On the evening of March 30, GAC Group disclosed the data of its 2021 annual report. The report shows that in 2021, GAC Group achieved operating income of 75.676 billion yuan, an increase of 19.82% year-on-year. Attributable net profit was 7.335 billion yuan, an increase of 22.95% year-on-year. Basic earnings per share were RMB0.72, an increase of 24.14% year-on-year. In terms of sales, the Group's full-year production and sales of passenger cars were 2,135,400 units and 2,141,700 units, respectively, up 5.13% and 4.97% year-on-year, respectively.
Revenue, profit, stock price, and market sales, these key data, have shown a momentum of growth. From the perspective of the opening year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, under the environmental impact of multiple uncertainties such as the repeated epidemic in 2021, the shortage of chips, the rise in raw material costs and the international situation, this "answer sheet" handed over by GAC Group has many highlights.
Product structure optimization, product share increased to 8.16%
GAC Group said, "Although the domestic economy is facing the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shock and expected weakening, the long-term fundamentals will not change, and the automotive industry is expected to continue to achieve recovery growth." However, in the face of the sweeping wave of science and technology and industrial changes, the opportunities are obvious, the competition will be more cruel, and only by being prepared to fight a protracted war can we stand in an invincible position. ”
In order to fight this protracted battle, in the past 2021, GAC Group has indeed made a lot of efforts and innovations. The first is the challenge of changing the demand in the consumer market, from the perspective of financial reports, the group's revenue and profit will rise in 2021, which is inseparable from the launch of new products and the optimization of product structure. It is understood that in 2021, GAC Group's own brands and joint venture brands have launched a number of new products, thanks to this, GAC Group's share in the domestic market in 2021 has further increased to 8.16%.
Specifically, in the autonomous sector, in 2021, GAC Trumpchi has launched a number of new or modified models such as Shadow Leopard, GS4 PLUS, second-generation GS8, M6 Pro and so on. Thanks to the attraction of the new product effect, the cumulative sales of GAC Trumpchi in the whole year also reached 324,200 units, an increase of 10.35% year-on-year.
As a new energy vehicle brand of GAC Group's own business, GAC Aeon has also launched three new products such as AION Y, AION S PLUS and AION V PLUS in 2021, further enriching the product line of the AION brand and improving the layout of the price range of 100,000-350,000. Thanks to the addition of new products, GAC Aeon also achieved a year-on-year increase of 101.8% in 2021, accumulating 120,200 units.
Looking at the joint venture sector, although the market performance of GAC FCA and GAC Mitsubishi is still somewhat unsatisfactory, it is fortunate that "Liangtian" still carries the group's sales burden. In 2021, GAC Toyota's new products are not small, thanks to the camry mid-model reform, the fourth generation Highlander, Xena, Lingshang and other new or modified models of the reinforcement, GAC Toyota also in 2021 with a year-on-year growth of 8.23%, harvested 828,000 new users, and became one of the few mainstream joint venture brands to achieve positive growth.
It is worth mentioning that in the third quarter of 2021, due to the rebound of the epidemic and the continuous "card neck" of chip shortage, GAC Toyota was also affected to a certain extent in the third quarter. Guangqi Honda is also plagued by the shortage of chips, although the annual sales exceeded 780,000 vehicles, but it still fell by 3.17% year-on-year. During 2021, GUANGQI Honda has also successively launched a number of new products such as Accord Mid-style Remodeling, Stylistic Style, Lingpai Mid-Remodeling, Odyssey Mid-Remodeling, Haoying Rui Hybrid e+, etc.
Accelerate the reserve of grain and grass and ammunition, and invest more than 5.1 billion yuan in research and development in 2021
As we all know, compared with 2020, although the market economy environment in 2021 has improved, repeated epidemics and supply chain obstruction still restrict the development of the entire industry. Therefore, in 2021, in order to ensure supply, seek innovation and promote reform, GAC Group not only further increased its research and development efforts around the "New Four Modernizations" track, but also further planned a series of solutions for industrial development problems.
According to the financial report, in 2021, GAC Group's cumulative R&D expenditure exceeded 5 billion yuan, reaching 5.165 billion yuan, an increase of 0.4 billion yuan over 2020. According to GAC Group, this R&D expenditure is mainly used to strengthen independent R&D and innovation capacity building, improve the quality system, and simultaneously promote the development of conventional power models, new energy models and core components.
From the perspective of results, the technical achievements of GAC Group in 2021 should indeed not be underestimated. In 2021, GAC Group has applied for 2,580 new patents, including 1,108 invention patents. Up to now, around the new energy and intelligent network connection, GAC Group has owned the exclusive GE2.0 platform for pure electric vehicles, the "three-in-one" electric drive system and the two-speed dual-motor "four-in-one" integrated electric drive system, sponge silicon anode chip battery technology, super-speed battery technology, magazine battery system security technology, as well as ADiGO intelligent driving interconnection ecosystem, Xingling architecture and other industry-leading advanced technologies.
For the verification of these technologies, the sales performance of GAC Aean's models in multiple points is the best proof. Therefore, from this dimension, it is not difficult to find that GAC Eian, which integrates a number of black technologies of GAC Group, actually carries the "hope" of GAC Group's future.
Therefore, in order to replenish grain and grass and replenish ammunition, at the annual report media communication meeting, Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, also made it clear that in 2022, the group will also accelerate the mixed reform of GAC Aean and introduce more strategic investors. It is understood that since the completion of the restructuring and integration of GAC Aeon's internal assets last year, that is, after the relevant R & D personnel, intangible assets and fixed assets were injected into GAC Aeon, Aeon has now possessed the ability to integrate the research, production and marketing of new energy vehicles, and the next step is that GAC Group will start A-an's A round of financing.
Of course, as a key year for the realization of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the automobile market is still facing multiple uncertainties in 2022, and stabilizing and rising is also the key word of GAC Group. Therefore, in order to improve efficiency, this year GAC Group will also fully roll out the tenure system and contractual management of enterprise managers at all levels to mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of the talent system.
In order to ensure the balance between production and demand, GAC Group plans to further expand its production capacity. In February this year, GAC's Aeon First Plant has completed the expansion to reach a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles per year. In addition, the first phase of GAC Toyota's new energy vehicle expansion project has also been completed in July 2021, and the second phase is scheduled to be completed this year.
In addition, in terms of new product planning, in order to challenge the Group's goal of increasing sales by 15% year-on-year, GAC Group plans to bring a number of new models this year, including GAC Trumpchi EMKOO (Yingku), M8 Replacement, Shadow Leopard HEV Version; GAC Aion LX PLUS, AION V PLUS; GAC Honda Grid Hybrid, Haoying Big Change, Binzhi Big Change, New SUV, e:NP1; GAC Toyota Fenglanda, Weisa, bZ4X; GAC Mitsubishi Atuka, Orlander replacement and other new products.