Written by |Zhang Yu.
Edit |Yang Bocheng.
Title Picture | ic photo
On December 6, Xpeng Motors announced that it has entered into an affiliate with Volkswagen Finance Luxemburg S., an affiliate of Volkswagena.The share purchase agreement was completed and 9407 was successfully issued930,000 shares of Class A common stock. Upon completion of the transaction, it represents approximately 499%。
According to the announcement, the purchase of each ADS** is set at $15, and the total amount of purchases** of all subscribed shares is approximately 7US$5.6 billion, while Xpeng Motors received a net investment of approximately 7.0 billion after deducting related costs and expenses0.5 billion US dollars (about 5 billion yuan). Xpeng said it plans to use all net proceeds from the investment for general corporate purposes, including to meet working capital needs.
Source: Xpeng Motors announcement.
The announcement marks the official announcement of the cooperation between Volkswagen and Xpeng Motors, and Volkswagen has obtained an observer seat on the board of directors of Xpeng Motors.
In July 2023, Xpeng Motors announced that it had signed a framework agreement with Volkswagen on strategic technology cooperation, under which the two parties will jointly develop two B-segment electric vehicle models based on their respective core competencies and Xpeng's G9 model platform, intelligent cockpit and advanced driver assistance system software, and sell them in the Chinese market under the Volkswagen brand. Production of the model is expected to begin in 2026.
In the announcement, Xpeng Motors revealed the progress of the joint model: Xpeng Motors and Volkswagen have made significant progress on the two B-segment pure electric vehicle models jointly developed, and the feasibility study of the project has achieved positive results and has been completed. The two parties are actively evaluating a deeper strategic cooperation in smart electric vehicle technology.
First, the net loss continued to expand
In 2022, because of the unfavorable performance of Xpeng G9, the sales of Xpeng Motors fell to the bottom, and since 2023, although Xpeng Motors is trying to repair the predicament caused by product failure, from the perspective of the third quarter of 2023 financial report, the situation is not optimistic, and Xpeng's net loss is still expanding.
Source: Xpeng Motors' financial report.
According to the financial report for the third quarter of 2023, Xpeng's total revenue is 85300 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 250%, an increase of 68At 5%, Xpeng Motors has not yet achieved quarterly profitability, with a net loss of 38 in the third quarter900 million yuan, adjusted net loss of 27900 million yuan, an increase of 26% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month.
For comparison, Li Auto and NIO have total revenues of 346800 million and 190700 million yuan, of which Li Auto gained 28The net profit of 100 million yuan has been profitable for four consecutive quarters.
It is worth mentioning that Xpeng Motors not only failed to achieve quarterly profits, but even the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle has not yet returned to positive. In the third quarter of 2023, Xpeng's gross vehicle gross margin was -61%, down 177 percentage points, an increase of only 25 percentage points.
In the face of losses, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, said at the third quarter financial report meeting: "It is expected that the cost reduction of the first chain will produce significant results next year, coupled with the cost reduction of the whole process of design, R&D and manufacturing, we are 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." ”
Although some indicators of Xpeng Motors have recovered, it still continues the decline since 2023.
In the first quarter of 2023, Xpeng's total revenue was 40300 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 459%；The revenue from the sale of automobiles was 35100 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 498%。Losses are also increasing further, and in the first quarter of 2023, Xpeng Motors' net profit was -233.7 billion yuan, an increase of 37 percent year-on-year41%。
In terms of gross profit margin of vehicles, although the gross profit margin of NIO is the same, it is still 51%, while Xpeng Motors has fallen to -25%, in comparison, the gross profit margin of Li Auto reached 198%, basically maintaining a relatively stable profitability.
In the second quarter of 2023, Xpeng Motors delivered its worst report card in history, with a total revenue of 50600 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 319%；Automobile sales revenue 44200 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 362%；Net profit was -2.8 billion yuan, an increase of 3 year-on-year7%。At the same time, Xpeng's gross profit margin also reached a new low, falling to -86%, affected by this, the comprehensive gross profit margin of Xpeng Motors has also been declining, and in the first three quarters of 2022 and 2023, its comprehensive gross profit margin will be respectively. 66%、-3.9% and -27%, showing a sharp decline overall, and although it improved in the third quarter, it was still negative.
2. What is the effect of one year of in-depth adjustment?
Due to sluggish sales and weak stock prices, Xpeng Motors set off the largest organizational structure and personnel adjustment since its inception in October 2022.
He Xiaopeng issued an all-staff email saying that five virtual committee organizations and three product matrix organizations will be established, the former aims to connect the communication channels of the company's various business lines and improve collaboration efficiency, while the latter is to ensure that the customer and market orientation is the mainstay, and the end-to-end responsible for the whole business closed-loop of products (including service products).
In January 2023, Wang Fengying, the former general manager of Great Wall Motors, officially joined Xpeng Motors as president, fully responsible for Xpeng Motors' product planning, product matrix and sales system, and reported to He Xiaopeng.
After Wang Fengying joined Xpeng Motors, she began to lead the business model reform of the channel and accelerate the survival of the fittest in the sales network. In March 2023, Xpeng Motors' internal organizational structure merged the auto trade team of the direct sales system and the user development center team of the dealer system to implement unified management. At the same time, the original four districts of North, East, Central and South will be adjusted to 24 more subdivided areas.
At the beginning of September, Xpeng Motors held a channel business meeting and announced a channel reform plan called the "Jupiter Plan". The program, which is promoted by Wang Fengying, aims to gradually replace the previous direct sales model with a dealer model to reduce operating costs and improve market coverage.
At present, Xpeng Motors is still further improving the channel reform. He Xiaopeng said that in the past, Xiaopeng's channels mainly focused on first- and second-tier cities, but considering that the number of models and model structure in 2025 will change greatly, starting from the third quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Motors has increased the proportion of channels in third- and fourth-tier cities, and will build 500 comprehensive stores and experience stores across the country in the future to achieve a large closed loop of sales and service.
The channel change has also contributed to the best of Xpeng Motors in the contrarian trend. In the third quarter of 2023, Xpeng delivered a total of 40,008 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 353%, an increase of 724%, of which the Xpeng G6 launched in June contributed a lot, as the first model under the Fuyao architecture, Xpeng G6 delivered a total of 19,100 vehicles in the third quarter, accounting for half of the total deliveries. He Xiaopeng lamented at the financial report meeting that Xiaopeng's sales, brand, morale and free cash flow have entered an initial positive cycle.
However, after a year of in-depth adjustment, Xpeng Motors has not completely come out of the predicament, and in the third quarter of 2023, the total revenue scale and profitability of Xpeng Motors are less than market expectations, if according to the vehicle sales revenue of 78400 million yuan, Xpeng Motors' revenue per vehicle fell to 1960,000 yuan, down 1 from the same period last year50,000 yuan, a month-on-month increase of only 5,500 yuan. In accordance with 19The average price of 20,000 yuan for a single car means that for every car sold by Xpeng Motors in the third quarter, the gross loss reached 120,000 yuan.
Although Xpeng Motors is focusing on the implementation of a price reduction strategy in 2023, the effect is limited, and it will obviously take time to improve profitability.
Third, it is difficult to turn over
In fact, the turnaround of Xpeng Motors is not easy to fight, and the new car-making forces are facing the impact from traditional car companies.
For example, the delivery volume of AITO Wenjie continued to soar in October and November, achieving more than 10,000 deliveries for two consecutive months, and 18,827 new cars were delivered in NovemberAnother example is Aion, which delivered 41,567 new vehicles in November, a year-on-year increase of 45%.The cumulative delivery volume in the first 11 months was 434056 units, an increase of 80% year-on-year. In addition, the delivery volume of Deep Blue Automobile, Zhiji Automobile, and Zeekrypton also performed well, and in terms of delivery volume, the new energy brands of traditional car companies have had a huge impact on Xiaopeng Motors.
At present, the progress of traditional car companies to fully shift to the track of new energy vehicles has been accelerated, and the competition pattern of new energy vehicles is being reshaped. On November 10, ZEEKR publicly submitted an IPO prospectus to the U.S. ** Exchange Commission, planning to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, taking the lead in taking a substantial step.
As the new energy vehicle track becomes more crowded, Xpeng Motors urgently needs new models to undertake sales growth to prove that it has full product competitiveness and market sustainability.
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Xpeng Motors will launch its first MPV model, Xpeng X9, and at the ** conference, He Xiaopeng said that it will be the first model with a pictureless XNGP function, which will be delivered in 2024. In addition, Xpeng Motors has a number of new models planned. Among them, Xpeng Motors and Didi will launch a new brand "Mona" in 2024 after establishing a strategic partnership, and assist the sinking market through this model.
The successive launch of new models, combined with channel changes, may enable Xpeng Motors to reverse the decline in the fourth quarter, but there is no doubt that in the face of changes in the market environment and the pressure of competitors, Xpeng Motors has reached the point where it must break the boat.