20.7 billion!
NIO has suffered another huge loss.
Last year, NIO sold 160,000 vehicles, released NIO mobile phones, and obtained independent car manufacturing qualifications and investment in the Middle East, but at a record loss of 20.7 billion yuan;
Compared with 2022, the loss increased by 435%, the loss of each car sold is about 130,000 yuan, and the total loss of NIO in the past 6 years has exceeded 86 billion yuan!
Although the cash reserves are 57.3 billion yuan, the total liabilities are 8878.7 billion yuan, an increase of 191 over last year7 billion yuan.
NIO failed to achieve its annual sales target in 2023, and Li Bin's ambition to "surpass Lexus" was also not realized.
From the sorting of "Wei Xiaoli" to "Li Xiaowei", it can be seen how unsatisfactory Weilai Automobile has been in the past year!
NIO, which is regarded as the light of domestic high-end electric vehicles, insists on uncompromising price reduction in the face of industry competition with increasing gunsmoke.
After the earnings report, an idealist decided to embrace reality, and NIO is afraid that the future will be tight!
Among all the new car makers, NIO was one of the biggest changes last year.
On March 5, NIO released its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023.
According to the financial report data, in the fourth quarter of 2023, NIO's revenue will be 1710 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 65%；The net loss was 5367.7 billion yuan, down 72%。
For the full year of 2023, NIO's total revenue will be 556200 million yuan hit a record high, a year-on-year increase of 129%；Net loss widened by 435% to 207200 million yuan.
Weilai's huge losses have set a new record, while Li Auto has made a profit last year, and Xiaopeng Motors, which has not yet released a financial report, lost 9 billion yuan in the first three quarters of last year, and the annual loss may be better than that of Weilai.
It is worth noting that NIO's gross profit margin in 2023 will be 95%, up from 137% less 42 percentage points; The consolidated gross margin was 55%, compared to 10 in 20224% is a decrease of about 5 percentage points.
In the past 6 years, NIO has lost a total of more than 86 billion yuan!
In addition, as of December 31, 2023, NIO had a balance of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments and long-term time deposits of RMB57.3 billion. Current liabilities were 5779.8 billion yuan, an increase of 119 over last year$4.6 billion; Total liabilities are 8878.7 billion yuan, an increase of 191 over last year7 billion yuan.
I have to say that among the new forces of car manufacturing, NIO's changes last year were eye-catching:
10% of the staff was laid off, and the adjustment of streamlining business, reducing costs and increasing efficiency saved 2 billion yuan; Vigorously recruit sales personnel, optimize product strategy, promote battery swap services, and abandon long-termism.
In more detail, it is like turning a five-year strategic plan into a more detailed two-year business plan; For another example, NIO has carried out team optimization and organizational improvement; NIO has also begun to delay projects such as batteries and mobile phones; Another example is Li Bin's request for the NIO team to give up illusions about future competition.
Behind all the changes, it is a reflection that NIO has begun to pay attention to "efficiency".
Even at the performance meeting, Li Bin, chairman and CEO of NIO, constantly emphasized "efficiency first"!
NIO's adjustment last year provided a long window of time for its future, but NIO's biggest problem has yet to improve.
R&D is still NIO's largest expense, with R&D investment of 134 in 202331.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 239%。
In the past few years, NIO has invested more than 43 billion yuan in R&D.
The company has a long-term plan, but the loss has led to a shortage of cash, and there has been no major breakthrough in the main business of selling cars!
Even so, Li Bin also firmly emphasized at the financial report meeting that the NIO brand pays more attention to gross profit margin and will not participate in the "first-class war" to exchange price for volume.
In fact, NIO is relatively passive in the face of the industry's "** war".
NIO's sales of 160,000 units in 2023 are far from Li Auto's sales of more than 370,000 units; The annual sales volume increased by about 30 percent year-on-year62%, which is also lower than the industry's average sales growth rate of 379%。
In the first half of last year, NIO experienced a trough period, and even more than 6,000 units in June. Although Li Bin emphasized that NIO should pay more attention to gross profit margin and will not participate in the first-class war to exchange price for volume. It wasn't until after the adjustment in July that NIO's sales rebounded.
However, NIO only sold more than 20,000 units in July last year, and the rest of the time still failed to get rid of the title of "Wei 10,000" ridicule!
Looking back on the end of 2022, Li Bin once released a bold ambition, claiming to surpass Lexus's gasoline car sales in 2023. However, Lexus will sell 820,000 units globally in 2023 and 180,000 units in China.
NIO's sales target for 2024 was lowered to 230,000 units due to the lack of new models to impact sales, but NIO failed to achieve its annual target last year, and it seems difficult to achieve the set target in 2024.
As NIO's sales deteriorated further in 2024, only 10,000 units were delivered in January, and in February it fell to 8,000 units, down 33% year-on-year.
If NIO wants to improve profitability on the basis of high R&D expenses, it must return to the product side to launch more competitive models and break the curse of falling behind in sales!
In China's Internet car manufacturing camp, NIO should be the most anticipated and popular car company, and was once regarded as the light of domestic high-end electric vehicles!
In terms of product planning, design, technology research and development, and user service, NIO has surpassed Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi in the same class.
At the same time, NIO has included rights and interests such as free battery replacement for life in the car price to form a higher premium.
Therefore, since its establishment in 2014, NIO has always given people the impression that it is more expensive, and it is the best choice for the domestic middle class and wealthy people!
Since the official release of NIO's first mass-produced ES8 in 2017, people's demand for NIO has been getting louder and louder.
In September 2018, NIO went public in the United States, and with the halo of China's first Internet car manufacturing stock, the stock price soared, and the market value once approached 100 billion yuan, envying many peers.
However, just like a shooting star, although it is bright, it can only shine for a while!
The market is fair, it can lift you to the sky, and it can also smash you to the end in an instant.
Because of the continuous loss of money, NIO's financial report is very ugly.
In 2021, NIO's annual revenue was 36136.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1223%；But it still lost 40200 million yuan.
In 2022, NIO's annual revenue will be 492700 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 363%；Loss 1443.7 billion yuan, a significant increase of 259%.
There are only 3 new power car companies left in the future! "The development of new energy vehicles will only run faster and faster, and will not give us the opportunity to stop, slow down, and take a breath." "2024 is a year of competition in the sea of blood"...The car company bosses have already foreseen the future!
In fact, the word "big reshuffle" has become a high-frequency word in the automotive industry since the new forces of car manufacturing rushed into the track, and the automobile market began to divide into new energy plates!
NIO, on the other hand, can only calmly cope with the competition in 2024 by changing its strategy and increasing sales and gross profit margin.
As the first Chinese new energy company to build and go public, why is NIO getting worse and worse?
The first is that there are too many models (9 models), and there are 5 SUVs alone, and the R&D expenses of too many models have increased, and gross profit has decreased. In contrast, Tesla relies on 2 models to win the world, and the ideal has only 4 models.
The second is that the low-cost model was not launched earlier, and the cheapest ET5 among the nine models is almost 300,000. In the face of the economic downturn, consumption downgrade and fierce war, sales are also inevitable.
There is also the failure of the "battery swap" strategy. Referring to the transformation of the original mobile phone battery, you can see one or two!
Although battery swapping has the advantages of short time and cheap charging (taking advantage of the peak-to-valley price difference), fast charging technology has been making breakthroughs, and the reduction of battery swap efficiency in the future may become a constraint for NIO.
Not to mention that the requirement of battery replacement is very unfavorable to the design of the tram, and the non-integrated design weakens the strength of the body structure, and the safety and durability are greatly affected.
Thankfully, in order to meet the upcoming "finals" of smart electric vehicles, NIO has also made ample preparations in terms of ammunition.
NIO has obtained the qualification to build cars independently, with a capital injection of nearly US$4 billion, which is expected to cope with the knockout round.
In addition, in addition to the improvement in performance, NIO has also been continuously recognized by the state, industry and capital in the field of battery swapping.
At present, new energy companies such as Changan, Geely, JAC, Chery, and China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Technology have reached battery swap cooperation with NIO, and NIO Energy's imagination is huge.
In short, the new energy vehicle companies that have "rolled" in 2023 are bound to experience another "life-and-death struggle" in the "blood" competition in 2024!
In the face of cruel market competition, whoever can survive to the end will be the final king!
In order to achieve the monthly sales target of 20,000 units, in the face of the increasingly fierce war at the beginning of the year, NIO also chose to reduce prices.
However, at present, the effect still needs to be improved, NIO sold 10,000 units in January, and only 8,132 units in February.
NIO, for the sake of the future, I'm afraid it's going to have a hard time!
Reference: NIO's revenue in 2023 is 556200 million yuan hit a new high, and cash reserves soared to 57.3 billion yuan".
The net loss was 20.7 billion, an increase of 43 percent year-on-year5%, NIO hopes that Alps will boost sales", Yicai.