Earnings call transcript: Uxin Q1 2025 Results Show Strong Retail Growth

Uxin Ltd (UXIN), with a market capitalization of $744.27 million, reported robust first-quarter results for 2025, with significant growth in retail transaction volume and revenue, despite a decrease in average selling price. The company continues to expand its superstore network, with a new location in Wuhan contributing substantially to sales. According to InvestingPro analysis, Uxin’s stock is currently trading above its Fair Value, with a notably low P/E ratio of 3.75x. The stock remained stable post-announcement, reflecting investor confidence in its strategic direction.

Key Takeaways

• Retail transaction volume increased by 142% year-over-year.
• Total revenue rose 58% compared to the previous year.
• Average selling price decreased, impacting gross margin.
• Uxin plans further expansion with 2-3 new locations in 2025.
• The company maintains a strong market position in Xi’an and Hefei.

Company Performance

Uxin demonstrated a strong performance in Q1 2025, with retail transaction volumes reaching 7,545 units, marking a 142% increase from the previous year. Total revenue grew by 58% year-over-year to RMB 504 million. Despite a decrease in the average selling price from RMB 86,000 to RMB 62,000, Uxin improved its gross margin by 0.4 percentage points to 7%. InvestingPro data shows the company maintains a five-year revenue CAGR of 5%, though analysts anticipate a sales decline in the current year. For deeper insights into Uxin’s financial health and 12 additional ProTips, consider exploring InvestingPro’s comprehensive analysis.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: RMB 504 million, up 58% year-over-year.
• Retail revenue: RMB 470 million, up 73% year-over-year.
• Average Selling Price: RMB 62,000, down from RMB 86,000 last year.
• Gross Margin: 7%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA Loss: RMB 8.9 million, a 78% improvement year-over-year.

Outlook & Guidance

Uxin projects a retail transaction volume of 10,000 to 10,500 units for Q2 2025, reflecting a 140% year-over-year increase. Revenue is expected to range between RMB 630 million and RMB 660 million. The company plans to continue expanding its superstore network, with a focus on scaling inventory and driving sales growth.

Executive Commentary

CEO DK highlighted the company’s operational success, stating, "We achieved a strong operational performance with retail transaction volume reaching 7,545 units, up 142% year over year." He also addressed pricing challenges, noting, "We view this pricing pressure as a short-term situation rather than a long-term structural shift." DK emphasized Uxin’s adaptability to market changes, saying, "We fully embrace the structural evolution of China’s auto market."

Risks and Challenges

• Pricing Pressure: Ongoing price wars in the new car market could impact margins.
• Market Saturation: Expansion into new regions may face competitive challenges.
• Economic Conditions: Macroeconomic factors could affect consumer spending.
• Supply Chain: Potential disruptions could impact vehicle availability.
• Regulatory Changes: Evolving regulations in China’s auto industry may require strategic adjustments.

Uxin’s Q1 2025 results reflect strong growth and strategic expansion, with a focus on increasing market share and enhancing operational efficiency. The company’s outlook remains positive, driven by its commitment to innovation and market adaptability.

Full transcript - Uxin Ltd (UXIN) Q1 2026:

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Uxin Earnings Conference Call for the Quarter Ended 03/31/2025. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After management’s prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Today’s conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today’s conference call, Mr. Jack Wang. Please go ahead, Jack.

Jack Wang, Investor Relations, Uxin: Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Yixin’s earnings call for the first quarter ended 03/31/2025. On the call with me today, we have DK, our Founder and CEO and John Lin, our CFO. DK will review business operations and company highlights, followed by John, who will discuss financials and guidance.

They will both be available to answer your questions during the Q and A session that follows. Before we proceed, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward looking statements, which are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our current expectations. For detailed discussions of the risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the SEC. And now with that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, DK. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone. I’m very pleased to connect with all of you again on our earnings call, and I want to thank you for joining us today. To facilitate a better communication with both our domestic and international investors, I will be sharing our updates in both Chinese and English. In the first quarter of twenty twenty five, we achieved a strong operational performance with retail transaction volume reaching 7,545 units, up 142% year over year. This result once again demonstrates the resilience of our business model and its significant growth potential.

Despite the typical seasonal slowdown during the Chinese New Year holiday, which impacted industry wide activity for about two weeks, we maintained solid operational momentum. Our vehicle turnover remained high and inventory management remained disciplined with turnover days capped around 30. We also continued to deliver a best in class customer experience, achieving a net promoter score of 65, one of the highest in the industry. As our customer base continues to expand, we are seeing strong growing brand recognition and a strengthening of our competitive position. In our two core markets, Xi’an and Hefei, our local market share has now exceeded 15%.

Both locations are showing robust growth and are well on track towards full operational maturity. This year, our priorities in these markets are to scale up inventory, drive further sales growth and begin contributing positive cash flow to support the next phase of our business expansion. We also made meaningful progress in expanding our superstore network. Our new location in Wuhan began trial operations in February. With a population of 14,000,000 and nearly 5,000,000 registered vehicles, Wuhan is one of China’s largest automotive hubs, often referred to as the nation’s auto valley.

Compared to Xi’an and Hefei, the used car market in Wuhan is notably more active, making it a strategic choice for introducing our large format used car retail model in Central China. Leveraging the operational experience and insights we accumulated from our Xi’an and Hefei stores, our pricing engine has adapted smoothly to the Wuhan market. Accurate pricing allows us to stay competitive at both the sourcing and retail ends, accelerating our market penetration. Meanwhile, the standardized development of our reconditioning facilities and the continuous refinement of our staffing model, which we shaved over several years, have positioned the Wuhan store to scale efficiently from day one. We’re encouraged by the strong initial customer response.

Our high quality vehicle inventory and professional customer service have been well received in the local market. Just over three months into trial operations, both sales and inventory at the Wuhan store have been ramping up steadily, with current retail volume already reaching approximately 1 of the combined sales of our two existing stores. Based on this momentum, we expect the Wuhan location to achieve profitability on an accelerated time line compared to our previous stores. In the meantime, we are also making solid progress in establishing new superstores in additional major cities. We plan to open two to three new locations later this year.

Together with the continued growth at our existing stores, these expansions are expected to further drive our operational and financial performance. For the second quarter, we’re on track to exceed 10,000 retail vehicle sales, which would represent more than 140% year over year growth. So with that, I’d like to turn the call over to our CFO to walk you through the financial results. Zhang, please. Thank you, DK.

Hello, everyone. Since we have both domestic and international investors participating today, we will continue to present the company’s performance in both Chinese and English to better communicate with all of you. So in the first quarter, our retail transaction volume was 7,545 units, representing a very strong 142% year over year increase. On a sequential basis, however, retail transaction volume declined 12%, which reflects the typical seasonal slowdown associated with the Chinese New Year holiday. Retail revenue for the quarter was RMB $470,000,000, representing a 73% increase year over year and a 16% decrease quarter over quarter.

The average selling price or ASP for retail vehicles was RMB62000 compared to RMB86000 in the same period last year. While the ASP declined due to our strategic focus on more affordable inventory structure, the strong growth in transaction volume more than offset the pricing impact and sustain our overall revenue expansion. Our current inventory structure is well aligned with the mainstream consumer demand, and we believe pricing has now stabilized at a rational level. As such, we expect ASP to remain relatively steady in the near term. Turning to our wholesale business.

Our wholesale transaction volume was seven nineteen units in the first quarter, down 23 year over year and 19% quarter over quarter. Total wholesale revenue was RMB22.5 million. Combining retail and wholesale, our total revenue for the quarter was RMB504 million, representing a 58% increase year over year and a 16% decline sequentially. Gross margin for the quarter was 7%, up 40 basis points from 6.6% a year ago and consistent with the prior quarter. We’ve maintained stable margins over the last three quarters and given the healthy supply and demand dynamics in our key markets, we see meaningful potential for further margin expansion as we scale.

We did see a modest increase in operating expenses this quarter, primarily related to the initial ramp up of our Wuhan SuperStore, including investments in staffing and infrastructure. As a result, our adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter was RMB8.9 million. However, this still represented a significant 78% reduction compared to the same period last year. Looking ahead to the second quarter of twenty twenty five, we expect retail transaction volume to be in the range of 10,000 to 10,500 units, representing year over year growth of over 140. Total revenue is expected to be between RMB630 million and RMB660 million.

So that concludes our prepared remarks for today. Thank you everyone. Operator, we’re now ready to begin the Q and A session.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. And the question will come from Fei Dai with TF Securities. Please go ahead.

Fei Dai, Analyst, TF Securities: Congratulations on the strong retail sales results and the positive outlook. We can see that the new car market in China has recently entered another run of price wars. Could you share how this is impacting your used car business? Thank you.

Jack Wang, Investor Relations, Uxin: Thanks for the question, Fei. This is DK, and I’ll answer that question. It’s true that when the price gap between new and used vehicles narrows, especially under the same brand, it can influence consumer purchasing behavior. As such, the recent price competition in the new car market has created some pricing pressure on certain used vehicle segments. However, we’ve experienced similar cycles in the past.

And over time, we’ve built a mature playbook to navigate these challenges and mitigate the impact. we respond swiftly through dynamic pricing to protect our inventory turnover. Our real time pricing intelligence system continuously scans the broader market for price changes. Once shifts are detected, particularly in the new car segment, we promptly adjust pricing on relevant used car inventory to maintain competitiveness and accelerate sales. So this helps minimize any risk of inventory devaluation.

And we actively manage the structure of our inventory. Nearly new vehicles, typically both under three years old, are more sensitive to fluctuations in new car pricing. In response, we maintain a balance and diversify the inventory to inventory mix to reduce our exposure to these highly sensitive models during times of volatility. Lastly, it’s worth noting that this current round of price competition is largely concentrated in the NEV in the segment. Given that most automakers are already operating with very tight margins, we believe this level of price cutting is not sustainable.

In fact, we’ve seen recent policy signals and commentary from official media channels in China advocating against prolonged excessive discounts. We view this pricing pressure as a short term situation rather than a long term structural shift. Overall, we believe the impact of current new car price war on our overall business remains manageable, and we are confident in our ability to achieve our growth objectives for the year. All right. That’s our answer to your question.

And yeah, operator, hold on. We have we received another question from Mr. Gary Dvorchak from Water Tower Research. We’ll just take this opportunity to ask that as well. The question is, we saw data indicating that used the NEVs transactions in China grew over 20% year over year in Q1 this year.

Can you share how much NEVs currently represent in your business mix? And whether you have plans to increase your NEV exposure in the future. Yes, this is D. K, and I’ll answer this question. You are right, China’s EUV market is growing rapidly.

In the new car segments, EVs now account for over 50% of total sales. From a broader market perspective, EVs currently represent about 9% of China’s total vehicle population, which stands at around three fifty million. This indicates that the NEV segment is still in the early stage of structural expansion with significant headroom for long term growth. We are actively tracking this trend in the used car space. According to the China Automobile Dealers Association, approximately 400,000 used EVs were transacted nationwide from January through April, up from more than up more than 30% year over year, accounting for roughly 7% of total used car transactions.

IUXIN NEVs accounted for approximately 9% of our retail unit sales from January through April of twenty twenty five, representing more than 100% year over year growth. This is above the national average and reflects both increasing demand and our ability to capture a meaningful share of this emerging segment. With that said, we do not manage our inventory based on fuel type. Our sourcing, inspection, reconditioning, pricing and sales systems are well established and technology driven. As long as a vehicle meets our quality standards, it will be listed in our inventory regardless of its powertrain type.

We fully embrace the structural evolution of China’s auto market As the EV market continues to expand, its share within our business will naturally increase. We are well prepared to support this transaction and to support this transition and capture the long term growth opportunities it will bring us. So that’s the answer that we have for the question.

Conference Operator: This will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Jack Wang, Investor Relations, Uxin: All right. Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you. Bye bye.

Conference Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.

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