21st Century Business Herald reporter Du Qiaomei reported
On the evening of April 27, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. (000625.SZ, hereinafter referred to as "Changan Automobile") disclosed its 2021 annual report. During the reporting period, Changan Automobile's total operating income was 105.141 billion yuan, an increase of 24.33% year-on-year, a new high in the past five years; net profit was 3.552 billion yuan, an increase of 6.87% year-on-year; deduction of non-net profit was turned from loss to profit, reaching 1.653 billion yuan, an increase of 150.85% year-on-year; net operating cash flow was 22.972 billion yuan, an increase of 115.17% over the same period last year, and net cash inflow increased significantly year-on-year.
Changan Automobile said in the announcement that the improvement of the company's net profit during the reporting period was due to the increase in sales in the autonomous sector, which made the profit increase significantly year-on-year. At the same time, the profitability of the joint venture sector is also generally good.
According to the sales data disclosed by Changan Automobile, it achieved sales of 2.301 million units in 2021, an increase of 14.8% year-on-year, and the market share increased by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year, returning to the fourth place of the automobile group. Among them, Changan's Chinese brand car sales were 1.755 million units, an increase of 16.7% year-on-year, ranking second in the industry; the sales volume of Chinese brand narrow passenger car companies ranked second in the industry, and the gap with the industry first was 63.7% smaller than that in 2020.
During the reporting period, the gross profit margin of Changan Automobile's sales reached 16.64%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points over the same period of the previous year.
In addition, in 2021, Changan's new energy vehicle sales exceeded 100,000 units for the first time, an increase of more than 200% year-on-year; the sales revenue of new energy vehicles was 1.236 billion yuan, and the subsidy income of new energy vehicles was 126 million yuan.
In terms of research and development, in 2021, Changan Automobile's cumulative R&D investment was 4.827 billion yuan, an increase of 24.51% year-on-year, accounting for 4.59% of operating income. R&D investment is mainly used in the development of PLUS, UNI and other series of models, the development of a new generation of plug-in hybrid models, the development of new intelligent electric vehicles, the development of key technologies for next-generation autonomous driving, and the development of intelligent electric digital platforms.
In terms of production capacity, Changan Automobile will have a design capacity of 2.05 million units in 2021, and the capacity utilization rate will reach 67%. In the past three years, 960,000 complete vehicles and 870,000 engines have been shut down and transferred backward production capacity, and 1.07 million intelligent network and new energy vehicles have been newly built, 600,000 high-efficiency engines have been shut down and transferred, and 100,000 sets of new energy battery production capacity has been built.
Looking ahead to 2022, Changan Automobile aims to produce and sell more than 2.45 million vehicles. In order to achieve the company's strategic goals, in 2022, Changan Automobile and its holding subsidiaries will invest 8.050 billion yuan, continue to carry out core capacity building around the two major areas of production capacity and research and development, comprehensively cope with the shortcomings of manufacturing and research and development capabilities brought about by the acceleration of new energy planning, and accelerate the process of switching products to new energy electrification.
According to the plan, by 2025, changan automobile's total sales plan to reach 4 million vehicles, of which Changan's own brand 3 million vehicles, including new energy sales of 1.05 million vehicles, accounting for 35%; in 2030, Changan Automobile's total sales plan to reach 5.5 million vehicles, of which Changan's own brand 4.5 million vehicles, including new energy sales of 2.7 million vehicles, accounting for 60%, overseas sales accounted for 30%. Changan Automobile plans to achieve carbon peaking in 2027 and carbon neutrality in 2045.
Enterprise development faces three major risks
After the huge losses of 3.165 billion, 4.762 billion and 3.25 billion yuan in 2018, 2019 and 2020 for three consecutive years, Changan Automobile finally ushered in a substantial improvement in performance in 2021.
In 2021, Changan Automobile's non-net profit turned from loss to profit, reaching 1.653 billion yuan, an increase of 150.85% year-on-year. In terms of quarters, in the first quarter of 2021, Changan Automobile deducted non-net profit of 720 million, in the second quarter of deducted non-net profit of 0.2 billion, in the third quarter of deducting non-net profit of 1 billion, and in the fourth quarter of deducting non-net profit of 0.87 billion.
However, compared with the peak of 5.716 billion yuan in 2017, there is still a big gap. At the same time, in the face of a series of uncertainties in the development of the industry, Changan Automobile still faces challenges in 2022.
Changan Automobile pointed out in its financial report that in 2022, the development of the industry may face three major risks.
The first is the supply chain risk, due to the ongoing epidemic, geographical conflicts and other factors, some upstream raw materials supply is insufficient, supply chain collaboration capabilities decline, resulting in "lack of core and less electricity" (chips and power batteries) problem will continue in stages, the automobile enterprises in the production and supply of still form a certain pressure.
Second, the risk of raw material price increases. In the medium and long term, as the global epidemic eases, the supply of commodities is expected to gradually improve, but there are still many uncertainties in the near future, resulting in global commodity prices continuing to remain firm. On the one hand, the global geopolitical conflict has heated up, driving the price of crude oil, natural gas, agricultural products, etc. on the other hand, the global carbon emission constraints and green transformation have triggered the market's long-term demand growth expectations for some base metals, and also promoted the price of some mineral resources such as copper, aluminum, lithium, cobalt and nickel. The production and operation of automobile enterprises are affected by the rising prices of bulk commodities such as energy and metals, which may lead to an increase in short-term production costs and increased operating pressure.
Finally, the covid-19 pandemic is at risk of disruption to consumption in the automotive market. The sporadic risk of the domestic new crown epidemic has not been eliminated, which has disturbed the sales of the local automobile market and inhibited the recovery of residents' consumer confidence, resulting in increased volatility in sales volume and sales rhythm in the automobile market.
In order to achieve the company's strategic objectives, Changan Automobile and its holding subsidiaries will invest 8.05 billion yuan in 2022, of which 3,245.67 million yuan will be invested in fixed assets and 4,803.92 million yuan will be equity investment.
Fixed asset investment is mainly concentrated in the adjustment of new energy production capacity structure and new product launch, continue to focus on the core capacity building in the two major areas of production capacity and research and development, comprehensively respond to the shortcomings of manufacturing and research and development capabilities brought about by the acceleration of new energy planning, accelerate the process of switching products to new energy electrification, and start the investment of integrated manufacturing capacity of key components of the three electricity.
Equity investment is mainly to support independent new energy brands, double scale promotion, expand overseas markets, deepen capital relations with partners, create controllable full-stack intelligent capabilities, and continue to promote industrial ecological layout. According to the progress of the project, combined with the operation and financing environment, the company will study and formulate a variety of channels of fund raising plans and capital use plans, improve the efficiency of capital use, reduce the cost of funds.
New energy vehicles are waiting to be developed
"In 2022, the company will actively launch a variety of electrified, electrified and intelligent products to accelerate the transformation into an intelligent low-carbon travel technology company." Changan Automobile said in its earnings report that the electrification of the power system has become a deterministic trend in the automotive industry, but the development of new energy vehicles is facing a series of tests.
First, the adaptability of pure electric products in the whole scene still needs to be improved, such as the temporary popularization of cold areas in the north, and the convenience of supplementing energy in the high-speed or long-distance process is still insufficient; second, in the daily use of electric vehicles, there are problems such as low residual value of second-hand cars and imperfect charging facilities; third, the test of business model, the continuous rise in raw material prices to release pressure on the vehicle manufacturer; fourth, the test of the tight supply of mineral resources such as upstream lithium nickel and cobalt; fifth, there is uncertainty in the technical route and commercial landing of power batteries, such as solid-state batteries, cobalt-free batteries, graphene, Solar cells, etc.
It is worth noting that in the field of new energy, although it has been laid out for more than ten years, Changan Automobile does not have an advantage in the field of new energy.
A few days ago, the data released by the Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles in March this year was 28.2%. Among its own brands, Changan New Energy sold 15,624 vehicles, lower than BYD, Tesla China, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Automobile, and GAC Aean, ranking sixth among domestic manufacturers. In March, the overall retail sales of Changan passenger cars reached 120,000 units, and new energy vehicles accounted for only 13%.
To this end, Changan Automobile has increased its investment to make up for the shortcomings.
According to the plan, by 2025, Changan Automobile will invest more than 80 billion yuan in key areas such as new energy, intelligence, scientific and technological innovation, and digital transformation, and accelerate the construction of core capabilities in the field of transformation. And the total number of R & D personnel reached 20,000 people, including more than 6,000 intelligent and software R & D personnel, more than 5,000 new energy R & D personnel, R & D personnel accounted for about 1/4.
In terms of products, Changan Automobile will promote the construction of the electrification promotion architecture and platform system for all products.
Among them, the MPA architecture is compatible with ICE and its electrification products, integrating multi-form, multi-energy, multi-scenario architecture, and has been launched with UNI-V; EPA architecture is a platform architecture for the mainstream electric vehicle market, pure electric series products C385, C673, Changan LUMIN will be listed soon; CHN platform is a smart electric vehicle technology platform built by Changan, Huawei, and Ningde era; facing the future, Changan Automobile will also build an intelligent electric vehicle architecture SDA.
In the high-end intelligent electric vehicle market, the high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand Avita aggregates the advantages of Changan Automobile, Huawei, and Ningde Era, and is the first high-end intelligent electric vehicle brand equipped with Huawei HI. At present, there are 4 complete vehicle products planned, covering the main market segments of the mid-to-high-end, and the first model Avita 11 will be released in the second quarter of this year.
It is worth noting that on March 29, CATL completed the capital injection of Avita, with a shareholding ratio of 23.99%, officially becoming the second largest shareholder of Avita Technology.
In the mainstream passenger car market, Changan Automobile will launch 21 new products, including 5 of the Changan Deep Blue brand. In addition, in 2022, A total of 5 new products will be launched, including C385EV, C673EV, UNI-KPHEV, UNI-V PHEV, and Auchan Z6-PHEV, and the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell car in China will also be unveiled to meet the quality green travel needs of mainstream people.
At the same time, Changan Automobile will further optimize the brand strategy and positioning of Changan UNI, Changan Passenger Vehicle, Auchan and Kaicheng, and make a comprehensive transformation to electrification and electrification. In the commercial vehicle market, Changan will launch 6 new products in the future, achieve full coverage of the mainstream bus market by 2025, and launch 2 new platform pickup products.