold in March, setting a record for the sales of pure electric vehicles in a single month since the establishment of our store!" Zhu Zhanying said.
On March 31st, the executive meeting of the State Council explicitly extended the purchase subsidy for new energy vehicles, which was originally withdrawn at the end of 2020, for two years. At the same time, the purchase tax exemption policy for new energy vehicles was also extended for two years, which means that the era of subsidies for new energy vehicles 2.0 has officially arrived.
On April 23, the Ministry of Finance and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued the Notice on Adjusting and Perfecting the Subsidy Policy for New Energy Vehicles, which clarified that the subsidy standards for new energy passenger cars (excluding rental and online car-sharing) will be reduced by 10%, 20% and 30% respectively on the basis of the previous year, and those with a cruising range of less than 300 kilometers will not be subsidized, and those with a sales price of more than 300,000 yuan/vehicle will not be subsidized.
"The new energy vehicle subsidy policy and purchase tax concessions are extended for two years, which is equivalent to giving consumers a big red envelope with a total amount of about 100 billion yuan." Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Federation, said that this is a great benefit for new energy vehicles.
Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC New Energy, believes that the extension of the subsidy and purchase tax exemption policy and the clarification of the extent of subsidy decline in the next three years are equivalent to giving the market a reassurance, which not only relieves the cost pressure of enterprises, but also facilitates the R&D and production organization of vehicle enterprises in the next stage. For consumers, it also means that there is no need to buy a car this year for the subsidy that is about to withdraw, and there will be more choices.
Charging piles are among the new infrastructure, and "more cars and fewer piles" is expected to be alleviated.
"The parking space at home is an annual rent and there is no property right. According to past practice, the residential property will not approve us to install charging piles." Tang Mengmeng said that what surprised her was that when she tried to fill out the safety commitment letter in triplicate provided by the 4S shop when picking up the car, she actually got the charging pile installation agreement in the community. Next, with the letter of commitment and the installation agreement of the property, I went to the power supply bureau to apply for installing the electric meter. After 7 working days, the application was approved.
Xu Qingyi, a full-time mother born in the 1990s who lives in Baoshan District, Shanghai, bought a pure electric car Geometry A owned by Geely at the end of last year. Although it is an old community and there is no fixed parking space, after application, the charging pile installation permit of the property was obtained.
In fact, as early as 2015, the General Office of the State Council issued the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure. In 2016, the National Development and Reform Commission and other five departments jointly issued relevant rules, clearly dividing the responsibilities of users, electric vehicle companies, power supply companies, property and other parties, and standardizing the relevant processes of charging pile construction in the community. In recent years, various localities have also introduced a series of measures to encourage charging piles to enter the community and implement awards and subsidies. Tang Mengmeng and Xu Qingyi have successfully installed charging piles, which have benefited from this.
Li Ye, director of supervision of the National Energy Administration, said that by the end of 2019, China’s charging infrastructure had reached 1.2 million, an increase of 500,000 compared with the end of last year. Not only that, the structure of charging piles has been further optimized, including 500,000 public piles, and the growth rate has slowed down; There are 700,000 private dedicated piles, maintaining a high-speed growth trend. "This also reflects from one side that new energy vehicles are accelerating the transformation from policy-driven to market-driven." Li Ye said.
With the construction of charging piles into new infrastructure, the process of charging pile construction has been accelerated, and the situation of "more cars and fewer piles" has been changed, and the "acceleration button" has been pressed for the consumption of new energy vehicles.
"It is estimated that the investment will be about 10 billion yuan this year, and there will be about 200,000 new public piles, more than 400,000 new private piles and 48,000 public charging stations." Cai Ronghua, deputy director of the Industrial Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said. Sun Guangqi, director of the Economic Construction Department of the Ministry of Finance, also said a few days ago that the Ministry of Finance will study the reward and compensation policy for optimizing the construction of charging facilities to further mobilize local enthusiasm.
Strengthen integration and innovation, and make more efforts in service value experience.
Affected by the epidemic situation and various factors, the cumulative sales volume of new energy vehicles in China in the first four months of this year was almost halved year-on-year, but it was an out-and-out "highlight moment" for the domestic Tesla Model 3. Especially in March, this model sold over 10,000 vehicles in a single month. Despite the subsidy adjustment in April, the sales volume was only 3,635 vehicles, but the output in that month still exceeded 10,000.
"My family wanted to buy a Model 3 at first." Tang Mengmeng told reporters that if we only look at brand effect, styling design, acceleration performance, etc., Tesla has advantages; However, considering the cost performance, China brand new energy vehicles are still more people-friendly. "Although Tesla’s entry-level model has dropped by more than 30,000 yuan, we still need a loan. Later, I wanted to be practical and pay the full amount to buy a Tucki G3. " Tang Mengmeng said.
"Although the use cost of new energy vehicles is low and the problem of difficult charging is gradually being solved, for consumers, the high initial investment cost and the low residual value of used cars still discourage most private consumers." Zhang Baolin, chairman of Changan Automobile, said frankly.
According to a survey, compared with the fuel vehicles in the same year, the value-keeping rate of used cars with pure electric vehicles is about 10% lower. Even Tesla, a 4-year-old used car with a mileage of 100,000 kilometers, has a preservation rate of less than 50%. Some domestic brands of pure electric vehicles with poor reputation have a preservation rate of only 63% for one year. To this end, some brands have introduced new business models such as residual repurchase and battery leasing, but they are still not the mainstream of the market.
"We must strengthen the integration and innovation of products, services and business models." Wang Xiaoqiu, president of SAIC, believes that to solve this problem, we should make full use of the financial tool chain and data business chain, open up the whole business chain of new energy car purchase, insurance, leasing, maintenance, repair, used car and salvage value recovery, establish a service plan covering the whole life cycle, and enhance the service value experience of users.
Concept upgrade, standard upgrade and technology upgrade to further improve the safety of new energy vehicles.
On May 8, a brand pure electric van spontaneously ignited at a charging station in Dongguan, and the photos of multiple cars charged together next to it exploded in the circle of friends. On May 18th, a video of a brand pure electric car suddenly caught fire and exploded in a public parking lot, which once again made the topic of pure electric car spontaneous combustion attract consumers’ attention.
According to incomplete statistics, in the short period of three months since May last year, 79 new energy vehicles caught fire in China, involving brands ranging from imported Tesla to tens of thousands of China brand products, with a wide distribution range. Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD’s board of directors, said: "The safety accident of any brand will affect the healthy development of the whole industry."
In order to further improve the safety of new energy vehicles, on May 12, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized and formulated three mandatory national standards for electric vehicles and power batteries, which were approved by the State Administration of Markets and the State Standardization Administration Committee and will be implemented on January 1, 2021. "The standard increases the thermal diffusion test of the battery system, requiring that the battery system will not catch fire or explode within 5 minutes after the thermal runaway of the battery monomer occurs, which will reserve the necessary safe escape time for the occupants." Experts from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
"This year, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and BYD, two leading companies in the field of power batteries in China, have achieved innovations in the field of battery pack technology." Ou Yangming Gao, academician of China Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of committee of 100 of China Electric Vehicle, said that CTP of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and blade battery technology of BYD have greatly improved the energy density and significantly reduced the cost of lithium iron phosphate batteries with obvious advantages in safety performance, which will be a great boon for consumers of pure electric passenger cars.
Cartography: Cai Huawei