With continuous technological innovation and long-term strategic layout, Weichai Power delivered an outstanding performance in 2024. On the evening of March 27, Weichai Power disclosed its annual report for 2024. During the reporting period, it achieved an operating revenue of 215.7 billion yuan, an increase of 0.8% compared with the same period last year. The net profit attributable to the parent company was 11.4 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 26.5% compared with the same period last year.
This achievement is attributed to the high-quality transformation brought about by the upgrading of the company's product structure. During the reporting period, high-value-added power businesses such as gas engines, large-bore engines, and new energy power continued to increase in volume. Coupled with the progress of the vehicle business towards high-end and internationalization, it drove a significant increase in the gross profit margin. The growth rate of net profit far exceeded the growth of operating revenue, and the company continued to maintain high-quality and stable development.
Full-scene Coverage of High-end Products
As a leading enterprise in the power system industry, Weichai Power has always regarded research and development as its core competitiveness. In 2024, the company invested 8.3 billion yuan in research and development expenses. With the support of high research and development investment, the company's scientific and technological achievements are continuously transformed, and the product differentiation advantage is becoming more and more obvious.
In 2024, the company released the world's first diesel engine with an in-body thermal efficiency of 53.09%, which refreshed the world record four times in a row. Three new gas 4.0 power products, WP3NNG, WP8NG, and WP16NG, formed a gas power matrix covering light trucks, medium trucks, and heavy trucks in all scenarios. Among them, the market share of the WP16NG4.0 gas engine ranked first in the industry.
During the reporting period, the company continued to make efforts in the layout of high-end products. The M series large-bore engines achieved a strong breakthrough, supporting the explosive growth of the data center business in high-end markets such as Europe, America, and Southeast Asia. The annual sales volume was 8,132 units, with overseas sales accounting for 62.2%. The sales volume of data center products was nearly 400 units, an increase of 148% year-on-year.
The company also launched high-end products suitable for different off-road scenarios. In the field of agricultural equipment, the 340-horsepower tractor CVT power system filled the gap in the technology of continuously variable transmission in China's high-end agricultural equipment, providing customers with a more powerful, reliable, and efficient agricultural machinery power system solution. In the field of construction machinery, the WP3.6N hydraulic power system with an advanced four-valve structure ensures excellent load resistance and strong power output, greatly improving the adaptability of the product.
Accelerated Layout of the Whole New Energy Industry Chain
In 2024, pure electric commercial vehicles began to experience explosive growth. Facing the wave of electrification in the industry, Weichai Power accelerated the layout of the whole new energy industry chain.
During the reporting period, the new energy power system business achieved breakthrough progress, and blade battery products covering light trucks, heavy trucks, and construction machinery were released. In the field of heavy trucks, the company aimed at the pain points of customers in terms of "large battery capacity, lightweight, fast charging ability, long life, and low-temperature performance", focused on scenarios such as port traction, short-distance regional transportation, and intercity transportation, and launched a full series of power batteries for heavy trucks with a single pack capacity of up to 100kWh. In the field of light trucks, the company created power batteries with high battery capacity as the core, and the single pack capacity reached the industry's top level of 140kWh, fully meeting the power demand for long-distance transportation. In the field of machinery, the company launched a full series of power battery products covering markets such as loaders, excavators, and mining trucks.
In addition, the company improved the layout of vehicle products around the trends of large battery capacity and fast charging, and released models such as X5000E/M3000E 400kWh charging and swapping, 600kWh large-capacity charging, etc., completing the expansion of new energy 2.0 charging products. During the reporting period, the company's market share of new energy heavy trucks further increased, and the sales volume increased from 3,000 units to 7,000 units, an increase of 120.8% year-on-year. Hydrogen energy products were commercially operated in many places, and the sales volume ranked first in the industry.
It is worth noting that the first phase of the Weichai (Yantai) New Energy Power Industrial Park invested and constructed by the company and BYD has been put into production. The total investment of this project is 56 billion yuan. After all three phases are put into production, it will have the production capacity of 50GWh batteries, 500,000 flat-wire motors, 400,000 electronic controls, and 50,000 electric drive systems per year, becoming a first-class industrial cluster highland for new energy vehicle batteries, motors, electronic controls, and electric drive systems in the industry.
Structural Optimization Drives the Improvement of Profitability
Benefiting from the optimization of the product structure, the company's high-end power systems, new energy business, and overseas markets have achieved coordinated growth, further opening up the profit growth space, and the profit growth rate far exceeds the revenue growth rate.
Among them, the market share of gas heavy truck engines is nearly 60%, and the revenue contribution of the M series large-bore engines in high-end fields such as data centers has increased steadily. The export volume of heavy trucks was 59,000 units, an increase of 15% year-on-year, and the export market share was 20.4%, an increase of 1.8 percentage points year-on-year. The high-value-added new energy heavy trucks have rapidly expanded in volume, and the market share has been further increased. In addition, the intelligent logistics business has emerged from the impact of inflation and supply chain problems. KION Group in Germany achieved revenue of 11.5 billion euros, a record high, and achieved a net profit of 370 million euros, an increase of 17.5% year-on-year, with a significant improvement in profitability.
In the wave of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, new forms of productive forces have become the key force for enterprises to transform and upgrade and achieve breakthroughs. For Weichai Power, it has now entered the "deep water area" of transformation and upgrading. To maintain high-quality development in the future, it needs to adhere to scientific and technological leadership and innovation-driven development, comprehensively strengthen its dominant business, and continuously expand new development momentum.The key is to optimize the product structure, accelerate the transformation from homogeneous price competition to high-end technology competition, and strive to continuously improve the market share of each business, the proportion of high-end products, and the profitability. (This article is from the official website of Seetao.com, www.seetao.com. No reprinting is allowed without permission. Otherwise, legal liability will be pursued. If reprinting, please indicate Seetao.com + the original text link.) Editor of the Strategic Column of Seetao.com / Yin Shiqian
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