Last year, while the net profit increased by 40%, the loss of Aouita also further expanded. As can be seen from Changan Automobile’s financial report last year, the problem is still obvious.
Last year, it earned 11.3 billion, but Aouita lost nearly 3.7 billion.
On April 17th, Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. released its 2023 annual report. In 2023, Changan Automobile achieved an operating income of 151.298 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.78%; During the reporting period, the company realized a net profit of 11.327 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45.25%; The non-net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 3.782 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.19%. The gross profit margin of the company’s automobile products was 18.36%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.13 percentage points. According to the announcement, the growth of the company’s performance is mainly due to the increase of the company’s sales volume and the improvement of operating quality.
In terms of sub-brands, the operating income of Deep Blue Automobile in 2023 was 25.883 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 65.1%; The net loss was 2.999 billion yuan, slightly less than the loss of 3.19 billion yuan in the previous period. However, Aouita’s revenue in 2023 was 5.643 billion yuan, and its net loss expanded to 3.693 billion yuan, an increase of 83.55% compared with last year. From 2020 to 2022, the brand’s net profit was-150 million yuan,-210 million yuan and-2.015 billion yuan respectively. In 2023, the brand’s cumulative sales volume was only 27,700 vehicles, and the annual target completion rate was less than 30%. In December, 2023, Zhu Huarong, Chairman of Changan Automobile, directly assumed the position of Chairman of Aouita.
The annual R&D expenditure "spent" nearly 6 billion.
Changan Automobile’s R&D expenditure in 2023 was 5.98 billion yuan, an increase of 38.57% compared with 2022, which was mainly due to the merger of Deep Blue Automobile, and its R&D expenditure was increased. The proportion of R&D investment in revenue reached 5.95%, a slight increase of 1.27% over 2022. Changan Automobile’s R&D investment last year included a brand-new electric SUV to expand the pedigree of dark blue vehicles, positioning advanced and comfortable car products, research on the power consumption technology of new vehicles, research and development of high-performance extensible fluid simulation and optimization software for automobile development, and development of intelligent electric digital platform.
The number of R&D personnel of Changan Automobile increased from 7,899 in 2022 to 10,972, up 38.90% year-on-year. The proportion of scientific researchers also increased from 18.42% in 2022 to 22.34%, an increase of 3.92% year-on-year. In 2023, Changan Automobile’s "net cash flow from operating activities" increased by 14.195 billion yuan compared with the previous year, mainly due to the influence of sales growth and the merger of Deep Blue Automobile.
The annual sales volume reached 2.553 million, and the growth of independent brands was obvious.
In 2023, Changan Automobile achieved a sales volume of 2.553 million vehicles, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year. The performance of the company’s new energy and export sales both increased strongly, among which the self-owned brand new energy sold 474,000 vehicles throughout the year, up 74.8% year-on-year; It exported 358,000 vehicles, up 43.9% year-on-year.
Changan Automobile has launched a total of 29 products, including 7 brand-new products, and its product pedigree has been continuously improved. The sales volume of CS75PLUS series exceeded 190,000 units, and the sales volume of Yidong PLUS exceeded 160,000 units, ranking first in the retail market segment; UNI-V sales exceeded 156,000 vehicles, and the average monthly sales volume remained above 12,000 vehicles. In the new energy market, the annual sales volume of deep blue double cars exceeded 128,000; Changan Qiyuan’s sales in the three months after listing totaled 40,000 vehicles; Changan Lumin’s annual sales exceeded 144,000 units. The annual overseas export sales volume reached 358,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 43.9%.
Changan Automobile pointed out in its annual report that the sales volume in overseas areas increased by more than 30% year-on-year, mainly due to the following reasons: First, China automobile enterprises are paying more and more attention to the development of overseas markets and speeding up the layout of "going out to sea"; Second, in recent years, China brand represented by Changan Automobile has gradually established a competitive advantage in the fields of new energy and intelligence, and its comprehensive strength has been significantly enhanced; Third, the large-scale export of new energy vehicles has boosted the overall export.
Looking forward to 2024, Changan Automobile said that the company will launch a number of brand-new and redesigned products, including 8 new energy products, including E07, C798, Deep Blue G318 and Aouita 15. According to the annual report, Changan Automobile’s business goal in 2024 is to strive to achieve production and sales of more than 2.65 million vehicles, an increase of 100,000 vehicles over last year. At the same time, we will further promote the third venture-version 7.0 of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Plan, accelerate the transformation to intelligent low-carbon travel technology companies, and create new cooperation models and explosive models to continuously improve our business capabilities.
Writing and Photography: Reporter Liang Luozhe from Nandu Bay Finance Society
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