On February 26, Li Auto announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. According to the financial report, Li Auto's annual revenue reached 12385.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17348%, becoming the first new power car company in China with an annual revenue of more than 100 billion yuan, the first new power car company to maintain profitability throughout the year, and the third new energy car company to make a profit after Tesla and BYD.
Li Auto's revenue of more than 100 billion yuan is due to the increase in sales and its strong cost control capabilities. In 2023, Li Auto will deliver a total of 37 new cars60,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1822%。By the end of last year, Li Auto had delivered more than 600,000 vehicles, making it the highest-volume new car company in China. Li Auto's revenue and sales volume showed a 3-digit year-on-year growth, but its selling expenses only increased by 72%, indicating that Li Auto is a car company that can make money and save money.
In the face of the intensification of involution in the future, Li Auto proposed to be the No. 1 luxury market in the Chinese market in 2024 and challenge the goal of 800,000 units. For the ideal financial performance and target outlook, the outside world generally describes it as the best in history and the most envied by new power car companies, but what is good about Li Auto's 2023 financial report? The thirteen lines of the car may wish to try to answer, so as to know what it is, but also why it is true.
Li Auto's full-year revenue in 2023 reached 12385.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17348%, becoming the first new power car company in China with annual revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan.
In terms of quarters, Li Auto's four-quarter earnings were: 1878.7 billion yuan, 2865.3 billion yuan, 346800 million yuan, 4173.2 billion yuan, Li Auto's revenue in the four quarters showed a stepwise growth trend, and all maintained year-on-year growth, with year-on-year increases respectively. 4%。
The growth of revenue also directly led to the improvement of Li Auto's net profit, which increased by 681 year-on-year in 202365% to 1170.4 billion yuan, Li Auto became China's first new car-making car company to make a profit for the whole year. In terms of quarters, the net profit of Li Auto in the four quarters of the year was 9300 million yuan, 229.3 billion yuan, 282.3 billion yuan, 565.8 billion yuan, its net profit growth and the annual revenue growth trend are both stepped growth.
In 2023, Li Auto's gross profit will reach 27.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2128%, combined with sales estimates, Li Auto's gross profit per vehicle in 2023 will be about 7310,000 yuan, compared with Weilai and Xiaopeng in the first three quarters, they are still selling one and losing one, while Li Auto has achieved profit growth.
The double growth of profit and profit was due to the comprehensive performance of Li Auto's sales performance and cost control. In 2023, Li Auto delivered a total of 37 new vehicles60,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 1822%。By the end of last year, Li Auto had delivered more than 600,000 vehicles, making it the highest-volume new car company in China. What's even more rare is that Li Auto has maintained a stepwise growth for 12 months throughout the year, and has shown a positive year-on-year growth trend throughout the year.
In terms of cost management, Li Auto's operating expenses will reach 200 in 2023900 million yuan, of which 97 million were spent on selling, general and administrative expenses6.8 billion yuan, including the increase in the number of sales employees and the increase in rents due to the expansion of sales and service networks, as of December 31, 2023, Li Auto had a total of 31,591 employees.
It is worth mentioning that Li Auto's sales increased by 182 year-on-yearIn the context of 2%, its sales expenses only increased by 72%, which is quite a bit of a thousand catties, which also shows that Li Auto will not only make money in 2023, but also save money.
In 2023, Li Auto will further deepen its focus on series play and make models into a series matrix system, such as the Ideal L series. In August 2023, Li Auto's L series celebrated its first anniversary, with a cumulative delivery of more than 250,000 units. For the whole year, the cumulative sales of Li Auto's three main sales models exceeded 100,000 units.
Li Xiang, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, said that when a car company achieves development from 0 to 1 and forms its own advantages, then the development from 1 to 10 must continue to consolidate and carry forward this advantage, rather than blindly starting from scratch, otherwise it will be eaten up by its so-called advantages. In 2023, Li Auto's advantage lies in completely opening up the L series and forming its own unique range extension advantage through L7, L8 and L9.
In order to meet the diversification of new energy needs, Li Auto began to lay out pure electric products, but Li Auto did not fully build pure electric into a new series, but first began to build a pure electric ecology around MEGA pure electric models. According to the plan, on March 1 this year, Li Auto's 2024 Ideal L7 L8 L9, as well as its first pure electric product, MPV MEGA, will be officially launched, and Li Auto will also follow up on sales channels, manufacturing, and technology development. As of December 31, 2023, Ideal has 467 directly-operated retail centers across the country, covering 140 cities360 directly operated after-sales maintenance centers and authorized sheet metal painting centers, covering 209 cities;There are 92 directly operated delivery centers.
In terms of manufacturing, the current Changzhou production base mainly produces extended-range models - Ideal L7 L8 L9;The Beijing production base is preparing to produce the Ideal MEGA, a pure electric model.
As a pure electric product, the car will be equipped with a Kirin 5C battery for the first time, with a peak 5C charging rate, a peak charging current of 700A+, and a peak charging power of 520KW+, bringing the world's fastest charging speed for electric vehicles - charging for 500 kilometers in 12 minutes. The superior performance of the Ideal MEGA is due to the fact that the car is based on the industry-leading 800V high-voltage pure electric drive platform, and uses SiC silicon carbide power semiconductor components to create an electric drive control system, which is more than 20% more efficient than Si-IGBT semiconductors.
In order to better solve the charging anxiety of MEGA users, Li Auto is also building its own ideal 5C supercharging network covering the whole country. According to the plan, in 2024, Li Auto will realize a nine-vertical and nine-horizontal supercharging network, covering 70% of the country's high-speed main linesIn 2025, all cities above the fourth tier will be fully connected, covering 90% of the country's high-speed main lines. Intercity travel and long-distance travel can enjoy a convenient energy replenishment experience.
Li Auto judges that as the new energy vehicle market enters the late mass stage, its market share will continue to gather to the top brands, and in 2024, with the joint efforts of extended-range electric and high-voltage pure electric models, Li Auto's market share will be further expanded. Li Auto expects to deliver 100,000 to 100,000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year30,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 902% to 959%；Revenue achieved 312500 million yuan to 321900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 663% to 713%。
Looking ahead to 2024, Li Xiang said that in order to achieve the No. 1 sales volume of luxury brands in the Chinese market this year, he will challenge the annual sales target of 800,000 units. To achieve this goal, Li Auto's average monthly sales volume in 2024 must reach 670,000 units.
In 2023, the luxury car brand in the Chinese market will be BMW, with annual sales of 820,000 units. If Li Auto wants to achieve the first luxury brand, it means that Li Auto will reach at least 820,000 units in 2024, which is higher than the challenge goal set by Li Xiang.
According to the tripartite monitoring data, the proportion of passenger car deliveries of more than 300,000 yuan in 2023 will decline by about 3 percentage points year-on-year, especially due to the squeeze of high-end electric models by new forces, and the pressure on BBA is huge.
According to the data released by Li Auto, the average delivery price of Li Auto will reach about 370,000 yuan in 2023, which is close to the 400,000 yuan of Mercedes-Benz (excluding imports). Combined with the overall environment, the new energy penetration rate of passenger cars with more than 300,000 yuan will exceed the 40% mark in 2023, becoming one of the leaders in the entire market. In contrast, the BBA is lagging behind across the board.
According to other data, Mercedes-Benz's delivery of pure electric models (excluding imports) in 2023 will increase by more than 100% year-on-year, but the absolute value is still small, only 2570,000 units. This means that there is still huge room for development of new car-making forces, including Li Auto.
Li Xiang himself has made it clear that the company still has enough room to achieve the next stage of growth. For example, to achieve the sinking of channels and the improvement of sales touchpoints, including accelerating the layout in third-tier cities and the speed of opening stores in key fourth-tier cities. In terms of products, according to the plan, 2024 will be an unprecedented product year for Li Auto, with 4 extended-range models and 4 pure electric models, with a total of 8 models released. Specifically, in addition to the facelifted versions of the flagship pure electric MPV Ideal MEGA, L7 L8 L9 three models will be launched in March. In April this year, the ideal L6 will be officially released, and three high-voltage pure electric models will be released in the second half of the year.
Ideal Auto is not only about size, but also about quality. At the Li Auto financial report meeting, Li Xiang said, "There is no plan to launch models below 200,000 yuan in five years, and by 2030, it will occupy one-third of the market share of more than 200,000 yuan, and the scale of more than one trillion yuan can be realized." In this market segment, it can be done more deeply, and there is no need to do a market of less than 200,000 yuan. ”