The more you sell, the more you lose?
It's a season of "show" earnings.
As of March 28, the "top three car builders" Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal have all announced their 2021 financial report cards.
Overall, in the past 2021, "Wei Xiaoli" has entered a new stage of delivery, with annual sales of more than 90,000, and only one foot away from the "milestone" of 100,000. Revenue has risen sharply, gross profit margin has also increased, the momentum is getting better, what are the expectations for the next stage?
Sales comparison: Xiaopeng "came to the top"
The seat of "Wei Xiaoli" has quietly changed.
In 2020, Weilai "championed" the new car. But in 2021, Xiaopeng quietly rushed to the first. The ideal is the "invisible winner", because a car alone can bite the seat.
If only from the dimension of "sales volume", the pressure on Weilai is undoubtedly the greatest. In 2021, in the "empty window period" of products, the average price is the most expensive of the three, and the corresponding market capacity is limited. In recent months, growth has been weak, and it is expected that there is even a risk of slipping out of the TOP 3 and being surpassed by Nezha.
In the future, the important level of sales will still be in the "first order". However, the three companies have different directions.
Weilai "swooped in", planning to launch affordable mass products to broaden market capacity; Xiaopeng and the ideal "upward attack", successively listed larger and more expensive SUVs, to the more high-end market "scenery" (Xiaopeng P9, ideal L9).
Revenue comparison: NIO has the highest revenue
Sales are rising steadily, and revenue is naturally rising.
In 2021, Weilai's revenue doubled, and the revenue of Ideal and Xiaopeng also reached 3-4 times that of 2020.
If the revenue is sorted from high to low, Weilai > ideal > Xiaopeng, and the number of seats in 2021 is consistent with 2020.
This is easy to understand, the average price of NIO models is the highest (about 430,000), followed by ideal (about 330,000), and then Xiaopeng (about 210,000).
Last year's "lack of chips", limited production capacity, "there are orders, but delivery is very slow"; this year's problem is "batteries", raw material prices soared, "there are orders, but the price of models to rise". At present, Xiaopeng and Ideal have officially announced price increases, and Weilai will not follow up for the time being.
In 2022, how the revenue will change depends on the game between the terminal "price and quantity". "Do consumers hold back and not buy, or do they buy when the price goes up?"
Gross profit margin, net profit: Xiaopeng has the most losses
The most basic logic of business, "to make money.".
Therefore, behind each financial report, everyone is also concerned, how about the gross profit margin? What is the net profit?
The automotive industry pays attention to scale effects. With the increase in sales, the gross profit margin will also increase, and slowly, at a certain point in time, to achieve a "turnaround".
Let's start with gross margins. In 2021, the gross profit margin of all three brands will improve. Weilai, ideal, the gross profit margin has exceeded 20%, Xiaopeng's gross profit margin has also increased from 3.5% to 11.5%.
In order to improve the "detailed operation" of gross profit margin, the three brands have their own advantages.
In addition to "sales increase, amortize costs", WEILAI has carried out certain control over costs. A typical case is to replace the "ternary battery" with a "ternary iron lithium battery" to compress the cost of the battery.
The effect of the ideal car "increasing sales and amortizing costs" is more significant, because it only sells one car, which is more conducive to the role of scale. Second, continue to carry forward the tradition of the ideal car and tighten the cost of every detail.
Xiaopeng chose to sell more expensive cars. G9 has taken on this mission and is expected to go public in the third quarter of 2022, ultimately hoping to pull gross margins above 20%.
What is the situation of net profit? The three brands are "losing", in 2021, Weilai's losses narrowed, and Xiaopeng and Ideal's losses expanded (among them, Xiaopeng lost the most).
Then, there is a problem to be faced. Sales have obviously increased significantly, so why is there still a situation of "the more you sell, the more you lose"?
Because spending has increased dramatically! Research and development, marketing, channel expansion, are all "real" expenditures.
The inflection point of "turning losses into profits" will appear, and we must sell more cars, cut more costs, continue to improve gross profit margins, and let the scale effect continue to play a role.
However, from the perspective of "absolute value", the ideal car has the least loss, losing 320 million yuan a year. If you look at it quarterly, Ideal Auto even reaped "positive profits" in the fourth quarter of 2021, with a net profit of about 300 million yuan in the quarter.
Ideally, it may be the one that "turns a profit into a profit" the fastest.
R&D, marketing: WEILAI spends the most
Combined with the previous paragraph, how much will the expenditure of the three brands increase in 2021? Where was it spent?
In 2021, WEILAI invested 4.592 billion yuan in research and development, an increase of 85% year-on-year, and it is also the largest of the three. Officials said that the increase in research and development expenses is mainly due to the rise in personnel costs, as well as the need for more expenditure on new models and new technologies.
At the same time, NIO's sales, general and administrative expenses were 6.878 billion yuan, an increase of 75% year-on-year. After all, Weilai's services, channels, and power exchange networks are all heavy asset investments. In the past year, NIO has built 15 new NIO Houses, 606 new substations and 505 supercharging stations.
Xiaopeng Automobile's research and development expenditure in 2021 was 4.11 billion yuan, an increase of 138% year-on-year. The reasons for the increase in R&D are basically similar, mainly due to the increase in personnel costs and the need to develop new models.
In terms of sales, general and management expenses, Xiaopeng Automobile invested 5.305 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 82% year-on-year, mainly for promotion, advertising, and expansion of sales network and personnel. In fact, Xiaopeng Automobile has tried the dealer model in the sales channel, which can compress the cost of channel expansion.
Of the three, ideal cars have the least spending, but the largest increase. In 2021, Ideal Automobile invested 3.29 billion yuan in research and development, an increase of 199% year-on-year, and invested 3.49 billion yuan in sales, general and management expenses, an increase of 212% year-on-year.
Especially with the expansion of sales channels, ideal cars spend more and more on rent, personnel, and activity promotion.
Write at the end
In 2022, the initial optimistic expectations for electric vehicles, disturbed by the rising cost of power batteries, have become uncertain.
"Wei Xiaoli" is difficult to say and easy, and the price increase will inevitably suppress sales, and if the price is not raised, it will expand the loss.
In fact, the car companies have made decisions, which are left to the follow-up and depend on the market's reaction.
The author of this article is Kick Car Gang Cao An