AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/01 Report--

Like many new energy car manufacturers, BAIC Langu is still not out of the loss quagmire.

A few days ago, BAIC Blue Valley New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "BAIC Blue Valley") released its 2022 results showing that its operating income in 2022 was 9.514 billion yuan, an increase of 9.4% over the same period last year; a net loss of 5.465 billion yuan, and a net loss of 5.244 billion yuan over the same period; at the same time, BAIC Blue Valley disclosed its financial results for the first quarter of 2023, with operating income of 2.497 billion yuan during the reporting period, an increase of 44.31% over the same period last year. A net loss of 892 million yuan, compared with a net loss of 957 million yuan in the same period

It is understood that this is the fourth consecutive year of losses for BAIC Blue Valley, with net losses of 92 million yuan, 6.482 billion yuan and 5.244 billion yuan respectively from 2019 to 2021, plus 2022, a cumulative loss of more than 17.2 billion yuan in the past four years. In terms of cash flow, BAIC Blue Valley was also under pressure, with cash and cash equivalents plummeting to 2.655 billion yuan at the end of 2022, compared with 4.302 billion yuan at the end of the third quarter of 2022. In this regard, BAIC Langu explained in the financial report that the decline in net profit was mainly due to the decrease in gross profit and the continuous increase in investment in brand and channel construction.

In fact, there are two main reasons for the expansion of BAIC Blue Valley losses in 2022, one is the rising cost of parts and components such as upstream raw material prices, squeezing profit margins, this reason is a common phenomenon. In 2022, the whole new energy industry has experienced chip shortage and expensive batteries, which is not the case of BAIC Blue Valley.

The second is that the high-end brand polar fox has low awareness in the end market, and the sales volume has not yet formed a scale. BAIC Langu sold 50179 vehicles in 2022, up 92.06 per cent from 26127 in 2021. It is worth mentioning that although BAIC Langu's sales soared year-on-year in 2022, the completion rate was only 50% compared with the sales target set at the beginning of the year. From the perspective of sales volume, BAIC Langu's sales scale is not large, which reflects the lack of market competitiveness of its products.

Among them, the polar fox is the brand that BAIC Blue Valley is fully betting on. The main models are Alpha S, Alpha T and the new HI version of Alpha S, which is built in cooperation with Huawei, but its annual sales are only 11895, which is a far cry from the annual sales target of 40, 000. According to BAIC Blue Valley announcement, it has previously sold some new energy vehicles to overseas customers, but has not formed a scale.

Due to the lack of hematopoietic capacity, BAIC Langu also has to rely on external blood transfusions. It is understood that since the backdoor listing in 2018, BAIC Blue Valley has raised 1.034 billion and 5.45 billion in 2019 and 2021 respectively. In July 2022, BAIC Langu announced again that it intends to raise about 8 billion yuan in a non-public offering. It will be used for skateboard platform development projects for scene-oriented products, vehicle product upgrading and development projects, R & D and core capacity-building projects and supplementary liquidity. However, this fixed increase has not yet finally landed.

Of course, BAIC Langu has also made some changes. On April 2, the Jihu koala model was officially launched. As the first "mother-to-child friendly" car, koalas, based on the full scene of baby's trip, and according to the baby's high requirements for safety, health and convenience, have developed an exclusive cockpit suitable for mother-to-child driving to help mothers and babies solve their travel problems. the target groups are middle-class parents with infants and young children. Officials say that starting with koalas, Jihu's products will be aimed at more accurate people, and a number of new products will be launched in the future.

In this sense, as the beginning of the extreme fox scene car-building, koalas may bear more responsibility for brand exploration, achieve small and beautiful in a subdivided track, and shape word-of-mouth and influence. However, the first task of BAIC Langu in 2023 is to "increase the quantity", and "enhance the energy, strengthen the network, and increase the quantity" as the annual marketing theme.

Before the koala, Euler was considered to be a deviant player in the car market, but the self-proclaimed "more womanly brand" did not perform very well in the domestic market, with first-quarter sales falling 47.37 per cent year-on-year to 17766 vehicles. It is the second-lowest brand under Great Wall. As a result, it remains to be seen whether koalas can break new ground in a market that has never been involved.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat