XPeng stock increases with earnings. It wasn’t the biggest surprise.

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Xpeng P7 electric vehicle on display outside the New York Stock Exchange

Jeenah Moon / Bloomberg

Stock in Chinese electric vehicle maker


XPeng

was up in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the company reported better-than-expected third quarter results. The “beats” in sales and profits weren’t the only surprise to investors, however.

There was a new word in the publication of the company’s results: robotaxis.

XPeng shares (ticker: XPEV) rose about 4% in pre-market trading to $ 49.32.


S&P 500

and


Dow Jones Industrial Average

futures were flat. Tuesday’s hike comes on top of recent gains for XPeng shareholders. The stock is up about 21% in the past three months. The increasing deliveries of electric vehicles as well as the successful IPO of


Rivien Automobile

(RIVN) has helped increase most shares of electric vehicle manufacturers in recent times.

XPeng reported a loss of 15 cents per share in the third quarter on revenue of $ 888 million. Wall Street was looking for a loss of 18 cents per share and $ 789 million in sales.

The gross profit margin from car sales was 13.6%, compared to 11% in the second quarter and 3.2% in the third quarter of 2020. Operating profit, however, declined sequentially from the second quarter to third quarter, in part due to R&D spending. mounted higher.

“In the third quarter, we continued to record growth with the highest vehicle deliveries among young Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturers,” CEO He Xiaopeng said in the company press release. XPeng delivered nearly 26,000 cars in the third quarter.


NIO

(NIO) delivered approximately 24,000 and


Li Auto

(LI) delivered around 25,000.

“This outperformance reflects the market’s recognition of the differentiated value that our internally developed and vertically integrated software and hardware bring to our vehicles. ”

Going forward, XPeng expects to deliver between 34,500 and 36,500 in the fourth quarter. This involves around 12,000 vehicle deliveries each month in November and December. The company delivered around 10,100 vehicles in October. More than 12,000 vehicles would be a monthly record for XPeng.

The increase in shipments is a sign that the global semiconductor shortage that has disrupted auto production all year is not hurting XPeng so much. It’s good news. Xiaoping had another unexpected good news for shareholders: the robotaxis.

“The solid progress we have made in [our navigation guided pilot] fuels greater confidence in our ability to explore future mobility solutions compatible with autonomous driving, such as robotaxi technologies, ”added the CEO.

Navigation guided pilot, or NGP, this is how XPeng refers to its software and hardware that enable driver assistance technologies such as adaptive cruise control and ground-keeping assistance.

This is the first time that robotaxis has appeared in a earnings release and will generate many questions from investors during the 8 a.m. Eastern Time conference call. Analysts and investors will want to know how close XPeng is to having self-driving cars on the road.

XPeng has developed more efficient driving assistance features on recent models. XPeng also has lidar (or laser radar) sensors on some models. The use of lidar is still new to the industry. But no automaker, including XPeng, has delivered a car with enough software and sensor technology to allow a driver to stop paying attention to the road just yet.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]

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