Shanghai (ZXZC)- XPENG announced on Tuesday its financial results for the fourth quarter (Q4) and year of 2023, showcasing substantial growth across key financial metrics.

In Q4 2023, the company's total revenues reached RMB13.05 billion (US$1.84 billion), marking a significant surge of 153.9% year on year (YoY) and a 53.0% leap quarter on quarter (QoQ).

XPENG G6; photo credit: XPENG

XPENG's vehicle sales generated RMB12.23 billion (US$1.72 billion) in revenue for Q4 2023. This represents a remarkable YoY spike of 162.3% and a 55.9% QoQ jump. The substantial growths in sales revenue was primarily driven by the accelerated sales of the G6 and G9 models during the quarter.

In Q4 2023, XPENG’s gross margin stood at 6.2%, a decrease from the 8.7% in the same quarter of 2022 but a significant improvement from the negative 2.7% margin in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023.

The vehicle margin for Q4 2024 was recorded at 4.1%, down from 5.7% over a year earlier and up from the negative 6.1% in the previous quarter. The company said the decrease in YoY vehicle margin was attributed to inventory provision and losses on purchase commitment due to model upgrades, and increased sales promotions, along with the expiration of new energy vehicle subsidies. However, these impacts were partially offset by cost reductions and improvements in the product mix of models. The QoQ improvement in vehicle margin was mainly due to these cost reductions and product mix enhancements.

Research and development (R&D) expenses for the quarter were RMB1.31 billion (US$0.18 billion), showing a modest YoY increase of 6.3% and remaining virtually unchanged from the previous quarter. This increase aligns with the timing and progress of new vehicle programs.

The company's loss from operations for Q4 2023 was RMB2.05 billion (US$0.29 billion), showing an improvement from the RMB2.52 billion loss in the same period of 2022 and the RMB3.16 billion loss in Q3 2023.

As of December 31, 2023, XPENG reported having cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term investments, and time deposits totaling RMB45.7 billion (US$6.44 billion). This is a considerable increase from the RMB38.25 billion at the end of 2022 and the RMB36.48 billion at the end of Q3 2023.

For the entire year of 2023, XPENG reported an annual revenue of RMB30.68 billion (US$4.32 billion) for 2023, marking a 14.2% YoY increase.

The whole-year revenue from vehicle sales reached RMB28.01 billion (US$3.95 billion), up 12.8% from a year earlier. This growth is primarily attributed to the accelerated sales of the G6 and G9 models, said XPENG.

The company's yearly gross margin stood at 1.5%, a significant decrease from the 11.5% in the previous year.

XPENG also noted that its vehicle margin was negative 1.6% for the year of 2023, versus the 9.4% in the prior year. This decline was largely due to increased sales promotions, the expiry of new energy vehicle subsidies, and inventory provisions and losses on purchase commitments related to the G3i model and upgrades of existing models. Excluding these factors, the vehicle margin would have been a positive 0.8%.

The carmaker's R&D expenses amounted to RMB5.28 billion (US$0.74 billion) in 2023, a slight YoY increase of 1.2%, aligning with the progress of new vehicle programs.

The operating loss widened to RMB10.89 billion (US$1.53 billion) last year, compared to the RMB8.71 billion in the previous year.

Looking ahead, XPENG expects vehicle deliveries to be between 21,000 units and 22,500 units in the first quarter of 2024, indicating a YoY increase of 15.2% to 23.4%. The company also anticipates total revenues to be between RMB5.8 billion and RMB6.2 billion in this quarter, which would represent a significant YoY spike of 43.8% to 53.7%.