Recently, a number of car companies have released their first-quarter financial reports.
Specifically, BYD's Q1 net profit was 4.771 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%; Great Wall Motor's Q1 net profit was 3.227 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1752%; Cialis Q1 net profit was 89 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 110%; Dongfeng Motor's net profit in Q1 was 140 million yuan, an increase of 38.6% year-on-year.
SAIC's Q1 net profit was 27.14 hospitals, down 2.5% year-on-year; Changan Automobile's Q1 net profit was 855 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 87.2%; GAC Group's Q1 net profit was 1.092 billion yuan, down 16.4% year-on-year; BAIC Blue Valley's Q1 net profit was -1 billion yuan, down 13% year-on-year.
Judging from the Q1 financial reports of some car companies, the profit margins of some car companies have improved, and some car companies are still unable to find effective ways to make profits.
Judging from the first quarter financial report, which car is the most profitable
It is impossible for an enterprise to make a profit on all its products and projects, and according to the strategic needs of the enterprise, there are products that are responsible for volume and products that are responsible for profitability.
In terms of energy form, it is divided into two categories: fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles, and new energy vehicles are divided into plug-in hybrid, extended range and pure electric vehicles.
Taking BYD's Q1 revenue as an example, its operating income was 124.944 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%, while net profit increased by 9.2%, which is not difficult to explain that BYD's profitability has increased again. At the same time, BYD's gross profit margin also surpassed Tesla and Ideal, becoming the new energy vehicle company with the highest gross profit margin. In Q1 this year, the most significant change in BYD's product sales structure is that the sales growth rate of hybrid models is higher than that of pure electric models.
According to BYD's official data, in Q1 this year, a total of 636,300 new cars were sold, and 300,000 pure electric models were sold, a year-on-year increase of 13.4%, which was lower than the growth rate of 13.44% year-on-year in Q1 of total sales; Sales of plug-in hybrid models were 324,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 14.5%, higher than the growth rate of increased sales.
Great Wall Motors is also a good example, with total operating income increasing by 47.6%, but net profit soaring by 17 times. Of the five major brands of Great Wall, only ORA focuses on pure electric vehicles, and in terms of ORA sales, it is not the main brand of Great Wall Motors. At present, the Haval, Tank and Wei brands are mainly fuel+plug-in hybrid models.
Another profitable company in Q1, Sailis, has a sales ratio of Wenjie brand products, and extended-range models account for more than 85% of the overall sales; In addition, the ideal car that will achieve profitability in 2023 also shows that the extended-range model is profitable.
It is not difficult for the above car companies to show that plug-in hybrid sales growth is greater, or plug-in hybrid, range extender, fuel vehicles as the main sales model, can effectively improve the level of profitability.
Divided by model category, sedans, SUVs and MPVs, who has a greater impact on profits.
Taking GAC Group as an example, official data shows that the cumulative sales of sedans in Q1 this year were 133,000, a year-on-year decrease of 47.23%, the cumulative sales of SUVs were 214,000, a year-on-year decrease of 6.29%, and the cumulative sales of MPVs were 63,000, a year-on-year increase of 5%. Its operating income fell 19%, while net profit fell 16%. Combined with the 23% year-on-year decline in its new energy vehicle sales Q1, of which GAC Aion fell by 37.6%, it is not difficult to see that on the one hand, it can be shown that the impact of pure electric models on net profit is in line with the law described above, and on the other hand, the profit margin of sedans and SUVs is better than that of MPVs.
Another telltale is Changan Automobile. In Q1 this year, Changan Automobile sold 692,000 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 13.9%, and its operating income increased by 7%, but its net profit fell by 87.2%. The reason is that under the price war, Changan Automobile, Deep Blue Automobile and AVATR have joined the price war on the basis of giving up profits, and their sales have increased, but their profits have fallen off a cliff. According to the data, after joining the price war, Changan Automobile's non-net profit in the first quarter of this year was only 37 million yuan, compared with 1.544 billion yuan in the same period last year and 2.569 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, the gap is too large.
In the second half of the year, what car is more profitable?
What kind of car is more profitable in the second half of the year. According to the data of the passenger association, the division of model categories, the proportion of sedans, SUVs and MPVs in a single month is roughly 40% to 40%, 50% to 55% and 3% to 5%, MPV is still a model with larger sales, MPV has no room for counterattack, and if the sedan wants to surpass the SUV, it depends on when the pure electric model rises.
In the field of pure electric vehicles, the current mainstream products are basically cars. The reason is that the car can provide a better energy-saving solution, and the general layout of the chassis of the pure electric car can be no different from that of the SUV, so as to achieve a more energy-saving body shape and achieve the effect of large riding space. Therefore, in the field of pure electric vehicles, there are more car products.
SUVs, on the other hand, are more suitable for gasoline and hybrid vehicles, do not need to be too energy-efficient, and are more playable.
From the perspective of cost, in terms of the whole vehicle, the cost of SUV is actually almost the same as that of a sedan for the same category of models, but the price of SUV is higher. We have calculated that the average selling price of SUV models of the same level is about 20,000 yuan higher than that of sedans driven by the price war. Even according to the manufacturer's guide price, the starting price of SUVs in the same class is higher than that of sedans.
In other words, SUVs have greater profit margins than sedans. As a result, companies that do not focus on pure electric models and whose sales of SUVs are larger than those of sedans have better profitability.
Another variable is MPV, although the overall price of MPV is high, some cars also have considerable profit margins, and in the niche market, MPV competitiveness is not as large as sedans and SUVs, there is no need to keep up with the pace of the price war, but the MPV increment is too small, in the case of many new products have been launched, it is still unable to substantially increase the proportion of MPV sales, that is to say, MPV is the icing on the cake of car companies, but can not appear as the main profit cow.
Judging from the current market, the most profitable in the next stage is still plug-in hybrid models.
The reason is that, first, the battery of plug-in hybrid models does not need to be very large, generally speaking, between 8 degrees and 10 degrees is enough to meet the national requirements for the endurance of plug-in hybrid models. The battery is not large, which means that the cost of the battery is not high, and the biggest increase in the cost of hybrid vehicles is the battery.
Second, the market for plug-in hybrid models is large enough. Originally appeared as a "transitional" model, but now it has become the main sales model, and the plug-in hybrid model replaces not only fuel vehicles, but also pure electric models, to better meet the needs of multi-scenario vehicles. And at the technical level, the next stage of plug-in hybrid models will be developed to 2000 kilometers with full fuel and full power, which can already meet the needs of most people.
The third is that plug-in hybrid in other costs, can be benchmarked against fuel vehicles, in addition to a set of battery motors in the production and manufacturing of the whole vehicle, there is no additional cost increase, and even with the blessing of some new technologies, the production and manufacturing costs are more economical than fuel vehicles, that is, more economical than pure electricity. It means that plug-in hybrid models are models that can bring effective profits, can afford to play price wars, and can make more money.
epilogue
Plug-in hybrid can make money, which means that pure fuel vehicles may be eliminated at an accelerated pace. From this, it can also be understood why traditional European car companies, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have launched pure electric models and turned to plug-in hybrid models. After all, selling a car is a commercial activity, and everything is based on profit.
In addition, in terms of the current market development, if pure electric models want to make a profit, in addition to solving their own cost problems, the important thing is how to make the market stable, benign, blindly price war, and finally not kill fuel vehicles, in the end it is the tram itself that threatens.