【TechWeb】 In the first quarter of 2024, Celis will realize a positive net profit. On April 29, Celis announced that its revenue in the first quarter was 26.561 billion yuan, up 421.76% year on year; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 220 million yuan, and the gross profit margin in the first quarter increased to 21.5%.
For Celes, this means that the new energy vehicle track has entered a stage of sound development. At the press conference of Beijing International Automobile Exhibition, Zhang Xinghai, the chairman of Celis Group, has set a higher goal for the future
Strong growth of new energy vehicle business: Celus' net profit in the first quarter turned positive
Starting from Silicon Valley in the United States in 2016, Cyrus has transformed into a high-end intelligent electric vehicle track. After eight years of new energy exploration and three years of cross-border integration, it has created three electric vehicles. In the first quarter of this year, Celus realized a positive net profit and its gross profit margin continued to improve to 21.5%, which also confirmed the initial success of its new energy vehicle strategy and became a strong growth engine to drive performance.
In contrast, Tesla, as the pioneer and leader of new energy vehicles in the world, has been making profits for 17 years; BYD has experienced a long period of "increasing income without increasing profits" before it ushered in the harvest period; It also took eight years for Ideal Auto to make a profit for the first time.
Looking back to 2023, the competition in China's automobile market is extremely fierce, and the "price war" runs through. In the face of the market environment of serious involution, the new energy vehicle business of Celes ushered in an outbreak in the second half of the year. The data shows that the operating revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 will be 19.162 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 74.49%; The sales volume of new energy vehicles in the fourth quarter was 82700, with a year-on-year growth of 88.39%. Both the operating revenue and the sales volume of new energy vehicles reached a record high.
The first quarter of this year continued to maintain a strong growth momentum. Benefiting from the increased sales of new energy vehicles, the net cash flow from operating activities in the first quarter of 2024 was 1.187 billion yuan. At the same time, technological innovation and large-scale production have gradually reduced the cost, and the gross profit margin in the first quarter is expected to improve significantly, further promoting the company's profit growth.
Innovation driven by research and development of AITO series of continuous hot selling technologies
Behind the substantial growth of performance, it is inseparable from the hot sales of AITO series products jointly designed by Celis and Huawei. The series of models represented by AITO Interworld's new M7 and M9 became a blockbuster when they came into the market. In the first quarter of this year, the cumulative sales volume of all AITO Interworld series exceeded 80000, ranking among the top five luxury brands in the Chinese market, and becoming the highest ranked Chinese brand in the list.
Up to now, the number of AITO auto users has approached 300000. With the launch of AITO's new M5, the high-end smart car product matrix continues to be rich, and the market scale is expected to further expand. Many institutions and research papers are optimistic about the growth of Celis. China Merchants Securities believes that the sales volume of the new WeChat M7 and M9 continues to rise, and the new M5 is listed. The company's sales volume has entered a benign inflection point, and is optimistic about the continued volume expansion in the future.
It is worth mentioning that, under the extremely introverted environment of the industry, Celis has always maintained strategic concentration, formed the first mover advantage and cumulative advantage through large-scale R&D investment, realized the leap of production and quality through technological innovation, and finally transformed scientific and technological achievements into enterprise benefits. The data shows that the R&D investment in 2023 will be 3.348 billion yuan, accounting for 12.38% of the operating revenue. This is also the deep-seated reason why Celis can go through the industrial fluctuation cycle, and it also plays a key role in turning the net profit into positive.
The Celes Rubik's Cube platform unveiled at the 2024 Beijing Auto Show will integrate the industry-leading safety, power, chassis, software and other technologies across domains to bring users a car experience of "easy to drive, easy to use, and ultra safe". When China's new energy vehicles enter the second half, their own technology accumulation and accurate prediction of the future will become the key to determine the outcome. From this perspective, the future of Celis is foreseeable. （Suky）
