China's new energy vehicle production and sales have ranked first in the world for three consecutive years. Just as the world's attention is focused on China's new energy vehicle market and various forces are flocking in, the development status of China's new energy vehicle market has also entered a new period of pain and reflection. stage.

As originally expected in the industry, the new energy vehicle market will experience pain as subsidies decline, but the reality is far beyond expectations. . The new good situation has not lasted for too long. Recently, the biggest resistance to the development of new energy vehicles has changed from the subsidy to the continuous quality problems of new energy vehicles, such as the recent frequent occurrence of electric vehicles such as Weimar, Jianghuai and Lifan. The problem of spontaneous combustion. At the same time, in contrast to the stage of the new energy vehicle industry from the beginning to the thriving stage, more than 30 companies represented by Changan Automobile were named by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for suspending production of new energy products for more than a year. In addition, the embarrassing situation encountered by consumers in the process of using electric vehicles reported by the daily 3.15 column of the Central Radio Network has poured cold water on the development of the new energy vehicle market.

Song Qiuling, deputy director of the Department of Economic Construction of the Ministry of Finance, said at the 2018 China Automobile Industry Development International Forum held in early September, "We believe that the development of China's new energy automobile industry is still at a critical stage of sailing against the current and failing to advance or retreat."

Some industry analysts told the Times Weekly reporter that the current situation of the development of the new energy vehicle industry is far less beautiful than the year-on-year data, and there are still various problems that need to be solved urgently.

The industry encounters new problems

While China's auto market has ranked first in the world for 9 consecutive years, it has also ranked first in sales of new energy vehicles for 3 consecutive years.

Overall, China's new energy vehicle industry is developing rapidly: from the perspective of industrial scale, the production and sales volume in the initial stage in 2009 was less than 500, and it is expected to reach 1.5 million this year; from the perspective of technology, new energy passenger vehicles The driving mileage of mainstream models has increased to more than 300 kilometers; from the perspective of core competitiveness, 4 independent enterprises have ranked among the top ten global new energy vehicle sales in 2017. These growth data and rankings are hard to see in the traditional fuel vehicle field. However, while booming, the problems of the new energy vehicle industry are also exposed one by one. In particular, the problem of spontaneous combustion, which has been widely concerned in the industry recently, has become an important obstacle to the development of new energy or electric vehicles.

Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor of the Department of Automotive Engineering of Tsinghua University, called for solving many problems in the promotion and use of domestic new energy vehicles as soon as possible. "The biggest risk of pure electric vehicles is the safety of the battery, so the safety of the battery must be ensured." Ouyang Minggao believes that there is currently no annual inspection system for electric vehicles in China, and the battery of pure electric vehicles lacks management after the battery seal fails or the warranty period expires. Lots of safety hazards.

According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of this year, there have been at least 10 combustion accidents reported by the media in electric vehicles. For example, in recent days, Lifan 650EV was in Guangzhou and Weimar EX5 spontaneously ignited in Chengdu. Regarding the reason for the spontaneous combustion of Lifan 650EV, Zhang Deyan, director of the planning department of Lifan Group, told the Times Weekly reporter that the cause of the vehicle's battery fire was initially determined to be: the heavy rain in Guangzhou for several days, the vehicle was soaked in rainwater for more than 2 hours, resulting in micro leakage of the battery. After the immersion, the customer did not take the initiative to contact the service station for inspection. After that, when the customer used the car, the battery was short-circuited, causing the battery to catch fire. Weimar issued an announcement saying that the current situation of the fire was caused by the employees of its Chengdu Research Institute illegally operating scrapped vehicles to forcibly electrify, resulting in a short circuit and spontaneous combustion of the battery pack.

According to the summary of the fire department, the spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles is mainly reflected in four situations: "burning during charging, burning during battery driving or placement, burning caused by collision and overturning, and burning caused by wading." An analyst who did not want to be named pointed out that although compared with the sales volume of hundreds of thousands, the probability of burning of 10 different degrees and situations cannot infer the conclusion of the danger of pure electric vehicles, but the uneven process and the lack of uniformity. The standard and products of the power battery will make consumers more resistant to new energy vehicles in the face of such incidents, not to mention that there are more spontaneous combustion incidents that have not been reported by the media. The reason why several spontaneous combustion incidents have caused public opinion to worry about new energy vehicles is mainly because there are too many companies in the new energy market.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently 487 electric vehicle manufacturers in China, of which very few are qualified.

Since the approval of new energy vehicle production qualifications was launched in March 2016, a total of 15 enterprises have obtained the new energy vehicle production qualifications issued by the National Development and Reform Commission or have been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, namely: BAIC New Energy, Changjiang Automobile, Qiantu Automobile, Chery New Energy, Jiangsu Min'an, Wanxiang Group, Jiangling New Energy, Chongqing Jinkang, Guoneng New Energy, Yundu New Energy, Zhidou, Suda, Hezhong, Lu Fangzhou and JAC Volkswagen. Even adding a few previously qualified enterprises, most new energy vehicle enterprises are in a state of applying for qualifications while producing. As a result, the related supporting products, services and experiences of the new energy vehicle industry are not ideal.

For battery safety, or for the annual inspection and insurance of pure electric new energy vehicles, there is currently no set of specific standards for more detailed management.

Ouyang Minggao said, "Unlike fuel vehicles, due to the different cost distribution of components, new energy vehicles should issue a set of specific standards to determine the use of battery systems, and use corresponding terms to restrict manufacturers. Guarantee product quality. For consumers, it is necessary to set different insurance types and insured amounts for the characteristics of new energy vehicles to protect consumers’ rights and interests.”

Some car companies choose to stop production

Although there are as many as 487 new energy vehicle companies, not many are actually in production. According to relevant industry insiders, only 10% of the current Chinese electric vehicle startups will survive in the next five years, and some auto analysts even believe that this number is only 1%. Taken together, it is estimated that there are only about 12-15 new energy vehicle companies that will survive in the future. So far, compared with traditional auto companies, the heavy asset operating costs are relatively large, and most new energy and new energy companies are still in the financing stage. Therefore, traditional auto companies are not active in the field of new energy vehicles.

On September 3, the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the list of enterprises “Specially Announced for New Energy Vehicle Manufacturers (First Batch)”, among which a total of 30 new energy vehicle manufacturers have not produced new energy products due to the suspension of production for one year or more, and entered the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s special announcement. list. In this list, there are many well-known companies such as Guangzhou Automobile Honda, Changan Peugeot Citroen, Changan Suzuki, Brilliance Automobile, Kaiyi Automobile, Hafei Automobile and so on. For the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's roll call, each company explained the reasons for different reasons, which can be summarized as two points: the company has shifted its business focus and stopped production; early research and development products cannot keep up with industry standards and delayed listing.

It is reported that in addition to the revocation of qualifications, models that have entered the tax-free catalog will also be excluded. According to the announcement jointly issued by the three ministries and commissions of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation, on January 1, 2017 or later, the models without production or imports within 12 months after being included in the "Catalogue of New Energy Vehicle Models Exempted from Vehicle Purchase Tax" , will be withdrawn from the "Catalogue" and will no longer enjoy the preferential vehicle purchase tax exemption.

According to some industry insiders, the introduction of the list indicates that a new round of reshuffle in the new energy vehicle industry is about to begin.