XPeng Inc. (NYSE:XPEV) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brian Gu: Hi, Bin, it’s Brian again. I think good try, but I think as usual, we do not give specific annual guidances on delivery numbers, that’s our policy. But what I can say, at least for our perspective is, we are very optimistic about this year given the product lineup and the launch schedule. We think we can achieve on a full year basis a much greater than market sort of growth rate, and I think we will be gaining significant market share increases. That’s our expectation. We also think this year will be similar to last year in terms of our — first half will be light, given obviously the industry dynamic as well as our product launch schedules. But we think we will start to pick up speed towards the second quarter, as well as the second half based on the changes we’re making in our sales and marketing channels as well as our product launch in the third and fourth quarter.

For MONA, I think it’s a — like I said, it’s a very exciting product. We’ll be launching the 2C channel first, which we think will likely happen in the third quarter in terms of delivery. And also for the 2B channel, will probably be a few months behind. We do not have specific number to give you in terms of what the MONA expectation is. But I think, as you can tell, to be a successful product in the A class category, I think you will have to deliver on a sort of range around about 10,000 a month type of scale to be successful. So obviously, at a steady state, we think MONA should be achieving that level of sales. So again, I think I don’t have a specific numbers, but you can tell that this is how we envision the full year delivery will look like.

[Multiple Speakers] let me just comment on that. Again, this year, we will be making significant expansion efforts into many new markets. I think that we will start to see the delivery results from those efforts. And I think from the volume perspective, we think we will be generating tens of 1,000 of sort of delivery from international sales.

Bin Wang: [Foreign Language] In the recent conference over the weekend, Huawei said that [indiscernible] in autonomous driving, however, Huawei want to make the situation change. Can you describe what’s the technology differentiation between the XPeng technology and Huawei and how you maintain the leadership? Thank you.

Xiaopeng He: [Foreign Language] [interrupted] Thank you very much for your question. Actually, when Mr. Yu Chengdong from Huawei was making this statement, I happened to be among the audience and I was sitting downstairs in the audience. And I would say that for Huawei and XPeng and both companies, we are working together and putting in our efforts into something that we both truly believe. And Huawei, obviously, is an excellent Chinese technology company and we have a lot of respect for them. I’d say that, both companies have out unique advantages and for XPeng and in terms of what we have done and we really started working more on our brand as well as our marketing from end of last year. And in terms of autonomous driving and I believe that there are four areas that would really be very important.

And number one would be the capability or functionality of your car. Second would be safety. And thirdly would be the cost of the vehicle. And fourthly would be, how international that you can expand into for your product and to obtain more revenue and profit. In China, obviously, we can see that autonomous driving is something that everybody loves. And however, in terms of the general public demand it is not quite yet met and this is something that we need to work hard on in the next 18 months. And we can see that for instance in terms of application in the [ore] (ph) areas, and all round application and the cost [reducting] (ph), as well as more marketing work to be carried out. And in the next 18 months, in addition, I do believe that huge changes will be brought by with the large model being applied to autonomous driving and this is something that we should watch out for and we believe that this will bring great benefits to the industry.

And since first quarter of last year, we have also worked hard in bringing down the cost as well as working more on our marketing and the same as Huawei. And what we want to do is that, we want to become an excellent company. But then coming back to autonomous driving. I would still say that we are a company that is more specialized in vehicle and autonomous driving is really our strength and this is our uniqueness. Thank you.

Bin Wang: Thank you very much.

Operator: Your next question comes from Tina Hou with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Tina Hou: [Foreign Language] Thanks management for taking my question. So the first question is about our new brand. Since in terms of the pricing segment, it’s actually quite separate from the XPeng brand. So wondering, would our sales channel be share the current sales channel or have a separate sales channel considering the target customer segment would be differentiated? And then the second also related is that, considering we are at a lower price range for the new brand, wondering the designed gross margin level, would it be also lower than the XPeng brand? Thanks.