Troubles deepen for electric vehicle brand XPeng

Electric vehicle (EV) company XPeng is in trouble, and quasi-eponymous CEO Hé Xiǎopéng 何小鹏 knows it. On Friday, when the company announced its 2022 performance, he acknowledged that “our performance is under pressure” (我们业绩有压力). Indeed, XPeng announced annual revenues of 26.86 billion yuan ($3.89 billion), a year-on-year increase of 28%, and a net loss of 9.14 billion yuan ($1.32 billion), which is 87.9% larger than the previous year.

XPeng is considered one of China’s three best-known electric car companies (aside from BYD), collectively known as Wei Xiao Li after the first characters of their Chinese names: XPeng (小鹏汽车 xiǎopéng qìchē), NIO (蔚来 wèilái) and Li Auto (理想汽车 lǐxiǎng qìchē). But XPeng is increasingly falling behind the other two brands in the moniker:

• In 2022, XPeng delivered 120,700 units, a year-on-year increase of 23%, but Li Auto delivered 133,246 units and NIO delivered 122,486 units.
• XPeng’s revenue has not yet surpassed 30 billion yuan, but Li Auto last year reported revenue of 45.29 billion yuan ($6.57 billion) and NIO reported 49.26 billion ($7.14 billion).
• XPeng reported a net loss of over 9 billion yuan last year, while Li Auto had a net loss of 2.03 billion yuan ($294.7 million) and NIO had the largest net loss of all at 14.43 billion yuan ($2.09 billion).

From 2018 to 2022, XPeng reported a cumulative net loss of 21.82 billion yuan ($3.16 billion), an average annual net loss of 4.36 billion yuan ($633.69 million). The average price of XPeng cars is lower than that of NIO and Li Auto.

In September 2022, XPeng launched the G9, its new flagship SUV and its most expensive model to date. But sales of the G9 have been poor and only 6,373 units were delivered last year. In 2022, XPeng implemented reforms and streamlining actions, but these have likely not yet taken effect: the company expects to achieve revenue of up to 4.2 billion yuan ($609.74 million) in the first quarter of 2023, which would be a year-on-year decrease of 46.3%.

Companies:

• XPeng
• BYD
• NIO
• Li Auto

Sources and additional data:

• 2022年四季度交付量同比降46.8% 小鹏汽车持续调整人事架构 / Caixin
• Li Auto Inc. Announces Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results / Li Auto
• NIO Inc. Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results / NIO
• 小鹏面临掉队危机，何小鹏被卷到一周干七天活 / 36kr
• Li Auto had a tough August, and China’s other EV stars are still losing billions / The China Project