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On January 24, Cyrus issued the 2023 annual performance pre-loss announcement. Selis said in the announcement that according to the preliminary estimates of the financial department, the operating income is expected to reach 35.5 billion yuan to 36.5 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 4.09% to 7.02% over the same period last year; the net profit loss attributed to the owner of the parent company is 2.1 billion yuan to 2.7 billion yuan, narrowing compared with the loss of 3.83 billion yuan in 2022; the net profit loss belonging to the owner of the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses is 4.6 billion yuan to 5 billion yuan The loss of 4.29 billion yuan compared with 2022 is still increasing.

As for the main reason for the pre-loss of the current performance, Cyrus explained that the main reason is that the core technology and product research and development investment of high-end intelligent electric vehicles is relatively high, resulting in an increase in research and development costs and labor costs, affecting the current performance; sales in the first three quarters are low, fixed fees and related fees are high, affecting the current performance. In order to increase the sales volume in the fourth quarter, the market promotion efforts were intensified in the first half of the year, and the cost of raw materials was high in the first half of the year, affecting the current performance.

In fact, it is not surprising that Cyrus released its projected loss for 2023. Losses have been growing since Cyrus partnered with Huawei. According to the financial report, Selis lost more than 10 billion yuan in the four years from 2019 to 2022, with non-net profit losses of 884 million yuan, 2.308 billion yuan, 2.793 billion yuan and 4.296 billion yuan respectively from 2019 to 2022.

Cyrus Group, formerly known as Chongqing Xiaokang Industrial Group Co., Ltd., was established in September 1986. In April 2021, Xiaokang entered into a partnership with Huawei, and the two sides signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of new energy vehicles, launching the first cooperative model, Cyrus Huawei Smart SF5, but the market performance of the car was mediocre. In order to reverse the decline in sales, Xiaokang shares once again partnered with Huawei to launch the AITO new energy brand.

As Huawei's deeply empowered AITO, it is the core brand of Selis and has long accounted for more than 70 per cent of its total sales. According to the data, the cumulative sales of Selis new energy vehicles in 2022 was 135100, an increase of 225.9 percent over the same period last year. Among them, the Wangjie series has sold more than 75000 vehicles a year since delivery began in March 2022, making it the fastest growing new energy vehicle brand.

However, in the first half of 2023, the growth rate of AITO sales began to slow down, even showing a downward trend. According to the sales data of the Federation of passengers, in the first half of 2023, the cumulative wholesale sales of M5, M5 EV and M7 models were only 232.46 million, of which the M5 sold more than 10,000 vehicles, while the M7 sold poorly, with only 432 in June.

In September 2023, the new M7 went public with a price range of 24.98 to 329800 yuan, falling in the same price band as the M5 of the medium-sized SUV of the same brand. The car exploded immediately after its launch, which successfully reversed the sales volume of the AITO. Based on this, market expectations for Cyrus are also rising.

According to official figures, the cumulative sales of Cyrus cars in 2023 were 106703, up 33.31% from a year earlier, with most of the sales coming from AITO. Retail data show that the cumulative sales of AITO in 2023 were 101631 vehicles. Among them, the M7 was 67961, accounting for 66.87% of the total sales, and the M5 was 33670.

In 2024, the sales volume of AITO began to increase significantly. Data show that in the first three weeks of 2024 (from January 1 to January 21), the Q & J took the lead in the New Power list with sales of 20100 vehicles, replacing the ideal car at the top of the list for a long time. As a comparison, ideal car sales were 18700, ranking second on the list, with a difference of 1400.

So far, AITO M5, M7 and M9 are on sale. Among them, M9 went on sale in December 2023 and launched two power models: extended range version (CLTC 225km) and pure electric version (CLTC 630km). The price range is 46.98-569800 yuan. Yu Chengdong said the car is the best SUV within 10 million. Cyrus added in the announcement: "with the launch of M7 and M9 in the fourth quarter, the company's profitability is expected to be further enhanced." With the endorsement of the M7 and M9 products, the AITO question may be closer to the goal.

It has been reported that the annual sales of AITO are expected to be 600000 vehicles this year, which means that the average monthly sales of AITO will reach 50, 000 vehicles, while the M7 will continue to be the main model. It should be noted that nowadays Huawei Smart car is no longer the exclusive property of Cyrus. At present, Huawei uses Hongmeng Zhihang (that is, smart cars) to enter the car market. in addition to Selis, Huawei has also established a smart brand with Chery, and the first model, the S7 model, has also been launched. Huawei will also set up other "boundary" brands with BAIC and Jianghuai. At present, Cyrus can only rely on Huawei, but it is not the only company that cooperates with Huawei to build cars. In this context, Cyrus may not be able to dominate in the future.

Yu Chengdong said earlier that as the automobile industry "gets more and more popular", the future reshuffle and market competition will be very fierce; while in an interview with the media, Leijun, CEO of Xiaomi Group, also said that the future auto competition will be winner-take-all and must be in the top 3 to 5, and only a few enterprises will survive. As the core brand of Cyrus, the follow-up AITO will also face a lot of pressure.

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