The suffering of the three brothers of the new car-making force: U.S. stock market gathering

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Not long after Li Auto officially rang the bell on Nasdaq, Xpeng Motors, one of the three new car-making brothers, also submitted a prospectus. Prepare to log in to the US stock market.

In January this year, Meituan founder Wang Xing said that "only three new car-making forces will survive in the future, namely Ideal, Weilai and Xiaopeng." Nowadays, NIO has been tested by the US stock market for a long time, and Ideal has just entered the Nasdaq. If Xiaopeng is successfully listed, three new car-making forces will gather in the US stock market.

In the face of today’s very complex international situation, Xpeng Motors’ choice to land on the US stock market at this time will naturally bear certain risks, and the uncertainty will suddenly increase. But judging from the prospectus, Xpeng Motors seems to be full of confidence.

Where does Xiaopeng’s confidence lie?

Xpeng’s greatest confidence in launching an IPO now comes from its technical barriers to smart cars.

Instead of using new energy vehicles to brand Xiaopeng, it would be more appropriate to use smart cars. Xpeng Motors attaches great importance to technology research and development, especially autonomous driving technology. Its continuous exploration in this area has also made technology the core competitiveness of Xpeng Motors.

Today, Xpeng Motors is the only vehicle company in China that has successfully independently developed an autonomous driving software system that can be used for commercialization and can achieve mass production.

This is due to Xpeng Motors’ heavy investment in research and development funds. According to data in the prospectus, Xpeng Motors’ R&D investment in 2019 was as high as 2.07 billion yuan, and its R&D investment in the first half of 2020 was 630 million yuan. If we compare Xpeng's R&D funds and revenue, R&D investment accounted for 89.2% of total revenue in 2019, while it accounted for 62.9% in the first half of 2020.

This level of R&D investment will allow Xpeng Motors to become one of the first companies to realize autonomous driving on highways in 2020. According to the prospectus, as of June 30, 2020, Xpeng Motors' adaptive cruise control function has been used for a total of 25.1 million kilometers of driving, and the lane centering control function has been used for a total of 11.1 million kilometers of driving.

The autonomous driving data set has collected approximately 2.9 million annotated pictures, and developed natural language processing and natural language understanding functions based on deep learning neural networks, helping Xpeng's intelligent services to serve better At the same time as users, it gradually improves its own deep learning algorithms and builds end-to-end closed-loop capabilities.

Xpeng’s intelligence has also won the trust of many consumers. According to the prospectus, more than 90% of users who purchased G3 models in the first half of 2020 chose models with autonomous driving capabilities; about 50% of customers ordered an upgraded version that can support the autonomous driving system xpilot3.0 launched in 2021.

It is not difficult to see that Xpeng has certain advantages among users and the market because of its intelligent advantages, and its current IPO naturally relies on these confidences.

Xpeng is forced to have no choice

For Xiaopeng, it is natural to have its own considerations when it comes to IPO, but more of it is to be helpless.

First of all, Xpeng, which has been losing money, needs a financing opportunity. According to data in the prospectus, Xpeng Motors lost 1.399 billion yuan in 2018, 3.692 billion yuan in 2019, and 796 million yuan in the first half of 2020. In just two and a half years, it lost a total of 5.886 billion yuan. .

Although Xpeng Motors completed two rounds of C+ and C++ financing in July and August respectively, with a total amount of more than 947 million US dollars, this gave Xpeng a relatively abundant cash flow. As of the second quarter of 2020, Xpeng Motors' cash assets on its books totaled 2.118 billion yuan. Coupled with two rounds of financing, it is expected that Xpeng will hold more than 8.5 billion yuan in cash assets before the IPO.

But building a car is still a long-term, money-burning project, especially for Xiaopeng, which is building a new factory and investing heavily in research and development. He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, once lamented that it used to be incredible to see others spending 10 billion to build a car, but now he feels that 20 billion is not enough to build a car himself.

This also reflects the serious problem faced by new car-making forces at the same time-funding. Obtaining financing through listing is an effective way to alleviate financial pressure.

In addition, the current outside world’s prejudice against the field of new energy vehicles is gradually dissipating, which has also given many new energy vehicles more opportunities in the market. This is evident from the steady rise in NIO’s stock price in recent months. You can see it. The recovery of the market has attracted more players to join the game. Whether it is Ideal, which has just been listed a few days ago, or Xpeng, which is in the process of listing, they all hope to taste the sweetness of the dividends.

However, there are also some hidden dangers in the rush to IPO. Take Tesla as an example. Its stock price has soared from more than 400 US dollars in March to more than 1,500 US dollars today. Even Musk himself has said that Tesla's stock price is now on the high side. This reflects from the side that the field of new energy vehicles is currently very hot, and it is inevitable that there will be bubbles.

If you enter the market during a bubble, although there will be a good market response in the short term, when the market returns to rationality, it will be more miserable to fall from a height. And with more and more entrants attracted by the hot market, market competition will inevitably intensify. For example, Nezha Automobile recently stated that it has plans to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2021, and WM Motor, invested by Baidu, is also optimistic about its listing performance. Out of interest.

For Xiaopeng, successful listing is just the starting point, and there will be more challenges to face later. In the face of constant challenges from the outside world, Xiaopeng and his former brothers launched a set of combination punches.

From "remembering hardships and thinking about changes" to comprehensive layout

In the capital market, the combined punches played by the three brothers cover a wide range.

In June this year, He Xiaopeng posted a photo with NIO Li Bin and Ideal Li Xiang on Weibo, with the text, "Three hard-working guys, thinking about hard times and changing..." ." From the expressions of their respective founders, it is not difficult to see that the three new car-making forces intend to stay together for warmth.

In the past, only NIO among the three brothers faced challenges in the U.S. stock market alone. But now with the listing of Ideal and the listing of Xpeng, NIO is no longer alone. The combination of punches played by the three brothers also covers many aspects, including user needs and price points.

Starting from the characteristics of their respective products, the three brothers each found specific consumer groups through their own characteristics. Weilai pays more attention to quality experience and service, positioning its users as mid-to-high-end consumers who are more willing to enjoy quality experiences; while Ideal focuses on large space and battery life solutions, targeting those who bear family responsibilities and take the whole family out for fun on weekends. dad.

Xpeng, through its increased intelligence and compression of production line costs, has positioned its users among the younger generation who consider cost-effectiveness and are more willing to experience the emerging lifestyle brought about by technology. , even Xpeng Motors’ slogan is “Young people’s first Internet car.”

At the same time, judging from the pricing of the products of the three, they also occupy the high, middle and low-end consumer groups. Several models of Weilai are priced between 350,000 and 500,000, focusing on high-end products; while Ideal, which has only one model, prices the Ideal ONE nationwide at 320,000 yuan, positioning its consumers in the mid-to-high-end range; in comparison, small cars Peng is much cheaper, with a price range of 150,000-200,000, which is extremely cost-effective.

It is not difficult to see that the three brothers can use their different advantages and user positioning to jointly promote China's new energy vehicle brands and attract more investors to pay attention to this field. Furthermore, the three brothers hope to compete with Tesla through their own efforts and make domestic new energy vehicles collectively competitive.

But now with the gradual advancement of Xpeng's listing process, the three brothers in the past will inevitably have some major or minor frictions in the consumer market. After all, the share of the automobile market is only so large. Cars are not a regular consumption behavior for consumers. There are cases of choosing two brands at the same time, but it is not frequent.

In addition, the three brothers will inevitably have conflicts in the capital market. With the popularity of the new energy automobile industry, the number of entrants is gradually increasing, but the money in the hands of investors is not endless. Investors also need to choose among the three brothers. For example, after Hillhouse Capital cleared its position in Weilai, it switched to And invest in Xpeng.

The war between Meituan, Tencent and Alibaba has reignited

Of course, as a well-known new car-making force in China, Xpeng’s IPO has a more far-reaching impact.

Based on the shareholder backgrounds of the three, it is not difficult to find that the three Internet giants behind the three brothers are gradually emerging.

Behind Weilai, Tencent and Li Auto are supported by Wang Xing of Meituan Motors. From the prospectus of Xiaopeng Motors, we can see that Taobao China, owned by Alibaba, holds 14.4% of the shares and is the second largest shareholder.

The situation seems to be much simpler. The rise of new forces in the field of new energy vehicles has once again ignited the war between the three Internet giants in the field of travel.

After all, new energy vehicles are closely related to changes in the travel field. There is no doubt that new energy vehicles can change the way people travel in the future. Also in the era of the Internet of Everything, intelligent new energy vehicles can change people's Internet life based on the way they travel. For example, Xiaopeng's smart travel is gradually changing lifestyle.

Once the bet on new car-making forces is successful, it will not only bring growth to the giant in the field of travel, but also bring immeasurable benefits to the overall ecology. And this kind of comprehensive ecological competitiveness is exactly what the Internet giants value.

However, how long can the harmonious relationship between the three brothers, who are favored by each of the giants, stay together and "remember the hardships and think about changes" can be maintained?

Text/Liu Kuang public account, ID: liukuang110

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.