Abstract: R&D investment exceeded 10 billion yuan for the first time, and BYD will build 4 major automobile sectors
▲ Image source IC
Text | Chen Yao
After the new energy vehicle market developed beyond expectations, BYD, which won the new energy sales championship for 9 consecutive years, handed over its annual report card.
On the evening of March 29, 2022, BYD (002594. SZ) released its full year 2021 results report. According to the report, BYD achieved operating income of 216.142 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 38.02% year-on-year; of which the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 3.045 billion yuan; net cash flow from operating activities was 65.467 billion yuan, an increase of 44.22% year-on-year.
Due to the soaring prices of upstream raw materials, BYD's net profit has declined to a certain extent year-on-year, but the overall performance has maintained an upward trend. Corresponding to the high revenue, in 2021, BYD's new energy vehicles exceeded 600,000 units, an increase of 218.30% year-on-year, achieving the first domestic sales of new energy vehicles for 9 consecutive years.
In 2022, BYD's growth rate will not decrease. At the supply chain end, BYD Semiconductor has made its debut in January and intends to be listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange; on the market side, BYD's new energy sales have reached a new high, of which in February 2022, BYD surpassed SAIC Volkswagen (80,158 vehicles) with retail sales of 89,102 vehicles, ranking second in China, second only to FAW-Volkswagen (104,940 vehicles), which ranked first, truly subverting fuel vehicles.
Thanks to the rapid growth of sales and the continued strong product cycle, a number of securities companies such as Essence Securities and Huaan Securities maintained a "buy" rating on BYD.
The profitability of the whole vehicle has reached a new high, and the advantages of new energy are prominent
In 2021, BYD's vehicle business performed well.
According to the financial report data, in 2021, bydir's auto sector revenue was 112.489 billion yuan, an increase of 33.93% year-on-year, exceeding 100 billion yuan for the first time, a record high, accounting for 52.04% of the total operating income. The other two major segments are mobile phone-related business and photovoltaic-related business, with revenue of 86.454 billion yuan and 16.471 billion yuan respectively.
The automotive sector has become byddler's core business. According to the data, in the whole year of 2021, BYD's auto sales reached 740,000 units, an increase of 73.3% year-on-year. Among them, the sales volume of new energy vehicles was 603,800 units, an increase of 218.3% year-on-year, and the market share was as high as 17%, which has won the top spot in domestic new energy vehicle sales for 9 consecutive years.
And in 2022, BYD's advantages in the field of new energy vehicles are more obvious. According to the data of the Association, from January to February 2022, BYD sold 179457 new energy vehicles, which is three times that of the second place SAIC-GM-Wuling (58,436 units) and four times that of Tesla China (42,546 vehicles).
▲Data source: BYD official website
From the perspective of product structure, since the second half of 2021, the proportion of BYD new energy vehicles has climbed to about 90%, of which the cumulative sales of pure electric vehicle models and DM-i super hybrid models are 320,000 and 270,000 units, respectively, an increase of 44.9% and 467.6% year-on-year.
It is worth mentioning that since November 2021, BYD's single-month sales of new energy vehicles have stabilized at about 90,000 vehicles, and compared with the first camp of new car-making forces, the annual delivery of Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng in 2021 has not exceeded 100,000 vehicles. Looking at the world, only Tesla can compete with BYD in the new energy market.
According to Tianfeng Securities, during the period from 2020 to 2030, the compound annual growth rate of new energy vehicles in the three major markets of China, the United States and Europe will be 22.5%, 36.7% and 19.7%, respectively. This also means that the new energy automobile industry will still show a rapid expansion trend in the future, and BYD, as the head company of the global new energy automobile industry, will continue to break through new heights in the trend of new energy.
Continue to increase R & D investment, BYD to create a variety of domestic products of the light
BYD's high-light market performance is inseparable from the best-selling models it has created.
For example, BYD Han directly broke the monopoly of Tesla Model 3 on the market of 200,000+ high-end new energy cars. Not only is it far ahead of Tesla Model3, Ideal ONE, Xiaopeng P7 and other major products of new car-making forces in the Baidu search index, but it is also the top 1 in the terminal market of 200,000+ high-end new energy cars.
Coincidentally, in the sales ranking in February 2022, BYD Song not only became the best-selling SUV model in the field of new energy, but also competed with fuel vehicles with larger market capacity, but also sat firmly on the throne of sales champion, which is the light of domestic goods in the true sense.
According to the data of the Association, from January to February 2022, 3 of the top 5 new energy cars are from BYD, namely BYD Qin, Han and Dolphin; in the new energy SUV ranking, BYD also won 3 top five seats, namely BYD Song, Tang and Yuan.
The outbreak of a number of best-selling models has achieved a new high in BYD's market and performance, and behind this, IT is inseparable from BYD's continuous high investment in research and development.
According to the financial report data, in terms of research and development, BYD's R&D investment in 2021 was 10.627 billion yuan, an increase of 24.20% year-on-year, and the proportion of R&D investment in operating income was 4.92%. At the same time, the number of BYD R&D personnel has grown to about 40,400, an increase of 31.52% year-on-year.
It is no exaggeration to say that every best-selling model is exchanged by BYD people with a lot of time, experience and money. For example, BYD Han's hard-core product strength of "12 world's largest, 9 China's best" is jointly created by the investment of nearly 500 test vehicles, the test cost of more than 250 million yuan and the team of more than 1,000 people.
At present, BYD has a number of highly competitive core technologies such as ultra-safe blade battery, DM-i super hybrid, e-platform 3.0, IGBT4.0 and so on. Based on this, more and more best-selling models will be put on the market. After the Spring Festival, BYD has successively released a number of heavy models such as yuan PLUS, Song MAX DM-i, destroyer, etc. Obviously, 2022 is another big year for BYD products.
Four major product matrices, BYD to the high-end
While market sales are increasing, BYD's brand power is also improving rapidly. According to Wilson data, the average bicycle price of BYD passenger cars has exceeded 150,000 yuan. In terms of product pricing, BYD has been on par with joint venture car companies, and even surpassed some best-selling joint venture brands in China.
At present, BYD has two mature sales networks. One is the well-known Dynasty series, at this stage BYD's best-selling models Qin, Han, Tang, Yuan, etc. are from this system; the other is the marine network established in the second half of 2021, including the marine biological series, warship series and previous e-series products.
In the future, BYD will also rely on Denza and another high-end brand to further impact the high-end market.
At the end of 2021, BYD has signed an equity transfer agreement with Daimler of Germany, and after the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities, BYD and Daimler will hold 90% and 10% of the shares of Denza respectively. According to the plan, Denza expects to launch three highly competitive new models in the Chinese market in the next two years, including MPV and SUVs.
As for another high-end brand, it is reported that it will be launched in the second half of this year, Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's brand and public relations business department, previously told Caijing Automobile (the author) that "the price range of high-end brands is expected to be more than 500,000-1 million yuan, and its first model is a hardcore off-road vehicle." ”
Dynasty.com, Ocean.com, Denza and high-end brands will be the four major sectors of BYD's automotive business, and as the two high-end brands go to market, BYD's brand image will be further high-end.