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On the evening of November 20th, Li Bin, CEO of Xilai, officially announced on the earnings call that the third brand will be named "firefly Firefly", and the first product will have the same name as the brand.

It is understood that firefly firefly is located in the high-end car market, similar to the MINI brand of BMW Group, will further enrich the product portfolio of Weilai, and make efficient contribution to sales through existing sales channels. The firefly Firefly brand is scheduled to be launched in NIO Day 2024 on December 21, and deliveries of its first model will begin in the first half of 2025.

Li Bin said that using two or three brands to face different users is a successful strategy at present, and the increment is far greater than the decrease. According to Li Bin, in 2025, Weilai will enter a new product cycle, Ledao brand and firefly brand will have new product delivery, Weilai will enter a faster growth phase, and is very confident that Weilai will achieve 100% sales growth. Among them, the first product of the firefly brand will be officially unveiled on 2024 NIO DAY and will be delivered in the first half of 2025; Ledao brand will launch two SUV models in 2025, 7 and 5 respectively, corresponding to ideal L8 and ideal L7, with strong market competitiveness.

The three brands mentioned by Li Bin correspond to NIO Lolai, ONVO Ledao and firefly Firefly, respectively. Ledao is the second brand of Ledao Group. The first model, Ledao L60, was officially launched on September 19. The official guidance price is 20.69-235900 yuan. The battery rental method starts at 149900 yuan, including 599 yuan for 60 kilowatt-hour batteries and 899 yuan for 90 kilowatt-hour batteries. As a brand new brand, Ledao has high hopes and will undertake the important task of boosting car sales and market share. Li Bin said that the launch of Ledao will affect only 20% of Ledao users. It will deliver more than 10, 000 units in December, more than 20, 000 in March next year, and a target gross profit margin of 15% next year. Retail figures show that Xilai delivered 20976 new cars in October, of which 16657 and Ledao were 4319, accounting for about 21 per cent.

Li Bin said that with sales doubling in 2025, the overall operation of Weilai will continue to achieve positive growth, with losses expected to narrow in 2025, with the goal of making a profit by 2026. According to the third-quarter results released by Weilai, operating income during the reporting period was 18.674 billion yuan, down 2.1% from the same period last year, up 7.0% from the previous year, of which automobile sales were 16.698 billion yuan, down 4.1% from the same period last year and 6.5% from the previous year. However, Xilai is still in a state of loss, with a net loss of 4.413 billion yuan in the third quarter, an increase of 11.6% over the same period last year and 2.7% narrower than the previous quarter.

It is worth noting that as early as March 25, 2022, at the 2021 earnings call, Li Bin announced profit flag for the first time. "Weilai hopes to achieve full-year profit in 2024", and now this goal will be postponed for another two years.

With a net loss of more than 4 billion in a single quarter and a loss of more than 14 billion in the third quarter, Li Bin's pressure is imaginable. However, Weilai has a good performance in terms of sales volume and gross profit margin. In terms of sales, Fulai delivered 61900 new cars in the third quarter, a record high. The gross profit margin of Weilai is 10.7%, of which the gross profit margin of the whole vehicle is 13.1%, which is an increase over the same period. Compared with the new power car companies that announced the results of the third quarter in the same period, the gross profit margin of Weilai vehicle is higher than that of Xiaopeng and Zero. Of course, this is also related to the higher average price of the bike. At the same time, the third quarter came from the positive cash flow. As of September 30, 2024, the balance of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments and long-term term deposits was 42.2 billion yuan. According to the current scale of losses, it is not a big problem to support it for two years.

In addition, the 3.3 billion yuan strategic investment previously obtained by Ulai will be received in the fourth quarter of 2025. Li Bin said that at that time, Weilai's cash reserves will be further increased, providing a more adequate guarantee for rapid growth in 2025. To this end, Weilai also issued the strongest performance guidance in history. Weilai expects revenue guidance for the fourth quarter to be 19.68 billion yuan to 20.38 billion yuan, up 15.0% to 19.2% from a year earlier.

With the intensification of competition in the automobile market, more and more enterprises begin to make strategic adjustments, joint venture brands begin to cooperate with domestic car companies, domestic models change from large-scale expansion to contraction, and new power enterprises are looking for vitality in the new market. Take Weilai as an example, although it is still in a state of loss, with the release of a number of new cars of Firefly Firefly and Ledao brand, Weilai is expected to climb another high-rise building.

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