It is really difficult for an auto manufacturing enterprise to become profitable from its establishment. Most automakers need five to ten years, or even more than ten years, to start making profits.

This is because the initial investment in automakers is enormous. Research and development alone starts at at least ten billion yuan, and there are also later-stage factory construction, capacity expansion, etc., all of which must be included in the costs.

Only when the delivery volume of vehicles reaches a certain level and the gross margin can cover all expenses can profits become positive, and the company will no longer lose money. Tesla took 16 years to achieve this, Li Auto took 8 years, and BYD took more than 10 years.

Therefore, for automakers, cash reserves are very important because if there is not enough cash, the company may run out of money after losing for a few months. For example, if there is only ten billion yuan and a loss of one billion yuan per month, it means there may be only ten months left. If money cannot be obtained or profits cannot be made within these ten months, the company may go bankrupt. The collapse of previous companies such as WM Motor and HiPhi is due to a lack of funds.

Therefore, for automakers, especially those that are not yet profitable, the amount of cash reserves is very important. With sufficient cash reserves, they are not afraid of losing money because they can afford to lose and can endure until they start making money.

Here comes the question: What are the current cash reserves of some domestic new energy automakers? Who is the least afraid of losing money? Who can afford to lose money completely?

Recently, some media outlets have compiled a comparison of the cash reserves of some new energy automakers based on their latest financial reports.

As shown in the figure above, Xiaomi has the most cash reserves at 151.6 billion yuan, ranking first. More importantly, Xiaomi's quarterly profit is still 6.3 billion yuan, which means that Xiaomi's cash reserves will continue to grow in the future, and it is not afraid of losing money at all, as it can afford to do so.

The second place is Li Auto, with cash reserves of 106.5 billion yuan. Additionally, Li Auto is also profitable, with a quarterly profit of 3.9 billion yuan, so it is not worried about money issues either.

BYD has cash reserves of 65.8 billion yuan, but it is also profitable, with a quarterly profit of 11.6 billion yuan. Therefore, it does not need to consider running out of cash and will only have more and more.

NIO faces a certain crisis with cash reserves of 41.6 billion yuan and a quarterly loss of 4.5 billion yuan. At this rate of loss, it will run out of money in approximately nine quarters (a little over two years)...

XPeng has 37.3 billion yuan in cash and a quarterly loss of 1.2 billion yuan. At this rate of loss, it can still afford to lose for 36 quarters (more than nine years) and does not need to worry or rush.

In addition, Zeekr has 8.3 billion yuan in cash and a quarterly loss of 1.1 billion yuan. At the current rate, it can still afford to lose for about seven quarters before needing to find ways to raise money or become profitable, otherwise, it will also be in danger.

Of course, the above is not a comparison of all automakers' data, but we can still see which automakers do not need to worry about money issues and which automakers urgently need to become profitable. Otherwise, when their money runs out and they are still losing money, the situation will be dangerous in the future.