"Xiaopeng Motors' strategy will not only focus on sales growth as before. In such a competitive market, we will focus more on pursuing high quality and efficiency, comprehensively improving the company's comprehensive capabilities, making the strengths longer and without weaknesses." Xiaopeng Motors Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said at the first quarter financial report conference call of Xiaopeng Motors.
On the evening of May 21st, Xiaopeng Motors released its Q1 2024 financial report. According to the financial report, in the first quarter of 2024, Xiaopeng Automobile's total revenue was 6.55 billion yuan (RMB), a year-on-year increase of 62.3% and a month on month decrease of 49.8%; During the same period, the total delivery volume of Xiaopeng Motors was 21821 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 19.7% and a month on month decrease of 63.7%. It is worth noting that Xiaopeng Motors had a net loss of 1.37 billion yuan in the first quarter, which was significantly narrowed from 2.34 billion yuan in the same period of 2023 and basically unchanged from 1.35 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of last year. Overall, Xiaopeng Motors still faces pressure.
"The annual growth of automobile sales revenue is mainly due to the increase in delivery volume in the first quarter of 2024 (especially the X9 model); the quarterly decrease is mainly due to the decrease in current delivery volume of G6 and 2024 G9 models, combined with seasonal effects, partially offset by the delivery volume of X9." Xiaopeng Automobile stated.
Overall, after a year of adjustment last year, Xiaopeng Motors exceeded market expectations in the first quarter of this year, despite its unsatisfactory sales performance. Reflected in the capital market, on May 21st Eastern Time, the US stock price of Xiaopeng Motors rose by over 26%, with a closing stock price increase of 5.92%.
Initial results of cooperation with the public: Significant increase in gross profit margin in the first quarter
Despite multiple financial indicators showing year-on-year growth and month on month decline, Xiaopeng Automobile's gross profit margin has shown a double growth trend. Data shows that in the first quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Motors had a gross profit margin of 12.9% and a gross profit margin of 5.5%, while in the first quarter of last year, its gross profit margin was 1.7% and the gross profit margin was 2.5%. In the fourth quarter of last year, its gross profit margin was 6.2% and the gross profit margin was 4.1%.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaopeng Motors still provisioned for inventory impairment and purchase contract losses of the old model Xiaopeng P5 in the first quarter of this year, which dragged down the gross profit margin of the car sales business by 3.2%. The actual gross profit margin of the car sales business, excluding this impact, reached 8.7%, an increase of 2.7% compared to the actual gross profit margin of 6% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Regarding the increase in gross profit margin, Xiaopeng Motors told the Daily Economic News that this is not only due to Xiaopeng Motors' continuous monetization of technology, but also due to the gradual increase in sales of the company's high gross profit models.
It is reported that the cooperation between Xiaopeng Automobile and Volkswagen Group in platform and software has shown initial results in terms of finance. In the first quarter, the gross profit margin of other businesses directly increased from 38% to 54%.
"In the first quarter of 2024, the platform software revenue was over 100 million yuan. At the same time, the electronic and electrical architecture cooperation with Volkswagen will be included in the revenue starting from the second half of this year." In a conference call, the management of Xiaopeng Motors revealed the current benefits brought by the strategic cooperation with Volkswagen Group.
He Xiaopeng also stated that through strategic cooperation with Volkswagen Group, Xiaopeng Automobile has taken the lead in empowering the output of self-developed intelligent technology, which will gain greater market influence and better financial returns.
Gu Hongdi, Honorary Vice Chairman and Co President of Xiaopeng Automobile, believes that this marks Xiaopeng Automobile's unique model of improving profitability and internationalization potential through intelligent technology output on the basis of its intelligent electric vehicle business.
The reporter learned that Xiaopeng Automobile is still communicating with other car companies regarding cooperation in autonomous driving technology. "Xiaopeng will seek strategic cooperation opportunities with other participants with an open mindset. However, what we value most is how to bring value to our partnership and create value for each other, not just supplier relationships." Xiaopeng's management discussed the prospects of seeking cooperation with other brand OEMs.
In terms of sales, in the sales composition of the first quarter, the high-end model Xiaopeng X9 of Xiaopeng Motors delivered a total of 7872 vehicles, accounting for more than 36% of the total sales, becoming the highest proportion of Xiaopeng Motors in a single vehicle. As a result, the average bicycle price of Xiaopeng Motors reached 254000 yuan, which is 51000 yuan higher than the fourth quarter of last year.
It is worth mentioning that Xiaopeng Motors lowered the selling prices of its main models, Xiaopeng G6, G9, and P7, in early March, but the impact on the gross profit margin in the first quarter was relatively small.
According to Dolphin Investment Research, Xiaopeng Automobile's gross profit for every car sold in the first quarter of this year was 22000 yuan, an increase of 10000 yuan compared to the gross profit of 12000 yuan in the fourth quarter of last year. The gross profit margin for car sales also increased from 6% in the fourth quarter of last year to 8.7% in the first quarter of this year.
Net loss narrowed but still under pressure
Although Xiaopeng Automobile achieved good results in gross profit margin in the first quarter, its net loss for the current period is still 1.37 billion yuan, significantly narrowing from 2.34 billion yuan in the same period of 2023 and basically remaining unchanged from 1.35 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of last year. Overall, Xiaopeng Motors still faces pressure.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, Xiaopeng Motors expects a total delivery quantity of approximately 29000 to 32000 vehicles, an increase of 25.0% to 37.9% year-on-year and 32.9% to 46.6% month on month; The expected revenue is approximately RMB 7.5 billion to 8.3 billion, an increase of 48.1% to 63.9% year-on-year.
"I would like to emphasize once again that in such a volatile market, we must not only focus on the scale of sales, but more importantly, be versatile. Therefore, although we still face the challenges of the automotive market in the second quarter, we are still persevering with multiple changes, including organizational adjustments, and we have also seen the positive impact of these adjustments," said He Xiaopeng.
He Xiaopeng added, "Starting from October in the fourth quarter of this year, Xiaopeng will enter a faster lane of development. I believe that by then, whether it is sales, profit margin, cash flow, or our intelligent driving capabilities, we will all achieve huge breakthroughs."
It is understood that Xiaopeng Motors will invest 3.5 billion yuan in intelligent research and development, recruit 4000 new professional talents, and invest more than 700 million yuan annually in computing power training in the future. In addition, Xiaopeng Motors is also recruiting in areas such as brand marketing and styling design. It is worth mentioning that there are reports that Yu Tao, the marketing manager of OnePlus mobile phones under OPPO, may join Xiaopeng Motors as the Vice President of Marketing in the near future. Regarding this, Xiaopeng Motors stated that "there will be feedback next week.".
At the product level, starting from the third quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Motors will start a product cycle of launching more than 10 new styling models within three years, covering major sub markets with prices ranging from 100000 to 400000 yuan.
Among them, Xiaopeng Motors will deliver a brand new B-class pure electric sedan under the Xiaopeng brand in the fourth quarter of this year, as the first model to achieve the 25% technology cost reduction target. In addition, the first A-class pure electric sedan under the second brand of Xiaopeng Motors, MONA, will be released in June and will begin delivery in the third quarter of this year.
During the conference call, He Xiaopeng also used the "$10000 model" as an example, stating that for every $10000 decrease in price, the sales of the entire car (vehicle) will increase by 1-2 times. "If we can lower the price by some margin, we believe its scale demand will be very large, 2-4 times the current level," said He Xiaopeng.
"All of our main customers for all of our car models are to C, and we will not consider investing extensively in the To B field, including MONA, as well as all other models of the Xiaopeng brand." He Xiaopeng believes that "the addition of B-class new cars and the incremental contribution of MONA models will enable Xiaopeng Automobile to achieve a significant year-on-year increase in monthly delivery volume in the fourth quarter of this year."
In terms of overseas markets, this year Xiaopeng Motors plans to expand its overseas sales network from the previous Nordic countries to over twenty countries and regions. In the first half of this year, Xiaopeng Motors has established cooperative relationships with several leading dealer groups in Western Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and other regions, and has gradually opened new sales stores. Xiaopeng Motors expects to launch a right-hand drive version of the Xiaopeng G6 in the third quarter of this year.