Rising lithium prices Promote the price increase of new energy vehicles. China Automobile Association Experts: I hope to rationally control prices upstream

Cover news reporter Teng Yan

Since the first half of this year, due to the upstream raw material price increases and core problems, many new energy vehicle brands have carried out many different prices, and the industry is expected to increase prices for a period of time.

On August 11, Chen Shihua, deputy secretary -general of the China Automobile Industry Association, told the cover journalist that the rapid growth of China's new energy vehicle market this year has determined that the price of raw materials is "rising", "it should be said to be a normal trend." From the perspective of lithium carbonate, "in a state of deformity."

Chen Shihua, Deputy Secretary -General of China Automobile Industry Association (Picture Source: China Automobile Industry Association)

The core components of new energy vehicles are power batteries, and lithium carbonate is the main raw material of the battery. According to the Securities Daily, relevant persons in charge of lithium carbonate raw materials manufacturers said that starting from the end of 2020, the price of lithium carbonate rose from about 50,000 yuan/ton to about 500,000 yuan/ton. The rapid rise in the price of lithium carbonate is caused by the shortage of upstream non -ferrous metal raw materials.

"It can be seen that most of the vehicle companies of new energy vehicles are in a loss state, and the profit of power battery companies is not good, while the profit margin of the processing enterprise of lithium materials is very high. It's even higher, I think this is abnormal. "Chen Shihua said," The growth of downstream is to drive the growth of materials. This is the market, but if it is rising too fast, it is an abnormal market. It is not good for the industry. "

Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of China Automobile Industry Association (Picture Source: China Automobile Industry Association)

"The price of raw materials is not obviously adjusted, and it is still at a high level, resulting in the cost of batteries and new energy vehicle manufacturers." Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer of the China Automobile Industry Association, said, "New energy vehicle manufacturing enterprises basically have not yet yet. To reach the level of profit, after the cost is increased, if the price of the manufacturer does not increase, it will increase losses, and the continuous loss is not conducive to industrial development. "

"The main reason for the rise in prices is the supply and demand relationship. Of course, there may be some speculation phenomena. We have always called on to stop or restrict these speculation and make the price of new energy vehicle raw materials return to reason." Xu Haidong emphasized.

Will the price increase of new energy vehicles affect sales? Xu Haidong said that although the price of new energy vehicles has been adjusted, the overall sales have not fallen greatly. "Of course, some reasons include, for example, the order that is likely to be delivered is still a few months before, not the price increase after the price increase. Order. We also learned from individual companies that it may be possible for subsequent (price increase) to have a certain impact on sales. "

However, Xu Haidong also pointed out that in general, the consumption of new energy vehicles has formed a "wave" and consumer habits, and the rapid development trend has not changed greatly.

According to the data released by the August Information Conference of the China Automobile Association on the same day, in July, the production and sales of new energy vehicles continued to maintain a high -speed growth momentum year -on -year, reaching 617,000 and 593,000 units, respectively. The growth was 1.2 times, and the market share reached 24.5%, slightly higher than last month. From January to July, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.279 million and 3.194 million, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times, and the market share reached 22.1%.

In addition, the rise in terminal prices has not brought a improvement of profitability. The data announced on the same day also showed that from January to June, the added value of the automotive manufacturing industry decreased by 1.9%year-on-year; the completion of operating income was 4089.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.2%; the profit was 212.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.5%, and the profit margin of 5.2 was 5.2 %, Higher than 0.5 percentage points from 1st to May.

Chen Shihua pointed out that the decline in profits is largely different from the range of operating income. In recent years, through technical upgrades and solution optimization, the price of power battery has been reduced, but now because of the rise in raw material prices, it has almost "swallowed" the previous efforts in technological reduction. The return of price returns to normal, so that the industry can maintain a healthy development. "

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