If you want to ask who has the closest texture to the high-end style among the new power brands, I believe that many people will think of Weilai Automobile. Looking back at the development process of Weilai, it is indeed necessary to make people admire their courage, in 2017, the domestic new energy vehicles are far from being recognized by consumers, the market is full of low-end products suspected of "cheating", Weilai launched the ES8 starting from the beginning with a price of 448,000 yuan, preempting the positioning of high-end new forces cars in advance, and now a few years have passed, Weilai's luxurious image in everyone's heart has long been rooted.
A few days ago, WEILAI released the fourth quarter and annual financial report of 2021, and the report showed that THE REVENUE of NIO in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 9.90 billion yuan, an increase of 49.1% year-on-year, and the annual revenue was 36.14 billion yuan, an increase of 122.3% year-on-year. In addition, in the subsequent conference call, founder Li Bin will also answer a lot of plans for everyone, such as the delivery time of the three new cars this year, whether the price will increase and other concerns, which can be described as a lot of highlights, the following let Xiaobian take you to interpret one by one.
01
Summary of key financial report data
1. NIO's automobile sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 were RMB9,215.4 million (US$1,446.1 million), an increase of 49.3% year-on-year and 6.7% over the third quarter of 2021.
2. NIO's total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 was RMB9,900.7 million, an increase of 49.1% over Q4 2020 and an increase of 1.0% over Q3 2021.
3. NIO's annual automobile sales in 2021 were 33.1697 billion yuan (US$5.2051 billion), an increase of 118.5% year-on-year.
4. NIO's total revenue for the full year of 2021 was 36,136.4 million yuan (US$5,670.6 million), an increase of 122.3% year-on-year.
5. NIO delivered 25,034 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 44.3% year-on-year; a total of 91,429 vehicles were delivered in 2021, an increase of 109.1% year-on-year.
The total revenue for the whole year was 36.14 billion yuan, and the net loss was 4.02 billion yuan
In the fourth quarter of 2021, NIO's total revenue was RMB9,900.7 million, an increase of 49.1% over Q4 2020 and an increase of 1.0% over Q3 2021. Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2021 was RMB1,699.5 million, up 48.8% year-on-year and down 14.7% sequentially. Gross margin was 17.2% for the fourth quarter of 2021, 17.2% for the fourth quarter of 2020 and 20.3% for the third quarter of 2021. The decrease in gross margin from the third quarter of 2021 was primarily due to higher gross margin contributions from auto regulatory credits in the third quarter of 2021.
Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2021 was RMB2,143.4 million (US$336.4 million), an increase of 54.4% from the fourth quarter of 2020 and an increase of 156.6% from the third quarter of 2021. Excluding equity incentive expense, adjusted net loss (non-GAAP) for the fourth quarter of 2021 was RMB1,746.7 million (US$274.1 million), an increase of 31.5% from the fourth quarter of 2020 and an increase of 206.6% from the third quarter of 2021.
Net loss attributable to NIO's common shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2021 was RMB2,179.2 million (US$342 million), an increase of 46.0% from the fourth quarter of 2020 and a decrease of 23.8% from the third quarter of 2021. Share compensation expense and redeemable non-controlling interest increased the redemption value, and the adjusted net loss attributable to NIO's common shareholders (non-GAAP) was RMB1,715.7 million (US$269.2 million).
In terms of full-year revenue, NIO's annual automobile sales in 2021 were 33.1697 billion yuan (US$5.2051 billion), an increase of 118.5% year-on-year. Automotive margins for the full year were 20.1 percent, compared to 12.7 percent in 2020.
Total revenue for the full year 2021 was RMB36,136.4 million (US$5,670.6 million), an increase of 122.3% year-on-year. Gross profit for the full year was RMB6,821.4 million (US$1,070.4 million), an increase of 264.1% year-on-year.
Operating loss for the full year 2021 was RMB4,496.3 million (US$705.6 million), down 2.4% year-on-year. Excluding equity incentive expense, adjusted operating loss (non-GAAP) for 2021 was RMB3,486.2 million (US$547.1 million), down 21.1% year-on-year.
Net loss for the full year 2021 was RMB4,016.9 million (US$630.3 million), down 24.3% year-on-year. Excluding equity incentive expense, adjusted net loss (non-GAAP) for the full year 2021 was RMB3,006.8 million (US$471.8 million), down 41.2% year-on-year.
Sales have increased, why has Weilai also lost more than 4 billion yuan? That's because of the high R&D investment behind WEILAI. According to the financial report, in addition, in 2021, WEIO's R&D expenditure exceeded 4 billion yuan, reaching 4.591 billion yuan, an increase of 84.6% over 2020. Because NIO has always attached great importance to user experience, its marketing and administrative expenditure also reached 6.878 billion yuan, an increase of 74.9% over 3.932 billion yuan in 2020.
In terms of car deliveries, NIO delivered a total of 91,429 vehicles in 2021 and 43,728 vehicles in 2020, an increase of 109.1% over the same period in 2020.
Of the 91,429 vehicles delivered in 2021, including 20,050 ES8, 41,474 ES6s and 29,905 EC6s, the delivery of EC6 models in 2021 surged 730% year-on-year compared to 4,096 units in 2020, while the ES6 remains the most delivered model. According to the data of the world's third-party authoritative institutions, in the global high-end automobile (MSRP more than 50,000 US dollars) sales ranking in 2021, Weilai ranked second, with an average transaction price of more than 440,000 yuan. Among all fuel and electric SUVs priced at more than 350,000 yuan in Shanghai in 2021, WEILAI's market share reached 23%, and its overall sales ranked first.
02
"NIO currently has no idea of price increases"
Due to the continuous tightening of the supply chain, the cost increase caused by the lack of cores, lack of batteries, and the decline of the new energy subsidy policy next year, since 2022, a large number of car companies have raised the price of their new energy models, whether from Hongguang MINI or Tesla Model 3/Model Y, now almost a daily price increase news, the increase ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan. Therefore, in the subsequent conference call, many people also questioned whether Weilai would increase prices.
Li Bin said that since the fourth quarter of last year, Weilai began to use 75 degrees of ternary iron lithium batteries, ternary iron lithium batteries than the cost of the 70 degrees ternary batteries originally used by Weilai is indeed lower, so this is very helpful for the improvement of gross profit in the fourth quarter.
"At present, we have not raised prices, but we will have some annual plans this year, including product improvement, we will look at it according to this time, and then look at the price of the market, the price of raw materials, to judge our price policy and price strategy." At present, our products do not have the idea of price increase at the moment. ”
Li Bin also said, "Even if there are some cost increases, our gross profit target for the whole year hopes to be between 18-20%, which is our current gross profit target after considering the rise in material costs." That is to say, maintaining the current gross profit margin level is basically unchanged, in addition to the rise in the price of battery raw materials, commodities, aluminum, copper will also rise, if Weilai still maintains the original price unchanged, then in what ways will it reduce costs?
03
Three new vehicles on the NT2 platform will be delivered this year
Affordable brands are on the way
In terms of the launch and delivery schedule of new cars, the two cars based on NIO's second-generation technology platform NT2 - ET7 and ET5 have already been unveiled last year, and this year will also release the medium and large high-end five-seat SUV with the same platform - ES7, and all three cars will be delivered this year. Among them, the flagship-level ET7 will be delivered on March 28, with a price of 436,666-51.34 million yuan after subsidies, and the new car has been officially rolled off the production line at the Hefei Jianghuai Weilai manufacturing base.
· NIO ET7
As NIO's first sedan, the ET7 prototype has been unveiled for a long time, and the official release is the 2021 NIO Day held in Chengdu on January 9, 2021, which is positioned as a pure electric medium and large flagship sedan, with a length of more than 5 meters and a wheelbase of more than 3m, and competitors refer to tesla Model S, priced at 44.80-52.60 million yuan. At the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show held in April, ET7 was officially unveiled to the public, using the latest generation of NIO's family design language, 3D stereoscopic shape is highly recognizable, and provides two exterior decoration themes.
(The first batch of production vehicles of THE NIO ET7 has rolled off the production line on March 24, and the first delivery of new cars will also start on March 28))
In addition to the moving appearance, ET7 also adopts the second generation of intelligent cockpit, based on the intelligent cockpit platform and communication module, NIO independently developed a smart cockpit domain controller, bringing rich in-vehicle applications and immersive experience. The new upgrade of 12.8-inch AMOLED central control large screen and 10.2-inch HDR digital instrument screen, while the embedded system is NOMI Mate 2.0, performance continues to evolve.
Power part, ET7 uses a new material to build the second generation of high-efficiency electric drive platform, front permanent magnet + rear induction dual motor four-wheel drive combination, front 180kW / rear 300kW motor layout, output total power 480kW, can achieve 0-100km / h acceleration within 3.9s. In terms of battery life, models equipped with 70kWh battery packs have a range of more than 500km (NEDC); models equipped with 100kWh battery packs have a range of more than 700km (NEDC); and models equipped with the first 150kWh battery packs can achieve endurance performance of more than 1000km (NEDC).
· NIO ET5
The NIO ET5, which will be delivered in the third quarter, is one of the youngest members of NIO. As NIO's fifth mass-produced model and second sedan, NIO ET5 has been receiving heavy attention and unlimited speculation from the outside world from the research and development stage to the camouflage car on the road. After the new car lifted the mystery, although it was similar to what people expected, the official price range of 328,000-386,000 yuan made it the youngest and cheapest model under Weilai. Therefore, after the end of the conference, it has attracted a large number of consumers to order immediately. In addition, in the Weilai Bass battery pack rental model, the price range has dropped to 258,000 yuan, which is more accurate benchmarking tesla Model 3.
(NIO ET5 will start delivery in September)
In terms of design, the ET5 adopts the front face design of NIO's iconic X-Bar, and the whole vehicle combines the NIO supercar gene with the concept of "design for automatic driving". At the same time, the addition of closed front faces, X-bumpers and Double-dash daytime running lights also makes the front face style of the new car more technological.
(Weilai ET5 continues the concept of ET7's second living room for cockpit space design, 12.8-inch AMOLED central control display, sports seats, hidden air outlets, simple dashboards, etc. have added a lot of refinement and temperature to the interior of ET5.) ）
The ET5 series is equipped with Aquila, NIO super sense system as standard, and the whole series is equipped with ADAM, NIO supercomputing platform. Aquila's powerful perception and ADAM's powerful computing power will bring easier and safer driver assistance functions, and the ET5 will be equipped with 19 driving assistance functions as standard, which can be described as a lot of highlights.
In terms of power, ET5 will continue the high-performance gene of NIO. 4.3 seconds acceleration from zero to 100 km/h, using ULCO's high-performance four-piston aluminum alloy integrated cast caliper, 100 km to zero braking distance of 33.9 meters, wind resistance coefficient as low as 0.24, with the application of silicon carbide power module of a new generation of high-efficiency electric drive platform, equipped with standard battery pack (75kWh) CLTC life of more than 550 km, equipped with long battery pack (100 kWh) endurance of more than 700 km, equipped with ultra-long battery pack (150 kWh) range of more than 1000 km.
· NIO ES7
In addition to delivering two sedans this year, NIO will also bring a new car, the ES7, in the second quarter, which is positioned as a medium-sized high-end five-seat SUV. At present, ES6 and ES8 basically cover the SUV market in the price range of 350,000 to 600,000, how to effectively distinguish the ES7 from the SUV models on sale in weilai to avoid market erosion, and when the ES7 is released, will the price or positioning of the SUV models on sale be adjusted?
Li Bin said that the ES7 is the model of bmw X5, "ES7 is based on the second generation of technology platform NT2 large five-seat SUV, medium and large large five-seat SUV market, we see the recent demand growth in this market segment is still very fast, such as BMW X5L, they will be mass production in China in the near future." ES7 is one of our leading "three electricity and three wisdom" technology, emphasizing high performance and luxury, we believe that it is able to attract some users who have higher requirements for the performance and quality of this product. We don't think it's going to have any impact on sales of 866 SUVs today, I think it should be an increment. ”
(Weilai ES7 will be released in the second quarter, and delivery will begin in the third quarter, the picture shows the camouflage car spy photo)
Regarding the information about the NIO ES7, it is currently known that the body size will be between the ES6 and ES8, and it also uses a "watchtower" type lidar and two high-level camera layouts. Regarding the hardware of intelligent cockpit hardware, NIO's latest NAD automatic driving assistance system and NIO Aquila supersensitive system and supercomputing platform Adam will not be absent, and has 33 high-performance perception hardware, with a final strength of 1016 TOPS, 4 Nvidia Orin chips, standard with 19 auxiliary driving functions, and the follow-up gradual realization of high-speed, urban areas, parking, power exchange and other scenarios, the whole process of point-to-point automatic driving. In addition, its smart cockpit is also expected to be equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 processor.
As for the specific internal and external design and performance level, it is still in a state of secrecy, according to the lines revealed by the camouflage car, it is estimated that the overall style is not far from the Weilai first model.
· The core team of the new brand was completed
On the financial report, Weilai Li Bin also revealed the recent status of the new brand, he said that the core team of the new brand for the mass market has been completed, and the first batch of products has entered the key research and development stage. "In the next few years, we will continue to increase investment in research and development of key technologies, especially in key areas related to full-stack autonomous driving technology and power batteries."
Previously, Li Bin said that the relationship between the new brand and NIO is similar to the relationship between Volkswagen and Audi, Toyota and Lexus. The original intention of Weilai to create a new brand is to provide better products and services at a lower price than Tesla. We still don't know whether the brand will have a new logo, overall tone, etc., but it is undoubtedly a happy thing to see the emergence of new cars that have further explored the price but retained the quality of Weilai design.
04
The completion of the new plant / ET7 pre-capacity ramp-up may be slower
The second production base located in Hefei Xinqiao Intelligent Automobile Industrial Park, Weilai said that the construction of the plant and equipment installation have been basically completed, the commissioning plant is progressing smoothly, and it is expected to be officially put into operation in the third quarter of this year, with a planned production capacity of 60JPH (Jobs Per Hour, hourly workload or unit time workload). The first model to go into production will be the ET5. On March 16 this year, the first ET5 prototype car was rolled off the production line at the trial production center.
As early as April 29 last year, the "NeoPark Xinqiao Intelligent Electric Vehicle Industrial Park" located in the Economic Development Zone of Hefei City was officially started, and it is expected to become a world-class intelligent electric vehicle industry cluster, carry out innovative research and development of complete vehicles, core components, automatic driving, etc., bring together a globally competitive and leading innovation chain, and introduce hundreds of key supporting enterprises to form a complete and highly concentrated industrial chain.
According to the plan, NeoPark is adjacent to Hefei Xinqiao Airport, covering an area of 16,950 acres, including three areas - intelligent manufacturing area, R & D living community and ecological culture area. The park initially invested 50 billion yuan, and after completion, the annual output value exceeded 500 billion yuan, the vehicle production capacity reached 1 million vehicles / year, the battery production capacity reached 100GWh / year, and gathered more than 50,000 outstanding talents from all over the world, becoming the highland of the intelligent electric vehicle industry chain in the world.
For the ET7 delivered at the end of March, some people also asked about the pace of its capacity climbing. Li Bin said that because ET7 is produced in the first factory of NIO, and ES8, ES6, EC6 are collinear production, so some new processes have also been introduced, and last year NIO continued to transform the production line, so that it can support the mass production of ET7. Since the production capacity of the three pre-existing models is to be guaranteed, the process of ET7 climbing production will be a little slower than that of the new plant off the production line OF ET5, and Weilai hopes that ET7 can reach conventional production capacity in the third quarter, so its climb forward will be slightly slower, mainly because the management of the production plant and the climbing stage are more complicated.
05
In 2022, the company plans to add more than 100 new sales outlets
and 50 NIO service centers
2021 is a year for WEILAI to actively invest in the construction of charging and replacing infrastructure and the deployment of sales and service networks. In terms of sales and service network, there are 46 NIO centers and 341 NIO spaces, covering 155 cities around the world. NIO has 60 NIO service centers and 179 authorized service centers in 146 cities in China.
While the sales and service network is expanding rapidly, NIO continues to optimize the network layout, improve the efficiency of single point operation, and always maintain a high-quality user service level. In 2022, NIO will continue to expand its sales and service network in China, and plans to add no less than 100 new sales outlets throughout the year, adding more than 50 NIO service centers and authorized service centers.
In terms of charging and replacing networks, NIO has built 866 substations, covering 190 cities in China, and completed more than 7.6 million power exchanges. At the same time, WEI HAS deployed more than 711 supercharging stations and 3786 destination charging piles across the country.
In 2022, NIO will deploy 30 new Power Up Plan destination power-up routes, and the Chinese market will have built more than 1,300 substations, 6,000 supercharged piles, and 10,000 destination charging piles. WEILAI will continue to lay out in the charging and replacing network to further enhance the user's power-up experience.
06
Plans to release the NAD capabilities of the autonomous driving platform system
NIO Autonomous Driving Platform System NAD (Nio Autonomous Driving) was first installed on ET7, including NIO Aquila NIO Super Sense System, equipped with 33 high-performance perception hardware including lidar, which can generate 8GB of image data per second, and NIO Adam NIO Supercomputing Platform, equipped with NVIDIA Drive Orin chip, with a computing power of up to 1016 TOPS. What is the feature release plan for NAD on this earnings call? For example, what functions can lidar achieve, and when will it be experienced in the car?
NIO hopes to open NAD subscription services within this year, and in Q4 this year, it can open NAD subscription services for some users in some regions. According to the information at the time of the release of ET7/ET5, the full function of NAD will adopt the service subscription model of "opened monthly and paid monthly", that is, ADaaS (AD as a Service), and the service fee is 680 yuan per month.
07
Continue to enter the European market
In terms of global markets, NIO ES8 was officially listed in Norway at the end of September last year. As one of the most highly trafficked markets in the world for electric vehicles, the ES8 has won the hearts of Norwegian users, ranking in the top two of Norway's six- or seven-seat passenger car market in terms of monthly deliveries this year. At present, we deliver about 100 ES8 units per month in Norway, and the successful delivery of the Norwegian market and high-quality user services have accumulated experience for NIO to provide global services and strengthened THE confidence of NIO to enter more markets in the future.
In 2022, NIO's products and system-wide services will be officially implemented in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. At present, the team formation and preparations for the relevant market entry are progressing smoothly.
08
In 2022, Xiaopeng and Ideal have heavy products to compete with Weilai
In 2021, the three giants of the new forces have an impressive performance, and the delivery volume exceeds 90,000 vehicles, of which Xiaopeng Automobile's annual new car delivery reached 98,155 units, getting closer and closer to the 100,000 mark, and successfully won the championship of the new forces; while Weilai Automobile and Ideal Automobile ranked second and third with 91429 vehicles and 90491 vehicles. As for the fourth and fifth places, Nezha Automobile (69674 vehicles) and Weima Automobile (44157 vehicles).
Weilai will deliver 33 new cars on the NT2 platform this year, but Xiaopeng and Ideal are not weak. First of all, Xiaopeng, if you don't count the 2022 small modifications of other models, G9 is the only new model that Xiaopeng focuses on promoting this year, and in the future it will also carry the main task of Xiaopeng to enter the European market. It is the importance of its strategic layout, Xiaopeng in the G9 can be said to be full of horsepower, its design and technical highlights are too numerous, in addition to the first X-EEA 3.0 electronic and electrical architecture, it is also the first domestic production car based on the 800V high-voltage SiC platform.
In order to ensure the timely and stable delivery of products, Xiaopeng Automobile is also actively expanding its production capacity. According to He Xiaopeng, founder and chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, at present, Xiaopeng Automobile's Zhaoqing plant is implementing 20-hour production in double shifts every day, and the total design capacity of the Guangzhou and Wuhan factories under construction is 400,000 vehicles, which can support the annual output of 600,000 vehicles through double shifts.
Ideal Auto recently released its second SUV , the Ideal L9. As a full-size SUV, it is expected to be priced at 450,000-500,000 yuan. Previously, the ideal could win the position of a new power giant with an ideal ONE, and if a second large SUV came, it was natural for the opponent to ignore it.
In terms of product strength, the ideal L9 interior has three 15.7-inch OLED screens using the central control screen + co-driver screen + rear passenger screen, the texture and comfort of the whole car are on the next level, and the four independent seats in the first two rows have seat ventilation and SPA-level ten-point massage, 7.3.4 panoramic sound layout, fully self-developed extended range electric system, fully self-developed chassis control system, full self-developed central domain controller, etc. "must kill", continue to please the Chinese people who attach importance to the family as a "family car" Will future sales produce two ideal ONE effects?
In this way, in the face of a number of strong enemies, Weilai's task in 2022 is still very arduous, but in the field of cars, ET7 and ET5 have already received a large number of orders earlier, and when it comes to reviewing this year's record in 2023, will it have an overwhelming advantage? In any case, for consumers, it can be called a good drama.
09
Write at the end
2022 will be a year of comprehensive acceleration for WEILAI, from the positioning of high-end ET7, sword-finger Model 3 ET5 to the benchmark BMW X5 ES7, the delivery of three new cars and the completion of NeoPark's new factory all mean that NIO will hit the top of the sales list, and even when their production capacity and reputation are mature, they will continue to 2023. In addition, WEILAI also plans to have more than 1,300 substations, 6,000 supercharged piles, and 10,000 destination charging piles nationwide in 2022, so that the electricity service that is already a dominant project will be taken to a higher level.