Last year was undoubtedly the most eye-catching year for zero running.
Wen 丨 straight through IPO ID: zhitongIPO
Author 丨 Riemann
As the founder of zero running, a new car-making force, Zhu Jiangming shouted the slogan of "three years more than Tesla" at last year's 2.0 strategy conference. But the "embarrassing" thing is that in the early days of entrepreneurship, he was still a "door-to-door fool", he told the media: I don't know that automobile production and sales need access qualifications, I think that I can sell it if I pass the test at the China Automobile Center.
There are still 2 years to go before Tesla, and zero running is still hovering in the second echelon of new forces in China. However, last year, zero running was rapid and rapid, and it entered everyone's field of vision with a dark horse galloping, and two good news came.
First, in February this year, zero-run deliveries squeezed into the top five.
Second, after becoming "Wei Xiaoli", the fourth domestic new car-making force to sprint IPO. Previously, Nezha and Weima, which were in the same echelon, had news that they were going to be listed. Today, Zero Run seems to have taken the lead in grabbing tickets.
On the evening of March 17, zero-run prospectus disclosed that it intends to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In this not-so-good fundraising environment, will the market pay for the dream of zero-run cars?
Last year, it ranked sixth in deliveries with a net loss of more than 2.8 billion
Let's take a look at the delivery results of Zero Run.
A total of three models were released, including the Zero Run S01 coupe released in January 2019, the low-end model Zero Run T03 launched in May 2020, and the mid-range pure electric SUV Zero Run C11, which was launched in September last year.
According to the prospectus, the cumulative delivery of zero-run vehicles in 2021 is 43,000 vehicles, a substantial increase of 443% over more than 8,000 vehicles in 2020, ranking sixth among the new car-making forces, the top five are Xiaopeng, Ideal, Weilai, Nezha and Weima. In 2020, a total of 8,050 electric vehicles will be delivered by zero-run cars. According to the prospectus, its deliveries in January and February 2022 totaled 10,300 vehicles, with a performance of more than 10,000 units, breaking into the top five.
Whether it is from the perspective of annual delivery volume or monthly delivery, the delivery data of zero-run cars is about half of the same period of the head enterprise.
However, last year was undoubtedly the most eye-catching year for zero running.
With the start of delivery last year, zero-running offline stores also expanded rapidly last year. At the end of 2020, there were 95 stores in Zero Run, tripling to 291 at the end of last year. Most of these stores are concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, but only 23 are directly operated stores.
Therefore, zero running has been emphasizing growth in the financial report, rather than highlighting the scale. It calls itself the fastest-growing of China's new car-making forces.
In terms of financial performance, the performance of zero running is not optimistic.
According to the prospectus, from 2019 to 2021, the revenue of zero-running cars will be 117 million yuan, 631 million yuan and 3.132 billion yuan, respectively. From this data, it can be clearly seen that the first two years of zero running were basically small fights, and it was not until 2021 that the income was raised.
According to the prospectus, in 2021, its auto and parts sales were 3.058 billion yuan, an increase of 396.7% year-on-year, mainly due to the increase in the delivery of main models; the sales revenue of automobile supervision points was 71.9 million yuan; and the revenue from services was 1.3 million yuan, which was related to additional income related to automobiles such as vehicle extended warranty and vehicle networking services.
Correspondingly, however, losses are getting bigger and bigger. The Company's adjusted net losses were RMB810 million, RMB935 million and RMB2.629 billion, respectively.
Source: Zero Run Prospectus
In terms of R&D investment, R&D investment in 2019, 2020 and 2021 was 358 million yuan, 289 million yuan and 740 million yuan, respectively. As of December 31, 2021, its R&D staff accounted for 33.9%. The increase in R&D investment in 2021 is mainly due to R&D expenditure on new models and the increase in R&D personnel.
In terms of sales expenses, its sales expenses in 2021 will be 428 million yuan, on the one hand, due to the expansion of the sales service network, its stores will expand from 95 in 2020 to 291 in 2021; on the other hand, it will be due to the increase in marketing promotion activities, especially the promotion of the new model C11.
According to the above data, in 2021, the zero running income is 3.13 billion yuan, the cost of the car is 4.52 billion yuan, and then deducting the research and development expenditure and sales expenses, it basically belongs to the sale of a loss.
In addition, when Li Xiaowei was IPO, its gross profit margin level has basically turned positive or is about to be positive, and the current gross profit margin level of zero run is still far from being positive.
Where is the strength of zero running?
Rely on the car within 100,000 yuan to start
On the one hand, the strength of zero running has not yet reached its own high-end market positioning.
"We focus on The 150,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan Of China's mid-to-high-end mainstream new energy vehicle market." Zero Run is introduced in the prospectus.
It cites Data from Frost & Sullivan, saying that new energy vehicles in the price range of 150,000-300,000 yuan in 2021 account for 39% of China's total sales of new energy vehicles, and will further increase to 49% in 2026, becoming the main driver of market growth.
But the actual situation is that last year, 89% of the sales volume of zero run was an A00-class car with a price of no more than 100,000 yuan and a small profit, T03.
The T03 is a miniature car with a length of only 3 meters 6 and a wheelbase of 2 meters 4, which is about the same size as the MINI of Wuling Hongguang. It is priced at between 69,000 and 85,000 yuan, which is not a mid-to-high-end model in the zero-run strategy.
The C11, which meets the zero-run positioning, is the most expensive model it is currently on sale, priced at 150,000-200,000 yuan, accounting for only 9%. The earliest release of S01 is a small pure electric coupe, the price of up to 150,000 yuan, in fact, did not arouse too much spark, so far only sold a total of less than 3,000 vehicles, accounting for only 2% of sales.
However, this is only a zero-run strategy to test the waters. Its ultimate goal is still to break into the most competitive 100,000-300,000 yuan high-end market.
In April, ZeroCar will unveil its fourth car, the C01, at the Beijing Auto Show, with deliveries scheduled to begin in the third quarter. This is a medium and large sedan, directly benchmarking the BYD Han EV and Xiaopeng P7. It is based on the same platform of C11, with a body length of more than 5 meters, a range of more than 700 kilometers, and an acceleration time of less than 4 seconds per 100 kilometers. This model is directly related to Xiaopeng, BYD, Weima and other PK, and it will only be seen how the strength will be.
In addition, in the product planning of zero running, a total of 8 products will be launched by 2025, and only 3 models have been launched at present.
It's hard to beat Tesla in three years
On the other hand, the high-tech ability of zero-run is still far from the first echelon. High-tech capabilities are the core factor that directly determines whether consumers will pay for your products at the same price point.
"Surpass Tesla in the field of intelligence in three years", this is the slogan shouted by Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Zero Run.
According to Zhu Jiangming's plan, zero-run cars will put into production lidar solutions at the end of 2023, realize full-scenario autonomous driving technology in 2024, and achieve anti-superiority and leadership over Tesla in intelligent driving technology. In the prospectus, Zero Run also claims to be the only new car-making force in China with global self-research capabilities.
Zhu Jiangming once said that global self-research is more high-end than full-stack self-research. Full-stack self-development only includes software, not hardware, and hardware must rely on third parties. The global self-research is built from the bottom layer to achieve independent research and development of all software and hardware. From the beginning of its establishment, Zero Run did not take the route of other new car-making forces relying on external forces to grow rapidly, but started from every control software of every part of the car, and insisted on taking the self-developed route.
And those who shouted the slogan of full-stack self-development were Xiaopeng and Tesla. Xiaopeng said that he is the world's only two full-stack self-developed mass production car companies, acknowledging that the first is Tesla. Therefore, Zhu Jiangming's tone is not generally very large.
The reason why I dare to shout this slogan is mainly because zero running backs on Dahua shares. It is second only to Hikvision's security giant, is the parent company of zero run, and is also an investor in zero run. It can bring strong visual processing capabilities to zero-run, as well as a low-cost self-developed system.
Fu Liquan, the founder of Dahua, started from scratch to make Dahua the second in the global AI security industry. Claiming to have a dream of a market value of 100 billion, but the global security market is only 100 billion, so turn your attention to the car. Zhu Jiangming is the co-founder of Dahua. After the establishment of Zero Run Automobile, Zhu Jiangming gradually resigned from his position related to Dahua and was fully responsible for the management and operation of Zero Run.
The prospectus discloses that Zhu Jiangming and Fu Liquan indirectly hold a total of 31.01% of the zero-run shares indirectly through their families and affiliated holding companies, making them the largest shareholder group.
At present, the results that can be seen are that the zero-run C11 is indeed equipped with an intelligent driving chip developed by zero-run - Lingxin 01. According to public information, Lingxin 01 is the first domestic AI autonomous driving chip jointly developed by Zero-Run Automobile and Dahua Co., Ltd., which adopts a 28nm process process, with a power consumption of 4W and a computing power of 4.2TOPS.
However, some insiders have also revealed that the products and technologies of zero-run cars are developed by themselves, and many places still do it according to non-car products, "because the product of security can be used no matter how to get it, and it can not be done in accordance with strict compliance requirements, so the definition of the product that everyone understands is not the same." ”
But in fact, the zero-run full-stack self-development ability is still a long way from the first echelon.
From 2019 to 2021, the annual R&D expenditure of Zero Run was 360 million yuan, 290 million yuan and 740 million yuan, respectively. By the end of last year, there were 3190 employees in Zero Run, of which R&D personnel accounted for 33.9% of the total number of employees, that is, about 1,000 R&D personnel.
In contrast, in the first echelon, the worst ideal in research and development, 2021 R & D investment of 3.29 billion yuan, is 4.5 times the zero run, the size of the R & D team of more than 2,000 people, and Xiaopeng last three quarters of research and development expenditure has reached 2.66 billion yuan, R & D team of about 4,000 people.
"There is no 20 billion don't want to build a car." Weilai founder Li Bin once said so. According to the prospectus information, since its inception, Zero Run has raised a total of 8 rounds of financing, totaling 11.86 billion yuan, and 8.8 billion yuan was raised last year alone.
According to the prospectus, as of December 31, 2021, zero-run cash and cash equivalents were $4,338 million. In contrast, the cash reserves of Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng are all more than 20 billion yuan. The situation of zero running has improved compared to its 2020. Zero also said that the reason for cash flow is due to the cash flow from financing.
Car building requires huge expenses, there is no doubt that zero running is not stopping to go public in Hong Kong at this moment, but also to seek more sources of funding. However, in the case of financial embarrassment, the difficulty of "three years more than Tesla" is not generally large.
(First image source: courtesy of the enterprise)
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