The company wants to ease consumers’ anxiety
A senior representative of China's feminine-style EV maker ORA spoke to media on February 23, emphasizing that its Black Cat and White Cat series only stopped accepting new orders instead of ceasing production.
Dong Yudong, CEO of ORA’s brand department, also stressed at the news conference that the company would process the received orders while sustaining the after-sales service for all buyers.
EqualOcean previously reported on ORA's January sales performance.
ORA made the announcement in response to what it said was a rumor that it told dealers to stop accept new orders.
This triggered concerns about future maintenance and repairs. But Dong told the media that the suspension of new orders resulted from a chronic chip shortage.
The company also blamed a sharp decrease in profits or even a loss on rising costs.
According to IHS Markit, the price of lithium-ion batteries increased by 10% to 20% in late 2021; Lithium, the raw material, has jumped 400%. In the last two years, other materials like cobalt, nickel sulfate and lithium carbonate surged 119%, 55% and 569%, respectively, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Dwindling subsidy is another reason for the cost increase. The national subsidy for EV purchase will shrink by CNY 3,900 or CNY 5,400 as per driving range in 2022, while that for plug-in hybrid models will contract by CNY 2,040.
Under the new policy, buyers of the Black Cat and White Cat, both EV models, will lose a 5% discount on their sticker prices.