"Core" Panic Shrouds Chengdu Auto Show: What To Do In The Second Half Of The Sprint "No Car To Sell"?

Affected by the local epidemic in early August, 2021 Chengdu Auto Show opened on August 29, two days later than the original plan.

As an important stage to start the "golden nine silver ten" of traditional auto sales season, over the years, many auto companies have released many new models at Chengdu auto show to stimulate the potential of the car market in the second half of the year.

A total of 126 domestic and foreign auto companies participated in the auto show, with a total of more than 1600 cars. On the first day of the Chengdu International Auto Show, 60 new auto product launches were held and 70 models of the first models were unveiled.

Many car companies have launched their important new cars. German luxury cars BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi have respectively brought BMW's new X3, a new generation of Mercedes Benz C-class, new Audi q2l and other domestic first-class models; Great Wall Motors opened fire, and its five major brands haver, tank, Great Wall gun, wey, Euler all exhibited new models.

However, at this year's Chengdu auto show, some popular auto companies such as GAC Honda, Tesla and SAIC GM Wuling were absent“ It's mainly because of the lack of chips. " On August 30, relevant people from GAC Honda responded to the reason why they were absent from this year's Chengdu auto show in an interview with reporters.

Not long ago, affected by the spread of delta variant virus in Southeast Asia, the suspension of chip factories in Malaysia exacerbated the impact of chip shortage on the global automobile industry. In fact, due to the shortage of chips, China's auto market has been declining for three consecutive months since the second quarter. Many car companies have to wait for a long time to collect their cars, and even face the situation of "no car to sell" at the terminal.

The haze of "core" shortage has covered this year's Chengdu auto show.

In an interview with the 21st century economic reporter, many senior executives of automobile enterprises admitted that they were facing huge supply pressure.

Although at the auto show site, the sales staff are still enthusiastic to shout around, but it is difficult to change the current situation of sales decline caused by the insufficient supply of the whole car market. It is difficult to estimate how much impact will be brought to the auto market after the chip shortage has lasted for nearly a year.

The haze of "core" shortage has covered this year's Chengdu auto show. Photo by Shi Xinran

Chengdu auto show in the absence of "core"

At this year's Chengdu auto show, the mainstream joint venture companies represented by German and Japanese departments basically did not launch new cars, and GAC Honda even directly missed out because of the lack of "core".

The shortage of chips has affected the pace of product production and new product launch of many automobile enterprises. In the past July, the sales of mainstream auto companies have declined, and the supply can not meet the market demand.

The "core" shortage of automobile industry which has lasted for nearly a year is becoming more and more serious due to various uncertain factors.

At the beginning of 2020, the outbreak of the epidemic, the decline of domestic car sales, the overcapacity of vehicle scale chip, chip raw materials to consumer chip production. In the middle of last year, car sales rebounded, and the demand for car size chip increased. At the end of the year, the core shortage crisis gradually appeared. At the beginning of this year, natural and man-made disasters such as Blizzard in Texas in the United States and Ruisa fire in Japan caused many chip manufacturers to reduce production or stop production, and the overall "core shortage" of the automobile industry intensified. In July this year, the local epidemic situation in Malaysia intensified, which brought a "cliff type" crisis to global chip production. Almost all the automobile industry was spared.

As the champion of domestic passenger car sales, FAW-VW has a huge demand for chips, and it is also one of the most impacted car companies.

"A lot of cars are out of stock. Most of the popular models have a longer pick-up cycle than before, and some need to wait more than a month. " On August 29, Guo Yongfeng, general manager of FAW Volkswagen sales company, told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Previously, the annual sales target of FAW Volkswagen brand was set at 1.45 million vehicles. However, due to the shortage of chip supply, it is very difficult to achieve this goal. Due to the uncertainty caused by the lack of "core", it is difficult to judge the market trend of the whole year“ You can sell as many as you can produce. " Guo Yongfeng said.

As a matter of fact, it is not only Japanese and German mainstream joint venture auto companies that have no cars to sell. Second tier joint venture brands including Dongfeng Citroen have also been affected, so they have to postpone the launch of Dongfeng Citroen Versailles c5x, which was originally planned to be officially launched in early September.

"At present, the chip shortage is mainly caused by the epidemic situation in Southeast Asia. It is estimated that the chip will be put on the market in late September, depending on the resolution of the chip problem." At the 24th Chengdu auto show which opened on August 29, Mao Chuang, general manager of Dongfeng Citroen, said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that "c5x model has relatively high requirements for chips, and is now trying to solve the problem of chips."

It is understood that as the global flagship model of Citroen brand, Versailles c5x bears the heavy responsibility of "rejuvenation" of DPCA. At this Chengdu auto show, Dongfeng Citroen fully recommended this model, and the seven vehicles on Dongfeng Citroen's exhibition stand were Versailles c5x. It is understood that after the formal opening of pre-sale on August 9, the current domestic market pre-sale orders have exceeded 5000 units.

"The specific listing time is still under discussion. Please pay more attention to Versailles c5x. In addition, we will speed up production and deliver Versailles c5x to customers as soon as possible. " Mao Chuang Xin said.

However, the industry expects that the shortage of automobile chips will be extremely serious in the third quarter, which will seriously affect the production rhythm of automobile enterprises. The automobile output in August, September and October will still decline. Whether Versailles c5x can be listed and delivered on schedule is still the focus of consumers' attention.

Independent brands are also affected.

"There are so many chips in the world, and everyone is taking them. It is impossible to say that they will not be affected. It can be said that the state of the chip is "panic". However, through chip iteration and domestic independent chip research and development, there are many ways to alleviate, and we have alternative solutions. " On August 29, sun yijiong, general manager of SAIC passenger car company, said in an interview with the reporter of 21st century economic report.

He further said that the sales team is also adjusting the inventory structure and other aspects to a better state in the absence of chips. Once all aspects are on the right track, they can seize the opportunity for rapid growth.

What about "no car to sell"?

As an important stage of auto sales, this year's Chengdu auto show has increased the difficulty of auto sales due to the shortage of vehicle sources.

At the scene of the Chengdu auto show, a FAW Volkswagen sales staff told the 21st century economic report that basically all models now have to wait for some time, and now they are mainly to pull orders.

In the case of insufficient supply in the whole industry, automobile sales are facing new problems. In the case of "no car to sell", how to ensure the order quantity in the terminal market is a problem that all automobile enterprises have to face. In the case of a shortage of cars, dealers may also take advantage of consumers' psychology and put forward unreasonable requirements such as raising the price and collecting the car.

"The mentality of dealers is different. When the inventory is sufficient, the dealer's psychology has a bottom when selling the car, but not now. The sales consultant may have no bottom when selling the car. When there is no car, the dealer may be reluctant to sell it. " Guo Yongfeng said.

In the case of vehicle shortage, it is likely to cause the loss of potential users. Therefore, in the past period of time, FAW Volkswagen has maintained long-term communication with dealers, and some dealers retain consumers by giving certain preferential treatment and rights and interests. According to Guo Yongfeng, FAW Volkswagen lost more than 30000 orders in June, but the loss of orders in July has improved significantly.

In addition, in the face of the industry, in order to protect the rights and interests of customers, FAW Volkswagen also has a more strict management of dealers. Through the price value strategy, the product value is greatly increased, and the product price becomes more transparent and reasonable.