No longer losing money for the sake of popularity, NIO, XPENG, and Li Auto are all starting to make money. Is a good day coming for new energy vehicles?
In the past few years, new energy vehicle companies were often ridiculed for not making money. Netizens said they "lost money on every vehicle sold" and posed the soul - searching question: When will they finally turn a profit? This time, they have all shown good momentum, which can be seen as a response to the previous doubts. The situation is excellent. Will new energy vehicle companies compete to see who can earn more next year?
New energy vehicle companies have started to make money.
Recently, several new energy vehicle companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange released their 2025 financial reports. Their "results" are quite good. Leapmotor became a "dark horse" and achieved full - year profitability for the first time. Xiaomi gave a big surprise. The three new - force companies of "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto" collectively crossed the profit line. Those new energy brands "affiliated" with large manufacturers can also stand on their own...
In the past few years, new energy vehicle companies were often ridiculed for not making money. Netizens said they "lost money on every vehicle sold" and posed the soul - searching question: When will they finally turn a profit?
This time, they have all shown good momentum, which can be seen as a response to the previous doubts. The situation is excellent. Will new energy vehicle companies compete to see who can earn more next year?
1. Leapmotor Becomes the "Leading Dark Horse" in the New Energy Sector, and Xiaomi Sets a New Standard
Among the new energy vehicle companies that turned a profit this year, Leapmotor is the most surprising.
In 2025, Leapmotor sold 596,000 vehicles across its entire model range, a year - on - year increase of 103.1%. The sales volume doubled for two consecutive years. The annual revenue reached 64.73 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 101.3%; the net profit was 540 million yuan. Leapmotor not only achieved full - year profitability for the first time but also became the leader among "new - force" enterprises in terms of sales volume.
When it comes to new energy vehicle companies, people's first impression is often "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto". Leapmotor is not very well - known. Why was it able to stage a comeback and become an "industry dark horse" this time?
After reading the financial report, Sister Ba summarized Leapmotor's success in one sentence: Save money, offer low - profit and high - volume sales, and seek growth overseas.
In 2025, Leapmotor's annual gross profit margin reached 14.5%, a significant increase of 6.1 percentage points compared to 8.4% in 2024, setting a new annual high.
The increase in the gross profit margin is due in part to the increase in sales volume, which diluted the costs. On the other hand, Leapmotor's consistent "full - scale self - research" strategy has also saved a lot of money in cost control. The financial report shows that Leapmotor's core components cover 65% of the vehicle cost, and the component sharing rate of some models is as high as 88%.
In addition, Leapmotor's overseas business has started to boom. In 2025, Leapmotor's overseas sales reached 67,000 units, and it ranked among the top three Chinese brands in pure - electric vehicle sales in the European market. Leapmotor also established a joint - venture company, Leapmotor International, with the "Stellantis" Group, the parent company of Maserati, to enter the European market with the help of foreign brands. It also built a factory in Spain to promote local production.
Due to the excellent performance in the financial report, Li Tengfei, the vice - president of Leapmotor, seems very confident: "This year will be a year of explosive growth for Leapmotor in the field of assisted driving. We hope to rank among the first - tier in intelligent driving by the end of the year."
For this reason, Leapmotor's goal for 2026 is to sell 1 million vehicles, including 100,000 - 150,000 vehicles overseas, and the annual net profit target is 5 billion yuan.
Comparing with the 2025 financial report, this goal is very ambitious, which means a 66% increase in sales volume and a ten - fold increase in net profit.
According to the analysis of Huaxia Times, in 2025, Leapmotor only made a profit of about 900 yuan per vehicle sold. Even if it achieves the sales target of 1 million vehicles in 2026, the net profit will only be 900 million yuan.
Since Leapmotor dares to set the goal of "5 billion yuan in net profit", it should have a "revenue secret" that has not been announced.
Xiaomi Auto has surprised the industry no less than Leapmotor.
On March 24, Xiaomi Group released its 2025 financial report. Xiaomi Auto's revenue exceeded 100 billion yuan, reaching 103.3 billion yuan. The gross profit margin increased to 24.3%, a year - on - year increase of 5.8 percentage points, and it achieved positive operating income for the first time, with an annual operating income of 900 million yuan.
If we only look at the fourth quarter, Xiaomi's performance was even more "outstanding". The fourth - quarter revenue was 37.2 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 123.4%. The gross profit margin was 22.7%, and the operating income was 1.1 billion yuan.
It should be noted that Xiaomi announced its entry into the automotive industry in 2021, launched its first model in 2024, and achieved profitability in 2025. Such a speed is indeed amazing. A few days ago, Xiaomi released its new - generation SU7. Lei Jun revealed in a live - stream on March 23, 2026, that the number of locked orders had exceeded 30,000, which laid a good foundation for the 2026 financial report.
2. "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto" Achieved Collective Profitability for the First Time, and the New Energy Vehicle Industry Crossed the "Survival Line"
As is well - known, the three companies of "NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto" are called "new - force" companies because they were among the first to enter the new energy vehicle market.
However, the profitability of these three companies has always been criticized by the outside world. Everyone has been looking forward to the moment when they can turn a profit together. In 2025, they achieved this, and for the first time, the word "profit" appeared in their financial reports.
Since achieving profitability in the fourth quarter of 2022, Li Auto has always been a "model student" among new - force companies.
According to the financial report, Li Auto's revenue in 2025 was 112.3 billion yuan, and the net profit was 1.1 billion yuan. It is the only domestic new energy vehicle company that has achieved revenue of over 100 billion yuan for three consecutive years and maintained a profitable state for three consecutive years.
However, in 2025, Li Auto carried out a major reform, shifting its main products from the "extended - range" to the "pure - electric" track. The production capacity could not keep up, resulting in a decline in the delivery volume.
However, the founder, Li Xiang, said that the "most difficult climbing period" for some models has passed, and the production volume has now increased steadily.
Li Xiang also said that he wants to transform Li Auto from an automobile company into an "embodied intelligent enterprise". He said that the automobile is the largest application of artificial intelligence in the physical world, and the robot is the ultimate form of the automobile. For this reason, Li Auto's R & D expenses in 2025 were as high as 11.3 billion yuan, with 50% of the investment related to AI.
As of March 2026, Li Auto had a cash reserve of 101.2 billion yuan. This amount of money is enough for Li Xiang to explore his "dream" for several years.
At the end of last year, He Xiaopeng, the chairman of XPeng Motors, claimed on multiple occasions that the "probability" of achieving profitability in the fourth quarter was "99.999%".
Sure enough, as he said, in the fourth quarter of 2025, XPeng achieved single - quarter profitability for the first time, with a net profit of 380 million yuan.
However, in the whole year of 2025, XPeng delivered 429,000 vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 125.9%; the revenue was 76.72 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 87.7%; the gross profit margin increased from 14.3% to 18.9%, but it still had an annual loss of 1.14 billion yuan, a year - on - year reduction of 80.3%.
Single - quarter profitability is a good sign, and XPeng Motors is playing a long - term game, focusing on AI - powered cars. He Xiaopeng said: "I believe that XPeng Motors is at a historical turning point in the application of physical AI. We not only want to expand the global market share of AI - powered cars but also achieve large - scale mass production of high - level humanoid robots."
As of the end of 2025, XPeng's cash reserve was 47.66 billion yuan, an increase of 5.7 billion yuan compared to 2024. There is enough money. Gu Hongdi, the vice - chairman of XPeng, also said: "The 47.66 billion yuan provides a solid guarantee for our firm investment in physical AI R & D."
NIO is similar to XPeng. It was still in the red in 2025, but it achieved profitability in the fourth quarter for the first time.
NIO's annual revenue in 2025 was 87.488 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 33.1%; it delivered 326,000 vehicles throughout the year, a year - on - year increase of 46.9%. In the fourth quarter, NIO achieved single - quarter profitability for the first time, with a net profit of 283 million yuan. However, the annual net loss was still as high as 14.943 billion yuan, a reduction of 33.3% compared to the previous year.
Li Bin, the founder of NIO, attributed the reason to the rising raw material prices and chip supply issues, which brought great pressure on the company's costs and gross profit. Fortunately, NIO has a cash reserve of 45.9 billion yuan and the moat of the battery - swapping network, so it won't run out of funds in the short term.
The above five companies are typical new energy vehicle enterprises. They have all achieved single - quarter or full - year profitability, which is definitely good news for the entire industry.
The automotive industry requires a large amount of capital. Once a company turns a profit and has the "self - hematopoietic" ability, it will have less demand for external funds in the future, and the possibility of "surviving" will increase significantly. It also proves the "feasibility" of this industry.
3. New Energy Vehicles under "Big Brands" Also Start to Make a Profit. Will They Compete to See Who Can Earn More Next Year?
On the other hand, those new energy brands "affiliated" with large manufacturers have also started to make a profit.
Recently, Geely Automobile presented the "strongest financial report in history". In 2025, its total revenue was 345.2 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 25%; the core net profit attributable to shareholders was 14.41 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 36%.
There are two reasons for such excellent financial report performance:
First, the annual sales volume of Geely Automobile's brands exceeded 3.02 million vehicles, a year - on - year increase of 39%, and the market share exceeded 10% for the first time. The huge sales volume diluted the fixed costs, increasing the gross profit margin to 16.7%, and the company's cash flow also reached a record high of 68.2 billion yuan.
Second, the ZEEKR new energy vehicles under the company have also started to make a profit.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, ZEEKR officially achieved profitability (the specific figure was not announced). High - end products (such as the ZEEKR 9X) have a single - vehicle gross profit margin of nearly 40%, becoming a "cash cow" asset for the group.
After the parent company released the financial report, ZEEKR said that its profitability has been steadily improving, contributing to an 8.5% increase in the group's core net profit attributable to shareholders. Calculated, ZEEKR's profit in the fourth quarter was about 1.2 billion yuan.
In addition, Geely also said that the ZEEKR 009 became the best - selling luxury pure - electric MPV in Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Malaysia and other places, and the channel construction in Europe is progressing steadily.
Actually, there is another shocking figure in the new energy vehicle circle - in 2025, Huawei's Hongmeng Zhixing sold nearly 600,000 vehicles, and it announced that it has officially entered the profit - making stage, bidding farewell to the era of "only investment and no profit".
All along, Huawei does not manufacture cars, but it has taken out its core technologies to cooperate with other enterprises.
The biggest "contributor" to Hongmeng Zhixing's profit this time is AITO. Its sales volume in 2025 reached 420,000 vehicles.
Although SERES, the parent company of AITO, has not released its annual report, SERES achieved a revenue of 110.5 billion yuan and a net profit of 5.312 billion yuan in the first three quarters of last year.
In addition, the "Zunjie" jointly developed by Huawei and Jianghuai Automobile delivered about 12,000 vehicles in 2025, and the large - order bookings exceeded 18,000 vehicles. It ranked second only to the Porsche Panamera in the sales volume of ultra - luxury sedans priced over 700,000 yuan.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, Zunjie also achieved profitability, with a non - recurring profit and loss net profit of about 295 million yuan.
Securities firms such as CSC predict that with the increase in capacity utilization and the launch of new models, the single - vehicle profit of Zunjie is expected to reach 30,000 - 40,000 yuan in the future, and may even exceed 50,000 yuan driven by the high - end versions.
In 2025, new energy vehicles accounted for 47.9% of the total new vehicle sales in China, and the domestic sales share of new energy vehicles exceeded 50%, reaching 50.8%, marking that new energy vehicles have officially become the mainstream in the domestic automotive market.
Moreover, the new energy vehicle industry chain has matured, the industry's scale effect has shown good results, and people are no longer keen on "price competition".
It can be said that the new energy vehicle industry has all the right conditions. At this time next year, they will compete to see "who can earn more".
This article is from the WeChat official account "Financial Gossip Girl Channel" (ID: baguanvpindao), written by Wu Yanzu Fake Serious, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.