Jing Guan Automobile essay | Wang Shuaiguo

At the beginning of this year, the "thunderstorm" incident of Guangdong Yongao, a well-known car dealer in Dongguan, Guangdong, has become a portrayal of the current difficult living conditions of car dealers. Car dealers, as important participants in the field of automobile circulation, are undergoing the test of the pain of transformation from the automobile industry, and are also struggling to find new "living methods".

"2023RobloxcarcrashWe closed six stores and lost 25 million yuan less. " The head of a domestic car dealer told the Economic Observer. Closing stores and shrinking business lines have become an important means for car dealers to reduce losses.

At present, the life of domestic car dealers is generally not satisfactory. According to the "investigation report of Automobile Dealers investors" released by the China Automobile Circulation Association (hereinafter referred to as "the Circulation Association") on April 11, among the 27 dealer groups (including large, medium and small groups) surveyed, nearly 30% of the surveyed groups failed to make profits (losses or break even) in 2023, nearly half of the groups' profits declined, and only 24% of the groups achieved profit growth.

Recently, eight listed auto dealer groups, including Zhongsheng Group, Yongda Automobile, Guanghui Baoxin, Meidong Motor, Zhengtong Motor, Harmony Automobile, Xinfengtai Group and Badley Holdings, released their 2023 results. The performance reports of various groups also revealed the current situation of the dismal operation of car dealers, with "a small increase in revenue and a sharp decline in profits" as the main trend.

According to the performance reports of the above-mentioned automobile dealer groups, in 2023, the new energy vehicle business has become a new "sharp weapon" to improve the profits of enterprises. In addition, the after-sale market, second-hand car sales, finance and other derivative businesses have gradually become the revenue and profit growth points of car dealers. However, due to the small size of this new business, it is not possible to fully make up for the losses incurred by car dealers in the main business of new car sales.

Profits generally plummeted

Of the eight listed car dealer groups, six saw a year-on-year decline in profits in 2023. Among them, Zhongsheng Group, as the "big brother" of the industry, achieved a net profit of 49% in 2023.Robloxcarcrash.91 billion yuan, down 24.70% from the same period last year, which is already the smallest decline among the six enterprises. In 2023, Yongda Automobile, Meidong Automobile, Xinfengtai Group and Bailey Holdings achieved net profits of 586 million yuan, 156 million yuan, 12 million yuan and 84 million yuan, respectively, with a year-on-year drop of 60% Rue 85%. Zhengtong Motor's loss expanded to 820 million yuan in 2023, a decrease of 176.30%.

This is another collective "big decline" of profits in the automobile distribution industry after 2022. When talking about the reasons for the decline in profits, these dealer groups unanimously pointed the "spearhead" at the price war in the new car market in 2023.

East American Motor said in its financial report that domestic consumption was weaker than expected in 2023 due to macro factors. Due to the lack of terminal demand and the failure of the automobile market to respond in time, there is a certain imbalance between supply and demand in the industry. in order to improve the cash flow and inventory backlog, most dealers have adopted the way of price for quantity to promote sales. This measure has seriously compressed the profit margins of car dealers, coupled with the failure of the supply side to make timely adjustments, car dealers are also under great operational and financial pressure.

The pressure from the market has led to a decline in the gross profit margin and gross profit margin of new car sales in many car dealers. In 2023, the gross profit of Zhongsheng Group's new car sales business was 1.058 billion yuan, down 2.882 billion yuan or 73.1% from the same period last year; Yongda Automobile's new car sales gross profit was 176 million yuan, down 1.263 billion yuan or 87.8%, and the new car distribution gross profit margin was 0.31%, down 2.16% from the same period last year. Meidong Automobile New passenger car sales gross profit margin was-0.6%, down 4.0%.

In addition, the poor new car sales of automobile dealers has something to do with the "rebate model" of the automobile main engine factory for dealers. "among the new car profits of dealers, manufacturers account for an increasing proportion of rebates. Although there are rebates, rebates have to be paid by themselves, with tens of millions of advances for the whole year, with an advance period of at least three months." The person in charge of the above-mentioned dealers said that in order to get the manufacturer's rebate, the dealers are basically selling cars at a loss.

Selling new energy cars makes more money.

There are two factors that determine the profit of dealers last year. First, there are more luxury brands, and second, there are more new energy brands. If none of them is occupied, it will be very difficult to make a profit. " Lang Xuehong, deputy secretary general of the Circulation Association, told the Economic Observer.

Most of the eight listed car dealer groups have luxury car brand sales, so six still keep their profits above the profit and loss line in the face of industry pressure in 2023. In addition, the new energy vehicle business has also become the key for dealers to make profits, and Yongda Automobile is one of them, which made a profit of 586 million yuan in 2023.

According to Yongda's performance report, sales of new energy vehicles of all Yongda brands reached 32900 in 2023, an increase of 33.8% over the same period last year, accounting for 17.0% of total sales. In terms of after-sales, the after-sales business of Yongda independent new energy brand has improved rapidly, with annual maintenance revenue of 159 million yuan, an increase of 255.3% over the same period last year, and maintenance gross profit margin of 41.7%, the same as that of fuel vehicles. This data breaks the stereotype of low profit in the aftermarket of new energy vehicles.

Yongda said that due to the intelligent hardware integration and maintenance technology threshold of new energy vehicles are significantly higher than traditional fuel vehicles, the number of customers in the after-sales management cycle is much higher than the number of new car sales, and the customer retention rate is also higher than that of fuel vehicles.

"We began to build a new energy network in 2022, when the financial situation was very stressful, but with the increase in sales of new energy vehicles and the closure of a number of loss-making traditional brand stores in 2023, profits improved a lot." Some dealer investors said in the research report of the Circulation Association.

In the view of many car dealer investors, in order to open a new store in the current market environment, it is necessary to refer to several trends in the industry: the first is to open a new energy store; the second is to open a county fuel vehicle comprehensive store (selling multiple brand products); the third is to improve the regional concentration of joint venture brands.

　　也有企业不看好新能源市场。中升集团认为，尽管从长期而言全球汽车行业将实现电动化，但目前的BEV（纯电动汽车）技术与基础设施存在明显瓶颈，导致用户对续航里程、安全问题以及总的用车成本深感焦虑，而且主机厂生产成本过高，盈利能力不可持续。因此，中升集团尚未在新能源市场加大布局力度。

　　开辟新业务

　　在上述8家上市汽车经销商集团中，仍有广汇宝信、和谐汽车两家集团在2023年实现了净利润同比增长。其中，广汇宝信2023年实现净利润1.14亿元，同比增长116.30%，由亏转盈；和谐汽车实现净利润-2.42亿元，同比增长85.10%，亏损收窄。

　　值得一提的是，在所有于港股上市汽车经销商集团中，广汇宝信的毛利率提升也最为显著，其2023年的综合毛利相比2022年同比提升179%，综合毛利率从2022年的1.5%提升至2023年的4.1%。

　　罗兰贝格大中华区合伙人张旭东表示：“新车销售质量提升及汽车金融业务拓展是广汇宝信提升盈利能力的主要因素。”具体而言，2023年广汇宝信通过优化投资品牌的经销网点布局质量，以及加强同一品牌授权店间的业务协同及资源整合，形成了集团性门店优势，使得集团的新车毛利率从2022的-3.1%提升至-0.4%。此外，广汇宝信通过拓展多元化汽车金融合作模式，及与合作伙伴对金融产品及服务的创新，实现汽车金融收入超过92%。

　　和谐汽车的情况则有所不同，其2023年净利润显著改善的主要原因，在于受到2022年的投资亏损的影响减少。2022年，和谐汽车对FMC（拜腾汽车）股权投资在2022年度损益中进行了全额拨备12.17亿，造成当年大幅亏损。2023年，和谐汽车的实际经营情况仍未好转，其主营业务经营毛利约为9.64亿元，同比降低10.7%，主营业务综合经营毛利率由2022年的6.6%下降到5.8%。

　　从汽车经销行业整体来看，长期以来作为汽车经销核心业务的新车销售，在2023年因价格战等原因遭受了巨大的冲击，这是汽车经销商盈利能力下滑的主要背景。为改善生存状况，汽车经销商集团不得不向售后市场、二手车市场以及金融等衍生业务寻找利润增长空间。

　　张旭东表示：“2023年国内汽车经销商集团在业务上的调整趋势主要包括：优化燃油车赛道的品牌布局，加速新能源赛道的业态布局，开拓后市场领域的业务创新，提升售后业务的运营质量，加强客户全生命周期运营能力。”

　　二手车是一个热门的领域。以中升集团为例，2023年，中升集团二手车销售收入139.85亿元，同比增长42.3%；精品及售后收入250.9亿元，同比增长2.0%，售后服务产值增长16%，售后服务毛利涨幅达到24%。

　　根据中升集团的业绩报告，从2023年初开始，中升集团对旗下二手车业务战略进行调整，月交易量从1月的单月7千台持续增长到12月的单月2万台。二手车总交易量同比增长17%至约16.4万辆，相应综合利润同比增长55%至约12亿元，占全年综合利润的6.9%，创下新高。

　　但根据流通协会对于汽车经销商投资人的调查报告，2023年汽车经销商的二手车业务仍面临较大的压力。首先，新车价格的动荡打压了二手车价格，减缓了经销商将二手车从批售转向零售的节奏；其次，部分二手车零售业务较为成功的集团，其4S店端的零售面临车源瓶颈，业务规模存在上限。

　　4月10日，流通协会发布2024年3月份“汽车经销商库存”调查结果：3月份汽车经销商综合库存系数为1.56，环比下降10.3%，同比下降12.4%，库存水平位于警戒线以上，经销商库存压力下降。这一信号透露出，汽车经销商或在2024年迎来较以往更为有利的局面。

　　张旭东认为，对汽车经销商而言，从企业管理和组织效率方面也有不少值得挖掘的增长点，包括深化门店数字化能力、建设区域能力中心、拓展本土化用户运营生态业务、提高网络运营管理能力、尝试海外业务，等等。