People go up high. This sentence is true, but after all, there are many temptations in the high places, and there are many things that are illusory, and it is inevitable to be arrogant if you do not pay attention.
Perhaps due to the lowly scrutinized high data, recently, due to the gradual top spot in the domestic new energy vehicle new energy vehicle group, and even replaced Weilai and ideals, Xiaopeng Automobile's appearance in the market is inevitably a little proud. Then there is a question mark - how much "expansion" is Xiaopeng Automobile?
It may also be that he feels that he has stood firm in the position of a brother of the new forces, and the speech of He Xiaopeng, the founder and chairman of Xiaopeng Automobile, has a meaning of representing the new forces and even the entire new energy automobile industry. Not long ago, He Xiaopeng made a statement: "If the supply chain enterprises in Shanghai and the surrounding areas cannot find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all Chinese automakers may have to stop work and production in May." ”
After this "suspension theory" was published, public opinion reacted strongly for a while. However, many voices have said that the industry dilemma or reality, but He Xiaopeng may deliberately amplify anxiety, wantonly create panic, and even purposefully bring rhythm.
Champion dancer wearing a loss-making hat
Won the delivery championship, but it is also the king of losses. If things only need to look at one side, then the probability of Xiaopeng Automobile's choice is to deliver the championship side.
On March 28, Xiaopeng Motors announced its 2021 financial report that The total revenue of Xiaopeng Motors for the whole year was 20.99 billion yuan, an increase of 259.1% year-on-year; in the fourth quarter of 2021, Xiaopeng Motors' revenue was 8.56 billion yuan, an increase of 200.1% year-on-year. Total new vehicle deliveries for the full year were 98,000 units, up 263% year-on-year. Among them, the delivery of Xiaopeng P7 exceeded 60,000 units, accounting for 61.7%.
What makes Xiaopeng even more proud is that this time, it finally sat on the first seat of the three new car-making forces of Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal. This is also the first time that Xiaopeng has surpassed WEIlai in terms of delivery volume, becoming the annual delivery champion among the new forces.
By 2022, this feeling of reaching the top seems to have reached its climax. In the first quarter of 2022, Xiaopeng, Ideal and NIO achieved 34,561, 31,716 and 25,768 deliveries respectively, and The delivery volume of Xiaopeng Automobile increased by 159% year-on-year, continuing to gain a good position.
But that's not something to be proud of. In terms of net profit, in 2021, the more Xiaopeng Motors sells, the more money it loses. The brand with the largest net profit loss became the brand with the largest net profit loss, and also topped the list of new forces losses - in 2021, Xiaopeng's net loss was 4.863 billion, compared with 2.732 billion in 2020, an increase of 78%. According to the calculation of financial report data, Xiaopeng will lose 49,500 yuan per car sold on average.
Of course, not only Xiaopeng is facing the trend of "selling cars at a loss", the industry as a whole is like this. However, in the long run, only when sales continue to increase can we share the cost and finally achieve full profitability.
At this point, Xiaopeng Motors has its own disadvantages, such as lower gross profit margins of cars: according to annual report data, in the past year, the gross profit margin of Weilai Automobile was 20.1%, the gross profit margin of Ideal Automobile was 20.6%, and the gross profit margin of Xiaopeng Automobile was only 11.5%. Compared with Tesla, Xiaopeng Automobile is only envious, and the gross profit margin of Tesla bicycles reached 30.5% last year.
He Xiaopeng said in the earnings call that it is expected that there will be a good improvement in material costs in May-June, and the brand's medium- and long-term goal is to increase the gross profit margin to more than 25%. As soon as you open your mouth, you will more than double the current gross profit margin. Maybe they were really deceived by their own delivery data.
If you have to find some advantages for Xiaopeng Motors, it is only the price. At present, among the three new forces, Xiaopeng's price can be described as the most close to the people. According to the information on the official website of Xiaopeng, the national suggested retail price of Xiaopeng after the comprehensive subsidy of G3, P5 and P7 is 168,900, 177,900 and 239,900 respectively. Both the G3 and P5 series are low in price, and even the highest-selling P7 series is still known for price.
Because the price of Xiaopeng Automobile as a whole is lower than that of the other two brother companies in the first echelon, it is more difficult to achieve surpass in revenue and profit. There seems to be no other way but to "wholesale" moves. Of course, Xiaopeng may not be willing to do this, after all, the high-end market is currently the field that most new energy companies want and are expanding, G9 may be a trump card, but a sentence of "see you in June", superimposed on the epidemic, G9 prospects are still unknown.
But at the moment, in the data round, Xiaopeng has no way to bet on the yo-yo mouth of the market. Because of the flame of soaring sales, if you are not careful, you will be wiped out by the sea water that may lose money.
Build a car, or set it on fire
Xiaopeng Automobile, which has no advantage in net profit, is inevitably a "common disease" in quality.
On the night of the release of the annual report, He Xiaopeng probably did not sit firmly on the chair of the champion, and was "scalded" by the spontaneous combustion accident of his own car - a Xiaopeng G3 caught fire in Longhua District, Shenzhen, and the reason for the accident that Xiaopeng officially responded to was caused by damage to the bottom of the battery box.
According to media reports, on the evening of March 28, the parked vehicles in the Longhua District of Shenzhen City suddenly caught fire, and the firefighters carried out on-site fire extinguishing, although the fire was controlled, the whole vehicle was still burned and scrapped, fortunately there were no casualties. On March 29, Xiaopeng Automobile responded, confirming that the model involved was the 2019 Xiaopeng G3, and the cause of the accident was under investigation.
This is not the first time that the Xiaopeng G3 has had an auto-ignition accident. Some media even called Xiaopeng G3 a "spontaneous combustion king". According to the official website of Xiaopeng Automobile, there are currently six models on sale of Xiaopeng G3, with a price range of 168,900 to 203,900, equipped with two kinds of batteries, lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries. In 2021, Xiaopeng delivered a total of 98,000 new vehicles, of which Xiaopeng G3 accounted for nearly 30%, about 30,000 units.
Perhaps every good day, there will be a meditative reminder of Xiao Peng. In April 2021, it was reported that that day was the day the Xiaopeng P5 was launched, and the same Xiaopeng G3 spontaneously combusted at the Xiaopeng charging station. The location of the vehicle fire in the video is near the battery pack. The media have teased Xiaopeng Automobile for saving advertising fees.
Further back, in August 2020, some Weibo netizens exposed a video of a Xiaopeng G3 in the Pazhou Science and Technology Building in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, where a smoke and fire accident occurred, causing no casualties. In the process of firefighters fighting the fire, Xiaopeng G3 is still accompanied by an explosion, which is judged to be a phenomenon caused by the combustion of the battery pack. However, Xiaopeng did not want to agree with such a conclusion, and Xiaopeng Automobile responded at that time: After preliminary investigation of the scene, the appearance of the vehicle is intact. After the investigation of the lifting of the store, it was found that there were obvious serious bumps and injuries at the bottom of the battery box, resulting in serious damage to the battery, and the preliminary judgment was the cause of the accident.
In December 2019, the news of spontaneous combustion of a Small Peng G3 in Guangzhou flowed out. Xiaopeng's official response said that "spontaneous combustion" was not true, but an open flame appeared in the tail. According to the statement of Xiaopeng Automobile, after testing the accident vehicle, the battery pack was found to be intact and still working normally. Through the investigation of the accident scene, more burning charcoal and lighters were found on the ground at the rear of the car, and it was judged that the accident was caused by an external fire source.
On the road of Xiaopeng spontaneous combustion, not only G3, but also P7 as a companion. According to reports, in February 2021, a Xiaopeng P7 in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, caught fire on the highway, and the scene was full of smoke.
Statistics say that since December 2019, there have been 5 fire incidents in Xiaopeng Automobile's products, including 4 in the G3 series and 1 in the P7 series.
Regulators must also see Xiaopeng's "burning" trend. As early as January 2021, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued the Notice on the Recall of Some Xiaopeng G3 Electric Vehicles, requiring the recall of a total of 13,399 Xiaopeng G3s. According to Xiaopeng's statement, the reason for the recall is due to defective internal structure of the G3 inverter and easy short circuit, which may cause the inverter to have no high voltage power supply, resulting in the downtime of the vehicle in motion.
The market of course admits that spontaneous combustion incidents are pain points in the entire new energy automobile industry. This is a huge market, and the data shows that the production and sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 3.5 million in 2021, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. From January to March this year, production and sales of new energy vehicles totaled 1.293 million units and 1.257 million units, respectively, up 1.4 times year-on-year. At the same time, some data show that in the first quarter of this year, there were 640 new energy vehicle fires, up 32% year-on-year. On average, about 7 new energy vehicles are "burning" every day.
However, returning to Xiaopeng Motors, for consumers, every fire is a kind of harm, as well as a loss of user desire and trust.
After all, as the saying goes, there are thousands of roads, and safety is the first. (To be continued)