Under the normal situation of "chips", some car companies are happy and some are sad

Among the main types of new energy vehicles, compared with last month, the production and sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles both increased, with the growth rate of plug-in hybrid vehicles being more obvious; compared with the same period last year, the production and sales of pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles continued to maintain rapid growth.

From January to July, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 1.504 million and 1.478 million respectively, both doubling year-on-year, and the market penetration rate continued to increase to 10%.

Xu Haidong said that the 10% penetration rate is an important indicator for the industry to judge whether its market has entered a stage of rapid development. Obviously, my country's new energy vehicles have developed to this stage and have shown a good supply and demand relationship. First of all, the decline in subsidies has not affected consumers' enthusiasm for choosing new energy vehicles, and everyone's demand is increasing; in addition, in terms of product supply, my country's mid-to-high-end pure electric vehicles are booming, and small new energy vehicles in the low-end market have also entered a period of rapid growth, with more and more product choices. At the same time, my country's charging infrastructure construction has also made rapid progress. The latest statistics show that as of July 2021, the cumulative number of charging infrastructure nationwide has reached 2.015 million units, an increase of 50.2% year-on-year. This also means that one charging pile corresponds to three vehicles, which can fully meet the charging needs of users. In addition, factors that promote the rapid development of new energy vehicles also include low vehicle use costs and obvious policy advantages.

Judging from the current sales of new energy models, it is obvious that Chinese brands account for the vast majority. Chen Shihua analyzed that this is mainly due to the long-term efforts of Chinese automobile companies in the new energy market, which have accumulated strong product competitiveness and have shown impressive sales performance both in the domestic and international markets.

As for why the production and sales of new energy vehicles have doubled against the backdrop of increasingly tight chip supply, Cui Dongshu was even more outspoken, saying: "With money, there are resources." This shows the sincerity of Chinese automakers in investing in new energy vehicles.

Joint venture automakers are worried about production suspension as more are reducing production than increasing production

In sharp contrast to the rise of domestic brands against the trend is the sharp decline of joint venture brands, including FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC GM, Dongfeng Nissan, GAC Honda, Dongfeng Honda and other mainstream joint ventures, production and sales have all declined. Among them, SAIC Volkswagen's sales in July fell by 47.7% year-on-year, almost halved; and the situation of FAW-Volkswagen is not optimistic, with a single-month year-on-year decline of 40.8%; followed by Dongfeng Honda, SAIC GM, Dongfeng Nissan and GAC Honda, which fell by 30.2%, 19.1%, 15.2% and 14.7% year-on-year respectively, and the decline was more than 1 times the overall decline of passenger cars.

Cui Dongshu pointed out that unlike domestic automakers who are focused on securing the Chinese domestic market, joint venture automakers are still affected by the allocation of global resources by foreign parties in terms of supply chain allocation, including which global markets are given priority and the supply of high-end profit models is guaranteed. Therefore, the impact of chip shortage on the sales of joint venture brands is even greater than expected. Conservative estimates show that in the past three months, the average monthly sales loss of joint venture automakers may exceed 200,000 units.

The reporter visited the market and found that the inventory of some of the above-mentioned brands has been sold out, especially the best-selling models such as Lavida, Tiguan, CR-V, Accord under SAIC Volkswagen, Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda, which are almost out of stock nationwide. As for when the goods can be delivered if pre-ordered now, dealers dare not make a conclusion.

In fact, not only dealers are unsure about the future production capacity, but even workshop supervisors have temporarily lost their expectations. An insider of the above-mentioned joint venture told reporters that under the normal supply of spare parts, production will be planned at least three months in advance. Now, due to the shortage of chips, production has become more and more flexible. In other words, the production of all vehicles currently depends on the supply of chips.

Although Volkswagen has not disclosed more changes in production capacity to the outside world, the sales performance of Volkswagen South and North is enough to show that the rumored "30% reduction in production" in the industry is true. Not only Volkswagen is limited in production capacity, but also Toyota, which performed well overall in July. A few days ago, Toyota China confirmed to the media that due to insufficient supply of chip-related parts, it is adjusting some production lines, including suspending a car production line of the joint venture. Earlier, Honda's joint venture in China also moved the summer high temperature holiday forward to early June due to chip shortages. In addition, the reporter also received confirmation from Honda China that Dongfeng Honda and GAC Honda did reduce production due to shortages of related parts. As for the relevant figures, the other party said it was inconvenient to disclose.

But for most consumers, waiting for more than a month is enough to wear out all their patience, not to mention the endless delivery deadline. "Many customers who have made reservations have turned to buy other brands because they don't want to wait." The relevant person in charge of the Guangqi Honda 4S store said that although the discount for each car has narrowed a lot this year, they still feel a lot of pressure considering the loss of new car sales throughout the year and the resulting after-sales losses.

"If the chip supply is really eased in the fourth quarter and production capacity gradually recovers, there will inevitably be a round of fierce competition in the terminal market. Therefore, for joint venture brand dealers, they dare not relax for a moment to ensure sales quality. Even if there is a shortage of stock, they dare not raise the price of the car, or even cancel the discount easily. After all, the shortage of 'chips' is temporary, and we must strive to accumulate more customers for the future to cope with more uncertainties in the market." A sales manager of a joint venture car company admitted.