It is the time when the listed companies announce their annual financial reports. On March 24, Jianghuai Automobile released its 2021 performance report before many listed vehicle companies. The report shows that in 2021, Jianghuai Automobile achieved operating income of 40.311 billion yuan, down 6.05% year-on-year; achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 200 million yuan, an increase of 40.24% year-on-year. Despite a slight decline in revenue but an increase in net profit, jianghuai automobile's performance is eye-catching.
2021 is a "turbulent" year for the automotive industry, with uncertainties such as the spread of the global new crown pneumonia epidemic, insufficient supply of vehicle chip specifications, and rising raw material prices, which are always "infecting" the normal production and marketing rhythm of the industry. At the same time, the electrification and intelligent transformation of the automobile industry has entered a period of drastic changes, and new technologies and new models have swept the industry. These are a huge test for any car company in the middle of it.
Mis Haoxue architecture was officially unveiled
As can be seen from the financial report, Jianghuai Automobile performed steadily in 2021, selling 524,200 vehicles and chassis in the whole year, an increase of 15.63% year-on-year. Compared with the overall industry, domestic automobile production and sales in 2021 reached 26.082 million units and 26.275 million units, respectively, with production and sales up 3.4% and 3.8% year-on-year, respectively. The sales performance of Jianghuai Automobile remained above the industry average, highlighting the "gold content" of its performance.
Jianghuai Automobile is a veteran enterprise with significant self-characteristics in China, and is a rare car company that takes both passengers and businesses, controls the whole vehicle and powertrain, and has a full business layout in the industrial chain. In the past year, JAC Automobile has overcome many difficulties to ensure revenue and profitability, which is the result of its in-depth transformation of the automotive industry in advance and forward-looking layout, and is the credit for actively building a future-oriented R&D, production and marketing, service and ecosystem. In 2021, JIANGHUAI Automobile will take the user as the center and achieve fruitful results in many aspects such as independent research and development, joint venture cooperation and export.
Product quality improvement, continuous brand upwards, and orderly transformation of new energy intelligence can be used as a summary of Jianghuai Automobile's achievements in 2021. At present, the external pressure facing the industry is still severe, and Jianghuai Automobile will also actively respond to it and continue to move forward with change as the driving force.
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Take advantage of the business and strengthen research and development
Jianghuai Automobile sold 524,200 vehicles and chassis in the whole year, an increase of 15.63% year-on-year, and the overall upward trend was on the rise. In terms of business lines, commercial vehicles and passenger cars have unevenly risen and fallen. The cumulative sales of commercial vehicles in the whole year were 271,800 units, down 8.74% year-on-year, but the decline was basically the same as that of the industry. The cumulative sales of passenger cars were 252,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 62.27%, an increase of 37 percentage points higher than that of the industry.
JAC electric light trucks are delivered to major customers in Brazil in batches
The decline in commercial vehicles is mainly due to the impact of the industry environment. Statistics from the China Automobile Association show that in 2021, commercial vehicle production and sales were 4.674 million units and 4.793 million units, down 10.7% and 6.6% year-on-year, ending the rapid growth trend of the previous year. In terms of passenger cars, Jianghuai Automobile can be described as an eye-catching performance in the same industry.
In fact, how the development of passenger cars is the focus of testing the success of Jianghuai Automobile, a company that started with commercial vehicles. Jianghuai Automobile has lived up to expectations and built passenger cars into a highlight of its own. In 2021, the new products of JAC Sihao brand passenger cars continue to be new, which has aroused widespread concern in the market. Among them, the "interstellar digital cockpit" Sihao QX and the "intelligent coupe" Sihaoyao two boutique models have entered the young market, and the new energy vehicle field also has a variety of star products of the Sihao E series.
Analyzing the great changes in passenger cars of Jianghuai Automobile, it is not difficult to find that the strategy of "innovation as the main line" adopted by Jianghuai Automobile has played a huge role. In research and development, Jianghuai Automobile spares no effort to invest heavily, and uses 3% to 5% of its sales revenue for research and development every year, focusing on the key technology research and development route of "energy saving, environmental protection, safety, intelligence, network connection and comfort", and vigorously developing new technologies, new materials and new processes.
According to the data, in 2021, Jianghuai Automobile's R&D investment reached 1.8 billion yuan, and R&D investment accounted for 4.46% of the total operating income, accounting for an increase compared with 2020.
The changes brought by continuous R&D investment to Jianghuai Automobile are obvious, and many innovative achievements have landed. Among them, the most important is the MIS Haoxue architecture officially released in April 2021, which is a flexible and iterative intelligent technology car-making platform that costs tens of billions of research and development resources to build. In November 2021, THE HOL-Pilot Intelligent Driving Technology based on the MIS Haoxue architecture was released, starting from the real driving scenarios of users and using industry-leading software and hardware technology to bring more safe, stable and intelligent driving assistance functions close to the actual road conditions.
Externally, Jianghuai Automobile maintains an open and cooperative attitude, which also brings great impetus to its own development. Among them, Volkswagen's key projects in Anhui will be actively carried out in 2021, the R&D center has been put into use, and Jianghuai Automobile has also received a capital increase of nearly 2 billion yuan from the controlling shareholder Jiangqi Holdings, further deepening cooperation with Volkswagen. In the past few years, JAC has greatly improved the quality of JAC's own products by benchmarking the engineering quality of volkswagen.
At the same time, the cooperation between JAC and NIO is also deepening, and the Jianglai company established by the two sides in 2021 will further deepen long-term cooperation. In 2021, NIO delivered 93,000 vehicles for the whole year, and JAC benefited a lot as a partner. In terms of commercial vehicles, JAC is also constantly expanding, and the cooperation with Cummins has made a breakthrough, and the cooperation between the two sides around the power system has been further deepened, and JIANGHUAI has been continuously expanded in the domestic and foreign markets.
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Face the challenge head-on and adjust the rhythm
In fact, looking back on the development process of Jianghuai Automobile over the past many years, there have been more than one moment of actively adjusting its own rhythm in the face of changes in the internal and external environment, the tenacity to face difficulties, the courage of a hero to break his wrist, and the enterprising to seize the opportunity. The industry is always changing, and for businesses, the only constant is embracing change.
After years of development, Jianghuai Automobile has formed a perfect situation of passenger cars and commercial vehicles working together, which is determined by its development process. In terms of passenger cars, JIANGHUAI Automobile has sub-brands such as Sihao and Ruifeng, while commercial vehicles cover light trucks, heavy trucks, multi-functional commercial vehicles, buses and other products. The comprehensiveness of JAC's business line is rarely the second in the industry.
Relatively speaking, commercial vehicles face more policy fluctuations than passenger cars, which makes JacHuai Automobile have to adopt different strategies to deal with them. In 2021, the domestic commercial vehicle market showed a trend of first high and then low. In the first half of the year, driven by the rapid growth of commercial vehicles driven by the new infrastructure policy, the second half of the year encountered the impact of policies such as light truck blue card, national sixth, pollution control and other policies, coupled with multiple tests such as raw material rise, chip shortage, battery shortage, etc., the commercial vehicle market contracted in the second half of the year.
In the financial report, the gross profit margin of commercial vehicles of Jianghuai Automobile in 2021 fell by 1.1% year-on-year, and the overall gross profit margin decreased by 1.17 percentage points. Net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies, net of non-recurring gains and losses, was -1.884 billion yuan. This put Jianghuai Automobile under a lot of pressure.
Jianghuai Automobile actively faced the adjustment of the industry, took the lead in solving urgent problems, laid out the national six upgrade in advance, and carried out marketing model reform, effectively hedging the uncertainty of the industry. For the heavy trucks and buses that are greatly affected by the market, Jianghuai Automobile has stabilized its position, and has rapidly launched upgraded products in the field of light and medium-sized trucks, which has effectively boosted the market performance.
After some adjustments, Jianghuai Automobile has returned to an upward momentum in the fourth quarter of 2021. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2021, Jianghuai Automobile's operating income was 8.343 billion yuan and net profit was -282 million yuan, reaching an annual low. From the fourth quarter, it began to recover, achieving operating income of 9.487 billion yuan and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 5.17 million yuan.
In terms of passenger cars, Jianghuai Automobile has seized the new opportunities of electric intelligent transformation and youthful and personalized consumption, adhered to user thinking, pursued the research and development first strategy, and adhered to user scenario research, which effectively consolidated the dominant position in the industry. Among them, the gains in the field of new energy vehicles are the most obvious.
Sihao E10X flower fairy is officially listed
In the field of new energy vehicles, the cumulative sales volume of pure electric passenger cars of Jianghuai Automobile in 2021 was 134,100 units, an increase of 169.12% year-on-year. Sihao E10X focuses on creating series such as "Blue Friend" and "Flower Fairy", with a cumulative sales of nearly 40,000 vehicles throughout the year. By the end of 2021, Jianghuai Automobile has demonstrated and promoted more than 200,000 new energy vehicles, with a cumulative driving mileage of more than 6.9 billion kilometers, and a maximum operating mileage of 360,000 kilometers, ranking among the best in the field of private car purchase.
In terms of exports, Jianghuai Automobile also ushered in an outbreak. In 2021, Jianghuai Automobile achieved exports of 73,600 units in the whole year, an increase of more than 100% year-on-year, with strong growth and strong support for the growth of annual profits.
It was able to achieve stable performance in both passenger cars and commercial vehicles, with a profit of 200 million yuan for the whole year, a sharp increase of 40.24%. It precisely reflects the forward-looking response to industry changes, the initiative to adjust the rhythm, and the full resilience of the enterprise. JAC always moves according to changes in the industry and market. At this stage, Jianghuai Automobile's quality improvement, brand upwards, in the digital intelligence of the results, a new industrial ecology is taking shape, bringing stronger anti-risk ability and innovation stamina.
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The pressure is still there, and the line is steady and far-reaching
In 2022, Jianghuai Automobile will adhere to the guiding ideology of "user-centered, strategy-oriented, innovation-oriented, and change-driven", adhere to the business policy of "quality, technology, brand, scale and efficiency", make commercial vehicles bigger and stronger, concentrate on the development of intelligent vehicles and intelligent new energy vehicles, transform and develop parts business, innovate and develop auto finance, auto logistics and value-added business, and create an industrial ecosystem with JAC automotive characteristics.
Specific to the target figures, Jianghuai Automobile plans to produce and sell 568,000 vehicles and chassis in 2022, an increase of 8.36% year-on-year, and is expected to achieve a total operating income of 45 billion yuan, an increase of 11.63% year-on-year.
Compared with the achievements in 2021, the 2022 target proposed by Jianghuai is pragmatic. At present, the automotive industry is still facing the problem of lack of core and rising raw material prices, and complex and severe internal and external challenges have not been lifted. Jianghuai Automobile starts from reality and opens up a stable and upward pattern.
From the perspective of business lines, the commercial vehicle field, after the market twists and turns in 2021, may usher in a positive situation this year. With the dissipation of the early policy pressure, the state's expectations for new policies such as ensuring people's livelihood and employment are strengthening, and the industry generally believes that this year will be a new "big year of infrastructure", and the development of commercial vehicles will gain new impetus. For Jianghuai Automobile, to maintain the stable development of commercial vehicles is to preserve a large part of the fundamentals.
Picture note: The Sihao E50 Apro with a maximum driving range of more than 600KM
Passenger cars will be the focus of JacHuai Automobile in 2022. After a large amount of investment in the early stage, the passenger cars of Jianghuai Automobile have come to the harvest period. Not only the quality of the product is visibly improved, but the reputation and reputation of the brand have also entered the upward channel. In 2022, Jianghuai Automobile will continue to make efforts to launch more new products for market demand. Among them, the Sihao E50 Apro new energy vehicle with a maximum driving range of more than 600KM will be launched, using a new design style, and many new products such as Sihao X6 created according to German standards will also be listed. The continuous new product boom will promote JAC passenger cars to gradually enter the mainstream brand echelon.
In terms of foreign cooperation and joint ventures, JAC Automobile will deepen cooperation with Volkswagen and Weilai, which will bring new growth points to JAC. The strategic cooperation with more partners such as Huawei, Horizon, and iFLYTEK will further consolidate the already formed intelligent technology ecosystem and empower more momentum for enterprise development.
Soochow Securities said that Jianghuai Automobile is a comprehensive veteran independent automobile manufacturer integrating a full range of commercial vehicles, passenger cars and powertrain research, production, sales and service, the light truck business benefits from industry dividends, the passenger car plate Sihao brand electric intelligent development accelerates, the FOUNDRY Wei to help performance growth and technological progress, Volkswagen Anhui construction has entered a substantive stage, technical support and product introduction.
On the whole, the growth of Sihao passenger cars, the further revenue of Jianglai Company, and the explosive expectations of Volkswagen Anhui in the next 3-5 years are the power source for Jianghuai Automobile to build a new growth pole. Jianghuai Automobile will go far and steady, creating more revenue and returns for customers and shareholders.
Li Wentao/Wen