2021 is something to be proud of for Xiaopeng.
Recently, Xiaopeng released its 2021 financial report. In terms of delivery volume, Xiaopeng surpassed competitors at the same level for the first time, and won the sales champion of domestic new power brands with a delivery volume of 98,200 vehicles and a year-on-year growth of 263%. In particular, in November and December last year, the sales volume of more than 15,000 units for two consecutive months gave Xiaopeng the strength to impact annual sales of 200,000 units. Although it was ultimately missed with the delivery of 100,000 units, without the impact of the lack of cores, Xiaopeng would be able to easily achieve the sales target of 100,000 units.
Thanks to the rapid growth of sales, in the last fiscal year, Xiaopeng Automobile's operating income in 2021 was 20.99 billion yuan, up 259.1% year-on-year. Among them, the automobile sales revenue was RMB20.042 billion, an increase of 261.3% year-on-year; the total gross profit reached RMB2.623 billion, with a gross profit margin of 12.5%, an increase of 7.9% over the previous year; the net loss was RMB4.863 billion, an increase of 78.1% year-on-year, and the increased net loss included 4.114 billion yuan of R&D investment.
As of December 31, 2021, cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term deposits, short-term investments and long-term deposits were RMB43.54 billion (US$6.83 billion).
The product matrix continues to rise
By model, the P7 is still the main sales force of Xiaopeng, and the annual sales of 60,209 units is a well-deserved sales backbone; although the G3 ushered in a remodel, its delivery volume is still about 30,000 units; the P5 may not meet the initial expectations, and the annual delivery volume is only 7865 units.
In 2022, whether P7 can target monthly sales of more than 10,000 and whether P5 can catch up with P7 sales will directly determine The sales performance of Xiaopeng throughout the year.
At present, Xiaopeng has no plans to launch entry-level sub-brands or high-end sub-brands in the short term. Therefore, the flagship model Xiaopeng G9, which will be unveiled in the third quarter of this year, and the two new models (B-class cars and D-class cars) under the two new platforms launched next year, will become new sales growth points for Xiaopeng in the future.
On the one hand, its new platform will be on par with Tesla and Volvo, applying advanced production technologies such as integrated die casting to seek stronger competitiveness in cost control.
On the other hand, with the continuous introduction of these higher-positioned models, Xiaopeng will not only build a very complete model matrix, but also hope to align with the ideal and Weilai in terms of sales and gross profit margin. According to Xiaopeng's plan, its gross profit margin target is set at 25% in the medium and long term.
Of course, while enriching the product matrix, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, the guarantee of production capacity is also crucial. In terms of production capacity, Xiaopeng currently has a foundry in Zhengzhou Haima and a self-built Zhaoqing plant with a planned annual production capacity of 100,000 units. At the same time, Xiaopeng has also planned to build two new plants in Wuhan and Guangzhou with a planned capacity of 100,000 units. According to the model of Tesla Gigafactory, as long as Xiaopeng Automobile is properly designed in the early stage, it is not impossible to achieve the goal of 500,000 production capacity by continuously optimizing the bottleneck station in the later stage.
XPilot seeks a larger penetration ratio
Among the new domestic car companies, Xiaopeng has invested the most in automatic driving, and its technology is also relatively leading. This is not only reflected in the continuous iteration of XPilot, but also in the P5 becoming the first mass production model equipped with lidar in China, opening the era of china's autonomous driving lidar.
From a technical point of view, Xiaopeng will complete the development of urban NGP in Q2 this year, and gradually open up the NGP function of the city according to the rhythm of approval in major cities according to the high-precision map. The upcoming XPilot 4.0, which will be launched in 2023, will cover both urban NGP and high-speed NGP, and will be installed on four models under the Xiaopeng umbrella (P5, P7 and two models launched next year).
At present, the intelligent penetration rate of Xiaopeng's models on sale has reached 20%. With the launch of XPilot 4.0 in 2023, penetration will reach more than 50%. For Xiaopeng Motors, this will open up a new source of income for itself in addition to vehicle sales.
From the perspective of effect, according to He Xiaopeng, the ability of XPilot City NGP has approached the level of domestic head Robotaxi, "even partially achieved catch-up". Specifically, in the urban area of Guangzhou, there are many times that dozens of kilometers do not need to be taken over, or only once, which is very close to the effect of high-speed NGP. For XPilot owners, turning on assisted driving is far better than manual driving in terms of safety and crash performance over million kilometers.
Where is the new tipping point?
For Xiaopeng, supercharging, overseas markets and Robotaxi will become the new growth points of Xiaopeng's business in addition to XPilot.
As of January 17 this year, Xiaopeng Automobile has deployed 813 supercharging stations in 337 cities, and starting from this year, Xiaopeng will gradually land on Xiaopeng's second-generation supercharging stations. At present, the mainstream of the market is 120kW charging pile, and Xiaopeng will lay 360kW superfill pile in the second quarter, and will also follow up with 480kW super charging pile in the later stage. With the 800V SiC high-voltage platform equipped with the G9, it will no longer be a dream to charge for 5 minutes and have a range of 200 kilometers, which will also constitute Xiaopeng's new core competitiveness.
Overseas markets will also occupy an increasingly important position in the future sales of Xiaopeng. Xiaopeng Motors has its European headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and has set up corresponding branches in Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden. In terms of direct-operated stores, after landing in Norway in 2020, Xiaopeng opened its second direct-operated experience store in Stockholm in February. Compared with the fiercely competitive domestic market, the European electric vehicle market relatively leaves more room for Xiaopeng. Of course, how to open up overseas markets for new domestic forces and independent brands is not only Xiaopeng, but also a common challenge for every overseas car company.
In addition to promoting the deployment of XPilot on the models purchased by C-end consumers, Xiaopeng also recently established Guangzhou Pengxu Autonomous Driving Technology Co., Ltd., and will officially open the Robotaxi business in the second half of 2022. The first model will use the XPilot 3.5 system, and the later gradual transition to XPilot 4.0.
Through the Robotaxi business, sufficient real vehicle test data has been accumulated in the field of autonomous driving for continuous optimization of the system algorithm, and the L4-level automatic driving technology equipped with Robotaxi can also be delegated to the C-end passenger model to promote the intelligent driving experience of Xiaopeng's models, which can be said to be a mutually complementary model. At the same time, as Robotaxi's technology and scale gradually mature, it also has a business with great potential.
At last
There is no doubt that the new forces of car companies, including Xiaopeng, are currently in the process of a rapid rise.
Although in 2022, global car companies, including Xiaopeng, will still face such as chip/cell shortages, rising prices of raw materials, and even market deflation caused by fed interest rate hikes, as long as there are no major mistakes at the strategic level, Xiaopeng Motors will maintain a rapid growth rate this year and next year. Whether it's the G9 or the B-Class and D-Class cars coming next year, we can see that Xiaopeng's intention to go up is very obvious.
In the foreseeable future, the market segments that fill the blanks through new models, as well as the strategies of supercharging, XPilot, overseas markets and other aspects can continue to land, and Xiaopeng Automobile's vision will not only be limited to the sales champions of new forces.
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