April 30 of each year is generally the day on which the listed company releases the financial results and first quarter results of the previous year. On April 28, when the line was about to be "pressed", Changan Automobile's 2021 financial report and the first quarter report of 2022 were late.
According to the 2021 changan automobile financial report, the revenue reached 105.142 billion yuan, an increase of 24.33% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders was 3.552 billion yuan, an increase of 6.87% year-on-year. Net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 1.653 billion yuan, an increase of 150.85% year-on-year. In addition, the company's operating net cash flow was 22.972 billion yuan, an increase of 115.17% over the same period last year.
(Changan Automobile 2021 financial report)
To tell the truth, if you compare the net profit of more than 5 billion yuan for geely and the two head independent brands of Geely and the Great Wall, Changan Automobile's net profit of 3 billion yuan has not exceeded in the past 2 years, and the net profit of the whole year last year was only 3.55 billion yuan. In 2021, Changan Automobile's total sales and cash flow have a good growth compared with 2020, and the annual revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time.
(Changan Automobile's 2022 first quarter report)
What is even more surprising to the market is that in the first quarter of 2022, Changan Automobile's net profit attributable to the mother reached 4.536 billion yuan, an increase of 3.63 billion yuan year-on-year, and after deducting the recurring profit and loss caused by Avita's statement, the non-net profit reached 2.27 billion yuan, an increase of 1.55 billion yuan year-on-year.
If the non-recurring profit and loss of 2.1 billion yuan from the sale of part of the equity of its subsidiary Avita is removed, Changan Automobile also made half of the money in the first quarter of 2022, when the regional epidemic was frequent and the supply chain was short. Last year was the car sold well, but the profit made was not high. This year's three months of the car continues to sell well, and it is sung by all parties in the market, what is this all about?
It should be known that last year, the sales volume of Chinese automobile brands reached 1.75 million units, winning the championship again, and the second-place Geely Automobile sold 1.328 million units, and the third place Great Wall Motor sold 1.28 million units.
Changan sells the most, but makes the least profit, which is obviously not changan's long-term goal. So, can Deep Blue and Avita get Changan Automobile out of the profit vortex brought about by the previous products and brands at the low end?
Blockbusters are repeated, it is difficult to make money, and it is too dependent on Ford blood transfusions
To answer this question, we must first see who is changan automobile's profit cow before.
According to the financial report data, Changan Ford sold 305,000 vehicles in 2021, an increase of 20.3% year-on-year, with operating income of 61.765 billion yuan and net profit of 2.284 billion yuan. That is to say, last year, Changan Ford contributed 64% of the group's profits with only 13% of Changan's total sales, while Changan Mazda, which completed the "merger of two horses" last year, achieved a net profit of 860 million yuan in 2021, contributing 24% to the profits of the whole group.
In the financial reports of Changan Automobile over the years, Changan Ford has always played the position of the group's profit cow, and from 2015 to 2017, Changan Ford's sales and net profit in China flew together, basically accounting for more than 170% of the group's total profit. The data shows that the net profit of Changan Ford at its peak in 2015, 2016 and 2017 reached 17.469 billion yuan, 18.165 billion yuan and 12.171 billion yuan, accounting for 175.51%, 176.62% and 170.53% of Changan Automobile's net profit. However, from 2018 to 2019, Changan Ford's profitability declined, dragging down the overall profitability of the group, and the reason why Changan Ford was able to return to the high-growth route last year was the success of Lincoln's localization route, especially the growth of high-end model sales.
Therefore, until 2021, in the financial report of Changan Automobile, we can still read the pain points of the weak profitability of Changan's own brands. In the current matrix of Changan's own brands, the basic sales volume undoubtedly comes from the V standard, like the CS75, Yidong series of models, has always been a regular in the sales list, but Changan has been lacking more than 150,000 high-premium brands. In the UNI sequence born after Changan's third entrepreneurship, Changan has been promoting the independence of the UNI brand, but at present, the pricing of the three models of the UNI series is less than 10,000 higher than that of the V standard model, and the brand image has not really been separated from the V standard area, sales and influence, and has never been able to stand in the same dimension as Geely Lynk & Co and Great Wall WEY.
On the other hand, among several mainstream independent brands, Changan is the first car company to set out new energy, announcing the "Shangri-La Plan" as early as 2017 to fully stop selling traditional fuel vehicles in 2025. However, by 2021, Changan New Energy's sales volume exceeded 100,000, and Chongqing Changan New Energy's net profit loss was 2.77 billion yuan. Not only lagging behind the later GAC Aean and Great Wall Euler; but also only the Ben Ben E-Star, a popular A0-class car, provoked the sales beam.
It can be said that the most desired high-end, intelligent and electrification of today's independent brands in the market has not been fully reflected in Chang'an before 2021.
High-end breakout, deep blue take-off, betting on new energy users in the Z era
Such a situation has taken a "qualitative" leap forward since entering 2022. The so-called Feiyuan is not that Changan New Energy suddenly turned a loss into a profit, and the sudden popularity of the UNI series went hand in hand with the sales volume of the V standard. Instead, there is a clear new direction in the strategy of high-end, intelligence and electrification that has not been clear.
On April 13, Changan Automobile released the new energy brand "Deep Blue" in Chongqing. The first C385 based on the all-electric digital EPA1 platform has also been unveiled. Overnight, Changan built a digital pure electric brand between the existing Changan New Energy and the joint venture high-end pure electric brand Avita, and declared war with a high profile: "The deep blue C385 is running to the Tesla Model 3, that is, to grab its market share." "The intention is obvious, deep blue is to challenge the 200,000-300,000 high-end pure electricity market.
The new energy brands incubated from within the independent car companies, SAIC has Feifan, Geely has Extreme Kr, and BAIC has Polar Fox, so do you still need Changan Deep Blue? At present, Changan Automobile's ambition is not only to build an intelligent brand, but also an important step for Changan's own brands to achieve a sales target of 3 million vehicles in 2025.
Therefore, Changan particularly emphasized the latecomer technical advantages of its all-electric digital platform "multi-energy supplemental form of electric drive special platform" at the deep blue press conference, in other words, electric drive, extended range and even hydrogen fuel system can be carried to the car, and the high power density electric drive system will reduce the level of vehicle energy consumption and increase the mileage; and with the domain-controlled electronic and electrical architecture as the basis, the leading intelligent level of the deep blue model is guaranteed. "A dedicated platform for pure electric drive in all tracks that combines future travel prospects and today's car experience."
So there is no need to worry about the product strength of the deep blue model, Changan will make the models under the EPA architecture can "play", and this is also the mission of deep blue - the main Z generation of new energy users, this group of users have no brand loyalty, only keen on pure technology and intelligent experience.
In addition, the establishment of the deep blue brand has a crucial role in promoting the electrification of all products of Changan Automobile; before deep blue, Changan's layout in the new energy market was only Changan New Energy, which took the low-end entry market, and Avita, which was positioned at the high end, lacking the broadest backbone. With the release of Deep Blue, Chang'an has "smoothed out" the technical routes of major brands. Among them, Changan New Energy will rely on the EPA0 architecture to create entry-level terminal products, Changan Deep Blue will rely on the EPA1 architecture to explore the 200,000-300,000 market, and the high-end market will be attacked by Avita's CHN platform; in addition, the future strategy of Changan UNI, Changan Passenger Vehicle, Auchan and Kaicheng is also to be fully transformed into electrification and electrification. On the current market news, Changan has more than 150,000 high-end new energy models this year, Deep Blue launched C385EV, C673EV and other pure electric models, UNI series has two PHEV models, and Auchan will also launch a plug-in hybrid version of the coupe SUV Z6.
"I hope you will notice that Changan Automobile no longer defines itself as a traditional manufacturing enterprise, but transforms itself into a smart and low-carbon travel technology company." Zhu Huarong, chairman of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd., said at the 2021 annual performance briefing. On April 29, Changan Automobile's stock price opened up and stopped, which should be the most enthusiastic response of the market to the two financial reports and Changan's transformation.
Write at the end
Looking back at the first quarter of 2022, Changan's overall sales volume was 650,000 vehicles, showing a sharp trend, and in March, it also surpassed the north and south Volkswagen and became the first place in the wholesale sales of car companies. Perhaps Changan's biggest trouble now is not that the car is not selling well, but how to make more profits. The biggest significance of the emergence of the deep blue brand is also here, can it lead Changan Automobile to achieve the final high-end breakthrough?