Recently, Li Bin, founder and CEO of Weilai Automobile, said in an interview with the media that he did not understand that there are still people who buy oil trucks. What good is the gas truck except that it can smell a little gasoline? It is also said that charging anxiety is basically the heart of gasoline car users to operate electric vehicles.
Although domestic new energy vehicles are developing rapidly, what determines how far new energy vehicles can go is not only relying on Tesla, BYD, these giants with leading technology and a wide layout, but also to see the development of the new energy industry chain itself, after all, cars can not only run by tires and cars, but also the popularity of gas stations or charging piles, charging technology, etc.
Charging piles are a key part of the new energy vehicle support, and this new energy segment has once again ushered in policy opportunities recently. On December 17, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mentioned that they should speed up the construction of supporting facilities such as charging piles and power stations. On the same day, the charging pile and hydrogen energy concept stock Inkerry ushered in a long-lost rise and stop, with a stock price increase of more than 20% and a closing price of 25.06 yuan.
Charging pile concept stocks, the gross profit margin is not as good as power products
Encore is a supplier of core components and solutions for intelligent high-frequency switching power supplies, mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of intelligent high-frequency switching power supplies and related power electronic products in the field of power electronics industry.
According to the application field, the company's products mainly include power operation power modules and systems, electric vehicle charging power modules and systems, rail transit auxiliary converters and other power products, corresponding to the downstream application areas are electric power, new energy vehicles, rail transit, communications, metallurgy, chemical industry, petroleum, as well as DC power supply, laser equipment and other industries.
In 2021, when new energy vehicles are performing well, Encore's electric vehicle charging power supply business has attracted more attention from the outside world.
Electric vehicle charging systems are usually divided into AC charging systems and DC charging systems. Encore mainly provides the core components and complete systems of DC charging. DC charging system, commonly known as "fast charging", is mainly used in public places to provide fast charging services for electric vehicles, including new energy buses, new energy taxis, new energy logistics vehicles, new energy passenger cars and new energy special operation vehicles and other new energy vehicles to provide fast charging.
The company began to lay out new energy vehicle charging power supply products in 2010, the main products are electric vehicle charging power modules, electric vehicle charging power systems, the current products have been serialized production, single charging power module product power levels from 3KW ~ 30kW, system power levels covering 21kw ~ 450kw, can meet the needs of most DC fast charging application scenarios.
In addition, the company has also successfully launched liquid-cooled charging power module products and liquid-cooled charging pile system products, which greatly improved the reliability and weather resistance of charging pile system products.
The electric vehicle charging power supply business is one of the company's main businesses, accounting for about 47.33% of revenue in 2020. This proportion is still climbing rapidly. According to the company's 2021 semi-annual report data, as of June 30, 2021, the company's electric vehicle charging power business accounted for 76.85%.
However, the gross profit margin of the new energy automobile industry is the lowest among the company's four major businesses, only 23.81% in 2020, lower than 40.87% in the power industry, 45.33% in the rail transit industry, and 38.59% in other power supply industries.
The gross profit margin of the main business is not high, and the performance of new energy vehicles before superimposed is not as bright as this year, and the performance of Encore in previous years is not as bright as that of the first three quarters.
In the first three quarters of 2021, the company's revenue was about 183 million yuan, an increase of 7.63% year-on-year; compared with the three years from 2018 to 2020, the company's revenue scale not only declined year by year, but also the growth rate performance was not ideal. The revenue of the above three years was about 211 million yuan, 194 million yuan and 170 million yuan respectively, an increase of -24.39%, -7.98% and -12.12% respectively.
The company's attributable net profit trend is roughly similar to revenue. In the first three quarters of 2018-2020, it was about 0.42 billion yuan, 0.05 billion yuan and 0.08 billion yuan respectively, achieving -39.13%, -87.56% and 47.54% respectively. In the first three quarters of 2021, the company's attributable net profit growth further doubled to 115.84%.
In 2021, when the growth of new energy vehicles is accelerating, the company's performance has also ushered in an inflection point, showing high growth.
The development of new energy has accelerated, and charging piles have opened up room for growth
New energy vehicles drive the development of the entire industrial chain, and the charging pile market space is vast.
With the accelerated penetration of new energy vehicles, the penetration rate will reach more than 20% in 2025. Under the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, China's new energy automobile industry has entered a stage of accelerated development, and the demand for necessary supporting facilities such as charging piles will also increase significantly. According to data from the China Charging Alliance, as of June 2021, the country has built a total of 66,000 charging stations, 716 substations, and the cumulative number of charging infrastructure is 1.947 million units. The layout of charging and replacing infrastructure has been significantly expanded, and the intelligence of charging facilities will be popularized.
By the end of 2021, favorable policies will further benefit the charging pile industry. On December 17, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on the Implementation Plan for Cheering Up the Operation of the Industrial Economy and Promoting the High-quality Development of Industry", mentioning the acceleration of the promotion and application of new energy vehicles and the acceleration of the construction of supporting facilities such as charging piles and substations.
Affected by the news of fast charging piles and power stations, the concept stocks of A-share charging piles opened sharply stronger, and related stocks such as Encore and Tonghe Technology performed well.
CICC's research report predicts that the number of new energy vehicles in 2021 will be 8.26 million, with a vehicle-to-pile ratio of 3.17, and it is still accelerating. In 2022, there will be 10 million new energy vehicle owners, who will have to rely on public charging systems to replenish energy, and the contradiction will become increasingly prominent. The investment opportunities in charging and replacing infrastructure are prominent, and it is expected that in 2022, there will be a "big outbreak of power replacement, car companies accelerating the self-construction of super/fast charging stations, and slow charging accelerating into the community".
The scale is inferior to that of Zhongheng Electric, and the profit is doubled
Although The development prospects of China's charging pile market are broad, most of the market share is currently occupied by several head companies such as Special Call, Star Charging, State Grid and Cloud Fast Charging, and it is not easy to expand in the downstream of the industrial chain such as Inkry, which focuses on the segmentation of electric vehicle charging power modules. In addition, after the rapid development of electric vehicle charging power module industry in recent years, the development of product technology is becoming more and more mature, and has now entered a stage of full competition, and Encore is facing competition from major competitors Tonghe Technology and Zhongheng Electric.
Judging from the performance comparison of the first three quarters of this year, the revenue scale of Zhongheng Electric is about 1.077 billion yuan, which is significantly ahead of Tonghe Technology's 242 million yuan and Encore's 183 million yuan. From the perspective of growth, although the revenue scale of Zhongheng Electric is large, it still maintains a high revenue growth rate, and the company's business scale develops rapidly.
In terms of net profit attributable to the mother, the three companies are not much different, of which in the first three quarters of this year, Zhongheng Electric and Tonghe Technology have achieved negative growth in net profit attributable to the mother, and Encore has achieved nearly 116% growth.
Why did Encore's attributable net profit increase significantly? The gross profit margin of the three companies is not much different, two are more than 30%, and Zhongheng Electric is also more than 27%. However, the expense ratio of The Sales Period in recent years has decreased significantly, from 40.92% in the first three quarters of 2020 to 28.05% in the first three quarters of the current year, which has greatly improved the level of profit.
brief summary
Overall, in 2021, The performance of Inkerry bottomed out and rebounded, showing high growth. Near the end of the year, its market performance also began to turn upwards and performed actively. However, we still need to be vigilant about the cost pressures brought about by the rising prices of raw materials faced by the industry. In an investor survey at the end of November, Inkerry said that due to the tight supply of upstream materials and the large increase in prices, the company's delivery pressure in the second half of the year was relatively large, and the company has taken multiple measures to solve the problem and strive to complete the annual business plan as planned.
Author: Li Ying