Source: China Business News

"At present, in the first half of the year and even in July, the market share of new energy vehicles of independent brands is indeed decreasing, and the share of joint venture brands is increasing, which is mainly related to subsidies, residents' consumption power, and the higher product power of joint venture and foreign brands." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, told reporters.

Data show that the share of independent brands in the six months continue to be eroded, accounting for 61.8% to 52.3%, foreign joint venture / joint venture import brands are expanding, from 24.8% to 33.5% expansion.

In the independent brand of new energy vehicle sales sluggish, market share decline, some analysts believe that the relevant parts and components companies, especially power battery companies to the joint venture and foreign brands more and more serious dependence.

Such as the recently released semi-annual report of Guoxuan High-tech, the first half of the net profit fell 90.25%, while some commentary said that its products in the future supporting the VW MEB platform or become an inflection point; and by Toyota hybrid supporting the rise in demand, power battery production enterprises Keliyuan first half revenue reached 989 million yuan, an increase of 23.73%.

However, in the opinion of automotive analyst Zhong Shi, although the current sales and market share of independent new energy vehicles decline, but there is no big ups and downs, the overall is not serious. It is also true that some battery companies are now somewhat dependent on joint venture brands, but not the head companies, and the smaller ones want to bundle with the big OEMs.

At the same time, as China's new energy vehicles ended after 12 consecutive months of falling sales, as well as many policies to support new energy vehicles, Cui Dongshu and Zhong Shi both believe that the current independent brand of new energy vehicles is still optimistic, and will continue to grow in the future.

Domestic new energy brands continue to decline in market share

"Last June's new energy vehicle sales TOP10 is no longer a clear-cut independent brand models, Nissan Xuan Yi EV, Kia K5PHEV figure for the first time, from that time can be expected to joint venture brand new energy vehicles overwhelmed." An industry observer said to reporters.

According to the data of the Federation, the market share of independent brands of new energy vehicles has been continuously eroded in half a year, from 61.8% to 52.3%; the new forces of car manufacturing first fell and then rose, from the lowest point of 11.7% to 14.1% today; foreign joint venture/joint venture import brands are expanding, from 24.8% to 33.5%.

"This is a rather interesting phenomenon, before everyone was clamoring that the development of new energy vehicles can help China's auto industry bend and overtake, but now see the opposite result, from the sales volume alone, this overtaking conformation has failed." Zhong Shi said.

Cui Dongshu said that in the past six months, foreign investors such as Tesla's expansion is too fierce, Volkswagen, Toyota and other brands in the pure electric, plug-in market continue to launch new products, coupled with its original product power and reputation are very good, and independent brands although also took a lot of means to launch a lot of new cars in the first half of the year, but there is little competitiveness in the mid- to high-end market, so the current sales of foreign joint venture brands continue to list.

Reporters noted that in July, BYD sales of 13,801 units, although ranked first on the list, but fell 54.64% compared to the same period last year. The cumulative sales for the six months reached 54,758 units. SAIC passenger car sales of 4,026 units, ranking third, but down 92.50% over the same period last year, while Tesla ranked second with 11,014 sales, the year's cumulative sales of 54,758 units.

In terms of single-month sales, Tesla Model 3's July sales of 11,014 units, ranking first in the list of single-vehicle sales, almost the next three Eon (Aion S), Buick Micro Blue VELITE 6, BYD's new Qin EV sales combined.

"In addition, the first half of the year came Volkswagen also sharp, SAIC and FAW-Volkswagen combined sales of more than 25,000 units, in addition to the always excellent performance of the Passat PHEV and Toucan L PHEV, the Maxten GTE, Tangyue GTE, Golf BEV, Bao Lai BEV also have a good performance." The above-mentioned observer said, "Together with the stable sales of BMW Brilliance (5 Series PHEV), the phenomenon of once poor sales performance of foreign joint ventures in China is gradually improving". 12,986 units of BMW Brilliance 5 Series PHEV were sold from January to July, up 33.2% year-on-year.

Still optimistic at present, will continue to grow in the future

"With the sales of joint venture and foreign brands improving, many parts companies are now deepening their dependence on them." The above observer said.

Recently, Guoxuan Hi-Tech announced its 2020 semi-annual report, which showed that the company achieved operating revenue of 2.422 billion yuan in the first half of the year, down 32.85% year-on-year, including 2.241 billion yuan in revenue from lithium battery business, down 31.64% year-on-year. The company achieved a net profit of 34.13 million yuan, down 90.25% year-on-year.

It is worth noting that on May 28, Volkswagen invested about 1.1 billion euros to acquire 26.47% of shares of Guoxuan High Tech and became its major shareholder, and Guoxuan High Tech will have the opportunity to supply battery products to Volkswagen's pure electric vehicles in the Chinese market in the future.

In its semi-annual report, Guoxuan Hi-Tech also mentioned that the strategic cooperation with Volkswagen China will allow both parties to use equity as a link to leverage their respective strengths and enhance the company's core competitiveness in the new energy battery business.

Qualicom also recently released its 2020 semi-annual report, which achieved operating revenue of RMB989 million in the first half of the year, up 23.73% year-on-year, due to rising demand for Toyota hybrid packages.

It is understood that Qualicom is the only supplier of Toyota's HEV battery industry support in China, and its subsidiaries Changde Liyuan, Cobalt and Qualicom have entered Toyota's global supply chain system and become the exclusive domestic supplier of the corresponding link of Toyota's domestic HEV upstream industry chain.

Data show that the number of domestic HEV vehicles on the insurance in the first half of the year increased by 16%. Toyota, the frontrunner of this technology route, also announced in early May this year that its global sales have exceeded 15 million units, and the domestic market is growing strongly. Among them, Climax achieved HEV vehicle power battery sales revenue of 789 million yuan in the first half of the year, up 27.25% year-on-year.

In addition, as a result of becoming a Tesla supplier parts companies are also very bullish capital and market, such as as Tesla supplier Top Group's stock price has soared in recent years, this year's rise has reached 126.2%. Tianfeng Securities predicts that Topper's revenue from Tesla in 2020 will be 1.1 billion yuan, contributing 18% of revenue; Topper's revenue from Tesla in 2021 will be 2.6 billion yuan, contributing 30% of revenue. Minsheng also said in the recent semi-annual report, the earliest supply of Tesla in the first half of next year, when it will be expected to obtain more orders from car manufacturers.

However, some analysts believe that this is not enough to show the deepening dependence of parts companies or power battery companies on foreign and joint venture car companies. "It is more about the greater dependence of small and medium-sized enterprises on a single large customer. Compared with Ningde Times and BYD, Ningde Times' customers include almost all vehicle manufacturers, while in comparison, Guoxuan High-tech's market share is not high and its volume is not large, so it appears to be more dependent on the public." Zhong Shi said.

In addition, Zhong Shi believes that the current market share of independent brand new energy vehicle enterprises is not low, although the sales and market share of independent new energy vehicles declined, but there is no big ups and downs, the overall is not serious.

Cui Dongshu also told reporters that "the current independent brand of new energy vehicles is still optimistic, and will continue to grow in the future". It is worth noting that in July, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were completed 100,000 and 98,000 units, but production and sales achieved a year-on-year growth of 15.6% and 19.3% respectively, although the market share of only 35%, but also last year's production and sales base of low factors, but is the first growth since this year, is a good turning point.

"In addition, in April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant departments will clearly extend the implementation period of financial subsidies for the promotion and application of new energy vehicles to the end of 2022, also giving more adjustment period for independent brand new energy vehicles". The above-mentioned observer said, at the same time, with the economic recovery, net cars, cabs and other 2B orders will gradually more, which will also help independent brand sales growth, plus, the second half of the year, each company has also launched heavyweight models, such as BYD Han EV, BAIC new energy ARCFOX, Chery S61, Great Wall White Cat, etc., also have a strong competitive edge.