The new forces of car building are speeding up on the new energy vehicle track. Wei Lai, Xiao Peng and ideal, collectively known as "Wei Xiaoli", recently released their first quarterly reports. The three companies improved in terms of revenue, sales and gross profit margin. The person in charge of the China Automobile Association said that the new forces of car making have become the representatives of "overtaking by changing lanes" in China's new energy automobile industry, and their development trends deserve attention. Many business indicators of "Wei Xiaoli" are improving In the first quarter of this year, in terms of revenue, Weilai automobile led the new forces in car making, reaching 9.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.2%. It has been growing year-on-year for eight consecutive quarters. It is only one step away from the "ten billion club". It is worth noting that from January to March this year, Weilai delivered 25800 new cars, a record high, but lower than the 34600 cars of Xiaopeng automobile and 31700 cars of ideal automobile. Wei Lai sells relatively little but has a high revenue. Thanks to its high average sales price, Wei Lai has delivered four models, including es8. Its average sales price has exceeded 400000 yuan, surpassing many traditional second-line luxury fuel vehicle brands. With the advantage of rich product lines of new energy vehicles, the delivery volume of Xiaopeng automobile has increased rapidly. In the first quarter of this year, Xiaopeng automobile was ahead of Weilai and ideal with the delivery of more than 10000 vehicles in January and March. For the temporary lag in February, Xiaopeng automobile said that it was affected by the technical transformation and upgrading of Guangdong Zhaoqing base. In terms of gross profit margin, ideal automobile has taken the lead in the industry. The gross profit margin of ideal automobile in the first quarter was 22.4%, compared with 17% in the same period last year. According to the analysis of the insiders, in addition to the increase in the delivery volume, which increases the average selling price of new cars, the reason for the increase in the gross profit margin of ideal cars, as well as the scale effect, which reduces the production cost. Actively transform and expand incremental space At the same time of handing over the first quarterly report, the managers of the three new forces of car manufacturing all expressed their strong desire to accelerate the transformation and enter the incremental market. Wei Lai, who was originally the highest positioned, took the lead in laying down his stature. Li Bin, the chairman of the company, said that the company's product development and production of new brands in the mass market are steadily advancing, with a price between 200000 yuan and 300000 yuan. It will carry Wei Lai's own batteries and support high-voltage fast charging technology. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng, said that the company plans to launch a new car in class B and class C markets respectively, and the existing models will cover the price range of 150000 yuan to 400000 yuan. Li Xiang, CEO of ideal automobile with relatively single model, said that ideal would respond to different consumer demands, and the future product portfolio strategy would be similar to that of iPhone. As for the new power of car making to expand new markets, some insiders said that new energy vehicles are a "money burning" industry that needs long-term capital investment. New power car enterprises should achieve sales growth as soon as possible and enter the first camp of new energy vehicles, so as to mitigate business risks. Take Weilai as an example. In the first quarter of this year, Weilai's cash and cash equivalents reached 53.3 billion yuan, but the short-term loans were 6.1 billion yuan and the long-term loans were 12.6 billion yuan. After deducting the above loans, the actual real cash belonging to Weilai was only 34.6 billion yuan. On a month on month basis, Weilai's cash decreased from 38.4 billion yuan in the previous quarter to 34.6 billion yuan, and the cash decreased by 3.8 billion yuan in one quarter. In addition, in terms of sales volume, Tesla plans to produce 1.5 million electric vehicles this year. BYD sold 114943 new energy vehicles in May, with a cumulative sales volume of 507314 this year. Although the ideal delivery volume of Weilai, Xiaopeng and BYD also showed growth, the delivery volume in May was 7024, 10125 and 11496 respectively, far less than the production and sales scale of Tesla and BYD. There are still short boards such as light R & D to be supplemented "Tesla and BYD are in their teens and are running in full swing. The new forces of car building are still toddlers and some are wobbly." Mei Songlin, an automotive industry analyst, said that since this year, BYD, which has laid out the new energy vehicle industry chain in terms of battery research and development, has seized the new energy market share with an average monthly sales volume of 100000 vehicles. According to the prediction of the China Automobile Association, the overall sales volume of China's new energy vehicles this year will exceed 5million, which also means that BYD is expected to win more than 20% of the new energy vehicle market share this year. Different from BYD, although the new forces of car making have their own bright spots, their overall and supporting R & D capabilities, scale and ability to pull the industrial chain still need to be continuously improved. In terms of R & D expenses, Tesla spent nearly $1billion in the first quarter, while Weilai, Xiaopeng and ideal spent less than $2billion in the first quarter. On the technical side, since new energy vehicles are highly coupled products of software and hardware, self-development can better combine software and hardware, which is conducive to technical iteration. Tesla's intelligent driving system and intelligent cockpit are self-developed, which is helpful for technical iteration. According to statistics, Tesla FSD (fully autonomous driving) pushed 8 major version updates and 130 minor version updates last year. The ideal is to update 6 times. Xiaopeng and Weilai have 5 updates respectively. "The competition in the new energy vehicle market is extremely fierce. Consumers prefer products with high cost performance, multiple product choices and technical characteristics." An industry insider said that in order to truly enter the first camp and become the next Tesla and BYD, the new forces of car building also need to make efforts in innovative R & D and improving services. (Xinhua News Agency)