BYD's revenue in 2021 increased by 38.02% over the same period last year, and R & D increased to accelerate technological innovation.

On March 29, BYD released its annual report for 2021, with revenue of 216.1 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 38.02% over the same period last year, and net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 3.045 billion yuan, down 28.08% from the same period last year. The net cash flow generated by operating activities was 65.467 billion yuan, an increase of 44.22% over the same period last year.

BYD said that in 2021, due to the impact of the global epidemic, the electronic business was under short-term pressure, and the company's overall costs rose due to factors such as rising prices of raw materials and commodities. During the period, the sales volume of the automobile business increased greatly, and the profit of the automobile sector increased.

Since 2021, the penetration of new energy vehicles has increased significantly, and as an industry leader, BYD will benefit greatly. With the launch of new models and the expansion of production capacity, sales will be further expanded in the future. Against the backdrop of rising volume and price, profits are expected to improve.

A number of models sell well and broaden the high-end market

Specifically, BYD's three major businesses: revenue from BYD's auto, auto-related products and other products business was 112.489 billion yuan, up 33.93% from the same period last year; revenue from mobile phone components, assembly and other products business was 86.454 billion yuan, up 43.99% from the same period last year; revenue from secondary rechargeable battery and photovoltaic business was 16.471 billion yuan, up 36.27% from the same period last year.

The high growth in revenue from BYD's auto business unit is to be expected. In fact, BYD's auto business has been in short supply since 2021.

In 2021, BYD ushered in the offline of the millionth new energy vehicle, and many models sold well. Among them, Han sold about 117700 cars in the whole year, breaking the sales record of new energy independent brand cars with a price of more than 200000. In addition, the newly launched dolphin is also strong, with more than 10,000 vehicles in December 2021, making it into the top 10 of the retail sales list of new energy cars.

It is worth mentioning that in 2021, BYD launched Qin PLUS DM-i, Song PLUS DM-i, Tang DM-i and other DM-i super hybrid models. With the characteristics of ultra-low fuel consumption, quiet and smooth, excellent power, DM-i models are widely concerned and recognized by the market, driving the total sales of DM models for the whole year about 272900.

Led by a number of best-selling models, the brand strength of BYD has improved rapidly. According to Wilson, the average price of BYD passenger cars has exceeded 150000 yuan.

What can not be ignored is that while the revenue is growing rapidly, BYD is also facing challenges. BYD's net profit fell in 2021, with a gross profit margin of 13.02%, a year-on-year decline. The reason is that rising prices of raw materials and commodities should be the main cause.

Blade batteries made of iron phosphate are BYD's main power battery products, and the speculative price surge of iron phosphate has been widely criticized by the industry in recent years. According to the latest SMM quotation, battery-grade lithium carbonate is at 502500 yuan / ton, while the price of lithium carbonate is less than 60, 000 yuan / ton at the beginning of 2021, an increase of more than 700% so far. Authorities say the rise in raw material prices has been included in the monitoring vision since the second half of 2021. At the same time, the national competent authorities have made it clear that they will resolutely crack down on this act of unfair competition.

"with the improvement of the supply capacity of lithium carbonate, it will gradually return to the basic demand side, and it is expected that a complete balance of supply and demand will be restored in two or three years." Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made this judgment on the imbalance between supply and demand of battery raw materials at the meeting of 100 people for electric vehicles in 2022.

In order to meet the challenges, BYD has made frequent actions recently, such as buying shares in upstream lithium salt companies and issuing terminal price increase notices. In response to questions from investors, BYD said that the company is actively laying out the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain and ensuring the security of the supply chain in order to cope with market fluctuations and meet consumers' demand for the company's products.

At the same time, BYD is also further expanding the high-end market, launching high-end brands, the price range is expected to be more than 50-1 million yuan. In the future, BYD's auto business will be composed of four sections: dynasty net, Ocean Network, Tengli and high-end brands. Among them, "Dynasty net" is still one of the main brands, while "Ocean Network" will also be expanded at the same time. According to a BYD 2022 new car plan circulated in the industry, the "Marine Life Series" will launch seagulls, seals and sea lions in 2022, while the "warship series" will launch destroyers 07, cruisers 05, cruisers 07, landing ships 07 and other models.

In addition, it is understood that the momentum brand after the change of ownership will also put a new car on the market in 2022. According to the plan, Tengli will launch three new models in the Chinese market in the next two years, including the MPV and SUV.

Increasing investment in R & D and laying a solid foundation for development

In addition to the fact that the rise in the price of raw materials has affected the gross profit margin, the financial report shows that BYD's R & D expenses increased significantly in 2021, although it affected the growth of net profit. However, this increase in positive expenditure has brought BYD into a virtuous circle of enterprise development.

According to the financial report, BYD invested 10.627 billion yuan in R & D in 2021, an increase of 24.20% over the same period last year, and the number of R & D personnel was about 40400, an increase of 31.52% over the same period last year. With the continuous increase in research and development, BYD already has some core technologies, such as ultra-safe blade battery, DM-i super hybrid, e-platform 3.0, IGBT4.0 and so on.

The blade battery, which has won the "Global New Energy vehicle Innovation Technology" award, has accelerated the penetration of lithium iron phosphate batteries in the passenger car field by virtue of super safety, super battery life, super strength and other technological advantages. It is understood that with the continuous expansion of opening up and sharing, many automobile brands around the world are discussing cooperation with Fudi batteries. As the cradle of the next generation of high-performance intelligent electric vehicles, e-platform 3.0 has four advantages of intelligence, efficiency, safety and aesthetics, which greatly enhance the intelligent driving experience.

In terms of semiconductor business, BYD Semiconductor brings together power semiconductors, intelligent control IC, intelligent sensors, optoelectronic semiconductors and other omni-directional solutions, covering automotive specification level, consumer electronics, home appliances and other fields. Chip products are better than mainstream products in the market in many key technical indicators. During the period, the application for spin-off and listing of its subsidiary BYD Semiconductor was accepted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which also became an important milestone in the strategic layout of BYD's marketization.

BYD's mobile phone components and assembly business is also diversifying, including smartphones, smart wearable, calculators, Internet of things, smart home, game hardware, robots, drones, communications devices, electronic atomization, automotive intelligent systems, medical and health devices, and so on. The business share of its Android key customers continues to increase, while the business layout of its major customers in North America continues to strengthen, becoming a powerful engine of revenue growth. The new smart product plate is rolled out rapidly, committed to expanding categories, and the business is booming, among which the shipments of smart home, game hardware, drones and other products continue to grow, driving revenue to the track of rapid growth. Electronic atomization products are progressing smoothly, breaking through key technical barriers and opening a new growth curve for BYD.

In addition, projects such as photovoltaic, energy storage, cloud rail and Yunba are also contributing to the realization of the "double carbon" goal.

In fact, due to booming car sales, BYD launched new projects in more than 2021 cities. At present, BYD's four major production bases in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Changsha and Changzhou have been put into production, and the previously announced new production bases in Hefei, Shenshan, Zhengzhou, Jinan and Xiangyang are stepping up construction in preparation for production.

In addition, Tesla, Ford, Hyundai, Lantu and other car companies also reported contact with BYD, and the demand for BYD power battery capacity is also further expanding.

At the same time, BYD is also expanding the distribution of overseas markets. Thousands of Tang EV were delivered in Norway in 2021, and the flagship car Han EV arrived in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries. In terms of commercial vehicles, BYD has also won a large number of orders from Britain, Colombia and other countries, bringing new experiences of pure electric travel to Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden and other countries.

Conclusion: from January to February in 2022, BYD maintained the level of monthly sales of about 90,000 vehicles, and won the position of independent first brother in February. Under the circumstances that the automobile market is generally faced with "lack of core and less electricity", the layout of BYD's vertically integrated supply chain has become the basis of its strong sales counterattack.

Huaxi Securities said in the latest research report that the security capability of the company's supply chain has repeatedly been tested by the industry force majeure and has successfully shown strong stability, which can better cope with the successive launch and rapid release of new models. The company is ushering in an inflection point of sales growth and scale effect-driven performance.