Author | Zhang Cuicui
Edit | Autun
Judging from the delivery volume in 2021, the competitive landscape of the three companies has changed. Xiaopeng Automobile led with 98,155 vehicles delivered in the whole year, while Weilai and Ideal ranked second and third, with deliveries of 91,429 vehicles and 90,491 vehicles respectively.
Speaking of market expectations in 2022, the three CEOs all mentioned that external factors such as the epidemic, chip shortages, and price increases in new energy raw materials will cause greater uncertainty, and improving the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle has also become the common goal of the next stage of "Wei Xiaoli".
The loss is still the same: 3 companies lose nearly 10 billion yuan a year
The epidemic and supply chain bottlenecks have not stopped the expansion of the three leading new car manufacturers. According to the data, the total revenue of Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal reached 36.14 billion yuan, 20.99 billion yuan and 27.01 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 122.3%, 259.1% and 177.4% respectively.
From a single quarter point of view, the three companies are advancing rapid growth with time, Xiaopeng and Ideal in the second half of the year revenue growth expanded, closely following Weilai in Q4 approaching. Among them, Ideal Automobile surpassed Weilai in the fourth quarter and took the lead in achieving revenue of more than 10 billion yuan, reaching 10.62 billion yuan, an increase of 156.1% year-on-year.
In terms of net loss, Xiaopeng Automobile had the largest annual loss, reaching 4.867 billion yuan, an increase of 78% compared with 2.732 billion yuan in the same period in 2020; NIO's net loss was 4.017 billion yuan, narrowing by 24.3% compared with 2020; the ideal net loss was the lowest, only 322 million yuan, an increase of 111.9% compared with 151.7 million yuan in 2020.
It is worth mentioning that in Q4, the ideal achieved a positive quarterly profit of 295.5 million yuan for the first time. Li xiang believes that in the case of a substantial increase in R&D investment and sales network expansion, quarterly profitability can still be achieved, which "fully reflects the outstanding operating efficiency of the ideal car".
From the trend point of view, Weilai is increasing its losses every quarter, reaching the peak loss of last year in Q4, with a single quarter net loss of 2.143 billion yuan, Xiaopeng maintained an average loss state, and the ideal narrowed the loss visible to the naked eye.
In the conference call, Li Bin explained that the current loss of Weilai is mainly due to long-term investment in research and development, and it is expected that the R & D personnel will increase to the scale of 9,000 people by the end of 2022, and there will be no compromise on research and development.
Li Bin expects that "the fourth quarter of 2023 will be the goal of quarterly revenue balance, and hope to achieve full-year profitability in 2024." "However, WEILAI still faces greater cost pressure in terms of services. According to the financial report data, NIO's Q4 sales and management expenses were 2.36 billion yuan, an increase of 95.4% year-on-year, and the sales and management expenses for the whole year of 2021 were 6.88 billion yuan, an increase of 74.9% year-on-year.
Gross profit margin: Xiaopeng is the lowest, ideal, Weilai is comparable
According to the financial report, the gross profit margin of Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng reached 20.1%, 21.3% and 11.6% respectively for the whole year.
From a single quarter point of view, the gross profit margin of Weilai's vehicles was 21.2%, 20.3%, 18.0% and 20.9% respectively. Li Bin believes that from the fourth quarter, WEILAI began to use 75-degree ternary iron lithium batteries, which is lower than the cost of 70-degree ternary batteries, "which is helpful for the improvement of Q4 gross profit." ”
Xiaopeng, which has a lower price for bicycles, performs generally in the gross profit of the whole vehicle. He Xiaopeng said that the launch of the first SUV model G9 this year will help improve the overall gross profit margin, and in the medium and long term, Xiaopeng can increase the gross profit margin to more than 25%.
From 2022 onwards, the three companies will have more new products and technology investment, and the scale effect brought about by sales growth will significantly help the gross profit margin improvement.
According to the plan, NIO will deliver three models of the NT2.0 platform in 2022. The first ET7 model officially opened the first batch of deliveries on March 28; the second model, the ET5, is expected to start delivery in September this year; and the third model, the ES7, is the first SUV model on the NT2.0 platform, and is scheduled to start delivery in the third quarter of this year.
There is currently only one model ideal, and it is planned to release the second model L9 in the second quarter of this year, with delivery in the third quarter. At the same time, in 2023, Ideal Auto will launch 2 ultra-fast charging pure models with high-voltage platforms.
He Xiaopeng revealed in the conference call that the Xiaopeng G9 will be released as scheduled in the third quarter of this year, and is expected to become another explosive model of medium and large pure electric SUV. At the same time, the P5 model is also in a period of rising sales, and is expected to be on par with P7 sales in the second half of the year, and this year's P7 sales target is more than 10,000 vehicles in a single month.
In the follow-up plan, Xiaopeng Automobile will launch two new model platforms and its first model in 2023, namely the C-class platform and the B-class car platform.
Heavy money to continue life: "Wei Xiaoli" research and development investment nearly doubled
Research and development is the vitality of the manufacturing industry, "Wei Xiaoli" while fighting darkly, while invariably increasing investment. The data shows that in 2021, the annual research and development expenses of WEILAI, Xiaopeng and Ideal reached 4.59 billion yuan, 4.114 billion yuan and 3.2865 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 84.6%, 138.3% and 198.8% respectively.
The ideal early model is the least, so the increase in R&D investment is also the most obvious year-on-year. Li Xiang said that the increase in research and development expenses is mainly due to the increase in R & D personnel and the development of new products of the company, "the follow-up will make up for their shortcomings, and then the domain controller, electronic and electrical architecture have self-research teams." ”
Xiaopeng plans to officially launch XPILOT4.0 in 2023. He Xiaopeng introduced that the research and development of the core function city NGP of Xiaopeng XPILOT3.5 is progressing smoothly, and after obtaining the approval of the relevant competent authorities, it is planned to launch the urban NGP in the first batch of cities at the end of the second quarter of this year.
Weilai said that it will continue to invest in research and development in the future, especially in key areas related to full-stack autonomous driving technology and power batteries. Li Bin believes that "investment in research and development of core technologies can not only enhance the sustainable competitiveness of our technologies and products, but also improve the level of gross profit margin and profitability in the long run." ”
The impact of high investment on the cash flow of the three enterprises is not large, and the "arrogance" is still the same. As of December 31, 2021, NIO, Xiaopeng and Ideal cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term deposits, short-term investments and long-term deposits were $55.4 billion, $43.54 billion and $50.16 billion respectively.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaopeng and Ideal were listed on Hong Kong stocks for the second time in July 2021 and August 2021 respectively. On March 10 this year, WEILAI Automobile also officially landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the financing capabilities of the three car companies performed well.
The supply chain crisis has increased, and the collective rise of models has become a foregone conclusion
From last year to the beginning of this year, a variety of factors such as chip shortages, rising new energy raw materials, and the epidemic have brought great pressure to new energy vehicle companies.
In the face of difficulties, a number of car companies, including Xiaopeng and Ideal, have made a decision to increase the price of their models, but Weilai still resisted the pressure and did not adjust the price for the time being.
In this regard, Li Bin explained in the conference call, "At present, we have no price increase plan, this year there will be some annual product change plans, will consider the price of raw materials and then look at our pricing strategy." ”
It is reported that NIO expects to release the 2022 ES8, ES6 and EC6 in late May. The 2022 model will undergo major upgrades to smart hardware, including 8155 chips, 360 surround view cameras, and 5G modules, and performance will be greatly improved. Weilai said that the upgraded model and battery prices will be raised.
At the same time, NIO will also provide smart cockpit hardware aftermarket upgrade services for existing ES8, ES6 and EC6 users at preferential prices.
Ideal Automotive Chongqing production base
Li Xiang said that Ideal Automobile is also actively coordinating the supply of resources with multiple parties, and is also grasping the layout of production capacity. At present, the cumulative planned annual production capacity of the two factories in Beijing and Changzhou has reached 500,000 units, and the number of units can reach 75 units under double-shift production. According to other sources, Ideal is also planning to land a production base in Chongqing.
In addition, He Xiaopeng said in the financial report that in 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile and suppliers developed and verified hundreds of alternative supply solutions to ensure the stability of the supply chain, while predicting that in 2022, it will still face the challenges of chip shortage and rising battery raw material costs.