In March, the new car-making forces, Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng, as the top three, completed the gathering of Hong Kong stocks. Just as the first quarter was coming to an end, Xiaopeng Automobile announced its 2021 financial report. So far, all three companies have handed over their 2021 report cards.
In 2021, Wei Xiaoli's revenue and sales have achieved exponential growth, especially the annual sales of the three companies exceeded 90,000 vehicles, once again widening the gap with other new car companies. However, it is "regrettable" that Wei Xiaoli did not get rid of the state of loss in 2021, especially Xiaopeng Automobile, whose net loss in 2021 expanded to 4.863 billion yuan.
Despite this, the attitudes of the three companies to "money" are not the same. "In the general direction, we hope to achieve breakeven in Q4 2023 and profitability in the whole year of 2024." Li Bin, founder of WEIO, said on the 2021Q4 earnings conference call. Xiaopeng was the most aggressive, and He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, pointed out that the company's overall gross profit margin should be increased to more than 25%. The ideal of the smallest loss in 2021 seems to be the least anxious, "Our goal is still to have a higher gross profit margin than the previous year." Li Xiang, founder and chairman of Ideal Auto, said.
The three car companies of "Wei Xiaoli" will always be mentioned together, in addition to their sales volume ranking among the top three, but also includes their many similarities in the early stage of development. But in fact, driven by different founder backgrounds, company philosophies, corporate cultures and other factors, they are moving in different strategic directions. It can also be glimpsed from the 2021 financial report that their respective characteristics will continue to sharpen in the coming years.
#上
On the eve of profit, the loss widened
Whether it is delivery volume or revenue, wei xiaoli three companies have achieved double growth in 2021. On the other hand, in addition to the narrowing of Weilai's net loss, the net loss of Ideal and Xiaopeng is still expanding, especially Xiaopeng Automobile. However, the high net loss does not mean that the profitability is weak, on the contrary, Wei Xiaoli often has an average selling price of more than 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan, making the high profitability more promising.
If you look at it from the vehicle manufacturing side, in 2021, the gross profit of Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng will reach 7.29 /5.95/23,400 yuan respectively, which is also better than many traditional Chinese car companies.
It can be said that the cost control ability of the ideal car is more prominent among the three car companies, which corresponds to its loss surface that is far lower than that of Weilai and Xiaopeng. This is also evidenced by the expenditure on operating expenses (including R&D costs and sales, general and administrative expenses, etc.) in the financial report data. Xiaopeng Automobile's operating expenses in 2021 reached 9.319 billion yuan, second only to Weilai's 11.317 billion yuan. The gross profit of Xiaopeng Automobile in 2021 is 23,400 yuan, which is still far from the ideal and Weilai. In layman's terms, in the case of lower gross profit of bicycles, Xiaopeng's delivery volume has not opened up the gap with ideals and WEIlai, but in terms of operating expenses, it is comparable to Weilai, which has a higher gross profit of bicycles.
Although the gross profit margin performance is eye-catching, Wei Xiaoli's ability to control costs is not the same. Taking the sales side as an example, according to the official release data, in 2021, Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal will have 289, 259 and 165 stores across the country respectively. In other words, the ideal use is much lower than the number of stores in the other two, achieving a similar delivery volume. Statistics show that the average monthly sales of the ideal single store in 2021 are 70 vehicles, which is higher than the 30-40 vehicles level of Xiaopeng and Weilai.
(Note: 2022 data as of March)
At the recent earnings meeting, Qu Yu, vice president of finance at NIO, responded to questions about service losses. He said that WEILAI Automobile accelerated the deployment of substations in 2021, serving more users and increasing operating costs. NIO plans to continue to expand the charging and replacing network in 2022, and it is expected that operating expenses will continue to rise. "Bearing losses in the short term is a strategic option for the company." he said.
He Xiaopeng did not talk too much about the loss at the earnings meeting, but he stressed that Xiaopeng will vigorously promote the platform next, and the manufacturing process and technology of the new platform will help Xiaopeng Automobile obtain stronger cost control capabilities. He revealed that Xiaopeng Automobile will launch two new model platforms and its first model in 2023, namely the C-class platform and the B-class car platform, both of which will use super-large integrated die-cast bodies.
#中
Enter the coincident price band competition
Wei Xiaoli's profitability is closely related to their brand positioning and product price, in 2021, the average transaction price of Weilai is 430,000 yuan, the ideal is 338,000 yuan, and the average transaction price of Xiaopeng is 212,000 yuan. As Li Bin said, the price band of a car brand's energy capacity is limited, and in order to seek a larger market scale, Weilai and Ideal are sinking prices.
At present, the price of THE latest model ET5, which is positioned in luxury, has dropped to 328,000 yuan, and it is expected that WEILAI will launch a sub-brand in recent years to enter the "popular" market. "Weilai has a place in the mainstream high-end market, with a price range of 50,000-100,000 US dollars. However, in the price range of 30,000-50,000 US dollars, there is still a very large market. If we can achieve a reasonable gross profit margin, we will enter this market with a new brand in the future. At the recent earnings report meeting, Li Bin said in response to a question about "sub-brands".
At the same time that Weilai plans to "explore down", Ideal and Xiaopeng are striving to "go up". He Xiaopeng said in a recent conference call, "The Xiaopeng G9 will be listed and released as scheduled in the third quarter of this year, and is expected to become another blockbuster of medium and large pure electric SUVs." He also added that the Xiaopeng G9 has entered a higher price range, which will further improve the overall gross profit margin level of Xiaopeng. The outside world expects that the price of Xiaopeng G9 will be 300,000-400,000 yuan, and in the long run, Wei Xiaoli may have the same destination, and the average price difference will narrow.
In order to fill the gap in the product line of more than 400,000 yuan, Ideal Auto recently unveiled the larger and more expensive flagship SUV Ideal L9. At the recent earnings report meeting, Li wanted to clearly put forward that the ideal car will widen the price band to the range of 200,000 to 500,000 yuan, and continue to exert the ideal ability to control the cost. "We continue to invest heavily in R&D, and based on the same high standards, we can still guarantee that the company is in excellent operating condition. We will continue to maintain this advantage. ”
A foreseeable trend is in front of us, when the "inner volume" of new power car companies develops into a higher level of automatic driving, lidar, high-cost rate platform, and even most of them are on the same track of pure electric, different car brands will have more overlap in the coverage of the price segment. In this process, any new force that wants to maintain a leading position needs to "sharpen" its own characteristics on the basis of making up for shortcomings.
#下
Widen the moat
What is Wei Xiaoli's "moat"? NIO has created a high-end brand image with labels such as service and technology. Ideal with accurate product positioning, to create the ideal ONE of the explosive models. Benefiting from the accumulation of technology and localized development, Xiaopeng has created a leading auxiliary driving experience in China.
Wei Xiaoli took the lead in selling 100,000 vehicles a year, which has proved that their respective labels are gradually recognized by the market. After 100,000 vehicles, how does Wei Xiaoli move towards the profit mark?
Scale is the premise of profitability, and for Weilai, which has the highest price of bicycles in Wei Xiaoli, it is more difficult to maintain the sustainable growth of sales. At present, NIO's ES6 and ES8 basically cover the SUV market in the price range of 350,000 to 600,000, and in 2022, NIO will use ET5, ET7, and ES7 to cover more market segments. While expanding its charging network, NIO is also exploring space outside the car.
"Smartphones and smart electric cars have a lot in common. At the time of the release of ET5, we announced the ar/VR native design in the car, and we think there is still a lot to be innovated in this regard. At the recent earnings report meeting, Li Bin showed his vision for the ecosystem outside the car. At the same time, he also set up a flag of "opening a NAD subscription service within this year".
While clearly launching the higher-priced Xiaopeng G9, He Xiaopeng clarified the development path of Xiaopeng in the field of intelligent driving at the financial report meeting. He said that the research and development of the core function city NGP of Xiaopeng XPILOT3.5 is progressing smoothly, and after obtaining the approval of the relevant competent authorities, it is planned to launch the urban NGP in the first batch of cities at the end of the second quarter of this year. He also stressed that Xiaopeng will launch XPILOT4.0 in 2023, when at least 4 models will support the system. "The XPILOT 4.0 option rate on the G9 will exceed 50%." He Xiaopeng gave an optimistic forecast.
In contrast, Li wants to be very clear that intelligent driving is not an ideal and powerful label. "In order to make up for the shortcomings, since last year, we have opened a full self-research on intelligent driving, from domain controllers to the next generation of electronic telecommunications architecture, as well as voice AI technology and other aspects have established a strong team." At the same time, Li wants to believe that the original intention of all this is still to serve home users.
In 2021, Ideal launched the NOA navigation assisted driving function through the OTA system, which includes the AEB active safety configuration. Li wants to say bluntly, "Whether it is NOA or AEB, we want to improve the overall safety of product mileage to protect the driving safety of our families." This is one of our most important indicators, and it is also an important reason for our self-research on intelligent driving. ”
Wei Xiaoli's commonalities are already well known to investors, and their characteristics are accelerating sharpening. Analysts at CITIC Securities pointed out that in the future, it will become a strategically differentiated company, and the capital market will also form different investment preferences around its different characteristics in the next 1-2 years.
The more fiercely the new force car companies "roll inside", the more panicked the traditional car companies. Yin Tongyue, chairman and general manager of Chery Automobile, once said that if the brand is a river, all its own brands have not reached the other side of the river. The price of Wei Xiaoli's products of more than 200,000-300,000 yuan is already "born in Rome" compared with traditional car companies. At the same time, at the level of software charging and mining the value of the whole life cycle of the car, Wei Xiaoli has also taken the first step of commercialization. In contrast, the current loss may not be so important, wei Xiaoli in the 2021 financial report, once again showed the potential for sustained growth.
Xia Yiping, CEO of Jidu, pointed out at the recent meeting of 100 people that 2023 is the first year of automotive intelligent competition. At present, traditional car companies, second-tier new forces, and cross-border car manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, and Baidu are recruiting and trading. Perhaps just how Xiaopeng said, until 2025, this round of car-making window will be closed, then whether it is still "Wei Xiaoli" is still unknown.
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