Monthly sales exceeded 10,000, why not make money?

A few days ago, a number of new car manufacturers released November sales data show that the first camp of Xiaopeng, Ideal, Weilai, Nezha collectively achieved a breakthrough in monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles, but there is still a certain gap from profitability.

(Wen 丨 Intern reporter Yang Zi)

Cross the traditional profit threshold

In November, Xiaopeng's sales ranked first, delivering a total of 15,613 new cars, an increase of 270% year-on-year. Among them, Xiaopeng P7 delivered 7839 vehicles, G3 delivered 5620 vehicles, and P5 delivered 2154 vehicles, following October, once again winning the sales champion of new car manufacturers. According to statistics, from January to November this year, Xiaopeng's cumulative delivery volume reached 82,155 vehicles, an increase of 285% year-on-year.

In November, Ideal delivered 13,485 units on sale with the Ideal ONE model alone, an increase of 190.24% year-on-year. According to statistics, from January to November this year, a total of 76,404 vehicles were delivered. Affected by chips, Weilai, which has been at the top of the sales volume of the "three car brothers", ranked last, delivering 10,878 new cars in November, an increase of 105.6% year-on-year. From January to November this year, NIO delivered a total of 80,940 new cars, an increase of 120.4% year-on-year.

Nezha, which was previously regarded as the second camp of new car manufacturers, once again rushed into the first camp of sales, delivering a total of 10,013 vehicles, an increase of 372% year-on-year, of which Nezha V series delivered 7,027 vehicles and Nezha U Pro delivered 2,986 vehicles. From January to November this year, Nezha delivered a total of 59,547 vehicles, an increase of 393% year-on-year.

Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, believes that the collective sales of the above four new car manufacturers exceeded 10,000 in November is a milestone and a threshold. "If you maintain the monthly sales of more than 10,000 per month, the annual sales can exceed 100,000 vehicles, and 100,000 vehicles is the threshold for car companies to achieve economies of scale and profitability." In the past, the degree of automation of automobile production lines was low, all assembled by workers, and often with an annual output of 200,000 vehicles to achieve certain economies of scale. Today's automobile factories have a high degree of automation, greatly improved production efficiency, and flexible production lines can cover multiple models, with an annual output of 100,000 vehicles to achieve economies of scale and flat profit and loss. ”

At the same time, he further explained that economies of scale will bring cost advantages, and the cost of purchasing the same parts for car companies with monthly sales of more than 10,000 is also low.

The profit balance point has not yet been reached

The financial report of the above-mentioned new car manufacturers in the third quarter of this year shows that with the increase in delivery volume and vehicle sales revenue, the revenue of Xiaopeng, Ideal and NIO has increased significantly. Among them, WEILAI's revenue was 9.81 billion yuan, an increase of 116.6% year-on-year; the ideal revenue was 7.78 billion yuan, an increase of 209.7% year-on-year; and Xiaopeng's revenue was 5.72 billion yuan, an increase of 187.4% year-on-year. At the same time, the data shows that NIO's net loss was 835 million yuan, down 20.2% year-on-year; the ideal net loss was 21.5 million yuan, a decrease of 79.9% year-on-year; And Xiaopeng's net loss was 1.595 billion yuan, an increase of 38.8% year-on-year.

Previously, people in the industry generally believed that the hematopoietic capacity of new car manufacturers was weak, and it would take time to achieve the normalization of profitability, and the lack of sales scale was the biggest constraint. So, how far are new car-making companies that have achieved monthly sales of more than 10,000 yuan from profitability? "Although Weilai, Ideal, Xiaopeng and other starting points are high, but the initial investment is also large, so it has not yet achieved breakeven, and it is necessary to make a stable profit for at least 4-5 years to recover the early investment, during which there must be a technical route that conforms to the development of the market." Zhang Xiang said.

According to the financial report, the R&D investment of new car manufacturers has continued to grow, of which Weilai's R&D investment is 1.1931 billion yuan, an increase of 101.9% year-on-year; the ideal R&D investment is 888.5 million yuan, an increase of 165.6% year-on-year; Xiaopeng R&D investment is 1.264 billion yuan, up 99.0% year-on-year. This extends the time it takes for car companies to reach the point of profitability.

It is worth noting that although Xiaopeng is the first to deliver, it has the least revenue and the most net loss. In this regard, Xiaopeng said that this is mainly due to the increase in R & D investment, which is reflected in the increase in salary caused by the increase in R & D personnel, as well as the investment in the research and development of new models G9 and P5 and related software development. Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of WEIO, also recently said that since the third quarter of this year, the gross profit of WEILAI's car sales has been able to cover the company's sales and management expenses, and the loss mainly comes from research and development investment.

Zhang Xiang said frankly: "Now that the new energy vehicle market is fiercely competitive, for new car manufacturers, even if they cannot achieve stable profitability in the short term, they must increase investment in research and development. ”

There is still a gap between the composite indicators and Tesla

"Car companies with sales of more than 10,000 have formed platforms and have sufficient procurement volume, so the R& D investment in the development of new models will be lower, while the platform of car companies with less sales is immature, and the investment in the development of new models is high." Zhang Xiang said.

At present, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Nezha have a number of models on sale, while the ideal has only one range extender model. For deliveries in the fourth quarter of this year, NIO expects to deliver 23,500-25,500 vehicles, Xiaopeng expects to deliver 34,500-36,500 vehicles, and ideally expects to deliver 30,000-32,000 vehicles.

It is worth noting that in the third quarter of this year, Tesla achieved revenue of $13.76 billion, an increase of 57% year-on-year; net profit attributable to common shareholders was $1.618 billion, an increase of 389% year-on-year. At the same time, statistics from the Association show that tesla's wholesale sales of Cars made in China reached 52,859 in November. It can be seen that there is a certain gap between new car manufacturers and Tesla in terms of delivery, revenue, and gross profit margin.

At the same time, the domestic independent new energy vehicle brand momentum is strong, joint ventures, multinational brands are also struggling to catch up, so the previous sluggish sales of the Volkswagen ID series in the Chinese market delivery reached 14,167 units, sales exceeded 10,000 for three consecutive months. In addition, the momentum of Nezha, Weima and Zero Run, which are in the second echelon of new car manufacturers, is fierce.

"New car manufacturers generally pay attention to explosive models and will not put multiple models at the same time, otherwise there will be insufficient funds and will affect market promotion." Zhang Xiang said that Weilai and ideal models are positioned in the high-end market of more than 300,000, and the space is small, so it can lay out low-end models, with a large market volume and a low threshold, which is easier to grow the scale.

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Produced by | China Energy News (ID:cnenergy)

Trainee Editor | Li Zemin

Editor 丨Li Huiying