"Wei Xiaoli" 2021 report card is released: Weilai's revenue leads, and Xiaopeng's sales champion

Per reporter: Sun Lei Per editor: Pei Jianru

On March 28, Xiaopeng Motors announced unaudited financial data for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2021. At this point, the "report card" of "Wei Xiaoli" (Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile, Ideal Automobile) in 2021 has been released. Judging from the results, the three new car-making forces have shown a revenue growth trend.

According to the financial report data, in 2021, WEILAI's revenue was 36.136 billion yuan, an increase of 122.3% year-on-year; Xiaopeng Automobile's revenue was 20.988 billion yuan, an increase of 259.1% year-on-year; ideal automobile revenue was 27.010 billion yuan, an increase of 185.6% year-on-year.

Judging from the annual data, the three new car-making forces have not yet achieved "self-hematopoiesis", and they are all in a state of loss, but the performance is differentiated. Among them, ideal automobile after the fourth quarter of 2020, in the fourth quarter of 2021 to achieve profitability, while Weilai and Xiaopeng Automobile has not yet achieved profitability.

As of the close of trading on March 28, Eastern Time, the stock prices of the above three new car-making forces in the United States have increased to varying degrees. Among them, Weilai's stock price rose by 6.53%; Xiaopeng Automobile's stock price rose by 0.3%; ideal automobile stock price rose by 0.3%.

Data source: Company financial report Yang Jing drawing

Nio's revenue scale leads the way

From the perspective of the annual revenue scale of 2021, Weilai is still in a leading position in "Wei Xiaoli", but its delivery volume in 2021 is not the highest. According to the delivery data released by the above three new car-making forces, Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile delivered about 91,400, 98,200 and 90,400 new cars in 2021, respectively, with Xiaopeng Automobile winning the annual sales crown, followed by Weilai.

It is reported that Weilai's high revenue is mainly due to the high average transaction price of its products. According to data released by the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, in the ranking of the average transaction price of high-end brands in May 2021, WEILAI ranked fourth with 432,900 yuan, and the top three were Porsche, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz.

With the gradual emergence of scale effects, the gross profit and gross profit margin of "Wei Xiaoli" in 2021 also showed an overall improvement trend, but the performance was different. According to the financial report data, in the four quarters of 2021, the operating gross profit of Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile showed a month-on-month growth trend, and although the operating gross profit of Weilai declined in the fourth quarter, it still led the annual data.

In terms of gross profit margin, the three new car-making forces all showed a downward trend in the fourth quarter. Some analysts believe that the increase in raw material costs and the rise in bulk products have had a negative impact on gross profit margins.

In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile revealed that it is trying to control the battery cost problem caused by the rise in raw material prices while communicating with major power battery suppliers.

"When we make this year's financial budget, we have taken into account the potential cost increase factors, especially in terms of battery cost increases. Sales will increase significantly this year, and we hope to achieve a higher degree of economies of scale. Despite the many challenges we face, our goal is to achieve higher gross margins than last year. Shen Yanan, co-founder and president of Ideal Auto, said.

In contrast, Ideal Auto has achieved a gross profit margin of more than 20% for two consecutive quarters, and Weilai has also achieved a gross profit margin of 20.3% in the third quarter of 2021, while Xiaopeng Automobile is temporarily lagging behind in this regard. It is reported that the gap in this data is largely due to the "low price" of Xiaopeng Automobile, whose average transaction price is about 250,000 yuan, the average price of the ideal car is 340,000 yuan, and the average transaction price of Weilai is more than 430,000 yuan.

He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, also said recently that in the layout of new models, Xiaopeng Motors has not considered launching models below 150,000 yuan, nor has it considered doing more high-end brands, which means that the price of Xiaopeng Motors' future new cars will not change significantly compared with now.

"Xiaopeng Automobile's medium- and long-term goal is to increase the company's gross profit margin to more than 25%, and the company will achieve better cost control through the scale of the new platform, highly integrated design and large-scale integrated die casting and other technologies." He Xiaopeng said.

Gross profit improved overall

From the financial report, although the gross profit and gross profit margin of the three new car-making forces throughout the year have improved as a whole, and the revenue has also achieved different degrees of growth, "Wei Xiaoli" has not yet reached the critical point of profitability and has not stopped the pace of loss. The data shows that in 2021, the net losses of Weilai, Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile were 4.017 billion yuan, 4.863 billion yuan and 321 million yuan, respectively.

In this regard, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, said that Weilai's loss is mainly due to long-term investment in research and development. According to the financial report, WEILAI's R&D expenditure exceeded 4 billion yuan in 2021, at 4.591 billion yuan, an increase of 84.6% compared with 2020.

"A lot of our R&D investment is long-term technology R&D investment, including research and development of new models that will be launched next year, as well as the adaptation of some models entering the global market. By the end of this year, the number of R&D personnel is expected to increase to 9,000. Li Bin said, "We will not compromise on our investment in research and development." ”

Xiaopeng Automobile originally planned to double its R&D expenditure in 2021 (planned to reach 3.5 billion yuan), and the actual R&D expenditure was 4.1 billion yuan, exceeding the annual R&D plan; Ideal Automobile invested 3.29 billion yuan in R&D in 2021, an increase of 198.8% year-on-year.

In fact, the R&D expenses of car companies change every quarter, which is related to the model development and technology research and development cycle. At the same time, saturated R&D expenditure is one of the key factors for the current car companies to win the future, which may mean that the three new car-making forces will bring more products and technologies this year and in the next few years.

He Xiaopeng believes that in the environment of high oil prices, the cost advantage of electric vehicles relative to fuel vehicles will be further increased, and the high-end pure electric vehicle market targeted by Xiaopeng Automobile will usher in a greater increase. "Because consumers in this market pay more attention to electric vehicles and technology, I believe that 2022 will be a critical period to test the product strength of electric vehicle companies." He Xiaopeng said.

According to the plan, NIO has three new models based on the new technology platform that will be delivered in 2022, and its core team of the new brand has been completed; Xiaopeng Motors' flagship SUV G9, which was unveiled at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, is expected to be officially launched in the third quarter of 2022; and ideal Auto's second production car, the L9, will be unveiled in April 2022 and delivered in the third quarter.

He Xiaopeng previously told reporters: "After the competition pattern of the new car-making forces entered the 'Warring States Era', every company is committed to storing more 'grain and grass'. New car manufacturers need about 20 billion yuan in the early stage of development (0 to 1 stage), and enterprises need more than 30 billion yuan in the long-term development stage (1 to 100 stages). ”

According to the financial report data, as of December 31, 2021, NIO, Xiaopeng Automobile, Ideal Automobile cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, etc. reached about 55.4 billion yuan, 43.54 billion yuan and 50.16 billion yuan respectively. It can be seen that in order to cope with the continuous high investment in the future, the three new car-making forces are already stockpiling "grain and grass" for the next stage of competition.

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