How to break through the new energy automobile industry chain?

"The last remaining enterprises will be the backbone of the competition in the new energy automobile industry in the future." This is probably the best way to describe the current new energy automotive industry. As of April 30, 133 listed companies in vehicle, spare parts and automotive services have all disclosed their annual reports for 2018. According to relevant media statistics, 17 listed companies have lost money, and 78 companies'net profit has declined year-on-year.

This is one side of the turning point of China's new energy automobile market.

Although as the world's largest market for new energy vehicles, domestic sales of electric vehicles are still growing rapidly, enterprises in the upstream industry chain have long been in the wind. Undoubtedly, the accelerated shuffling of the new energy automobile industry is the epitome of the beginning of the differentiation of the entire electric vehicle industry chain, and "three electricity" (batteries, motors, electronic control) is the largest part of the investment of enterprises in the industry, but with the breakdown of the capital chain, arrears and other negative news of enterprises in the industry, once ambitious enterprises in the electric vehicle industry chain, numerous. Many were involved in the whirlpool.

General Pressure of Electric Machinery Enterprises

As a direct response to business results, business income and net profit are the primary concerns of entrepreneurs and investors. Taking the motor enterprises in the new energy automobile industry chain as an example, looking at their business performance in 2018, the most notable characteristics are the pressure of impairment and the decline of profits.

According to the relevant statistics of the media, only 6 of the 12 mainstream motor listed companies have made profits, and the net profits of 10 enterprises have declined in varying degrees in 2018, of which 6 have declined by more than 100%.

It is worth mentioning that the explosive growth of the new energy motor and electronic control industry began in 2015. As the main parts of new energy vehicles, the market scale of motor, electronic control and new energy vehicles is also growing with the explosion of new energy vehicles. But now, the listed motor and electronic control companies have collectively bid farewell to the peak profit era of 2016 and 2017, which coincides with the decline trend of new energy automobile subsidies.

In the annual report, most companies attribute the decline in net profit to the decline in orders caused by the policy adjustment of new energy vehicles and the consequent intensification of competition. For example, Blue Hai Huateng, the main manufacturer of electronic control products for new energy vehicles, said that the main reason for the decline was the adjustment of the national new energy vehicle subsidy policy in 2018, the negative growth of domestic production and sales of new energy commercial vehicles, the intensification of industry competition and changes in customer demand structure, which affected the scale of production and sales of electric vehicle motor controllers.

In the view of industry insiders, on the one hand, the rising cost of raw materials has led to the rise of motor costs. On the other hand, in the case of a sharp decline in subsidies and a delay in the payment of subsidies, new energy vehicle companies transmit the pressure of lower prices in the downstream consumer market to the upstream supply chain, resulting in a decline in the prices of motor and other parts, and a decline in the income of motor and electronic control enterprises.

In fact, in order to ensure market share, most parts enterprises can only face high accounts receivable and try to find solutions. Data show that by the end of 2018, the balance of accounts receivable of eight motor enterprises exceeded 500 million yuan, of which 3 exceeded 1 billion yuan, and accounts receivable of seven enterprises continued to grow.

Sustainable Innovation Can Keep Competitiveness

From the perspective of industry development, the motor industry is also in the process of rapid elimination. Most of the more than 200 motor enterprises in the country are transformed from traditional motor and related industries. On the other hand, some domestic enterprises are not investing enough in R&D, while international parts enterprises are peeping into the Chinese market.

In the post-subsidy era, the only way to avoid being eliminated is to innovate continuously and improve the competitiveness of core technology.

Taking Vietnam Power as an example, the data show that the R&D investment of Vietnam Power in 2016, 2017 and 2018 are 28.148 million, 40.113 million and 45.277.76 million respectively, showing a gradual upward trend.

At the 2018 Jiangsu Science and Technology Award Conference held on May 10 this year, Yuebo Power was awarded the 2018 Jiangsu Enterprise Technology Innovation Award, becoming the only enterprise in Jiangsu Province and Nanjing City to win the award.

Nowadays, based on the national strategic needs, relying on the existing national enterprise technology center, national post-doctoral research workstation and Jiangsu New Energy Automobile Power System Key Laboratory, Yuebo Power has established a research and development system with Yuebo New Energy Automobile Research Institute as the core, and its self-innovative power assembly system and other products have been obtained in the field of new energy vehicles. It has been widely used and has been highly concerned and recognized by the industry.

In this regard, industry analysis shows that when the volume of China's new energy automotive motor market is large enough, foreign-funded enterprises such as Denso, Bosch, Siemens and Toshiba will surely enter the market strongly. Under the background of industry shuffling, performance decline and foreign investment eagerly watching, for China's motor enterprises, only through continuous innovation and layout of industry frontier technology can they remain competitive and in the market. Remain invincible.