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Junfeng Motor's thoughts on mini electric vehicles

2022-05-16

On April 8 this year, the China Automotive Technology and Research Center released the "Special Evaluation Regulations for Micro Electric Vehicles". The main evaluation targets are pure electric passenger vehicles with a body length of less than 4 meters. As soon as the news came out, the miniature pure electric vehicle was once again pushed to the forefront of public opinion, and some media even used extreme words such as "disaster" in their reports. As far as the current miniature pure electric vehicle is concerned, especially the domestic miniature pure electric vehicle, "cheap" seems to be the biggest advantage, and it is easy to be ignored for the quality. So the question is, can't the miniature pure electric vehicle achieve high quality?

      Dongfeng Junfeng Motor Co., Ltd. has conducted in-depth thinking. Compared with the EX1 and LX1 models it operates, isn't the quality very good?

      To this end, the company mobilized experts to conduct a certification analysis based on the current state of the industry:


Fighting prices to open up the market, quality problems are gradually highlighted

The A00-class pure electric vehicle, which has an absolute advantage in price, is a powerful weapon that can quickly open up the market, and it can also relieve the pressure of "double points" of car companies. , which can also be confirmed by sales data. According to the latest data from the China Passenger Car Association, from January to April 2022, the wholesale sales of A00-class (mini-cars) in the pure electric market reached 342,000 units, an increase of 62.1% compared with the same period last year, becoming the backbone driving the growth of the pure electric vehicle market. . However, under the increasingly huge market volume, the problems existing in the product quality and service of miniature pure electric vehicles have gradually surfaced.
The choice of the crossroads, where should the micro pure electric vehicle go?


According to the data of the car quality network, the number of complaints of pure electric mini-vehicles from 2018 to 2021 showed an increasing trend year by year, reaching its peak in 2021, and the number of complaints increased by about 1.4 times compared with 2020. Judging from the complaint data from January to April 2022, it has reached 751 cases, which is close to the total number of complaints in 2020. It is not difficult to find that with the continuous increase in the market size of micro pure electric vehicles, the exposed quality and service problems are also increasing day by day.
The choice of the crossroads, where should the micro pure electric vehicle go?


According to the statistics of the vehicle quality network, from 2018 to April 2022, the proportion of complaints about pure quality problems of micro pure electric vehicles accounted for more than 50%, of which "power battery failure" and "charging failure" are the two most concentrated faults. problems, accounted for 21% and 11.4% of the total quality complaints in the same period. As a pure electric vehicle, these two types of failures directly affect the daily use of users, causing dissatisfaction among many car owners. In contrast to the service problems of miniature pure electric vehicles, the number of complaints has also increased year by year, and the total number of complaints has exceeded 1,000. Most of the complaints from car owners are concentrated in pre-sales services, such as "can't mention the car" and "disguised charges", and many more. In relation to vehicle purchases, it also reflects that the importance and coping strategies of relevant companies in handling the demands of car owners still need to be improved.


Market growth slows down, development resistance gradually becomes apparent
The choice of the crossroads, where should the micro pure electric vehicle go?

In fact, the development of miniature pure electric vehicles at this stage not only faces pressure on quality and service issues, but also faces rising raw material prices and the current "oversupply" of new energy points, resulting in the shrinking transaction price of points. Influence.

On the one hand, in the face of the continuous rise in the price of raw materials for power batteries, the miniature pure electric vehicle companies that are already "small profits but quick turnover" have become even worse. Taking the MINI EV of a certain model of Wumou as an example, according to the cost estimates disclosed by the market parts suppliers, after deducting operating expenses, the profit margin is about 2-3%. There have also been media reports before, saying that the profit of selling a car in a certain stage of a certain model of MINI EV is only 89 yuan. Regardless of whether such data is true or not, it is an indisputable fact that the profits of miniature pure electric vehicles are low.



On the other hand, according to the 2021 double-points situation of passenger car companies recently announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the total fuel consumption positive and negative points generated by Chinese passenger car companies in 2021 will be about 15.53 million and 6.14 million respectively; while the positive and negative points of new energy vehicles The points are about 6.77 million and 810,000 respectively. By comparison, it can be found that in 2021, there will be far more "positive points" than "negative points". Affected by this, the transaction price of new energy points has plummeted. Dong Yudong, CEO of a certain brand of Great Wall Motors in Europe, said at the beginning of the year that the price of a single point in 2021 will be about 2,500 yuan, but with the increase of 160% in the entire new energy vehicle market in 2021 , the transaction price of points has been reduced to 500-800 yuan in early 2022. This has undoubtedly had a big impact on the cost-constrained miniature pure electric vehicle companies, and the lack of this part of the credit income can only be passed on to the price of the vehicle.

 

Affected by this two-way resistance, the news of the price increase of pure electric vehicles has frequently appeared in the newspapers. Hot-selling models such as Wumou MINI EV and Ben Moumou have raised their prices in the first half of this year, and the adjustment range is generally around 3000-4000 yuan. . Such a price increase is already quite large for the low-priced miniature pure electric vehicles. On the consumer side, under the influence of multiple factors such as increased car purchase costs and long vehicle delivery cycles, some people choose to wait and see, resulting in significant fluctuations in market sales. According to the latest data from the Passenger Federation, the sales of miniature pure electric vehicles in April were 78,000 units, down 34.4% from the previous month, marking the second negative growth this year.


Facing the crossroads, quality improvement becomes the key



At present, it is generally believed in the industry that although the current miniature pure electric vehicle is still in the stage of rapid sales growth, in the face of the many obstacles that have arisen, the entire industry needs to transform and respond urgently to ensure the healthy operation of the market.

For a long time, domestic consumers have an inherent impression of cheap products, that is, these products are of low quality and it is normal to have problems, and the same is true for miniature pure electric vehicles. Previously, a foreign TV station had conducted a comparison and dismantling of two miniature pure electric vehicles of similar sizes from overseas and Chinese brands. It was found that the models of Chinese brands were well controlled in terms of cost, and the price was only 1/3 of the overseas comparison models. However, it is precisely because of the continuous cost reduction that many parts of the Chinese brand models do not use vehicle-grade products, but ordinary commercial products, which are lacking in durability. In fact, this also reflects the current status of domestic miniature pure electric vehicles from the side - low profits of car companies, low vehicle durability, and prone to minor problems.


Then, if we start with products and services, and improve product quality, we can achieve a win-win situation in which car companies can obtain more profit margins and consumers can obtain high-quality products. Is this feasible? Taking SMART as an example, this German car, which is positioned as a mini car, has a price range of 100,000-200,000. In the more than 20 years of entering the domestic market, it has not only achieved considerable market performance, but also has excellent performance. Its product strength and performance have won many loyal fans. According to the data of the car quality network, in the ten years from 2012 to 2021, only 123 SMART complaints were received in total, and the performance of quality reputation was quite stable. Although SMART later bid farewell to the Chinese market due to various reasons, its high-quality image has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Here, the answer is ready to come out.





Some people in the industry believe that miniature pure electric vehicle products should gradually develop from functional products to high-quality products, and realize the change from quantitative to qualitative. This trend is consistent with the previous development path of traditional fuel vehicles. At a time when miniature pure electric vehicles are facing multiple pressures, it is a coping strategy for enterprises to continuously improve product quality. On the one hand, it will attract more potential consumers’ attention by improving quality and performance; on the other hand, efforts should be made in pre-sale/after-sale service quality and satisfaction to provide consumers with high value-added products, thereby increasing product profit margins .



In short, for the current miniature pure electric vehicle market, under various pressures, it has come to the crossroads of seeking change. How to ensure the healthy operation of car companies and the orderly development of the market, product transformation is undoubtedly the only way.

      Junfeng believes that the first is to improve the quality of vehicles, which is the only way out for WeChat electric vehicles. Only with reliable quality can users continue to buy and pay attention to this model and brand; Models with high quality and reasonable price serve users; the third is to highlight the use function of the vehicle, remove redundant optional functions, and make the price more affordable;

       Micro electric vehicles have their unique advantages in the field of urban travel. By creating high-quality models to drive the "upward" development of the entire micro pure electric vehicle market, get rid of the inherent impression of cheap and low-quality, and bring consumers a better car experience. . As for whether consumers will pay for high quality, the market will give the answer.