The cold winter has arrived.
is the case for the automotive industry, and even more so for Xiaopeng Motors , which is in the automotive industry.
htmlOn the last day of November, Xiaopeng Motors released its unaudited financial data for the third quarter ended September 30, 2022. Data shows that Xiaopeng Motors' total revenue in the third quarter was 6.82 billion yuan, with rising 19.3% year-on-year and 8.3% month-on-month; net loss was 2.38 billion yuan, an increase of 49.0% year-on-year, but compared with the second quarter of this year, 320 million yuan, a decrease of 12.0% month-on-month. In terms of delivery of
, Xiaopeng Motors delivered a total of 29,570 vehicles, with increasing by 15% year-on-year; revenue was 6.82 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%. In October, Xiaopeng Motors delivered only 5,101 vehicles, falling out of the top five new forces.
On the books, Xiaopeng Motors has indeed entered a cold winter, but we can still see the future of Xiaopeng from this past financial report.
The expected Q3 financial report
In fact, Xiaopeng Motors' Q3 financial report results have been traced as early as the Q2 financial report.
According to Xiaopeng Motors' Q2 financial report, Xiaopeng delivered a total of 34,422 new cars in Q2 this year, and has won the sales championship of new car manufacturing forces for four consecutive quarters. However, Xiaopeng gave Q3 delivery guidance in the quarterly financial report was 29,000 to 31,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 13.4% to 20.8%. In contrast, for at least four consecutive quarters before this (2021 Q3-2022 Q2), Xiaopeng's delivery volume growth rate was close to or far exceeding the three-digit percentage.
This means that the results of Q3 are within Xiaopeng Motors' expectations. For Q4, Xiaopeng gave a delivery guidance of 20,000 to 21,000 vehicles, a year-on-year decline of 50% to 53%; revenue guidance was between 4.8 billion and 5.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 40% to 44%. One fact is that the fourth quarter should be the key season for to increase production and sales of new energy vehicles, but Xiaopeng still chose to make in-depth adjustments.
Regarding this point, Xiaopeng Motors CEO 1 He Xiaopeng said that in November and December this year, it will experience the production capacity climb, and will enter a "good stage" in January next year.
In addition to sales, Xiaopeng made great strides in terms of gross profit margin in the third quarter.
According to the financial report, Xiaopeng's Q3 gross profit margin was 13.5%, which rebounded from 10.9% in the previous quarter, and was slightly higher than NIO's Q3 gross profit margin (13.3%).
For a long time, due to its substantial investment in technology and R&D, Xiaopeng has always been "bottomed" in the gross profit margin of the first camp of the new forces, but Q3 finally raised the gross profit margin of automobiles from single digits to more than 10% (11.6%), slightly higher than market expectations. This is mainly related to its price adjustment this year.
In addition to the product adjustment mentioned above, Xiaopeng is also preparing to deepen the word "user" again. The path to implementation is to deeply adjust the organizational structure.
Organizational Structure for In-depth Change
In Xiaopeng's Q3 financial report, He Xiaopeng emphasized the next direction of adjustment of Xiaopeng Motors: listen to user needs more effectively, simplify product configuration selection, and enhance the attractiveness of product software and hardware. How to change
? The first thing that changed was He Xiaopeng himself. He mentioned that the direct participation of individuals in ecological enterprises will be greatly reduced, and more focus on Xiaopeng Motors' strategy, product planning and R&D, and promote organizational transformation and upgrading.
Next is the change in the organizational structure, and Xiaopeng's organizational structure adjustment is not simply integrating departments, but a comprehensive adjustment from product to marketing.
htmlOn October 21, He Xiaopeng issued an email from all employees, announcing a comprehensive organizational structure adjustment, establishing five major committees for product, strategy, technology, sales, OTA, and three vehicle model platforms. He Xiaopeng personally served as the director of the Product and Strategy Committee, and the heads of the three platforms reported to him directly.
First, is on the product side. Each model of Xiaopeng is end-to-end responsible for product design, R&D and sales.After the organizational structure is adjusted, He Xiaopeng is directly responsible for the product committee. This ensures that the company can truly hear the voices of consumers and improve the product in a timely manner.
He Xiaopeng also believes that such a communication mechanism can focus on effective needs and control worthless needs. At the same time, Xiaopeng Motors co-founder Xia Heng has resigned as executive director and continues to serve as president of Xiaopeng Motors. His future work energy will focus more on products. This adjustment also proves from one side that Xiaopeng’s depth adjustment is not just about his skills.
Another important aspect is brand marketing. Like other "new forces" brands, Xiaopeng has devoted more energy to sales before, but has rarely worked hard on brand marketing.
Nowadays, it is obvious that Xiaopeng is also looking for more ways to play at the marketing level, trying to become a pioneer in marketing experience among new forces.
The courage and confidence to stick to intelligence
"We now have more than 40 billion cash flow ." This is a sentence that was repeatedly mentioned at this financial report press conference.
Indeed, in the current economic conditions, cash flow is like a sense of security, giving Xiaopeng more courage and confidence.
Thanks to the early layout of production capacity, Xiaopeng Motors' capital expenditure demand in the next few years will drop significantly compared with this year. So this 40 billion yuan of cash is enough to support Xiaopeng Motors' business development needs in the next few years. The main focus of
development is still Xiaopeng's core advantage: intelligent layout. At the financial report meeting of
, He Xiaopeng said: "The era of smart cars will start from the second half of 2023, and Xiaopeng Motors is accelerating the development of the next generation of full-scene intelligent assisted driving function XNGP, and plans to be implemented on a large scale in the third quarter of next year, which can support at least dozens of cities."
From a certain perspective, He Xiaopeng's determination to intelligence is more like the Wang Chuanfu 's insistence on new energy vehicles back then. He said: "Only those who master core technologies and ultimately achieve large-scale income in hardware and software can ultimately win in the long-distance race."
From the current point of view, the one that can make Xiaopeng persist to the end is XNGP. From the current perspective, Xiaopeng's intelligent layout has already taken the lead in other new forces.
Just passed, Xiaopeng City NGP was fully opened in Guangzhou. Xiaopeng P5 made assisted driving first to enter the city with the industry's lower hardware cost; in October, Xiaopeng G9 obtained the Guangzhou autonomous driving road test qualification as a zero-modified mass-produced car, which is the first time in the industry.
Next, XNGP, as Xiaopeng's strategic technology, will appear on more Xiaopeng's models.
It is reported that starting from the first quarter of next year, Xiaopeng Motors will launch three new models based on a new platform, all of which will be equipped with XNGP function. And this is also regarded by He Xiaopeng as the beginning of a new era.
In his opinion, the full implementation of XNGP will be the beginning of intelligent assisted driving becoming a user's urgent need, and this moment will also be the moment when Xiaopeng really starts to take off.
at the end:
Although the Q3 financial report, which looks not very beautiful, summarizes Xiaopeng's past, its future is being favored by more people. After the release of the financial report of
, the stock price of Xiaopeng Motors US stock rose 12.53% before the market opened to US$8.26 per share. According to the plan, the flagship model Xiaopeng G9 will become the top three SUVs with a total of more than 300,000 yuan, will achieve higher performance growth than the industry average in 2023, and will hold a heavy position in technology in the era of electrification...
Xiaopeng Motors' series of actions received by capital market , which seems to further illustrate that Xiaopeng has an unlimited future.
So, is Xiaopeng Motors experiencing a cold winter?
Yes, because if you want to reach spring, you must cross the winter.
