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Written | Edited by Sun Mingzhi | Wu Xianzhi
Source: Photon Travel
On September 29, Leap Motor (09863.HK) was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but it was broken at the opening, with a drop of more than 39%. The closing price on that day was HK$33.55, down 32.29%, making it the worst performing new stock on the first day of the annual IPO of Hong Kong stocks.
It can be said that Leapmotor did not catch up with the good times. When it went public, it happened to catch up with the trough of the stock price of new Chinese cars. The stock price of Xiaopeng Motors hit a record low that day, and both NIO and Li Auto were at the trough of stock prices in recent months.
When Li Auto and Xpeng Motors completed their IPOs in the summer of 2020, the capital market was extremely optimistic about new forces building cars, and both companies saw their stock prices skyrocket on the day they went public. However, with the passage of time, the capital market’s view of this field has returned to rationality, and the listing of Zero Run at this time means that the previous C-round investors are likely to lose money.
Of course, compared with new forces such as WM Motor, Nezha Automobile, and Gaohe Automobile, Leap Motor at least provides investors with a channel to exit at any time through IPO. As long as the stock price recovers, the previous investors are expected to retreat completely.
Relying on low prices to stand firm in the second echelon
In January 2019, Leapmotor launched its first model S01. The car is positioned as a pure electric coupe. The price after subsidies is between 109,900 and 149,900 yuan, but it is equipped with frameless doors, face recognition and vein unlocking, etc. , the high-end configuration that could not be sold within 200,000 yuan at that time, its purpose is to highlight the cost performance of the product with differentiation, and at the same time, it also shows its identity as a “price butcher”.
The positioning of the first models of Tesla and NIO is the same as that of the S01, except that the purpose of these two car companies launching coupe is to attract attention, show their brand strength, and establish their own image, and there is no requirement for sales; and the S01 It is a model that Leapmotor Motors is serious about and wants to sell with high cost performance.
On the eve of the launch of the S01, Leapmotor CEO Zhu Jiangming was full of confidence and set a goal of selling 10,000 units in the first year, but the S01 did not sell well. At the end of 2019, the sales volume only exceeded 1,000 units, and by the end of 2021, the cumulative delivery of S01 was only 2,708 units – cost-effective products, which sold high-end sales.
In this regard, Zhu Jiangming also said that he underestimated the difficulty of building a car, but the failure of the first model S01 did not make Leapmotor discouraged.
In May 2020, Leapmotor’s second model, T03, was launched. This miniature electric vehicle is still a cost-effective strategy. Compared with other products of the same level, T03 has certain advantages in terms of vehicle performance, intelligence and battery life, and it is also better than Hongguang. The MINIEV also went on sale two months earlier.
Relying on its excellent product strength and earlier time to market, the sales of T03 are good, and the sales volume exceeded 1,000 within two months. By the end of 2020, the cumulative sales volume of this car will be 10,266, completing the KPI that was not completed before S01. , By August 2022, the cumulative sales of T03 will exceed 40,000 units.
However, the sales growth brought by the “Old Man Le” model T03 is only temporary. The profit of selling mini cars is very low, and there are more and more competing models on the market. Leapmotor needs to launch a new model to increase profits. Tell the investment market it’s okay not to buy my car, but don’t miss my stock. So on September 28, 2021, Leapmotor’s third model C11 was launched, which means that Leapmotor once again returned to the new energy vehicle market with a price range of 100,000-200,000 yuan.
According to the data of the Passenger Federation, the sales volume of Leapmotor in August 2022 was 12,525 units, a year-on-year increase of 179.1%. Among them, the sales volume of C11 was 6,277 units, accounting for 50.12%, which exceeded half of the monthly sales. C11 gradually replaced T03 and became Leapmotor. Another major model.
Although the first model S01 did not perform well, after the zero run, it was gradually known to the public by the relatively excellent performance of the T03 and C11 models. However, compared with “Weixiaoli”, the sales volume of Leaprun is not high, and the popularity is not enough.
Zero run has not yet led
On September 28, C01 was officially launched. It is Leap Motor’s second sedan product after S01. It is officially positioned as a fully intelligent multi-scenario electric sedan. car ceiling.
As a model of Leapmotor, the C01 also has a significant cost-effectiveness advantage. The minimum starting price of the car is 183,800 yuan. In the new energy vehicle market of about 200,000 yuan, the main competitors of C01 are Nezha S, BYD Seal, Changan Dark Blue SL03, etc.
For those strong opponents, Zhu Jiangming is very confident. He once said that the standard C01 can be comparable to luxury cars with more than 400,000 yuan. In terms of configuration, the entire C01 series comes standard with a front double wishbone rear five-link suspension, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155P chip, 28 high-precision sensing hardware, frameless doors, seat ventilation and heating massage, etc. Almost all the materials that can be piled up, but the post-subsidy price of C01 when it was released broke through 200,000 – this price is the touchstone for testing the product and brand power.
The C01 is positioned as a medium and large-sized sedan. It adopts the battery-free CTC technology and integrates the power battery with the chassis, which enhances the torsional strength of the chassis, improves the safety of the battery, and also reduces part of the weight and prolongs the battery life. It has the function of smart phone and watch connection; the car is equipped with Android virtual machine function, the first single-chip control triple screen mode, BMS and AI cloud platform monitoring battery system technology, etc.
Leapmotor has vertically integrated the industry chain through global self-research to reduce costs. At the same time, the company has also received technical support from some Dahua to give the C01 a crazy stack of materials, making the car a cost-effective product. It revealed the anxiety and helplessness of Leap Run.
The cost-effective C01 is of great significance to Leapmotor. First, it brings a substantial increase in sales to the company;
Leapao positions its brand at the mid-to-high end, with a price between 150,000 and 300,000 yuan. At present, T03 and C11 are the main models of Leapmotor, but the two models are limited by pricing and product cycle, and the profits brought by them are limited, making it difficult to undertake the heavy task of profitability.
In addition, in the competition in the mid-to-high-end market, the brand power of Leapmotor is still somewhat insufficient, and even has the label of “Old Man Le” on its body, and the company wants C01 to tear off this label and enter the mid-to-high-end new energy vehicle market in one fell swoop. Improve company finances.
From 2019 to 2021, while Leapao’s annual revenue is growing rapidly, the company’s loss rate is also accelerating, with a cumulative loss of more than 4.8 billion yuan in three years.
Through global self-research, it is indeed possible to reduce a certain cost, but the company needs to invest a lot of money in the initial research and development and production. The investment amount is higher than the revenue amount, and the profit of the product is also low. This also makes the zero run more than make ends meet, and the loss expands every year.
However, Leapmotor does not have that much money. Since its establishment, Leapmotor has raised a total of 8 rounds of financing, but it has only received 11.86 billion yuan, which is not enough for car building.
On September 21, Leaprun officially announced that the order volume of C01 exceeded 100,000. However, the premise of obtaining 100,000 orders is that Leaprun can place orders by setting C01 to 0 yuan, and Leaprun wants to get more orders by placing orders at 0 yuan, so as to attract more people’s attention and gain popularity.
Due to the fact that the order is made at 0 yuan, some people will place an order with an uncertain psychology. There is too much uncertainty in such an order volume. It is also possible that the actual delivery volume of C01 will shrink significantly after delivery. occur.
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