Text: Understand the original Chedi Cai Limei
On November 9, in the third quarter of 2023 earnings call of Li Auto, Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, made the latest response to issues that have attracted much attention in the industry, such as capacity bottlenecks, ideal MEGA progress, intelligent driving investment, and NOA R&D progress.
Li Xiang, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Li Auto
The supply problem has been resolved, and the production capacity can meet the sales target for the next 2 years
In response to the production capacity supply problem of the ideal L series models, Li Xiang said that the supply bottleneck encountered by the ideal car has been successfully solved. In 2024, Li Auto has formulated a long-term strategy to ensure the upcoming new models, whether it is vehicle manufacturing or parts procurement.
"The supply bottlenecks encountered by Li Auto have been successfully solved"
At present, Li Auto has two production bases in Beijing and Changzhou, the Changzhou production base has three production lines to produce Li L series products (L9, L8, L7, L6), Li Auto's Beijing plant is mainly responsible for the production of pure electric products, and the current production capacity of Li Auto can meet the sales and delivery targets for the next two years.
Ideally, all pure electric products will adhere to three principles
When it comes to how Li Auto's pure electric products break the original user cognition? Li Xiang pointed out that the key lies in three breakthroughs: first, the breakthrough of charging, including fast charging speed and a large number of charging infrastructure; The second is the breakthrough of space, the ideal pure electric product should become the largest space in the same level of products, and it is one level larger than the competing products; The third is the breakthrough of styling, the ideal styling design will insist on putting the design in the next few decades to the present, breaking through the design style of all levels of models.
Ideal MEGA
Li Xiang emphasized that the above three points are not only to be achieved by Ideal MEGA, but also to adhere to three principles for all pure electric products.
Regarding the ramp-up of the production capacity of the ideal MEGA model, Li Xiang said that this process will be "very challenging", but he has made preparations and is confident that he will ensure that "the market will be launched when it is released, and the volume will be increased when it is listed".
It is worth mentioning that when it comes to the competition between Li Auto and Huawei, Li Xiang said frankly, "In the face of Huawei, Li Auto has a unified cognition within it: 80% is learning, 20% is respect, and 0 complaints." "As a start-up, we are still very admired and excited to meet such a model who has made nearly one trillion dollars of revenue when we enter the scale of 100 billion yuan in revenue, which is our true mentality."
The core combat goal in the future: intelligent driving takes the lead
Regarding the degree of investment in intelligent driving, Ma Donghui, chief engineer of Li Auto, pointed out that in the future, intelligent driving leadership will be regarded as the ideal core combat goal. At present, Li Auto's intelligent driving team has about 900 people, which will be expanded to 2,000 next year and 2,500 by 2025. In the future, Li Auto will also increase R&D investment, including vehicles, computing power and personnel. "We have sufficient cash reserves and cash flow to support the financial support needed for intelligent driving."
Combined with the third quarter financial report, Li Auto's free cash flow increased from 9.62 billion yuan in the second quarter to 13.22 billion yuan, and the cash reserve at the end of the third quarter was 88.52 billion yuan. In terms of R&D investment, Li Auto's R&D expenses in the third quarter of this year were 2.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 56.1%, in order to further expand the scale of R&D talents, expand the product matrix and enhance R&D and innovation capabilities.
As of October 30, 119 Ideal 5C super charging stations have been put into use
The official version of AD Max 3.0 will be released by the end of 2023
In terms of intelligent driving, Li Xiang said that the research and development of urban NOA on the ideal AD Max is progressing smoothly. According to the plan, Li Auto will push the official version of AD Max 3.0 software to users by the end of the year, providing NOA capabilities in all scenarios.
At the same time, Li Auto will push the official version of AD Pro 3.0 software to users in the first half of 2024, and some of the algorithm capabilities of AD Max will be released on AD Pro. Li Xiang said, "We are confident that we will become the first echelon of intelligent driving that has been verified by the market in the first half of next year." ”
In 2024, the company plans to launch and deliver four products
Regarding the next product layout of Li Auto, Li Xiang said, "In 2024, Li plans to launch and deliver a total of 4 products, of which the Ideal L6 will be released in the first half of the year, and the other three new products will be released in the second half of the year. ”
In 2024, Ideal plans to launch and deliver a total of 4 products
Combined with the existing delivery volume, in the third quarter of this year, Li Auto delivered a total of 105108 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 296.3%. Among them, a total of 34,134 vehicles were delivered in July, 34,914 in August, and 36,060 in September.
As of October 31, 2023, Li Auto has delivered a total of 284647 vehicles throughout the year. It is foreseeable that after the announcement of the delivery results in November, Li Auto will achieve the annual sales target of 300,000 units ahead of schedule. According to the latest news, as of November 8, the delivery volume of Li Auto's models on sale (L9, L8, and L7) exceeded 100,000 units.
In the third quarter of this year, Li Auto delivered a total of 105108 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 296.3%
Officials pointed out that in the fourth quarter, Li Auto launched an impact on a new high, and on the basis of reaching the monthly delivery level of 40,000 units in October, it will challenge the monthly delivery of 45,000 vehicles in November and 50,000 units in December, challenging to exceed the annual sales target.
For the outlook for the fourth quarter, Li Auto expects deliveries to reach 125,000 to 128,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 169.9% to 176.3%; Quarterly revenue is expected to reach 38.46 billion yuan to 39.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 117.9% to 123.1%.
Further reading:
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