新能车：价格竞争进入深水区

Investment Rating - The industry investment rating is Neutral [2] Core Insights - The new energy vehicle (NEV) sector is experiencing intensified price competition, with BYD reducing the price of its Qin PLUS model to approximately 79,800 yuan, prompting other manufacturers like SAIC-GM-Wuling, Changan, Nezha, and Geely to follow suit [17] - The CS new energy vehicle index increased by 0.97% this week, while the CSI 300 index rose by 3.71%, indicating that the industry index underperformed the CSI 300 by 2.74 percentage points [4] - February sales of new energy vehicles are projected to be around 380,000 units, reflecting a month-on-month decline of 43% and a penetration rate of approximately 33% [16] Industry Performance - The retail sales of passenger vehicles in China from February 1-17 reached 559,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 14% and a month-on-month decline of 43% [6] - The wholesale sales of passenger vehicles during the same period totaled 382,000 units, down 42% year-on-year and 57% month-on-month [6] - The overall PE-TTM for the CS new energy vehicle sector is at 15.46 times, which is historically low, with a historical percentile of 0.64% [4] Material Prices - Lithium prices have slightly decreased, with lithium carbonate priced at 96,000 yuan per ton (down 0.5% week-on-week) and lithium hydroxide at 85,000 yuan per ton (down 0.2% week-on-week) [11] - Nickel sulfate prices also fell by 3.7% to 28,000 yuan per ton [11] Company Dynamics - The new energy vehicle market is expected to see a significant increase in penetration rates in the mainstream price range of 80,000 to 150,000 yuan due to intensified price competition [17] - Companies such as Changan Automobile, Bertley, and Huayang Group are recommended for investment due to their potential benefits from automotive intelligence [2]