New Energy Vehicle Upstream Costs Fully Passed Down; Industry Enters Price Increase Mode

By March 2026, many domestic new energy vehicle companies have either announced price increases or canceled discounts, effectively raising prices, which has attracted market attention. Recently, Shanghai Securities News reporters learned that due to rising lithium prices, chip shortages, and other upstream industry chain changes, the price shifts are quickly propagating to downstream new energy vehicle sales, marking the start of a new wave of “price hikes” in the industry. Industry experts analyzed that the future price trend of new energy vehicles mainly depends on upstream costs and market demand changes.

Several new energy vehicle companies have announced price increases for new models

Consumers interested in purchasing new energy vehicles have recently lamented, “I’ve saved enough for the down payment, but I didn’t expect the car price to rise again.” Since March, multiple domestic new energy vehicle brands have shifted from their previous promotional discount strategies and have consecutively announced price increases for new models.

On March 10, Chery Automobile’s Exeed brand announced that from March 21, the high-end version of the Exeed ET5 would increase in price by 5,000 yuan, from 159,900 yuan to 164,900 yuan. Additionally, the previously free “Falcon 700 City NOA” intelligent driving package now requires an extra 5,000 yuan to purchase, which means the total cost of this new model has increased by 10,000 yuan.

Not only Chery, but recently, many domestic automakers’ new energy vehicle models have shown price increases, with some brands achieving this through reduced configurations or canceled discounts, effectively raising prices in disguise.

In the high-end segment, the new generation SU7 pre-sale price has already increased by 14,000 yuan compared to the previous generation. On March 13, Xiaomi Auto announced that the new generation Xiaomi SU7 would be officially released in March. Subsequently, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi Group, confirmed that the new vehicle would definitely see a price increase. “The new generation SU7 has significantly improved in safety, driving control, intelligent experience, and luxury feel. Of course, costs have also risen quite a bit. We also told everyone in advance that the new generation SU7 will definitely increase in price,” Lei Jun said.

An industry insider commented on the rumors of price hikes for the refreshed Zeekr 009 GT, stating, “Currently, the company’s procurement costs have indeed increased, and the price of the Zeekr 007 GT may be adjusted upward by nearly 10,000 yuan.”

For low-end models priced below 100,000 yuan, many automakers have adopted measures such as reducing configurations, resulting in decreased battery range, and some brands have directly halted production of low-profit models.

Rising lithium carbonate and chip prices increase costs

Industry experts analyzed that from the perspective of automakers, the price increases in new energy vehicles are not primarily driven by market supply and demand but are mainly influenced by upstream industry chain prices and supply changes.

As a core component of new energy vehicles, power batteries rely heavily on lithium resources. The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose from about 75,000 yuan per ton in July 2025 to around 170,000 yuan per ton in March 2026, an increase of nearly 130%. Just the cost of lithium carbonate adds an extra 3,000 to 5,000 yuan per vehicle for batteries.

Another key component of intelligent new energy vehicles, automotive-grade chips, also faces challenges. Recently, due to explosive growth in artificial intelligence industries, the capacity of automotive-grade storage chips has been significantly squeezed. Data shows that in the first quarter of 2026, the price of automotive-grade DDR5 memory increased by nearly 300%, with the cost of storage chips per vehicle rising from 700 yuan to 2,000 yuan.

NIO Chairman Li Bin stated that the biggest cost pressure for the company in 2026 comes from the rising prices of storage chips. He believes that the automotive industry faces considerable difficulty in competing with AI and data centers for chip supply. Meng Qingpeng, Vice President of Supply Chain at Li Auto, said that in 2026, the supply fulfillment rate for automotive storage chips may be less than 50%. Lei Jun also previously mentioned that the new Xiaomi SU7 is facing quarterly jumps in memory costs, with per-vehicle memory costs expected to increase by several thousand yuan.

In addition to lithium carbonate and chip price increases, industry experts noted that starting in 2026, the purchase tax for new energy vehicles will be reduced from exemption to half, combined with tightening local subsidies, squeezing profit margins per vehicle for automakers, which has prompted many companies to raise prices to cope with the new situation.