Tagged: China

Li Auto Q1 earnings preview: Shifting to higher gear

With sales near the low end of guidance, Li Auto's performance in the first quarter is expected to be somewhat mixed, but the outlook for delivery in the second quarter will be robust, according to Edison Yu's team.  |  Li Auto US | Li Auto HK

Li Auto Q1 earnings preview: Shifting to higher gear-CnEVPost

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) will report its unaudited financial results for the first quarter on Wednesday, May 10, before the US markets open. As usual, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team provided their preview.

Li Auto continues to be the best-performing Chinese electric vehicle stock this year, which is well deserved, though it is expected to have a somewhat mixed quarter as sales approached the lower end of the original outlook, Yu's team said in a research note sent to investors today.

The automaker's management team took advantage of strong initial orders from customers in the premium SUV segment to quickly increase deliveries of new models, the team noted.

Yu's team expects a robust delivery outlook for Li Auto in the second quarter, supported by wide availability of the Li L7 and lower-priced versions of the Li L7 and Li L8.

"Positioning-wise, Li Auto remains the clear favorite in the group and likely stays there unless evidence of softening demand emerges later in the year," the team wrote.

First-quarter earnings preview

Yu's team expects Li Auto to report revenue of RMB 17.7 billion yuan in the first quarter, with a gross margin of 20.7 percent and adjusted earnings per share of 0.40.

The team's model assumes an increase in operating expenses relative to the fourth quarter.

This compares to the current analyst consensus estimates of RMB 18.9 billion, 20.5 percent and 0.49, respectively, in a Bloomberg survey.

Yu's team expects Li Auto's vehicle margin to increase by just 50 basis points sequentially, as average selling prices come under some pressure.

Li Auto delivered a record 52,584 vehicles in the first quarter, near the lower end of its previously provided guidance range of 52,000 to 55,000 vehicles.

Its revenue guidance for the first quarter was RMB 17.45 billion to RMB 18.45 billion, implying year-on-year growth of 82.5 percent to 93 percent.

Li Auto Q1 earnings preview: Shifting to higher gear-CnEVPost

Gearing up for big second quarter

For second-quarter delivery guidance, Yu's team expects Li Auto's management to target around 75,000 units, supported by deliveries of the Li L7 throughout the quarter and wide availability of the cheaper Air versions of the Li L7 and Li L8.

Li Auto launched the Li L7, its first five-seat SUV, on February 8.

The Li L7 is the least expensive in its product array, with Pro as well as Max versions starting at RMB 339,800 and 379,800 respectively. The Li L7 is available in a lower-priced Air version, starting at RMB 319,800.

Deliveries of the Li L7 Pro and the Li L7 Max began on March 11, and deliveries of the Li L7Air began in late April.

Li Auto is also offering an Air version of the Li L8, with a starting price of RMB 339,800. The Li L8 was previously available in Pro and Max versions with starting prices of RMB 359,800 and RMB 399,800, respectively.

Li Auto's other model, the flagship Li L9, is currently available only in the Max version, with a starting price of RMB 459,800.

Compared to NIO (NYSE: NIO), Li Auto has launched its latest model very efficiently, capturing the initial wave of demand, which is very important in a highly competitive market driven increasingly by product cycles, Yu's team said.

In terms of gross margin, the team expects improvement on a sequential basis as production scales up and battery input costs fall.

Li Auto CFO is conservatively aiming for a gross margin of above 20 percent, given battery costs and a volatile macro backdrop, Yu's team noted, adding that they see 22 percent-23 percent as more realistic, with further upside dependent on battery input costs and average selling prices.

The real test for the company will come later this year, when it will struggle to maintain demand momentum with its three relatively large EREV SUVs in the face of increased competition, the team said.

Some cannibalization will naturally occur among Li Auto's models, but that will likely be offset by share gains from legacy foreign brands, Yu's team said.

The Li L9 sales have already dropped from 10,582 units in December to 5,831 units in March. Since September, foreign brands have lost about 7 percentage points of market share in the premium SUV segment, the team said.

The slow recovery in Chinese auto sales in recent months is something Yu's team attributes to customers prioritizing spending elsewhere after the Covid reopening and recognizing that car prices could fall further, and therefore not rushing to buy.

China's car sales have been slow to recover in recent months, and Yu's team attributes that to customers prioritizing spending elsewhere after the Covid reopening and recognizing that car prices could fall further and therefore not rushing to buy.

In terms of positioning, Li Auto remains the most popular of the Chinese EV startups and is likely to stay there unless there are signs of softening demand or a decline in execution, the team said.

Li Auto CEO predicts China NEV penetration to exceed 80% by Dec 2025

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Thailand in talks with CATL over potential battery plant

Thailand is talking to many companies, not just CATL, but many in the battery industry, an official in the Southeast Asian country said.

Thailand in talks with CATL over potential battery plant-CnEVPost

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Thailand is in talks with CATL and other battery makers to build production facilities in the Southeast Asian country, a government official said.

"We are talking to many companies, not only CATL but many companies in the battery industry," Narit Therdsteerasukdi, secretary general of Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI), said, according to a May 3 Reuters report.

"This is one of our goals. That we would like to attract battery cell producers to set up their factory in Thailand," Therdsteerasukdi said.

CATL currently has 13 production sites worldwide, including 11 in China, one in Hungary and one in Germany, information on its official website shows. The company currently has no production facilities in Southeast Asia.

CATL is the world's largest power battery maker, with a 35 percent market share globally in January-March, the only one with a share of more than 30 percent, according to a report released by South Korean market research firm SNE Research on May 3.

As the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, Thailand has been looking to become a regional hub for electric vehicle production.

Thailand is currently the world's 10th-largest auto manufacturing economy, and its local auto production is dominated by Japanese automakers, including Toyota and Isuzu Motors.

According to the Thai government's plan, Thailand plans to convert about 30 percent of its annual vehicle production capacity to EVs by 2030.

Over the past few years, Thailand has been attracting investment from several EV companies, mainly Chinese, including Great Wall Motor and BYD.

On May 13, 2022, CATL announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Thailand's Arun Plus to collaborate on battery-related businesses in the ASEAN region.

Under the agreement, CATL will license CTP technology to ArunPlus, and the two companies will promote the application of CTP technology on the ground in Thailand and around the world.

Arun Plus, the EV subsidiary of Thai state energy group PTT, and CATL will supply battery products to Horizon Plus and other EV brands, according to a CATL press release at the time.

Horizon Plus, a joint venture between Arun Plus and Foxconn, plans to produce EVs in Thailand in 2024.

Global EV battery market share in Q1: CATL 35%, BYD 16.2%

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Global EV battery market share in Q1: CATL 35%, BYD 16.2%

CATL's battery is expected to maintain its No. 1 position as it is in high demand in passenger cars such as the Model 3, Model Y, SAIC Mulan, and the Chinese commercial vehicle market, according to SNE Research.

Global battery installations for electric vehicles (EVs) maintained strong growth in the first quarter, with China's CATL and BYD (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) continuing to hold the top two positions.

In the first quarter, global EV battery consumption totaled 133.0 GWh, up 38.6 percent from 95.9 GWh in the same period last year, according to a report released yesterday by South Korean market research firm SNE Research.

Among them, CATL installed 46.6 GWh of batteries in the first quarter, up 35.9 percent from 34.3 GWh in the same period last year.

The Chinese power battery giant continued to rank No. 1 in the world with a 35.0 percent share, down from its 35.8 percent share a year ago and up from its 33.9 percent share in the January-February period.

CATL's battery is expected to maintain its No. 1 position as it is in high demand in passenger cars such as the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, SAIC Mulan, Y, and the Chinese commercial vehicle market, SNE Research said.

BYD installed 21.5 GWh of power batteries in the first quarter, up 115.5 percent from 10.0 GWh in the same period last year.

The company ranked second with a 16.2 percent share in the first quarter, up from 10.4 percent a year earlier and down from 18.2 percent in January-February.

BYD is gaining popularity in the Chinese domestic market with its price competitiveness through a vertically integrated supply chain, including self-supply of batteries and vehicle manufacturing, SNE Research said.

BYD is known to enter the South Korean market soon following Europe, drawing attention to the change in its growth trend, SNE Research added in the report.

LG Energy Solution's power battery installation from January to March was 19.3 GWh, up 37.5 percent year-on-year.

The South Korean company ranked third in the world with a 14.5 percent share, down from 14.6 percent a year earlier.

Japan's Panasonic was fourth with a 9.0 percent share, South Korea's SK On was fifth with a 5.3 percent share and Samsung SDI was sixth with a 4.9 percent share.

China's CALB, Gotion High-tech, Eve Energy and Sunwoda ranked seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively, with shares of 4.3 percent, 2.2 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.4 percent respectively in the first quarter.

Global EV battery market share in Jan-Feb: CATL 33.9%, BYD 18.2%

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Chinese Lithium giant Tianqi reportedly mulling stake in Mercedes-Geely JV Smart

Smart delivered 4,390 vehicles in China in April, down 25.73 percent from 5,911 units in March.

(A Smart #1 on display at the Shanghai auto show in April 2023. Image credit: CnEVPost)

Chinese lithium giant Tianqi Lithium is considering buying a minority stake in Smart Automobile, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Holding Group, as part of the latter's latest round of private funding, Bloomberg said today, citing people familiar with the matter.

Tianqi is in advanced talks to invest $100 million to $200 million in Smart in a deal that could value Smart at several billion dollars, people familiar with the matter said, adding that an agreement could be reached as soon as the next few weeks.

Shenzhen-listed Tianqi, one of China's largest lithium producers, raised about HK$13 billion in a Hong Kong IPO on July 13, 2022.

Mercedes first launched Smart in Germany in 1998 and brought the brand to the US a decade later, with the original two-seat model aimed at urban buyers with crowded parking spaces, the Bloomberg report noted.

Geely and Mercedes-Benz officially announced a 5.4 billion yuan ($783 million) Smart joint venture in Hangzhou Bay, Ningbo, in early 2020.

As part of the agreement, Mercedes-Benz designers will design the Smart cars and Geely will engineer them.

Smart has been considering raising capital as part of its effort to revive the compact car as an all-electric brand. The company was initially aiming to raise between $500 million and $1 billion in fresh funds, according to a Bloomberg report last year.

Smart delivered 4,390 vehicles in China in April, down 25.73 percent from 5,911 units in March, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

The brand currently has only one model on sale in China, the Smart #1, which went on sale in China on April 25, 2022, with deliveries starting on September 24.

The model was designed by Mercedes-Benz, with the Smart R&D team leading the engineering development, and is based on Geely's SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) architecture.

On April 17, Smart unveiled its new Smart #3, its second product since its electrification transition, on the eve of the Shanghai auto show.

($1 = RMB 6.8964)

Regulatory filing: Smart's second EV, Smart #3, coming soon

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NIO to open new NIO House in Germany on Jun 1

The new NIO House will be located in Düsseldorf and is set to become NIO's third such facility in Germany.  |  NIO US | NIO HK | NIO SG

NIO to open new NIO House in Germany on Jun 1-CnEVPost

(Image credit: NIO)

NIO (NYSE: NIO) will open a new NIO House in Germany next month, as the Chinese electric vehicle company ramps up its efforts in Europe.

NIO's NIO House in Düsseldorf will open on June 1 local time, according to an article posted yesterday on the company's European version of its mobile app.

Düsseldorf, known for its elegant shopping streets, is also an important business location, especially in the fashion, advertising and telecommunications sectors, according to the article, which did not reveal the exact address of the NIO House.

The new NIO House will be the third flagship showroom of NIO in Germany.

On December 16, 2022, NIO opened its first NIO House in Germany, located on Kurfurstendamm in Berlin.

On March 30 of this year, NIO opened its second NIO House in Germany, located in the heart of Groβe Eschenheimer StraBe in Frankfurt.

NIO co-founder and president Qin Lihong was on site for the Frankfurt NIO House opening ceremony.

NIO House is the flagship showroom of NIO, which also includes the smaller NIO Space in China.

The NIO House is much more than just a space to display and sell vehicles, it is a space for NIO to offer a quality lifestyle to car owners.

NIO's goal is to transfer its entire suite of services in China to overseas markets, including the NIO House and its signature battery swap service.

NIO introduced the ET7, EL7 and ET5 to European consumers at the NIO Berlin launch event last October 7. The EL7 is known as the ES7 in China.

ET7 deliveries in Europe started last October and EL7 deliveries began at the end of January. ET5 deliveries in Germany started on March 31.

NIO opens new NIO House in Frankfurt, its 2nd in Germany

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Chengdu auto show to be held from Aug 25 to Sep 3

Last year's Chengdu auto show opened on August 26, but the show, which was to run for 10 days, ended early after four days due to Covid control.

Chengdu auto show to be held from Aug 25 to Sep 3-CnEVPost

(NIO's booth at the 2023 Shanghai auto show. Image credit: CnEVPost)

The date of the annual Chengdu auto show is set, after the Shanghai auto show has just ended and the Beijing auto show has announced its date.

The 26th edition of the Chengdu Motor Show will be held from August 25 to September 3, 2023, the event's organizers mentioned in a post on its official WeChat account Monday.

Separately, information on the Chengdu auto show's official website shows the event will be held at the city's Western China International Expo City, with a media day on August 25.

The Chengdu auto show has become one of China's four A-class auto shows and is the most visible wind vane in the western China auto market, the event's official website reads.

After China's Covid reopening late last year, major events, including auto shows, are highly anticipated because they are important to stimulate economic growth.

The just-concluded biennial Shanghai auto show, held April 18-27, attracted nearly 1 million visitors, with new energy vehicles (NEVs) in the spotlight.

The Shanghai auto show, which officially closed on April 27, hosted more than 13,000 global media workers and had 906,000 visitors, the show's organizers said in an April 27 article.

The total exhibition area of the Shanghai auto show exceeded 360,000 square meters, with 1,413 vehicles on display in the vehicle section, including 513 NEV show cars, according to the article.

On April 21, during the Shanghai auto show, the organizers of the Beijing auto show announced that the 17th Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China 2024) will be held from April 25 to May 4, 2024, which will mark the event's return after a four-year hiatus.

The Beijing auto show has been held in Beijing every two years since 1990. The 17th Beijing auto show was originally planned for April 21-April 30, 2022, but was cancelled due to Covid concerns.

Prior to that, the 16th Beijing auto show was postponed to September 26-October 5, 2020 due to Covid.

Last year's Chengdu auto show opened on August 26 amid Covid concerns, but the show, which was to run for 10 days, ended early on August 30 due to epidemic control after four days.

More than 1,600 vehicles from 128 brands were on display in Chengdu at the time. Before that show ended, 108 new models were unveiled, more than 40 of which were NEVs.

At last year's Chengdu auto show, NIO presented the full range of models and also brought a battery swap station with a transparent bottom.

Chengdu auto show: Here's what NIO is showcasing

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NIO to adopt NXP’s 4D imaging radar that provides greater road safety

4D imaging radar enables cars to detect and classify objects such as other vehicles and vulnerable road users on highways and in complex urban scenarios and at distances of up to 300 meters.  |  NIO US | NIO HK | NIO SG

NIO to adopt NXP's 4D imaging radar that provides greater road safety-CnEVPost

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Dutch-headquartered computer chip maker NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) today announced that Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker NIO (NYSE: NIO) will adopt its 4D imaging radar solution, which offers benefits far beyond those of traditional radar.

4D imaging radar will significantly improve the performance of front radar in today's vehicles, and NXP's imaging radar technology extends the functionality of radar from measuring range and speed to include direction, angle of arrival and elevation measurement, the chipmaker said.

These vehicles will be able to detect and classify objects such as other vehicles and vulnerable road users on highways and in complex urban scenarios and at distances of up to 300 meters, bringing greater road safety and driving comfort to end users, according to a press release.

Fine-resolution point clouds enhance environmental mapping and scene understanding, enabling the detection and classification of objects beyond the range of human vision while measuring object speed in virtually all weather and light conditions, according to NXP.

The technology is a key step in improving road safety and saving lives by allowing a car to "see" a motorcycle traveling close to a large delivery truck or a child entering the road between parked cars.

NXP's imaging radar solutions are ideal for advanced, high-performance front radar applications, it said, adding that as part of NXP's full family of radar products, they offer seamless performance scalability and software and hardware design reuse across radar platforms.

The combined radar processor and transceiver chipsets provide efficient advanced radar processing and high-performance RF technology to support Level 2+ and higher-level autonomous driving services, NXP said.

"Together with NXP, we’ll be able to take the next step toward improving driver experiences," said Kevin Pan, assistant vice president of NIO supply chain development.

In China, EV makers rely on vision cameras as well as LiDARs for assisted driving sensors. The mainstream technology route is vision-based, with millimeter-wave radar and LiDARs providing assistance.

4D imaging radar, as an extension of millimeter wave technology, provides the ability to accurately measure height, which can effectively complement the advantages of vision sensors and improve the recognition of stationary and hidden targets in critical scenarios.

As for the cost, the mature automotive electronics industry chain and manufacturing process provide a broad room for improvement after 4D imaging radar is mass-produced on a large scale.

In addition to the partnership with NXP, NIO Capital, with William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, as a managing partner, invested in SinPro, a local Chinese 4D imaging radar manufacturer, last month.

SinPro announced on April 12 that it had closed a series A funding round of several hundred million RMB, led by NIO Capital and an investment fund under Xiaomi.

The emergence of 4D imaging radar technology will drive smart cars in a safer and smarter direction, Ian Zhu, another managing partner at NIO Capital, said at the time.

NIO plans to launch EV priced below 30,000 euros in Europe, report says

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