Advantages and disadvantages of low-cost and low-end electric vehicles

suddenly like a spring breeze. Low-cost and low-end electric vehicles, which have long been despised by the industry, are now springing up. These new generation products with prices similar to those of low-speed electric vehicles (I. e. "Lao Tou Le") not only quickly began to occupy the forefront of the sales list, but also became a hot topic in the whole industry.

just, in the eyes of many people in the industry, this so-called "spring breeze" is likely to be more like a "demon wind", gradually making the electric vehicle industry lost in sales figures, while ignoring the importance of electric vehicle technology breakthroughs.

"These (low-cost and low-end electric cars) have no technical content! I am not unable to do it, but I simply disdain to do it." Li Yong, head of a large domestic electric vehicle enterprise, said to the car market story.

, as a colleague, Li Yong admires the achievements of these enterprises in cost control and marketing. He is frank that this is something that many automobile manufacturers do not have. "But as a person who hopes for the long-term and healthy development of the electric vehicle industry, I cannot ignore the lack of safety and technical strength of these cars. This is abnormal."

Li Yong firmly believes that so many low-cost and low-end electric vehicles occupy the market, which is meaningless to promote the development of the industry.

However, it seems that more and more car manufacturers are beginning to take an interest in this market that was neglected in the past.

According to the incomplete statistics of the car market story, since SAIC GM Wuling launched Hongguang MINIEV and achieved great success, no less than 7 enterprises have followed up this upsurge. Among the 343 batches of new cars previously announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 11 models with 19 announcement numbers are small electric vehicles, accounting for 1/3 of the total number of passenger cars.

also topped the list of sales in May, with Wuling Hongguang MINIEV topping the list with 26742 vehicles, pushing Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. In the top 20 or even the top 10, you can also see a variety of low-end electric vehicles, and their common feature is low price.

, the low-cost and low-end electric vehicle market has always been dominated by "old man Le" companies. Large automakers are reluctant to put down their positions and grab shares with these "local snake" companies.

, as more and more "regular troops" join the harvest of the low-cost and low-end electric vehicle market, almost all "old man Le" enterprises are aware of a trace of "something is wrong".

"The new national standard of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is coming, which is good news for low-speed electric vehicles to turn positive, but I am not happy. This means that we have to compete with those big brands on the same track, we can't win." Chen Hai, the person in charge of the low-speed electric vehicle company, said with emotion, "But it is ridiculous to say that these powerful large companies do not do the R & D and upgrade of mid-to-high-end electric vehicles, but they have to compete with us for the market."

more and more large enterprises are competing for the low-cost and low-end electric vehicle market, is this really a good thing for China's electric vehicle industry in the critical period of development? Many people in the industry have given a negative answer.

existence is truth, sales are justice.

"It sold so well! I even sold the exhibition car. You have to wait 3 months to pick up the car when you place an order." In a 4S store in Beijing that sells low-cost and low-end electric cars, staff member Sun Xin said proudly.

car market story asked many consumers, who were generally attracted by the ultra-low selling price. "The price is only 30,000 yuan, which is really a bargain!" In the eyes of many consumers, these "cars" are just a means of transportation for short trips. They buy vegetables to pick up and pick up children from work. The electricity bill is low and parking is convenient. "How is the quality better than the old man?"

"I bought it to occupy the number. I usually have a fuel car at home. It's so cheap that there is no purchase tax. It's more worthwhile than buying a used car to occupy the number."

may be the perfect fit for this kind of consumer demand, so that these low-cost and low-end electric vehicles "fire out of the circle".

"Objectively speaking, there is a market for electric vehicles that sell for less than 50,000 yuan and meet the needs of short-haul trips. There are a large number of low-income groups in China who need a medium-priced means of transportation that can shield them from the wind and rain, while high-income groups also have a demand for a second or even a third car." Chen Quanshi, a professor at Tsinghua University and former director of the Automotive Research Institute of Tsinghua University, believes that the existence of low-end and low-cost electric vehicles is reasonable.

and from the perspective of enterprises, this is also a "sharp weapon" to quickly open up the market situation and boost sales figures ".

"Products like Hongguang MINIEV are phenomenal, and when I saw it, I was thinking, why can't we do it?" Yang Hui, head of marketing for an independent brand company, said, "It's not technically difficult, the key is how to reduce costs. For marketing, these products are in great demand and can also drive brand promotion."

industry insiders told the auto market story that the current electric vehicle market is in the stage of "big at both ends and small in the middle. Low-end electric vehicles represented by Hongguang MINIEV and high-end electric vehicles represented by Model 3 and Model Y are the two "engines" that promote the growth of the current electric vehicle market ".

, the mid-range market, which has been highly expected by the industry, has not yet ushered in an outbreak. "You can see that Volkswagen's ambitious ID series products in China are not as high as low as possible. The current performance is very average. The North and South Volkswagen have sold just over 1000 vehicles a month, which is obviously very different from the expectations of the public." Yang Hui said so.

"We have slowed down the research and development of mid-range electric vehicles." Chu Hua, an executive of a large state-owned independent automobile company, revealed, "Everyone has seen that the low-end and high-end markets are hot spots. We are stepping up the layout of these two markets, and we are still waiting for the opportunity to explode in the mid-end market."

At the same time, Chu Hua also emphasized that in the high-end market, it will take time to shake the status of Tesla, Weilai and other companies, but it is not difficult to follow Wuling Hongguang MINIEV in the low-end market. In fact, after fully learning from the "successful experience", Chuhua's enterprises quickly ushered in a surge in sales. The sales of electric vehicles in the first five months of 2021 alone have exceeded the sales of the whole year of 202020.

"immediate results!" Chu Hua said, "the secret behind this is not difficult to say, that is, you have to be able to keep costs down and prices down."

without technical content is the largest technical content

As consumers said earlier, ultra-low selling price is the first factor to attract consumers to buy.

According to the statistics of the car market story, low-end electric vehicles (excluding illegal low-speed electric vehicles) are currently on sale. The lowest selling price is Lingbao COCO (from 26,800 yuan), followed by Hongguang MINIEV (from 28,800 yuan), later, there are Yujie Punk Meimei (from 29,800 yuan), Reading Mango (from 29,800 yuan), Changan Benben E-Star (from 29,800 yuan), Haima Aishang EV (from 39,800 yuan), Auchanio II (From 39,900 yuan), Sihao EX10X (from 39,900 yuan) and a series of models.

for the secret of being able to achieve such a low price, Wang he, a person familiar with the industry, said that there are mainly two points. One is to reduce the price of parts procurement with the help of scale advantages. "Large companies have stronger bargaining power when negotiating with suppliers, and the losses of suppliers can be made up through other projects."

is to try our best to lower the configuration of these low-end electric vehicles. "Some of them are gone, and they are almost an open iron box. Of course, the cost is low enough."

Although the combination of intelligence and electrification is the consensus of the whole industry, these low-end electric vehicles can only be regarded as electric vehicles at best and have nothing to do with intelligence. Not long ago, he Xiaopeng, founder of Xiaopeng automobile, came to a conclusion that "electric vehicles under 150,000 yuan are not smart cars", not to mention these models that have not even passed the threshold of 50,000 yuan.

"Many low-end models do not even have radios and air-conditioning cold air. In 2021, there are still people driving such cars. It has to be said that it is a magical thing." Wang He joked that he felt back to the retro 1980s. At that time, it was very bad to have a car. Who cares if you have a radio and air conditioning in your car.

but more importantly, it is the lack of active and passive security configuration. According to the car market story, these products (especially the low-end version) will basically cancel many key safety functions such as brake assist, traction control, and body stability control. Even the most basic airbag can save money, either there is only the main driver's airbag, there is no passenger airbag, or the main passenger airbag is canceled together.

Photo: Collision Test of Overseas Mercedes-Benz C- Class and Smart

"It is hard to imagine what will happen to these products after a medium-to-high-speed collision." Wang He said that these products cannot even participate in domestic crash tests such as C- NCAP and C- IASI. "Subjectively, the results cannot be said to be miserable, but may be very miserable."

Wang He specifically mentioned the Japanese K-Car. Although the appearance of the domestic popular low-end electric vehicles is somewhat similar to the Japanese K-Car, the K-Car's own technological level is not low, and the configuration is also very high, even with 6 airbags, Electronic stability system, hill start assist, automatic braking; comfortable configuration includes automatic air conditioning, steering wheel heating, seat heating, electric folding rearview mirrors, etc, "It cannot be said that the difference is very big, it can only be said that it is completely different."

fact, this has also become the most direct point for many people in the industry to criticize low-cost and low-end electric vehicles.

"These large and small automobile companies are rushing to produce this' industrial garbage '. As a practitioner, I feel more ashamed." Liu Ming, an automotive engineer, said, "The biggest technical content of these cars is that they have no technical content."

what kind of electric car do we need?

"Reducing costs by shrinking configuration is two completely opposite technical thinking to improving technical capabilities to reduce costs." Liu Ming believes that this kind of "low-cost and low-end" internal volume will not help the progress of the industry. "People find that they can sell it only by shrinking the configuration. Who is willing to improve their technical capabilities?"

Li Yong said that if a motor that can maintain the vehicle running continuously for one hour needs 30kW of power, but if there is a competing car with a motor power of 20kW, then the leaders of the car companies will put pressure on research and development to further reduce the cost and compete with their competitors.

"It is very painful for everyone to stick to the standard line and finally see who has no bottom line." Li Yong shook his head with a wry smile.

many engineers and technicians engaged in the research and development of electric vehicles believe that the biggest challenge of electric vehicles at present is how to overcome the technical bottleneck of the core components represented by batteries, and reduce costs through technological upgrades, so as to achieve the cost and price of electric vehicles. The fuel vehicle is the same or even lower.

"the market is somewhat deformed, and some enterprises are somewhat short-sighted. If we pay too much attention to the improvement of sales in the short term and neglect the investment in R & D, it will be a disaster for the whole industry." Liu Ming felt that a small number of enterprises were obviously biased by this wave. "This is bound to overdraft consumers' favorability and confidence in electric vehicles. They will feel that our domestic automobile manufacturers, who have been working on electric vehicles for so many years, can only make up these things without airbags!"

"Recently, people often say that there is no good requirement for such a cheap car, and it will not run at high speed anyway. Even if there is no airbag, it doesn't matter if you run at low speed. This is very sad!" Wang He believes, "On the road, because of the equal right of way, no one will distinguish whether you are a low-speed car or a high-speed car. If there is a traffic accident due to vehicle safety, the whole society is actually paying the bill."

what kind of electric cars do we need?

"must be safe," Chen Quanshi said. "No matter how cheap the vehicle is sold, it must meet the national collision standard. Airbags must be available. If you allow unsafe vehicles on the road, it will not only harm yourself, but also harm others."

Li Yong thinks that electric vehicles need a certain threshold to promote industrial upgrading and progress. "If the main engine factory is allowed to build cars with this attitude, although our country's roads are full of mini electric vehicles, what is actually built is only another kind of old man's music that can be licensed."

"More importantly, we need electric vehicles that can bring breakthroughs or inspiration in technology." Li Yong emphasized that he is not necessarily high-priced, but it must be high-tech. "Cost reduction depends on technological breakthroughs, not the loss of the bottom line."

let this "demon wind" stop, this is already the most ardent expectation of many people in the industry.