After nearly a year of internal deep transformation and sales stimulation of the new model G6, Xiaopeng Automobile's gross profit margin has struggled to turn positive in 2023, but the net loss for the whole year has further expanded, and there is still a way to achieve breakeven.
After the release of financial results, the decline of Xiaopeng Automobile's US stock market expanded to 5%, reversing the upward trend.
According to the 2023 performance data released by Xiaopeng Motors, its revenue was 30.68 billion yuan last year, with over 40% of its revenue contribution coming from the fourth quarter. From September to December 2023, the delivery volume of Xiaopeng Motors was 60000 vehicles, setting a record of over 20000 vehicles per month in December.
In terms of gross profit margin, a key indicator for measuring performance, Xiaopeng Motors had an overall gross profit margin of 1.5% last year and 11.5% in the same period of 2022. Among the three new forces in the automotive industry, Weixiaoli, Xiaopeng Motors has the lowest gross profit margin. In terms of more core automotive gross profit margin, Xiaopeng Motors has not yet become a regular employee. Its gross profit margin for the whole year of last year was -1.6%, compared to 9.4% in 2022.
Xiaopeng Motors explained that last year, due to increased sales promotions and the expiration of subsidies for new energy vehicles, inventory provisions and procurement commitments related to G3i and existing vehicle upgrades suffered losses, which had a negative impact on the gross profit margin of automobiles for the fiscal year 2023 by 2.4 percentage points. Excluding this part, the gross profit margin of automobiles is only 0.8%.
Meanwhile, Xiaopeng Automobile's net loss further expanded by 13.57% to reach 10.38 billion yuan. Ideal Automobile has crossed the break even line, with a net profit of 11.81 billion yuan for the whole year.
Xiaopeng Motors is achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement by controlling research and sales costs. Last year, these two data were basically the same as 2022, with 5.28 billion yuan and 6.56 billion yuan respectively, but the overall expense ratio has decreased.
Xiaopeng Motors CEO He Xiaopeng revealed on the financial report conference call that the new models launched by Xiaopeng Motors in the second half of this year will adopt new technological solutions, which can reduce the hardware cost of high-end intelligent driving systems by 50%. Interface News learned that this is a purely visual advanced intelligent driving solution, excluding LiDAR. The current cost of LiDAR on the market is about 3000 yuan.
In addition, Xiaopeng Motors is attempting to bring the advanced intelligent driving capabilities of urban areas into the upcoming 150000 yuan new brand MONA. He Xiaopeng believes that currently, no automotive company has done a good job in implementing fully automated driving assistance systems, reducing costs, and making marketing comprehensive.
Several professionals in the autonomous driving industry have pointed out in interviews with Interface News that consumers in the 150000 yuan price range are concerned about cost-effectiveness, and their intelligent driving ability has not yet entered the top five decisive factors affecting car purchases. In 2022, Xiaopeng Motors implemented the urban intelligent driving function on the P5 model, but the actual proportion of buyers of the intelligent driving version model is not high.
Xiaopeng Automobile's core capabilities in intelligent driving are also facing more challengers, and multiple automobile companies have joined the military competition for the implementation of advanced intelligent driving in urban areas. Huawei Car BU Chairman Yu Chengdong joked at this year's Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference forum that Huawei has rewritten the history of Xiaopeng Motors leading in intelligent driving. He Xiaopeng responded during the financial report conference call that Xiaopeng Motors is more focused than Huawei, which makes it more competitive. In the second quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Motors will implement a large model of intelligent driving.
A person from the autonomous driving industry told Interface News, "No car company has yet achieved absolute leadership in intelligent driving capabilities. Now that all solutions are transparent, it's about competing for who is richer and more patient."
Since the beginning of this year, Xiaopeng Motors has not maintained the continuous increase in sales last year, with a cumulative sales volume of 12795 units in the first two months. Affected by the Spring Festival holiday, Xiaopeng Motors sold 4545 units in February, falling to the lowest level in 23 months. According to the delivery guidelines for 21000 to 22500 vehicles in the first quarter, Xiaopeng Motors sold approximately 8205 to 9705 vehicles in March, and will still not be able to sell over 10000 vehicles in a single month.
According to Xiaopeng Automobile's estimate, the overall sales in the first half of this year will remain flat, and it is expected to stimulate a significant increase in sales only after the delivery of MONA models. The first model of the sub brand will be aimed at the general public in the early stage, ensuring market acceptance before expanding into the ride hailing market.
He Xiaopeng revealed that the MONA brand will officially debut during the Beijing Auto Show, and the first model will be launched and delivered in the third quarter. Internally, it is expected to achieve monthly sales of over 10000. The new brand will utilize existing channel stores and open independent exhibition areas for sales in the early stage. In the later stage, an independent channel network will be built, and it is expected that the number of new brand stores will reach hundreds in the next two years.
The difficulty of maintaining long-term sales momentum for newly launched models has been a problem that Xiaopeng Motors has been unable to solve. After maintaining sales of over 8000 units for three consecutive months, the Xiaopeng G6 has dropped to less than 2000 units. At present, Xiaopeng Motors has continued to implement price reduction measures at the terminal, with the starting price of G6 dropping to 189900 yuan.
An insider from Xiaopeng Motors pointed out to Interface News that the company's frontline combat team lacks combat effectiveness and has problems in incentive mechanisms and management systems. Another former middle-level employee of Xiaopeng Motors told Interface News that Xiaopeng Motors lacks systematic marketing capabilities. "For example, in order to achieve the target sales volume, there is no way to obtain leads, arrange outreach activities, invite test drives, or convert orders."
Xiaopeng Motors has once again turned to marketing channels. Starting from the second quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Motors will require dealers to stock up, establish about half a month of channel inventory, accelerate terminal delivery speed, and enhance dealer enthusiasm. At the same time, Xiaopeng Motors will control inventory levels through systems and monitoring mechanisms, implement a nationwide unified pricing strategy, and avoid the drawbacks of traditional dealer sales models.
He Xiaopeng stated that Xiaopeng Motors is adopting a decentralized social communication marketing strategy to reduce low-quality lead purchases and enhance word-of-mouth and user conversion on social platforms.
In addition, last year Xiaopeng Motors adopted the "Jupiter Plan" to eliminate over 230 inefficient stores and introduce 160 new dealer stores, expanding to third tier and lower tier cities. Xiaopeng Motors predicts that the number of stores will increase to 600 in the third quarter.