Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com
China has three Electric Vehicle Makers growing rapidly – Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto. Last December, all of them set a new record on the monthly Deliveries – where Xpeng was the sales leader with 16,000 units. But how do their vehicle and gross margin compare? Do they produce vehicles for the same target?
On this article, through 12 charts, you’ll see the three Chinese EV makers compared in many aspects: IPO; Market Cap value; Monthly Deliveries from the last 15 months; Gross Margin each company had since late 2019; Q3 Revenue YoY; Annual Deliveries from the since 2019; Earnings/ Loss per Share and Cash on hand.
IPO (Initial Public Offering)
Nio‘s IPO was on September 2018 at $6 rasing +$6 Billion.
Xpeng‘s IPO was on August 2020 at $13 rasing +$1.5 Billion.
LI‘s IPO was on August 2020 at $15.15 rasing +$1.52 Billion.
Market Cap Value
Based on 14th January 2022 closing prices, Nio has the highest Market Cap value of $49.23B with a current share price of $30.95. The stock is down 2.30% Year-to-date and 45.00% lower from January 2021, when it reached its all-time-high at $66.99.
Xpeng – the favorite Chinese EV maker for the ARK Investment CEO Cathie Wood – has been getting closer to Nio’s Market Cap and has a $42.55B valuation with a current share price of $49.56. The stock is barely down 1.27% Year-to-date and up 3.91% from January 2021.
Li Auto has the lowest valuation from these three with a $32.15B Market cap and a share price of $31.10. Also a bit down year-to-date (-3.02%), the stock is around the same value it had one year ago (-4.51%).
Monthly Deliveries
During last December, NIO delivered +10k vehicles for the second month in a row (130,000 Annual Sales pace). William Li, CEO of NIO, said that the ~100% Deliveries growth Year-over-year “is expected to be maintained that pace in 2022”. For this year, main catalyst are the expansion to another 4 European countires; ET7 deliveries beginning on March 28th, a new SUV model (ES7) in Q2/ Q3 and its deliveries in Q4 and the start of the ET5 Model deliveries next September.
XPeng delivered 16,000 Smart EVs in December 2021, exceeding the monthly delivery benchmark of 15,000 units for the second consecutive month despite ongoing global supply chain challenges. The December deliveries represented a 181% increase year-over-year, demonstrating the Company’s solid business momentum and execution capability.
Li Auto delivered 14,087 Li ONEs in December 2021, representing a 130.0% increase year over year. This took its fourth quarter deliveries to 35,221, up 40.2% quarter over quarter and 143.5% year over year. Total deliveries in 2021 increased 177.4% year over year to 90,491.
2021 Deliveries
The Luxury EV maker Nio closed 2020 as the sales leader with a confortable distance from Xpeng and Li’s numbers. However, 2021 brought a great growth from Xpeng who jumped from the last position to the lead with 98,155 units sold during last year, a rising of 263% YoY.
Annual Deliveries – 2020 vs 2021
The Luxury EV maker Nio closed 2020 as the sales leader with a confortable distance from Xpeng and Li’s numbers. However, 2021 brought a great growth from Xpeng who jumped from the last position to the lead with 98,155 units sold during last year, a rising of 263% YoY.
Annual Deliveries – 2019 vs 2020 vs 2021
The Luxury EV maker Nio closed 2020 as the sales leader with a confortable distance from Xpeng and Li’s numbers. However, 2021 brought a great growth from Xpeng who jumped from the last position to the lead with 98,155 units sold during last year, a rising of 263% YoY. Xpeng targets a different market compared to NIO that assume its “Luxury” target which make their models more expensive bringing naturally a higher revenue.
Q3 Revenue YoY
Nio was the EV maker with the highest Revenue of $1.52 Billion representing an 116.6% increase Year-over-Year. The segment Nio is aiming – Luxury – brings more revenue even selling less vehicles than Xpeng, also due to the vehicle margin of each one, as you can check during the next charts.
Xpeng had $0,89 Billion in Revenue during Q3 2021 which represents a +187.4% growth from Q3 2020 and an increase of 52.1% from the second quarter of 2021.
Li Auto, with the highest Margin per vehicle sold, reached an impressive value of $1.21 Billion even selling less units than Xpeng. The increase represents an increase of 209.7% from RMB2.51 billion in the third quarter of 2020 and an increase of 54.3% from RMB5.04 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
Gross Margin per Quarter
Vehicle Margin
On their Q3 report, Nio said that their Vehicle Margin in the third quarter of 2021 was 18.0%, compared with 14.5% in the third quarter of 2020 and 20.3% in the second quarter of 2021. The increase of vehicle margin compared to the third quarter of 2020 was mainly driven by the higher average selling price, as well as lower material cost. The decrease of vehicle margin compared to the second quarter of 2021 was mainly driven by the increased financing at subsidized rates for vehicle purchases which resulted in a deduction of vehicle revenue and an increase in tooling depreciation cost.
Xpeng’s Vehicle Margin was 13.6% for the third quarter of 2021, compared with 3.2% for the same period of 2020 and 11.0% for the second quarter of 2021.
Li’s Vehicle Margin was 21.1% in Q3 2021, compared with 19.8% in the third quarter of 2020 and 18.7% in the second quarter of 2021. The increase in vehicle margin over the third quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021 was primarily driven by higher average selling price attributable to increasing deliveries of 2021 Li ONE in the third quarter of 2021.
Nio said its Cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investment were RMB47.0 billion (US$7.3 billion) as of September 30, 2021.
Xpeng announced that the Cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term deposits, short-term investments and long-term deposits were RMB45,357.9 million (US$7,039.4 million)as of September 30, 2021, compared with RMB35,342.1 million as of December 31, 2020 and RMB32,871.2 million as of June 30, 2021.
Li’s Cash flow was RMB1.16 billion (US$180.8 million) in the third quarter of 2021, representing an increase of 55.4% from RMB749.9 million in the same period of 2020 and an increase of 18.6% from RMB982.1 million from the previous quarter.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | info@claudio-afonso.com