Xiaopeng Automobile fell into the "lock electric door": the battery capacity was accused of 8.7% off The sales volume did not reach the break-even point

Xiaopeng Automobile will be the best in delivery in 2021, but it will begin to "demonize" after entering 2022.

Recently, Xiaopeng Automobile (HK:09868, NYSE:XPEV) released February sales data showing that 6225 new cars were delivered in the whole month, an increase of 180% year-on-year, but it was not as good as Ideal Automobile and Nezha Automobile, ranking third.

Moreover, Xiaopeng Automobile has recently fallen into the "lock electric door" storm.

A number of Xiaopeng car owners said that the first batch of 670 battery life of Xiaopeng Automobile P7 was locked for no reason, and the 80.3kw battery capacity could only be installed with about 70kw, which was 8.7% off.

In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile customer service denied the existence of charging locking.

Xiao Yue, an industry insider who has long been engaged in automobile research, told the Yangtze River Business Daily reporter that setting a "charging limit" can achieve the purpose of extending the battery life, "If the owner of Xiaopeng Automobile complains that it is true, it is undoubtedly 'locking the electricity'".

The data shows that in the first three quarters of 2021, the net loss of Xiaopeng Automobile was 3.576 billion yuan, narrowing from 4.102 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Xiao Yue said that Xiaopeng Automobile is still far from reaching the break-even point, and with market fluctuations such as raw material price increases, it is still impossible to determine how much sales can be profitable.

Delivery is the first not guaranteed

Among the new forces of domestic car manufacturing, the three "Wei Xiaoli" are regarded as first-line brands, of which the delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 is even more surprising.

According to the data, the total delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 reached 98,200 units, an increase of 263% year-on-year; the delivery volume in the fourth quarter was 41,800 units, an increase of 222% year-on-year; and the delivery of 16,000 units in December, an increase of 181% year-on-year.

It is worth mentioning that Xiaopeng Automobile's delivery volume in 2021 exceeded 91,400 units of Weilai Automobile and 90,500 units of Ideal Automobile, ranking first in the new car-making forces, far exceeding Nezha Automobile's 69,700 units, Weima Automobile's 44,200 units and 43,100 zero-run cars.

However, in recent years, the "jianghu ranking" of new energy vehicles is not static, and a little inattention will lag behind.

In January 2022, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 12,900 units, an increase of 115% year-on-year, and delivered more than 10,000 vehicles for five consecutive months, surpassing 12,300 units of Ideal Automobile, 11,000 units of Nezha Automobile and 9,652 units of Weilai Automobile, and continued to hold the first position.

But in February, the reversal began, and Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 6225 new cars, an increase of 180% year-on-year, which is not low.

However, in the same month, Ideal Auto delivered a total of 8414 Ideal ONE, an increase of 265.8% year-on-year, ranking first among the new car-making forces; Nezha Auto delivered 7117 vehicles, an increase of 255% year-on-year, and won the second place. Therefore, Xiaopeng Automobile can only rank third.

It is understood that Xiaopeng Automobile's annual sales target for 2022 is 250,000 vehicles, and it will impact 300,000 vehicles.

This means that in order to achieve the target, the average monthly sales of Xiaopeng Automobile should exceed 20,000 vehicles, and the pressure is not small.

The Yangtze River Business Daily reporter noted that the sales growth rate of Xiaopeng Automobile was not as fast as that of its peers, on the one hand, it was also because of the insufficient supply of lithium iron phosphate batteries, resulting in the Failure of the Xiaopeng P5 460 model equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries to be delivered on schedule.

On the complaint platform, some car owners said that the Xiaopeng P5 460E booked on October 27, 2021 has not been equipped with a car so far, and there is no explanation or compensation plan during the period.

The sudden explosion of the market caught suppliers off guard, and the price of lithium iron phosphate also soared, from less than 40,000 yuan / ton in early 2021 to more than 150,000 yuan / ton today, an increase of 275%. The upstream lithium resources also continue to be in short supply, and boost the price gradually rise.

Statistics from industry institutions show that after the Spring Festival, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has risen for many consecutive trading days and exceeded 500,000 yuan / ton, compared with the average price of 55,000 yuan / ton at the beginning of 2021, an increase of more than 8 times.

However, Xiaopeng Motors said that based on the continuous rise in orders in hand and the annual growth expectations, Xiaopeng Motors carried out technical transformation of Xiaopeng Zhaoqing base during the Spring Festival shutdown from the end of January to the beginning of February 2022. Once the renovation is complete, a large number of on-hand orders brought into 2022 are expected to accelerate deliveries. At the same time, the Xiaopeng G9 will be delivered on a large scale in September this year, when the competitiveness will be further enhanced.

Questioned for "locking the electricity"

The price increase of raw materials is the problem of the entire new energy vehicle market, and the sales volume is also the norm for new energy vehicle companies, but Xiaopeng Automobile has recently frequently fallen into the whirlpool of public opinion for its own reasons.

Recently, some netizens uploaded a video showing that a group of Taoist priests suspected of being doing things at the door of a Xiaopeng Automobile offline store, causing heated discussion on the Internet.

In response, Xiaopeng Automobile responded that it apologized for the adverse impact of the misconduct of individual stores on the public, and said that it had ordered the store to immediately close for rectification and remove it from the official website.

At the same time, the problem of the car itself has also made Xiaopeng Automobile controversial.

Recently, a number of Xiaopeng car owners said that the first batch of 670 battery life of Xiaopeng Automobile P7 was locked for no reason, and the 80.3kw battery capacity could only be installed with about 70kw, which was 8.7% off.

In this regard, the customer service responded that there is currently no charging lock situation, in addition to the charging limit, there is no relevant operation setting to limit the charging power.

Xiao Yue, an industry insider who has long been engaged in automobile research, told the Yangtze River Business Daily reporter that the so-called "charging limit" is to set the maximum charging capacity of the battery, which can make the battery not full and achieve the purpose of extending the battery life. "If the complaint of the owner of Xiaopeng Automobile is true, it is undoubtedly 'locking the electricity'."

In the first three quarters of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile's operating income reached 12.432 billion yuan, an increase of about 315% year-on-year; the net loss was 3.576 billion yuan, narrowing compared with 4.102 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year.

Xiao Yue said that Xiaopeng Automobile is still far from reaching the break-even point, and with market fluctuations such as raw material price increases, as well as the specific arrangements for the company's research and development and sales expenses, it is still impossible to judge how much sales level can achieve profitability.

"Your personality is a mixture of wildness, romance and restraint." This is the evaluation of the guests on the scene when He Xiaopeng, the founder of Xiaopeng Automobile, recently participated in the program.

Usually, where the pattern of the helmsman is, where the ceiling of the enterprise is, and the personality of the helmsman, the culture of the enterprise has corresponding characteristics.

Where He Xiaopeng will lead Xiaopeng Automobile to, it depends on how it resolves these disputes.