Just when the price of new energy vehicles is rising, Qin Lihong, co-founder and president of Weilai Automobile, has repeatedly said to the outside world: Weilai will not increase prices, at least not yet.

　　In the fourth quarter earnings conference call of 2021, Li Bin, the founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai, also reiterated that there is no idea of ​​raising prices yet.

　　The changes in policies are well known, and the rise in raw material prices is also clearly marked. When other new energy vehicle companies have expressed that they "can't bear it", why can only Weilai be "self-sufficient"?

　　1. Bicycles are more profitable

　　In 2021, NIO delivered a total of 91,429 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 109.1%, doubling for two consecutive years.

　　Li Bin said: "After the sales increase, the cost of sharing can be reduced a lot, which has a relatively large positive impact on our gross profit improvement."

　　According to the financial report data, NIO’s total revenue last year was 36.1364 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 122.3%. Among them, automobile sales revenue was 33.1697 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 118.5%.

　　In addition, in the past three years, the gross profit margin of NIO's vehicle sales was -9.9%, 12.7%, and 20.1%, respectively.

　　Although this data is far from Tesla (30.6% gross profit margin in 2021), it still has a big advantage compared to Xiaopeng (4.6% in 2020, 13.6% in the first three quarters of 2021).

　　Last year, the research department of CITIC Securities conducted statistics on Wei Xiaoli’s bicycle ASP (as shown above). It can be seen that the average revenue of NIO’s bicycles is significantly higher than that of the other two brands, both of which have raised product prices not long ago.

　　Starting from March 21, the pre-subsidy prices of products under Xiaopeng Motors will increase by 10,100-20,000 yuan. From April 1st, the price of Ideal ONE will increase by 11,800 yuan.

　　Since Li Auto's product is a program extension, we only compare NIO and Xpeng. The former's gross profit of vehicle sales and bicycle ASP are significantly higher than the latter, which means that its bicycle profit is higher.

　　According to official data, as of January 2021, the average transaction price of NIO's three models exceeded 430,000 yuan.

　　Li Bin said frankly that the increase in bicycle sales revenue and the cost optimization brought by the 75-degree ternary iron-lithium battery pack are the main reasons for the increase in the gross profit rate of the vehicle.

　　In September 2021, NIO released a 75kWh ternary iron-lithium battery pack. The battery pack adopts a mixed arrangement of ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate cells, and applies a new generation of CTP (Cell to Pack) technology, which can provide the same level of performance as the ternary lithium battery pack, but the cost is much lower.

　　The high profit of bicycles means that companies are more tolerant of rising costs.

　　Although the increase in raw material prices will have some negative effects on the improvement of gross profit, Li Bin said: "We will pay close attention to changes in the supply chain, and work with partners to improve efficiency and minimize the impact of rising costs on gross profit margins."

　　We can feel from his words that although the cost of raw materials has risen, it is still within the range of Weilai.

　　In addition, Li Bin also emphasized that even if the cost of raw materials rises, Weilai's gross profit target for the vehicle this year is still set at 18%-20%.

　　2. Service is as important as selling a car

　　As a user enterprise, Weilai has always been very willing to spend all its money in terms of service. It can be reflected in the data. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Weilai's net loss was 2.1434 billion yuan, of which operating loss was 2.4451 billion yuan. This also led to its gross profit margin of vehicle sales of 20.1%, but the comprehensive gross profit margin was only 18.9%.

　　In 2021, NIO is slow to advance in new cars, only releasing one ET7, but it has not been delivered yet. However, Weilai has developed rapidly in terms of infrastructure construction.

　　As of the end of 2021, NIO has built a total of 777 battery swap stations, of which 605 were built last year. It is conceivable how much NIO invested in the construction of power exchange stations last year.

　　In the fourth quarter of last year alone, NIO built 260 swap stations, 230 supercharging stations with 1,092 charging stations, and 90 destination charging stations with 468 charging stations.

　　Li Bin pointed out that the vigorous construction of the charging and replacing power supply system has affected the gross profit margin of other income.

　　Car sales revenue is indeed the main part of the company's revenue, but this is reflected in the financial performance. From the perspective of the company's overall operations, auto sales is only one of the four business segments of NIO.

　　In NIO's system competitiveness, in addition to the car itself, there are full-life-cycle services, a lifestyle beyond the car, and digital experience. The business of these three fields also has a great impact on the operating cost of the enterprise. From the perspective of sustainable development, the impact is even higher than the cost of car manufacturing.

　　Take the BaaS battery rental service as an example. Based on this car purchase plan, users only have the right to use the battery, but no ownership, and the cost of car purchase is greatly reduced. For example, the price of the ES6 sports version of the long-life battery pack is 416,000 yuan, and if you choose the BaaS plan, it only costs 288,000 yuan.

　　In other words, the user does not have to consider the cost of the battery at all.

　　The data shows that the proportion of users who choose the BaaS solution has increased to more than 60%.

　　Imagine that for the same car, the purchase price of the complete vehicle is A, and the price purchased through the BaaS solution is B. If the price needs to be adjusted due to rising battery costs, NIO can only adjust A, but not B, or make small adjustments.

　　The consequence of this is likely to be that the proportion of users who choose the BaaS solution is getting higher and higher, and the number of people who buy the whole vehicle is getting lower and lower. In the end, the rising cost of batteries will still be borne by Weilai, so why increase the price.

　　Of course, rising raw material costs will indeed put pressure on NIO, but it can be resolved in other ways.

　　Qu Yu, vice president of finance at NIO, said: "In the long run, with the increase in cumulative delivery and the further improvement of service efficiency, it is expected that the negative gross profit margin related to services such as energy and maintenance will gradually improve. BaaS, NIO Life, ADaaS Other revenue and gross profit from innovative business models will also continue to increase.”

　　3. It’s not that it’s not going up, it’s time to come?

　　When Weilai repeatedly stated that there was no idea of ​​raising prices at present, some media reported that in fact, Weilai was waiting for the 2022 model to be launched before adjusting the price.

　　Li Bin's answer on the conference call seems to confirm this statement, he said: "This year there will be plans to improve products, we will take a look at this time, and then we will look at market prices and raw material prices. Policy and strategy to judge our prices.”

　　However, Fenghuang.com has visited a number of Weilai centers in Beijing, and the answer received from a number of sales staff is that it has not received any news about the 2022 model, and the next three models will be carried out on the chip. One upgrade, replacing the 8155 chip and 5G communication module, the response of the vehicle system will be faster.

　　Of course, the price of upgraded products will rise, but the increase is currently uncertain. As for when the new model will go on sale, a salesperson said it would probably be in April or May.

　　From this information, it can be concluded that even if Weilai has increased its price, it is not because of the increase in the cost of raw materials.

　　An independent new energy vehicle analyst told Fenghuang.com that Weilai's main reason for not raising prices is to recover from sales. To put it bluntly, it means to sell more cars. Judging from the delivery volume in recent months, Weilai's growth rate has slowed down significantly. Therefore, it is also hoped that the price increase will have some boosting effect on sales.

　　Fenghuang.com learned from NIO sales staff that there are currently more than 40 ES6 cars in Beijing, which was really rare before.

　　From an economic point of view, it is not the supply that determines the price of the product, but the demand for the product that determines the cost of raw materials. To put it bluntly, no one buys your product, so what's the use of raising the price.

　　If Weilai does encounter a sales dilemma, then if it chooses to increase the price at this time, the current "866" model will be more difficult to sell. As for the new product ET7, it doesn't make sense to announce a price increase at this time due to the accumulation of a large number of orders that have not been delivered.

　　Of course, there are also opinions that if you consider this issue from the market side, when other brands are raising prices, NIO can avoid following the trend. On the one hand, it can win the favor of prospective users, and on the other hand, it can also increase the trust of old users. feel.

　　If the price of the product fluctuates, it will make users feel that the brand is unreliable. Product price stability is a reflection of the strong capabilities of the enterprise system. For Weilai, which has a cash reserve of 55.4 billion yuan, it is better to make a name for itself than to follow the trend and increase the price.

　　NIO also told Fenghuang.com that the reason for not raising prices is that price stability is good for both the interests of users and the market.

　　Write at the end:

　　Although the use cost of electric vehicles is much lower than that of traditional fuel vehicles, compared with the latter's relatively stable supply chain purchase price, the cost of power batteries for electric vehicles is like the curse on Sun Wukong's head. Everyone is worried that the previous paragraph will be read from time to time.

　　No matter what the reason for NIO choosing not to raise prices, at least it provides the market and consumers with a new choice. If there is a company that can always do not control the price of products because of cost, thereby affecting the development of the entire industry, it will be a great benefit for consumers.