Sales picked up in May, and Weilai still has a long way to go.

What exactly is going against the current? The essence behind it is that mercury retrograde is not the real running direction of mercury, but the change of visual trajectory caused by the difference of ecliptic angle between mercury orbit and earth rotation. From the perspective of divination, the phenomenon of going against the water will affect memory, communication, traffic and communication. And it will slow down the progress of related matters, and even detect some obstacles in the process, which makes people feel depressed. So it gradually evolved into a kind of self-mockery when things were not smooth and unlucky.

Then, for the new force Che Weiwei, the whole year of 20 19 is undoubtedly its "year against the current". The hidden trouble of battery harness led to the recall of some es8, but financing rumors spread everywhere, but they fell through one by one. Although an article "Wei Lai Li Bin, 20 19 Worst Man" became an explosion, it showed its extreme inner pain. All kinds of past have undoubtedly become the testimony of Weilai's difficult growth.

In this increasingly hot June, Weilai successively announced Q 1 quarterly financial report and May sales, both of which performed better than market expectations. In this context, the former seems to have ushered in a moment of "water inverse dissipation" that really belongs to it.

"3436 vehicles" and "+2 15.5%"

June 4th is undoubtedly a happy day for many Weilai investors. As of the close of the US stock market that day, Weilai's share price finally rose strongly by 6.6 1% to close at 5.97 USD per share, and its total market value reached 6.645438+0 billion USD. This is mainly because it just announced the terminal sales in May before its opening.

The data shows that Weilai brand delivered 3,436 new cars in May, setting a record for brand monthly delivery. At the same time, since March, Weilai has achieved month-on-month growth for three consecutive months. The delivery volume in May was more than three times that of the same period of last year, with a year-on-year increase of 2 15.5%. In terms of vehicle types, in May, Weilai ES6*** delivered 2,685 new cars. Since the delivery of 20 19 began in June, 20,668 vehicles have been delivered, becoming the absolute main sales manager.

The brand-new Weilai ES8, which was just delivered in April, has also started to pick up obviously in May, with a cumulative delivery of 75 1 vehicle and a cumulative bicycle sales of 2 1 674 vehicles. In addition, as of May this year, the cumulative delivery volume of Weilai brand exceeded 40,000 vehicles, reaching 42,342 vehicles.

In all fairness, under the transit of "Black Swan", the steady growth of Weilai's sales has given its employees and even all car owners great confidence. They no longer worry about the immediate interests of the company because its situation is worrying. On the evening of May 28th, at the performance briefing after the release of Weilai's financial report, Li Bin said, "With the China epidemic under control, Weilai's work in supply chain, manufacturing, sales, service and research and development began to gradually return to normal. In late April, the new orders of Weilai Automobile have returned to the pre-epidemic level. "

After the epidemic, Weilai's orders recovered so quickly, mainly because of its first-Mover advantage and the rapid spread of online and offline marketing channels. It is understood that in a live webcast between Li Bin and Wang Han, the host of Hunan Satellite TV, the final sales reached nearly 654.38+0.28 billion yuan. In terms of offline stores, according to the official, Weilai has added 44 Weilai spaces in 24 cities in 2020. Up to today, Weilai has opened 1 16 stores in China, including 22 Weilai centers and 92 Weilai spaces, and its sales network covers 76 cities.

At the same time, there is good news for Wei. Just recently, the full text of the "Government Work Report" was discussed and deliberated by delegates and members, and 89 items were finally revised, which was officially released by the State Council. It is worth noting that the content of new infrastructure will expand "building charging piles" to "adding charging piles, changing power stations and other facilities".

As an important part of the new infrastructure, the power exchange station was first written into the government work report. At present, among all new energy brands, only Weilai and Beiqi New Energy have adopted the power exchange mode. Therefore, after obtaining the policy approval, it is expected that the future development of Weilai will be smoother and smoother.

Under favorable circumstances, the pain point is still there.

On the whole, Weilai Automobile has entered a relatively benign development stage at the moment, and the continuous growth of delivery volume also proves the market's recognition of its products, services and brand level. However, it is unavoidable that there are still several major pain points that need the former to face directly and seek solutions.

First, the production capacity. At the conference call after the release of Q 1 financial report, Li Bin confidently indicated that Q2' s brand delivery volume would exceed 1 10,000 vehicles, but the production capacity problem became more and more prominent. At present, the monthly production capacity of Weilai Hefei Plant is 4,000 vehicles, which is limited by the production capacity of upstream suppliers. The real monthly production capacity is only about 3400-3500 vehicles. Therefore, to achieve the delivery target of Q2 1 10,000 vehicles means that Weilai Hefei Factory needs to release its production capacity to the extreme in June. From this perspective, the "bottleneck" of production capacity also means that many subsequent car owners who have made up their minds will extend the car delivery cycle to a certain extent.

In this regard, Weilai's solution is to increase the whole process capacity and require supply chain partners to increase production capacity. According to the current situation, it is planned that Weilai will increase the production capacity of the whole industrial chain to 4,500-5,000 vehicles per month by September and August at the latest.

Second, the issue of gross profit margin. Undeniably, the long-term negative gross profit margin has become the biggest barrier that puzzles Weilai's development. In the last quarter of Q 1, its gross profit margin was-12.2%, and the gross profit margin of vehicle sales was -7.4%, while in the fourth quarter of 20 19, these two figures were -8.90% and -6% respectively. Therefore, it is the best and only way for Weilai's gross profit margin to turn positive by continuing to reduce costs and increase efficiency, open source and reduce expenditure.

Third. Tesla problem. Although Li Bin once said in an interview with the media that since Tesla entered China to build a factory, the sales of Weilai Automobile have been increasing. Weilai and Tesla are indeed competitors, but in the face of competitors such as fuel vehicle manufacturers, Weilai regards Tesla as an ally, because both compete for users from fuel vehicles. As can be seen from his statement, Tesla's establishment of a factory in China has actually boosted the market demand for new energy vehicles.

However, at the market terminal level, Tesla has also caused a serious impact on Weilai and even many new car companies. Due to the improvement of the localization rate of the former parts and the switching of power battery suppliers, it is expected that the subsequent comprehensive battery life of the domestic Model 3 standard battery life version will be slightly improved, and the price will be reduced after subsidies. The double optimization of product strength and cost performance, coupled with the possible price adjustment of long-life models, is undoubtedly a great test for the pure electric vehicles that Weilai will launch at the end of this year.

And early next year, it is expected that Tesla's domestic Model Y will officially enter the new energy market in China. Judging from various sources, the price of its long-life model is expected to be less than 400,000 yuan. This price range is the main sales range of Weilai ES6 and Weilai EC6, which will be listed in July. More intense direct competition is inevitable.

From this point of view, for Wei who successfully passed the stage of "water reversal", with the blessing of various favorable factors, the pain point is still there. Therefore, in the next stage, this car company still has a long way to go if it wants to continue to go up in this downward market.

Text/Cui

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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.