Chinese Electric Vehicle Maker Xpeng Narrows Loss in Q4, Will Launch Second Sedan in June

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup Xpeng reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2020 revenues on Monday and said it will launch a second sedan model before the end of June this year.

Revenue rose 346% year-over-year to 2.85 billion yuan ($437 million), exceeding market expectations of $405 million, according to the company’s latest financial results. Vehicle sales accounted for 96% of the total revenue.

Xpeng sees first-quarter deliveries rising 450% year-over-year to 12,500 vehicles. Revenues are expected to increase by approximately 531% from a year ago.

Guangzhou-based Xpeng delivered 12,964 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 302.9% jump year-on-year and an increase of 51.1% from 8,578 in the third quarter of 2020. For the entire year of 2020, it sold a total of 27,041 vehicles, up 112%.

By comparison, domestic rivals Nio sold 17,353 EVs in Q4 and 43,728 for 2020. Li Auto sold 14,464 hybrid-electric vehicles in Q4 and 32,624 for the year.

Xpeng, which is listed in New York, reported a 787.4 million yuan loss versus a 997.1 million yuan loss in the same period of 2019. It achieved a positive gross margin for the first time – 4.6% – for the full year of 2020, compared to a negative 24% in 2019.

“Our profitability continued to improve, thanks to rapid sales growth following the beginning of mass deliveries of P7. Specifically, our gross margin improved sequentially in the fourth quarter, and for the first time, we achieved positive full-year gross margin, marking a significant milestone in our company history, reflecting the power of our business model,” Xpeng Vice Chairman and President Brian Gu said in a press release.

The EV maker said it will launch a second sedan model that will incorporate Lidar in its autonomous driving system before the end of June as well as a revamped G3 at the end of the year, Gu told Reuters and Yahoo Finance.

Xpeng is planning to build a third car plant in China and will have a lineup of seven to eight models by 2024, he added. Right now, the company makes the P7 sedan — a rival to the made-in-China Tesla Model 3 — and the G3 sport-utility vehicle.

The company’s 3.0 autonomous driving technology has also recently become available, allowing hands-free lane switching and speed control.

While Shanghai-based Nio last week warned that a global chip shortage could impact production, Gu said it is not expecting any effect on Xpeng for the foreseeable period.

SEE ALSO: Chinese EV Maker XPeng “Not Affected by Chip Shortage”, Aims to Launch New Model in Q4

“We are monitoring very closely as to whether [the chip shortage] will impact our supply chain overall. In the foreseeable period, we don’t see any impact but that’s actually something we focus on a lot. Given that our volume is relatively small compared to some large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who are facing a much bigger crisis, we are more nimble to address this issue,” Gu told investors on the earnings call.