Produced | Sohu Technology
Editor | Liang Changjun
Tesla has raised prices again. On March 17, Tesla China’s official website showed that the price of the Model Y rear-wheel drive version was increased to 316,900 yuan, an increase of 15,060 yuan.
This is Tesla China’s third price hike in a week. On March 15, Tesla China announced a price increase for the Model 3 high-performance version and Model Y long-life and high-performance versions, of which the price of the Model 3 high-performance version was adjusted to 367,900 yuan, an increase of 18,000 yuan; Model Y long battery life The price of the high-performance version is 375,900 yuan and 417,900 yuan respectively, an increase of 18,000 and 20,000 yuan respectively.
Earlier on March 10, Tesla China had a price increase, and the price of Tesla Model 3 high-performance version and Model Y long-range/high-performance version both increased by 10,000 yuan. Among them, the Model 3 high-performance version is currently priced at 349,900 yuan on the official website, and the prices of other models remain unchanged; the Model Y long-life/high-performance version is priced at 357,900 yuan and 397,900 yuan respectively, and the Model Y rear-drive version is 301,800 yuan.
In a week, Tesla has intensively raised prices three times. Among the 5 cars it sells in China, only the Model 3 rear-wheel drive version did not increase in price during this cycle. This kind of price increase rhythm is in the automotive industry. rare. But as early as two months ago, the price of the rear-wheel drive version of Model 3 increased by 10,000 yuan, while the price of the rear-wheel-drive version of Model Y increased by 21,000 yuan. The price increase is more than 36,000 yuan, and the rear-wheel-drive versions of the Model 3 and Model Y are Tesla’s main domestic models.
Tesla officials did not explain the reasons for the continued price increase, but combined with Tesla’s pricing logic and the company’s executives’ previous statements, it is largely related to the challenges encountered in the supply chain. At the 2021 shareholder meeting, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made it clear that Tesla faces huge cost pressures on the supply chain side, so it has to increase the price of vehicles. Recently, he once again publicly stated that Tesla and Space X are facing huge inflationary pressures in the fields of raw materials and logistics.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, also analyzed the media before. The two core factors for Tesla’s price increase are rising costs and strong demand. “Currently (the supply chain) is under too much pressure.”
According to Tesla’s price increase model, the continued price increase may be affected by the increase in the price of core raw materials for power batteries. In the external context, as the price of upstream raw materials continues to rise, the pressure on the industrial chain will naturally flow downstream, resulting in increased cost pressure on car companies.
It is understood that the current standard battery life upgrade version Model 3 and standard battery life version Model Y both use lithium iron phosphate batteries. Use high nickel ternary lithium battery.
And the prices of these raw materials have skyrocketed. The data shows that the latest average price of lithium carbonate, an important raw material for power batteries, reached about 470,000-530,000 yuan / ton last week. At the end of January last year, the price of this raw material was still about 62,000-67,000 yuan / ton. At the beginning of this year It is 290,000 yuan / ton, a very obvious increase.
Nickel has also undergone a crazy price increase. Last week, the LME nickel futures quotation on the London Metal Exchange soared from $29,770/ton (about RMB 188,000/ton) to $100,000/ton (about RMB 188,000/ton). RMB 630,000/ton). “According to calculations, the increase of 100,000 yuan per ton of nickel is transmitted to the cost of 50 kWh of electricity for a battery factory bicycle, which will increase at least three or four thousand yuan or more.
In addition, the chip is still not optimistic. At the beginning of this year, Xu Daquan, executive vice president of Bosch (China) Investment Co., Ltd., said that the supply of chips this year is still very tight, and it will definitely not be able to meet all the needs of OEMs, and this year’s car production will also be largely limited by the supply of chips. .
Earlier, Musk bluntly stated that chips are one of the biggest threats to at least 50% of its growth, and it has already affected Tesla’s new car launch plans. He also predicted that supply chain challenges could take at least 12 months to improve and that Tesla should weather the shortage by 2023. Although Tesla has submitted many times, it is still possible for Tesla to continue to raise prices until the supply chain crisis is difficult to completely resolve.
On the other hand, strong market demand also provided support for its frequent price hikes. According to the data of the China Passenger Transport Association, Tesla’s total sales in China in 2021 will be 320,700 units, while the deliveries of Xiaopeng, NIO and Ideal in that year are 98,155 units, 91,429 units, and 90,491 units respectively. Tesla.
Since the beginning of this year, with the continuous rise of oil prices, electric vehicles have become more sought after. Not long ago, the sales data of new energy vehicles in February released by the China Passenger Car Association showed that Tesla’s wholesale sales were 56,515 units, which was the sixth consecutive month that Tesla’s monthly sales exceeded 50,000 units.
It can be said that Tesla’s recent domestic new energy vehicle market is very fast, and thanks to the popularity of consumers, price increases seem to have become a marketing tool for Tesla. There are reports that every time the price increases and the delivery cycle is prolonged, Tesla sales staff will create anxiety in the group of friends, and stimulate potential customers to place orders as soon as possible through words such as “if you don’t buy it, you will have to increase the price again”.
Recently, the price of new energy vehicles has been rising frequently. BYD, NIO, Xiaopeng, GAC Aian, ORA, Volkswagen, Leapmotor, Krypton, Ford, Weimar and other brands of new energy vehicles have also announced before. The price increase covers most of the current mainstream new energy models in the market. In addition to supply chain factors, the new energy purchase subsidy policy will also be terminated on December 31 this year, and consumers may have begun to adapt to the rising prices of new energy vehicles in advance.
This may also have a certain impact on the market structure of new energy vehicles. Cui Dongshu has previously pointed out that the cyclical fluctuation of raw material prices is testing the viability of new energy vehicles. The market needs companies that can really make money, and differentiation, elimination and merger will be the theme of new energy vehicle companies in 2022.Return to Sohu, see more
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