The "sell-out" MONA-M03 can bring Xpeng Motors out of the "quagmire"?

In 2021, Didi officially launched the car-making project, codenamed "Da Vinci".

According to the media, the "Da Vinci" project was originally planned to be officially released to the public in June 2022 and strive to be delivered in June 2023, with a project team of more than 1,000 people at its peak.

However, surprisingly, this project, which poured a lot of money and energy into Didi, eventually changed hands to Xpeng Motors. On August 28, 2023, Xpeng Motors acquired the assets and R&D capabilities related to the Didi smart electric vehicle project for up to 5.835 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 5.423 billion yuan), and the "Da Vinci" project officially changed hands.

What people didn't expect was that this project, which was taken over from Didi, eventually became a "life-saving straw" for Xiaopeng Motors.

At the end of August, based on the transformation of the "Da Vinci" project, Xiaopeng MONA M03 was officially launched, but I didn't expect it to become a hit when it was listed - according to the official data released by Xiaopeng Motors, MONA-M03 has exceeded 10,000 units within 52 minutes of listing, and the number of large orders has exceeded 30,000 units after 48 hours; In addition, with the MONA-M03, Xpeng Motors' sales in September also exceeded 20,000 units.

For Xpeng Motors, the huge sales brought by Xpeng MONA-M03 after its launch are undoubtedly a relief in the snow, so that Xpeng Motors, which has been suffering from sales difficulties, finally sees hope. Of course, it is not uncommon for sales of new models to be hot after they are launched, and the most important thing is to see whether they can be sustained; At present, it is more worth thinking about the "sell-out" MONA M03, can it bring Xpeng Motors out of the quagmire?

Behind the big sale of MONA-M03

In fact, since Xpeng Motors took over the "Da Vinci" project, Xpeng MONA-M03 has the potential to become a hit.

There is no other reason, because even if the retail port does not sell well, Didi will "cover up" for Xpeng Motors - it is reported that when Xpeng Motors took over the "Da Vinci" project, a VAM clause was added to the agreement:

In the 13 months after the delivery of MONA-M03, if Didi Ecology's sales reach 100,000-180,000 units, then Xpeng will deliver up to 14.05 million Class A ordinary shares to Didi; Within 12 months of reaching the Phase 1 milestone, Xpeng will deliver up to 14.28 million Class A ordinary shares to Didi if Didi Ecology's sales reach another 100,000-180,000 units.

To put it simply, the VAM clause is mainly to push Didi to sell more cars: if it reaches 180,000 units a year and achieves the target for two consecutive years, Didi's stake in Xpeng Motors will increase to about 5%.

Of course, with the big sale of MONA-M03, Didi's "bottom-up" is no longer important, and even online car-hailing has become a label that MONA-M03 wants to draw clearly. According to media reports, He Xiaopeng affirmed in the live broadcast that Xiaopeng MONA M03 will not launch a "taxi version"; Yang Guang, head of the MONA series products of Xpeng Motors, also said, "In the MONA-M03 order, the online car-hailing company basically does not have one. ”

So, why did the Xpeng MONA-M03 sell so well after it was launched? There are two key words: "low price + intelligence".

Xpeng MONA-M03 is positioned as an intelligent pure electric coupe A-class car, which is divided into three models according to different endurance and intelligent configurations: the 515 long-range version is priced at 119,800 yuan, the 620 ultra-long-range version is 129,800 yuan, and the 580 ultra-long-range Max version (equipped with high-end intelligent assisted driving) is 155,800 yuan. According to He Xiaopeng, M03 Max is equipped with Xpeng XNGP, which is not limited to cities, routes, and road conditions, and belongs to the same intelligent driving system as other models of Xiaopeng Motors - M03Max is definitely the only high-end intelligent driving within 200,000. Obviously, the success of Xpeng MONA-M03 mainly lies in the sinking of the original high-end intelligent driving that would only be matched with more than 300,000 yuan to a 150,000-level model.

Of course, in addition to high-end intelligent driving, the other configurations of Xpeng MONA-M03 are not weak: although the positioning is only A-class, the length of the car at 4780mm and the wheelbase of 2815mm are quasi-B-class sizes; Although it is a sedan, it uses a liftback tailgate, coupled with a low-lying design, the overall design is very sporty and stylish; 129,800 yuan can have an ultra-long battery life of 620km, and it is currently the only sedan pure electric car with a range of more than 600km within 150,000 yuan.

Overall, the "explosion" of Xpeng MONA-M03 is not unexpected, but it is worth thinking about - can only one Xpeng MONA-M03 help Xpeng Motors out of the predicament? The answer is full of uncertainty.

Can it be "out of trouble"?

For Xpeng Motors, the launch of Xpeng MONA-M03 is like a send-off in the snow, alleviating the sales pressure of Xpeng Motors.

According to official information, the number of MONA-M03 has exceeded 10,000 within 52 minutes of its launch, and the number of large orders has exceeded 30,000 after 48 hours; In addition, according to the sales data disclosed by Xpeng Motors, Xpeng Motors delivered a total of 21,352 new vehicles in September, a record high for monthly deliveries, a year-on-year increase of 39% and a month-on-month increase of 52%. Among them, Xpeng MONA-M03 delivered more than 10,000 units, accounting for about half of the sales.

However, although the sales of Xpeng MONA-M03 are booming, the performance of other models of Xpeng Motors is much weaker. According to public information, Xiaopeng has a total of six models on sale, including sedans, SUVs, MPVs and other models, from January to August this year, the cumulative sales of Xiaopeng Motors are only 77,000, with an average monthly sales volume of less than 10,000, compared with its annual sales target of 280,000, the completion rate is only 27.5%.

At present, although Xpeng MONA-M03 can bring good sales data to Xpeng Motors, it is difficult to hide the "decline" of other models. And, with the increase in the proportion of Xiaopeng MONA-M03 sales, the unit price of Xiaopeng Motors may decline - according to media analysis, if the third quarter is the same as other revenues in the second quarter, under the expected revenue in the third quarter, the unit price of Xiaopeng Motors in the third quarter is expected to be about 190,000 yuan, slightly lower than the market expectation of 200,000 yuan.

You know, at present, Xiaopeng Motors is still in a state of loss, with a loss of 2.653 billion in the first half of this year, and if the unit price falls, Xiaopeng Motors' loss in the third quarter may be further exacerbated.

In addition, a more important point - with the big sales of MONA-M03, it will be more difficult for Xpeng Motors to hit the high-end market in the future. Previously, Xpeng Motors mainly relied on "intelligence" to get out of the circle, and also relied on "intelligence" to support brand value. However, as Xpeng Motors sinks "high-end intelligent driving technology" to 150,000 level models, the label "intelligent" will become more and more common and less valuable. However, in fact, Xpeng Motors has paid a lot of price in order to promote intelligence, and from 2021 to 2023, Xpeng Motors' R&D expenses will be 4.114 billion, 5.215 billion and 5.277 billion respectively.

From the current point of view, after the big sale of Xiaopeng MONA-M03, Xiaopeng Motors' sinking of "high-end intelligent driving technology" has indeed brought good results, and the sales pressure of Xiaopeng Motors has also eased.

However, it is not uncommon for new models to sell well after they are launched, and the most important thing is to see whether they can be sustained, so it remains to be seen whether the Xpeng MONA-M03 can continue to sell well. What is worrying is that Xpeng Motors has handed over its own technical cards for sales, and if Xpeng MONA-M03 sales decline in the future, there may really not be many cards to play in the future.