Recently, Beiqi Blue Valley announced its 2021 financial report. According to the financial report, in 2021, Beiqi Blue Valley achieved revenue of about 8.697 billion yuan, up 64.95% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was -5.244 billion yuan. In 2020, Beiqi Blue Valley ended with a net profit of -6.482 billion yuan, and in 2020 and 2021, the cumulative loss of Beiqi Blue Valley was as high as 11.726 billion yuan. From the former "first stock of new energy vehicles" to the current two-year net profit loss of more than 10 billion yuan, can Beiqi Blue Valley still "flip against the wind"?
Fall off the altar
BAIC BJEV was founded in 2009. After years of development, in 2018, BAIC BJEV's "backdoor listing" object SST Forward issued an announcement that the company's Chinese name was proposed to be changed to "BAIC Blue Valley New Energy Technology Co., Ltd.", and through major asset restructuring, it became the "first stock of new energy vehicles" in China.
At that time, the annual sales of Beiqi Blue Valley could reach 158,000 vehicles, while Tesla's sales in China at that time were only more than 10,000 vehicles. However, the good times did not last long, and three years later, Beiqi Blue Valley lagged far behind the "rising stars" such as the Great Wall and BYD with an annual sales volume of 26,127 vehicles. What happened to Beiqi Blue Valley?
It is understood that since 2013, Beiqi Blue Valley has begun the mass production of new energy vehicles, although there were not many orders at that time, but it was enough to lay a good foundation for its future development in the new energy vehicle market. In 2018, its sales increased from less than 2,000 in 2013 to 158,000 units, winning the domestic new energy vehicle championship for seven consecutive years. However, since then, the "glory" of Beiqi Blue Valley seems to be gradually fading, especially compared with the overall market and enterprises in the same industry, the sales volume of Beiqi Blue Valley is particularly "tragic".
From the overall market situation, the new energy automobile industry has developed rapidly. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the wholesale sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China reached 3.507 million units in 2021, an increase of 165.10% year-on-year, of which the production and sales of pure electric passenger cars were 2.76 million units and 2.73 million units, an increase of 179% and 174% year-on-year. According to the data of the Association of Passenger Transporters, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the mainland will reach 14.8% in 2021, an increase of about 9% year-on-year, and 19.2% and 21.8% in the first two months of 2022, respectively.
So, what is the annual sales volume of Beiqi Blue Valley? According to statistics, the sales volume of Beiqi Blue Valley in 2021 is only 26,000 vehicles. Among the new car-making brands, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 98,000 units in 2021, Weilai sold a total of 91,000 vehicles, and Ideal Automobile also delivered 90,000 units.
△ Screenshot of Beiqi Blue Valley's 2021 financial report
Sales "dived", and performance was naturally affected. According to the financial report, from 2017 to 2019, Beiqi Blue Valley achieved a net profit of 59.4 million yuan, 73.29 million yuan and 92.01 million yuan, respectively. In 2020, the performance of Beiqi Blue Valley suddenly "plunged", and in 2020, Beiqi Blue Valley achieved revenue of 5.272 billion yuan, down 77.65% year-on-year, and net profit of -6.482 billion yuan, a sharp decline of 7145.36% compared with the profit of 92.06 million yuan in 2019. On the whole, in the two years from 2020 to 2021 alone, Beiqi Blue Valley lost 11.726 billion yuan.
Why the loss
Why do leading companies that have successfully made profits before the market is mature have incurred large losses when the market is maturing?
Before 2018, the mainland electric vehicle market was in a tough stage, and in the face of the immature situation of technology and products, the policy level proposed a large car purchase subsidy dividend. Based on policy subsidies, consumers at that time only needed to spend half the money to buy an electric car. Beiqi Blue Valley seized the policy and market dividends, aimed at the online car and shared car market, and soon occupied the taxi and online car market in Beijing, and the sales volume increased year after year.
In 2019, the new policy of subsidies for new energy vehicles landed, and the state significantly reduced the subsidies for new energy vehicles, which is a "fatal blow" for Beiqi Blue Valley, which relies on subsidy dividends. It is understood that in 2018 and 2019, the net profit attributable to Beiqi Blue Valley was 155 million yuan and 0.92 billion yuan, and it received government subsidies of 918 million yuan and 1.042 billion yuan in the same period, and the net profit after deducting non-profit was -729 million yuan and -874 million yuan, respectively. Subsequently, affected by the decline of the subsidy policy for new energy vehicles, the government subsidy received by Beiqi Blue Valley was greatly reduced in 2020, only 113 million yuan, and only 130 million yuan in 2021.
At the same time, in recent years, the safety issues and compliance problems of the online car and taxi industries have been repeatedly exposed, and there has been a "big change" in the online car industry and various platforms, superimposed on the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, and the sales volume of Beiqi Blue Valley has dropped sharply and fallen to the altar.
In this regard, Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, analyzed the China Business Daily reporter that on the one hand, the state has adopted a slope reduction mechanism for new energy car purchase subsidies, which has a certain impact on car companies; on the other hand, the state has also put forward new requirements for the mileage of new energy vehicles and the energy density of batteries, etc., and Beiqi Blue Valley may be limited by the battery energy density can not meet the standard, etc., can not get subsidy dividends. At the same time, the state also proposed that after purchasing new energy vehicles, it is necessary to meet the operating mileage of 20,000 kilometers (30,000 kilometers in 2017), and if consumers do not meet this standard, they will not get subsidies for car purchases. The "disappearance" of multiple subsidy dividends has directly led to a decline in consumers' enthusiasm for purchasing, and Beiqi Blue Valley has also experienced a double decline in sales and performance.
It should be noted that the sales cost and research and development expenses of Beiqi Blue Valley are also increasing. According to the financial report data, in 2021, the operating income of Beiqi Blue Valley vehicle was 4.984 billion yuan, the operating cost was 6.616 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle was 32.73%. Its selling expenses were 1.672 billion yuan, up 65.83% year-on-year. For the increase in sales expenses, Beiqi Blue Valley explained in the financial report that it was mainly due to the increase in advertising exhibition fees and operating expenses compared with the previous period. In 2021, the R&D expenses of Beiqi Blue Valley were 1.208 billion yuan, an increase of 24.14% year-on-year.
In addition, from the perspective of the market as a whole, the industry as a whole faced multiple challenges such as chip shortage, local recurrence of the epidemic, rising raw material prices, and dual control of energy consumption last year. "And too frequent personnel adjustments have also affected the stable development of the enterprise." Zhang Xiang said that BAIC's current situation is also related to the rapid change of its leadership. Due to the instability of leadership, companies have not obtained more continuous market management and missed opportunities.
The future may be harder
Under heavy pressure, Beiqi Blue Valley struggled to move forward and launched the Polar Fox. At the same time, magna and Huawei are trying to transform into high-end models. However, the facts did not go as they had been hoped.
After the subsidy, arcfox αT, which starts at 241,900 yuan, has sold more than 500 vehicles in a single month since its listing in October 2020, with a cumulative total sales volume of only about 4,000 vehicles. Another model of the Polar Fox, the Alpha S, sold a maximum of 692 units in a single month, with a total sales volume of 3590 units since its listing. The HI model created in cooperation with Huawei was originally scheduled to be officially delivered at the end of 2021, but as of now it is still in difficult production. The outside world has also issued a voice of doubt, many consumers said that the cooperation between Jihu and Huawei has satisfied the appetite, but repeated delays in delivery are also constantly consuming their patience and expectations. For when the model will be delivered, Beiqi Blue Valley told the China Business Daily reporter that it is expected to be in the second quarter.
△ BEIQI Jihu Beijing offline store Li Monan / picture
"New car launches in the automotive industry are a hit, and a lot of them have been devastated since this happened." Zhang Xiang said that nowadays, the threshold in the field of new energy vehicles is high and the competition is fierce, at this time, Beiqi Blue Valley chooses to invest in independent research and development with high investment, facing large risks and low success rates.
In addition, consumers have also raised many questions about the quality and safety of Beiqi Blue Valley. During the interview, the reporter found that many consumers on the black cat complaint platform, the car complaint network, and the car quality network complained about Beiqi Blue Valley. As of March 31, Beiqi Blue Valley alone had 298 complaints in the auto complaint network, and most of the problems were concentrated on "power battery failure", "poor endurance" and "abnormal power failure".
△ Screenshot of consumer complaints on the black cat complaint platform
△ Screenshot of online consumer complaints for car complaints
Not only that, Beiqi Blue Valley has also been exposed to car explosions many times. According to media reports, on August 20, 2020, a BAIC BJEV EX360 model in Sanming, Fujian Province, smoked while parking in the charging shed, and when firefighters rushed to the scene, the vehicle began to have an open flame coming out. Firefighters then used water guns to cool the vehicle, and in the process, the vehicle exploded. On August 27 of the same year, on the streets of Changsha, a BAIC EU5 caught fire. The video shows that the accident vehicle was completely surrounded by fire, and the scene was full of flames, smoke billowing and making a loud explosion sound.
△ BAIC EU5 Changsha street fire (picture from the screenshot of media reports)
For the response to consumer complaints and the handling of problems, the reporter contacted Beiqi Blue Valley many times, but as of press time, Beiqi Blue Valley has not yet replied.
New car deliveries are repeatedly delayed, safety issues are repeated... The situation in Beiqi Blue Valley does not seem optimistic. So, can Beiqi Blue Valley still complete the "headwind overturn"?
"Through the whole year of deep ploughing last year, we have felt a very rapid force at the beginning of this year. In 2022, Beiqi Blue Valley will sell 100,000 vehicles, of which 40,000 are Jihu. Around the scene and segmentation of the crowd, Jihu is doing market segmentation to create customized products for the crowd in the market segment. Dai Kangwei, manager of Baiqi Blue Valley and general manager of BAIC New Energy, said that a major goal that all employees should focus on in 2022 is to run the Jihu brand well and maintain the advantages of the Beijing brand.
Author 丨 Li Mo nan Reporter Peng Tingting
Editor 丨Qin Chuqiao Li Monan
Cover image 丨Li Mo Nan