Author: Phate Zhang/CnEVPost

Categories
BYD China Deliveries Electric eMobility eV EV Data Insurance Registrations Li Auto Neta Nio Tesla Weekly Data XPeng

China NEV insurance registrations for week ending Mar 19: BYD 38,414, Tesla 18,712, NIO 1,775

Insurance registrations for China's NEVs were 113,000 last week, up from 108,000 the week before.

Insurance registrations for new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China increased last week compared to the previous week, with a mixed performance from major EV makers.

From March 13 to March 19, insurance registrations for all passenger vehicles in China were 321,000 units, up from 308,000 units the previous week, according to figures shared by several car bloggers on Weibo.

Insurance registrations for NEVs were 113,000 last week, up from 108,000 the week before.

(OTCMKTS: BYDDY) vehicles continued to see the most insurance registrations, with 38,414 last week, up from 37,141 the previous week.

(NASDAQ: TSLA) vehicles saw 18,712 insurance registrations last week, up from 17,032 the week before.

was 1,775 vehicles last week, down from 2,170 the week before.

NIO guided for first-quarter deliveries between 31,000 and 33,000 units earlier this month, meaning March deliveries are expected to be between 10,337 and 12,337 units.

The company's insurance registrations for the first week of March, which included February 27 and February 28, were 3,345 units.

(NASDAQ: LI) vehicles registered 5,438 insurance units last week, up from 4,243 the previous week.

(NYSE: XPEV) had 1,296 vehicles last week, down from 1,635 the week before.

posted 914 units last week, down from 1,043 units the previous week.

China NEV insurance registrations for week ending Mar 12: BYD 37,141, Tesla 17,032, NIO 2,170

The post China NEV insurance registrations for week ending Mar 19: BYD 38,414, Tesla 18,712, NIO 1,775 appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
China Electric eMobility eV Li Auto Li Auto Stock Nio NIO Stock Research Note Tesla XPeng XPeng Stock

China EV industry sell-off creates opportunity, says Morgan Stanley

leads the pack with superior execution, but risk-reward increasingly favors and after a drastic sell-off this year, Morgan Stanley said.

Shares of major Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers have generally suffered a sell-off so far this year, as the sector's weak sales at the start of the year and recent widespread price wars have raised investor concerns.

However, in Morgan Stanley's view, the sales potential of China's EV companies in the second half of the year is underestimated at a time when costs are sliding.

"We think YTD stock corrections should have discounted competition risks but underrate the cost-driven upside to EV margin/volume in 2H, " Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao's team said in a research note sent to investors on March 19.

As of Monday's close, NIO's (NYSE: NIO) US-traded ADR was down 10 percent this year, XPeng was down 8 percent, and Li Auto was up about 12 percent.

Hsiao's team believes that significant margin pressure from price wars will fuel market concerns about industry profitability and cash flow, especially among new energy vehicle (NEV) heavyweights, namely and China, which can afford to initiate another round of price cuts in the second quarter.

That, combined with weak full-year sales following the stimulus withdrawal, could dampen sales volumes and margins for EV brands in the first half of 2023, the team said.

Still, the production potential of China's NEV industry in the second half of the year and beyond appears to be underestimated as the decline in prices of batteries and key components accelerates following aggressive capacity expansion in 2022, the team noted.

This could translate into potential margin relief for NEV makers and potentially increase NEV penetration in the second half of the year in a cost-effective manner, the team said.

Hsiao's team estimates a 20-25 percent drop in battery costs for major NEV makers, implying a 6-10 percentage point cost savings.

The price drop of lithium carbonate, a key raw material for batteries, has accelerated in recent days and saw its biggest one-day drop so far this year on March 20, according to a CnEVPost report yesterday.

The average price of both industrial-grade lithium carbonate and battery-grade lithium carbonate fell by RMB 12,500 per ton on March 20, with the latest average price at RMB 272,500 per ton and RMB 312,500 per ton, respectively.

NIO's management said in a call with analysts after the March 1 earnings announcement that they expect lithium carbonate prices to fall back to around RMB 200,000 per ton this year, boosting gross margins back up.

EV makers that can take full advantage of this will not only enjoy margin relief, but also have more flexibility to price their models to further boost NEV penetration in mass markets and lower-tier cities, Hsiao's team wrote in their report.

"That said, the tailwinds from falling input costs may take time to kick in as our checks with major OEMs suggest they are still in discussions with battery suppliers on new terms," the team added.

The team believes that a tougher operating environment will accelerate market reshuffling, with leading EV manufacturers weathering the downturn better than their peers, while the growth of smaller, lagging EV startups could be slowed by a depletion of liquidity in 2023.

Growing investments should also push up cash burn rates. As a result, the ability to optimize working capital and access to market funding will play a more important role in ongoing operations in 2023, the team added.

"Our analysis suggests EV trio (NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto) will still hold fast, backed by healthy balance sheet conditions and better connections to capital markets," Hsiao's team wrote.

The team said they're fully aware of investor worries about EV startups' cash burn that may rapidly deplete their liquidity.

But they believe the EV trio can remain self-funded for the next 18 months, even under the stress-test scenario of a prolonged price war.

"We believe continuous investment would further solidify their technology leadership and enable them to have a better chance of winning out in the next up-cycle," the team wrote.

The team believes that trough valuations mean the market has lowered expectations for EV startups' operational performance and financial resilience in an industry downturn, making any marginal improvement in their sales a meaningful stock catalyst.

Li Auto leads the pack with superior execution, but risk-reward increasingly favors XPeng and NIO after this year's sharp dip, the team said.

Lithium prices see biggest drop this year in China as decline accelerates

The post China EV industry sell-off creates opportunity, says Morgan Stanley appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
Battery News China Electric eMobility eV Lithium Lithium Carbonate Lithium Prices

Lithium prices see biggest drop this year in China as decline accelerates

's management previously said they expect lithium carbonate prices to fall back to RMB 200,000 per ton this year, boosting gross margins.

The price of lithium, a key raw material for batteries, is accelerating its decline.

The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in China today was down RMB 12,500 per ton ($1,814 per ton) from last Friday, with the latest average price quoted at RMB 312,500 per ton, according to My Steel.

That latest average price is down 3.85 percent from Friday, the biggest drop of the year, data monitored by CnEVPost show.

On Friday, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in China fell RMB 8,000, or 2.4 percent, the previous biggest drop of the year.

Industrial-grade lithium carbonate also fell by RMB 12,500 per ton today, with the average price quoted at RMB 272,500 per ton. Its 4.39 percent drop was also the highest of the year.

The average price of industrial-grade lithium carbonate fell RMB 7,000 per ton to RMB 295,000 per ton on March 16, the first time it has fallen below RMB 300,000 per ton in this down cycle.

The average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate is now barely above RMB 300,000 and is at risk of falling below that mark in the next day or two.

In the two years prior to last November, lithium carbonate prices were soaring alongside the rapid growth of China's new energy vehicle (NEV) industry.

On November 23, 2022, the battery-grade lithium carbonate price rose to RMB 590,000 per ton in China, up about 14 times from RMB 41,000 per ton in June 2020.

Since then, however, lithium prices have continued to fall, with industrial-grade lithium carbonate prices falling below RMB 400,000 on February 22 and battery-grade lithium carbonate prices falling below that mark on February 28.

In late February, a local media report that lithium supplies could be disrupted by the production halt in a mining hub in China did not stop lithium carbonate prices from continuing to fall.

As of today, lithium carbonate prices are down about 47 percent from last November's highs and are down about 40 percent so far this year.

The drop in lithium carbonate prices is expected to ease the cost pressures faced by electric vehicle manufacturers.

NIO had previously mentioned that a drop in lithium carbonate price of RMB 100,000 per ton would increase its gross margin by 2 percentage points.

NIO's management said in a conference call with analysts after the March 1 earnings announcement that they expect lithium carbonate prices to fall to RMB 200,000 per ton this year, boosting gross margins.

($1 = RMB 6.8896)

Full text: NIO Q4 earnings call transcript

The post Lithium prices see biggest drop this year in China as decline accelerates appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
Battery Swap China Electric eMobility eV Nio

NIO’s 1st 3rd-gen swap stations to go live on Mar 28

's third-generation battery swap stations are expected to be ready for volume production in April, with deployment ramping up in May, William Li said a month ago.  |  NIO US | NIO HK | NIO SG

(Image credit: NIO)

NIO (NYSE: NIO) will officially bring its first third-generation battery swap stations online at the end of this month, a timeline that appears to be slightly earlier than it previously announced.

On March 28, NIO's first 10 third-generation battery swap stations will go live, the company said in an article posted today on its mobile app.

The article does not provide more information on the third-generation stations, but said that 10 special guests will be on-site to see the battery swap stations on their wish list delivered.

NIO officially unveiled the third-generation battery swap station at NIO Day 2022 on December 24, 2022, capable of storing up to 21 battery packs, up from 13 in its predecessor generation and five in the first generation of the facility.

The third-generation battery swap station increases the daily service capacity of a single station to 408 times, a 30 percent increase over the second generation.

Notably, NIO also equipped two LiDARs and two Nvidia Orin chips on the third-generation battery swap station, for a total computing power of 508 TOPS.

The company then announced plans to add 400 battery swap stations in 2023, but that plan was raised to 1,000 a month ago.

William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, said on February 21 that NIO will further accelerate the deployment of battery swap stations, aiming to have a cumulative total of more than 2,300 battery swap stations by the end of 2023.

Mass production of NIO's third-generation battery swap stations was well underway, with volume production expected to begin in April and deployment accelerating in May, Li said at the time.

Starting in June, NIO will basically maintain a construction rate of 120-150 battery swap stations per month, he said.

On February 28, the NIO App added a wish list feature that allows vehicle owners to provide suggestions for where they would like battery swap stations to be located to support faster buildout.

To date, NIO has received 132,238 wish lists for battery swap stations, according to the article in the NIO App today.

Of those, 68.3 percent want the planned new battery swap stations this year to be located in urban areas, and 31.27 percent want the facilities to be located along highways.

Beijing was the most mentioned city on these wish lists, followed by Shanghai and Suzhou.

There were 240 potential sites covering more than 50 users and 12 sites covering more than 200 users, NIO said.

After receiving the owners' wish lists, NIO held 221 events in 134 cities, meeting with 6,459 users face-to-face, according to the article in the NIO App.

NIO has not added any battery swap stations in the past half month. As of March 5, the company had 1,321 such facilities in China, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

NIO reveals aggressive plan to add 1,000 swap stations in 2023

The post NIO's 1st 3rd-gen swap stations to go live on Mar 28 appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
BYD BYD Global BYD Uzbekistan China Electric eMobility eV

BYD makes brand debut in Uzbekistan, starts local pre-sales of 3 models

introduced three models in Uzbekistan and its three pioneering stores in Tashkent will open in March.  |  BYDDY.US | BYD HK

(Image credit: BYD)

BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) made its brand debut in Uzbekistan and introduced three models to local consumers, as the largest Chinese manufacturer of new energy vehicles (NEVs) continues to advance its efforts in the international market.

BYD held a brand debut and product pre-sale event in Uzbekistan on March 16, and several of its local dealership stores are set to open this month, according to a press release Friday.

BYD introduced three models at the event, including the Han EV, an all-electric sedan; the Song Plus DM-i, a hybrid model; and the hybrid Chazor DM-i, known as the Destroyer 05 in China.

Uzbekistan, the largest automotive market in Central Asia, is transitioning toward vehicle electrification, and BYD will bring industry-leading blade battery and DM-i super hybrid technology to local consumers, the release said.

Three pioneering BYD stores in Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent will open in March: a BYD flagship store and technology museum, a comprehensive BYD brand experience center and a BYD city showroom.

It is worth noting that BYD has already made some previous moves to pave the way for its long-term growth in Uzbekistan.

In February 2022, BYD and Uzavtosanoat JSC (UzAuto) signed a mutual memorandum of understanding, agreeing to study the feasibility of joint production of electric passenger cars and electric buses in the Central Asian country.

UzAuto, established in 1994, is the largest and only car manufacturer in Central Asia with a complete automotive industry footprint and an extensive local and inter-regional sales network and after-sales service system.

On December 30, 2022, BYD announced that it had signed an agreement with UzAuto to establish a joint venture that will focus on the production of NEVs and their components.

The joint venture will be based in Uzbekistan and will focus on the future production of several of BYD's best-selling NEV models, including the DM-i Super Hybrid, and related components, according to a BYD press release at the time.

BYD, the world's largest maker of NEVs, sold 193,655 vehicles in February, up 27.96 percent from 151,341 units in January and up 119.36 percent from 88,283 units in the same month last year, according to figures it announced earlier this month.

In February, BYD sold 15,002 NEVs in overseas markets, up 44.13 percent from 10,409 units in January.

In addition to announcing its business progress in Uzbekistan, BYD also announced on Friday that it entered into a partnership with UAE dealer Al-Futtaim on March 15.

NIO's global expansion: Demands of under-the-radar owners underscore urgency

The post BYD makes brand debut in Uzbekistan, starts local pre-sales of 3 models appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
China Earnings Earnings Call Electric eMobility eV XPeng

XPeng Q4 earnings call: Key points of transcript

announced its fourth-quarter earnings today and held a conference call with analysts.

Below are the key points mentioned by XPeng chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, during the call.

Inflection point

XPeng is approaching an inflection point, as we have clearly identified what our goals are, and what our strengths and weaknesses are.

Our overarching goal is to make XPeng a leader in the Chinese EV market, and ultimately win the global EV race.

Senior hire & org changes

The organizational restructure started with changes and upgrades in our top leadership. Ms. Fengying Wang brought us more than 30 years' experience in the automotive industry.

Fengying is taking full responsibility for our product planning and sales operations, and is also in charge of our product platform management scheme.

Her extensive industry experience, in-depth market insight and strong execution capabilities will help our products capture customer demand more accurately, while greatly improving efficiency in our sales and services divisions.

At the same time, the adaptations to our managements' organization are geared toward a flatter and more concentrated structure.

Since February, all design, R&D, production, supply chain and organizational management functions directly report to me.

I believe that these shifts will significantly improve our planning capabilities and lift the efficiency of our decision-making and execution in the coming months.

More importantly, these adjustments have effectively refreshed our execution and competitiveness. For the foreseeable future, I will remain focused on lifting the labor efficiency across our organization by multiple times so as to generate increased customer value with the same headcount, and greatly reduce costs across a full range of processes through technology innovation.

Product planning and design

With regard to our product planning and design, we concentrate on customer-perceived value and product differentiation in our innovation. We will make substantial changes to future products' model configuration mix, whole-vehicle modularized design and consistency in smart features.

In terms of interior and exterior styling and design, to meet XPeng customers' high standards for aesthetics, I am directly running the styling design division and building three teams that compete with each other to generate creative ideas.

These initiatives will continuously improve our interior and exterior styling and space design capabilities.

Customer-centric

We incorporated the Net Promoter Score, or NPS, into the core performance indicators for a variety of business functions and require feedback collection on a monthly basis.

The NPS performance evaluation will anchor the transformation of our product planning, design and development toward a customer-centric pathway. I believe our new products, new OTAs and new services-to-come will demonstrate substantial progress.

New P7i launch

Our in-store traffic and test-driving volume both hit new heights in recent months following the P7i's launch. This new product's smart features, styling design and performance, among other clear advantages in rivalry with similar products were well received among customers.

Amid the market's prevailing weakness in new order intake, our results outperformed the market. Our new order intake in February increased 100% over the previous month.

With the strong momentum of P7i orders following its official launch, we expect to see a considerable month-on-month growth of total new order intake in our March. This marks an initial success following our comprehensive transformation, which has also boosted our company morale.

New SUV G6

Our second new product model coming up this year – the G6 – will make its debut at the Shanghai auto show. Its official launch and vehicle deliveries will occur around the middle of this year.

The G6 will bring the most advanced electrification and smart mobility technologies to the 200,000 to 300,000 yuan-priced NEV SUV market. With unrivaled interior space, range, styling and interior decoration, we believe the G6 will become the top-selling model in its market segment.

Following the ramp-up of G6's mass production, we expect G6's monthly sales target to be 2 to 3 times that of its P7 predecessor's sales.

In addition, in the second half of 2023, we will launch a brand-new BEV 7-seat MPV.

This new MPV model is designed to cater to customer cohorts that demand larger interior room, while serving the needs of our family customers for a human-machine co-pilot.

Chat GPT

Recently, Chat GPT4.0 and other AI-based applications have created a buzz among hundreds of millions of users on the massive potential of generative AI models.

Given this development, there is an even higher possibility that autonomy technology further advances from Level 4 to Level 5.

We expect to incorporate GPT technology deeply into XPeng's business across the board to create groundbreaking user experiences and exceptional improvements to our operational efficiency.

XNGP

In March, we began to accelerate the OTA rollout of City NGP, compatible with multiple models, in several cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Through City NGP's OTA, we took the lead in mass producing the Transformer-based BEV time-series network, XNET, in China, which achieved a milestone in deep learning algorithm development and application.

In the second half of this year, XNGP, powered by XNET's deep learning algorithms, will no longer depend on a high-definition map. That said, XNGP will be supporting drivers on more urban roads, and across even broader geographic coverage nationwide.

Results from our testing showed the new version of XNGP outperformed peer's actual on-road performance in the United States. This leads us to believe XPeng's autonomous technology and its customer adoption is approaching a pivotal turning point.

While keeping high safety standards remains a top priority of our technology advancements, we will also be focused on rapid development to improve scenario coverage, user experience and software and hardware cost optimization.

In terms of scenario coverage, we have expanded the usage of the advanced technology from highway scenarios into city scenarios, where ADASs are used at high frequency and even become an essential driving tool.

Going forward, we will strive to further broaden ADAS usage to more end-to-end driving scenarios, such as internal compound ways and non-public roads, and expand our geographic coverage from three cities to more major cities nationwide beginning in the third quarter.

In terms of user experience, we have achieved an important psychological barrier for customers to use autonomous driving to "relieve" drivers, that is, drivers can let the machine safely take the wheel, resting assured that they are acting only as a supervisor.

Looking ahead, we expect that through continuous OTA upgrades, XNGP's driving skills will escalate every year and in 2-3 years reach a level that is equivalent to a human driver with 3 years of driving experience. We also expect that the number of manual takeovers per 100 km will be reduced to one or fewer.

Cost cut

Regarding cost efficiency, we plan to cut XNGP's BOM cost significantly next year and adjust our sales model from one that bundles sales of software and hardware, to one that splits the sales of software and hardware, which is going to enable autonomous driving on all of our new vehicles, and allow more customers to use the latest autonomous driving capabilities.

In pursuit of breakthroughs in the aforementioned three realms, we will bring great value to our customers and build out competitive edge in technologies, delivering long-term, sustainable revenue growth at scale and with improved margin contribution.

It has been said that the past five-year period was the golden age for new energy vehicles. I believe the next five-year period will be the golden age for autonomous driving.

During the five years to come, XPeng's highly advanced autonomous driving technology will help XPeng accelerate our ability to gain top market share.

More powerful cost control will be the core competitive edge that will enable XPeng to secure its leadership in the EV market. We will advance the platform-based approach and technology innovation to propel our cost reduction strategy.

Platform approach

Entering 2023, we are applying a full platform engineering approach for our BEV vehicle platform, electrical and electronic architecture, powertrain system and ADAS software and hardware development.

This signals that we are entering a new phase of car-making in a unified system. In this way, we are able to develop products with superior customer experience at a faster pace and a lower cost.

In the past, our R&D strengths were primarily manifested by our leading product performance. In the future, our R&D strengths will be underlined by maintaining the leading performance while achieving remarkable cost reductions.

We have mapped out our strategic execution roadmap with associated cost reductions include an over 50% decrease for autonomous driving costs and an about 25% decrease for vehicle hardware costs (including powertrain) over the 2023-2024 period by means such as technology innovation and optimized configurations.

I am pleased to see the design, technology R&D, supply chain and manufacturing teams are now working in a synergetic way to make our products more competitive through innovation.

Cash resources

In terms of cash liquidity, our cash on hand at the end of 2022 amounted to over RMB38 billion. As we have nearly completed our investments in our two manufacturing bases over the past few years, our Capex will decline substantially. We have also established three powerful vehicle platforms that can support a serial of new model launches over the next three years.

Our R&D will further concentrate on initiatives that best correspond with long-term trends and further differentiate our product in terms of customer experience and cost. We will also pursue improvements in our operating efficiency throughout the entire process.

For example, within our sales operations, we strive to improve same-store efficiency by optimizing our store network. We believe these cost optimization efforts will start to deliver material results beginning in the second half of this year.

Expanding scale

Expanding our scale and market share to achieve economy of scale in both software and hardware is the primary goal in our long-term strategy.

Although the product and management adjustment cycle in the automotive industry is more difficult than other industries and takes a longer period of time, we are still willing to sacrifice short-term sales and more patiently pursue greater victories in the medium- and long-term.

Looking ahead

Excitingly, as we rapidly implement adjustments and changes to our management, in addition to instituting a host of upgrades and iterations in our product portfolio and marketing capabilities, we have seen encouraging changes and positive results.

I am firmly convinced that beginning in the third quarter of this year, XPeng's monthly sales number will achieve significant growth, both sequentially and year-over-year, as well as be much higher than the industry's average growth rate.

I would reiterate that our current focus is on building and improving our capabilities in organization, product design, marketing and cost control. Continuous efforts in refining management and accelerated new product launches in the era of autonomous driving will lead us to the next level of exponential growth. We will continue to strive for this goal.

Lastly, we expect our total vehicle deliveries to be between 18,000 and 19,000 units in the first quarter of 2023 and revenue to be between RMB4 and RMB4.2 billion.

XPeng Q4 revenue misses estimates, gross margin falls to single digit

The post XPeng Q4 earnings call: Key points of transcript appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
China Earnings Electric eMobility eV Research Note XPeng

XPeng Q4 earnings: Deutsche Bank’s first look

delivered weak 4Q results, accompanied by a muted 1Q outlook that shows March demand still under pressure, Deutsche Bank said.  |  XPeng US | XPeng HK

XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings today, and as usual, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team provided their first impressions.

Here's the full text of the note the team sent to investors today.

XPeng delivered weak 4Q results (even softer than our preview), accompanied by a muted 1Q outlook that shows March demand still under pressure.

Deliveries for 4Q were already reported at 22,204 units, leading to revenue of 5.1bn RMB, below our 5.4bn and consensus 5.7bn on lower vehicle pricing and "other sales."

Total gross margin declined 480bps QoQ to 8.7%, missing our 11.5% estimate (consensus 12.1%), driven by much lower vehicle margin (5.7% vs. our 8.5% due to increased promotional activity; lowest since 2H20).

Opex of 2,986m RMB essentially matched our model as lower R&D offset higher SG&A.

All together, EPS of (2.57) came in worse than our (2.33) forecast. Management provided a slightly worse 1Q23 volume guidance than expected, calling for 18,000-19,000 deliveries, vs. our 19,500 forecast (translating into 4.0-4.2bn RMB in revenue).

This would imply March improving MoM to low 7,000 units at the mid-point.

ASP will continue to worsen following price cuts and unfavorable mix (G9 volume struggling).

XPeng Q4 revenue misses estimates, gross margin falls to single digit

The post XPeng Q4 earnings: Deutsche Bank's first look appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
China Electric eMobility eV XPeng

XPeng Q4 earnings call: G6 deliveries to begin around end of Q2

This article is being updated, please refresh later for more content.

(NYSE: XPEV) today announced its fourth-quarter earnings results and subsequently held a conference call with analysts.

Below are the key highlights of the call.

Through drastic organizational optimization, XPeng's strategic and organizational adjustments have achieved significant results in the first quarter.

Currently, all XPeng R&D, production and supply chain systems report directly to He Xiaopeng, and president Wang Fengying has taken full responsibility for product planning and sales and service systems.

In the next two years, XPeng will further strengthen the network layout and improve the effectiveness of frontline sales staff by flattening the management of the sales network.

In the future in product planning and design, XPeng will innovate more around user-perceivable value and differentiation, with great changes in subsequent model configuration combinations, overall vehicle modular design and intelligence consistency.

Currently, Mr. He himself has directly managed the styling team and created three styling front-end teams for creative competition, which will significantly improve the styling, space and other design performance of XPeng's future models.

With the launch of the P7i, the number of visitors and test drives at XPeng stores reached a new high in recent months.

XPeng stores saw a 100 percent increase in the number of visitors in February compared to January, and a significant increase in March compared to February.

The XPeng G6 will be unveiled at the Shanghai auto show and will be officially launched and delivered around the end of the second quarter with a price range of RMB 200,000 ($29,050) - 300,000.

The company's monthly sales target for the G6 is 2-3 times that of the P7.

The monthly sales of XPeng in the second half of this year will have several times more room for improvement than the level at the beginning of the year.

XPeng will launch a new pure EV model in the second half of the year, which will be a 7-seat MPV.

XPeng has developed a clear roadmap, through technological innovation, configuration optimization and other means, the cost of autonomous driving is expected to drop by more than 50 percent between this year and next year, and the cost of vehicle hardware, including power systems, will drop by 25 percent.

The company will move from selling hardware and software as a whole to selling hardware and software separately, making fully autonomous driving a standard feature.

The artificial intelligence represented by GPT has a huge future. It will have a new interpretation of how autonomous driving can be implemented and will enable L4 autonomous driving to move to L5 much faster.

XPeng expects more coupling between GPT-related technologies and various parts of the company's business.

XPeng Q4 revenue misses estimates, gross margin falls to single digit

The post XPeng Q4 earnings call: G6 deliveries to begin around end of Q2 appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
China Earnings Electric eMobility eV XPeng

XPeng Q4 revenue misses estimates, gross margin falls to single digit

This article is being updated, please refresh later for more content.

reported revenue of RMB 5.14 billion in the fourth quarter, below market expectations of RMB 5.732 billion.

This represents a 39.95 percent year-on-year decline and a 24.63 percent decline from the third quarter.

XPeng generated RMB 4.66 billion of automotive sales revenue in the fourth quarter, down 43.1 percent from the same period in 2021 and down 25.3 percent from the third quarter of 2022.

It reported a gross margin of 8.7 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 12.0 percent in the same period of 2021 and 13.5 percent in the third quarter of 2022.

It had an automotive margin of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter compared to 10.9 percent in the same period in 2021 and 11.6 percent in the third quarter of 2022. For the full year, the auto margin was 9.4 percent, compared to 11.5 percent in 2021.

The company reported a net loss of RMB 2.36 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to market expectations of a loss of RMB 2.076 billion and a loss of RMB 1.29 billion in the same period last year.

XPeng expects first-quarter vehicle deliveries to be in the range of 18,000 to 19,000 units, a decrease of about 45.0 percent to 47.9 percent year-on-year.

The company expects total revenue for the first quarter to range from RMB4.0 billion to RMB4.2 billion, a decrease of about 43.7 percent to 46.3 percent year-on-year.

XPeng delivered 22,204 vehicles in the fourth quarter, above the upper end of the previously provided guidance range of 20,000 to 21,000, but down 46.82 percent year-on-year and down 24.91 percent from the third quarter.

XPeng's previous revenue guidance for the fourth quarter was RMB 4.8 billion to RMB 5.1 billion, representing a decrease of about 40.4 percent to 43.9 percent year-on-year.

XPeng earnings preview: Q4 to be soft with promotions hitting margins

The post XPeng Q4 revenue misses estimates, gross margin falls to single digit appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.

Categories
China Electric eMobility eV Industry News Polestar Polestar 3 Product Launch

Polestar 3 officially unveiled in China, price cut by about $29,080 from previous

Polestar has officially unveiled the Polestar 3 in China today with what it calls a new pricing system.  |  Polestar.US

The first SUV from Polestar, the premium electric vehicle maker owned by and Volvo Cars, has been officially unveiled in China, but at a price reduction of about RMB 200,000 yuan ($29,080) from the model's global debut last year.

Polestar officially introduced the Polestar 3 in China today and announced what it calls a new pricing system, with the long-range dual-motor model starting at RMB 698,000 and the long-range dual-motor with performance pack model at RMB 798,000.

The Polestar 3 is Polestar's first SUV and will be the electric vehicle company's first all-electric model that will be produced in both China and the US.

Polestar gave the Polestar 3 SUV its global debut on October 12, 2022, when it announced its two versions with starting prices in China of RMB 880,000 and RMB 1,030,000, respectively.

The latest prices announced today mean that the starting price for the Polestar 3 regular long-range version has been reduced by RMB 182,000 and the starting price for the performance version has been reduced by RMB 232,000.

Information on Polestar China's website indicates that the expected delivery dates for both versions of the Polestar 3 are the fourth quarter of this year.

The Polestar 3 will be on display at the Shanghai auto show next month, and the model will go into production at Polestar's plant in Chengdu, Sichuan province, in the middle of this year, Polestar said today.

The 20th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition (Auto Shanghai 2023) will be held from April 18-27, with media days from April 18-19 and professional visitor days from April 20-21, while the general public can visit from April 22-27.

Production is also expected to begin by mid-2024 at Polestar's plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina, the automaker said when it unveiled the Polestar 3 last year.

At that point, the US will serve as the main supply location for North America and other markets. The plant is expected to make its first deliveries in mid-2024.

Polestar was co-founded by Volvo and Geely in 2017, and the first product, the Polestar 1, was only available in limited quantities and has been discontinued.

The Polestar 2, which started deliveries in 2020, is the brand's first real production model on sale and will only be produced at a plant in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, in eastern China.

Despite the Polestar 3's strong performance and configuration, its prices in China appear to be very high, as noted in a previous report by CnEVPost.

The Polestar 3's previous starting price of RMB 880,000 is almost twice the NIO ES7's starting price of RMB 468,000.

Both versions of the ES7 have a 0-100 km/h sprint time of 3.9 seconds, while the Polestar 3 performance version has the figure at 4.7 seconds and the long-range version at 5 seconds.

($1 = RMB 6.8783)

Polestar 3 SUV officially unveiled, but prices may drive away Chinese consumers

The post Polestar 3 officially unveiled in China, price cut by about $29,080 from previous appeared first on CnEVPost.

For more articles, please visit CnEVPost.