On April 1, XPEV.US/09868.HK announced its sales in March and the first quarter. According to the data, in March, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered a total of 15,414 new cars, an increase of 148% month-on-month and an increase of 202% year-on-year. The cumulative delivery volume in the first quarter reached 34,561 units, 2.6 times that of the same period last year, winning the sales championship in the first quarter of the new car-making forces, and it is worth mentioning that this is the third consecutive quarter of winning the new forces championship. In addition, the Xiaopeng P7 also set a new record for pure electric models of the new forces with a monthly sales of 9183 units.
The results of the stage only reflect the numbers, and the support behind them can be combined with the annual financial report of Xiaopeng Automobile. On the evening of March 28, Beijing time, Xiaopeng Motors (XPEV.US/09868.HK) announced its unaudited fourth quarter and annual results report for 2021. According to the financial report, Xiaopeng Automobile's total revenue in 2021 was 20.99 billion yuan, an increase of 259.1% year-on-year; the annual gross profit margin was 12.5%, an increase of 7.9%; and the delivery volume of new vehicles in 2021 was 98,000 units, an increase of 263% year-on-year.
Revenue delivery reached new highs
In The financial report of Xiaopeng Motors, the data in the fourth quarter of 2021 is the most eye-catching, and the revenue of the entire fourth quarter once again hit a record high, reaching 856,000 yuan, an increase of 200.1% year-on-year and 49.6% month-on-month. Among them, the sales revenue of automobiles was 8.19 billion yuan, an increase of 199.3% year-on-year and 49.9% month-on-month.
The substantial increase in sales revenue is closely related to the continuous increase in new car sales. According to the data, in the fourth quarter of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile delivered a total of 41,751 new cars, an increase of 222% year-on-year and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 63%. Among them, the P7 delivery volume in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 21,342 units, a sharp increase of 150% year-on-year. After mass production of the P5 began in October 2021, it also reached sales of 5,030 units in December.
In addition to the record highs in deliveries and revenue, The overall gross profit margin of Xiaopeng Motors also increased compared with 2020. According to the data, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the overall gross profit margin of Xiaopeng Automobile was 12.0%, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from 7.4% in the same period of 2020. Among them, the gross profit margin of automobile sales was 10.9%, an increase of 4.1 percentage points from 6.8% in the same period of 2020.
He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, said: "We recorded considerable growth in 2021, and deliveries reached a new high in the fourth quarter, led by the best-selling smart car P7 and the newly launched smart home car P5. Coupled with the rapidly increasing penetration of electric vehicles in China and our highly competitive products, our total deliveries more than tripled year-on-year throughout the year and in the fourth quarter. ”
In addition, the financial report also revealed that Xiaopeng Automobile's cash reserves are relatively abundant. By the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, the cash and cash equivalents held by Xiaopeng Automobile reached 43.54 billion yuan, an increase of 23.2% year-on-year. With sufficient cash as a support, Xiaopeng Automobile has also always adopted a high investment attitude in research and development. According to the data, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the research and development expenses of Xiaopeng Automobile were 1.45 billion yuan, and the research and development expense rate reached 17.0%, an increase of 0.9 percentage points over 16.1% in the same period of the previous year. In the whole year of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile's research and development expenses were 4.11 billion yuan, an increase of 137.6% year-on-year.
Intelligent strengthening, operation network expansion
The dedication to research and development and the high investment have enabled Xiaopeng Automobile to make "smart" its own label.
At the financial report, He Xiaopeng revealed that the research and development of the XPILOT3.5 core function city NGP is progressing smoothly, and after obtaining the approval of the relevant competent authorities, it is planned to launch a new urban navigation system in the first batch of cities at the end of the second quarter of 2022. At the same time, more than 50% of the Xiaopeng P5 delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021 can support XPILOT 3.0 or XPILOT 3.5. The number of urban NGP takeovers per 100 kilometers mounted on the P5 model has begun to approach high-speed NGP. In this regard, He Xiaopeng believes that the comprehensive experience of its urban NGP is benchmarking against the domestic head of Robotaxi company, and in some aspects has achieved catch-up. This means that Xiaopeng Automobile can already compete head-on with traditional car companies and unmanned car companies with Robotaxi as the main industry.
In addition, He Xiaopeng revealed that IN 2023, XPILOT 4.0 will be launched to achieve intelligent assisted driving at high speed and in all scenarios in the city, and at least four models will be equipped with this function in 2023.
In He Xiaopeng's view, compared with other mass-produced intelligent driver assistance systems in the industry, XPILOT4.0 will have a significant technical difference. Under the premise of ensuring a high degree of security, the new software has more comprehensive use scenarios, wider geographical coverage, and better interaction and driving experience. "XPILOT 4.0 will popularize high-level intelligent assisted driving, promote the acceleration of the entire automobile traffic from manual driving to the era of human-machine co-driving, and the penetration rate of XPILOT software will be significantly higher than the current one." He Xiaopeng said. According to the plan, in the fourth quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Automobile will carry out robotaxi testing on the G9 model to prepare for the transition to unmanned driving in 2026.
In addition to continuous investment in research and development, Xiaopeng Motors is also expanding its production capacity to increase the delivery of new vehicles.
According to the data, xiaopeng automobile currently has three factories. Among them, the zhaoqing plant phase I and II are designed to have a total annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles, and the first phase of production capacity is 100,000 vehicles, which has been put into operation in May 2020, and the second phase is scheduled to be put into operation in the third quarter of 2022; the Guangzhou plant is still under construction and is scheduled to be put into operation in 2022 with a production capacity of 100,000 vehicles; the Wuhan plant is also under construction and is scheduled to be put into operation in 2023 with a production capacity of 100,000 vehicles. According to this calculation, in 2023, Xiaopeng Automobile will achieve its own production capacity of 400,000 units.
He Xiaopeng said that compared with the production capacity of the factory, the company pays more attention to the logic of output. "With planned capacity, overtime can greatly increase production." Therefore, Xiaopeng Automobile will plan for backup between different models and different platforms, and expects to achieve an annual production capacity of more than 500,000 vehicles in some plants.
In addition to the guaranteed production capacity, Xiaopeng Automobile's sales network is also expanding. According to the financial report, Xiaopeng Automobile's sales, general and administrative expenses reached 5.3 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 81.7% year-on-year. In the fourth quarter, the month-on-quarter growth rate of this expense was about 31%, exceeding the growth rate of research and development expenses. With continuous investment, by the end of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile has 357 operating stores, covering 129 cities. In terms of charging network, by the end of 2021, Xiaopeng Automobile's brand super charging stations will be expanded to 772 seats, covering 308 cities in China. He Xiaopeng said that the company is already planning to deploy a next-generation high-power charging network to help users shorten charging time and focus on strengthening the deployment of overcharging networks along high-speed lines.
Under the continuous improvement of production capacity and sales network, Xiaopeng Automobile has harvested good benefits in the first quarter of 2022. In this regard, Xiaopeng Automobile earlier expected that the first quarter of car deliveries will be between 33,500 and 34,000 vehicles, in fact, the latest delivery results have exceeded the upper limit of the guidelines.
In the financial report, it can be clearly seen that Xiaopeng Automobile is an enterprise that spends money on the blade and transforms it into actual results. Under this insistence, Xiaopeng Automobile has lived out what it should be, not a follower of other companies.
With the continuous improvement of technology, production capacity and sales conditions, the delivery scale of Xiaopeng Automobile is bound to be not limited to the first of the new forces. Moreover, with the increase of recognition, the gross profit margin and expense ratio of Xiaopeng Automobile will also be improved, thus stepping onto a new level.
Edit: Cheng Kuo