Salt pickers|Produced
At the end of the year, major new energy vehicle companies have "cut prices" to rush sales. BYD, Ideal, Leap, Nezha, Zeekrypton and other car companies launched car purchase discounts, and Xpeng Motors also announced on December 19 that Xpeng G6 was reduced by 10,000 yuan, and the price dropped to 19990,000 yuan.
The Xpeng G6 is the fifth production car of Xpeng Motors, which has been on the market for less than half a year and has a price range of 2099-27.between 690,000 yuan. According to official information, the preferential policy is limited to December 2023 and will take effect from December 18, 2023.
According to incomplete statistics, since December, Xpeng Motors has reduced the price of its three models, including P7, G9 and G6, for a limited time, and made every effort to hit the annual target of 200,000 vehicles.
However, although the market side of Xiaopeng has gradually improved, some investors have raised their concerns in the stock bar: "Recently, the price has been reduced again, and the financial report is still not good in the short term, and it will be impacted by Xiaomi in the short term. ”
Judging from the overall performance of the "tram triumvirate" this year, Xpeng is indeed inferior to Ideal and NIO. Ideal has completed the annual sales target of 300,000 units ahead of schedule and achieved a turnaround, of which the net profit attributable to the parent company in the third quarter reached 282.3 billion yuan;Although NIO has not stopped its losses, its gross vehicle gross profit margin has increased from 1% to 11%, and deliveries in the third quarter reached a new high.
Only Xiaopeng Motors is still struggling, with a total loss of more than 9 billion yuan in the first three quarters, and its sales volume is far less than that of Weilai and Ideal, and it has recently frequently fallen into the "eye of the storm". Not only was it the major shareholder Ali **, but also on the hot search because of the public relations director's angry reporter incident.
A new round of ** war has resumed, and competitors have gradually held the clouds, and the future of Xiaopeng, which is "embarrassed at home and abroad", seems to be confused.
The stock price of Ali, the second shareholder, plummeted
The share price has fallen by 60% from the listing price
On December 15, Alibaba announced that it would sell off a stake of about 2.8 billion yuan in Xpeng Motors, with a shareholding ratio of 102% to 75%。This news triggered a sharp market **, and the share price of Xpeng Motors fell sharply, and on December 16, the U.S. stock Xpeng Motors closed down 754%, down more than 85%。
In response to the resulting doubts in the market, Xpeng Motors responded that Ali** is implementing the strategy of returning shareholders to the outside world through the investment realization of its Q3 quarterly report, rather than because of the change in perception of Xpeng. Since then, Alibaba has remained the second largest shareholder of Xpeng, holding about 8% of the shares, and will continue to carry out in-depth strategic cooperation with Xpeng Motors in cloud computing and other fields.
In addition, Xpeng also emphasized that it has established a strategic cooperation with Volkswagen this year, and Volkswagen is currently the third largest shareholder of Xpeng. Xpeng currently has more than 40 billion yuan of cash on hand, and its positive free cash flow in the second half of the year reached billions of yuan, with abundant cash and a significant improvement in cash flow.
However, Xpeng's response still failed to bring back the confidence of shareholders. On December 18, the Hong Kong stock of Xiaopeng Motors once exceeded 7%, and the end of the market was repaired to -666%, and the stock price was at 55HK$35, a two-month low.
Xpeng Motors was listed on the Hong Kong stock market on July 7, 2021 with an issue price of HK$165 shares. On December 31, 2021, the share price of Xpeng Motors in Hong Kong reached a maximum of HK$220 shares, and since then, the stock price trend has continued to decline, and the current share price of Xpeng Motors has fallen by more than 60% compared to its share price when it was listed on the Hong Kong stock market.
And Ali suddenly**, once again made the stock price of Xpeng Motors worse. According to public information, Xpeng Motors has always had close ties with Alibaba, and has provided financial support for Xpeng Motors since its establishment, and its shareholding ratio is second only to the company's founder He Xiaopeng. The successful listing of Xpeng Motors has also brought rich returns to Alibaba.
According to the current information, the industry has two speculations about the reason why Ali sold Xpeng Motors. One is that Xpeng Motors and Tesla have a direct competitive relationship, and Alibaba, as a strategic partner of Tesla, needs to maintain a balance of interests, so it has no choice but to sell part of its sharesSecond, the recent market performance of Xiaopeng Motors has been unsatisfactory, the overall sales volume has fluctuated, and the stock price has continued to decline, which has also indirectly led to Ali's ** sell-off.
Xpeng is left behind
Deliveries and profit margins are not as good as those of "Weili".
Judging from the development of the three giants of "Wei Xiaoli", it is an indisputable fact that Xiaopeng Motors "fell behind".
Judging from the third quarterly report, Xiaopeng Motors' revenue exceeded 8.5 billion, achieving a year-on-year and month-on-month increase, but it is still difficult to get rid of the loss. Moreover, in the case of the other two gross profit growth, this year Xpeng Motors has experienced negative gross profit margin growth for the first time.
Specifically, in the third quarter of 2023, Xpeng's total revenue will be RMB 85300 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 250, up 68 from the previous month5％；Net loss was RMB38900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 636, a month-on-month increase of 386％；Gross margin was -27, down 16 percent year-on-year2, a month-on-month increase of 12％。
It is worth noting that starting from the first quarter of 2023, Xpeng Motors has had three consecutive quarters of negative gross profit margin. The comprehensive loss attributable to ordinary shareholders reached 40100 million yuan, an increase of 481 year-on-year1%, an increase of 1079%。
Judging from the delivery data, the total delivery volume of Xpeng Motors in the third quarter of 2023 will be 40,008 vehicles, an increase of 72 from the previous quarter4％；The revenue from the sale of automobiles was 78400 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 257, an increase of 77 month-on-month3％。The gross margin for automobiles in the third quarter of 2023 was -61, down 17 year-on-year7, a month-on-month increase of 25％。
In this regard, Xpeng Motors said in its financial report that the increase in automobile sales revenue was mainly due to the rapid growth of G6 deliveries. The year-over-year decline in gross margin was due to G3i-related inventory impairment, which resulted in a 29 percentage points negative;and the increase in sales** and the expiration of subsidies for new energy vehicles. The quarter-on-quarter increase was mainly attributable to improved model mix and lower costs.
In the third quarter of this year, Xpeng Motors delivered 40,000 vehicles, an increase of more than 10,000 units over the same period last year, and 2320,000 units, up 724%。
In October, Xpeng Motors' deliveries exceeded 20,000 units, setting a new high for monthly deliveries, which shows that the Xpeng G6 model, which announced a price cut a few days ago, is quite popular. Taking November sales as an example, Xpeng Motors delivered 20,002 new cars, of which Xpeng G6 sold 8,756 units, accounting for 43% of the total sales of the month7%, followed by Xpeng G9 with sales of 5,778 units.
However, although it has made progress compared with itself, compared with the other two companies in "Wei Xiaoli", Xiaopeng Motors' delivery volume is "at the bottom".
In the third quarter, Ideal delivered 1050,000 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 2963%, in the SUV of more than 300,000 yuan and the new energy vehicle market of the same price, it is firmly in the sales champion. At the same time, Ideal has been profitable for four consecutive quarters, with a net profit of 28 percent in the third quarter100 million RMB.
NIO delivered 55,432 vehicles in the third quarter, up 75% year-on-year4%, an increase of 135 month-on-month7%, a new quarterly delivery high, with 103 deliveries in each month6% and 81% year-on-year growth. The gross profit margin of the whole vehicle increased significantly from 1% to 11%.Revenues reached 190700 million yuan, an increase of 117 from the previous quarter4%。However, NIO is still losing money, with a net loss of 45 percent in the third quarter5.7 billion yuan.
From this point of view, the former "Wei Xiaoli" has become "Li Wei Xiao", and Xiaopeng Motors has fallen behind. The frequent price cuts in December** also reflect Xpeng's anxiety about sales and performance. From January to November this year, Xpeng Motors delivered a total of 12140,000 units, only 60% of the annual sales target7%, which is still far from the target of 200,000 units.
However, in addition to Li Auto completing the established sales target, the sales target completion rate of the leading new EV manufacturers in 2023 is generally poor. From January to November this year, NIO delivered 1420,000 units, only 24 of the annual target was achieved57. of 50,000 vehicles95%；During the same period, Leapmotor delivered a total of 12550,000 units, 62 of the annual target of 200,000 units75%；And Nezha Automobile delivered 12 in the same period240,000 units, down 1519%, and the annual target achievement rate is only 489%。
It is not difficult to understand that in December, many car companies announced price cuts and set off a new round of ** war. According to expert analysis, Xpeng Motors' move to cut prices in December may play a crucial role in increasing the sales of G6 and G9 models. However, the major automobile companies are now crazy about the market, trying to exchange profits for sales to grab the market, although consumers can make real profits, but also bring a lot of pressure to the car companies that are not yet profitable.
A fateful year
After the pain of adjustment, how effective is the "self-help"?
Since the end of the Xpeng G9 press conference in September last year, due to its insincere and extremely unreasonable allocation and pricing, it has attracted a lot of complaints and abuse, and Xpeng has also started a fateful year. To this day, the "rights protection" behavior of Xiaopeng owners has never stopped, and hundreds of Xiaopeng P5 owners have recently jointly sent a letter to He Xiaopeng, raising many questions and dissatisfaction.
In fact, in the face of the company's continuous losses and "internal and external troubles", He Xiaopeng also had to start a series of reforms and adjustments to live a careful life.
The first is the upheaval of personnel at the top. Since October last year, Xpeng has carried out drastic internal reforms, and the senior management team, organizational structure, and marketing channels have all remained unchanged. Therefore, He Xiaopeng was ashamed to say: "There were 12 executives in Xiaopeng's financial report last year, and only two are left today." ”
On January 30 this year, Wang Fengying, the former president of Great Wall Motors, became the president of Xpeng Motors, and was fully responsible for the company's product planning, product matrix and sales systemYi Han, a former Geely executive, joined Xpeng Motors in early February.
In August this year, Wu Xinzhou, vice president of autonomous driving at Xpeng Motors, resigned and joined NVIDIAIn September, He Liyang, vice president of Xpeng Motors, resigned and joined Cialis. In addition, in the second half of the year, Xpeng Motors also carried out internal anti-corruption actions, and announced and publicized the results of the anti-corruption investigation of the internal ** chain. Among them, Li Feng, vice president of the ** chain management center, was suspended, and a number of employees were asked to cooperate with the investigation.
In addition to internal reforms and other measures, Xpeng is also actively looking for new investments to get out of the bad situation. On July 26, Volkswagen Group announced that it would increase its investment in Xpeng Motors by 700 million US dollars and acquire about 499% of the shares, becoming the third largest shareholder of Xpeng;In August, Xpeng Motors reached a strategic cooperation with Didi to bown Didi's smart electric vehicle project.
At the third quarter financial report meeting, He Xiaopeng also said that it is expected that the cost reduction of Xiaopeng's ** chain will produce significant results next year, coupled with the cost reduction of the whole process of design, R&D and manufacturing, and he is confident to accelerate the realization or even exceed the goal of 25% cost reduction by the end of 2024, so that the gross profit margin will be significantly improved next year.
However, although Xpeng Motors' sales rebounded in the second half of this year, the situation of increasing revenue but not increasing profits still has not been reversed.
In order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Xpeng Motors, which has always focused on scientific and technological research and development, even reduced its R&D investment, and its R&D expenses in the third quarter of this year were 13100 million, down 129%, down 45%, R&D expenses fell for the first time.
However, as a new energy vehicle company, it is not a wise choice to reduce R&D expenses to achieve the purpose of reducing costs. At present, the new energy vehicle industry still has a large space for development, and technological innovation is still the top priority among car companies.
In this regard, He Xiaopeng said that the cost reduction measures will significantly improve Xiaopeng's gross profit margin in 2024 and achieve breakeven in 2025. Overall, with the current level of profitability and product strength, it is not easy for Xpeng Motors to truly benchmark against Tesla.