The better the new energy vehicles are sold in China, the more anxious the mainstream joint venture car companies are .
On October 14, 2021, the CEO of Volkswagen Group Herbert Diess invited Elon Musk to speak to 200 executives at the Austrian conference via video call.
As early as early October, Diess convened 120 senior executives from the Volkswagen Group for a meeting in Wolfsburg. He believes that the “enemies” that Volkswagen currently encounters are Tesla and China’s new forces.
He even relentlessly emphasized: “The masses are selling too expensive, the production speed is slow and the productivity is low, and they are not competitive.”
Last month, Tesla sold more than 50,000 vehicles a month in China, while SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen sold only 10,000 vehicles. Although its share occupies 70% of the mainstream joint venture brands, it has not even reached the sales volume of a Tex vehicle.
Diess hopes to use Musk’s “teaching” to encourage its managers to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. He believes that the Volkswagen Group needs faster decision-making and less bureaucracy in order to achieve the biggest change in the history of the Volkswagen Group.
“China’s new energy market is an extremely special market, the market is changing rapidly, and traditional methods are no longer feasible.” Observers believe that the current competitive environment requires companies to continuously improve efficiency.
Volkswagen should be more anxious car giants.
According to data released by the China Travel Association last Tuesday, in September, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles was 21.1%. Among them, the penetration rate of Chinese brand new energy vehicles is as high as 36.1%; the penetration rate of luxury vehicles and new energy vehicles is 29.2%; the penetration rate of mainstream joint venture brand new energy vehicles is only 3.5%.
Data is a mirror, and the lists show the embarrassment of mainstream joint venture brands’ transition to electrification.
Neither in September this year nor in the new energy sales rankings (top 15) in the first nine months, none of the mainstream joint venture brand models were on the list. Among the sales of luxury brand electric vehicles of more than 500,000 yuan in September, the new car-making power Gaohe in China ranked first, and Hongqi-EHS9 was the third. The mainstream joint venture brand models also did not appear.
Who can sit still?
Honda released a new pure electric vehicle brand “e:N” last week, and brought five new models; Ford announced the launch of the exclusive brand “Ford Select” high-end smart electric vehicles in the Chinese market, and the world’s simultaneous debut of Ford Mustang Mach- E (parameters | pictures) GT (parameters | pictures) models; SAIC General Motors Ultium Auto Super Factory officially put into production……
At the same time, the latest batch of new forces are also accelerating their deployment. Xiaomi Motors appointed Li Xiaoshuang as the vice president of Xiaomi Motors, responsible for product, supply chain and market-related work; Ideal Automotive Beijing’s green intelligent manufacturing base started in Shunyi District, Beijing; FAW Group will become a strategic investor in Jingjin Electric…
This battle without gunpowder is becoming more and more urgent.
▍Musk “teaching class” for senior executives of Volkswagen
In September, the ID. family sold more than 10,000 vehicles in the Chinese market. Under the conditions of “core shortage” and “power limit”, these 10,000 vehicles are actually not easy to come by.
In May, the sales of ID. series in China just exceeded 1,000. In June, July, and August, the sales were 3145, 5,810, and 7,023, respectively. In fact, they have been steadily rising.
One voice believes that Volkswagen’s transformation is too slow. Although the sales volume of the Volkswagen ID. family surpassed 10,000, it is the sum of the two joint ventures, SAIC-Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen. For the “North and South Volkswagen” whose annual sales have exceeded 2 million, the monthly sales of the ID. family are not worth celebrating.
Another voice believes that people are too demanding of the public. In terms of time, the ID. family has the fastest breakthrough from zero to 10,000. Xiaopeng and Weilai, who also sold more than 10,000 in September, took several years to achieve this small goal. To rationally look at the new energy track, the starting line of players is not too different.
Diess, who is at the helm of Wolfsburg, is obviously not satisfied with the results of the ID. family.
According to the German “Business Daily” report, on October 14, 2021, Diess invited Musk to give a speech to 200 executives at the Austrian conference site via video call. On the 16th, Diess tweeted to express his gratitude to Musk, which confirmed this statement.
The newspaper said that Diess asked Musk: Why is Tesla more flexible than its competitors?
Musk replied that this is due to his management style. He is an engineer first, so he has unique insights into supply chain, logistics and production.
In a post on LinkedIn, Diess added that he invited Musk as a “mystery guest” to make people understand that the public needs faster decision-making and less bureaucracy to achieve what he said. The biggest change in the history of the Volkswagen Group.
Diess wrote that Tesla was indeed brave and courageous. A recent case is that Tesla has responded well to the shortage of chips. The company only took two to three weeks to rewrite the software, thereby getting rid of the dependency on the chip type that was in short supply and switching to another type to adapt to different chips.
Diess believes that the Volkswagen Group currently has everything needed to meet the challenge: the right strategy, capabilities and management team. He said: “Volkswagen needs a new mentality to meet new competition.”
Diess warned last month that Tesla opened its first European car factory in Glenhead near Berlin, which will force local companies to increase competition with the fast-growing American electric car manufacturer.
The Volkswagen Group is also promoting the transformation in an all-round way. They plan to build six large battery factories in Europe by 2030 as part of their full bet on electric mobility.
▍Honda will fully electrify in China after 2030
On the electrification path, Honda finally began to exert its strength.
On October 13th, at the “Hey World, This Is the EV” online electrification strategy conference, Honda China released a new pure electric vehicle brand “e:N” and brought five “e:N” series Brand new models.
The faith is firm. To achieve the two strategic goals of “carbon neutrality” and “zero traffic accidents” in 2050. Honda plans to account for the proportion of pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles in advanced markets including China: 40% in 2030, 80% in 2035, and 100% in 2040.
Especially in the Chinese market, Honda will further accelerate the launch of electrified models. After 2030, all new models launched by Honda in China are electric vehicles such as pure electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, and no new fuel vehicles will be introduced.
To achieve this goal, Honda released a new pure electric vehicle brand “e:N”. “E” stands for energize (power), which is also electric (electricity). “N stands for New (brand new) and Next (evolution).
Honda has developed a new intelligent and efficient pure electric architecture “e:N Architecture”. This architecture integrates high-efficiency, high-power drive motors, large-capacity, high-density batteries, a dedicated frame and chassis platform for pure electric vehicles, and is one of the core structures supporting the “e:N” series.
At the same time, the first batch of “e:N” series production cars: Dongfeng Honda’s e:NS1 special edition and GAC Honda’s e:NP1 special edition have the world premiere, these two pure electric vehicles The production model will be launched in the spring of 2022.
In addition, three concept cars have also made their global debuts: the second bomb e:N Coupe concept of the “e:N” series, the third bomb e:N SUV concept, and the fourth bomb e:N GT concept, these three models. The production version of will be available in the next five years.
Using this conference as a starting point, Honda opened a new chapter in China’s transformation towards electrified brands.
▍Ford launches exclusive brand of high-end smart electric vehicles
On October 11th, at Ford Mustang Mach-E “Electric Horse Departure” brand night, the Mustang Mach-E GT model made its global debut simultaneously. The domestic version is priced at 369,900 yuan. That night, Ford announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with the open-world survival mobile game “Awakening” developed by Tencent Photonics Studio Group, becoming the first strategic partner in the vehicle category.
At the same time, Ford announced the launch of the exclusive Ford Select high-end smart electric vehicle brand in the Chinese market, and simultaneously launched a new logo to further deepen Ford’s investment in the Chinese electric vehicle market and accelerate the electrification transformation of the Ford brand with an all-round upgraded user experience.
The newly launched Ford Select high-end smart electric vehicle exclusive brand will rely on an independent electric vehicle direct sales network to launch exclusive user experience, worry-free charging and sales services for the Chinese market.
In order to improve the full cycle experience of electric vehicle users in buying and using vehicles, Ford will accelerate the deployment of electric vehicle direct sales networks, and plans to open more than 100 Ford electric vehicle city stores in the Chinese market in 2025. There will be more Ford smart electric vehicles in the future. The cars are sold and serviced under the Ford Select direct sales network.
At the same time, Ford will continue to improve the user’s charging experience and realize the “3km” energy replenishment circle in key cities. By the end of 2021, Mustang Mach-E users will be able to directly access 400,000 high-quality cables provided by 24 charging operators including State Grid, Special Call, Star Charging, Southern Power Grid, Cloud Fast Charging, and NIO Energy through the owner’s App. Public charging piles, including 230,000 DC fast charging piles, cover more than 80% of public charging resources in 349 cities across the country.
In the first three quarters of 2021, Ford sold 457,000 vehicles in China, an increase of 11% year-on-year. Chen Anning, President and CEO of Ford China, said, “As Ford EVOS and Ford Mustang Mach-E start pre-sales, we will accelerate the pace of electrification and intelligence in China.
▍SAIC-GM accelerates the localization of new energy core components
On October 15, SAIC-GM’s Ultium Auto Super Factory was put into production in Jinqiao, Pudong, Shanghai, which means that SAIC-GM’s localized manufacturing capabilities for new energy core components have reached a new level.
SAIC General Motors and Pan Asia Automotive Technology Center participated in the simultaneous design and development of the underlying architecture of the Ultium Auto Electric Vehicle Platform, which enables the localized procurement of more than 95% of parts and components.
SAIC General Motors General Manager Wang Yongqing said: “2021 is the year when SAIC General Motors presses the’accelerator’ for the development of electrification and intelligent connectivity. ) Pure electric vehicles based on Autoneng’s electric vehicle platform landed, providing strong support.”
As one of the important projects of SAIC-GM’s investment of 50 billion yuan in new technologies for electrification and intelligent networking, the Autoneng Super Factory is upgraded from the original SAIC-GM Power Battery System Development Center and is equipped with the production of power battery systems. With testing capabilities, the planned product line covers all series of new energy vehicle battery systems such as light hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and pure electric vehicles.
In addition, the Auto can super factory adopts the same global leading assembly process, technical standards and quality control management as GM North America, combined with high-precision, full-life cycle data traceable intelligent manufacturing technology, which is the best battery system for Auto can High-quality production provides a strong guarantee.
The completion and commissioning of the Autoneng Super Factory, together with the two “three-electric” system test centers opened in March, the Pan-Asia New Energy Test Building and the Guangde Battery Safety Laboratory, signify that SAIC General Motors has the ability to develop, Test and verify the complete system capability of new energy from manufacturing to local procurement.
Nowadays, the transformation of the automobile industry has evolved from a single battle for electrification to a battle for digitization and electrification. The era defined by traditional hardware has gradually faded away, but has shifted to the competition of software integration such as electrification, smart driving, smart cockpit, and electronic architecture.
As Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicles Association of 100, said at the Global New Energy and Intelligent Vehicle Supply Chain Innovation Conference, “The second half of the automotive revolution is based on high-tech networking, intelligence, and digitization.”
At present, in the process of global automobile electrification, China’s automobile industry has achieved world-renowned achievements by virtue of its first-mover advantage, which will make it more difficult for joint venture brands to compete in the new energy automobile market.
Post time: Oct-20-2021