Electric bike crisis moment

In mid-August, Yulin Lin, Emma's vice president of electric vehicles, went to southern battery manufacturers for battery supply, and described the battery's hardship in his private microblog.

The environmental renovation storm initiated by China’s environmental protection agency is threatening its downstream industry chain, the electric bicycle industry. It is understood that the lead-acid battery industry around the country began a large-scale suspension of rectification, it is expected that the country's 2000 lead-acid battery business, the company may retain less than 300 companies. The shortage of batteries caused by the suspension of business operations has pushed the electric bicycle to the frontier. An industry source stated that 97.5% of our electric bicycles use lead-acid batteries.

Hu Gang, vice president of Xintian Electric Vehicle, told NetEase that many small and medium-sized electric bicycle companies face bankruptcy risks caused by battery shortages and many other reasons. It is expected that nearly one-third of electric bicycle companies will face bankruptcy in the next six months. .

SMEs are faced with production cuts and suspension of production In early July, a declaration for a bankruptcy liquidation announcement was posted on the door of a large electric vehicle company named Datian in Tianjin. The company's remaining manager, Yao, said that it was the lack of timely delivery of batteries that caused the capital chain to break and became the last straw to pressure the company, which was already under tight funding. He also said that the larger the amount of funds, the larger the production scale of the company, the initial problem is not very prominent, but over time, the problem of capital shortages will be revealed.

Among the more than 2,000 electric vehicles in China, small and medium-sized enterprises like Tianjin Datian account for more than 80% of the total. They "take it for granted" to become the first wave of battery shortage. The relevant person in charge of the new day electric vehicle once revealed that nearly 60% of the electric vehicle production companies face no battery available difficulties.

It is understood that starting from this year in April, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other nine ministries and commissions to jointly rectify the impact of lead-acid battery industry, the country's multi-land lead-acid battery production enterprises stop production. In May, with the recurrence of pollution incidents in lead-acid battery companies in Zhejiang, Guangdong, etc., according to the requirements of nine ministries and commissions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, various regions began to suspend and rectify the lead-acid battery industry. The mass production process failed to meet the standards and caused serious environmental problems. Contaminated lead-acid battery companies were shut down. Xu Hong, secretary general of the China Electrotechnical Society Lead-Acid Battery Professional Committee, said that it is estimated that more than 1,000 lead-acid battery companies in 2000 will be eliminated. According to preliminary estimates by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, there are less than 300 companies that may be retained.

Lead-acid storage companies have reduced production or even stopped production, resulting in a reduction in the supply of batteries, which has a direct impact on the downstream electric vehicle industry. Ma Zhongchao, chairman of the China Bicycle Association, said: "At present, 97.5% of electric bicycles in China use lead-acid batteries, and the industry relies heavily on lead-acid batteries."

Without battery-operated electric vehicle companies, there is a backlog of entire vehicles. A person in charge of an electric bike manufacturer in Tianjin told NetEase Finance that at present, orders for thousands of units have been cancelled due to poor battery supply. Existing inventory dealers In the case of shipments, it is also required that the vehicle must be accompanied by a certain amount of batteries. When the dual pressure causes the peak season to enter the sales season, a serious backlog occurs. There are approximately 10,000 units of the entire vehicle in the warehouse. This number will not exceed the normal number. 2000 units.

"This is the sales season at this time in previous years. Basically, each unit has a battery. Now there is no battery, it can't sell a car, and it can only be seen in the warehouse." He said.

Faced with the "empty match rate" Dealers encountered, now in the electric bicycle manufacturers, such a scenario often occurs. Many dealers are in front of the warehouse of the vehicle manufacturer. Once a battery arrives, they are immediately transported along with the vehicle.

The battery manufacturer is also the same scenario, but the protagonist has changed. The heads of these electric vehicle production companies are kept in front of the battery manufacturer's warehouse. Once the production of batteries in batches is completed, they are immediately shipped to their own companies.

A person in charge of the production of electric bicycles told Netease Finance that they are now paying in advance to the battery manufacturer. This would require waiting for a while before they can get the battery. In addition, the electric bicycle terminal dealers have obtained certain With the empty vehicles, they also came to the battery production plant early and competed for batteries that had just been put on the production line.

According to the statistics of the China Bicycle Association, China's current electric car production is affected by the large area production of lead-acid battery manufacturers. At present, the average empty-discharging rate of the electric bicycle market has reached 60%, and some manufacturers have even reached 90%. Many manufacturers are facing cars. There is no awkward situation with the battery. The so-called empty allocation rate means that when an electric vehicle manufacturer wholesales electric bicycles to dealers, it will selectively give distributors a certain percentage of batteries according to the distributor's wholesale quantity. The ratio of the lack of batteries to the total number of batteries is said to be The empty allocation rate for electric bicycles.

A well-known brand dealer in Beijing told Netease Finance that the price of electric bicycle batteries has risen several times in the past six months. “The manufacturer’s 10 cars only give 3 sets of batteries, and other batteries rely on us to find places, but the battery’s The price changes too quickly, sometimes for a price per day, sometimes for a price of three days."

It is understood that the price of lead-acid batteries has risen, and the price of ordinary electric vehicles has also risen with an increase of around three or four hundred yuan. Mr. Zhang, an electric vehicle salesman, told Netease Finance that in recent months, the electric cars sold at his home have gone up five times. “The battery price has also increased from 400 yuan to more than 600 yuan. Not only the price of the battery has risen, but also the price of the vehicle. The price has also gone up.” Another electric car dealer also said that the electric cars he sells have risen by more than 300 yuan, and “almost all electric cars have risen in price”.

Electric vehicle companies or banks facing bankruptcy Mr. Liu, head of an electric bicycle manufacturing company in Tianjin, told NetEase that some small and medium-sized electric bike manufacturers, such as Datian Electric, have already been shut down because of the shortage of batteries. The company also maintains its original inventory, but has not been able to meet orders. "Since June, we have started to reduce production. If battery companies cannot increase supply, we will have to stop production for a long time."

According to industry insiders, the profit model of Tianjin Datian Electric Vehicle comes from the first shipment of the accessories company, which gives a certain amount of account period. The electric car products processed and produced are cashed by the seller and paid for by the accessories supplier. On the guarantee of the company's normal flow of water, even in the case of good sales, liquidity is still redundant. However, this year's electric bicycle manufacturers have suddenly been in awkward position due to the country's regulation of lead-acid batteries. Since the battery supply is in short supply, it must be ordered in cash. This is tantamount to the sluggish performance of some auto manufacturers, disrupting these companies. The normal capital chain, on the one hand, has no supply, on the one hand there is no more funds to revitalize production, attack on both sides, and in the end only choose to close down.

Hu Gang, vice president of Xinri Electric Vehicles, also stated that the electric bicycle industry is a high-turnover industry with very few stocks under normal operating conditions. Nowadays, the vehicles that the company has invested in its material and labor costs cannot be sold due to lack of batteries. The turnover of the company is seriously affected and the capital chain faces the risk of fracture. According to the statistics from the Bicycle Association, the shortage of batteries in the industry is around 60%. It is inevitable that most electric bicycle companies will reduce their production and suspend production. According to industry estimates, after this round of large-scale environmental investigations, there will be a large number of environmental protection standards that are not met. Lead-acid battery companies were eliminated. After that, the environmental standards for production and recycling of lead-acid battery companies will be more stringent, and the price of lead-acid batteries will inevitably increase. Downstream electric bicycle companies will also be greatly impacted, due to lead-acid batteries led to the collapse of electric bicycle companies will be inevitable.

“The small and medium-sized enterprises that used to attract consumers by low prices, lacked core technologies, lacked strength, and depended on low-cost market expansion will certainly be forced to withdraw. Only companies with certain R&D strength and a certain scale can survive. Such enterprises are currently about 50 in the country." A staff member of the China Bicycle Association News Office expressed to NetEase.