Tagged: China

Li Auto’s Beijing plant expected to see 1st vehicle roll off line by Sept

's first all-electric model will go into production at its Beijing plant, with an annual capacity of 100,000 all-electric vehicles in the first phase.

Li Auto US | Li Auto HK

(A rendering of Li Auto's factory posted on Weibo by Beijing Shunyi district authorities.)

Li Auto's (NASDAQ: LI) plant in Beijing, where it is headquartered, is expected to be operational by September to produce its first all-electric model.

Li Auto's manufacturing site in Beijing -- built on the site of the original Hyundai No. 1 plant -- is expected to see its first vehicle roll off the line by September of this year, according to an article published yesterday by a WeChat account owned by local media outlet Beijing Daily.

The article said Beijing officials toured the factories of automakers including BAIC and Li Auto in the city's Shunyi district on March 14.

Yin Li, party chief of Beijing, checked out the construction of Li Auto's Beijing plant and the current operation of its pilot production center, according to the report.

He asked Beijing government authorities to support Li Auto's development in the city by providing smooth services and helping the company resolve difficulties.

Yi said he hoped Li Auto would stay rooted in Beijing and accelerate the start-up of projects under construction, according to the report.

Li Auto's current vehicles -- the Li L7, Li L8 and Li L9 -- are all extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs), all produced at its plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, in eastern China.

On October 16, 2021, an announcement from Beijing's Shunyi District government said that Li Auto had officially started construction of its manufacturing site in the district, with production scheduled to begin by the end of 2023.

Upon reaching production, the plant will achieve an annual capacity of 100,000 units of pure-play electric vehicles, the announcement said.

The plant was originally Hyundai's No. 1 factory, but production had been halted since April 2019.

A Beijing Daily report at the time cited officials from the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission as saying that Li Auto had utilized 60 percent of the plant's original resources, maximizing the existing stock of plant resources.

On March 14, the Shunyi district government said in a post on its official Weibo account that Li Auto's factory in Beijing would be reviewed for production qualifications in the near future.

Li Auto's first all-electric model will go into production at the plant, with an annual capacity of 100,000 all-electric vehicles in the first phase, according to the post.

Li Auto's official Weibo account, which reposted the post, added that the second phase of the Li Auto industrial park, its R&D office center here, is also under construction.

The company's first all-electric model is expected to be an MPV.

In terms of product form, an SUV with extended-range technology would be a more appropriate choice. Li Auto's future pure electric models will bring a product completely different from any form currently on the market and will not have an impact on existing products, Li Xiang, founder, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, said on Weibo in June last year.

In July last year, a model suspected to be Li Auto's MPV was seen appearing in front of Li Auto's Beijing R&D headquarters.

Li Auto Q4 earnings: Key takeaways from conference call

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LiDAR-maker Hesai posts Q4 revenue growth of 56.6% YoY in 1st earnings report since US IPO

Hesai began trading on the Nasdaq on February 9 and has accumulated a decline of about 36 percent since then.

Hesai

LiDAR-maker Hesai posts Q4 revenue growth of 56.6% YoY in 1st earnings report since US IPO-CnEVPost

Chinese LiDAR maker Hesai Group (NASDAQ: HSAI) saw record revenue in the fourth quarter, though gross margin fell further.

Hesai reported revenue of RMB 409.2 million ($59.3 million) in the fourth quarter, up 56.6 percent year-on-year, according to its unaudited earnings report released after the US stock market closed on March 15, the company's first since listing on the Nasdaq.

The company shipped 47,515 total LiDAR units in the fourth quarter, up 739.2 percent from 5,662 units in the same period in 2021.

It shipped 43,351 ADAS LiDAR units in the fourth quarter, compared to 87 units in the same period in 2021.

Hesai's gross margin was 30 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 52.4 percent in the same period in 2021 and down from 37 percent in the third quarter.

LiDAR-maker Hesai posts Q4 revenue growth of 56.6% YoY in 1st earnings report since US IPO-CnEVPost

The decline in gross margin was primarily due to increased shipments of low-margin ADAS LiDAR products in the early ramp-up phase and lower capacity utilization at the in-house plant, the company said.

Hesai reported a net loss of RMB 135.3 million for the fourth quarter, compared with RMB 70 million for the same period in 2021.

Excluding stock-based compensation expense, it reported an adjusted non-GAAP net loss of RMB 110.2 million in the fourth quarter, compared with RMB 39.3 million in the same period in 2021.

The company reported both basic and diluted net loss per common share of RMB 1.18 for the fourth quarter. Excluding stock-based compensation expense and deemed dividends, adjusted non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per common share for the fourth quarter were both RMB 0.96.

It reported R&D expenses of RMB 178.8 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of 13.3 percent from RMB 157.8 million in the same period of 2021, primarily due to higher payroll expenses resulting from an increase in R&D staff.

Hesai's sales and marketing expenses for the fourth quarter were RMB 41.4 million, an increase of 95.2 percent year-on-year.

It had general and administrative expenses of RMB 47.6 million in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 7.6 percent year-on-year, primarily due to a decrease in stock-based compensation expenses.

Hesai's cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments were RMB 1.86 billion as of December 31, 2022, compared to RMB 2.79 billion as of December 31, 2021 and RMB 2.07 billion as of September 30, 2022.

For the full year 2022, Hesai's revenue was RMB1,202.7 million, an increase of 66.9 percent year-on-year.

The company shipped 80,462 LiDAR units in full-year 2022, an increase of 467.5 percent year-on-year.

The company's gross margin for the full year 2022 was 39.2 percent, down from 53 percent in the prior year.

For the first quarter of 2023, Hesai expects net revenues to be in the range of RMB 390 million to RMB 410 million, or about 57.0 percent to 65.0 percent year-on-year growth.

Hesai began trading on the Nasdaq on February 9 under the ticker HSAI and has continued to fall since then.

The company closed down 12.36 percent yesterday, bringing its cumulative decline since the IPO to about 36 percent.

Hesai was up 3.02 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday following the earnings report.

LiDAR-maker Hesai posts Q4 revenue growth of 56.6% YoY in 1st earnings report since US IPO-CnEVPost

Hesai debuts on Nasdaq, becoming 1st Chinese LiDAR maker to go public in US

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New batch of 867 new Tesla Model S and Model X imported to China

Six imported units of the new Model S and Model X arrived at Yangshan Port in Shanghai on February 28.

Tesla is sending more of the new Model S and Model X to China, as deliveries of the two more expensive models here get closer.

The latest shipment of 867 new Tesla Model S and Model X electric vehicles (EVs) arrived in Tianjin recently, according to a Weibo post by the Tianjin Port Group yesterday.

The vehicles came from San Francisco and arrived at the Tianjin Global Ro-Ro terminal on the ro-ro vessel Asia Beauty, according to the Weibo post.

The Weibo said these are the first imports of the new Tesla Model S and Model X into China, but it's worth noting that several of these Tesla models were already imported into China late last month.

On February 28, six imported Tesla pure electric vehicles, drove out of the containers at the Nangang terminal in Shanghai Yangshan Port to be inspected on site by customs officers, according to a previous report by Shanghai Securities News.

This is the first batch of the new Tesla Model S Plaid vehicles imported into China by sea since they were launched, according to the report by Shanghai Securities News.

Tesla unveiled the Model S Plaid in the US in September 2020 with three motors that can accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.99 seconds. The company's CEO Elon Musk called it the fastest production car ever built.

In early June 2021, Tesla began deliveries of the model in the US and eliminated the more capable Plaid + model.

Musk said in late 2021 that the Model S Plaid could come to China around March 2022. However, that didn't become a reality.

On January 6, Tesla announced the prices of the new Model S and Model X in China, which are not produced locally, while significantly lowering the prices of the Model 3 and Model Y produced in China.

The Model S is available in China in two versions, a regular version with dual motors and all-wheel drive, and a Plaid version with tri motors and all-wheel drive, starting at RMB 789,900 ($114,620) and RMB 1,009,900 respectively.

The Model X is also available in China in two versions, the regular version with two-motor all-wheel drive and the Plaid version with tri-motor all-wheel drive, starting at RMB 879,900 and RMB 1,039,900, respectively.

Currently, the official website of Tesla China shows the expected delivery date for all versions of Model S and Model X in China in the second quarter.

Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that produces the Model 3 and Model Y. It sold 74,402 China-made vehicles in February, including 40,479 vehicles exported and 33,923 vehicles delivered in China, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

Tesla's deliveries in China in February included 25,526 Model Ys and 8,397 Model 3s, according to the CPCA.

($1 = RMB 6.8915)

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XPeng finishes consolidating sales system to improve efficiency, report says

The management teams of 's direct sales channel and its authorized dealer channel have been combined to reduce unnecessary competition for interest from within, according to local media.

XPeng US | XPeng HK

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

XPeng's (NYSE: XPEV) organizational restructuring appears to be continuing, with the latest move completing a major reorganization of its sales system, according to a new report.

XPeng's sales system has recently completed changes in its internal management structure, with the management teams of its direct sales channel as well as its authorized dealer channel being merged, according to a report by local media outlet Jiemian.

The company is one of the rare new Chinese carmakers to have both a direct and dealership system. This approach helped XPeng rapidly expand its number of stores and reduce the cost of building them in the early stages of its development, Jiemian's report noted.

As of the third quarter of last year, XPeng had more than 400 stores, of which about 70 percent were directly operated by the company and 30 percent were authorized dealers. As a comparison, and 's latest store counts were 296 and 387, respectively, according to the report.

However, these two sales channels of XPeng are managed by different teams and thus have the problem of competing for each other's interests.

XPeng's directly managed stores are under XPeng Auto Trading, headed by co-founder He Tao. Its authorized dealers are managed by the UDS (User Development Service Center) team, headed by chief talent officer and vice president of sales Liao Qinghong.

A previous report by local media 36kr mentioned that at the height of competition between these two teams, XPeng's direct system received a fund, one of the invisible uses of which was to find problems with the authorized dealer system.

Disruptions in the sales network were one of the reasons for XPeng's poor sales performance last year, Jiemian's report noted.

XPeng sold 120,757 vehicles in 2022, meeting only 48.3 percent of its full-year sales target, according to the report.

Starting in January, XPeng began integrating the two different sales systems, a process that was recently completed, Jiemian's report said, citing a source familiar with the matter.

On January 30, XPeng announced that Wang Fengying, formerly president of Great Wall Motor, has been named president of the company.

Ms. Wang will be responsible for XPeng's product planning, portfolio management and sales operations, reporting to the company's chairman and chief executive officer, He Xiaopeng, XPeng said at the time.

After heading sales, Ms. Wang removed XPeng's original big region system and redefined more than 20 sales districts, with direct stores and authorized dealers in each district managed by a single head, according to Jiemian.

The unified management of Xpen'sg directly managed stores and authorized dealers will be able to avoid competition between the two and help reduce the impact on consumers, the source said.

XPeng earnings preview: Q4 to be soft with promotions hitting margins

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CATL to reach new price agreement with automakers as soon as end of Mar, report says

The price of lithium, a raw material for batteries, has accelerated its decline, with industrial-grade lithium carbonate falling RMB 7,500 per ton to RMB 302,500 per ton today.

New price agreements between Chinese power battery giant and some local automakers are expected to be reached this month, at a time when battery raw material prices continue to fall.

CATL's lithium rebate policy is progressing steadily, and it is now at the practical stage of signing agreements with some car companies, local media Cailian said today, citing sources close to the battery maker.

These agreements are expected to be reached by the end of this month at the earliest, the source said.

CATL's plan was first reported on February 17 by local media outlet 36kr, which said it is not aimed at all customers, but rather at several strategic customers, including (NYSE: NIO), (NASDAQ: LI), and .

The core terms of the partnership include that CATL will settle a portion of the price of power battery supply with car companies at a rate of RMB 200,000 ($28,970) per ton of lithium carbonate for the next three years.

At the same time, car companies signing the partnership will be required to commit about 80 percent of their battery purchases to CATL, according to the report.

CATL management first acknowledged the move during the company's earnings call on March 9.

CATL's lithium sharing plan is not for the purpose of lowering prices, but rather the company already has some mineral resources and does not want to reap windfall profits, its management said.

CATL wants to be able to share with long-term strategic customers and is moving forward with communications to that end, the company said.

Prior to that, Li Auto and NIO both said that they had ongoing discussions with CATL when asked about the topic in their respective earnings calls.

CATL's move comes as lithium carbonate has been falling for months.

Today's quotes for industrial-grade lithium carbonate and battery-grade lithium carbonate in China were both down RMB 7,500 per ton, with the latest average prices at RMB302,500 per ton and RMB 340,000 per ton, respectively, according to My Steel.

($1 = RMB 6.9040)

CATL confirms it's negotiating new prices with EV makers

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XPeng earnings preview: Q4 to be soft with promotions hitting margins

"We expect generally soft results and a weak 1Q23 outlook due to challenging demand and pricing dynamics," Edison Yu's team said.

US | XPeng HK

XPeng (NYSE: XPEV) will report fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, and as usual, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu's team provided their preview.

"We expect generally soft results and a weak 1Q23 outlook due to challenging demand and pricing dynamics," the team said in a research report sent to investors yesterday.

Soft fourth-quarter

XPeng will report its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 on Friday, March 17, before the US markets open.

It delivered 22,204 vehicles in the fourth quarter, above the upper end of the guidance range of 20,000 to 21,000, but down 46.82 percent year-on-year and down 24.91 percent from the third quarter.

XPeng's previous revenue guidance for the fourth quarter was RMB 4.8 billion to RMB 5.1 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of about 40.4 percent to 43.9 percent.

"We expect a soft quarter with deliveries already reported at 22,204, above management's guidance range (20,000-21,000), but with promotional activity hitting margins," Yu's team wrote.

The team expects XPeng to post revenue of RMB 5.4 billion yuan and a gross margin of 11.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

They expect XPeng's vehicle margin to be 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter, down 3.1 percentage points from the third quarter, and adjusted earnings per share of RMB -2.33.

The current analyst consensus in the Bloomberg survey is for revenue of RMB 5.7 billion, gross margin of 12.1 percent and adjusted EPS of RMB -2.25.

For the first quarter, Yu's team expects deliveries to be around 19,000-20,000 units and for gross margin to drop to single digits as price cuts take hold.

XPeng deliveries in January and February were 5,218 and 6,010 units respectively, for a cumulative total of 11,228 units. Insurance registration figures for the past two weeks suggest that the company did not see a significant improvement in deliveries in March.

Uncertainty in 2023

The key to XPeng's relevance going forward is to win back market share, and that could take several quarters to achieve, which has created significant uncertainty this year, Yu's team said.

Demand for the company's flagship SUV, the G9, has clearly been disappointing, despite mostly positive reviews, the team said, adding that they expect XPeng to potentially make pricing or SKU adjustments to the SUV in the coming months.

XPeng's new P7i sedan should help with order volume, but there won't be materially beneficial until the second quarter, the team said.

Most importantly, XPeng's upcoming Model Y competitor, the G6, needs to reach at least 5,000 units per month by the end of the year to be considered a success, the team said.

The team now expects XPeng to be on track to deliver 145,000 vehicles in 2023, a 10,000-unit downward revision from earlier, taking into account the decline in G9 sales.

How can capacity utilization be improved?

If XPeng's sales continue to be weak, its management may need to get creative to improve its capacity utilization, Yu's team said, adding that the easiest way to do that would be to sign some large fleet deals.

That may be hard in China, considering and GAC have stronger positions in the taxi and ride-sharing segment, but XPeng recently signed deals with some local car rental companies to buy its P7 sedan, the team noted.

XPeng entered into a strategic partnership with local car rental company eHi Car Services on July 19, 2022, and delivered the first few hundred cars to the latter.

On January 9 this year, XPeng signed agreements with car rental company China Auto Rental and 's travel service platform Xiaolinggou Travel Technology, and completed the delivery of the first XPeng P7 vehicles in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

In addition, XPeng has restarted its expansion efforts in Europe, where large fleet deals could make sense due to the region's high percentage of corporate fleets and low availability of cheap BEV options, Yu's team said.

"We note BYD has an agreement with SIXT for 100,000 EVs and XPeng's vehicles fall into a similar price point. BYD also just announced a 5,000 unit agreement with UK's Octopus EV," the team wrote.

Another option is to partner more deeply with traditional OEMs on EVs and robotaxis, which could come in the form of equity investments or strategic alliances, according to the team.

XPeng offering discounts to clear P7 inventory, facelift to launch next week, report says

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