The two-wheeler market has reaped a great harvest. Why did Yadea and Aima lag behind Ninebot?

Data shows that from May 15th, when it was announced that the shipment volume reached 7 million units, to July 18th, the incremental sales volume of Ninebot's intelligent electric two - wheelers in the Chinese market reached one million units.

This rapid performance not only follows Ninebot's "strongest semi - annual report" in the first half of the year but also seems to pave the way for even better results in the second half.

Yadea Holdings issued a profit - pre - warning as early as mid - June, stating that its net profit for the half - year would be no less than 1.6 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of about 55%. Its leading position in the overall market is very strong.

However, although both are in the prosperous period of the two - wheeler market and have promising performance signals, the capital market's feedback on them is significantly different. The former is listed on the A - share market, and its stock price has been on an upward trend for nearly a year and a half. The latter is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and its stock price has been struggling to rise after the release of the performance forecast.

One reason is the different market sentiments and topic preferences in the two markets. However, a detailed analysis of Ninebot's financial report may provide a more objective answer to this confusion.

Enhancing Product Quality Internally and Leveraging Policies Externally, Ninebot Delivers the Strongest Semi - annual Report

On the first trading day in August, Ninebot released a financial report known as the "strongest semi - annual report". Its revenue in the first half of the year increased by 76.14% year - on - year to 11.742 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the parent company reached 1.242 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 108.45%. Both core financial indicators reached record highs for the same period.

Among them, the revenue in the second quarter was 6.63 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 61.54%. The net profit attributable to the parent company and the net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non - recurring gains and losses increased by 70.77% and 83.76% year - on - year to 786 million yuan and 888 million yuan respectively. Although the growth rates of revenue and profit declined compared with the previous quarter, they still maintained high - speed growth overall, achieving high - quality development.

The significant increase in revenue is mainly due to the release of demand, which can be further explored from two dimensions: endogenous growth power and external driving force.

Internally, based on its insight into the structure of consumer demand, Ninebot launched the Q - series products focusing on women's riding needs and the M - series featuring "sport performance". The Q - series has ranked among the top three best - selling product categories, indicating its product competitiveness.

Meanwhile, in terms of channels, it has consistently expanded the scale of its stores. As of July 31st, there were more than 9,000 exclusive stores for electric two - wheelers in China. In terms of hierarchical structure, the first - tier high - sales stores (with an annual sales volume of over 1,000 units) have gradually formed a scale, and the agglomeration effect of large stores is gradually emerging.

Externally, the continuation of the trade - in policy in 2025 has promoted the renewal demand. Coupled with the introduction of new strict standards, which have accelerated the elimination of low - quality and low - price products, the demand in the domestic electric two - wheeler market has continued to increase. The sales volume in the first half of the year increased by 29.5% year - on - year, driving the improvement of market scale and concentration.

As a member of the leading camp, Ninebot has benefited greatly. Its sales volume of electric two - wheelers nearly doubled year - on - year to 2.39 million units in the first half of the year, and the corresponding revenue increased by 102% to 6.8 billion yuan. It remains the main force in its performance and leads the industry in terms of growth rate.

The fact that the high growth rate of sales volume is slightly lower than the growth rate of revenue means that it has achieved a balance between "quantity and price". In the first half of the year, it successfully ranked fourth in the industry with a 7.3% market share and is currently the fastest - growing company.

In contrast, after a significant performance adjustment last year, Yadea Holdings is more like a defender. Fortunately, its resilience as a leading company has enabled it to defend its position successfully and continue to rank first with a 26.3% market share. Since 2025, it has also recognized the structural incremental opportunities brought by the rise of the "she economy" and launched corresponding leisure products for female and elderly customers. At the same time, it has continued to improve the construction of a multi - terminal collaborative ecosystem through intelligentization. In terms of high - end products, it has launched the flagship models Q7 and A7plus, which have helped to push the price ceiling of its two - wheeler business above 5,000 yuan. The optimization of product structure and the continuous strengthening of scale benefits have achieved remarkable results.

Its strong channel moat is the key. In 2024 alone, it had more than 1,900 global distributors and over 30,000 stores offline, far exceeding Ninebot. At the same time, its overseas business covers more than 50 countries, and it has established more than 100 stores in the Indonesian market.

In the electric two - wheeler market, Yadea Holdings still has strong comprehensive advantages.

Horizontal Breakthrough vs. Vertical Deep - Dive: Which is More Resistant to Cycles?

Ninebot's electric scooter business, which mainly targets high - income overseas markets such as Europe and the United States, is a smart move to break through in a differentiated way.

In the first half of the year, the revenue from this segment exceeded expectations, increasing by 37% to 2.2 billion yuan. At the retail end, its scooters increased their market share during the expansion period of industry demand due to their good intelligent product capabilities, and the revenue in the first half of the year increased by 28% year - on - year. At the sharing end, the sales volume was released due to the recovery of the European economy and the arrival of the replacement cycle.

Essentially, the achievements made by the coordinated efforts of the two markets are the result of nearly a decade of proof of the foresight and correctness of its globalization strategy. Timing is just a catalytic factor. As of June, the cumulative global shipments of Ninebot electric scooters have exceeded 14 million units, and there have been many best - selling models.

In addition, the all - terrain vehicles, which were singled out in the 2023 annual financial report, continued to maintain sales growth at a very high unit price. In the first half of the year, the sales volume was 12,800 units, corresponding to revenue of 538 million yuan.

Through its forward - looking insight into regional travel cultures and habits and the explosion of the outdoor economy, Ninebot has cleverly built a unique brand image in other high - unit - price product lines, which has ultimately benefited its basic electric two - wheeler business.

More expectantly, Ninebot is currently continuing to expand its diversified high - end product matrix in a similar way.

In the first half of the year, the revenue from other products was the fastest - growing segment and the second - largest in terms of incremental revenue after the electric two - wheeler business, surging from 113 million yuan in the same period last year to 1.429 billion yuan.

Among them, the most interesting and significant topic for Ninebot is its extension to the robot production line.

According to public information, Ninebot's lawn mowing robots use the RTK + vision solution to solve the pain points of traditional buried - wire systems. The X3 series, with its IP66 protection level and six - blade design, has swept the European and American markets. In 2024, the revenue from its robot business reached 895 million yuan, and the gross profit margin was extremely high, exceeding 51%. As of May this year, the number of global users of its lawn mowing robot products has exceeded 240,000.

Through the performance of this series of product lines, it is easy to see that Yadea and Ninebot have completely different strategic decisions. The former focuses more on vertical deep - diving and overseas expansion, similar to the strategies of well - known large household appliance brands such as Midea and Haier. The latter, as a breakthrough player, clearly has stronger horizontal extensibility.

This means that apart from the short - term industry demand explosion driven by policies, Ninebot's long - term growth potential and strategic endurance are more worthy of in - depth exploration. Traditional players such as Yadea may face more instability passively in the new cycle. Especially in the second half of the year, as the marginal utility of policies such as "trade - in" and "national subsidies" continues to decline, coupled with the official implementation of new national standards, the consumer boom is likely to decline significantly.

This is probably one of the main reasons why Yadea has been questioned by investors.

Abundant Harvest in the Industry, No Scarcity of Performance: What's Missing?

From an industry perspective, stimulated by the trade - in policy, the intelligent consumer - end markets in 2025, including smart cars, two - wheeled electric vehicles, and household appliances, are all booming.

According to monitoring data from Aowei Cloud Network, in the first five months of this year, the year - on - year growth rates of production and sales in the electric two - wheeler market were 27.9% and 32.5% respectively, showing strong growth momentum.

Therefore, Ninebot's abundant harvest in performance is neither unexpected nor scarce.

For example, Yadea, the largest leading company, had previously issued a profit - pre - warning. Aima, which ranks closely behind, also showed good growth in its first - quarter performance. The growth rates of its revenue and net profit after deducting non - recurring gains and losses in the first quarter were 25.8% and 31.6% respectively.

However, even in the upward cycle of the industry, Ninebot's performance growth seems to be particularly effective in boosting its stock price. Since the low point in February last year, Ninebot's stock price has more than doubled by 1.6 times. Although there seemed to be a short - term profit - taking behavior after the release of the excellent semi - annual report, the stock price continued to rise after only two days, indicating investor recognition. During the same period, Aima and Yadea performed significantly worse than Ninebot in the secondary market.

Part of the reason is the expected investment returns under the company's high profitability.

Its overall gross profit margin has been increasing over the past few years, reaching 28.24% in 2024 and further improving to 30.39% in the first half of 2025. The net operating cash flow in the same period reached 3.653 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 46.94%, indicating obvious improvement in quality and efficiency. More importantly, its weighted return on net assets soared from 9.83% in 2022 to 19.10% last year and was adjusted to 18.44% in the first half of 2025.

After a major performance change, Yadea Holdings' weighted return on net assets in 2024 was 14.67%, significantly lower than its previous level of over 30%. The contrast is very obvious.

In the long run, the more important factor may be the charm of Ninebot's "technology narrative".

So far, Ninebot has initially achieved platform - based core underlying technologies by building three core underlying technologies: intelligent technology, mobile technology, and online + data - driven capabilities. It has also reserved technologies such as self - developed sensorless drive, platform - based three - electric system, autonomous navigation, and Lingbo OS short - distance transportation operating system, achieving full - chain integration from R & D to industrialization.

Its latest performance research report shows that "the company is building an intelligent ecological foundation for Lingbo OS, which will become the core source of technological competition. In the future, the company will gradually achieve technological equality, and different products will be configured with different intelligent functions. In addition to the software end, the company is also continuously investing in R & D in vehicle chassis, electronic control, and batteries, which will be gradually reflected in the products."

On the product side, the high - premium lawn mowing robots empowered by technology have become its new calling card. According to Market Research data, it is estimated that the global lawn mowing robot market will expand to $4 billion at an average annual growth rate of 14.8% from 2024 to 2023.

Moreover, Ninebot's technology reserve precisely aligns with the industry trend. The characteristics of its short - distance transportation products, such as electric drive and short - distance movement, are highly consistent with those of lawn mowing robots in the three - electric system (battery, motor, and electronic control), resulting in significant cost advantages under large - scale production.

Conclusion

Looking back at the four major forces in the domestic electric two - wheeler market, Aima and Yadea have built strong moats through full - chain vertical integration and consumer brand education. Ninebot, in the second echelon, has chosen to upgrade from a single - terminal product provider to a terminal ecological enterprise supported by technology, achieving a phased breakthrough.

However, when the horn of the era's transformation sounds in every corner, any player that fails to keep up with the pace of industrial reshaping caused by technological changes may be eliminated.

Therefore, compared with simply enjoying the cyclical dividends of the industry, the forward - looking layout of endogenous technological strength is the long - term path for terminal intelligent brands and is more favored by investors.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Hong Kong Stock Research Association". The author is Hong Kong Stock Research Association, and it is published by 36Kr with permission.