Every reporter Sun Lei, every editor Pei Jianru
Out of the ICU, but not ashore yet. This is the evaluation of Xpeng Motors’s 2023 financial report by many people in the industry.
On March 19th, the latest data disclosed by Xpeng Motors showed that in 2023, the company’s total revenue was 30.68 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%. In terms of delivery volume, Xpeng Motors delivered 141,600 new cars in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 17%.
Although both revenue and delivery have increased, Xpeng Motors has not yet got rid of losses. In 2023, the net loss of Xpeng Motors was 10.38 billion yuan, which was 13.6% larger than that of 2022 (loss of 9.14 billion yuan). The gross profit margin of automobiles for the whole year was -1.6%.
The adjustment was effective, but it did not get rid of the annual loss.
Throughout the whole year of 2023, Xpeng Motors’s financial performance improved in the fourth quarter of that year, but it was under pressure due to the performance in the first three quarters.
The financial report shows that in the fourth quarter of 2023, the gross profit margin of automobiles in Xpeng Motors was 4.1%, while in the third quarter it was -6.1%, and the gross profit margin turned from negative to positive. In 2023, the gross profit rate of automobiles in Xpeng Motors was -1.6%, and in 2022 it was 9.4%.
It is reported that although Xpeng Motors has adopted discount and preferential policies for its models in order to meet the year-end sales, the change of sales structure and the change of average bicycle price have made Xpeng Motors improve its gross profit margin. In terms of sales structure, the proportion of Tucki G9 with higher unit price increased from 7% in the third quarter of 2023 to 26% in the fourth quarter.
In terms of bicycle cost, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the bicycle cost in Xpeng Motors was 191,000 yuan (excluding the impact of deduction), a decrease of 11,000 yuan from the previous month. The reason is that although the price of the new Tucki G9 is lower than that of the old one, the gross profit margin exceeds that of the old one under the technical cost reduction. At the same time, the price of lithium carbonate continued to decline, which naturally reduced the cost of vehicles in Xpeng Motors.
In fact, the above data changes are the result of Xpeng Motors’s continuous adjustment for more than a year. Since October, 2022, Xpeng Motors has made adjustments in its organizational structure. Especially after Wang Fengying joined Xpeng Motors as president, he tried to achieve the goal of cost reduction by streamlining SKUs, eliminating inefficient stores, merging sales theaters and optimizing purchasing strategies.
According to the financial report data, "saving money" has become one of the key directions of Xpeng Motors in 2023. This year, the number of employees in Xpeng Motors decreased from 15,829 in the same period last year to 13,550. At the same time, in terms of R&D, Xpeng Motors only increased its expenditure by 1.2% in 2023, and the number of R&D personnel decreased from 6,313 in the same period last year to 5,401.
Thanks to various measures, although the situation in Xpeng Motors has improved, it is still not completely "out of trouble". According to the financial report data, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Xpeng Motors’s net loss was 1.35 billion yuan, compared with 2.36 billion yuan in the same period last year and 3.89 billion yuan in the previous quarter. In 2023, Xpeng Motors’s net loss was 10.38 billion yuan, while in 2022, its net loss was 9.14 billion yuan, showing an expanding trend.
He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, said, "Xpeng Motors has integrated the intelligence, powertrain and vehicle platform into a large intelligent platform, so as to realize the maximum common sharing among all vehicles. Platform-based R&D and scale effect not only reduce the supply chain cost and manufacturing cost, but also greatly improve the efficiency of R&D iteration, thus enabling Tucki to accelerate the goal of reducing costs by 25%.
Want to challenge BYD with smart driving?
Looking forward to the first quarter of 2024, Xpeng Motors expects its car delivery to be between 21,000 and 22,500, an increase of about 15.2% to 23.4% year-on-year; The total revenue will be between 5.8 billion yuan and 6.2 billion yuan, increasing by about 43.8% to 53.7% year-on-year.
Data show that from January to February this year, Xpeng Motors delivered nearly 12,800 new cars. According to the delivery guideline for the first quarter, the delivery volume of Xpeng Motors in March may be less than 10,000 vehicles.
Investors are also cautious about Xpeng Motors’s future sales prospects and profit plans. "In addition to paying attention to the sales prospects in the first quarter of 2024, investors are also interested in the ‘ that Xpeng Motors plans to launch next month; Cheaper ’ The detailed plan of the model sub-brand is full of curiosity. " Qu Ke, an international analyst at CCB, said.
He Xiaopeng revealed in the earnings conference call: "During the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Xpeng Motors will officially launch a brand-new brand for the level of 100,000 ~ 150,000 yuan. The first model of the brand new brand will be listed and delivered in the third quarter of this year. "
Gu Hongdi, honorary vice chairman and co-president of Xpeng Motors, said that the new brand will be sold first from the C-end, and then sold in the B-end and other channels a few months after being recognized by consumers. "The new brand model will be successful if it sells more than 10,000 vehicles per month. At present, our production capacity can support this goal." Gu Hongdi said.
It is worth noting that for the market segment of 100,000 ~ 150,000 yuan, new brands such as Wenjie, Ideality and Weilai have not been involved, while traditional brands such as BYD and Geely have not formed the advantage of intelligent driving. Therefore, the industry believes that He Xiaopeng has successfully found the breakthrough point in the cracks — — Play new brands with cost performance, and play traditional brands with smart driving.
National business daily reporter learned that the first model of Xpeng Motors’s new brand will cancel the lidar to reduce the cost of intelligent driving. At the same time, according to He Xiaopeng’s financial report conference call, Xpeng Motors has excellent cost control ability in intelligent driving, and it is expected to achieve the goal of reducing the cost of intelligent driving by 50% in 2024.
However, some people believe that consumers who buy cars in the price range of 150,000 yuan pay more attention to the cost performance, and the ability of intelligent driving has not yet entered the top five decisive factors affecting car purchase. In 2022, Xpeng Motors once put the intelligent driving function in the urban area on the P5 model in Tucki, but the purchase ratio of the actual intelligent driving version was not high.
The number of sales stores will increase to 600 in the third quarter.
In He Xiaopeng’s view, from 2024 to 2027, the elimination of smart electric vehicles officially began. "Xpeng Motors will enter the big product cycle of launching more than 10 new models in the next three years. Together with globalization and upgraded models, the total number of SOP models will reach 30." He Xiaopeng said in the earnings conference call.
When talking about the impact of the intensive release of new products on old products, He Xiaopeng said that the first thing to do after Wang Fengying joined Xpeng Motors at the beginning of last year was to solve this problem. "In order to avoid ‘ Infighting ’ Xpeng Motors will try to avoid the same type of products and there will be fewer car categories. " He Xiaopeng said.
Xpeng Motors’s product planning is regarded as similar to Wang Fengying’s product strategy of "having more children and fighting" when he worked for Great Wall Motor. It is reported that at the beginning of this year, Wang Fengying led a new round of organizational restructuring in Xpeng Motors, which involved product planning. According to industry analysts, Xpeng Motors may sell these models in a way similar to BYD’s sub-network, which is what Wang Fengying is good at.
From the channel point of view, Xpeng Motors is also moving closer to the field that Wang Fengying is good at. It is understood that Xpeng Motors launched the "Jupiter Plan" in July last year, releasing the franchise authorization of dealers and transferring some direct stores in Xpeng Motors to dealers for operation. By December 31st, 2023, there were 500 stores in Xpeng Motors, covering 181 cities.
He Xiaopeng said in the earnings conference call that Xpeng Motors completed a round of channel upgrade in 2023, eliminated more than 130 stores at the end, and introduced more than 160 dealers through "Jupiter Plan". Most of the new dealer stores have been open since the end of last year. It is estimated that the incubation period will take 3-4 months, which will make a significant contribution to the overall sales from April.
In addition, the reporter learned that since the second quarter of this year, Xpeng Motors has set up a channel inventory for about half a month to speed up terminal delivery. "Xpeng Motors will further expand the sales network coverage and accelerate the channel sinking. It is planned that by the third quarter of 2024, the number of sales stores will increase to 600, and it will continue to expand after the listing of new brands to accelerate sales growth. " He Xiaopeng said.
It is worth mentioning that since Wang Fengying joined Xpeng Motors, He Xiaopeng gave full support and authorization to her work, which made the effect of Xpeng Motors’s adjustment appear initially. However, such achievements are only the beginning. Whether the reform led by Wang Fengying can finally help Xpeng Motors get rid of losses and successfully "land" remains to be answered by time and the market.
Cover Image Source: Every photo by reporter Kong Zesi (data map)
