With the passage of time in the first half of 2018, the events that occurred in the Chinese automotive market in the first half of the year can be described as endless. Some of them are related to the national economy and people's livelihood, while others have a significant impact on the automotive industry. The automotive prophet sorted out the major events that occurred in the automotive industry in the first half of the year and summarized 9 typical representative events. And provide feedback on these 9 representative events, each of which is worth pondering and paying attention to.
Half of 2018 has passed, and there are not only countless memorable stories in the Chinese automotive market, but also numerous policy regulations that have influenced the development of Chinese automobiles.
From Geely's investment in Daimler to the gradual lifting of stock ratio restrictions in the Chinese automotive industry, to the cooperation between the Chinese and German governments and the signing of the Joint Statement of Intent on Cooperation in the Field of Automatic Connected Driving, all indicate that Chinese cars are beginning to enter the international stage and the Chinese automotive market is becoming more market-oriented.
Today, the automotive prophet sorted out 9 car stories worth recording and reminiscing about in the first half of 2018, all of which will change the development of the Chinese and even global automotive markets. Next, savor the key and hot events in the eyes of Chinese "Autobots" at that moment, and review and verify the people and events that have happened or predicted with everyone.
Geely Group invests in Daimler as the major shareholder
On February 24, 2018, Geely Group Co., Ltd. acquired 9.69% of Daimler AG's voting shares through its overseas corporate entity.
Regarding the reason for Geely's investment in Daimler, Li Shufu believes: "The global automotive industry is facing tremendous changes, where there are opportunities and challenges. How to seize opportunities? It is necessary to coordinate development and jointly occupy the technological high ground, especially in digital technology and online technology to gain initiative."
In the eyes of the outside world, Geely's stake in Daimler means that Chinese automotive companies can generate synergies within the global automotive industry. It can be seen that China's power is also an important force in promoting the development of the world automotive industry.
Subsidy policy introduced in 2018: 150 km new energy vehicles no longer receive subsidies
On February 13th, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the 2018 new energy vehicle financial subsidy policy. The new policy has been implemented since February 12th, 2018, with a transitional period from February 12th to June 11th, 2018.
The subsidy for new energy passenger vehicles has been transformed from the mileage subsidy in the original policy to a formula for calculating the subsidy amount based on the mileage subsidy standard multiplied by the energy density adjustment coefficient of the battery system multiplied by the vehicle energy consumption adjustment coefficient.
This also means that the subsidy amount for bicycles is influenced by the energy density adjustment coefficient of the battery system and the vehicle energy consumption adjustment coefficient. This also means that models with the same range will have different subsidy amounts for individual vehicles. For models with low battery energy density or those with a power consumption only 5% higher than the threshold per 100 kilometers, the financial subsidy will be reduced. In addition, for vehicles with similar range, the financial subsidy amount will also vary significantly.
In terms of subsidies for new energy passenger vehicles, the new fiscal subsidy policy has cancelled the fiscal subsidy for pure electric passenger vehicles below 150 kilometers, and set a range of 300 kilometers as the boundary. The fiscal subsidy for single mileage below 300 kilometers has been reduced by 20% -50%, and the fiscal subsidy for 300 kilometers and above has increased by 2% -13%. This also means that policies are forcing new energy vehicle companies and power battery companies to develop towards higher technological levels. The increase in subsidies for new energy vehicles with a range of 300 kilometers is driving the overall development of new energy vehicle products towards higher range.
The timetable for the lifting of stock ratio restrictions in the automotive industry has been announced, and all restrictions will be lifted by 2022
On April 17th, the lifting of stock ratio restrictions in China's automotive industry officially set a time point. It is understood that the automotive industry will lift the stock ratio restrictions by category, and the foreign stock ratio restrictions on automobiles and new energy vehicles will be lifted in 2018; Abolish the restriction on the proportion of foreign shares in commercial vehicles in 2020; In 2022, the restriction on the proportion of foreign shares in passenger cars will be lifted, and the restriction on no more than two joint ventures will also be lifted.
According to relevant sources, in the context of the efficiency and scale improvement of China's automotive industry, the relaxation of the stock ratio is conducive to further improving China's automotive technology, attracting foreign enterprises to gradually hold larger shares in developing enterprises in China, and helping to stimulate more technology to combine with Chinese enterprises. Driven by scale, efficiency, and technology, foreign-funded enterprises will engage in deeper cooperation with Chinese enterprises in the future marketization process, even if there is no equity ratio requirement.
As the stock ratio in the passenger car industry gradually opens up, the Chinese automotive market will gradually be dominated by the market, which will have a disruptive impact on the Chinese automotive industry, leading to a decrease in car prices. Secondly, with further diversification of automotive products and complete liberalization, foreign car companies in China are bound to introduce more models and enhance their product competitiveness in China. Thirdly, enhance the level of China's component manufacturing industry. Fourthly, China's independent discourse power may weaken. Fifthly, accelerate the integration of China's automotive industry. With the opening up of the joint venture ratio, the shackles of foreign car companies in China's development will be further lifted, which will form a "catfish effect" for Chinese automobiles. Sixth, the intelligentization and networking of Chinese automobiles will assimilate foreign-funded vehicles. Seventh, accelerate talent flow, and state-owned automobile enterprises may experience talent loss.
Herbert Diess taking over as CEO of Volkswagen Group will enhance the efficiency of the group's products and financial performance
On the afternoon of April 12, 2018, German time, the Volkswagen Supervisory Board announced the new candidate for the CEO of Volkswagen Group, which will be succeeded by Volkswagen Passenger Car CEO Herbert Diess.
When Diess served as the CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, he sorted out his passenger car models to reduce costs, with the aim of increasing product profitability. In the future, when Diess serves as CEO, it is likely to reveal that Volkswagen Group is preparing for significant changes in product efficiency and finance.
In the future, Volkswagen Group may divide its 12 subsidiaries into four major companies based on their attributes in the group structure. Among them, Volkswagen, Skoda, and SEAT will merge into one; Bentley and Audi form a luxury car company; Porsche, Bugatti, and Lamborghini form a sports car company; Business vehicles and trucks form a company.
Clarity, accelerating development efficiency, and ensuring healthy financial management are perhaps the three core tasks and expectations given to Diess by the Volkswagen Group.
The import tariff on whole vehicles has been reduced to 15%, and some car companies may see a halving in sales from June to July
On May 22, the Ministry of Finance announced that in order to further expand reform and opening up, promote supply side structural reform, promote the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry, and meet the consumption needs of the people, starting from July 1, 2018, import tariffs on automotive vehicles and components will be lowered. Reduce the tax rates of 135 tax codes with a tax rate of 25% for the entire vehicle and 4 tax codes with a tax rate of 20% to 15%, and reduce the tax rates of 79 tax codes with tax rates of 8%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% for automotive parts to 6%.
It is understood that reducing tariffs is one of the important measures for China to establish a fair and open automotive market according to the plan. However, there is a gap of less than two months between the announcement and specific implementation of the tariff reduction policy. During this gap, consumers who are interested in purchasing will hold their money and wait. During these two months, luxury models mainly sold on imported models will experience a decline in sales.
In the Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volvo, Porsche, and Jaguar Land Rover 4S stores visited by car prophets, an increase in passenger flow is a common phenomenon. But salespeople have told reporters that there are actually fewer models sold. It can be seen that there will inevitably be a short-term book crisis in import sales from May to July.
The arrest of Audi CEO does not affect Audi's business development in China
Since the exposure of the "tailgate" incident by Volkswagen in 2015, it seems that the "tailgate" has become a haze surrounding Volkswagen. From the beginning of the outbreak to now, Volkswagen has cumulatively imposed fines of over 100 billion yuan, which has set a record in the automotive industry for its long span of time and severity of fines.
When the outside world believed that it could be stopped, Audi, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, was once again implicated. On June 18, 2018, local time in Germany, Volkswagen Group's Audi CEO, Steider, officially announced that he has become the other executive of a German automaker to date involved in a scandal involving cheating in exhaust emission testing.
It is understood that the German police explained that due to concerns that Steider may interfere with their investigation into the diesel emissions scandal, they decided to arrest him. In addition, Stade has been accused of fraud and "false authentication", and prosecutors believe that Stade still approved the sale of cheating vehicles before the "diesel door" was made public. Before the diesel gate was confirmed, Stade denied cheating.
For Audi CEO Steider under the Volkswagen Group, the outcome of waiting for Steider's end will be resignation. Besides being the CEO of Audi, Steider is also an assistant to the new CEO of Volkswagen Group, Diess. Steider's resignation has had a significant impact on Volkswagen Group's personnel. However, it will not have much impact on Audi's business in China.
Tesla's construction of factories in China may be affected by changes in Sino US trade relations
On July 10th, Tesla, Shanghai Lingang Management Committee, and Lingang Group jointly signed an investment agreement for pure electric vehicle projects. According to the investment agreement, Tesla will establish a wholly-owned Tesla super factory in the Lingang area of Shanghai, integrating research and development, manufacturing, sales, and other functions. The plan is to produce 500000 pure electric vehicles annually. In the future, the super factory will not only produce batteries, but may also put into production the Model 3 and cross-border model Y. According to the plan, the factory is expected to be completed by 2020.
This means that Tesla's construction of a super factory in China is not only Tesla's overseas factory, but also a new energy vehicle enterprise that enters China as a sole proprietorship to build factories.
For Tesla's construction of factories in China, production capacity has always been one of the important issues restricting Tesla's development in the eyes of the outside world, and Tesla even suffered from shareholder lawsuits for this. The main direct effect of building a factory in China this time is to greatly alleviate Tesla's tight production capacity. In addition, the real problem with Tesla is the impact of the trade war between China and the United States, which has not resulted in profitability and low efficiency. This has always been an unavoidable issue for Tesla. Coupled with the impact of the US China trade relationship, it is not difficult to see that Tesla's factory construction in China is based on practical considerations.
China and Germany will promote the transformation of cooperation in the formulation of automatic networked standards for automobiles towards intelligence
On July 9, 2018, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Merkel jointly chaired consultations between the Chinese and German governments at the Berlin Prime Minister's Office, while witnessing the signing of 22 bilateral cooperation projects including agriculture, education, chemicals, and automobiles.
As one of the important directions of the 22 cooperation projects between China and Germany, cooperation and planning in the automotive field will become an important part of promoting the development of economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries. On that day alone, representatives from relevant departments of China and Germany jointly signed the Joint Intention Statement on Cooperation in the Field of Autonomous Connected Driving, and both sides will jointly promote the development and application of international unified standards for autonomous connected driving.
Starting from the annual meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and Chancellor Merkel at the Prime Minister's Office in 2013, for six consecutive years, these two prime ministers witnessed the signing of projects in various fields by both sides at the same long table and in the same scene, as well as the birth of multiple cooperation agreements between car companies.
After 6 years of annual meetings between Premier Li Keqiang and Chancellor Merkel, the signing scene of "one long table and three national flags" at the Berlin Prime Minister's Office remains unchanged, while the development direction of the automotive industry has shifted to new energy vehicles and intelligent technology.
New forces in car manufacturing raised nearly 100 billion yuan in financing in the first half of 2018
By 2018, many new car making forces had already submitted their answers one after another, such as WM Motor's production of the EX5 on March 28th; At the same time, the pure electric SUV π 3 under Yundu New Energy has been officially launched in Xiamen, and in addition, the global research and development center of Qidian Automobile has settled in Suzhou Xiangcheng, among others. Whether it is the debut or launch of new car making models, or the gradual implementation of plans for new car making forces. All of this indicates that the new forces in car manufacturing are advancing towards their ultimate goal.
Automotive events
With the gradual advancement of new forces in car manufacturing, financing issues related to new forces in car manufacturing are still hot topics. Since 2018, the financing situation of new forces in the automotive industry has remained a major concern for the outside world. Automotive prophet found through sorting out the financing situation of new car making forces in the first half of 2018 that the financing amount of new car making forces in the first half of 2018 alone was close to a scale of 100 billion yuan.
There has always been no unified standard for the amount of financing for new forces in car manufacturing. In NIO's view, without 20 billion yuan, one should not enter this threshold; Green Car believes that the amount of financing for car manufacturing is not directly proportional to the amount of car manufacturing; In the eyes of traditional car companies, financing for new car manufacturers is more like a money burning behavior, and investors should be cautious. In fact, regardless of the perspective, in the eyes of public opinion, financing for new car manufacturers is nothing more than a normal flow of capital market funds.