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Operator
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for Li Auto's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now hand the call over to your host Janet Chung, Director of Investor Relations of the Company. Please go ahead, Janet.
Janet Zhang - Director of IR
Thank you Amy. Good evening and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Li Auto's fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings conference call. The Company's financial and operating results were published in the press release earlier today and were posted on the Company's IR website. On today's call we have our President, Mr. Kevin Yanan Shen, our CFO Mr. Johnny Tie Lie, and our CTO, Mr. Kai Wang. To begin with prepared remarks. Our founder and CEO Mr. Xiang Li will join for the Q&A discussion. Before We continue please be reminded that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor Provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the Company's actual results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties is included in certain filings of the Company with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please also note that Li Auto's earnings press release and this conference call includes discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information, as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to Li Auto's press release which contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to compare with GAAP measures. With that I will now turn the call over to our President, please go ahead, Kevin.
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Thank you, Janet. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. The fourth quarter capped off a year of significant growth and robust financial results for our Company. Our team's strong execution yielded record fourth quarter results that comfortable beat our outlook. We delivered 14,464 Li ONEs in the fourth quarter, up 67% quarter over quarter. Our robust deliveries drove revenue growth of 65.2% compared with the third quarter, reaching RMB4.15 billion.
With 32,624 vehicles delivered to our users in 2020, Li ONE was the best-selling new energy SUV of the year in China, a testament to its highly competitive product features. This outstanding performance was fueled by strong demand driven by our distinctive product offering and the superior user experience, and made possible by our focused product strategy, and our ability to rapidly scale up our consistent and high-quality manufacturing process to meet demand.
We believe that evolving consumer preferences for smart electric vehicles together with advancing technologies will continue to be tailwinds for our long-term sales growth. Taking into consideration of seasonality and the impact of COVID-19 in Northern China, we expect our first quarter deliveries to be between 10,500 to 11,500 units.
On the profitability side our gross margin remains robust at 17.5% in the fourth quarter reflecting our manufacturing efficiency and the disciplined cost management approach.
Most notably we achieved a record high operating cash flow of RMB1.82 billion, nearly doubled from the third quarter, and raised US$1.53 billion in proceeds through our successful full-on offering setting a solid financial foundation as we increase investment for autonomous driving technology and a BEV platform to drive our future growth.
We remain committed to proactively serving our users by anticipating their needs and as a response to the increased demand for our vehicles we have steadily expanded our direct sales and servicing network. As of January 31, 2021, we had 60 retail stores covering 47 cities and 121 servicing centers and also authorized body and the paint shops operating in 89 cities. We will continue to broaden and deepen city coverage to address increasing demand from prospective users across China and prepare ourselves for the new model launches in 2022 and beyond.
At the same time, we strive to continue strengthening our digital systems to integrate and connect all the stages of the sales and servicing processes to maintain a high level of sales efficiency.
As a user driven automotive and technology company, we always prioritize our users' comfort and safety. We are very proud of the outstanding safety rating result of our Li ONE achieved. Li ONE was awarded the highest safety rating in three out of the four China Insurance Automotive Safety Index evaluation categories in January, five-star rating in China Automobile Health Index Assessment and a five-star China New Car Assessment Program safety rating in February, make it the only large premium SUV model that has received top scores in all three index programs.
We aim to make Li ONE best in class and believe that iteration is necessary for groundbreaking innovation. We constantly collect feedback and the suggestions from our users through our ATT and also our customer service centers to provide updates through FOTA. By doing so, not only we delivered more value-added products and services but also nurture a long-term relationship with our users, which will be very helpful to enhance the value in the long run.
Since the start of the deliveries in December 2019, we have released 13 major vehicle over-the-air upgrades on-demand - on December 26, 2020, our delivered software version 2.0 through OTA updates bringing 12 new features, such as front vehicle smart alert, adaptive cruise speed, dashboard camera playback, multiple-user settings, and also updated co-pilot entertainment system, plus another 12 enhanced functions including new interfaces for the dashboard, touch screen control panel, and also updated applications such as Navigation Map.
As of February 18, we have users in 328 cities across China with cumulative mileage exceeding 330 million kilometers. 97.1% of users expressed their satisfaction with Li ONE in the survey we conducted in January 2021 and they were willing to recommend the Li ONE to their friends.
As always, we are grateful for the consistent support and trust from our users.
Looking forward, we will accelerate the development of second-generation extended range platform, and also the high-voltage BEV technologies in order to enrich our model mix to cater to the needs of a wider range of users, while adhering to our brand positioning of premium smart electric vehicles. All of these efforts are aiming at maximizing the value proposition for our users.
We are planning on the reconfiguration of our state-of-the-art Changzhou factory for our new model pipeline, especially the full-size premium SUV based on brand new architecture to be launched in 2022. With the establishment of our Shanghai R&D Centre we are also expediting our R&D effort across the board.
Having successfully completed the first phase of our strategic cycle and entered the second stage this year, we will continue racing ahead towards our mission - creating homes on the move that bring happiness to the entire family.
With that I would like to turn it over to our CTO, Mr. Kai Wang for a closer review of our R&D efforts. Please go ahead, Kai.
Kai Wang: Thank you, Kevin. Hello everyone. Let me share with you the progress we have made on R&D since the last earnings call. We are on course with our brand-new architecture for the full sized premium electric SUV to be launched in 2022. It features a scalable and upgradable ECU and sensor set, enabling more use cases via FOTA.
In particular, we are collaborating closely with NVIDIA and Desay SV to equip our next model with the powerful NVIDIA Orin SoC chip set. With scalable setup, we could expand our vehicle's overall computing power up to 2000 TOPS. Along with our complete in-house algorithm and closed loop data environment, we can progressively reach level 4 autonomous driving. The project goes well, and everything is on track.
One of the priorities for me as CTO is to attract brilliant, scientists, researchers and engineers to join our team, to development of cutting-edge, smart, electrical vehicle technologies, as we aim to bring more changing innovations to people's everyday lives.
We are excited to kick off 2021 with announcement of our new R&D center in Shanghai, dedicated to the development of cutting-edge electric vehicle technologies, such as high voltage platforms and ultra-fast charging technologies. This R&D center will have end-to-end development capabilities for new models.
We chose Shanghai as the location, due to the abundant availability of top-notch talents with expertise in smart vehicles in and around the city, alongside a rich supply chain.
Its establishment will not only accelerate our new model launches and development of smart vehicle technologies, but also our recruiting efforts. Recruiting at R&D center has already started. We will ultimately build a team of over 2000 staffs. In the meanwhile, we are establishing collaborations with top universities and research institutes in China. More updates will be released in future.
Now, I will turn this call over to our CFO, Mr. Tie Li, to review our financial performance in the fourth quarter.
Johnny, Tie Li - CFO
Thank you, Kai. Hello, everyone. I will now go over some of our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2020. To be mindful of the length of this call, I will address financial highlights here and encourage you to refer to our earnings press release, which is posted online, for additional details. Please note that the currencies mentioned below are all RMB.
Total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 were RMB4.15 billion, representing an increase of 65.2%, from RMB2.51 billion in the third quarter of 2020. This included 4.06 billion of vehicle sales in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing an increase of 64.6% from the third quarter.
The increase in vehicle sales was mainly due to 67% increase in vehicle deliveries to 14,464 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2020, from 8,660 vehicles in the third quarter of 2020.
Revenues from other sales and services were RMB89.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing an increase of 93.5% from the third quarter. The increase in revenues from other sales and services was in line with the increased vehicle sales and the increased number of vehicles using our services.
Cost of sales in the fourth quarter was RMB3.42 billion, representing an increase of 70.1% from the third quarter.
Vehicle margin in the fourth quarter was 17.1%, comparing to 19.8% in the third quarter of 2020. The decrease was primarily due to the decreased one-time rebate from suppliers, compare with third quarter of 2020.
Gross margin in the fourth quarter was 17.5%, compared to 19.8% in the third quarter, which was mainly driven by the changes, the change in vehicle margin.
Total operating expenses in the fourth quarter were RMB803.5 million, representing an increase of 18.7% from RMB676.7 million in the third quarter of 2020.
Research and development expenses in the fourth quarter of 2020 were RMB374.2 million, representing an increase of 11.9%, from RMB334.5 million in the third quarter of 2020. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP research and development expenses were RMB369.1 million, representing a quarter-over-quarter increase of 32.4%. The increase in research and development expenses was primarily attributable to increased research and development activities for the Company's next vehicle model and increased headcount, offset by the significant decreased in share-based compensation expenses over the third quarter. In this period, higher cumulative share-based compensation expenses were recognized related to the stock option granted to employees with service conditions and a performance condition, related to the IPO.
Selling, general and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter of 2020 were RMB429.3 million, excluding share-based compensation expenses. Non-GAAP selling general and administrative expenses were RMB426.8 million, representing an increase of 61.5%. The increase in selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily driven by the increased marketing and promotional activities and the increased headcount, offset by the significant decrease in share-based compensation expenses over the third quarter of 2020, in which period higher cumulative share-based compensation expenses were recognized related to the stock options granted to employees with service conditions and the performance conditions related to the IPO.
Losses from operations in the fourth quarter of 2020 was RMB78.9 million, decreasing by 56.2%, compared to a loss of RMB180 million in the third quarter. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, the non-GAAP loss from operations was RMB71.1 million, increasing by 58% from the third quarter of 2020.
Net income was RMB107.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to RMB106.9 million net loss in the third quarter of 2020. Non-GAAP net income was RMB115.4 million in the fourth quarter, representing an increase of 621.3% from RMB16 million in the third quarter of 2020.
Now, turning to our balance sheet and cash flow. Our cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and deposits and short-term investments totaled RMB29.87 billion as of 31 December 2020.
Operating cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2020 was RMB1.82 billion, nearly doubled from RMB929.8 million in the third quarter of 2020.
Free cash flow was RMB1.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, representing an increase of 113.2% from RMB749.9 million in the third quarter of 2020. As of 31 December 2020, we had a total of 4,181 employees.
For more of our 2020 full year financial results, please refer to our earnings press release for further details.
And now, for our business outlook. For the first quarter of 2021, the Company expects deliveries to be between 10,500 and 11,500 vehicles, representing an increase of 262.6% to [297.1%] (corrected by company after the call) from the first quarter of 2020. The Company also expects the first quarter's total revenues to be between RMB2.94 billion to RMB3.22 billion, representing an increase of 245.9%, to 278.8% from the first quarter of 2020.
I will now turn the call over to the operator, to facilitate our Q&A session. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. And for your questions, please press star and the number one and wait for your name to be announced. To cancel your request, please the pound or hash key. And for the benefit of all participants on today's call, please limit yourselves to two questions, and if you have additional questions, you can re-enter the queue. If you're going to ask a question in Chinese, please follow it up with English translation.
Once again, for your questions, please press star and the number one and wait for your name to be announced.
First question comes from the line of Fei Fang, of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, the line is open.
Fei Fang - Analyst
[Spoken in Chinese] Okay, just translate for myself very quickly, my first question is about the sequential decline of the first quarter volume items, can management elaborate on the decline? What drives this on the demand or supply side?
The second question is about the recent car plate policy from the Shanghai Government. The city recently announced it would no longer provide green plate to plug-in vehicles. This effect in 2023. Can you talk about your view on this and your projected impact on former performance? Thank you.
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Thank you, Fang Fei. This is Kevin. I'll answer your questions.
Your first question, we think a modest month-over-month decline does not mean that our sales are encountering a bottleneck. Single-model sales of over 5000 per month, still demonstrate that our Li ONE is very competitive. Deliveries in January 2021 were 5379 and in December was 6126. On average for these two months were 5753. These numbers are in line with our prior growth expectations.
We think that during the Chinese Spring Festival in February and also the upcoming Chinese Lantern Festival, our sales will be affected by the seasonality, for sure. In addition, considering the impact of COVID-19 in Northern China, we are putting out a relatively conservative delivery guidance for the first quarter of 2021. We are confident that with the expansion of our retail store and the effective control of the pandemic, our sales will gradually increase.
About your second question, about Shanghai, the policy change in Shanghai was within our expectations. With the implementation time, that is even later than we expected. Also, we believe the details of this policy and the implementation may change in the coming two years. We keep a constant communication with Shanghai local authorities.
The implementation of this policy in 2023 will actually encourage users to purchase EV and PHEV and also EREVs in advance. We expect that the demand for EREV and PHEV will impact reach peak in 2022.
On the other side, Shanghai only accounts for 9% of our total deliveries in 2020 and this policy change will have a relatively small impact on our Company as a whole. Cities without license restrictions account for more than 55% of our accumulated deliveries by the end of 2022, so the distribution is very healthy.
We are also accelerating the R&D of our BEV platform and the launch of the BEV model, which is expected in 2023. Thank you, that's all my answers.
Fei Fang - Analyst
Kevin, that's very helpful, thank you very much for that.
Operator
Thank you, our next question is from the line of Tim Hsiao of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Tim Hsiao - Analyst
[Spoken in foreign language]. My first question please share the official guidance regarding the numbers of stores you plan to open in 2021 with the gorgeous sales network to keep the great operating efficiency and could average monthly sales per store still keep 100 units.
My second question is about the competitive landscape, we saw a lot of tech companies had been to EV market, like Baidu, Apple, Xiaomi. So what kind of impact or disruption do you think these new entrants will bring to the EV and the autonomous driver market and what would be the implication to Li Auto? Thank you.
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Thanks, Tim, this is Kevin. I will try to answer your first question about the sales efficiency. Our Company has already entered the second strategic cycle in which we will launch more models in the coming years. Therefore, we will not take the sales efficiency of 100 vehicles per store as the single target. Considering to keep the store sales efficiency in relatively healthy level we will more aggressively increase our retail stores this year, starting from this year and beyond, to prepare for the launch of our multiple models starting from 2022.
Li Xiang do you want to comment on the second question?
Xiang Li - CEO
[Spoken in foreign language].
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Okay, for the benefit of those who do not speak Mandarin, this is Kevin, let me try to translate what Li Xiang just described. So first of all, Li Xiang believes that it will take about three years for any company to develop a car from scratch, from setting up the team, project initiation, R&D testing and product launch. It also will take another actual one year to test the car in the market. So right now, Li Auto has already completed all these three and entered the [second] (corrected by company after the call) phase of strategic cycle. So in the coming three, four years, which we are ahead of those new entry companies, we will accelerate the speed of our development to build out our competitive advantage.
We think by 2024 we will have the three major competitive advantages compared to those newcomers.
First, is the market share and the user base we already have by then. It will be nearly half a million to 1 million.
Second advantage we will have is our sales and service channel. By then we should already have - our target is to have more than 1000 retail stores and also our factory capacity, our supply chain capacity and also our charging infrastructure will all become a competitive advantage for us.
Last thing is also very important, is that by then our product portfolio will be much bigger and we will have both EREV portfolio and high voltage BEV portfolio, which will give us a big advantage over the new entry companies. So we respect those who want to enter this industry very much, but we think the timing is on our side. We already passed the zero to one phase and we are already in the one to 10 phase and we are accelerating our new product R&D launch.
Tim Hsiao - Analyst
Thank you, Mr Li, thank you for the great comments, thanks.
Operator
Thank you, our next question is from the line of Paul Gong of UBS. Please go ahead.
Paul Gong - Analyst
Yes, thanks for taking my questions, please could I have two questions? The first one is related to the purely electric vehicle or the BEV technology. You have already changed your strategy, you have accelerated your BEV development during the past several months, I can see and you have announced the Whale and Shark platform for this and you are focused on the high voltage and the fast charging.
Can you share with us more details, especially on the technology and roadmap and timeline of this BEV? And what does Whale and Shark mean? Does Whale mean bigger space, bigger room and Shark means faster acceleration and higher speed? How shall we understand these two platforms?
My second question is regarding the margin guidance for 2021. Obviously at this moment you have been achieving pretty decent and high teens of the gross margin and highly close to breakeven on the net profit margin. But given you already have enough financial resources and you'll probably be at the higher market share or higher volumes to build out the branding, as well as accumulative user base, will you strategically choose to focus on lower margin for 2021 in exchange for a higher market share? [Spoken in foreign language].
Xiang Li - CEO
[Spoken in foreign language].
Paul Gong - Analyst
Okay.
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Okay, this is Kevin I'll translate.
So first of all we have been developing our high voltage EV platform for some time. Our focus is to be able to enable our customer to replenish the energy with very high speed. This is the mission we give to us starting from the beginning of this Company.
Now we believe with the technology and also with the standards that the Chinese Government and the authorities are planned, right now is in the right timing to start to develop this product and try to introduce it into the market very soon.
So to achieve this high voltage ultrafast speed charging platform there are four fundamental technologies we have to develop. The first of course is the high C-rate battery. We are working with our partners on the four times C-rate battery. This is not a product we directly buy from our supplier; we develop it together with our partners.
Second is of course with the [High-voltage platform] (corrected by company after the call). I think at the core of this solution is the SIC technology.
The third thing is about the thermal system. As you can imagine we are facing two issues. One is that when we charge this car with very high speed the heat we need to manage. That requires a very sophisticated thermal system. On the other hand, to make sure the user experience is very good even in a very low temperature.
We also need to have our thermal [management] (added by company after the call) system can cater the need when they're using low temperature. One example is our R&D team is working on the CO2 thermal as the cold and medium solution for the thermal system.
The last technology of course is the high-power charging network. Our target is to enable a 300 to 500 kilometers range within 10 to minutes, yes. That's what we call the -- also the 400 KW high power charging network.
Because the ultrafast charging speed, that this model starts to become viable for a real commercial charging station, which means that the charging business will become profitable. So therefore, we also have a plan to start to build our own HPC, High Power Charging networks.
So from the product launch plan, starting from 2022, we will launch at least two new products each year. The first BEV product will be launched in 2023. On the other hand, it will cover a wider price range with our portfolio. Now, our plan is to cover a price range from RMB150,000 to RMB500,000.
So overall, our target is to accelerate the replacement of ICE cars. We have two solutions. Both are very good - EREV solution and BEV solution.
Lastly, to answer - Paul asked the question about the Whale and Shark, the Whale platform is a car platform with more space in the car. For Shark, as you can imagine from its name, the performance of this platform will be higher.
Johnny, Tie Li - CFO
Hi, Paul. This is Johnny. I will answer the GP question. You can see in 2020, the full-year gross margin is about 16%. So for this year, 2021, we expect gross margin to be between 19% to 20% due to the increased volume with lower BOM and also the manufacturing overhead improvement. But for the net profit side, we don't want to give guidance on this because we are still increasing investment in R&D and also the expansion of our network, which as Kevin mentioned, we will accelerate that. So we don't want to give any guidance on that.
Also, you should realize the net profit in the fourth quarter is due to the short-term investment income, which is really standard rate in China, Thank you.
Paul Gong: Okay, thank you very much. Very helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from Bin Wang of Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Bin Wang - Analyst
(Spoken in foreign language) My questions is about smart car issues, because this year many milestone event will happen for smart car technology for Li Auto. Meanwhile how can you prove you can be catch up or even better compare your key competitors, such as Tesla, NIO and Xpeng? That's the first one.
The second one is about the dealer network. You just mentioned your expansion of dealer network. Previously, a guide maybe go to 120 shops this year compared to early this year should be double. Can dealer network double lead to the sales volume double as well? Thank you.
Kai Wang - CTO
So I want to take over the first question. This is Kai speaking. Regarding the plan in 2021, so we will spend more money on R&D. It is the year for preparation of our in-house, brand-new, scalable and upgradable system architecture covering next-generation intelligent cockpit, autonomous driving, car computing platform and our own operating -- car operating system, which we'll be releasing 2022.
Of course, in meanwhile, similar features are offered by our competitors, plus some brand-new features will be provided to our customers, for sure. From engineering resource point of view, we will double size of our total R&D staff, as we mentioned. So building a Shanghai R&D center is part of this expansion.
So regarding competition, we have confidence to prove ourselves efficiency again, as we did financially last year. So we believe with fast expansion of our R&D, exciting news regarding our in-house technology, like autonomous driving, can be unveiled soon. Thank you.
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Yes, this is Kevin. Thank you, Wang Bin. For the sales network, our Company has already entered the second phase, as just now I mentioned that with the Li Auto brand increasingly accepted by users. In fact, we are changing gear. Yes, we are adjusting our store extension strategy accordingly. So this year, our goal is to reach 200 retail stores in this year, covering 100 cities. This is our plan. As you can see, this is a relatively aggressive plan. The expansion of our sales network will lead to increase of the sales, for sure, and also the brand enhancement.
I think behind this plan is that we are preparing us for the new model launches in 2022 and beyond.
Paul Gong - Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have Lei Wang of CICC for the next questions. Please go ahead.
Lei Wang - Analyst
(Spoken in foreign language) Very quickly to translate my questions. So I want to raise the first question regarding the overseas strategies and another one to CTO Wang Kai regarding to battery lithium ion, if that's okay. So it was recorded that several competitors either had started deliveries in Norway or hatched a plan towards the European market as well. I believe the overseas expansion was not part of our plan, but I was not sure whether you have changed your mind and start considering the high penetration rates of the New Energy Vehicle in Europe.
The second question wants to go to Mr. Wang Kai, the CTO. We have noticed that Tesla Model 3 has been already using the LFP lithium-ion batteries for cost saving. Have you also considered using LFP instead of the NCM batteries?
If you've got some time for the rest of the meeting, whether you can share what's the expectation or target for the deliveries this year. Thanks.
Kevin, Yanan Shen - President
Thank you, Wang Lei. This is Kevin. Let me take your questions. First of all, of course, we are committed to become a global leader of smart electric vehicle ultimately. So definitely we'll continue the overseas market. In the past several years, our strategy is to focus on China market only, but at the same time we are continuously monitoring the progress of the global market. This year particularly, we will continue to increase our focus and research on the overseas market and initiate planning for the products and the sales channels for the overseas market, including establishing overseas offices. Definitely we'll go to overseas.
For your second questions about LFP, in fact for our EREV platform, we have no plan to launch with lithium-ion phosphate batteries, for two reasons. First of all, right now, all the LFP on the market cannot meet our performance requirements because EREV has a different performance requirement compared with the BEV. Secondly, because EREV use less kilowatt hour of battery, so therefore, even we use the LFP, the cost benefit will be not significant for us.
But for the next step, for our BEVs, definitely we are in the process researching at the development and developing both kind of batteries. For sure, we'll consider LFP for our future BEV car models.
The last question for the expectations for the deliveries of this year. Johnny please
Johnny, Tie Li - CFO
Yes, I think it's too early to say on that full-year guidance, but we will expand our network, as Kevin mentioned, yes, to reach 10,000 to 12,000 as soon as possible, per month. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Your question is from Xu Yingbo of CITIC. Please go ahead.
Xu Yingbo - Analyst
(Spoken in foreign language) Thank you for giving me the chance. The first question comes from Shanghai research team. It is mentioned that there will be 2000 staff there. Could you please let us know more detail about that?
The second question is about R&D expense. We notice the R&D expense is keep increasing, so what will be next, one year or two, or maybe in five years, this two time range expectation for R&D expense? Thank you.
Kai Wang - CTO
This is Kai speaking. Regarding the question about R&D activity, so the definition of Shanghai R&D center, it will be a mirrored configuration as Beijing R&D center for more car models and also advanced R&D activities. Regarding the team of our, let's say, others, so altogether, right now we have more than 300 engineers working for that. We would like to reach to up to 600 in total by the end of this year.
Johnny, Tie Li - CFO
This is Johnny. For the R&D, 2020 is the early stage of our 2022 new model. So this year the R&D investment will increase to at least RMB3 billion. With increasing investment in autonomous driving and new models R&D expense - R&D expense will reach US$1 billion in three years. Among that, we believe half of the investment will be for the autonomous driving expenses. Thank you.
Xu Yingbo - Analyst
Yes, thanks a lot. That's helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you, and as we are reaching the end of our conference call, I'd like to turn the call over to the Company for closing remarks. Ms Janet Chung, please go ahead.
Janet Zhang - Director of IR
Sure. Thank you once again for joining with us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Li Auto's Investor Relations team. Then that's all for today. Thank you and have a good one.