Xia Jinbiao, China Economic Times:

"Gold nine silver ten" is supposed to be the peak season for auto sales, but affected by the chip shortage, raw material prices and other impacts, auto companies continue to increase production pressure, new car supply is insufficient. At present, the shortage of hot-selling models, the rising price of vehicles and the extension of the delivery cycle all lead to consumers holding money to wait and see, affecting the sales in the terminal market. However, while the overall decline in car sales, new energy vehicles have maintained high growth.

The latest production and sales data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (hereinafter referred to as the "China Association of Automobile Manufacturers") showed that in September, the production and sales of automobiles reached 2.077 million and 2.067 million respectively, which was still a sharp decline compared with the same period last year, down by 17.9% and 19.6%.

Despite the decline in overall car sales, new energy vehicles are a unique feature of the landscape. In September, the domestic production and sales of new energy vehicles completed 353,000 and 357,000, respectively, an increase of 1.5 times year-on-year, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles continued to set a new record. Among them, the new force of car making showed remarkable performance. The delivery volume of NexteV and Xiaopeng Automobile exceeded 10,000. Other new forces of car making also increased significantly.

In the first two quarters of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles were 2.166 million and 2.157 million, respectively, and the annual production sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 2 million. This means that the chip shortage did not stop the rapid growth of new energy vehicles, but accelerated the replacement of traditional fuel vehicles, driving the traditional car market to the transition to new energy.

Chip shortages have plagued the auto industry since late last year. Automotive has always been an important application scenario of chips, a large number of chip products are widely used in the engine, transmission, chassis, power battery, drive motor and intelligent network key electronic parts and other fields. With the acceleration of the electric and intelligent development of the automobile industry, the importance of automotive chips in automotive products continues to increase.

Industry insiders say the supply of chips has not recovered quickly due to a lack of expectations for a recovery in auto demand and the temporary shutdown of chip factories caused by natural disasters. The recent resurgence of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia has affected parts supply and logistics. The lack of cores has once again triggered widespread production cuts by major global automakers and affected global vehicle supply in the second half of this year.

As the world's larger automobile consumption market, demand for chip exuberant. According to statistics, China's automotive chip market in 2020 is more than 70 billion yuan, of which the import rate reaches 95%, and the chip market is heavily dependent on imports. The global core shortage has impacted Chinese automobile industry.

At present, domestic auto enterprises generally adopt the strategy of giving priority to the supply of main sales models, production reduction and other strategies to cope with the chip shortage. According to the China Electric Car Committee of 100, 15 auto companies have stopped production this year due to the lack of cores. Faw Group in the first 7 months due to chip problems affected the output of 300,000 units; Changan Automobile cut production by 134,000 units in the first half of the year due to the Bosch ESP gap. Great Wall Motor cut production by more than 10% in the first half due to the chip impact.

Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said the fourth-quarter chip supply is expected to be better than the third quarter, but the chip supply is still in short supply and is expected to reach a supply-demand balance in the second half of next year. In addition to the chip shortage, higher electricity bills and persistently high raw material prices will add further cost pressures. The association expects production and sales to remain negative year-on-year in the fourth quarter and may fall short of the 4% positive growth forecast set at the start of the year.

Although the chip shortage will have an impact on the production of all models, for auto enterprises, compared with the fuel vehicles that are difficult to register and lack policy support, new energy vehicles can obtain more profits under the support of the double points policy and local subsidies. Auto enterprises have taken new energy vehicles as the priority production models.

At present, under the situation of continuous chip shortage and car market negative growth, the new energy vehicle bucking the market rally, becoming the main growth pole of our country's automobile market. China's new energy vehicle sales are expected to exceed 3 million units this year, according to the China Automobile Association.

Our company mainly produces new energy vehicle parts, closely follow the policies and instructions, and contribute to the cause of new energy vehicles and social environmental protection.