Photographed at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2023
At the beginning of 2024, the automotive industry became lively because of the previous year’s results announced by automakers. Under the intense competition, there were Li Auto who accelerated forward, and there were also those who went backwards like Nezha Auto.
Among them, the cars from the "national team" can be regarded as a clear answer: 10,017 new cars were delivered in December 2023, breaking through the ten thousand mark, an increase of 479% year-on-year; the total delivery in 2023 exceeded 50,000 cars, not only an increase of 160% over the previous year, but also achieved the annual "small goal".
However, today is different from the past, with monthly deliveries exceeding 10,000 being the norm for some leading new forces, and even becoming a new passing line.Lantu Automobile seems to have made great progress, but it is not outstanding in the entire industry. Last year, the overall sales volume was still far behind that of GAC Aian."Wei Xiaoli", as well as Deep Blue, Extreme Krypton, Question World, etc.
And behind the sales growth, price cuts have played a key role, which has lengthened the profit cycle of Lantu. Available data show that the net loss of Lantu Auto in 2021 is 706 million yuan, and the net loss in the first half of 2022 is 738 million yuan. Lantu Auto CEO Lu Fang also revealed not long ago that, on the whole, Lantu is currently in the investment period and is still losing money.
As a brand carrying the mission of Dongfeng Group’s brand upward and new energy transformation, Lantu’s current achievements can only be said to be "mediocre", and it has not yet been able to support Dongfeng’s blueprint. Although Lu Fang said that "Lantu Automobile has always pursued’long-term ‘, it is not good to let the big tree behind it wait too long.
1
Sales are still lagging behind?●
Like many new energy sub-brands of central enterprises and state-owned enterprises, Lantu was born with a "golden spoon" and has high hopes. It is a high-end intelligent new energy brand created by Dongfeng Motor Group in 2018 and officially announced at the group’s brand strategy conference in 2020.
At that time, the "four major teams" of Wuhan, as well as important partners in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain such as Tencent, Huawei, and Ningde Times, were invited to witness the birth of the Lantu brand.The development goals are clear, namely"You have to run at the beginning, and you have to sprint at the beginning."
However, in a flash of time, it came to 2024. It could not be said that Lan Tu had not been able to run, it could only be said that he had not yet succeeded in sprinting.According to the latest data, in December 2023, Lantu Automobile delivered 10,017 new cars, successfully joining the 10,000-vehicle club; in 2023, the cumulative delivery volume was fixed at 50,552 vehicles, an increase of 160% over the same period last year, and the annual sales target was completed.
From the good news released by Lantu Automobile, it has ushered in a wave of "seven consecutive rises" since June 2023. The progress is indeed obvious. In the starting year of 2021, Lantu’s cumulative delivery was only 6791 vehicles. In 2022, less than 20,000 vehicles were delivered, only about 62% of the original target was completed. Even in the first half of 2023, its monthly average delivery was less than 3,000 vehicles.
But Lantu cars are far from being able to relax. We compared and found that,In front of some leading new forces, Lantu’s sales are simply not enough, and at the same time, it cannot catch up with some friends who are also from traditional car factories.
Not to mention "Wei Xiaoli", Zero Run, Nezha, taking Guangzhou Automobile Aian as an example, it is also the "second generation of cars" incubated by traditional car companies. Its sales reached 45,900 in December last year, which is more than four times that of Lantu; the cumulative sales in 2023 exceeded 480,000, an increase of 77% year-on-year.
The performance of deep blue cars under Changan Automobile has steadily increased. In 2023, the cumulative delivery volume was 136,900 vehicles, an increase of 439% year-on-year. Among them, the single-month delivery volume in December was 18,300 vehicles, an increase of 57% year-on-year. These two data are much stronger than Landscape.
Geely Krypton, whose positioning is closer, delivered 13,500 new cars in December last year, which does not seem much higher than that of Lan Tu, but Ji Krypton Sheng’s monthly sales are quite stable. In 2023, the cumulative delivery of 118,700 new cars suddenly opened the distance with Lan Tu. But objectively speaking, the performance of Lan Tu is still better than that of Zhiji, Avita and Extreme Fox.
Even if the sales volume is not outstanding in the entire industry, we found that this is also the result that Lantu achieved after working hard to reduce prices.For example, at the Landscape User Night event in August last year, the new model ushered in the official listing, and the starting price came directly to 266,900 yuan. Compared with the old 333,600 yuan, it was nearly 70,000 yuan less in one breath, which helped Landscape’s monthly sales to rise rapidly.
There is also the first sedan model listed at the Shanghai Auto Show last year, Chasing Light, which was officially announced one month after listing to adjust the model configuration and launch a large discount. In May last year, Lantu Chasing Light released a new configuration package and rights upgrade plan, and the model configuration was simplified to two versions: the standard battery life version and the long battery life version. The optional package worth 72,000 yuan is also free for Dading owners for a limited time, which is equivalent to a disguised price reduction.
Similarly, in October last year, 2024 new Landscape announced the listing, the launch of PHEV and EV two power four models, the official price 339,900 – 469,900 yuan, private customized version 639,900 yuan, compared with the old model starting price reduced by about 30,000 yuan.
It is undeniable that in 2023, Landmap has achieved a leap in volume, which is due to the successive launch of new products, but it is also the result of price reduction. Now the monthly sales volume has finally reached 10,000 vehicles, but it has just passed, and the pressure in 2024 is still not small.
2
Profitability remains a challenge?●
Previously, Shen Jun, CFO of Lantu Automobile, said: "The follow-up IPO will continue to advance. As long as the sales volume is reached, we will start the IPO plan immediately. If the monthly sales can reach about 10,000 vehicles, we will have this condition."
This is the last year, Shen Jun released to the outside world of Lantu Auto capital markets new signal, now monthly sales broke through 10,000, does it mean that Lantu Auto is eligible to impact the IPO?
In fact, as early asIn November 2022, Lantu Automobile announced the completion of the A round of financing agreement signing and delivery, the financing amount is nearly 5 billion yuan, and the market valuation after financing is nearly 30 billion yuan.This round of financing was jointly led by the national team of central enterprises with strategic coordination and large state-owned Financial Institutions Group, and state-owned capital, local state-owned capital, industrial and private capital actively followed suit.
At that time, Shen Jun revealed for the first time the intention of Lantu in the IPO, saying that on the basis of the successful financing of this round, according to the actual development needs and market conditions, he would continue to carry out the follow-up round of financing work, and would also consider the follow-up IPO plan based on the market and regulatory policies.
Then in 2023, Lantu Motors repeatedly mentioned IPO-related plans. Not only Shen Jun, but Lu Zai also revealed during the Guangzhou Auto Show last year that Lantu does have IPO plans, and has a preliminary time point, but the specific route still needs to be negotiated.
However, considering the current development of Lantu Automobile, this task is very challenging. Firstly, the financial situation is not very optimistic.According to the public data of Dongfeng Motor Group, the net loss of Lantu Automobile in 2021 was 706 million yuan, and the net loss in the first half of 2022 was 738 million yuan. If the sales volume in the first half of 2022 is calculated, the average net loss of Lantu bicycles at that time exceeded 100,000 yuan.
In addition, as of June 30, 2022, the total assets of Lantu Automobile were 7.413 billion yuan, while the total liabilities reached 6.529 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio was as high as 88%. From the second half of 2022, Dongfeng Automobile Group will no longer disclose the specific losses of Lantu Automobile.
If it is not profitable, it is difficult to achieve sustainable development, even if it is successfully listed"Bleeding public".However, according to the latest news revealed by Lu Zai in an interview with the media in December last year: "On the whole, Lantu is currently in the investment period, and it is still losing money; but the bicycle still has a gross profit, and after the quantity is increased, it will definitely be profitable."
Lu Fang also said that in the automotive industry, Lantu Auto’s bicycle gross profit level cannot be regarded as far ahead, but it is still relatively ahead. The bicycle gross profit is an important material basis for Lantu Auto to provide long-term services to users. Lantu may not be profitable now, but it can achieve the highest efficiency and lowest loss from the perspective of efficiency and benefit.
If Landmap can achieve higher goals on the basis of 50,000 vehicles in 2024, then it will be able to gain more opportunities in the new round of competition.
It was only worth mentioning that Landmap was a high-end electric brand created by Dongfeng through the efforts of the whole group, and it was responsible for the dual responsibility of the group’s new energy and high-end. Now, Dongfeng also launched a luxury electric off-road brand, Warrior, and a "national pure electric professional brand" positioning of nano, e π, which symbolized technology and change.
The focus of investment has been scattered, and if the volume and sales of Lantu cars do not catch up, I am afraid that the position will be even more embarrassing. The monthly sales of 10,000 is just the beginning, and the bigger challenges lie ahead.
Author | Liu Yuanyuan
Source | Rim Visibility (CarVisibility)
