Xpeng increases deliveries and losses

The Chinese electric car manufacturer Xpeng has presented its business figures for the second quarter of 2021. Deliveries climbed to 17,398 vehicles from April to June, an increase of 439 per cent compared to the previous year. Xpeng also announced plans to release at least two new models every year from 2023.

Along with the deliveries, the turnover of the Chinese electric car start-up also rose in Q2 – to 3,761.3 million yuan (equivalent to around 493 million euros). According to the company, this figure is 537 per cent higher than Q2/2020 and 27.5 per cent higher than Q1/2021. However, expenses significantly exceeded these revenues, resulting in a loss of 1,194.6 million yuan (GAAP, equivalent to around 157 million euros) and 1,096.4 million yuan (non-GAAP, equivalent to around 144 million euros) between April and June. Both figures significantly exceed the loss from the same period last year. Meanwhile, the quarterly gross margin rose further to 11.9 per cent.

Regarding deliveries, Xpeng only specified that 11,522 of the 17,398 vehicles sold were P7 sedans. The rest of the vehicles were G3 models. At present, the company founded and managed by He Xiaopeng offers only two models: the G3 electric SUV and the P7 electric sedan. From September, revised models of the G3 will be marketed under the name G3i. The third model, the P5, has already been presented but is not yet on the market.

Also mentioned in the annual report: as of 30 June, Xpeng’s physical sales and service network consisted of a total of 200 shops and 64 service centres covering 74 cities. The charging network with Xpeng-branded devices comprised 231 charging stations in 65 cities as of the reporting date.

“We achieved another record-breaking quarter with new highs in several key metrics, underscoring our accelerated growth trajectory driven by our extensive in-house technology capabilities,” said He Xiaopeng, commenting on the financials. “In particular, deliveries in the first half of 2021 surpassed the total deliveries in 2020, reaching 30,738, representing a 459 per cent year-on-year increase.”

Incidentally, in July – already the third quarter – Xpeng delivered 8,040 vehicles, up 228 per cent year-on-year. A forecast for Q3 is as follows: Xpeng expects 21,500 to 22,500 deliveries and sales between 4.8 and 5.0 billion yuan. Meanwhile, the P5 sedan is not expected to show up in the statistics until the fourth quarter: Although the official market launch in China is scheduled for September, the company does not expect the first deliveries until the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Xpeng is also working on scaling its production. The manufacturer recently announced its intention to increase the annual production capacity of its plant in Zhaoqing to 200,000 vehicles. At the beginning of August, Xpeng said it had already started building another plant in Wuhan, which will have an annual capacity of 100,000 electric cars. In addition, a third plant has been under construction in Guangzhou since September 2020. When the currently announced construction projects are completed, Xpeng would have a capacity of 400,000 vehicles per year.

ir.xiaopeng.com (numbers), twitter.com (models), twitter.com (sales network), twitter.com (charging network)