As of March 19th, the new forces of car manufacturing, Ideal Automobile, NIO Automobile, and Xiaopeng Automobile, have successively announced their financial performance in 2023. Among them, Ideal Automobile recorded its best financial report since its establishment, becoming the first new car making force with annual revenue exceeding 100 billion yuan; Compared to the first full year profit achieved by Ideal Automobile in 2023, NIO Automobile's net loss for the whole year further expanded; Xiaopeng Motors also experienced an increase in net losses throughout the year, but multiple financial indicators improved in the fourth quarter.
Faced with increasingly fierce market competition, Li Bin, the chairman of NIO, has mentioned "long-term ism" on multiple occasions. Xiaopeng Motors Chairman He Xiaopeng also stated on the financial report conference call on the evening of March 19th that the elimination race of smart electric vehicles will officially begin from 2024 to 2027. "Xiaopeng Motors must first pursue quality development before pursuing scale."
Ideal Automobile Achieves Full Year Profit
Ideal Automobile's revenue in 2023 was 123.85 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 173.5%; In the fourth quarter, the revenue was 41.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 136.4%, which can be said to be unparalleled in terms of revenue scale. NIO Automobile's revenue in 2023 was 55.62 billion yuan, reaching a new high with a year-on-year increase of 12.9%; The revenue for the fourth quarter was 17.10 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. In 2023, Xiaopeng Automobile's revenue was 30.68 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%. In the fourth quarter, its revenue was 13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 154%, and at the same time, it increased by 53% compared to the previous quarter, indicating a recovery growth momentum.
In terms of profitability, Ideal Automobile has performed the most outstandingly. The annual net profit reached 11.81 billion yuan, becoming the third new energy vehicle company in the world to achieve profitability after Tesla and BYD. In contrast, although NIO Automobile achieved a record high revenue, its net loss for the whole year still reached 20.72 billion yuan, with a net loss of 5.368 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, expanding compared to the previous quarter. Xiaopeng Automobile also faces the problem of losses, with a net loss of 10.38 billion yuan for the whole year, an increase of 13.6% year-on-year.
The revenue scale and profitability correspond to market performance. In 2023, the delivery volume of Ideal Automobile reached 376030 units, a year-on-year increase of 182.2%, ranking first among the new forces in Chinese car manufacturing. NIO Motor delivered 160038 new cars in 2023, ranking first in the electric vehicle market in China with an average transaction price of over 300000 yuan, with a market share of over 40%, demonstrating its brand's high-end positioning and market recognition. The delivery volume of Xiaopeng Motors is relatively small, with 141601 vehicles in 2023.
In the fourth quarter, the delivery volume of Ideal Automobile reached 132000 units, a year-on-year increase of 101.6%. The delivery volumes of NIO Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile are 50000 and 60000 respectively, and the sum of the latter two is not as good as the former.
In terms of gross profit margin, Ideal Automobile achieved a gross profit margin of 23.50% in the fourth quarter of 2023, with a single vehicle gross profit margin of 22.70%, exceeding Tesla's gross profit margin in the fourth quarter (17.6%), and the annual gross profit margin also reached 22.2%. NIO's gross profit margin per vehicle in the fourth quarter was 11.9%, reaching double digits for two consecutive quarters. Xiaopeng Motors turned positive in the fourth quarter, reaching 6.2%, an increase of 8.9 percentage points compared to the previous quarter; The gross profit margin of bicycles was 4.1%, an increase of 10 percentage points compared to the previous period.
In terms of R&D investment, NIO Automobile has the largest R&D expenditure scale, with an annual R&D investment of 13.43 billion yuan, exceeding 10 billion yuan for two consecutive years. Although the investment in research and development by Ideal Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile did not reach NIO, they also showed a steady growth trend.
Compared to the three new car making forces, Ideal Automobile has performed well in terms of revenue scale, profitability, and delivery volume in 2023. Although NIO has performed well in terms of revenue scale and has spared no effort in research and development investment, its profitability still needs to be improved. Xiaopeng Motors is currently in a weak position among the three companies, and how to solve the problem of sustained losses is a challenge for Xiaopeng Motors.
Ideal MEGA has a poor start, NIO and Xiaopeng will promote a second brand
Despite the different financial performance of the three new car manufacturers, they are also facing intensified market competition.
This year is the "Product Year" of Ideal Automobile. On March 1st, the long-awaited Ideal MEGA was launched. However, according to industry news, it has been half a month since the release of Ideal MEGA, and Ideal has not disclosed the order data for MEGA and L series. The expected order for MEGA within 24 hours was around 3000 units, but the final result did not meet expectations, only achieving half of the target.
"After careful consideration, we have decided to launch a counterattack, using light to counter darkness." On March 11th, Li Xiang, the chairman of Ideal Automobile, responded to the recent "cyber attack" on Ideal MEGA on his social media.
Ideal Automobile struggled to enter the high-end market above 500000 yuan, laying the groundwork for NIO and Xiaopeng's market downturn. They successively announced the launch of their second brand to gain a larger market share.
On March 13th, according to industry reports, the second brand name of NIO was "Ledo Automobile", and the first model was named Ledo L60. Li Bin subsequently responded publicly, stating that the brand connotation of "Le Dao" is "family happiness, family management, and enthusiastic discussion.".
"The second brand focuses on the home market and launches competitive products for households with different numbers of people." At the NIO financial report conference on March 5th, Li Bin said, "Thanks to previous research and development investment and intelligent technology reuse, the new brand's products will have good cost competitiveness. The cost of the first product can be 10% lower than Tesla Model Y."
According to the plan, the second brand of NIO, Le Dao, will be released in the second quarter of this year, and the first model will achieve large-scale delivery in the fourth quarter. At the same time, the brand will adopt a separate sales network and some NIO's after-sales system, and share the battery swapping network with NIO.
Following NIO closely, He Xiaopeng also officially announced Xiaopeng's second brand at the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference Forum (2024) on March 17th. "A new brand will be officially launched at the Beijing Auto Show in April, officially entering the market between 100000 and 150000 yuan. The first model will be launched and delivered in the third quarter of this year." In a conference call on March 19th, He Xiaopeng revealed more information about the brand. "In the early stages of the new brand's launch, MONA will open independent exhibition halls in Xiaopeng stores, and it should reach the level of hundreds of independent stores next year or two. We hope that MONA can achieve a healthy positive profit margin, and there will be different commercialization strategies for MONA."
In addition, according to He Xiaopeng, Xiaopeng Motors will enter a major product cycle of launching more than 10 new models in the next three years. Coupled with globalization and upgraded models, the total number of mass-produced models is as high as 30.