All counting on the second half of the year"
Author: Qin Zhangyong
Volume marketing, volume price, and even volume boss, in the first half of this year, car companies were speeding on the track of involution, and the tragedy of the market is vividly remembered:
BYD started the year with "electricity is lower than oil", and Wuling Geely and others have followed up with price cuts. After Xiaomi SU7 became a phenomenal product, the traffic fell to Lei Jun, and the desire of other car companies for traffic reached its peak, so it became fashionable for the boss to live broadcast. Joint venture brands have lost one after another, BBA with "cabbage price", Porsche, which is 7% off...
Behind all the involution, there is the anxiety of car companies about sales.
Traditional car companies fight with their solid foundations, but there are not many cards that new players can play, and they can only output smoothly on the premise of consolidating their own advantages.
Halfway through this year, we can stand in the middle of the year and look back at the achievements of new power enterprises after experiencing artillery fire in the past six months. However, judging from the current sales volume, whether it is ideal, Weilai, or Xiaopeng, the achievement rate is not 50%, or even more than 40%, and if you want to complete the annual sales target, it all depends on the second half of the year.
NIO delivered 87,000 in the first half of the year
Because there are no brand new cars, NIO has been working hard to increase sales this year, and after delivering 20,000 units in May, it exceeded 20,000 again in June, reaching 21,209 units. In the second quarter of this year, NIO delivered 57,373 new vehicles, which also means that it exceeded the previous delivery guidance (54,000 to 56,000 units), a year-on-year increase of 143.9%.
From January to June, NIO delivered a total of 87,000 units, and according to the annual target of 230,000 units, NIO's KPI progress bar has been completed by about 38%.
Although sales have begun to explode in the past two months, there is still uncertainty about whether it can achieve the full-year target, and to achieve the annual KPI, it means that if the next six months, NIO will exceed 20,000 units per month.
At present, NIO's second brand Ledao is ready to go, with the first model L60 having a pre-sale price of 219,900 yuan, which will be officially sold in September. The significance of Ledao is also obvious, that is, to use low-cost models to rush sales.
If the BAAS scheme is adopted, the L60 is likely to enter less than 200,000 yuan, and it is still very attractive to buy a Model Y-level pure electric SUV at this price.
At present, NIO needs a cheap car to fill the shortfall, because the main brand NIO is positioned at the high-end, including a series of R&D and services, it will also invest a lot of manpower and financial resources, and the Ledao brand can share NIO's R&D and manufacturing expenses to the greatest extent with the help of NIO's accumulated battery swap technology, thereby reducing supply chain costs.
Therefore, if the Ledao brand can become popular, it can also feed back to Weilai.
In addition, NIO's battery swap technology is also bearing fruit, which is almost NIO's "natal advantage", in the first half of the year, the battery swap alliance continued to expand, and NIO Energy also won 1.5 billion yuan of financing from Hubei state-owned assets. At present, the track of battery swapping, NIO is running more and more smoothly.
Xiaopeng paid 52,000 yuan in half a year
After the delivery exceeded 10,000 units in May, Xpeng Motors exceeded 10,000 units again in June, with 10,668 units, a year-on-year increase of 24%. From January to June, Xpeng delivered a total of 52,028 units, with an annual sales target of 280,000 units, and the target achievement rate was 18.57%.
I have to admit that this number is a bit thin, and in the context of "sales only", Xiaopeng Motors seems to have become the one left behind.
In the eyes of many people, with the addition of Xiaomi cars, the advantages of Xiaopeng Motors, which is also a "small" generation, have also been diluted. And the situation that Xiaopeng is facing now, some people have begun to question Wang Fengying.
In January 2023, Wang Fengying officially joined Xpeng Motors as president, at that time, Xpeng Motors was in a low period, and the listing of Xpeng G9 suffered Waterloo, and the stock price and sales both declined.
Wang Fengying joined Xiaopeng Motors because she was considered to be the "fire captain", and after this strong woman in the car circle joined Xiaopeng Motors, she quickly carried out a series of reforms.
The outside world may only perceive sales, but Wang Fengying's greater role for Xiaopeng Motors is to reduce costs and increase efficiency internally.
For example, Wang Fengying has been in control of manufacturing, logistics, channels, and supply chains for many years, and Wang Fengying is well versed in cost control, and He Xiaopeng has also talked about Wang Fengying publicly more than once, saying that he needs to "report" to Wang Fengying in terms of cost reduction and gross profit improvement.
After quickly reducing costs and improving efficiency, the 2024 Xpeng G9 has greatly streamlined its configuration, and the starting price is also 46,000 lower than that of the first-generation model. He Xiaopeng revealed that even so, the gross profit margin of car sales is healthier than before.
For example, in the fourth quarter of last year, the average price of Xiaopeng bicycles reached 203,000 yuan, an increase of about 7,000 yuan compared with the third quarter. The gross profit margin of automobiles also reached 4.1% in the fourth quarter, and in the third quarter of 2023, it was still minus 6.1%. Behind the money, it is inseparable from Wang Fengying's promotion and change.
Of course, if you want to make a profit, you need to rely on sales to realize, at this stage, Xiaopeng's basic disk - the advantage of intelligent system is still there, and now intelligence has been promoted to an unprecedented height, and the end-to-end large model has also become a key direction, Xiaopeng has an innate advantage in this regard.
With the upcoming landing of Xpeng MONA M03, Xpeng's autonomous driving technology has also begun to be decentralized, and this car is positioned as a global popularizer of AI intelligent driving cars, and will also give full play to the advantages of Xpeng's intelligence. Whether Xiaopeng can turn over at the sales level, let's let the bullets fly first for a while.
Ideal delivery of 188,900 units in half a year
In June, Li Auto delivered 47,774 units, a year-on-year increase of 46.7%, and a total of 188981 units were delivered from January to June. According to the adjusted minimum sales target of 560,000 units in 2024, the sales target in the first half of the year was achieved by 33%.
In fact, since last year, the ideal is no longer worried about sales, when other cars are still worried about 10,000 units, the ideal monthly sales have already exceeded 30,000 units, the highest even more than 50,000 units, based on optimistic sales, the ideal once had to hit the annual sales target of 800,000.
The turning point is the ideal MEGA.
Before the launch, the official had full expectations for this car, claiming to be the model with the highest sales of more than 500,000. However, after the launch, public opinion hit like a tide, due to the product positioning error and the impact of the P map incident, the ideal MEGA did not usher in the highlight moment, and also ate the sales of the L series. Its position in the sales list has also been overtaken by the world.
Although sales still maintain a high level, it is undeniable that Li Auto has experienced too much in the first half of the year, and Li Xiang, CEO of Li Auto, has also changed his posture as the "king of Weibo", and has only posted 5 or 6 Weibo posts in three months since the release of Ideal MEGA.
At present, in the ideal product system, the ideal L7 has always been the sales responsibility, and the L6 with the lowest price has also begun to grow rapidly since the start of mass delivery in May, and has gradually become the main sales force. In the past June, the monthly delivery of Ideal L6 exceeded 20,000.
With the gradual release of follow-up production capacity, there is still room for growth in ideals.
However, in the extended range market, other car companies are also accelerating their layout. First of all, Wenjie is a player that cannot be ignored, its style of play and rim are not the same road at all, with a facelift and iteration, the old model can be quickly refurbished, and can greatly enhance the competitiveness. For example, after the launch of the new M7, sales soared, which directly made Wenjie achieve a turnaround.
In June, the sales volume of Wenjie also exceeded 40,000 units, reaching a record high of 42,780 units. From January to June this year, the cumulative sales of Cialis New Energy reached 200,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 348.55%.
Leapmotor is also a brand that enjoys the range extension dividend, its models C10, C11, C01, C16 all provide extended range versions, with a very low price, directly the price of the extended range SUV down, such as Leap C16, 6-seat medium and large SUV, the starting price is only 155,800, only half of the ideal L7.
In June, the delivery of Leapmotor exceeded 20,000 units for the first time, reaching 20,116 units, a figure close to that of NIO.
Of course, in addition to zero run, Nezha, Chang'an Deep Blue, Chery Xingtu, etc. have all entered the extended range market, which has been ideally opened up in the market, has begun to bloom everywhere, and its advantages are likely to be diluted, and then we must play up the spirit of 12 points.