How far is the difference between "Wei Xiaoli" and Tesla?
With the release of Q4 and annual financial reports by Xiaopeng Motors, the 2021 financial reports of Tesla and "Wei Xiaoli", four smart car listed companies, have all been released.
In the impression of the vast majority of people, Tesla in the United States and China's "Wei Xiaoli", these four listed companies are all soaring in 2021, the most cattle, of course, or the lead big brother Tesla - look at the market value to understand this truth.
As of April 1, EST, tesla, NIO (hereinafter referred to as NIO), Xiaopeng Motors (hereinafter referred to as Xiaopeng Motors), and Ideal Automobile (hereinafter referred to as Ideal) had a market capitalization of $1.12 trillion, $36.6 billion, $25 billion, and $28.1 billion, respectively. The market value of the big brother Tesla is 12.5 times that of the sum of the three market values of Wei Xiaoli. In fiscal 2021, Tesla quickly opened up the market value gap with these three companies in China.
Is the gap between Wei Xiaoli and Tesla really getting bigger and bigger? The comparison of financial report data will tell us the real answer.
According to the 2020-2021 annual financial reports of these four companies, the First Electric Research Institute made a comparison of growth rates from seven aspects, such as delivery volume, revenue, gross profit margin, net profit, research and development expenses, cash reserves, and the number of stores.
Let's take a look at the real growth of these four companies over the past two fiscal years, and who are the fastest.
Delivery volume growth rate: Xiaopeng first, more than Tesla 2 times
In 2020, Tesla delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles, while Xiaopeng and Ideal delivered only about 30,000 vehicles, a difference of more than 15 times, and Weilai delivered more than 40,000 vehicles, a difference of more than 11 times. At that time, Tesla's delivery volume = 4.8 times the sum of "Wei Xiaoli"'s deliveries.
In 2021, Tesla delivered 940,000 vehicles, and the delivery volume of "Wei Xiaoli" exceeded 90,000 vehicles, a difference of more than 10 times. Tesla deliveries in 2021 = 3.33 times the sum of "Wei Xiaoli" deliveries. In 2021, the delivery gap between "Wei Xiaoli" and Tesla is narrowing.
From the perspective of the year-on-year growth rate of delivery volume, Xiaopeng has the largest increase, with a year-on-year increase of more than 2.6 times, ideal and Weilai growth of more than 1 times, Tesla has the smallest increase. Xiaopeng's delivery volume growth rate exceeds Tesla by 2 times, Chao Weilai by more than 1 times, and ultra-ideal by 0.5 times. The ideal super Tesla is more than 1 times, and Weilai is 0.2 times more than Tesla.
In the "Wei Xiaoli" top three, Weilai's delivery volume has always been in a leading position, but in 2021, because Weilai's products are in the empty window period, it is gradually surpassed by Xiaopeng Automobile and Ideal Automobile.
In 2022, with the delivery of NIO ET7, ET5, ES7, and the launch of ES8, ES6 and EC6 in 2022, its delivery volume is expected to achieve greater growth again (CITIC Securities is expected to increase by about 100% year-on-year).
Xiaopeng G9 and Ideal L9, two blockbuster new cars, will also be listed and delivered this year, continuing to help Xiaopeng and Ideal delivery growth rates at a high level. Tesla's products this year are in an empty window period, but due to production capacity factories such as the start of the Berlin factory and the construction of the second factory in China, Tesla's delivery growth rate is also likely to increase significantly.
In 2022, can Wei Xiaoli further narrow the gap with Tesla's delivery? High probability will.
Revenue growth rate: Xiaopeng first, 2.6 times more than Tesla
With the rise in delivery volume and the increase in vehicle sales revenue, the four new car-making forces in 2021 have shown a trend of revenue growth and gross profit improvement.
Comparing the four data, we found that in 2020, Tesla's revenue exceeded 200 billion yuan, Weilai exceeded 10 billion yuan, Xiaopeng and Ideal only a few billion yuan, and Tesla's revenue in 2020 = 6.34 times the sum of "Wei Xiaoli".
By 2021, Tesla's revenue will exceed 300 billion yuan, Weilai will exceed 30 billion yuan, Xiaopeng and Ideal will exceed 20 billion yuan, and Tesla's revenue in 2021 will be 4 times that of the total revenue of "Wei Xiaoli". In 2021, the revenue gap between "Wei Xiaoli" and Tesla is also rapidly narrowing.
From the perspective of revenue growth, Xiaopeng revenue growth is the largest, achieving more than 2 times growth, ideal and Weilai revenue also achieved more than 1 times growth, in comparison, Tesla has the slowest growth, only achieving 71% year-on-year growth. In contrast, Xiaopeng increased by 2.6 times more than Tesla, the ideal increase exceeded Tesla by 1.6 times, and Weilai increased by 72% by Tesla.
The revenue growth rate and delivery growth rate of the four companies are basically the same, it is worth noting that only Xiaopeng and Tesla have a revenue growth rate slightly lower than the delivery increase, and the revenue growth rate of Ideal and Weilai is significantly higher than the delivery growth rate.
In the comparison of the three Wei Xiaoli, although Xiaopeng's 2021 annual delivery volume is the largest, the revenue of the year is the lowest, indicating that the average price of Xiaopeng's models on sale is low. According to public information, the average selling price of WEILAI is 430,000 yuan, the price of the ideal ONE in 2021 is 349,800 yuan, and the average selling price of Xiaopeng is about 250,000 yuan.
Vehicle gross margin growth rate: Xiaopeng is the first, surpassing Tesla by 14.8 times
The comparison of the data in this table is particularly remarkable. In 2020, Tesla's gross vehicle gross profit margin is far ahead, which is 7 times that of Xiaopeng. But by 2021, although Tesla has once again increased the level of its gross profit of the whole vehicle, the increase is no longer obvious. In contrast, China's top three have made significant progress, With WEIlai and Ideal gradually approaching its gross profit level, while Xiaopeng has grown by leaps and bounds.
From the perspective of the increase in the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle, Xiaopeng increased by 14.5 times that of Tesla, 2.8 times of Weilai, and 8 times of the ideal. Weilai's increase is 4 times that of Tesla, and the ideal is nearly 2 times that of Tesla.
Compared with the gross vehicle gross profit margin data of "Wei Xiaoli", the ideal has always been higher than that of Weilai and Xiaopeng, and the gross profit margin of the vehicle in 2021 will reach 20.6%. Ideal Auto said the significant increase in gross margin was mainly due to the increase in cost control of supply chain management and the increasing delivery since the launch of the Ideal ONE in 2021, resulting in an increase in the average selling price of the product. In addition, the ideal pointed out that it is currently facing the cost problem caused by the increase in the price of raw materials, but as the delivery volume of automobiles continues to increase, the scale effect can erase the pressure of rising costs to a certain extent, and it is believed that the gross profit margin will be further improved.
It must be pointed out that although Xiaopeng has the largest year-on-year increase in 2021, its gross vehicle gross profit margin is still the lowest among the four companies. Low pricing and soaring marketing and management costs may be two of the important reasons. In 2021, Xiaopeng's loss came partly from rising costs, and partly from Xiaopeng's soaring marketing and administrative expenses, reaching 5.3 billion yuan, an increase of 81.7% year-on-year.
Xiaopeng said on the Q4 earnings call that it will launch two new model platforms and their first models in 2023, namely the C-class platform and the B-class platform. The new platform will inherit and develop Xiaopeng Automobile's continued leading aesthetic design capabilities, electrification and intelligent driving capabilities, as well as advanced manufacturing processes (such as ultra-large integrated die casting), and the new platform will help Xiaopeng gain strong cost control capabilities.
The system platform will promote the transformation of Xiaopeng Automobile's power system, manufacturing process and BOM cost system. The gross margin of the new model, including the G9, and the gross profit margin of the company as a whole will be structurally improved. Xiaopeng Automobile's medium- and long-term goal is to increase the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle to more than 25%.
Nio's gross vehicle gross profit margin in 2021 was 20.1%, an increase of 7.4 percentage points over last year. Li Bin, the founder of Weilai, said on the WEILAI Q4 earnings conference call that weilai began to use 75 degrees ternary iron lithium batteries in the fourth quarter of last year, which is indeed lower than the cost of 70 degrees ternary batteries, which is very helpful for the improvement of WEILAI's gross profit in the fourth quarter. However, the general increase in the price of raw materials will have a negative effect on the growth of NIO's gross profit. Therefore, Weilai put forward the gross profit target of the whole vehicle in 2022, hoping to be between 18-20%, which is relatively conservative.
Net profit growth rate: Tesla first, Xiaopeng ideal net loss expanded
After Tesla achieved its first annual profit in 2020, it achieved a comprehensive increase in delivery, revenue, vehicle gross profit, and corporate net profit in 2021, especially corporate net profit, which soared by 542% year-on-year, showing the king's weather.
Among China's top three, only NIO's net loss narrowed year-on-year, from a net loss of 5.31 billion yuan (RMB) in 2020 to a net loss of 4.02 billion yuan in 2021. Both Xiaopeng and Ideal's net losses increased significantly year-on-year, indicating that they are investing heavily.
It is worth noting that ideal, as a cost control "excellent student", achieved profitability in Q4 2021. As early as the fourth quarter of 2020, Ideal also achieved a net profit of 107.5 million yuan. Among the top three in China, Ideal is expected to become the first company to achieve annual profitability.
Cash reserve growth rate: ideal first, China's top three growth, Tesla fell 11%
In 2020, Tesla's cash reserves were 125.8 billion yuan, which was 1.17 times that of Wei Xiaoli's sum. In 2021, China's top three companies used re-listing and additional issuance to significantly increase their cash reserves again, while Tesla experienced an 11% year-on-year decline, and by the end of this fiscal year, the total cash reserves of Wei Xiaoli's three companies had reached 149.1 billion yuan (RMB), which was 1.33 times that of Tesla.
This is the first time that Wei Xiaoli has surpassed Tesla in the company's key indicators, although it is a surpass after the group, it is also worth paying attention to.
R & D investment growth rate: ideal first, more than Tesla 1.6 times
In fiscal 2021, all four companies significantly increased their R&D investment. In contrast, the year-on-year growth rate of China's top three has greatly surpassed Tesla.
In 2020, Tesla's R&D investment was 9.46 billion yuan (RMB), which was 1.78 times that of the sum of the three Wei Xiaoli in that year; by 2021, although Tesla's R&D investment increased significantly to 16.48 billion, due to the larger growth of Chinese counterparts, the ratio of R&D investment between Tesla and Wei Xiaoli that year has dropped to 1.37 times.
From the perspective of year-on-year growth, the ideal year-on-year increase of the always "door-cutting" is the largest, Xiaopeng is second, Weilai is third, and Tesla is at the bottom.
In terms of horizontal comparison, although the ideal has the largest increase, it has the lowest R&D investment compared to the other three companies. Ideal has said that it will maintain a research and development expense rate of more than 10% for a long time to improve vehicle technology.
Although Weilai has the third fastest growth rate, it has the highest total R&D investment. In the 2021 financial report, NIO said that the increase in R&D expenses was mainly due to the increase in the cost of personnel in the R&D function and the increase in the design and development cost of new products and technologies. In 2022, NIO's R&D investment will increase by more than 1 times compared with 2021, including the research and development of core technologies and new models.
Similar to NIO, Xiaopeng's R&D expenses in 2021 were 4.114 billion yuan, and it said at its 2021 earnings report meeting that the increase in R&D expenses was mainly due to the increase in employee compensation caused by the expansion of the R&D team, as well as the increase in expenses related to the development of new models. He Xiaopeng said that R& D investment in 2022 will exceed the sum of the past two years, which means that Xiaopeng's R& D investment in 2022 will exceed 6 billion.
Xiaopeng plans to officially launch XPILOT4.0 in 2023 to achieve intelligent assisted driving at high speed and in all scenarios in the city, at least 4 models support XPILOT4.0 in 2023, and will gradually unify the intelligent assisted driving hardware and software platform of Xiaopeng Automobile's new models.
Store growth rate: ideal first, more than Tesla 7 times
As of March 24, 2022, NIO has built 46 NIO centers and 341 NIO spaces, covering 155 cities; at the same time, 60 NIO service centers and 179 authorized service centers have been built, covering a total of 146 cities. In terms of charging and replacing networks, WEI HAS built 871 substations, 714 supercharge stations, 3982, and 678 destination charging stations in China, 3792.
As of January 31, 2022, Ideal has 220 directly operated retail centers in the country, covering 105 cities, and 276 after-sales maintenance centers and authorized sheet metal spray centers, covering 204 cities.
By the end of 2021, Xiaopeng has 357 operating stores covering 129 cities, including 209 directly operated stores and 148 franchised stores. In terms of charging network, by the end of 2021, Xiaopeng has built 772 brand supercharging stations, covering 308 cities in China. He Xiaopeng said that the company is already planning to deploy the next generation of high-power charging networks to help users shorten charging time, and focus on strengthening the deployment of overcharge networks along high-speed lines.
According to Tesla's official WeChat, Tesla China's experience stores and service centers have grown from more than 180 at the end of 2020 (network data) to more than 240 at the end of 2021.
Compared with the number of stores, Weilai has the highest number of stores and the lowest number of ideal stores, but its year-on-year growth rate is the highest - its increase is more than Tesla 7 times, super Xiaopeng 1 times, and super Weilai 2 times.
It is worth noting that the ideal achieves higher revenue with fewer stores, showing higher marketing efficiency.
Write at the end
The above data comes from the financial reports of the four companies in 2020 and 2021. Those who are not from this source have already been explained in the article.
In the comparison of 7 groups of data reflecting the real growth of enterprises, we see that Xiaopeng has obtained three firsts, namely: the first delivery growth rate, the first revenue growth rate, and the first vehicle gross profit growth rate, showing that Xiaopeng has made great progress in large-scale production and operation in 2021.
Ideal also achieved three firsts, namely: cash reserve growth rate first, R & D investment growth rate first, store number growth rate first, showing that ideal 2021 is making strategic investment for the next step of competition.
Only one, Tesla achieved the first: the first net profit growth rate, and at the same time as its rapid increase in total profits, three Chinese peers are making strategic investments, resulting in an expansion of net losses (except for Weilai). This data shows that Tesla's leading edge in corporate competitiveness and development stage is very obvious.
But that doesn't mean Tesla is widening the gap between it and Wei Xiaoli. On the contrary, China's top three are rapidly narrowing the distance between them and Tesla in almost every way (except net profit) – although this distance is still large, but it is by no means light-years away.
In other words, the gap in the market capitalization of the four U.S. listed companies does not show the real growth of these four companies. Compared with Tesla's market capitalization, China's top three are greatly undervalued.
Behind Wei Xiaoli, there are also excellent Chinese local companies such as Aean, Nezha, Zero Run, and Gaohe, which will enter the IPO in 2022.
How far is wei Xiaoli and Tesla? This question was asked not only to Wei Xiaoli, but also to the Chinese companies behind them.