Auto & Transportation

On April 11th, data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that in March of this year, China's new energy vehicles continued to develop well, with production and sales continuing to grow rapidly. In that month, production and sales reached 674000 and 653000 vehicles, respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 44.8% and 34.8%. At the same time, international trade exports of new energy vehicles reached 78000, a year-on-year increase of 3.9 times.

Industry experts say that since the first quarter, China's new energy vehicle market has seen a "good start", with international trade exports becoming a strong driving force for market development. However, while the industry continues to improve, car companies themselves are facing the problem of differentiation in profitability, and there are still constraints in infrastructure construction and other aspects. The new energy vehicle industry still needs to clear obstacles.

The first season of the new energy vehicle market has started well

According to data from the China Automobile Association, in March, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 674000 and 653000, respectively, with a month on month increase of 22% and 24.4%, and a year-on-year increase of 44.8% and 34.8%, respectively. The market share reached 26.6%. From January to March, the cumulative production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 1.65 million and 1.586 million, with year-on-year growth of 27.7% and 26.2% respectively, and the market share reached 26.1%.

Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Automobile Association, said that the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China continued to grow year-on-year this year, and the market share has increased significantly compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, in the global new energy vehicle market, China's market share has reached 64%, continuing to maintain its global leading position.

Recent annual reports disclosed by some car companies show that new energy vehicles have become their main source of revenue growth. According to the recent annual report disclosed by GAC Group, in 2022, the group's production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 7.058 million and 6.887 million, respectively, with year-on-year growth of 96.9% and 93.4%, with new energy vehicle sales accounting for about 43%. The group's operating revenue was 109.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of approximately 45.57%. Its new energy vehicle brand, GAC Aian, achieved a revenue of 38.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of approximately 124.17%.

Geely Automobile also mentioned in its announcement that it has made significant progress in its new energy transformation, with a revenue of 148 billion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 45.6%. Among them, the sales of new energy increased by 300%, accounting for 22.9%, and the sales of new energy vehicles increased to 22.9%.

Huaxi Securities stated in its research report that in 2023, new energy vehicles will enter a period of market share grabbing, and the supply and demand of lithium carbonate will tend to balance. Prices will continue to decline, providing room for price reduction for new energy vehicles. In the long run, the trend of electrification and intelligence will continue to be maintained, and the penetration rate of new energy is expected to further increase in the future. We firmly believe in the new energy vehicle industry.

Enhanced competitiveness, sharp increase in international trade exports

China's new energy vehicle industry as a whole has maintained rapid development, and exports have continued to grow rapidly, becoming an important driving force for the development of the new energy vehicle industry.

According to data from the China Automobile Association, in March this year, China exported 78000 new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 3.9 times. From January to March, the export of new energy vehicles reached 248000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1.1 times. Specifically, from January to March, BYD exported 43000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 12.8 times. Nezha, a new force, also saw rapid export growth. According to the February pure electric vehicle license plate listing in the Thai market, its Nezha V remained second on the list, with 1254 vehicles, a month on month increase of 126%. In addition, on March 21st, at Nansha Port in Guangzhou, 3600 Nezha cars began shipping to the sea, becoming the largest single batch export among China's new car manufacturing forces.

Xu Haidong, Deputy Chief Engineer of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, pointed out in response to a question from the Economic Reference Daily that in the future, China's new energy vehicle exports will still maintain a high growth rate, domestic brands are currently highly competitive, and the recognition of China's new energy vehicle brands in overseas markets is also constantly increasing.

According to the continuous tracking by the association, the demand for Chinese brands in the international trade market is still very strong. Despite the improvement in overseas supply capacity, the export momentum of Chinese brands is still developing well, "said Xu Haidong.

Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the Joint Conference on Passenger Car Market Information, also stated that with the scale advantage and market expansion demand of China's new energy, more and more Chinese made new energy product brands are going abroad, their recognition overseas continues to increase, their service network continues to improve, and the international trade export market of new energy sources is improving, with promising prospects.

Upgrading to address development bottlenecks

While the industry prospects are generally optimistic, the industry itself is also showing a trend of differentiation in its development process.

Chen Shihua mentioned that some new power car companies are still facing significant profit pressure, and it will be difficult to achieve profitability in the future if new power sales cannot maintain a high-speed growth momentum.

The pace of traditional car companies transitioning towards electrification is constantly accelerating, and many companies have established new electric brands. While learning business concepts and models from new power enterprises, their brands, technologies, and research and development still have strong competitiveness. "Chen Shihua emphasized," From the perspective of the future competition pattern of new energy vehicles, the profitability of new power enterprises still needs to be paid attention to

Dongguan Securities also mentioned in its research report that the prices of multiple links in the new energy vehicle industry chain continue to decline, and industry competition is intensifying. High cost homogeneous production capacity is gradually facing clearance, and cost reduction and efficiency improvement are the trend of industry development.

Xu Haidong stated that China's new energy vehicle market will continue to grow in the future, and if various enterprises can keep up with the pace, they will all gain a certain market share.

On the other hand, many experts have also mentioned that the new energy vehicle industry still needs to address issues such as infrastructure construction.

As the foundation for the development of new energy vehicles, China's charging and swapping infrastructure has developed rapidly in recent years, but there are still some problems. According to data released by the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of March, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure in China was 5.842 million units, an increase of 87.9% year-on-year. Among them, there are 1.958 million public charging infrastructure units and 3.884 million private charging facilities built along with the vehicle. The number of private charging stations is significantly higher than that of public charging stations.

Zhang Zutao, Director of the Engineering Training Center of Southwest Jiaotong University, stated in an interview that there is currently an imbalance between the number of new energy vehicles and the number of charging stations. The reasons include a lack of top-level design, misallocation of resource allocation, obstruction of market resource supply, and the lack of unified industry standards.

At present, charging facilities have become an important factor hindering the development of electric vehicles in some scenarios, It is recommended to formulate comprehensive guidelines and rules for the development of charging facilities at the national level, shifting from 'rebuilding light management' to 'emphasizing both construction and management'. At the same time, we should streamline the resource allocation model and encourage complementary advantages. In addition, we hope that the Ministry will take the lead and collaborate with mainstream enterprises to develop unified industry standards as soon as possible, including developing a unified charging facility app