Increase in income does not increase profits, and the capital story of Maverick Electric is almost unmoved

Text/Wu Chenguang, Gao Heng

On the evening of March 7, Maverick Electric announced its financial report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021. The data shows that the revenue of Maverick Electric in the fourth quarter was 986.1 million yuan, an increase of 46.7% year-on-year; the net profit was 47.6 million yuan, down 18.1% year-on-year. Gross margin was 22.6% compared to 25.2% for the fourth quarter of 2020. In 2021, the revenue was 3.705 billion yuan, an increase of 51.6% year-on-year; the net profit was 226 million yuan, an increase of 33.7% year-on-year; the gross profit margin was 21.90%, and the gross profit margin in 2020 was 22.9%.

Maverick Electric said that the main reason for the decline in gross profit margin is the higher cost of raw materials and the different product structure.

In terms of business, in 2021, the total sales of Maverick Electric was 1.0379 million units, an increase of 72.5% year-on-year, and it was also the first time that its sales exceeded 1 million units. Sales in the Chinese market and the international market reached 988,000 units and 49,000 units, respectively.

On the day of the earnings report, the stock price of Maverick Electric fell by 16.86%.

Although Li Yan, CEO of Maverick Electric, is full of confidence in the performance growth in 2022 and beyond, the disappointment in the capital market is getting higher and higher. In fact, since the listing of Maverick Electric, the stock price as a whole has been going down, and the aura of its electric intelligence is receding, and there are really not many stories that can be told to the capital market.

"Price for volume" is not a good choice

Maverick said in the earnings report that the increase in revenue was mainly due to the growth of the company's electric vehicle sales. In the fourth quarter, the total sales volume of Maverick Electric was 238,200 units, an increase of 58.3% year-on-year, of which the sales volume in the Chinese market was 205,200 units, an increase of 49.2% year-on-year, and the sales volume in the international market was 32,900 units, an increase of 155.8% year-on-year.

In terms of price, in 2021, in the domestic market, the average price of Maverick Electric per vehicle was 2959 yuan, down 8.8% year-on-year, which is the first time that Maverick Electric fell below 3000 yuan, while the average price of each vehicle in overseas markets was 6597 yuan, down 31.9% year-on-year.

In addition, Maverick Electric also released and upgraded a number of products including GOVA F0 in 2021, and the price was further explored, starting at as low as 2499 yuan.

The above move seems to indicate that Maverick Electric hopes to exchange the market for a price cut.

In this regard, Zhang Yi, CEO of Ai Media Consulting, told Zinc Finance that for sales-oriented companies, price reduction for the market is not a good choice. Unlike the Internet's free access to users and value-added services to make money, electric bicycles still sell the product itself. From the perspective of capital and shareholders, no matter how much it is sold, how much money can be returned to shareholders is the most concerned. Therefore, the logic of Maverick Electric wanting to exchange price cuts for the market is difficult to establish.

According to data from the Head Leopard Research Institute, from 2016 to 2020, the number of electric bicycles in China has increased from 238 million to 293 million, and the number of electric bicycles is expected to be 308 million in 2021.

From the perspective of manufacturers, the market is still firmly in the hands of traditional two-wheeled electric vehicle companies. In 2021, Yadi's global sales of electric vehicles exceeded 13.8 million, Emma reached 9 million, and The Tailing was 8 million.

In this way, the million sales of Maverick Electric are simply a small witch.

Industry commentator Zhang Shule said that in the lack of subversive innovation in the intelligent experience, it is difficult to form a real difference with traditional manufacturers, expanding market share at a low price has become a shortcut for Mavericks to break the bottleneck, but this is not the case, Mavericks will only gradually add intelligent elements to traditional manufacturers, and the share will slowly wear out.

Racetrack congestion competition intensifies

For the current situation of Maverick Electric, not only is there a traditional manufacturer blocking in the front, but also the pursuit of soldiers Hello, No. 9, it is obvious that behind the Maverick electric change is the intensification of track competition, and now from the distribution, travel, and other aspects of consumer demand for electric two-wheelers are increasing.

The recently released performance of No. 9, which also plays the smart card with Xiaoniu Electric, shows that the total revenue in 2021 was 9.127 billion yuan, an increase of 52.04% year-on-year. Much higher than the revenue of Maverick Electric.

Haro Chuxing, which entered the track at the beginning of 2021, benefited from its own advantages such as the online ride-hailing chain, and built 3562 stores in 2021, with an annual growth rate of 1358%. This figure also surpasses maverick electric. As of December 31, 2021, the number of Maverick Electric franchise stores in China was 3108.

For the pursuit of soldiers, Zhang Shule said that the ninth and Hello, the former is more focused on innovation and technological leaps, not a two-wheeled electric vehicle manufacturer in the strict sense. The latter has its own online car chain and consumption scenarios, essentially and the traditional two-wheel electric homogeneous scuffle of the Maverick electric, forming a differentiation, in the stock market on the direct impact of the Maverick electric is not as good as the traditional manufacturers, but for the potential incremental market based on intelligent experience and scene expansion, it has formed a strong pressure on the Maverick Electric.

"The two-wheeled electric vehicle itself lacks the ability to expand the mid-to-high-end market, and there have been attempts to hit the high-end market with the shape design, but it lacks breakthrough power." Therefore, all manufacturers have the same destination, choosing to stabilize market share in the form of price wars, and then slowly plan for it. For the calf, the space is getting narrower. Zhang Shule told Zinc Finance.

Internet gameplay or a dead end

In the face of the front of the blockade and after the chase, how will the calf electric future go without increasing revenue?

Zhang Shule believes that The Maverick Electric is retreating from the aura, its so-called electric intelligence, in the overall view, there is no special experience to speak of, and the difference between the traditional two-wheel electric is not large, the capital market began to be "disappointed" in its electric intelligence story, and the revenue alone is not enough to make up for market confidence. "Intelligent experience and scene expansion are the slogans of the calves, and only when the slogans are implemented can we survive." he said.

Zhang Yi pointed out that the imaginable story of the electric bicycle industry is not strong. Electric bicycles do not have the same driving effect as electric vehicles, such as driving software, terminal equipment, peripheral services, etc., and the imagination space is relatively narrow. What to do when selling electric vehicles is that the market should be large enough and the profit performance should be good enough, otherwise it will not be attractive enough to capital.

In the long run, the most important choice of consumers for electric bicycles is the cost performance. Brand attributes determine the user's sense of gain, sense of glory, electric bicycles usually serve low-end users, and do not like the users who buy luxury brand cars have a sense of gain and glory. Therefore, in this market competition, it is more important how to reduce the cost of production through research and development technology, and increase the sales of products at the right price.

In Zhang Yi's view, using the Internet to do electric bicycles must be a dead end. From the performance of the market value since the calf listing, it is clear that capital does not accept the temptation of this kind of story.