A few days ago, Thalys released its first-half performance report. It has to be said that with Huawei's support, Thalys' performance has also been explosive after the M7 and M9 sold out. Revenue in the first half was 65 billion yuan, with a profit of 1.625 billion yuan, completely turning a loss into a profit.

So everyone is looking forward to the performance of Lixiang Auto, the leader of the new forces, because Lixiang Auto sells better than Thalys and earns more, right?

Recently, Lixiang Auto also released its second-quarter and first-half performance results, which showed that its performance was not as good as Thalys'.

Data shows that in the first half of the year, Lixiang Auto delivered 188,981 vehicles, nearly 8,000 more than Thalys' 181,197 vehicles.

In terms of revenue, revenue in the first half was 57.3 billion yuan, an increase of 20.8% year-on-year, but still slightly less than Thalys' 65 billion yuan, indicating that Lixiang Auto's revenue per vehicle is not as high as Thalys'.

In terms of profit, Lixiang Auto's net profit was 1.69 billion yuan, slightly higher than Thalys' 1.625 billion yuan.

However, in terms of gross margin, Thalys reached 25.04% in the first half, while Lixiang Auto's automotive gross margin was only 19%, and the company's overall gross margin was only 20%, slightly lower than Thalys.

In fact, if you take a closer look at Lixiang Auto's financial statements, you'll find something interesting: selling cars may actually result in a loss for Lixiang Auto.

Data shows that Lixiang Auto's operating loss in the first half was actually 117 million yuan. However, due to Lixiang Auto's large financial reserves, with over 90 billion yuan in cash, the company earned over 1.4 billion yuan in interest income and investment income from financial management, resulting in an overall profit of nearly 1.69 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 47.8%.

Why is Lixiang Auto incurring a loss? In my opinion, it's due to the L6 model. After the MEGA model encountered setbacks, Lixiang Auto launched the L6.

As expected, the L6 has become a hit and Lixiang Auto's main sales model. For example, in June, Lixiang Auto delivered a total of 48,000 new vehicles, with the L6 accounting for nearly half of them.

However, the L6 is Lixiang Auto's cheapest model, with a maximum price of less than 300,000 yuan. It not only lowers Lixiang Auto's average vehicle price but also reduces its gross margin.

It can be seen that while high sales of low-priced models may not necessarily have a positive impact on a company's revenue.

Nowadays, Xpeng has launched the MONA M03, which is very affordable, while NIO has also introduced the Letao, which is even cheaper. AITO M7 Pro has also become more affordable. As companies move towards cheaper vehicles, will this bring better results for them? Let's wait and see.