Domestic new car brands, which have generally not been on the market for delivery, have ushered in the "trend" of listing. Recently, Xiaopeng Motors successfully went to the U.S. for listing after Ideal Motors went public. So far, the "first echelon" composed of three domestic new car brands, Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng, has begun to move towards a new stage of development.

    Looking at the current overall auto market environment, although the accelerated transformation of the domestic auto industry and the huge demand potential in the local market provide rare opportunities for pretentious new car brands, it is also accompanied by fierce competition. With the listing of Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng one after another, bidding farewell to the "money shortage", after successfully surviving, in the second half of the contest, in addition to seeking more sales and market share, and increasing revenue and profits, intelligent The field is still the focus of major brands competing to increase investment in layout.

    Listing has become a key development path for new car brands

    Compared with the traditional car companies that have grown from small to large scale, they have achieved a path of gradual growth through continuous input and output. New car brands that sprout from the new energy automotive industry are still relatively short because everything starts from zero. To meet the needs of a certain scale within a certain period of time, the investment in the entire industry chain from team formation, design and development, to manufacturing is undoubtedly very huge.

    Because of this, whether a new car brand has money, and how well its subsequent fund-raising ability and self-hematopoiesis ability are, has gradually become a key indicator for judging whether it is "reliable".

    This year, with the decline in market demand, the decline in the amount of new energy subsidies, and the hot sales of Tesla in major restricted cities after localized production of Tesla, the situation of domestic new car brands is different from the past. When private equity financing becomes more and more difficult, Going public to obtain a wider range of capital support is undoubtedly one of the fastest ways to get money for new car brands.

    Recently, Xiaopeng Motors officially went public in the United States and became the third domestic new car company to complete the listing after Weilai and Ideal. In the same way as ideals, under the background of the capital market's enthusiasm for investment in the smart electric vehicle industry, The final price per share of Xiaopeng Motors is also higher than the guidance price range. In the prospectus, Xiaopeng’s price per share is US$11-13. It plans to raise US$1.075-1271 million. The final price per share is US$15. The total amount of funds that can be raised in the round of Xiaopeng Motors is approximately US$1.5 billion.

    With the launch of Xiaopeng Motors, the three domestic new car brands, Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng, have formed the first echelon and have advanced to a new stage of development; in addition, the two brand plans of Hezhong Automobile and Weimar Automobile that follow the three The route and layout of landing on the Sci-tech Innovation Board have also gradually become clear. Compared with other new car brands such as Byton, Bojun, etc., due to lack of money, it is difficult for them to leave the market. It can be said that IPO has become a key path for the development of new car brands. It is also a watershed between life and death.

    Continue to increase investment in smart driving

    After bidding farewell to the shortage of funds, products and markets are gradually moving on track. After a successful IPO, new car brands have focused on autonomous driving research and development.

    Among them, Xiaopeng Motors, which has always had many topics in the field of autonomous driving, has always had a high level of R&D investment. According to the prospectus, in 2018, 2019 and the first half of this year, Xiaopeng Motors’ R&D expenses were RMB 1.051 billion, 2.070 billion, and 631 million yuan respectively. In 2019 and the first half of 2020, Xiaopeng’s R&D expenses Expenses accounted for 89.2% and 62.9% of the company's total revenue, respectively.

    In addition, in the prospectus, Xiaopeng believes that it is currently the only Chinese automobile company that develops full-stack proprietary software for the commercialization of autonomous driving.

    In fact, Xiaopeng Motors Chairman He Xiaopeng stated in public on more than one occasion that Tesla’s Internet operations and autonomous driving operations are not in line with China’s national conditions. Xiaopeng Motors has local advantages and is committed to making smart cars that understand China best.

    NIO has also been active in the field of autonomous driving recently. Recently, Ren Shaoqing, the former R&D director of autonomous driving technology company Monenta and an expert in the field of autonomous driving visual perception, officially joined NIO as an assistant vice president, reporting directly to Li Bin, and Ren Shaoqing’s joining Will promote the full acceleration of NIO's self-driving self-research capabilities.

    In addition to recruiting troops, NIO has also begun to lean towards autonomous driving in terms of capital investment. Recently, Weilai announced that it intends to issue 88.5 million additional American depositary shares at an issue price of US$17 per share, and the total financing is expected to exceed US$1.7 billion. In fact, the second-quarter financial report shows that Weilai has a cash reserve of RMB 11.167.5 billion. In addition, it also obtained a comprehensive credit line of RMB 10.4 billion from six domestic banks in early July. Weilai is not short of money in the short term. In fact, it plans to invest heavily in autonomous driving.

    Weilai stated in the announcement that except for 8.6% of the additional issuance to exercise Weilai China’s share repurchase rights and 1.9% for the increase in Weilai China’s shares, the remaining 89.5% will be used for autonomous driving technology. R&D, global market expansion and general daily expenses.

    According to industry insiders, after the functional experience of smart electric vehicles has gradually become homogeneous, in addition to core technologies such as battery electronic control for new energy vehicles, the future "soft power" including autonomous driving should also not be ignored, including traditional brands and new ones. Car brands have now begun large-scale investment, trying to seize new heights.