Image source: Visual China

When No. 9 Company (689009) was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2020, its annual revenue was 6 billion yuan and its profit was less than 74 million yuan, and four years later, the company handed over a performance report card with a revenue of more than 14 billion yuan and a profit of nearly 1.1 billion yuan in 2024 - an average annual compound growth rate of almost 100% in four years.

Electric two-wheelers (including electric bicycles, electric light motorcycles, and electric motorcycles) are the biggest contributors to the explosion of Nine's performance, which only sold 432 million yuan in 2020, and as of the first half of 2024, the company's revenue from the sale of electric two-wheelers has exceeded 3.3 billion yuan. Judging from the revenue shown in the performance report, in 2024, the company's revenue from electric two-wheelers may be more than ten times or more than that of 2020.

A person who will only become a dealer of No. 9 Company in 2024 told a reporter from the Spiegel Finance Studio of the "Public Securities Journal" that his small store sold more than 300 electric two-wheelers last year, which is not much different from the top three brand stores in domestic sales that he operates, and more than 100 have been sold this year.

In addition, Nine Company may have a new performance growth point.

Annual sales of 110,000 to 1.2 million units in half a year

Nine is not only a newcomer to the A-share market, but also a latecomer to electric two-wheelers.

Nine Company, which was listed in October 2020, was more known for its electric self-balancing scooters and electric scooters in the early years. According to the 2020 annual report released after listing, the company's revenue of more than 6 billion yuan, compared with the revenue of 5.262 billion yuan of intelligent electric balance bike series and intelligent electric scooter series, the revenue of 432 million yuan of intelligent electric motorcycles and electric bicycle series is still the "little brother".

Unexpectedly, the sales volume of No. 9 Company's electric two-wheeled vehicle in 2020 will only be 114,300 units, and its sales volume and sales revenue have risen to a new level every year, which has become the key to the growth of No. 9 Company's performance in recent years.

In 2021, the company's electric two-wheelers sold 444,600 units, almost tripling, and its revenue reached 1.334 billion yuan.

In 2022, the company's electric two-wheelers will continue to sell well, with sales of 862,600 units and revenue of 2.663 billion yuan, nearly doubling.

In 2023, the company's electric two-wheeler revenue will increase to 4.232 billion yuan, and the sales volume will reach 1.4715 million units after exceeding one million units. This year, Nine Company ranked among the top 10 brands in China's electric two-wheeler sales.

In the first half of 2024, the sales of electric two-wheelers of Nine Company will reach 3.383 billion yuan, with sales of 1.2 million units, of which domestic sales will be 1.1984 million units, close to the whole year of 2023.

At the end of February this year, Nine Company released its 2024 performance report, with revenue of 14.171 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38.63%; The net profit attributable to the parent company and the non-net profit deducted increased by 81.90% and 160.74% respectively, combined with the 2023 annual report and the 2024 interim report, electric two-wheelers will continue to be an important support for the company's performance.

Behind the top 10 brands in domestic electric two-wheeler sales in just a few years is the rapid increase in the number of electric two-wheeler stores in recent years - at the end of July 2023, there were more than 3,800 domestic exclusive stores, and by the end of June 2024, there were more than 6,200.

Shi Wei (pseudonym), the owner of an electric two-wheeler authorized store of a No. 9 company in Nanjing, told reporters that he will only apply to become an authorized store in 2024, and sold more than 300 units last year, and has sold more than 100 units this year.

Mr. Shi, who also runs the top three electric two-wheeler brand stores in China, said the brand sold more than 400 units last year, which is not too far from Nine's electric car sales.

Shi Wei's new authorized store in 2024 may reflect the rapid development of Nine's electric two-wheeler business.

Electric vehicles don't win by price

It is worth mentioning that Nine Company is not known for its volume prices in China.

The reporter logged in to the official flagship store of Tmall on the electric two-wheeled vehicle of No. 9 Company on March 5 and saw that the actual transaction price of a number of products that had sold tens of thousands of yuan was mostly about 3,500 yuan to 5,000 yuan. For example, the hot-selling electric bicycle F90M, which has been sold in 20,000+, has a price of 4,199 yuan after discount, and the actual transaction price is about 4,689 yuan after the order includes the comprehensive service fee paid to the store for offline pick-up (the amount varies in different regions and stores).

When I visited the store on the spot, I also found that the main price of electric bicycles of No. 9 Company was mostly 4,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan.

According to iResearch's 2023 data, the sales volume of products in the price range of more than 5,000 yuan of Nine Company has become the first electric two-wheeler brand. According to the 2024 research report, Nine Company's smart two-wheeled vehicles ranked first in online sales for two consecutive years, ranked first in the online industry for three consecutive years, and ranked first in the online sales share of products above 4,000 yuan.

According to data from the China Bicycle Association, the number of electric two-wheelers in China will exceed 400 million by 2023. The industry believes that with the development of the industry and the increase in ownership, the replacement demand for electric two-wheeled vehicles in China has become impossible to ignore, at present and for a period of time in the future, the replacement power comes from the implementation of the new national standard, the "trade-in" policy and the spontaneous replacement of owners of old electric vehicles.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in 2024, more than 1.38 million electric bicycles will be "traded-in" in the country, driving sales of 3.74 billion yuan, and from January to February this year, the "trade-in" of electric bicycles nationwide will reach 1.019 million, driving new car sales of 2.66 billion yuan.

In 2025, the subsidy for electric bicycles will be further improved, such as Jiangsu and other places, the subsidy ratio can reach 30% of the actual price, and the maximum subsidy amount will reach 1,000 yuan. In Nanjing, for example, the amount of subsidies per vehicle this year has increased by about 300 yuan to 500 yuan compared with 2024. Ningbo's subsidy is even stronger, at 40% of the actual price of a new car, with a maximum subsidy of up to 1,200 yuan per vehicle.

The new national standard, which has been implemented since 2019, has also accelerated the elimination and replacement of electric two-wheeled vehicles. According to public reports, the domestic electric two-wheeler sales market in 2024 will be dominated by new national standard vehicles, accounting for about 63%, and the share will continue to expand compared with 2023.

The store owners interviewed generally said that most consumers who have switched to a new one have the idea of buying a better or smarter two-wheeled electric vehicle, especially now that there is a "trade-in" subsidy.

According to the "2024 China Two-Wheeled Electric Vehicle Industry Research Report" released by iResearch, the intelligent function of electric two-wheelers is the third most important factor for car owners when buying car products, second only to vehicle durability, battery and battery life. Intelligence happens to be one of the strengths of the company, from the core product electric balance car to electric two-wheeled vehicle, intelligence is the focus of its mainstream products.

New growth points are emerging?

Another area of focus of Nine Company is service robots, which is a battlefield with intelligence as the core. In 2022, the company became the "Top 50 Robot Enterprise Innovation in 2022" jointly announced by the Internet Weekly of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other companies with its service robots, and the companies on the list include well-known enterprises in the field of robotics such as SIASUN and Estun.

Nine Company has maintained stability in the basic market of electric balance vehicles and electric scooters, and while the two-wheeled electric vehicle business has grown explosively, the service robot business has begun to gradually develop.

After testing the waters of food delivery and delivery robots, the application scenario of service robots targeted by Nine Company is mowing grass that does not look so tall.

It doesn't look so lofty, but the industry has a lot of prospects. With the advancement of artificial intelligence and robotics, intelligent lawn mower robots have begun to liberate people from the hard, tiring and dirty work of mowing grass in the garden. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global robotic lawn mower market is expected to grow from $1.48 billion in 2021 to $4.04 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate of 15.5%. There are also data showing that there are about 250 million private gardens in the world, of which about 180 million are in Europe and the United States, and even in Europe and the United States, the market penetration rate of intelligent lawn mower robots is less than 10%.

In September 2021, Nine Company officially released a new Segway lawn mower robot in the field of household service robots, which can accurately locate and achieve safe obstacle avoidance functions in various lawn environments.

In the following year, Nine's lawn mower robot took the lead in achieving batch delivery in the field of household borderless lawn mowers, and at the same time, it continued to increase research and development, continuously promote technology iteration and launch new products. In 2023, the company's lawn mower robot sales will form a scale, selling 36,800 units that year, with an income of 224 million yuan, which is listed and disclosed separately for the first time in the annual report.

In 2024, the company's lawn mower robot business will spread good news again, selling 449 million yuan in the first half of the year, doubling from the whole year of 2023, and close to the company's all-terrain vehicle sales of 507 million yuan in the same period, sold to more than 30 countries around the world. On a year-on-year basis, the lawn mower robot, which has increased by about 300%, is the product with the fastest revenue growth in the first half of 2024.

"With the maturity of a new generation of technology platform products and the maturity of channels, the intelligent lawn mower robot business is confident to bring new growth points to the operating income and profits of Nine Company and further promote the comprehensive development of the company by virtue of the maturity of a new generation of technology platform products and the maturity of channels." In the 2023 annual report, Nine Company wrote.

With the rapid growth of performance in just a few years, what did Nine do right? I believe that people will pay attention to how the company will continue to improve its performance and broaden its development boundaries in the future.