"Car Circle Layer" Chen Siying
Edited by Ge Fanmei
On March 28, Xiaopeng Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xiaopeng Automobile", 09868.HK) released its 2021 financial report. In 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 98,100 units, an increase of 263% year-on-year from 27,000 vehicles in 2020. At the same time, the total revenue of Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 reached 20.99 billion yuan, an increase of 259.1% year-on-year, and the delivery volume and total revenue achieved more than 2 times the growth.
It is worth noting that Xiaopeng Automobile's net profit loss in 2021 has further expanded, with a loss of 4.863 billion yuan, compared with a net loss of 2.732 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 78% year-on-year.
In addition, the recent modification of the promise clause of the vehicle rescue service by Xiaopeng Automobile has caused user dissatisfaction, and the relevant discussion has not yet subsided, and a news of the fire of the Xiaopeng G3 car has appeared again.
On the same night that Xiaopeng Automobile released its financial report, a 2019 Xiaopeng G3 car caught fire in a community in Longhua District, Shenzhen, without casualties. In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile responded that it would fully cooperate with the relevant departments to investigate the cause of the accident.
Deliveries led the net loss to widen
After Xiaopeng Automobile announced its 2021 financial report, the three new car-making forces "Wei Xiaoli" gathered in Hong Kong stocks have completed the release of last year's report card. Judging from the delivery data of the three companies, in 2021, the total delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile was 98155 units, Nio Automobile (NIO.N/09866.HK) was 91429 units, and ideal automobile (LI.O/02015.HK) was 90491 units.
However, while winning the championship in delivery volume, Xiaopeng Automobile has also become the car company with the largest loss in "Wei Xiaoli". According to the 2021 annual report data, in terms of total revenue, WEINA is 36.136 billion yuan, Xiaopeng Automobile is 20.99 billion yuan, and Ideal Automobile is 27.01 billion yuan. In terms of net profit, none of the three companies have gotten rid of losses, with a net profit loss of 4.016 billion yuan for Weilai Automobile, 4.863 billion yuan for Xiaopeng Automobile, and 322 million yuan for Ideal Automobile.
From the perspective of net loss data, the closest to profitability is Ideal Car, in fact, Ideal Car has achieved a single quarter profit in the fourth quarter of 2021, with a net profit of 295 million yuan. In contrast, Xiaopeng Automobile won the delivery championship and also won the head seat with the most losses.
In "Wei Xiaoli", Xiaopeng Automobile's automobile gross profit margin is low, which may also be one of the factors affecting its profitability. According to the 2021 annual report of "Wei Xiaoli", the gross profit margin of Weilai Automobile, Ideal Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 is 20.1%, 20.6% and 11.5% respectively, ranking at the bottom of the new force "Wei Xiaoli".
In 2021, rising costs have become one of the main topics discussed in the new energy vehicle market. In this regard, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, stressed at the 2021 earnings performance conference that Xiaopeng Motors' medium- and long-term goal is to increase the company's overall gross profit margin to more than 25%. At the same time, He Xiaopeng also said that the system platform will promote the company's transformation of the power system, manufacturing process and BOM cost system, and the gross profit margin of Xiaopeng's new models and the company's overall gross profit margin will be structurally improved. With the help of scale effects and operating leverage, the expense ratio will continue to decline.
According to the data of Xiaopeng Automobile's 2021 annual report, the corresponding expenses of Xiaopeng Automobile are surging. In terms of R&D expenses, Xiaopeng Automobile's R&D expenses in 2021 were 4.114 billion yuan, an increase of 138% over 1.725 billion yuan in 2020. Xiaopeng Motors said in its annual report that the increase in research and development expenses was mainly due to the increase in employee compensation caused by the expansion of the research and development team, as well as the increase in expenses related to the development of new models.
In terms of marketing and administrative management expenditure, Xiaopeng Automobile invested a total of 5.305 billion yuan in 2021, compared with 2.9206 billion yuan in 2020, an increase of 81.7% year-on-year. Xiaopeng Automobile said that the increase in marketing and administrative expenses was mainly due to the increase in marketing, promotion and advertising expenses for automobile sales, as well as the increase in related personnel costs due to the expansion of the sales network.
At present, Xiaopeng Automobile has begun to shift some of the cost pressure to consumers. On March 21, Xiaopeng Automobile ushered in a comprehensive price increase, the three main models are among the price increases, and the sales price of cars is raised from 10,100 yuan to 20,000 yuan per vehicle.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, the sales volume of Xiaopeng Motors has not remained stable, and only 6225 vehicles were sold in the full range of models in February 2022, compared with 12922 units in January, down 51.8% month-on-month. Will the product price adjustment be accepted by consumers and affect the future sales of Xiaopeng Automobile? It will take time to verify.
The vehicle catches fire and the protocol is modified
On the night of Xiaopeng Automobile's release of its 2021 financial report on March 28, a 2019 Xiaopeng G3 car caught fire in a community in Longhua District, Shenzhen. Follow-up reports the fire did not cause casualties, and the fire department has completed the on-site disposal. Regarding the incident, the relevant personnel of Xiaopeng Automobile responded, "We attach great importance to the rights and interests of users, and will fully cooperate with the relevant departments to investigate the cause of the accident, continue to follow up the follow-up results, and assist customers in handling follow-up related matters." ”
The Xiaopeng G3 car caught fire
Screenshot source: Southern Metropolis Daily
According to the data, the Xiaopeng G3 car has had several fire incidents in the past two years. On April 14, 2021, a Xiaopeng G3 in Guangzhou spontaneously combusted during charging next to the charging pile, and Xiaopeng Automobile did not give the cause of the accident; on August 11, 2020, a Xiaopeng G3 car had a smoke and fire accident in Haizhu District, Guangzhou. For the cause of the accident, Xiaopeng Automobile responded: "There are obvious serious bumps and injuries at the bottom of the battery box, resulting in serious damage to the battery, and the preliminary judgment is the cause of the accident." ”
Xiaopeng G3 Is a new energy pure electric SUV owned by Xiaopeng Automobile, first released in 2018. Xiaopeng G3 car is not a hot model of Xiaopeng Automobile, the owner's home data shows that from January to February this year, Xiaopeng G3 and G3i delivered a total of 2815 cars, accounting for only 14.7% of total sales.
Xiaopeng G3 cars have also been recalled in large batches due to quality problems. In January 2021, according to the announcement of the State Administration for Market Regulation, Xiaopeng Motors recalled about 13,300 Xiaopeng G3 cars with production dates from March 29, 2019 to September 27, 2020, and the Xiaopeng G3 car that recently caught fire is the 2019 model.
Screenshot source: The national market sees the website of the General Administration of Management
At that time, regarding the reason for the recall, Xiaopeng Automobile explained that the batch of cars may have inverter failure, if this situation occurs, the vehicle is in a parked state, it may not be able to start again, if the vehicle is in a driving state, the vehicle may lose power, there is a safety hazard.
In addition to the hot discussion caused by vehicle safety, Xiaopeng Automobile's recent revision of the commitment clause of vehicle rescue service has also caused dissatisfaction among users.
An agreement between a Xiaopeng automobile user in the Hupu Community Automobile District when purchasing a car
Screenshot source: Tiger Poker Community - Auto District
The screenshot exposed by the user shows that when the user purchased the car, Xiaopeng Automobile said in its service introduction to worry-free rescue that there were unlimited and unlimited mileage roadside assistance nationwide; Xiaopeng Automobile would provide free towing the vehicle to the designated service center or super charging station of Xiaopeng Automobile.
Xiaopeng Motors is currently the agreement of worry-free rescue
However, according to the latest worry-free rescue page, the researchers of "Car Circle Layer" found that Xiaopeng Automobile had made changes in three places, first of all, the new agreement deleted the words "unlimited mileage, unlimited times" and only retained "nationwide road rescue"; secondly, a note was added, "limited to the failure caused by product quality problems", which would provide free trailer rescue services; and finally deleted the service of trailers to overcharge stations.
Xiaopeng Motors reserves the right to adjust the terms of service in the agreement, and updating the terms at any time does not violate laws and regulations. However, many users believe that Xiaopeng Motors should publicize or inform the terms of the modification commitment, and express dissatisfaction with the practice of being quietly modified by Xiaopeng Motors to the content of the free trailer agreement without their knowledge.
Xiaopeng Automobile responded that the optimization of the description of the rules is to describe the service scope of roadside assistance more clearly and specifically, so that customers can understand the rules more accurately, which in principle belongs to the "exceptions" caused by non-vehicle failures and does not apply to the service scope of "worry-free rescue". At the same time, Xiaopeng Motors said, "Considering the feelings of old car owners, the terms of this description optimization do not affect the first car owners who signed a car purchase contract before March 31, 2022." "(Produced by Thinking Finance)"