Recently, Li Xiang, CEO of Li Xiang, said on social platforms, "If the total sales of ideal L9, L8 and L7 cars drop to five or six thousand units per month, the gross profit margin of ideal cars will become negative."
I don't know if Li Xiang is in "Versailles" or is "taking the pulse" for the entire new car industry. After all, this "if" is not the "if" of an ideal car. In April, Li Auto's overall sales exceeded 20,000 units.
On the contrary, it is easy to make the melon-eating masses think that the sales of the two brothers who are both new forces, NIO and Xiaopeng, were not "ideal" in April.
According to the data, NIO and Xpeng delivered more than 6,000 and 7,000 vehicles respectively in April.
If the profit ability of the three car companies is similar, aren't these two brothers struggling on the edge of negative gross margin?
The automotive industry is an industry that cares a lot about "scale". When measuring whether a project can be executed, finance will attribute to how much the cost of each vehicle will increase and how much profit will be generated per car.
Therefore, at the beginning of each month, sales data is frequently reported, not because the media has not chosen a topic, but because sales data will really become the life red line of car companies.
Judging from the actual results, the ideal car is entering its own "new era". In the first quarter of this year, Li Auto delivered more than 50,000 new vehicles, with an average monthly sales of 17,500 units, setting a quarterly record.
According to the financial report, Lili recorded a net profit of 934 million yuan in the first quarter, making it the first new automaker to achieve profitability for two consecutive quarters, and Lili's vehicle gross profit margin in the quarter was 19.8%.
In fact, for all new forces, sales are the "top priority". When showing confidence to the capital market, the importance of sales scale is also higher than the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle. Everyone is still in the stage of "raising money to eat", and only with capital can we better seek development.
For example, Zhu Jiangming, chairman of Leapmotor, once said in an interview with the media that it is expected that when the company's annual sales reach 500,000 vehicles, it can achieve positive net profit margin through scale effects.
From Li Xiang's statement, we can also glimpse more about the current situation of the industry: "The cost control ability of most peers is obviously better than ours, and it is worth learning seriously." Everyone is more likely to have problems not with cost but sales, the attributes of the automobile industry, the requirements for scale are too demanding. ”
The cost is well controlled, proving that the company has the potential to grow on a larger scale. This is probably Tesla's "car manufacturing law", whether it is integrated die-casting, CTC battery chassis integration, or the realization of a high proportion of automated operations in the factory, Tesla crazy to reduce costs, crazy to improve car efficiency.
Then, there can be more initiative in the price, and there is an opportunity to leverage more sales.
Since this year, the new forces of car manufacturing have entered a new round of elimination period.
As you can see, some car manufacturers have fallen into business difficulties. Enterprises such as WM and AIWAYS have successively stopped work and production, laid off employees with arrears, etc., and their survival situation is precarious.
The rise of new energy has achieved an east wind, and all kinds of capital are bustling, all for more interests to tempt.
Today, the east wind is stronger, but the market is also more mature. Car companies, once known as traditional forces, have gradually completed their transformation, and there are not many windows of opportunity for new forces in car manufacturing.
If Li thinks, let's be a wake-up call.
The long journey, whether the road of car building can be completed smoothly, we still need to think carefully. Control costs and increase efficiency in order to truly scale and truly gain a foothold in the market.
Today's consumer demand for cars is very different from what it was a decade ago. The water is impermanent, and because of the movement of time, the knockout round is destined to not finish all the matches, but just run forward desperately and become the first to hit the line.