Following NIO's disclosure of its 2025 interim financial report, domestic mainstream listed automakers have completed their mid-year earnings releases. Looking back at the first half of the automotive industry, frequent price wars among automakers led to escalating "anti-involution" measures, including cost investigations, price monitoring, 60-day payment term commitments, reducing dealer inventory, and shortening rebate settlement periods. Among these initiatives, the most noteworthy was the collective commitment by 17 automakers to compress supplier payment terms to no more than 60 days to alleviate cash flow pressure on parts companies.

Now that automaker mid-year reports have concluded, it's an opportune time to observe the results, particularly changes in payment terms. According to incomplete statistics, among 18 mainstream passenger car companies, 12 extended their payment terms while 6 shortened them, with over 60% of companies increasing payment periods. The average accounts payable and notes payable turnover days for the 18 automakers was 187.97 days, an increase of 12.22 days compared to 175.75 days at the end of 2024.

**More Extensions Than Reductions: XPeng Cuts 63 Days, Seres Adds 101 Days**

Specifically, the six automakers that shortened payment terms in the first half were XPeng Motors, BAIC BluePark, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, Haima Automobile, Changan Automobile, and SAIC Motor. Among them, XPeng Motors' accounts payable and notes payable turnover days reached 170 days, a reduction of 63 days compared to the end of 2024, making it the company with the largest reduction in payment terms. Dongfeng Motor Corporation was at 198 days, down 22 days; SAIC Motor at 157 days, down 6 days; BAIC BluePark and Haima Automobile reduced their terms by 2 days and 19 days respectively.

Additionally, based on data calculations, Changan Automobile's accounts payable and notes payable turnover days in the first half were 193 days, a reduction of 11 days. However, the company noted in its financial report that the combined balance of accounts payable and notes payable decreased by approximately 31% from the beginning of the year, with turnover days reduced by 50 days compared to 2024.

Looking at companies that extended payment terms, Seres had 266 days in the first half, an increase of 101 days compared to the end of 2024. BYD increased by 15 days to 142 days, Li Auto increased by 43 days to 208 days, and GAC Group increased by 25 days to 138 days. NIO extended by 23 days to 220 days, Great Wall Motors increased by 19 days to 183 days, and Leapmotor increased by 7 days to 183 days. Furthermore, Jiangling Motors, FAW Jiefang, JAC Motors, and BAIC Motor increased by 11 days, 48 days, 27 days, and 18 days respectively in the first half.

Overall, Seres, with its 101-day increase in the first half, reached 266 days for accounts payable and notes payable turnover, becoming the company with the longest payment terms. NIO, Haima Automobile, FAW Jiefang, BAIC BluePark, JAC Motors, and Li Auto all had payment terms exceeding 200 days.

Since the "60-day payment term commitment" began on June 10-11, and the mid-year report deadline was at the end of June, changes in automaker payment terms have not yet been clearly reflected. By August 11, exactly 60 days after the commitment, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed research information on three automakers' execution of the commitment, with FAW Group, GAC Group, and Seres achieving payment within 60 days.

BYD mentioned in its financial report that it further optimized payment term management and channel management in the first half, with accounts payable and notes payable turnover days at relatively low levels in the automotive industry and further declining compared to the same period last year, though it did not mention specific figures.

**General Cash Shortfalls: Li Auto Has 56.9 Billion Yuan in Surplus Cash, BYD Faces 80.586 Billion Yuan Deficit**

However, observing cash flow changes shows that automakers have begun taking action to optimize payment terms. Taking Li Auto as an example, net cash used in operating activities in Q2 was 3 billion yuan, significantly higher than 430 million yuan in the same period last year. However, its free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capital expenditure) was -3.8 billion yuan, deteriorating by more than double year-over-year.

Li Auto explained that this was mainly due to responding to "60-day payment term" regulatory requirements by shortening supplier payment cycles from 3-4 months to 60 days. The company previously responded that it completed payment term adjustments for all directly procured suppliers by mid-July, with contractual payment terms of 60 days and unified payments twice monthly.

Similarly, Changan Automobile's operating cash flow turned to -8.6 billion yuan in the first half, compared to a positive inflow of 3.4 billion yuan in the same period last year. Changan Automobile attributed this change to shortening supplier payment terms, again confirming the test that shortened payment terms pose to automaker cash flows.

Whether automakers' cash reserves can cover accounts payable and notes payable will be key support for implementing the "60-day payment term commitment."

Looking at cash and cash equivalents, among the 18 mainstream passenger car companies studied, only Jiangling Motors and Haima Automobile had sufficient reserves to cover accounts payable and notes in the first half. The remaining automakers would have difficulty relying solely on their cash flow to pay supplier debts.

However, automakers define their cash reserves or available funds more broadly. For example, Leapmotor had only 6.465 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents in the first half, but available funds reached 29.58 billion yuan, including restricted cash, financial assets measured at fair value through profit and loss, and short-term and long-term bank time deposits.

XPeng Motors had 18.8 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents, but disclosed cash reserves of 47.57 billion yuan, which also included restricted cash, short-term investments, and time deposits. Li Auto had 49.8 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents, but cash reserves reached 106.9 billion yuan.

Based on the cash reserve scales of Leapmotor, XPeng, and Li Auto, they can cover their accounts payable and notes amounts. However, even calculating by cash reserve scale, some companies cannot cover payables. For instance, BYD's cash reserves reached 156.1 billion yuan in the first half, but accounts payable and notes totaled 236.686 billion yuan. Geely Automobile's total cash level was 58.8 billion yuan, but accounts payable and notes were 105.061 billion yuan.

NIO's trade payables and notes totaled 34.951 billion yuan, but cash reserves were 27.2 billion yuan, insufficient to cover the payable scale.

Automakers' accounts payable and notes are generally concentrated within three months for payment. For example, Geely Automobile had 67.449 billion yuan in trade payables within 60 days and 6.321 billion yuan in payables within 61-90 days. However, analyzing its cash level shows significant payment pressure within three months.

Not only Geely Automobile, but automakers generally face funding pressure in paying supplier accounts, which is also one of the current focal points in the automotive industry, especially for unprofitable new energy vehicle startups.