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author: er yan
editor: zhihao

the three big names in the automotive industry handed in the best semi-annual report!

recently, amid the fierce competition in china's automobile market, the top three private automobile manufacturers have submitted their half-year performance report cards.

byd made a net profit of 13.6 billion yuan in the first half of the year, with an average daily income of over 70 million yuan and revenue exceeding 300 billion yuan. its overall gross profit margin reached 20%, almost doubling in four years, and it stood out from the three companies with its huge size.

andauspiciousin the first half of the year, revenue exceeded 100 billion for the first time, reaching 107.3 billion, net profit soared nearly 6 times to 10.6 billion, and gross profit margin also increased to 15.1%.

great wallthe company achieved a revenue of 91.4 billion yuan in the first half of the year. although there is still a gap from 100 billion yuan, it has achieved a 30% year-on-year growth. great wall's net profit soared more than 4 times to 7.1 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin achieved the highest mid-year gross profit margin in the past seven years, reaching 20.7%.

the three automakers have undoubtedly delivered the best semi-annual reports from their respective perspectives, but overall the differentiation among the top three private automakers has intensified.

byd surpassed saic group in one fell swoop and became the domestic automaker with the highest revenue in the first half of the year. at the same time, it also won the net profit championship in the first half of the year. in the end, it took the lead among domestic automakers in the first half of the year, leaving behind the unwilling great wall and geely.

the situation of three major private car companies standing side by side has evolved into a situation of one company standing out and two companies competing against each other.

the goals of the three automakers in the second half of the year also vary accordingly. maintaining market share has become byd's primary goal in its rapid growth, while accelerating the electrification transformation and maintaining sales have become great wall and geely's biggest mission in the second half of 2024.

what challenges are behind the impressive half-year performance of the top three private car companies? how will the three "bosses" who tried their best to increase sales in the first half of the year make big moves in the second half of the year? chedongxi explains the "secrets" behind the financial reports of the top three private car companies.

1. byd leads great wall with a daily revenue of 70 million, while geely doubles its earnings

in the first half of this year, the domestic market was severely "involuted", and many companies actively or passively joined the "price war". domestic brands performed remarkable results by relying on their huge scale advantages and positive reform pace.

byd's operating income in the first half of the year reached 301.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.76%; its net profit was 13.631 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24%. there is no doubt that byd has delivered an extremely impressive report card.

at the same time, geely auto achieved revenue of 107.3 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 46.6%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company soared 575% year-on-year to 10.6 billion yuan.

in the first half of the year, great wall motor achieved operating revenue of 91.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.7%, achieving growth for four consecutive years; net profit attributable to parent company shareholders was 7.079 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 420%.

from the comparison of revenue and net profit,byd's current size has already opened up a gap with great wall and geely, and both great wall and geely have also achieved significant performance breakthroughs in the first half of the year.

under the influence of the price war in the automobile market, the gross profit margins of the three companies have also changed.

▲ changes in gross profit margins of the top three private car manufacturers in the past two years

as the "vanguard" of the price war, byd performed particularly resiliently, with an overall gross profit margin of 20% in the first half of the year, of which the gross profit margin of automobile-related products and other product businesses reached 23.94%, an increase of 3.27 percentage points over the same period last year.

although byd has lowered the selling price of its products, its gross profit margin is still growing, which shows how strong byd's cost control ability is.

great wall motor's gross profit margin also hit a new high of 20.7%, an increase of 3.9 percentage points year-on-year, the highest point since mid-2017.

in addition, some people in the industry have calculated that great wall motor's per-vehicle revenue in the first half of the year was 164,800 yuan, an increase of about 29,900 yuan compared with the same period last year, and the per-vehicle net profit was 12,800 yuan, an increase of 10,100 yuan year-on-year. it can be seen that great wall motor's operating capacity has been significantly improved.

in contrast, geely auto's gross profit margin was relatively low, reaching only 15.1%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points year-on-year. geely's overall average single-vehicle sales revenue was 105,400 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%. it can be seen that although active participation in the price war has had a certain impact on geely auto, geely auto still maintains a relatively strong profitability.

in terms of r&d investment, byd spent the most money, with the amount invested in half a year being about five times that of great wall and geely.

▲comparison of r&d investment of the top three private car manufacturers in the first half of the year

byd chairman wang chuanfu previously stated that the next three years will be a decisive battle over scale, cost and technology.

in order to win this decisive battle, byd invested heavily in research and development, investing 20.177 billion yuan in half a year, almost investing more than 100 million yuan in research and development every day, a year-on-year increase of 41.64%, a historical high, and a net profit of 6.5 billion yuan higher than the same period, achieving a cliff-like lead.

great wall invested 4.18 billion, up 19% year-on-year, while geely invested 4.55 billion, up 52% ​​year-on-year.

the r&d investments of the three automakers have increased significantly compared with the same period last year, which shows that they are all investing real money and frantically increasing competition in the auto market. so how are their sales performance?

in the first half of the year, byd's cumulative sales reached 1.613 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 28.46%, exceeding the combined sales of great wall and geely in the first half of the year.

▲sales volume of the top three private car companies in the first eight months of this year (unit: 10,000 vehicles)

geely sold 956,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, with sales volume approaching one million, a year-on-year increase of 41%. great wall sold 555,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, a slight increase of 7% year-on-year. there is still a big gap between these two companies and byd in terms of sales.

in terms of the annual sales target, geely had the highest target completion rate in the first half of the year, exceeding 50%, followed by byd with 45%, and great wall achieved less than 30% of its target.

however, by the end of august, the situation had changed. byd sold 2.33 million vehicles from january to august this year, successfully catching up with geely and achieving 65% of its annual target. geely achieved 50% of its latest target of 2 million vehicles. great wall was relatively slow in achieving the target, only 39%.

2. byd's two-way advancement: high-end and intelligent development

from the above financial reports, we can see that the three automakers have achieved new breakthroughs in their performance in the first half of the year. however, through the financial reports, we can also see the new challenges that the current corporate development is facing.

byd made a net profit of 13.6 billion yuan in the first half of the year, which means it earns more than 70 million yuan a day. the main business contribution is still strong. byd's automobile, automobile-related products and other product business revenue is about 228.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.33%, accounting for 76% of the total revenue.

according to a rough calculation based on the revenue per vehicle (automobile business revenue/sales volume) and gross profit per vehicle (automobile business operating revenue - automobile business operating costs/sales volume), byd's revenue per vehicle is 142,000 yuan and its gross profit per vehicle is 33,900 yuan.

byd's net profit of 13.6 billion yuan and 23.94% gross profit margin of its automotive business both hit record highs. and it is worth noting that byd's comprehensive gross profit margin has almost doubled in the past four years.

byd's gross profit margins in the first half of the past four years were 12.76%, 13.51%, 18.33% and 20.01% respectively. in the first half of this year, byd still achieved considerable breakthroughs in increasing revenue and profits.

▲byd's gross profit margin has almost doubled in the past four years

this also shows that byd has achieved a huge performance explosion.

as of the first eight months of this year, byd has sold a total of 2.33 million vehicles. it is only 1.28 million vehicles away from its annual sales target of 3.6 million vehicles. in other words, byd needs to sell an average of 320,000 vehicles per month in the next four months to achieve its target. currently, byd's sales in august have exceeded 370,000 vehicles, so there is not much pressure to achieve the annual target.

at the byd shareholders' meeting in 2024, wang chuanfu stated that byd is making its layout based on the consumption situation in the chinese market. the current average customer unit price of automobile consumption in the chinese market is around 160,000 yuan, so the company has deployed a number of models at this price point.

in the first half of the year, byd's price war was mainly in the mainstream market. wang chuanfu even said publicly, "competition is a natural law. don't be anxious. only by actively embracing it can you emerge from the competition... competition only occurs when there is overcapacity, and competition leads to competition. only with competition can there be technological breakthroughs, industrial upgrades, and the birth of excellent products."

despite this, byd is still striving towards higher goals.

in the mainstream market, byd is expanding its product series, such asqin lthe song series, song l series and seal series are entering more markets to ensure their stable leading position in the mainstream market.

in the high-end market, byd has deployed denza,equation leopard, and yangwang, the three sub-brands sold a total of 112,000 vehicles in the first half of the year.

▲byd looks up to u9

on the other hand, byd is also continuing to make efforts in technology. in the past few years, byd has achieved remarkable results in the field of electrification. at present, byd has also begun to continue to make efforts with intelligence as the core direction.

at the end of last year, wang chuanfu determined that intelligent driving would become one of the company's core strategies. at the beginning of this year, byd officially released its vehicle intelligence strategy. in intelligent driving, it insisted on walking on multiple legs, choosing self-development and also choosing to cooperate withsuch supplier cooperation.

according to 36kr, byd intelligent driving general manager yang dongsheng revealed: "mid- and low-end models will be equipped with high-end intelligent driving within two years." it can be seen that byd is also following up quickly in terms of intelligence, and with its sales advantage, it is expected to quickly complete data collection and ultimately achieve a technological leap.

3. wei jianjun has a heavy burden and the development of great wall is uneven

although it does not reach the scale of byd, great wall motors has also delivered a brilliant answer: its half-year revenue is close to 100 billion yuan, and its net profit has soared more than four times, surpassing last year's full-year net profit.

at the same time, the rapid growth of great wall motor's net profit in the first half of the year also led to an increase in gross profit margin. great wall achieved a gross profit margin of 20.74% in the first half of the year, an increase of 3.89 percentage points over the same period last year, setting a new high in seven years.

great wall motor's gross profit margin once led the chinese automakers. since 2005, great wall motor's gross profit margin has remained stable at more than 25%, and even soared to 28.96% in 2013. however, since the 2017 semi-annual report, great wall's gross profit margin has begun to fall below 20%. seven years later, great wall motor's gross profit margin in the first half of the year returned to more than 20%.

it can be seen that great wall motor's strategic adjustment has achieved results and its operational capabilities have been enhanced.

earlier, at the shareholders' meeting of great wall motors in may this year, wei jianjun, chairman of great wall motors, stressed that if great wall motors could not make money, other companies would not be able to make money either, and stressed that "the financial statements of great wall motors must be real." wei is full of confidence in making money.

▲wei jianjun, chairman of great wall motors

the reason for the substantial profit growth, great wall motors pointed out in its financial report, is the growth of overseas sales and the further optimization of domestic product structure. in other words, going overseas +tankbrand sales further accelerated.

in the first half of this year, great wall motors achieved sales of 560,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 7.79%, while overseas sales of 201,500 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 62.59%, accounting for 36% of total sales.

in the process of great wall motors' product structure optimization, the biggest contributor is the tank brand. in the first half of this year, the tank brand sold a total of 115,700 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 98%, accounting for 20.73% of the total sales.

in the fierce price war this year, the new great wall tank 400 hi4-t rose against the trend, with a price increase of 6,000 yuan compared with the old model. the increase in the average price of each vehicle and the expansion of overseas exports have helped great wall motors further increase its net profit.

▲tank 400 hi4-t

however, uneven brand development is also a major difficulty faced by great wall motors, and great wall still bears heavy sales pressure.

great wallwei brandnew energy vehicles sold 20,200 units in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of more than 40%, but the overall base was low and the sales contribution was small. great wall haval, which accounts for more than half of the sales, sold 297,000 units in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of only 0.17%.

the cumulative sales of great wall pickup in the first half of the year was only 92,000 units, a decrease of 10.41% compared with the same period last year.great wall eulerthe decline was the most serious, with sales of 32,000 units in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 33%. this also led to a large gap between great wall motors' sales in the first half of the year and byd and geely in terms of both quantity and growth rate.

considering great wall motor's annual sales target of 1.9 million units, the achievement rate in the first half of the year was less than 30%, and the completion rate in the first eight months of this year was less than 40%.

as for the pressure of sales, wei jianjun has said many times before: the development of an enterprise cannot be judged only by sales volume, but should be evaluated from multiple dimensions.

at the same time, in wei jianjun's view, the problem of great wall motors lies in the lack of marketing and the inability to sell cars. therefore, it can be clearly seen that in the past six months, the 60-year-old wei has frequently appeared in person and broadcast live to become an internet celebrity.

▲wei jianjun, chairman of great wall motors

in april, wei jianjun live-streamed in baoding to test the wei-branded blue mountain intelligent driving edition of the city noa. in may, he live-streamed again for the new generationhaval h6in june, wei jianjun personally drove the wei-branded blue mountain intelligent driving edition and started a full live broadcast. in august, wei jianjun returned to the press conference stage after 6 years and stepped into the spotlight to support the new blue mountain.

▲wei jianjun and lei jun live connection

judging from a series of actions, great wall is also anxious. however, although great wall is under great pressure in sales, its profit level has indeed increased a lot. from this point of view, the value of great wall's semi-annual report is sufficient.

among the top three private automobile manufacturers, geely auto was the first to announce its half-year results.

geely auto achieved revenue of 107.305 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 46.62%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company increased by 574.7% year-on-year to 10.598 billion yuan.

gui shengyue, executive director and ceo of geely automobile holdings, stressed at the performance conference: "these achievements prove that geely has reversed the relatively sluggish situation in the past few years and is realizing the strategic plan of a few years ago step by step. he described it as 'the dawn of glory again'."

although the growth was rapid, there was a gap of about 7.2 billion between geely's profit attributable to shareholders excluding non-recurring items and its profit attributable to shareholders, which means that geely received high investment returns in the first half of the year.

it is reported that this huge investment originated from the fact that geely previously injected its subsidiary aurora bay into horse powertrain, and after completion it held a 33% stake in horse powertrain.

according to the financial rules of hong kong stocks, this transaction is regarded as geely auto selling 67% of the equity of aurora bay. this equity consideration was recorded in geely auto's income statement as 7.66 billion yuan in revenue. this also means that geely auto's net profit of over 10 billion yuan in half a year may not have been achieved by selling cars.

however, geely auto has achieved a big breakthrough in sales volume, with cumulative sales of 956,000 vehicles in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 40.98%.

the surge in sales has given geely great confidence, and geely automobile even announcedthe annual sales target was raised from 1.9 million to 2 million vehicles.。

geely auto group ceo gan jiayue also broke down the new goals:in the domestic market, geely brand sales were 1.15 million units, lynk & co brand sales were 270,000 units,zeekr200,000 units for the geely and lynk & co brands; 350,000 units for the overseas market, and 30,000 units for the zeekr brand。

in addition to selling more cars, geely auto's profitability is also increasing.

geely auto, like great wall, is also against price warsgui shengyue stressed that the auto industry cannot engage in price wars, "if prices are so low that they cannot make a profit, it will greatly damage the foundation of the company."

in the first half of the year, geely's bicycle sales revenue increased from 101,000 yuan to 105,000 yuan, and its gross profit margin increased from 14.4% to 15.1%.。

although the growth is encouraging,however, geely auto is currently facing two major challenges: the relatively slow transition to new energy and the great pressure of exporting its cars overseas.。

on the one hand, compared with byd, which has abandoned fuel vehicles for two and a half years, geely auto's current sales are still dominated by fuel vehicles.

in the first half of the year, geely's fuel-powered vehicles achieved sales of 635,500 units, accounting for 66.5% of total sales.achieved a 20% growth and became the sales champion of domestic fuel vehicle manufacturers。

this also reflects that geely is currently too dependent on gasoline vehicles. in the future, the scale of the new energy vehicle market will be even larger, and the proportion of fuel vehicle business will gradually decrease. at a time when domestic automobile groups are undergoing crazy reforms, geely auto does not have much time left for transformation.

on the other hand, the export pressure faced by geely is also increasing.

in the first half of the year, geely's export sales were 197,000 vehicles, up 67% year-on-year, accounting for 20% of total sales. geely has raised its annual export sales target from 330,000 vehicles to 380,000 vehicles.

geely group is seeking to increase sales overseas. currently, the geely brand has focused on markets such as eastern europe. lynk & co has also targeted developed european countries, and zeekr has also entered countries such as sweden and the netherlands.

however, according to the final ruling of the eu's anti-subsidy investigation on chinese electric vehicles, geely was subject to an additional tariff of 19.3%, slightly higher than byd's 17%.

the increase in tariffs will undoubtedly have a significant impact on geely's sales in europe. in response, geely is deploying and exploring localized production.

shortly after the release of its half-year results, geely officially began a series of major adjustments.。

according to 36kr, geely is launching a large-scale integration, involving almost all the r&d businesses of geely's passenger cars, covering the geely central research institute and the intelligent driving, cockpit, electronic and electrical architecture, vehicle platform and other teams behind each sub-brand, and even the back-end procurement and supply chain.

geely's vigorous reformchairman li shufu is in charge and president an conghui is in chargeshen yuan, senior vice president of geely group and general manager of the collaborative innovation center, will also take over as cto of geely group to guide the group's r&d business.

compared with the previous situation of geely group's complicated business brands, the current major reintegration can be said to be a "family planning" approach. it is a bold attempt by geely to improve the group's organizational efficiency and accelerate the transformation to new energy.

conclusion: the differentiation among the top three private car companies is intensifying

with the growth momentum of new energy vehicles and overseas expansion, byd, great wall and geely have all delivered seemingly good half-year results, but they are all facing difficulties at the moment.

in the long run, byd faces the challenge of ensuring its competitiveness in the mass-market and continuing to drive sales growth in the high-end market. for geely and great wall, accelerating transformation and increasing market share in the new energy market are their top priorities.

but it is not easy for an elephant to dance. the chinese auto market is still full of uncertainties in the second half of the year. facing the upcoming "golden september and silver october" sales season and the year-end promotion war, it is worth looking forward to whether the top three private auto manufacturers can achieve good results again.

throughout 2024, the top three private automobile manufacturers will continue to lead the high-quality development of china's automobile industry. how the market structure will change in the end can only be answered by time.