Auto & Transportation

With sales doubled, capital entering, and auto companies "catch the sea", new energy vehicle manufacturing has undoubtedly become the hottest sector. But with the influx of all parties, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also sounded the alarm for "new cars." On September 13, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xiao Yaqing said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office, "The next step is to make new energy companies bigger and stronger. Now the number of new energy vehicle companies is too large, and they are in a small but scattered state."

In recent years, not only have traditional car companies accelerated their transformation, but giants in various fields have also entered the "car-making" industry across borders. However, many problems have been exposed behind the rapid increase in the number of "new car" and "new car" companies. After a round of competition is eliminated, some companies have overcapacity, showing signs of weak competitiveness and product homogeneity. With the development of energy vehicles, the centralization of the resource market has become the focus of solving the small and scattered situation.

New cars "catch the sea"

Xiao Yaqing said that new energy vehicles are indeed a very important direction for the development of the global automotive field, as well as a strategic choice for my country's automotive development. The Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to it, and have taken the lead in clarifying the national strategy for the development of new energy vehicles, and have also introduced a series of policy measures. In 2012, the State Council issued the "Energy-saving and New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan (2012-2020)"; in 2013, the State Council approved the establishment of an inter-ministerial joint conference system for the development of new energy vehicles to implement the strategic decision-making arrangements and specific tasks of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. "The next step is to make the enterprise bigger and stronger." He said.

In recent years, the country has continuously introduced favorable policies to support the new energy industry, and the new energy automobile industry has also developed rapidly. As of the end of August, the cumulative promotion of domestic new energy vehicles has exceeded 7 million. Xiao Yaqing said: “Although there is some pressure on automobile sales as a whole, new energy vehicles have bucked the trend. Overall, according to Rongyi Information Network (www.ironge.com.cn), the development of new energy vehicles in my country is in a period of accelerated development. "Data shows that in the first eight months of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 1.813 million and 1.799 million, respectively, a year-on-year increase of nearly two times. However, Xiao Yaqing believes that the number of new energy automobile companies is too large, and they are in a small and scattered state. It is necessary to give full play to the role of the market, encourage enterprise mergers and reorganizations to become bigger and stronger, and further increase industrial concentration.

In fact, in the face of the growth prospects of the new energy vehicle market, many companies have joined the army of new energy vehicles. Not only are traditional car companies such as SAIC, Dongfeng, Changan, and Guangzhou Automobile deploying high-end smart electric vehicle brands, but new forces such as Weilai, Xiaopeng, and Ideal have also become popular. At the same time, OPPO, Didi, DJI, Xiaomi, 360, Huolala, Meizu, Skyworth, Midea and many other "outsiders" have also confirmed or reported car building news. From a traditional car company to a cross-industry giant, new energy will build the windfall of the station for a while. According to statistics, in the first half of this year, a total of 232 vehicle companies in the domestic new energy vehicle market achieved production, an increase of 40 over the same period last year. New energy vehicle manufacturers are distributed in 26 provinces, cities and regions across the country, with Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Henan, and Hubei being the most concentrated.

"At present, all parties are very enthusiastic about the development of new energy vehicles, and they have greatly promoted the development of new energy vehicles, but we must also see the high technical content of new energy vehicles. Therefore, resources should be market-oriented as much as possible to avoid dispersion. "Xiao Yaqing said that it is necessary to strengthen the promotion and application, accelerate the construction of charging and replacement infrastructure, and do a good job in the urban pilot of the full electrification of public vehicles. And promote cross-industry integration, and promote the integration and development of electrification and intelligent network technology. At the same time, we will improve product quality and provide higher standards and stricter requirements in terms of quality, safety, and low-temperature application.

Idle capacity to be revitalized

Industry insiders believe that the reason why the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposes to encourage enterprise mergers and reorganizations to become bigger and stronger, and to further increase industrial concentration, is to promote the healthy development of the industry and avoid waste of resources and production capacity.

Under the "new four modernizations" of automobiles, intelligent electrification has become the general direction, but competition among many companies has increased, and not all companies can survive. This is particularly obvious among "new car" companies. According to incomplete statistics, at the beginning of last year, there were more than 500 new car-building power companies, but only Weilai, Weimar, Xiaopeng, Hezhong, Ideal, Xinte, Yundu, Qiantu, Dianca, and Zero Run have passed the "quantity". "Product delivery" is closed. Those who entered the game such as Baoneng and Byton have not only failed to launch products so far, but their companies are even more precarious.

"In the short to medium term, the domestic new energy vehicle market has limited space, but the number of new energy vehicle companies continues to rise. It is difficult for some companies to raise enough funds to ensure the continuous development of new products, and individual companies have already experienced a capital chain break." China Automotive Industry An Qingheng, director of the advisory committee and former chairman of BAIC Group, said that for the vast majority of new car-making forces, reorganization or elimination is the general trend and must be decided as soon as possible.

In An Qingheng’s view, local governments should face up to the industry development trend and actively promote the integration and reorganization of the local automobile industry. On the one hand, they should strictly control new enterprises, and on the other hand, they should promote the merger and reorganization of existing enterprises, revitalize existing production capacity, and improve the value of qualification utilization. .

Not only that, last year 39 passenger car companies had no sales, but they had a production capacity of 3.62 million vehicles, most of which were new energy sources such as Zhidou electric vehicles, Kangdi electric vehicles, space-time electric vehicles, and leading vehicles. Car companies. According to statistics, as of the end of last year, the existing, under construction, and planning new energy passenger vehicle production capacity of major domestic auto companies has exceeded 20 million. Yan Jinghui, a member of the Committee of Experts of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that many tail-end new energy car companies are in the dilemma of sluggish sales and idle production capacity. This is due to the excessive spread of production capacity in the early stage, but not paying attention to technology research and development. At present, these companies not only have idle production capacity, but also take up a lot of resources.

In October last year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" clearly stated that it should strengthen supervision during and after the event, consolidate the main responsibilities of local governments, and curb chaos such as blindly launching new energy vehicle manufacturing projects. At the same time, it is mentioned that the role of the market mechanism should be brought into full play to promote the survival of the fittest, support the merger and reorganization of dominant enterprises, and become bigger and stronger, so as to further increase the industrial concentration.

In fact, in recent years, cooperation among car companies, car companies and cross-border companies has gradually become the development model of the "post-new energy vehicle" era. Since 2018, mainstream car companies such as Changan New Energy, BAIC New Energy, Chery Automobile, FAW Car, etc. have introduced new investors or completed asset restructuring. AIWAYS, Jiangling Group, and Changan Automobile have completed the mixed reform of Jiangling Holdings; 2020 In March, BYD Toyota Electric Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd., a joint venture between BYD and Toyota Motor, was formally established. The two partners are technically equal, representing that the domestic new energy vehicle field has opened a "new joint venture era."

Not only car companies, but also technology companies have promoted the development of this integration. In March this year, Jidu Automobile Co., Ltd., formed by Baidu and Geely, was formally established. Industry insiders believe that seeing the market dividend, the influx of companies into the new energy car-making track is conducive to the development of the industry, but under the development of the "new four modernizations" of automobiles, hardware conditions such as technology and capital are required for car-making. For example, technology companies with intelligent advancement technology and traditional car-making companies with manufacturing experience, only by combining the strong and strong can the company be bigger and stronger and be tested by the market and promote the development of the industry.