Tesla rival Xpeng reports sevenfold rise in sales revenue as demand for electric vehicles in China soars
- The electric car maker reported US$450.4 million in sales revenue in the first quarter, a massive leap of 616.1 per cent from a year earlier, and better than forecasts
- The results mark a high-water level for the seven-year-old company, which listed in New York last year, and produced its first electric car in 2018
The company reported 2.95 billion yuan (US$450.4 million) in sales revenue in the first quarter, a massive leap of 616.1 per cent from a year earlier, and better than the 2.89 billion yuan forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg poll.
The maker of the P7 saloon posted a loss of 786.6 million yuan, also better than the market estimate of a 904.8 million yuan loss.
Xpeng delivered 13,340 vehicles between January and March, five times the figure from a year earlier and 2.9 per cent higher than the previous quarter.
“The first quarter gave us a great start to 2021 with record-breaking vehicle deliveries, notwithstanding seasonally slower demand for automobiles and a shortage of semiconductors,” said He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng. “Our strong momentum was propelled by our industry-leading autonomous driving technology, a solid differentiated product strategy and our vision to lead smart EV development and transformation.”
Xpeng said that in April it had delivered 5,147 electric cars, nearly double the number in March.
On Wednesday the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s central internet regulator, released a set of draft rules on car data regulation that include provisions meant to strengthen personal data protection and protect national security.
Carmakers will have to inform and seek customers’ approval before collecting data such as geographical locations, biometric features, driving habits, and audio and video records of their journeys, according to the proposed regulations.
“It is definitely a chance for us, a better regulated sector will only benefit us,” said Brian Gu, president of Xpeng Motors. “The government has rolled out a lot of measures recently to better regulate the sector, including data collection, battery safety, autonomous driving and it is a good trend.”
Xpeng expects to deliver 15,500 to 16,000 vehicles and to rake in 3.4 billion yuan to 3.5 billion yuan in revenue in the second quarter.
The ambitious target comes amid fierce competition in China’s EV market, fuelled by a raft of technology behemoths such as Huawei Technologies, Xiaomi and Tencent Holdings hopping onto the smart car bandwagon.
Electrification and digitalisation are viewed as key to the future of cars. Conventional carmakers, electric vehicle start-ups and technology giants alike are ploughing money and human resources into the development of next-generation cars that will feature autonomous driving and sophisticated in-car entertainment systems.
Chinese technology titan Baidu and carmaking giant Geely formed an electric vehicle venture in January. Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei unveiled its HI intelligent automotive solution in April and said it will plan to invest US$1 billion annually in research and development in the intelligent cars segment. Xiaomi announced its entry into the EV market in the same month.
“This is actually a good thing for us as it can bring in more resources, attention and talent,” said Gu. “It will be at least two or three years before they actually produce a car and we do not think it will pressure us in the short term.
“In two to three-year time, Xpeng and these newcomers will not compete in the same league.”
