Due to the sharp increase in the quotation of lithium battery materials in 2022, major car companies have announced price increases for their new energy vehicles. Even Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, publicly stated that the cost of power batteries has accounted for 40% of new energy vehicles. %~50%, or even 60%, now making cars is working for Ningde era.
However, this situation ushered in an improvement at the end of 2022. According to the Nikkei Chinese website, the soaring price of rare metals used in pure electric vehicle (EV) batteries has been stepped on the brakes. The index price of lithium, the main raw material, hit a new low in three and a half months since late September 2022 on January 5, and the prices of nickel and cobalt have also been at lower prices since this year. Fears of slowing Tesla growth.
Under such circumstances, Tesla’s domestically-produced models have dropped significantly in price. The official website shows that the adjusted price of the domestic Model 3 is 229,900-329,900 RMB, a decrease of 20,000-36,000 RMB, and the adjusted price of Model Y is 259,900-36,000 RMB. 359,900 RMB, a decrease of 29,000 to 48,000 RMB. After the price cut, the price of Tesla cars hit a record low.
In this regard, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Federation, issued a document yesterday stating that China’s used car market will be under enormous pressure in 2022. Due to the severe impact of offline operations on the epidemic, a large number of used car business sites cannot operate normally, and the price fluctuations of superimposed inventory, Used car dealers are very difficult. The recent price reduction of Tesla in China is an expected normal trend, and second-hand car dealers should have expected it long ago.
Cui Dongshu said that the core of electric vehicles replacing fuel vehicles is price competition, behind which is industrial innovation and cost control. As the battery cost of electric vehicles gradually decreases, resources such as lithium ore will not continue to be constrained, and the price of lithium carbonate will return to around 200,000 RMB, or even lower because the supply will gradually diversify and improve. The advantages of scale such as large-scale manufacturing and integrated die-casting will be further highlighted.
He also pointed out that seeing that the price of lithium carbonate has dropped below 400,000 on the futures side, the cost of batteries will inevitably drop significantly in the next few months. The withdrawal of new energy subsidies will help the price of lithium carbonate return to a low-to-medium level.
According to data released by Shanghai Iron and Steel Union, the quotations of some lithium battery materials fell today, battery-grade lithium carbonate fell by 10,000 RMB/ton, with an average price of 492,500 RMB/ton, and industrial-grade lithium carbonate fell by 10,000 RMB/ton, with an average price of 46 RMB. RMB 10,000/ton; Lithium hydroxide dropped RMB 7,500~9,000/ton; Nickel beans rose RMB 4,300/ton.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country’s lithium-ion battery industry will continue to grow rapidly from January to October 2022. According to industry norms and announcements of enterprise information and research institutions, the total output of lithium batteries in the country from January to October exceeded 580GWh.
