Source: Ideal Car official website
On February 25, Ideal Auto released its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021. This is also the first time since the listing that the ideal has been released earlier than Weilai and Xiaopeng.
According to the financial report, the total revenue in the fourth quarter was 10.62 billion yuan, an increase of 156.1% year-on-year, and the net profit was 295.5 million yuan, an increase of 174.88% over the same period last year.
In the whole year of 2021, the total revenue of Ideal Automobile was 27.01 billion yuan, an increase of 185.6% from 9.46 billion yuan in 2020. In terms of net profit, in 2021, ideal automobile net loss of 321.5 million yuan, an increase of 111.9% from 2020 of 151.7 million yuan.
Ideal Auto founder Li Xiang revealed that in the case of a significant increase in R&D investment and sales network expansion, Ideal Auto can still achieve quarterly profitability, "fully reflecting that Ideal Auto has excellent operating efficiency." ”
Relying on the ideal of one car to hit the world, bicycle sales have also approached the 100,000 mark in the past year.
According to the financial report, ideal cars delivered a total of 35,221 ideal ONE in the fourth quarter of 2021, and 90,491 units were delivered in 2021, an increase of 177.4% year-on-year. Subsequently, vehicle sales revenue in the fourth quarter increased by 155.7% year-on-year to 10.38 billion yuan, which is the first time that the quarterly revenue of ideal automobiles exceeded 10 billion.
Gross margins are constantly improving
Although the choice of the extender route has met with many doubts about the ideal, from the results of market performance, Li Xiang, who is a super product manager, still bet on the right treasure.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, ideal ONE delivered a total of 35,221 units, an increase of 40.2% from the third quarter of 2021 and a year-on-year increase of 143.5%. In the whole year of 2021, ideal cars delivered a total of 90,491 vehicles.
Source: Ideal Car
Sales growth also led to continuous revenue increases, in 2021, the total revenue of Ideal Automobile reached 27.01 billion yuan, compared with 2020 (9.46 billion yuan) up 185.6% year-on-year, of which vehicle sales revenue was 26.13 billion yuan, an increase of 181.5% over 9.28 billion yuan in 2020.
The review of 2021 is undoubtedly a year of ideal rapid expansion, which also leads to a sharp rise in expenditure.
In 2021, Ideal's expenditure on sales and management expenses was 3.49 billion yuan, an increase of 212.1% year-on-year. Ideal explained that the increase in sales, general and administrative expenses was mainly due to the increase in employee compensation due to the increase in employees, as well as the increase in marketing and promotional activities and rental expenses as the company's sales network expanded, while the increase in sales volume also led to a year-on-year increase in sales costs in 2021 by 168.7% to $21.25 billion.
On the other hand, R&D spending is also rising. R&D expenses for the fourth quarter of 2021 increased by 38.4% sequentially to RMB1.23 billion, an increase of 228.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 (RMB374.2 million). The R&D expenses of the ideal car in 2021 were 3.29 billion yuan, an increase of 198.8% compared with 2020 (1.1 billion yuan).
The increase in R&D expenses was mainly due to the increase in R&D personnel and the increase in the Company's research and development activities for new models. As of December 31, 2021, Ideal had 11,901 employees, compared to 4,181 at the end of December 2020.
The increase in expenses also led to an increase of 52% year-on-year operating loss in 2021 to $1.02 billion and a year-on-year net loss of 111.9% to $321.5 million.
The sharp jump in spending did not mask the increase in gross profit. In the fourth quarter of 2021, ideal vehicle gross margin was 22.3% and 21.1% in the third quarter. On the whole year, the gross profit of Ideal Automobile increased by 271.9% year-on-year to 5.76 billion yuan, the gross profit margin of automobile reached 20.6%, and the overall gross profit margin reached 21.3%, exceeding Shen Yanan's previous forecast of 19%-20%.
The ideal also mentioned that it is also facing the cost problem caused by the increase in the price of raw materials, but with the further improvement of automobile delivery, the scale effect will smooth out the pressure of rising costs to a certain extent, and it is believed that the gross profit margin will be further improved.
In terms of income, ideals have also begun to diversify. In 2021, other sales and service revenue was $881.3 million, an increase of 406.8% from $173.9 million in 2020. Ideally said that the increase in other sales and service revenue is mainly due to the increase in the cumulative sales of automobiles, which has increased the sales of charging piles, accessories and services, and the sales of new energy vehicle points have also increased in 2021.
The increase in revenue and gross margin also enriched the cash flow of Ideal Automobile.
According to the financial report data, the operating cash flow in 2021 was 8.34 billion yuan, an increase of 165.6% over 2020 (3.14 billion yuan). Free cash flow in 2021 increased by 75.8% year-on-year to $4.33 billion. As of December 31, 2021, cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, time deposits and short-term investments totalled $50.16 billion.
Productivity and intelligence challenges
Whether it is revenue, gross profit or sales, the ideal car is constantly improving, but it does not mean that it can sit back and relax.
For the current ideal car, insufficient production capacity has become a key factor hindering development.
Ideal cars are planned to sell 1.6 million units in 2025, which is far from meeting its ambitions based on current production capacity. At present, the Ideal Production Plant has only an annual production capacity of 100,000 units in changzhou, and according to the calculation of 90,000 units sold in 2021, the plant is basically in full production throughout the year. The Changzhou plant is also adding new workshops, which will reach a capacity of 200,000 units after the expansion, while the Beijing Shunyi production base will be put into operation in 2023.
Ideal Auto said on a conference call that by 2023, the company plans to reach an annual production capacity of 500,000 units, and double-shift production can reach 750,000 units.
However, even so, there is still a big gap from the production capacity of 1.6 million vehicles, which is why the ideal is speeding up the race. Ideal said in the earnings call that Ideal Automobile has established a strategic cooperation with the Chongqing Municipal Government to establish a Chongqing production base in Liangjiang New Area.
In addition, in the face of today's more fierce intelligent research and development competition, the ideal internal team has also changed.
Ideal Auto announced the departure of the company's CTO Wang Kai for personal reasons, which is also the highest level executive left by Ideal Auto since its establishment. Ideal Auto's chief engineer Ma Donghui will be responsible for the development of the company's intelligent car-related technologies, while Wang Kai will continue to serve as a senior consultant for Ideal Auto until the end of the year.
From the perspective of planning, the ideal chooses the rhythm of the electric route and the extended range route at the same time, and the "two-legged" walk undoubtedly puts forward more requirements for the ideal competitiveness.
Ideal said on the earnings call that its second model, the Ideal X01, will be launched in the second quarter of this year, with delivery scheduled for the third quarter. By 2023, Ideal will launch two ultra-fast charging pure models with high-voltage platforms.
"We're launching the right model at the right time, in the right place, in the right strategy, and in the right mode." For the guidance for the whole year of 2022, Ideal is quite optimistic in the earnings call, believing that 2022 will be a very important year for the overall growth of Ideal Automobile.
Ideal expects vehicle deliveries to be between 30,000 and 32,000 units in the first quarter of 2022, up 138.5% from the first quarter of 2021 to 154.4%, meaning that average monthly sales of more than 10,000 will become the norm.
At the same time, officials expect total revenue in the first quarter of 2022 to be 8.84 billion yuan to 9.43 billion yuan, an increase of 147.2% to 163.7% from the first quarter of 2021.
"In fact, we have only dug a small spoon in this market, and the ideal is the entire passenger car market above the 200,000 level, not just the pure electric market." Li xiang said that at present, the ideal has only a 2% share in this market, and in his view, when the ideal accounts for more than 20% of the 200,000-level market, it means that the key stage from 1 to 10 has been completed.
The author | Qin Zhangyong
Edit the | Wang Yan