Yan Li
Analyst · CICC. Please go ahead. Your line is open
Thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today. In Q1 2023 our total sales volume was 94,407 units representing a year-over-year decrease of 42%. Specifically, sales volume in the China market dropped by 45% year-over- year to 81,518 units and the sales in the overseas market dropped by 12% to 12,889 units. Total revenue in Q1 was RMB417 million, a decrease of 27.5% year-over-year. Now the decrease in sales volume in the China market is primarily due to two factors. Firstly, the price increase caused by the rise in the lithium battery cost last year and secondly, the expectation of new product launches in Q2. In response to the lithium battery price hike in 2022, we increased the prices by average 7% across our product in the China market in Q2 2022 to maintain a healthy margin. However, this led to a decrease in sales. The impact of rising prices on the sales volume continued in Q1 2023 this year compared to the pre-price adjustment in Q1 2022 on a year-over-year basis. For instance, our entry level Gova Zero series, which targeted more price conscious market, experienced the biggest year-over-year drop in sales of nearly 90%. Secondly, the expectation of new product being launched in Q2 also contributed to the decrease in sales volume in Q1. Our distributors delayed orders in anticipation of new product launch event that were hosted in Q2 where we released the mid end to premium products. Despite the drop in sales volume, the retail sales number remained on par with Q1 2022 last year. Many of our retail partners choose to delay orders from traditional low Q1 to Q2 this year given the on-time rollout of our product in 2023. Now for the China market, we focused on the premium series and high quality mid-end series as the premium high-end flagship products have enabled us to improve our margin and strengthen our brand positioning where our mid-end product have allowed us to reach a mass market and achieve volume. With this focus in mind, we have developed products that combine design, aesthetics and technology and functionalities to bring to the market. In the previous earnings call, I introduced the revolutionary high-end [Stratellite] (ph) Electric Bicycle, SQi and the newest addition to the most popular U series, the UQi+, which we launched in Q3 2022 last year. Since their launch, both products have received recognition from both industry and our customers. The SQi won the Red Dot Design Award, Best of Best 2023, which is the highest honor that the Red Dot Design Awards can bestow. The SQi have also won the IF Design Awards 2023, making it potentially the third product to win all major awards after legendary U1 M1. The new UQi+ have also won the Prestige Red Dot Design Awards and have been met with immense popularity in the market. Sales volumes for the new UQi+ accounted for over 50% of total sales of our premium product lines. Those awards and sales performance are testament to our unwavering pursuit of creating a premium product that resonate with consumers. We also rolled out a B2 product, which is the mid-end range form factor product, which has been very popular since its launch, accounting for nearly 30% of mid-end series sales in the first three quarters since its launch. In Q1 2023, we recently made an upgrade to the popular models, bringing a new look based on the original design and bring out the old fashioned style from the minimalist appearance. Now, building on the momentum generated by the product we launched last year, we released four new products in May during the Annual Distributor Conference that will be launched into the market in Q2 this year. The full product we recently launched are MQiL, the G400 and G400T and RQi. I'll share some of the product highlights with you. First, we introduced the MQiL, the Niu's next level flagship product that inherits the design of our all-time classic M series, but with significant upgrade in performance and smart functionalities. The M series is one of our two products that won all seven major international design awards in the mobility industry. The MQiL is the first major model we released, hoping to bring back the classic M series in the last few years. Retaining the classic style, the new MQiL feature significant improvements in the light design range charging features, new smart control, riding ergonomics and additional personalized features. The MQiL is equipped with Niu Energy 9.0 battery, delivering an impressive 170 kilometer max range and can charge for 100 kilometer driving range in just over two hours. In addition, the new MQiL bike is equipped with the new Smart 5.0 with 20 smart features to make this scooter an industry leading smart vehicle. Those include the New Smart dashboard with navigation display incoming call notice. The New Smart Lighting System with Automatic Turning Lights the [indiscernible] control system that is fully integrated with the Apple Ecosystem allowing users to control the scooter with just your Apple Watch or Siri. Targeting the premium electric scooter users, the MQiL is priced from RMB4,999 to RMB8,299. We have received more than 15,000 orders from our dealers within the first week of its launch. Now for the mid-end product lines, we announced the G400 and G400T, we took an innovate approach to use the same platform to build two vehicles. The G400 is the light motorcycle and G400T is an electric bicycle, both vehicles are built with the same modern design and chassis platform, combining design aesthetics and practical functionalities like large storage space. Both of them are equipped with a full set of new smart system features. The G400/G400T are set to launch in early June. We have also recently announced the market launch of our first class electric motorcycle, RQi. The RQi has top speed of 100-kilometer power and driving range of 119 kilometers. Equipped with the 18-watt kilowatt motor, the RQi can accelerate 50-kilometer power within just 2.9 seconds. The RQi also incurred many of smart features. The RQi priced at RMB32,980 and went online to live streaming on May 20. The product is perfectly suitable for motorcyclist who plan to switch from petrol to electric for the fast acceleration experience with the pursuit of environmental friendliness in mind. Now we are confident that with this premium product, we have introduced the market will not only increase sales, but also enhance our brand image and strengthen our leadership in the high-end electric two-wheeler market in China. Our focus on developing premium products complementing with our effort to build a premium brand through a user engage activities and marketing campaigns. The new Innovative Ambassador program where selected core users and KOLs serving as a culture ambassador for new brand launch in 2022 has become a core part of a user center event planning strategy. Since its launch in Q3 last year, we had planned and hosted over 80 events in 30 cities in China. Now along with the product launch, we have organized a series of marketing branding campaigns through our online social media, KOL collaborations, offline product launch events and PR. For online marketing, we invited over 150 KOLs and KOC content creators with large fan base to generate content showing cases of new products and we expect those content to gain over 150 million news throughout the launch of the event. For the offline event, we are planning to host four official events and utilize our Innovative Ambassador network to support another 15 events, bringing new scooters to the market. We believe that with those marketing content and offline event will gain significant media exposure for the new products, further strengthening our brand image as an innovative leader in the urban mobility scenarios. Now turning into the overseas market. We have experienced a year-over-year decrease of 12% in sales in Q1 2023. The electric multi category saw a significant 70% decrease, while the micromobility category enjoyed a moderate 16% increase in sales. The price adjustment made in Q2 2022 in response to the increase in the lithium battery price continued to have the impact on the electric moped sales when compared year-over-year. The international distribution partner have also been waiting for a planned performance upgrade for our high-end performance 125 CC bikes in Q2. Now for the European market, we're rolling out the improved 125 CC products in Q2 2023 to regain growth. In the Southeast Asian market, we are also developing a battery swapping and enabled solutions electric moped smartphone batteries and battery charging cabinets. This solution will be suitable for battery swapping operator to sell multi-chassis, but also charging the batteries on a rental basis, lowering the upfront purchasing cost of electric moped in the region. We expect to roll out of the solutions in second half 2023. Together with the solutions, we're also actively expanding stores and developing partnerships with local operators and enhancing factory assembly capacity in Southeast Asia. Despite being in the low season, our micromobility category still experienced a moderate of 16% year-over-year growth in sales in Q1 2023. We have already established a solid foundation with our product portfolio, sales channel development and marketing and branding activities. With this foundation, we expect a micromobility category to continue to drive high-quality growth in the coming quarters. In Q1 2023, we launched the KQi1 Pro as addition to our kick-scooter product offerings. The KQi 1Pro featured a patented folding mechanism added to the original KQi1 Sports kick-scooter with the newly added KQi1 Pro, we have completed the product offering that covers wide range of product from high-end $900 price range to the entry level of $300 price range. The established kick-scooter product mix have generated higher volume growth since its launch. Beyond the growth in sales, our kick-scooters product has received a prestige awards such as the IF Design Award and New York Product Design Award. Our KQi2 and KQi Youth+ won the IF Design Awards 2023 and the KQi3 Pro was selected as a Gold Winner of 2023 of New York Product Design Awards as the only product in the vehicle technology category. Additionally, Niu was awarded the Riders Choice Award 2023 as the Best Scooter Company by the Micromobility World. With the market presence we have built throughout the micromobility products, while our current focus is on sales and channel expansion on the target market. As of May 2023, Niu products are available in approximately 500 retail stores in the US and over 400 in Europe throughout retail partners such as Best Buy and MediaMart. This sales network translated a solid foundation for ramping up our product sales in the upcoming quarters. In addition to the sales channel expansion, we continue to collaborate with the influencers and product marketing campaigns to further establish our presence in the market. We have worked with over 300 influencers across various platforms to showcase our kick-scooters and the moped and their content gathered more than 40 million views only to their broad reach and wide acceptance. Our product also be featured and placed in multiple TV shows like and movies. We are pleasantly surprised to see our product appears in movies like Murder Mystery 2 and TV shows The Drew Barrymore Show and The Price is Right. In conclusion regarding to the overseas market, we anticipate a sustainable growth driven by our strategy to diversify our product offering beyond the electric two-wheelers and expanded into geographic regions beyond our primary European market. Despite a temporary low quarter due to seasonality, we see growth potential stemming from our diversification strategy based on our product offerings and increasing brand recognition. Now looking forward, we target to regain growth throughout 2023 in both China and international markets gradually recovering from the negative impact of price increase and delayed product launch in 2022, we have put a focused strategy in place for product development, brand marketing and sales channel expansions. In the China market, our strategic product positioning have generated growth opportunity for us in 2023 by focusing on the premium and also the mass premium segment. By combining the high-end, high-quality product with user center activities and marketing campaigns, we aim to maintain our brand leadership in the premium urban mobility sector. With new product rollout and brand activities in place, we expect to see a strong rebound from last year starting in Q2 2023. For the overseas market, we anticipate returning to a fast growth path through a product and geographic expansions. In the electric two-wheeler sector with a product ready for release in our respective markets, we believe we will see a sales ramp up in the new quarter. As for the micromobility sector with the comprehensive product offerings extensive sales channel coverage, and the growing brand awareness, we expect this sector to experience a faster growth in both sales volume and margin performance. Now I will turn the call to our CFO, Fion.