XPeng Beats Q4 Revenues, Guides For Strong Q1 Deliveries

XPeng Inc. (NYSE: XPEV) reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter 2020 revenues and a wider than expected loss Monday. The company also announced timelines for the launch of its forthcoming vehicle models and issued a strong forecast for the first quarter of 2021.

Key XPeng Numbers:  XPeng reported fourth-quarter revenues of 2.85 billion yuan ($437 million), up 345.5% year-over-year and 43.3% quarter-over-quarter. Vehicle sales accounted for $419.2 million, or 96% of the total revenue.

The non-GAAP loss per ADS came in at 15 cents. Analyst median estimates were a loss of 12 cents per share on revenues of $411.82 million.

The bottom-line variance was due to an increase in the number of outstanding ADSs, stemming from the company's follow-on offering in December, a company spokesperson clarified to Benzinga.

Q4 gross margin expanded by 280 bps Q/Q to 7.4%. In the year-ago quarter, margins were at a negative 6.6%.

Cash and cash equivalents, restricted short-term deposits, and short-term investments stood at $5.42 billion as of Dec. 2020.

Last week, domestic rival Nio Inc – ADR NIO reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss despite revenues coming in better than expected.

XPeng's Deliveries:  XPeng's  Feb. deliveries fell 63% month-over-month to 2,223, although cumulative deliveries for the Jan-Feb period saw a 577% year-over-year increase. The company blamed the softness in February on an anticipated seasonal decline due to the slowdown in the week-long Chinese New Year holiday. XPeng said it is witnessing robust customer demand as sales and delivery activities resumed after the holiday.

Fourth-quarter deliveries were at a record 12,964 units, representing a 302.9% year-over-year increase and a 51.1% month-over-month jump.

"We closed 2020 on a strong note, with a record number of total deliveries in the fourth quarter of 12,964 vehicles, led by the P7, our second smart EV model, which fueled our robust operational and financial performance throughout the year," said He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng.

Related Link:  XPeng Analyst: Automaker Leads Chinese EV Market In Autonomous Driving

At the end of 2020, the company had 160 stores, 54 service centers, covering 69 cities, and 159 supercharging stations.

In late-January, the company released the first over-the-air (OTA) update of XPILOT 3.0, its in-house autonomous driving solutions. The update included its navigation-assisted highway autonomous driving solution, called the Navigation Guided Pilot.

Since the release, about 20% of all P7s delivered has NGP activated in them. The company said it plans to release multiple OTA updates of XPILOT 3.0 in 2021.

Outlook For XPeng:  For the first quarter of 2021, XPeng expects deliveries of 12,000 vehicles, up 450% Y/Y. The company expects first-quarter revenues to increase 531% Y/Y to 2.6 billion yuan.

It expects to launch automotive-grade lidar technology in its third smart SUV model to be delivered in the second half of 2021. The company also plans to introduce XPILOT 4.0, built on its next-gen autonomous driving hardware platform, which it expects to deploy in its fourth model to be launched in 2022.

Delivery of P7 will begin later in March 2021. The G3 SUVs and P7 sedans armed with lithium iron phosphate batteries would be launched in April and May. A mid-cycle facelift version of G3s is planned for late in the third quarter.

"Looking into 2021, we remain dedicated to delivering smarter and more differentiated products to our customers in our relentless drive to implement fast software iteration and technology innovation," said Xiaopeng.

XPeng Stock:  XPeng's shares were listed on the NYSE in late August of 2020. It ended the year with a gain of a little over 100%. Since late January, the stock has seen notable weakness and is currently down about 35% for the year-to-date period.

Reacting to the fourth-quarter report, XPENG shares are trading down 3.78% at $26.97 in the premarket session on the last check Monday.

Related Link:  Is The Nio Sell-Off Overdone?

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