Recently, major car companies have shown their January sales results, and I believe that the word that everyone sees the most is the opening of the door. Indeed, under the dual role of intelligent networked vehicle technology iteration and continuous business model innovation, China's new energy vehicle production and sales have ushered in rapid growth in 2021. According to the official data, some car companies have achieved substantial growth in revenue and profits, but at the same time, some car companies have encountered financial difficulties, why is such a contrast formed? Who earned the money? Let's take a look.
Tesla's full-year profits hit a new high
According to data from the China Automobile Association, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in 2021 were 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units, respectively, an increase of 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, ending the three consecutive years of decline since 2018. Among them, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.545 million units and 3.521 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.6 times year-on-year. Obviously, the trend of China's auto market is good.
When it comes to new energy vehicles, tesla will definitely be thought of, after all, it comes with the heat of the topic. Recently, Tesla disclosed the company's operations last year. Among them, Tesla China's revenue in 2021 reached $13.844 billion, an increase of 107.8% year-on-year. Last year's cumulative global sales exceeded 930,000 vehicles, accounting for 14.4% of the market share, ranking first in the top 20 list of the world's best-selling electric vehicle brands.
Specifically, tesla also generated a net profit of $5.5 billion in GAAP in 2021, excluding $6.5 billion spent on new plant construction and other capital expenditures. In fact, Tesla was able to increase revenue in China, mainly due to the increase in production and deliveries of the Shanghai Gigafactory.
In addition, in 2021, the gross profit margin of Tesla's automobile business reached 29.3%, and the gross profit margin of single vehicles reached 30.6%. It is worth mentioning that the gross profit margin of most car companies in the world is below 20%. Toyota is known as the "most profitable" car brand, its auto business gross margin in the first quarter of 2021 was 19.2%; in China, Beijing Benz has maintained the highest gross margin level, its gross margin in the first half of last year was 27.1%, and has now been surpassed by Tesla. So who wouldn't want to be the next Tesla?
Independent brands and new car-making forces operate at a low profit
Seeing Tesla's profits soar, it is inevitable that many people think that the new energy field is very profitable. In fact, some Chinese auto brands only continue to operate at low profits. According to the data of car companies that have announced financial reports, Great Wall Motor's profit growth rate is relatively high, an increase of 26.45% year-on-year, the annual revenue is 136.317 billion yuan, and the net profit is 6.781 billion yuan. Among them, the annual sales volume of the new energy brand Euler was 135,000 units, an increase of 140% year-on-year. Of course, the gap between such profits and Tesla is still quite large, but it is enough to make peers red.
In addition, some new energy vehicle companies have also suffered losses. Recently, Beiqi Blue Valley released the announcement of the pre-loss of 2021 annual results, and it is expected that the net profit in 2021 will be -4.8 billion yuan to -5.3 billion yuan. A maximum loss of $5.3 billion is staggering. In 2021, I thought that I could borrow Huawei's aura to turn over, but the BEIQI Jihu brand only delivered 4993 vehicles, not only became a potential stock, but became a drag oil bottle.
The new forces in the new energy industry will change their losses. At present, Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng are in an accelerated period of profitability improvement. After all, a large amount of money was spent on research and development, but its rising gross profit of bicycles has shown that they have the ability to approach the break-even point in the future. According to the data, in 2021, the sales volume of WEILAI, Ideal and Xiaopeng was 91,400, 90,500 and 98,100 vehicles respectively, with a year-on-year increase of more than 100%. Moreover, the consolidated gross profit margin of the three new forces reached 20.3%, 23.3% and 14.6% in the third quarter of 2021, respectively.
In the new year and new atmosphere, many car companies seem to have made a lot of changes in order to sell in the Chinese auto market. On February 7, Kia released a blockbuster news, South Korea's Kia Co., Ltd. Society signed an expansion investment agreement with the Yancheng People's Government and Jiangsu Yueda Group, increased the capital by 900 million US dollars and a new layout, and decided to do a big job in the Chinese market. Even by 2027, 6 electric vehicles will be built matrix, which shows that the Chinese market is still a fragrant feast.
And in the post-90s era, car replacement consumption seems to have become the mainstream, and most consumers will choose to upgrade their vehicles. At the same time, under the trend of intelligence and networking, the demand of young consumers for new high-end products is also continuing to strengthen. The 2021 McKinsey Automotive Consumer Insights Report also proposes that automakers need to pay close attention to consumption upgrading trends. It seems that car companies should not only strengthen their own product strength, but also always pay attention to consumer demand trends.
Electric EV: Actively looking for its own breakthrough point
Although there is a lot of room for development in the field of new energy, the space is also limited. 2022 is a new beginning for many car companies, and it is also an opportunity for rectification. Affected by chip shortages and rising raw material prices, the volatile market environment seems to have brought more risks to car companies. It is true that reasonable corporate planning and keen insight into the direction of market development can take advantage of opportunities.