The first war in the passenger car industry is intensifying, major car companies have launched limited-time preferential activities, Xiaopeng Motors' gross profit margin is negative, selling a car at a loss, and selling cars at a reduced price may lead to a further decline in gross profit margin.
Text|Daily financial report Chu Feng.
BYD took the lead in setting off a first-class war, and passenger car companies followed up. Recently, the involution of automobiles has intensified, and related topics have once rushed to the hot search on Weibo. According to incomplete statistics from the "Daily Financial Report", at least 13 car companies in the whole market have announced price cuts, mainly in the field of new energy vehicles, which may accelerate the market reshuffle.
Taking the new car-making forces as an example, Xiaopeng Motors and Nezha Automobile have launched limited-time price reduction activities, with a maximum drop of 50,000 yuan; Leapmotor launched the **model**, which has also been lowered compared with the pre-sale price. At present, Li Auto and NIO have not yet joined this round of ** battle.
In the first two months of this year, Xpeng Motors' deliveries were once again at the bottom of the new car-making forces, not only lower than Li Auto and NIO, but also behind latecomers such as Leapmotor and Nezha Automobile. Compared with the same period in 2023, Xpeng's deliveries have increased, but the decline has been significant compared to the same period in 2022.
In recent years, Xpeng Motors has suffered long-term losses, with a negative gross profit margin, and it can be said that it has been selling cars at a loss. In contrast, Li Auto has achieved profitability, NIO's gross profit margin has remained positive, and Leapmotor's gross profit margin has improved. Can Xpeng Motors afford to fight the first battle?
The involution of car companies is revived, and the industry may accelerate the reshuffle
After the Spring Festival this year, BYD shouted the slogan of "electricity is lower than oil" and launched a series of "Glory Edition" models, covering the Dynasty series and the Ocean series, of which the lowest price of two models dropped to 7980,000 yuan, ** down 20,000 yuan. In the first battle set off by BYD, the models cover 7 series, and the price ranges from less than 100,000 yuan to about 200,000 yuan.
In the face of BYD's menacing, major car companies have joined this round of price cuts. On March 1, a number of car companies announced price cuts or launched preferential activities, mainly in the field of new energy vehicles, most of which are domestic car brands, and the price reduction amounts range from a few thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.
According to incomplete statistics from the "Daily Financial Report", as of March 5, at least 13 car companies and sub-brands in the whole market have announced price cuts or launched car purchase discounts, and the limited time is mostly before March 31, including SAIC Group, Changan Automobile, Chery Group, Geely and other traditional car companies, as well as Nezha Automobile, Leapmotor and Xiaopeng Motors and other new car-making forces.
Taking the new car-making forces as an example, on February 19, Nezha Automobile announced the launch of a series of limited-time price reduction activities. Nezha x price reduction for all series 220,000 yuan, and the addition of a 400 air version will bring the starting price down to 9980,000 yuan; Nezha Aya has reduced the price of the whole series by 8,000 yuan, with a starting price of 6580,000 yuan; Nezha S has a price reduction of 5,000 yuan for all series, with a starting price of 15480,000 yuan.
On March 2, Leapmotor released four new models, of which the price of Leapmotor C10 is 12Starting from 880,000 yuan, the average price reduction is about 20,000 yuan compared with the pre-sale price; The price of the Leap T03 Light Edition is 4From 990,000 yuan. At the same time, the price of the 2023 model will be reduced, and the price of the Leap C01 will be reduced by up to 320,000 yuan.
On March 3, Xpeng Motors announced a limited-time price reduction for all G6 models, with a price of 20,000 yuan and a price of 18From 990,000 yuan. The next day, Xpeng Motors once again announced a time-limited price reduction for P7i and G9 models, of which the price of Xpeng P7i was reduced by 20,000 yuan for all models, and the price of Pengyi performance version was reduced by 50,000 yuan; Xpeng G9 to the highest price reduction of 10,000 yuan, optional discount value of 110,000 yuan.
For this round of ** war, Li Auto and NIO have not launched price reduction measures for the time being. However, in January this year, Li Auto launched a preferential campaign for the 2023 model, and the price of different versions was reduced by 33 to 380,000 yuan. NIO has also launched a clearance discount for the 2023 model.
The sales pressure is high, and Xiaopeng is at the bottom again
Behind the first-class war of car companies, car sales in February this year were at a low point in the year. According to the estimate of the passenger association, there were 18 working days in February this year, 2 days less than the same period last year; Due to the influence of the weak automobile consumption before and after the Spring Festival holiday, most car companies take a few more days of annual leave after the Spring Festival, and the effective production and sales time is short, and it can be expected that the sales volume of the auto market in February will be in the absolute bottom period of the year.
Taking the new automakers as an example, in February this year, the deliveries of the five automakers all fell sharply month-on-month, while the year-on-year data showed mixed increases. Among them, Leapmotor was the car company with the largest month-on-month decline in deliveries, with deliveries falling by 46% month-on-month in February5%, a year-on-year increase of more than 100%.
Following Leapmotor, Xpeng Motors' deliveries fell 44% month-on-month in February this year9%, and the year-on-year decline also reached 243%。NIO's deliveries in the same period fell 19% month-on-month1%, the best performance among the new car-making forces, but the year-on-year decline also reached 331%。Nezha Automobile's deliveries in February this year were close to 40% month-on-month and year-on-year.
In terms of total deliveries, Li Auto is the car company with the highest delivery volume, delivering 20,251 vehicles in February this year alone, significantly surpassing other new car-making forces; The rest of the car companies delivered less than 10,000 in February.
It is worth noting that Xpeng Motors once again ranked at the bottom of the delivery ranking, with 4,545 deliveries in February this year, and it was the only car company that failed to deliver more than 10,000 vehicles in January.
In the first two months of this year, Xpeng delivered a total of 12,795 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1396%。However, in the same period of 2022, Xpeng delivered a total of 19,147 vehicles, and 12,922 vehicles were delivered in January 2022 alone. In other words, Xpeng's deliveries in the first two months of this year were not as good as in January 2022.
Selling one and losing one, can Xiaopeng withstand the ** battle?
Among the above five new car-making forces, Nezha Automobile has not yet landed in the capital market, and the rest of the automobile industry has been listed. From the perspective of performance, Li Auto will achieve profitability after entering 2023, and its profitability will gradually increase, while NIO, Leapmotor and Xpeng Motors are still in the red.
On February 26, Li Auto took the lead in releasing its unaudited results for 2023, with the company's revenue of 4744 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15931%；The net profit was 1180.9 billion yuan, a significant increase of 681 percent year-on-year06%。
On March 5, NIO also released its 2023 annual results announcement, and the company's revenue was 5561.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1289%；The net profit was a loss of 2072 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4352%。
Compared with NIO's "increase in revenue but not profit", Xpeng Motors achieved a decline in revenue and net profit. In the first three quarters of 2023, Xpeng Motors achieved revenue of 1762.6 billion yuan, down 18 percent year-on-year83%；The net profit was a loss of 902.8 billion yuan, down 33 percent year-on-year20%。
In the middle of 2023, Leapmotor achieved revenue of 581.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1440%；The net profit was a loss of 227.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 687%。
From the perspective of profitability, Li Auto is undoubtedly stronger. In 2023, Li Auto's gross profit margin will be 222%, an increase of 2 year-on-year8 percentage points; During the same period, NIO's gross profit margin was 55%, a year-on-year decrease of 49 percentage points.
In the first three quarters of 2023, Xpeng's gross profit margin was -203%, down 14. from the same period in 202220 percentage points, of which the gross margin in the third quarter was -61%。
Leapmotor's profitability improved, and the gross profit margin in the third quarter of 2023 turned from negative to positive, with a gross profit margin of 12%, with gross margin of -5 for the second quarter of 20232%。As a result, only Xpeng Motors is the car company with a negative gross profit margin in the third quarter of 2023.
The gross profit margin is negative, which means that Xpeng Motors loses one car when it sells it. Under the industry's best war, Xpeng Motors followed up with price cuts, which may lead to a further decline in gross profit margin, which has worsened the already poor performance. Among the new forces of car manufacturing, Xpeng Motors is once again at the bottom in terms of deliveries, can price cuts save sales?