The Chinese electric vehicle maker XPeng (XPEV) recently reported its second-quarter results, and investors were unenthused. Following the earnings release, XPeng investors pushed the company's share price down 10%.
Why the strong reaction? Investors took a good look at some of XPeng's delivery numbers, gross margin, and vehicle guidance and determined that the company's growth is slowing. Let's take a quick look at five important numbers from XPeng's latest quarter to get a picture of what's happening with the EV company.
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Revenue: $1.1 billion
XPeng's sales soared 97% from the year-ago quarter to $1.1 billion. That strong growth would normally make investors very happy, but the huge increase comes with a bit of an asterisk next to it.
That's because in the second quarter of 2021 XPeng wasn't selling its P5 sedan. The company only began selling the P5 in September, so the second-quarter 2021 sales don't include any of the vehicle's revenue.
Additionally, the company's sales were flat on a sequential basis. For a young, fast-growing EV company, revenue should be increasing significantly on both a year-over-year and sequential basis.
Delivery growth: 98%
Similar to the company's revenue, XPeng's deliveries nearly doubled in the second quarter and reached 34,422.
Again, that's an impressive jump at first blush, but it includes sales of the P5 sedan, which wasn't being sold in the year-ago quarter.
If we take a look at the company's deliveries on a sequential basis, the picture isn't as rosy. Vehicle deliveries actually declined by 139 vehicles from the previous quarter. You can thank China's strict "zero COVID" policy for that, as XPeng had to shut down some production due to COVID-19-related lockdowns in the country.
"Our deliveries sustained robust growth momentum in the second quarter despite unprecedented circumstances brought by the resurgence of COVID-19 in certain areas of China," XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng said in a press release.
Net loss: $403 million
XPeng's net loss widened in the quarter to $403 million, from a loss of $185 million in the year-ago quarter.
Part of the problem is coming from the company's increase in expenses. XPeng's selling, general and administrative (SG&A) costs increased nearly 62% in the quarter to $248 million.
The company's management said that "higher marketing, promotional, and advertising expenses to support vehicle sales" were the culprits, as well as expenses related to the company's sales network.
Vehicle margin: 9.1%
XPeng's vehicle margin -- which the company defines as gross profit of vehicle sales as a percentage of vehicle sales revenue -- slid in the quarter to 9.1%, down from 11% in the year-ago quarter. Rising vehicle costs were a problem for the company, including battery expenses.
The company tried to offset some of the rising expenses by increasing vehicle prices earlier this year, but the price bump didn't appear to be enough to offset the cost.
"The quarter-over-quarter decrease was mainly attributable to battery cost increase, offset partially by the revenue increase as a result of selling price adjustment," XPeng's vice president of finance, Dennis Lu, said on the company's earnings call.
Vehicle delivery guidance: 31,000 or less
XPeng's management said that vehicle deliveries for the third quarter will be in the range of 29,000 to 31,000, which represents year-over-year growth of just 17%.
That isn't exactly strong growth for the EV company, and investors should take note. When asked on the earnings call whether the slowing vehicle deliveries were due to supply chain constraints or slowing customer demand, XPeng's vice chairman and president Brian Gu said, "We see the weakness mostly due to seasonal weakness" but also because of COVID "control measures."
In short, COVID-19-related lockdowns continue to hurt the company's ability to produce and deliver the number of vehicles it wants to.
The EV industry is still volatile
Not all of XPeng's quarterly results were bad in Q2, but investors may want to be cautious before investing in this Chinese EV maker right now.
The entire EV industry is suffering from supply chain shortages and rising costs, but XPeng's problems are being compounded by China's strict COVID lockdowns. The result is already having an impact on the company's financial figures and vehicle deliveries.
