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Producer: Electric Planet News
Author: Yu Fei
This morning, NIO released its 2021 annual financial report.
Last year's sales increased by 109.1% year-on-year, and Weilai, which delivered more than 90,000 vehicles, naturally made remarkable progress in the annual financial report data released today: the annual revenue was 36.1364 billion yuan, of which the automobile business revenue reached 33.1697 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin of the automobile business for the whole year reached 20.1%.
On the other hand, R&D investment, which represents "growth" and "investment in the future", also reached a new high of 4.5919 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 84.6% year-on-year.
How to define NIO 2021? We think of it as "walking through the mud".
The mud here, of course, refers to the pits on the road to build the car, the difficulties encountered, and the criticism suffered. The reason why "walk through" is because Weilai 2021 has already proved with the amount of delivery that the mud can be stepped on, and hopes that the tempering experienced in 2021 can harvest growth in 2022.
One important role of the annual report is to continue the past, and the other is to open up. The data we pay more attention to is actually WEILAI's expectations for 2022.
In this regard, Li Bin described 2021 as a year for WEI TOO to "re-accumulate strength", while 2022 is a year of "overall growth".
In fact, he said that NIO will achieve a "flat" report in Q4 2023, that is, a loss clearance, and then achieve an overall profit in 2024.
Based on this expectation, "growth" may not be described very accurately, but take-off is.
What information is hidden in NIO's 2021 annual financial report, and what else does Li Bin expect from NIO's 2022? In the year of mass production of the NT2.0 platform, can Weilai walk through the mud and successfully take off?
The main text begins immediately.
First, walk through the mud
In 2021, NIO handed over 91,429 vehicles.
The three SUVs on the NT1.0 platform are concentrated in the mid-to-high-end products of 350,000-600,000 yuan, and the sales of 90,000 vehicles make the 866 the top sales in first-tier cities - even if the gasoline SUV is counted.
Li Bin said that in 2021, NIO became the brand with the highest sales volume of more than 350,000 priced SUVs in Shanghai, with a staggering market share of 23% - counting gasoline vehicles.
Market performance has also become one of the bases for us to judge Weilai 2021 out of the mud. In the fourth quarter of 2021, when the impact of force majeure factors was small, WEILAI handed over 25,034 vehicles, which has reached an annual rate of 100,000 vehicles.
Behind the delivery volume, or pushing Weilai out of the mud, is the commitment, which can also be said to be Weilai's own persistence.
As of today, WEILAI has built a total of 871 substations, 714 fast charging stations, and 3982 destination charging piles. The infrastructure construction that has endured a lot of pressure is not only what Weilai once promised and must be done in the morals of the enterprise, but also ultimately transformed into user experience and even orders.
With this insistence, the concept of "electric district room" has been further popularized in 2021, and what impressed us even more is the power station replacement without queuing during the National Day.
Alongside infrastructure, it is a growth factor for future investment, as well as research and development.
2021 is a year in which NT1.0 and NT2.0 alternate between the old and the new, and it is also a year in which WEILAI's R&D investment has increased significantly.
R&D investment of 4.6 billion yuan increased by 84.6% year-on-year, and Li Bin also said in the earnings meeting that R&D investment in 2022 will reach a "more than double" growth rate, that is, more than 9 billion yuan.
The 4.6 billion R&D in 2021, if counted as "out of the mud", the doubling effort in 2022 will determine how far WEILAI can go.
Another figure is that by the end of this year, WEI's R&D personnel are expected to reach 9,000 people, even exceeding the total number of WEILAI employees at the end of 2019.
The stability and growth of the organizational structure, as well as the digital system capabilities brought about by the improvement of product planning, are one of the several unknown advances in 2021.
Perfect planning, referring to the three old models of the 866, is preparing a unified intelligent hardware upgrade plan. Li Bin said that at the right time this year, he will announce the rear-loading upgrade service for the owners of the cars that have been picked up, as well as upgrades for the 866 sales models.
Another point that reflects the perfect planning is that the same 866, from the founding version of ES8 in 2017 to EC6 in 2021, can still get consistent functional upgrades through FOTA, such as OS updates without differential treatment, and even assisted driving capability updates.
"Investment in research and development of core technologies can enhance the sustainable competitiveness of our technologies and products," Li Bin concluded.
2. Take-off
Last December, we saw NIO's compass, or rather, NIO's system competitiveness in Shanghai.
Qin Lihong's two-hour "MBA Open Class" allows us to learn more about NIO, but I think another meaning is that NIO has already thought of the second and third steps, so we can share the first step with confidence.
Or to put it another way: Weilai's systematic thinking is mature enough to be open and honest, and it can use Yang conspiracy.
In Li Bin's words, 2022 will be a year of comprehensive acceleration for WEILAI, which is embodied in "delivering three new models, continuing to focus on long-term competitiveness in research and development and infrastructure investment, building more production capacity, meeting the rapid growth of user demand, and serving users in more countries and regions."
This paragraph revolves around Li Bin's sentence and talks about what kind of "comprehensive acceleration" Weilai wants to achieve in 2022.
1. New car
On April 29, 2021, NeoPark Hefei Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park officially started construction.
Li Bin said that the plant and equipment in the new park are already in place and are being promoted according to the planned 60JPH production capacity. On the other hand, the JAC plant is expected to take the lead in achieving a capacity of 60JPH in the middle of this year.
For example, if it is 60JPH double shift 4000 hours (year), the production capacity can reach 240,000 vehicles, and if the overtime is a little more, it can reach 300,000 vehicles, and it is expected that the overall production capacity will have a "fundamental improvement" in Q4 this year.
However, due to the fact that ET7 and ES7 are placed in the JAC plant and produced in line with the 866 model, the capacity climbing speed will face a "slightly complicated situation", Li Bin said that ET7 will successfully climb to conventional production capacity in the third quarter.
As for the ET7 order, he said it was "still more than the media predicted" – the previous media predicted 15,000 orders.
The ET5 will be mass-produced at the Shinbashi campus, and like the ES7, the delivery time is expected in the third quarter.
2. Benchmarking
The ES7 will be the first SUV model on the NT2.0 platform, positioned as a medium-sized five-seater SUV, and its benchmark competitor is the veteran BMW X5 in the market segment, or more precisely, the domestic BMW X5L.
Li Bin did not disclose pricing news, but he said that the market demand for more than 400,000 five-seat SUVs has increased recently, and the total capacity is about 200,000 vehicles.
His description of the ES7 is that "having our most advanced Sandian technology, Sanzhi technology, with high performance and luxury, will attract users with higher demand for performance and quality." Based on this, he believes that ES7 is an "increment" for Weilai and will not have an impact on 866.
"The order for March 866 still met our expectations, and there was no problem with the demand," Li Bin added.
ES7 is a microcosm, WEIlai directly faces the epitome of fuel vehicles.
In fact, when we test-drove the ET7 at the beginning of the month, WEILAI was already confident that we could experience the BBA's 5/6/E models at the same time - these four cars are directly competing in terms of pricing and size.
Similarly, the ES7 will face the higher-level gasoline players, and it can even be said that every model of Weilai this year has a gasoline car that can be fully benchmarked.
3. Cost, loss and profit
For the full year of 2021, Wei achieved a gross profit margin of 20.1%, compared with 20.9% in the fourth quarter.
Li Bin believes that the 75-degree battery has played a positive role in reducing costs, and the increase in sales has made the cost of apportionment lower. But he also acknowledged that rising commodity prices still have a clear negative effect on costs.
Putting aside external factors, Li Bin said that WEIO "executed well overall" last year, and the net loss mainly came from long-term R&D investment, as well as the upfront cost of European team and network construction. This year, he hopes to still achieve "gross profit coverage R&D", even if this year's global model adaptation will bring new R&D investment.
As for the longer time, Li Bin's expectation is that by Q4 2023, WEILAI can achieve a "flat" leveling, that is, a net loss clearance, and then achieve an overall profit in 2024.
4. Supply chain
By 2022, supply chain fluctuations remain unpredictable and drastic.
The price increase for raw materials such as lithium is another hot spot in this earnings conference. Li Bin's statement is also very intriguing:
"We call on upstream manufacturers, starting from long-term interests, not to do speculative price increases, artificial price increases are not a good thing for the entire industry."
In addition to raw materials, the chip is still a sword hanging over the head of the car company.
But in fact, what bothers Weilai, or car companies, is not high-end chips such as Snapdragon 8155 and NVIDIA Orin, but "usually cheap chips" produced by TI and Infineon. The problem is that these cheap chips can't be built as long as they are missing.
Li Bin said that Weilai's solution is to use some alternative materials, such as direct sales are out of stock, and will go to the spot market to purchase some.
5. International market, domestic infrastructure and new brands
This year, NIO will enter the German, Dutch, Swedish and Danish markets and is now in the preparatory stage of team formation. As for the Norwegian market, the ES8 already ranks among the top two sales of 6/7 seater passenger cars in Norway.
Another even more important piece of news is that the NIO sub-brand, officially known as the "new brand for the mass market", has built a core team and clarified the strategic direction and development plan. The first products have entered a "critical stage of research and development".
Pricing, power exchange compatibility, and sales network sharing have become the suspense left to us by this official revelation.
At the same time, NIO also announced this year's charging and replacing network plan. Including a cumulative total of 1,300 substations, 6,000 overcharge piles, and more than 10,000 destination charging piles.
3.
What is the original intention of Weilai to build a car? Li Bin's answer is very short: user interests.
Why talk about the original intention in the annual financial report? Because the annual financial report is just an opportunity for everyone to see if the things that Wei has said in the past have been done when the old and the new are alternating.
Entering 2022, due to global turmoil, the price of raw materials for electric vehicles has soared, and many car companies have been unable to withstand the cost pressure and have increased prices. But as of press time, we can see that Weilai is still carrying - the official guidance price of the whole department has not changed.
Li Bin said in the earnings report meeting: "We still have some time to see the changes in the prices of raw materials such as batteries, and there is no idea of price increases at the moment."
Carrying it a little longer is in the interests of users, and it can also answer "why Weilai does not reduce prices".
Even in 2021, when sales exceed 90,000, "carrying" is still a summary of the stage of Weilai's car manufacturing. For example, insisting on research and development, such as firmly laying and replacing power stations, these must be "carried". Because there are a lot of people who think it's wrong, or that they can do less and take shortcuts.
It has been proven that taking shortcuts can succeed in a very short time. But take a shortcut to apologize for the original heart, or rather, sorry for the original heart of Weilai.
On November 21, 2016, at a press conference in London, Li Bin said that NIO is a global brand.
This is another original intention of Weilai.
Global brands mean that sales, research and development, and after-sales teams outside of China need to be adapted and teamed up, rather than pulling on the boat like a cabbage – realizing this original intention also requires "carrying".
So we think what NIO needs is to "get out of the mud", not "take shortcuts".
In 2022, can Weilai come out and fly into the sky?
(End)
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