XPeng geht erneut den Weg, den Xiaomi gegangen ist.

After months of continuously selling over 30,000 vehicles, XPeng Motors has regained its rhythm.

On the evening of March 18th, XPeng released its financial reports for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2024. It sold 190,000 vehicles throughout the year, with a revenue of 40.87 billion yuan.

Especially in the fourth quarter, XPeng's sales volume reached 91,500 vehicles, and the revenue was 16.11 billion yuan. The sales volume increased by 96.6% compared with 46,500 vehicles in the third quarter.

The high sales volume and revenue have made XPeng's financial indicators show a stable trend. In the fourth quarter of last year, its vehicle gross profit margin was 10%, up from 8.6% in the third quarter.

It also has more cash flow on hand. As of the end of last year, XPeng's cash and cash equivalents reached 41.96 billion yuan, an increase of over 6 billion yuan compared with the third quarter. The losses are no longer continuously expanding. XPeng's net loss in the fourth quarter was 1.33 billion yuan, narrowing from the 1.81 billion yuan loss in the third quarter. The annual loss was 5.79 billion yuan.

Of course, it cannot be ignored that XPeng's business revenue comes from technology output. Throughout the year, XPeng's service - type revenue reached 5.04 billion yuan, an increase of 89.0% compared with 2.67 billion yuan in 2023. XPeng Motors said that this was mainly due to the increase in technology R & D service revenue related to the strategic cooperation on platform and software and the technical cooperation on electronic and electrical architecture with Volkswagen.

However, the improvement of XPeng's financial report data is largely due to itself. In the second half of last year, XPeng launched two models: the MONA M03 starting at 119,800 yuan and the new P7+ starting at 186,800 yuan, which quickly gained popularity. Especially the former, which accounted for almost half of XPeng's monthly sales of over 30,000 vehicles in February this year.

CEO He Xiaopeng said in the earnings conference call that XPeng is expected to achieve profitability in the fourth quarter of 2025.

In this game of manufacturing and trading, XPeng, which has undergone a painful transformation, has proved in the continuously soaring sales volume that it has found the knack.

But the competition from peers is even stronger.

Also on the evening of March 18th, Xiaomi Group released its 2024 financial report. In its first year of selling cars, Xiaomi's annual business revenue was 38.2 billion yuan, and it sold 136,800 vehicles.

In terms of profitability, Xiaomi Auto's gross profit margin was 18.5%. However, Xiaomi Auto as a whole is still in a loss - making state, with an annual net loss of 6.2 billion yuan, only slightly more than XPeng Motors' annual loss.

Under the impact of the wave of equal - price for gasoline and electric vehicles and equal - right for intelligent driving, the value system of traditional automobiles is failing. Both high - end and affordable market segments have attracted various new players to compete.

Xiaomi Auto did not follow the "cost - effectiveness" route in the mobile phone field but focused on high - end brands. After profound changes, XPeng has taken the more mainstream and affordable "Redmi" route.

["Swapping Positions with Xiaomi, XPeng Opens up the 'Cost - Effectiveness' Route"]

Xiaomi Auto's aggressive development is likely to accelerate this year.

On the one hand, it may achieve the break - even point faster. According to the financial data, Xiaomi Auto lost 6.2 billion yuan last year. According to the estimates of financial institutions, Xiaomi Auto's losses in the four quarters last year were 2 billion yuan (not publicly disclosed), 1.8 billion yuan, 1.5 billion yuan, and 900 million yuan (not publicly disclosed).

In the first quarter of 2025, Xiaomi Auto has delivered 63,000 vehicles, and the sales volume at the end of the quarter is likely to exceed 73,000 vehicles, much higher than 69,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter of last year. Maintaining the current level of investment and R & D expenditure, Xiaomi Auto is likely to reach the break - even point in the first quarter of this year.

The SU7 Ultra, with a starting price of 529,900 yuan, is expected to help Xiaomi Auto increase the average vehicle price.

Perhaps well aware of the hardships of the "cost - effectiveness" path, Lei Jun did not let Xiaomi Auto follow the cost - effectiveness route that Xiaomi used to break into the mobile phone market with thousand - yuan phones but focused on the narrative of luxury brands.

After the release of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra at the end of February this year under Lei Jun's promotion, the number of large - order reservations exceeded 19,000 within three days of its launch, and the number of locked orders exceeded 10,000, completing the annual task of 10,000 units in advance. According to 36Kr Auto, among the first - batch owners of the SU7 Ultra, 80 - 90% are users who upgraded or replaced their traditional luxury cars (such as BBA, Porsche, Ferrari, etc.).

As of March 18th, the cumulative delivery volume of Xiaomi Auto has exceeded 200,000 vehicles. Xiaomi Auto plans to strive for the goal of 350,000 vehicles based on the SU7, SU7 ultra, and YU7 models.

Lei Jun previously said at an event that Xiaomi Auto's goal is to become one of the world's top five automakers in 15 - 20 years. To achieve this goal, Xiaomi Auto needs to sell 300,000 - 400,000 vehicles annually to reach the break - even point.

In contrast, XPeng seems to have swapped positions with Xiaomi. Since the launch of the MONA M03 starting at 119,800 yuan in the second half of 2024, XPeng's cost - effectiveness route has become more obvious. In some surveys, the MONA M03 is mainly targeted at young people's first cars.

Although cost - effectiveness was not the original idea of XPeng Motors and He Xiaopeng when starting the business.

Similar to other new - force companies such as NIO and Li Auto, XPeng Motors initially intended to use its technological capabilities to enter the mid - to high - end market. After the early models such as the G3 and P5, XPeng opened up the 200,000 - yuan - level market with the P7, and the G9 even explored the 400,000 - yuan - level market.

But also because of the failure of the G9 product, XPeng Motors is re - evaluating the pricing and strategies of its models.

In 2024, XPeng Motors' average vehicle price dropped from 254,000 yuan to 160,300 yuan. Behind this is the increase in the sales volume proportion of the affordable MONA M03.

After the launch of the G6 starting at 176,800 yuan and the flagship SUV model G9 priced at 248,800 yuan in March this year, XPeng has further consolidated its "cost - effectiveness" route, similar to Xiaomi's early route in the mobile phone market.

The strategy has also been relatively effective. In the first quarter of this year, XPeng gave a sales guidance of 91,000 - 93,000 vehicles, with revenue between 15 billion yuan and 15.7 billion yuan, maintaining the sales momentum even in the off - season.

["The Cost of Becoming BYD's Rival"]

But cost - effectiveness sometimes also means the difficulty of product differentiation.

Especially in the price segment where XPeng is located, the biggest player in the ecosystem is BYD. Since the beginning of this year, with BYD's large - scale popularization of intelligent driving, the battle for intelligent driving has begun. XPeng is also within BYD's competitive scope.

Becoming BYD's rival makes the perception of market users stronger. However, the disadvantage is that it has to face the same problem of brand high - endization as BYD.

At the earnings conference call, He Xiaopeng said that by the end of 2026, XPeng will cover the price range from 100,000 to 500,000 yuan and have a more complete product layout in all mainstream sub - markets from compact to large - sized vehicles.

He said that in the future, models such as the XPeng MONA M03, G7, and X9 will respectively have Max - version upgrades, launches, or facelifts, forming a strong product portfolio that comprehensively meets the diverse needs of young users, family users, and users seeking quality upgrades.

"In the second half of this year, we also plan to deliver several new products, including pure - electric and Kunpeng super - electric vehicles. Most of our models will support dual - function capabilities, and the super - electric vehicles will greatly expand our accessible market scale."

He Xiaopeng believes that there will be three growth curves in the future: globalization, AI + automotive, expanding from the Chinese market to the global market, embodied humanoid robots, and deeper integration with the automotive industry.

He hopes to achieve driverless cars in the city, use flying cars for inter - city transportation, and introduce humanoid robots in factories and residential areas to build a future travel ecosystem centered around AI.

For example, in the field of AI + automotive, XPeng will mass - produce its self - developed Turing chip this year, which will be applied to automobiles, flying vehicles, and the integration of automotive and energy.

In terms of overseas business, XPeng's goal in 2025 is to achieve more than double the sales volume growth and establish more than 300 sales and service outlets globally, doubling the number compared with the end of 2024.

"We expect the vehicle gross profit margin to continue to improve this year. We believe that while continuing to invest in AI R & D, we will steadily move towards profitability in the fourth quarter of this year."