China's new energy vehicles "Exodus"

All along, the success of China's automobile overseas is a dream in the hearts of independent brands. Since 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization, "going out" has become a must for all major automobile enterprises.

China's own-brand cars entered overseas markets one after another in 2001, and the scale has been expanding, reaching a peak in 2008. Although European and American automakers are flocking to the Chinese market, the wolves and tigers are generally sharing the cake.

But in the eyes of the independent brands, they also see the opportunities brought by the third world countries. Lifan has been plying the Russian market for more than ten years, JAC loves Brazil alone, BAIC has gone directly from Egypt to the whole of North Africa, Ankai has become the record holder of Saudi passenger cars, and SAIC-GM-Wuling has directly shopped in Myanmar ......

China's automobile exports have risen from less than 30,000 in 2002 to 680,000 in 2008, with export volume increasing more than 20-fold. increased more than 20 times, with an average annual increase of 81 percent, and in 2012 managed to break through one million units. But after 2012, the number and size of exports gradually fell back until 2018, and only then back to the million level.

The first world is eating the second world and the third world, and the global auto consumer market has become an alternative picture of class tipping. This situation also began to change in the past two years. Chinese car companies have begun to "take lessons from the west" and head for Europe and North America, and in the outside world's view, whether they can successfully counterattack the first world has also become a measure of a company's excellence.

Toward the "first world"

August, China's auto exports reached 308,000 units, a monthly record high. In September, the proportion of Chinese brand new energy vehicles exported from Shanghai Southport Terminal increased significantly, accounting for more than 80% of the total number of vehicles exported from the terminal, and the moment of the rise of domestic new energy vehicles continues to be staged at the port.

With the rapid growth of automobile exports, the ro-ro ship market is also heating up rapidly, and ro-ro ship rentals have climbed to record highs. Shipping research organization Clarkson data show that the 6500-car large ro-ro ship has reached a record daily rental of 55,000 U.S. dollars this year.

It can be seen that the car export has been a big wind direction of the car companies, although in the sales ratio, most of the sales are still to Brazil, Southeast Asia has been the Russian market is mainly, but there have been a lot of car companies began to Europe and North America.

What is worth paying attention to is that, unlike traditional fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles are mainly exported to developed markets. According to statistics, sales exported to developed countries accounted for as much as 85.6 percent. BYD Tang and Han, Dongfeng Fengguang ix5, Xiaopeng G3, AIC U5, Sailis 3 and other domestic independent brand passenger car electric models have been exported to Europe; Yutong, Jinlong, BYD and other new energy bus products in Europe, America and the Middle East also have a good performance.

First, Dongfeng Lantu FREE landed in Northern Europe for the first time; August 1, BYD announced cooperation with Hedin Mobility, one of the largest dealers in Europe, to provide new energy vehicles for the Swedish and German markets, and will be delivered in October this year; August 9, Great Wall Motors reached a strategic cooperation with Emil Foley Group on the importation and distribution of Wei and Ola in the European market ; China Wuling's first new energy global vehicle, the Air ev, subsequently rolled off the production line in Indonesia.

And as a bridgehead for new forces to fight in Europe, Xiaopeng sent the first batch of G3 to Norway as early as September 2020 and sold it by local dealers; in May 2021, Weilai released its Norwegian strategy and ES8 entered Europe. on September 22, Weilai announced that it will hold NIO Berlin 2022 in Berlin, Germany, on October 7, German time. at that time, Weilai will announce the products, full-system services and innovative business models in the German, Dutch, Swedish and Danish markets.

In September this year, Zero Run Auto officially opened the "overseas" mode, the first batch of T03 exported to Israel, the first step in the process of globalization. T03, as Zero Run's first export model, has now passed the European Union's vehicle certification, obtaining the sales license for the European market, and can be officially registered in all European Union countries.

It is worth noting that China's new energy vehicles out of the country also no longer follow the "low price for the market" of the old road. Some data show that in 2021, the average unit price of independent brand new energy vehicles in Europe is 30,000 U.S. dollars, indicating that independent brands already have a certain right to speak in the overseas market.

In the past, Chinese companies invested overseas, found a good market on a swarm, through the price war to the blue sea into a red sea. But in Europe and the United States and other developed countries, price competition is usually not the main means, but through intellectual property rights, differentiated services, personalized services to improve their market position, such as branding, licensing, franchising.

Opportunities and Challenges of New Energy

In June 2022, the European Parliament adopted a report in Strasbourg, which advocated a halt to the sale of new fuel vehicles in the European Union from 2035, a ban that also included hybrid vehicles.

It is reported that this report also encompasses a number of requirements related to the automotive industry, including the fact that in 2030, carbon dioxide emissions from cars in the EU should be reduced by 55 percent compared to 2021, and by 2035, they should be reduced by 100 percent, and fully enter the era of new energy vehicles. Meanwhile, more than 1 million charging stations will be built in Europe by 2025 and 3.5 million by 2030. In addition, for every 60 kilometers of highway, a charging station must be installed, and every 150 kilometers must be equipped with a hydrogen refueling station.

In the context of some countries and car companies openly banning the sale of oil vehicles timetable, you can see that the whole of Europe to stop selling fuel cars is inevitable. At the same time, both short-term and medium- to long-term dimension, the EU carbon reduction will only increase in strength, which will make the promotion of electric vehicles in Europe has a long-term bottom and guarantee. According to the forecast, the next 14 years, the compound growth rate of electric vehicles in Europe is expected to exceed 15%.

Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president and secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), said, "The global economy is recovering, and automobile consumption is also recovering; Chinese auto brands have gained advantages in the transformation of new energy vehicles; Europe and the United States, and other have increased the promotion of new energy vehicles and other such factors have become China's automobile export growth of the new kinetic energy."

It is worth noting that in the new energy-based future automobile exports, safety has become more important than the sale of a major problem. Due to the existence of lithium batteries have a certain specificity, railroads, aviation and its long-distance transportation is often harsh conditions, there is a need for "car power separation" situation.

A car company responsible person revealed that, through the container mode or rail transportation, new energy vehicle power battery will be classified as "dangerous goods", and therefore had to dismantle the battery. "This will greatly increase the cost of transportation and carbon emissions generated during transportation, affecting the efficiency of the export of new energy vehicles and lithium battery parts.

In February, a Volkswagen cargo ship loaded with 3,965 cars, including 1,100 Porsches, 189 Bentleys and a handful of Lamborghinis, burned at sea. The value of the Bentley cars alone on the ship was more than $30 million, and the total value of this damage is expected to be in the billions. For the cause of the fire in this accident, some people involved in the incident said that the fire on the freighter was caused by the lithium battery of the electric car catching fire.

New energy to the sea, can be said to be both opportunities and challenges, but the car as a highly globalized competitive industry. Entering overseas markets and participating in global competition is an important criterion to test whether an automobile brand is internationalized. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota and other international automotive giants in the traditional fuel car market can have today's industry position, but also in the local market outside of the active development of overseas market results.

From the multinational automobile giants competing to enter the Chinese market, to "Made in China, global exports", and then to the Chinese brand with new energy to sail out to sea again, this proposition about "going out" may be in the automotive industry under the background of the change of the big go! to be a little different.