As the support policies related to new energy vehicles continue to decline by 30% on the basis of 2021 this year, the competition in the new energy vehicle market may be further "white-hot".
One morning in March, Ms. Dong, who lives in Beijing's West Third Ring Road, drove her ideal ONE to work, and her pale blue body was fresh and bright in the morning light.
Ms. Dong said: "The reason why I bought this car is because I have two children at home, this car has good driving performance, large space in the car, and the price is in line with the budget. ”
There are more and more ideal car owners like Ms. Dong now. In 2021, Ideal Cars sold more than 90,000 vehicles in total. Recently, Ideal Auto announced that the second new model, the L9, will be launched soon.
It is worth noting that the ideal car lost 322 million yuan in 2021, can the new model L9 help the ideal turn a profit?
The ideal new model, the L9, is coming soon
Ideal Auto Official Micro recently announced that the new model L9 will be released in the second quarter. This is the second new model launched by Ideal after 3 years since the launch of the Ideal ONE.
It is reported that this model is positioned as a large SUV, equipped with a range extender electric power system and intelligent driving technology, and the price range will be 450,000-500,000 yuan.
For this news, many netizens said: "It is too expensive, and there is no competitive advantage in the first model." "The price of about 500,000, a bit over budget, was dissuaded."
Not only the ideal car, since the beginning of this year, car companies have announced the launch of new models.
It is reported that new models such as the domestic BMW X5 and SAIC Audi Q6 will be listed soon, aiming at the domestic luxury medium and large SUV market. NIO launched its first sedan, the ET7, at the beginning of the year, and Xiaopeng Motors also announced that it will deliver the first medium- and large-sized SUV, the Xiaopeng G9, in the third quarter.
Sales recorded but a net loss of 322 million
On the day of the official announcement of the Ideal L9, Ideal Auto also released its 2021 financial report. A total of 90,491 new cars were sold in 2021, an increase of 177.4% year-on-year, a record high.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, ideal auto's net profit reached 296 million yuan, achieving a quarterly turnaround; but the annual net profit was -322 million yuan, and the loss increased by 111.9% year-on-year.
Compared with previous years' data, the net profit of Ideal Automobile in 2019 and 2020 was -2.44 billion yuan and -152 million yuan, respectively.
It can be found that the loss of the ideal car narrowed sharply in 2020, and the loss in 2021 has expanded.
Source: Ideal Auto earnings report
Ideal Auto explained the loss of 322 million yuan in one year, mainly due to the increase in research and development expenses, sales and general and administrative expenses incurred by autonomous driving technology.
According to the financial report, the ideal R&D expenditure in 2021 was 3.29 billion yuan, an increase of 198.8% year-on-year. The ideal R&D expenses in 2019 and 2020 are 1.2 billion yuan and 1.1 billion yuan, respectively.
The annual research and development expenditure reached 3.29 billion yuan, is this amount high or low? You can compare it with Weilai and Xiaopeng Motors in the same camp.
Since WEILAI and Xiaopeng Automobile have not yet released their 2021 financial reports, we have selected single-quarter data as the basis for comparison.
In the third quarter of 2021, THE R&D expenses of NIO were nearly 1.2 billion yuan, Xiaopeng Automobile was 1.26 billion yuan, and the R&D expenses of ideal automobiles were nearly 900 million yuan.
Other traditional car companies have not invested in research and development. In 2020, the R&D investment of traditional car companies such as Great Wall Motor, Changan Automobile and Geely Automobile will exceed 4 billion yuan.
Source: Listed company announcements
Looking at the foreign automotive industry, major car companies have also invested heavily in technology research and development.
According to the data, Tesla's research and development expenditure in 2020 is 1.491 billion US dollars (about 9.5 billion yuan). Toyota recently announced that it will invest $70 billion in research and development costs for new energy vehicles by 2030.
It can be seen that the research and development costs of the ideal car are at a basically reasonable level in the industry.
So, what are the more than 3 billion yuan of research and development expenses used for?
According to the financial report, the R&D expenses in 2021 are mainly used for the salaries of R&D personnel and the research and development activities of new models.
In this way, the ideal invests heavily in technology research and development, which is an effort to make the second car, the ideal L9, a "blockbuster", thereby boosting the company's performance.
Can Ideal L9 help Ideal turn a profit?
At present, the cycle of a model is generally 5-6 years, and the automotive industry pays more attention to the sales of explosive models. According to a new energy industry analyst at Galaxy Securities, the investment logic of the automotive industry, in the final analysis, still depends on whether car companies can create "explosive cars".
The ideal L9 built with heavy money has been pinned on high hopes from the research and development stage, can this car become a "blockbuster" and help the ideal to achieve breakeven?
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, said in an interview: "The ideal new model L9 product is very good, and the high-end positioning is also very good, but the price is relatively expensive, and whether it can become the next 'explosive model' mainly depends on the consumption capacity of the market." ”
Some brokers expressed optimism about the market prospects of this new model.
CITIC Securities believes that the optimism L9 will become another explosive model after the ideal ONE, which will help the company achieve a second leap forward. Soochow Securities believes that the ideal L9 or the biggest new energy explosion in 2022.
Some insiders also said that whether the ideal L9 can satisfy the market is still unknown. The promotion of new models and follow-up research and development also require a lot of capital investment, and ideal cars are also facing problems such as large-scale mass production delivery.
Author: Tian Tian
Editor: Wu Peng
Producer: Tian Xinxin
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