LI announced the first quarter of 2023, and the quarterly revenue and delivery reached a record high.
On May 10th, LI announced its financial report for the first quarter of 2023. Despite the fact that the overall performance of China’s auto market is not as good as expected, LI’s quarterly revenue and delivery both hit record highs. Revenue in the first quarter was 18.79 billion yuan, up 96.5% year-on-year. In the same period, LI delivered a total of 52,584 new cars to users, up 65.8% year-on-year, achieving the best single-season delivery. Driven by strong delivery, LI ranked among the top three new energy brands in China in the first quarter, with a market share of about 11%, far exceeding other new power brands. Thanks to the unremitting pursuit of operating efficiency, a number of financial data hit record highs. After deducting equity incentives, operating profit and net profit reached 890 million yuan and 1.41 billion yuan respectively, and free cash flow reached 6.7 billion yuan. The gross profit margin remained stable at 20.4% in the first quarter. A healthy business model and sufficient cash reserves have laid a solid foundation for the long-term development of enterprises.
It is worth mentioning that LI has continuously strengthened its refined operation and promoted the continuous increase of delivery data from January to April 2023. By the end of last month, more than 330,000 home users had chosen LI’s products. Thanks to the emergence of more and more home users, the delivery volume in April 2023 exceeded 25,000 vehicles for the first time, up by 516.3% year-on-year, setting a new record of single-month delivery since the brand was founded, and has delivered more than 20,000 vehicles for two consecutive months. Based on positive market feedback, LI’s second-quarter performance guidance has reached a new high, with an estimated delivery of 76,000 to 81,000 vehicles, up 164.9% to 182.4% year-on-year; The estimated total revenue is 24.22 billion yuan to 25.86 billion yuan, up 177.4% to 196.1% year-on-year.
Maintain high growth of R&D investment and continuously optimize product strength.
In the first quarter, relying on users’ continuous recognition of Ideal L9 and Ideal L8, as well as the strong order volume and rapid capacity climbing of Ideal L7, LI set a new record for the best single-season delivery, and gained 11% market share in the new energy vehicle market of over 200,000 yuan in China. Once again, it proves that LI is constantly exerting the advantages and cooperative effectiveness of its supply chain, manufacturing, sales and service network from stage 1 to stage 10. At present, the released ideal L series models have achieved outstanding performance in their respective market segments. Among them, as the brand’s first family five-seat flagship SUV, the ideal L7 has delivered over 10,000 in the first complete delivery month, which is also the first five-seat SUV model of China brand with a starting price of over 300,000 to deliver over 10,000 in a single month, becoming one of the luxury five-seat SUVs preferred by more families; Ideal L8 keeps leading sales in six market segments; Ideal L9 has won the monthly sales champion of large SUV for many times since it was delivered last year.
Meanwhile, LI invested a total of 1.85 billion yuan in R&D in the first quarter, up 34.8% year-on-year. In terms of smart space and intelligent driving with high user utilization rate, LI has continuously improved its product strength through OTA upgrade. Since the beginning of this year, the ideal L-series models have completed two OTA version upgrades of 4.3 and 4.4, and more than 100 functions and experiences have been optimized. Among them, the task master can let users define the function combination independently and realize the linkage of seat, driving, navigation and application, which has been well received and discussed by users since it was launched. In addition, in OTA 4.4, the new version of the car adds the sentry mode that users have been waiting for for for a long time. The system will automatically detect the situation around the car and remind users according to the level of different situations. Through its own power-saving strategy, the energy consumption for the whole night is only about half that of other models; At the same time, users who assemble the ideal AD Max intelligent driving system also get LKA Plus function through the recent upgrade. This function can realize automatic lane change when navigation is not turned on, reduce driving fatigue and improve traffic efficiency.
In April, the family’s six flagship SUV— — Ideal L9 won a five-star intelligent star rating in the evaluation results of the first batch of vehicles of IVISTA China Smart Car Index published by China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Automobile Research Institute") in 2023. Especially in the intelligent safety test, Ideal L9 has the highest score among the vehicles that have been tested by China Smart Car Index, and it is also the first vehicle to get G+ for navigation-assisted driving evaluation on the basis of four G evaluations. Ideal L9 has also become the vehicle with the highest performance in IVISTA China Smart Car Index.
Create an ideal fortress safety body ™ Guarding family members
LI has also invested a lot of energy and time in the most relevant safety aspects of users’ travel, striving to build an ideal fortress safety body for the whole family through the ultimate safety concept ™ . Last year, Ideal L9 became the first large SUV with a G rating for 25% offset collision on both driver’s side and passenger’s side in China Insurance Automobile Safety Index (C-IASI, hereinafter referred to as "China Insurance Research Institute"). In April this year, the Ideal L9 won the five-star evaluation of the upgraded version of C-NCAP in 2021 in the test results of a new batch of China’s new car evaluation regulations (C-NCAP), becoming the vehicle with the highest comprehensive score in history. Ideal L9 is also the only luxury large-scale SUV in China that has achieved the best results in China’s new car evaluation regulation (C-NCAP), China’s automobile safety index (C-IASI), China’s automobile consumer research and evaluation (CCRT) and China’s automobile health index (C-AHI). In the same month, Ideal L8 also became the best SUV model in the history of crash test in China Insurance Research Institute. In the passenger safety index inside the car, the passenger safety index outside the car and the vehicle auxiliary safety index, the ideal L8 all got the highest rating of G (excellent), especially in the 25% offset crash test on the passenger side of non-standard test items.
A series of excellent collision results depend on the powerful ideal fortress safety body ™ Design, which is a defensive body structure deeply researched by LI, is committed to providing 360-degree all-round protection for family members in every position in the car. First of all, LI determined the energy distribution strategy at vehicle level, system level and key parts level, and built a more scientific and reasonable power transmission path and section size system for each main power transmission channel in turn. Secondly, LI designed a cage-type car body with ultra-high torsional rigidity, and used boron steel (hot formed steel) at key positions to form a protective structure with higher strength. At the same time, LI insists on improving the selection of materials, adopts positive energy management and load distribution for the body-in-white, carries out accurate topology for the key parts and cross-section structure of the body, and truly uses good steel on the blade. Standard flagship ideal fortress safety body ™ , truly realize the equal rights of security technology.
In addition, following the four five-star certifications of Ideal L9 in China Automobile Health Index (C-AHI) rating, Ideal L8 also recently obtained four five-star certifications in China Automobile Health Index, becoming a well-deserved "green house" to protect family members.
Stepping into a new development chapter with "dual-energy strategy"
Recently, LI officially released the "Double Energy Strategy", which indicates that the brand will exert all-round efforts in "intelligence" and "electric energy". More importantly, by 2025, LI will form a product layout of "one super flagship model+five extended-range electric vehicles+five high-voltage pure electric vehicles", which will face a market of more than 200,000 and fully meet the needs of home users.
In terms of "intelligence", ideal intelligent driving has officially entered the 3.0 era, from high-speed scenes to urban scenes. This system uses three neural network large model algorithms: static BEV network algorithm, dynamic BEV network algorithm and Occupancy network algorithm to restore, and uses NeRF technology to enhance the Occupancy network algorithm to achieve higher accuracy and details, so as to provide accurate information in the decision-making planning of complex urban scenes. At present, based on the accumulation in the past five years, LI has already had the most intelligent driving training mileage in China, which has reached more than 400 million kilometers. The urban NOA navigation-assisted driving system with ideal AD Max 3.0 is planned to push internal test users from the second quarter of this year. By the end of 2023, there will be more than 100 domestic cities, and with a set of technologies, cities and highways will be completely opened. Some intelligent driving abilities based on large-scale model training will also be released to users who adopt ideal AD Pro hardware models.
In terms of "electric energy", LI has officially entered a new stage of "extended range electric" and "high voltage pure electricity". For the pure electric products to be released in the future, LI has deeply cultivated the core technology and landed an 800V ultra-charged pure electric solution. Its advantage lies in making users bid farewell to mileage anxiety and giving pure electric users a "refueling" experience. LI’s pure electric products will adopt a new generation of self-developed electric drive system composed of 800V silicon carbide power modules, with comprehensive optimized design scheme and more advanced resource integration, which will make breakthroughs in all energy efficiency indicators. In addition, in order to reduce the charging difficulties of users of pure electric vehicles, LI officially launched the "Ideal 4C Super Charging Station" and the overcharge network, so as to realize the rapid recharge of charging for 10 minutes and increasing the battery life by 400 kilometers. By 2025, the goal is to build more than 3,000 charging stations. At the same time, the ideal AD Max 3.0 will also be perfectly integrated with the ideal 4C super charging station, making it more convenient for users to go to the super charging station than to the gas station.
Optimizing the layout of sales network and promoting the leading position in the industry
In the first quarter, in order to support the development of multi-vehicles, LI continued to expand the network layout and accelerate the upgrading of store quality, so as to provide users with more convenient and efficient services. Since late June last year, LI has expanded or optimized nearly 50 existing stores. As of April 30, 2023, LI has 302 retail centers nationwide, covering 123 cities; There are 318 after-sales maintenance centers and authorized car body panel spraying centers, covering 222 cities.
Increasing profitability and cash flow have become the basis for enterprises to continuously invest in R&D and business capabilities, and also provide strong support for brands to maintain their leading position in the new energy vehicle market. With strong product strength and excellent operational efficiency, LI will continue to strengthen its commercial and service capabilities, create greater value for users and further enhance the flywheel effect of enterprise development. (Photo courtesy of LI)