Niu Technologies - Q3 2022

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Niu Technologies' Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ms. Wendy Zhao, Senior IR Manager. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Wendy Zhao (Senior IR Manager)

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to today's conference call to discuss Niu Technologies' results for the third quarter, 2022. The earnings press release, corporate presentation and financial spreadsheets have been posted on our investor relations website. This call is being webcast from company's IR website as well, and a replay of the call will be available soon. Please note today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors. The company's actual results may be materially different from those expressed today. Further information regarding the risk factors is included in the company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Our earnings press release and this call include discussions of certain non-GAAP financial measures. The press release contains the definition of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results. On the call with me today are our CEO, Dr. Yan Li, and CFO, Ms. Fion Zhou. Let me turn the call over to Yan.

Yan Li (CEO)

Thanks, Wendy, and thanks everyone for joining us on the call today. In Q3 2022, our business faced challenges from risks, from rising raw material prices, market demand fluctuations, and aftermath of the COVID resurgence in China. All those factors brought serious disruptions to our operations. During this quarter, we deliver a mixed result in China and international markets. Total sales volume was down by 19.2% year-over-year. Total sales volume in the international market reached nearly 58,000 units, attributed to the growth in the kick-scooter category, bringing the biggest year-over-year leap in the sales in the NIU's overseas market. In China market, we experienced a decrease in sales. Sales volume in China market was 263,000 units, down by 32.9% year-over-year. Now, I'll go over the challenges and opportunities in each market in detail.

First, for the China market in Q3 2022, we continued to experience difficulties due to the impact of the high lithium battery cost, the sporadic COVID lockdowns, and the delay of new product rollout. The raw material price for the lithium-ion battery has sharply increased since the beginning of the year. The increase has slowed down the penetration rate of lithium-ion battery electric scooters across the entire China market. We observed demand in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities that asset-based scooter percentage increased in the market as the price gap between the lithium and the acid batteries widened.

This has impacted us significantly since the majority of our e-scooters are lithium-ion battery-based, especially in our entry-level products, which accounted for over 90% of the volume loss year-over-year, which has also actively optimized the product portfolio to reduce the entry-level percentage as under the new lithium-ion cost, those product lines produce subpar gross margins. The replacement hype of the replacing old standard scooters with the new national standard scooters has also declined Q2 and Q3 for our target market of Tier 1, top Tier 2 cities. For example, the overall market of Beijing declined by 60% of most of the replacement were complete last year. Given our sales are still more concentrated in the top-tier cities, our sales volume was also impacted this year.

Last but not least, our main product rollout has been significantly delayed this year, partially due to the COVID resurgence lockdowns in Shanghai and vicinities where our R&D center is based. Although the high-end pro-product like SQI was released in August, it won't be able to ship until December. Our new U+, our high-end GOVA series like G6T and B2, were shipped in late August or early September. Those core products this year we launched have missed the key sales seasons, has provided not enough fuel for the 2022 sales. Despite the sales volume drop and delay in the new product rollout, the newly rolled-out product received overwhelming positive responses from the media and the consumers. This helped to re-strengthen our brand as a high-end lifestyle brand in China, but also lay out a strong foundation for the 2022.

First, we pre-released the revolutionary SQi e-bicycle in August, priced at RMB 8,999-RMB 9,599, which I had briefly talked about in my last quarter's earnings call. With its innovative look and a cutting-edge aerospace magnesium material, the evolutionary SQi was well received by the market. We received more than 15,000 pre-orders for the pre-release. Another high-end product we launched around the same time is our new U+. The new U+ has inherited a classic design for our all-time most popular U Series, but designed with the improved light design, smart controls, and riding ergonomics, and additional personalization functionalities. The new U+ had nearly 50,000 shipments within the first 30 days of its rollout.

During the Double 11 Shopping Festival, our new U+ has ranked number one best-seller product in the electric scooter category by Taobao. Together with the SQi, those new product help NIU to rank number one in the transportation category on Taobao. With the record-breaking sales of SQi, the new U+, we reconsolidate our position to lead in the premium electric two-wheeler market in China. Along with those launch of those new product, we initiate market events via PR, social media marketing, KOL collaborations, offline product launches, and user events. The marketing campaign around the new product launch has gained a total of 1.4 billion views across all platforms, 3x of the view we had a similar campaign in 2021. Those marketing activities again strengthen our brand messages as the lifestyle brand in China, urban mobility industry.

Amid the lithium price increase, we took a step to optimize our product portfolio towards the premium, the high-end product, to improve our gross margin, as well as the strength of our brand as a premium brand in China. For the first three quarters, our premium Niu series product percentage continued to increase from 31% to 39%, while our entry-level zero series product reduced from 28% to 15%. During the Double 11 Shopping Festival online, 83% of our e-scooter orders came from product over RMB 5,000. Despite the rise in raw material costs, we managed to improve our gross margin in China significantly by 300 basis points.

Coming to the international market, we face challenges in the electric two-wheeler market from the temporary shutdown of the sharing market demand, as well as the macroeconomic headwinds in the rising euro and U.S. dollar exchange rate and the increased lithium prices. First, the market for the sharing electric motorcycles has temporarily shut down this year as the sharing operators has not raised additional capital for expansion, but merely focused on current CapEx deployment. The sharing sales accounted for 1/3 of our sales international, in the international market last year. This year we experienced a zero sales from that. Second, the rise in the lithium prices coupled with the weak euro forced us also to increase the prices in the European market, which impact our sales of electric motorcycles in the consumer segment.

At the end, the total sales of electric motorcycles in Q3 in the overseas market went down by 34% year-over-year. However, during this quarter, we had a significant 166.5% year-over-year growth in the sales of Southeast Asia market, mainly from the growth of Indonesia and Thailand market. During the G20 summit in Bali, NIU proudly provided the electric scooter to be used by the Indonesian national police officials to support the local government's effort to green transportations. We have continued effort in expanding the Southeast Asia market, as we hope to grow with the trend of transition from traditional gas-fueled two-wheelers to electric two-wheelers as it happens. We have also started exploring battery swapping solutions to aid adoption of electric motorcycles, with its first trial in Singapore.

Contrary to the decline of the electric motorcycle market, we have experienced a tremendous growth in the micromobility market. For the kick-scooter category, we had a significant quarter in growth of sales from kick-scooter category during the off-season for the electric motorcycles. The sales of kick-scooters rocket to 55,000 units during Q3, a growth of 162% quarter-over-quarter. Since Q4 2021, we have strategically grow our kick-scooter product to cover a wide range of market needs. The first launch, K3 and K2, are proven to be successful in the market. During the Amazon Summer Prime Day sales in July, NIU's two kick-scooter models were ranked number one, number two on Amazon bestsellers in the kick-scooter category in French, Danish, and Italian market.

The kick-scooter products gained not only popularity among customers, but also recognition from industry. Our KQi3 Max received outstanding coverage from U.S. biggest tech media, including Tom's Guide and the TechRadar. It was ranked number one of the best overall electric scooter by Tom's Guide, and awarded a perfect score by TechRadar. The KQi3 Pro model was also awarded a second place for the best sustainable mobility device by Xataka, a Spanish top medium in their annual awards. During Q3, we continued to expand our product offerings. We launched a KQi1 kick-scooter and KQi Youth to add a kick-scooter product portfolio. KQi1 is the entry-level kick-scooter product, where KQi Youth is the kick-scooter for six to 14-year-old.

With those two product added, we now have a complete product offerings with price range from $300-$900, covering both children and adult kick-scooter products. Along with the kick-scooter product, we also pre-launched our first e-bike product, C3, recently. It's a dual battery e-bike with two lightweight swappable batteries, offering a long drive range of 62 mi. Besides the product launches, we have also built our sales channel for our new micromobility products. Through a focused effort, we have achieved a solid presence on online channels, building not only sales, but also a brand image and brand awareness through our shops on Amazon across markets. Riding the momentum from the recognition we gained from our online shops, we started to expand our offline sales point by working with retail store like Best Buy and MediaMarkt.

By the end of Q3, our kick-scooter was sold in more than 750 retail shops across Europe and North America, and we expect to grow this number to over 3,000 by next year. Along with expansion growth of product portfolio and sales channel, is our effort in PR and marketing. In 2022, we published over 700 articles covering our product across all media platforms. The PR articles has gained more than 100 million views. On QR marketing to support coming Black Friday sales, we collaborate with influencers with big fan bases to create content featuring our products. Those content generate a total over 2 million views on YouTube and TikTok. I believe the expansion of product portfolios, developing sales and channels, and exposures from PR marketing activities, our micro-mobility category has a much larger potential in bringing exponential growth in 2023.

For Q4, we remain a cautious outlook. In China market, the first quarter has always been a low quarter in terms of market demand. On top of low demand, the impact of the price increases will be continuous. In addition, the sporadic COVID resurgence also add additional uncertainty to our key markets. In the overseas markets, we haven't seen a bounce back in the electric two-wheeler sales for the sharing business, and the increased price will continue to exist and have an impact on our sales on electric motorcycles. We saw a positive trend in the national kick-scooter market, but since Q4 is traditionally a low quarter, we expect a moderate growth from that category.

Overall, 2022 has been a tough year for our business in operation, as we face headwinds from raw material price increase and the macroeconomic uncertainties, bringing negative impact to our financials. In the face of mounting challenges, however, we made quite a few crucial operation adjustment and lay out strong foundation for a promising 2023. Since the formation of the company, NIU has ambition to become a global mobility solution provider and a well-recognized lifestyle brand in urban mobility. Leveraged our design strengths and technology innovation capability, we created a smart lithium-ion scooter category in China, was able to quickly establish our brand name in the electrical motorcycles globally. Facing the recent market shift, we focused on increasing R&D effort on our premium Niu series and high-quality GOVA series as opposed to low-end entry-level product this year.

The two premium product, SQi and U+, have received overwhelming positive feedback and proven to lift our brand in just three months of debut. The SQi was recognized as a revolutionary, first of its kind by the media, with the innovation in material technology and design. The new U+ has generated a widespread trend on social media. The high-quality GOVA series like B2 and G6T are also well-received in the market, accounting for nearly 80% of our mid-end product in the first 30 days of their debut. Those are the proven testimonials of our brand leadership, as well as our capability in product creation.

Those new product, the first teasers of our new product series. They are a series of premium new products and high-quality GOVA product in R&D, rolling out in time next year to regain the growth in the China market. On the global mobility solution provider front, we have made significantly progress in 2022 through expansion of product categories and different solutions according to the different regional needs. We observed that micro-mobility market continued to rebound and show a great resilience since the pandemic. The urban transports, like kick-scooters and e-bikes, gained popularity after COVID, when people prefer to commute with personal transportation method. We have established ourselves successfully as a recognized brand and player in the kick-scooter market within just one year of entry, rolling out four products, always positive response from the market, gaining leadership in the online channels first.

Now, as 80%-90% of sales in this market from offline channels, we see a huge growth potential for our kick-scooter market as our offline channels is still in its early stage. We plan to take a similar approach in the e-bike categories to repeat the success of the kick-scooters. As we plan to officially launch the first e-bike product in Q1 next year, we are also actively marketing the e-bike product through the online shops, attracting customers and also bringing up the brand awareness. Meanwhile, after the online presence, we plan to expand into the specialized e-bike stores and other offline channels in order to bring a wider traction. Now, for the electric motorcycle market, although we took a setback this year in the sharing market, I believe the replacement demand is still there as our nearly 30,000 sharing vehicles are still in operation.

We expect some of them will be replaced in 2023 after four or five years in operation. In the Southeast Asia market, after several years of planting the seeds, we're able to achieve meaningful growth this year. We are also investing in R&D and have product ready for the battery swapping solutions to lower the upfront cost for the consumers, which could be a game changer in the years to come. With those focused strategy and our determined mindset in execution, we're very optimistic that we'll recover from the temporary downturn in 2022, restrengthen our brand and regain growth and profitability in 2023. I'll turn the call over to CFO Fion to discuss our financial results.

Fion Zhou (CFO)

Thank you, Yan. Hello, everyone. Please note that our press release contains all the figures and comparisons you need. We have also uploaded Excel format figures to our IR website for your easy reference. As I review our financial performance, we are referring to the third quarter figures, unless I say otherwise, and that all monetary figures are in RMB, if not specified. Total sales volume, including China and overseas markets for the third quarter was 321,000 units, decreased by 19% compared to the same period of last year. As our overseas business continued to gain traction, sales volume from the international market has been growing fast. In this quarter, contributing 18% of our total sales volume. If looking at the nine months, they contributed 15% of the total volume.

China market sales volume was 263,000 units, representing a 33% of year-over-year decrease. While most of the sales volume decrease was contributing to the decline of our lower-end GOVA entry-level series. Total sales volume of our premium series remain at the same level to 24,000 units in the third quarter, versus to 30,000 of the last year. Those premium models together accounted for 85% of the total sales volume in China market, compared to 59% in the same period of 2021. International market continued to see high-speed growth, thanks to kick-scooter sales ramp-up. The total sales volume reached 58,000 units, among which the kick-scooter sales volume was 55,000 units, more than doubled compared to last quarter.

E-motorcycle sales volume decreased by 1/3 to 3,000 units, mainly due to the temporary headwinds from declining to be sharing offers. This year, the sharing business companies in Europe are facing challenges, raising new capital, which in turn impacts their budget for expansion. The third quarter, our total revenue was RMB 1.15 billion, decreased by 6% compared to the same period of last year, and blended scooter ASP was 3,287, increased by nearly 17%. To break down the revenue by ranging, the e-scooter revenue from China market was RMB 859 million, decreased by 20%, and the ASP in China market reached RMB 3,265, 19% higher on a year-over-year basis as product mix was more concentrated on premium models, as mentioned ahead.

Overseas scooter revenue, including kick-scooters, e-motorcycles, were RMB 195 million in the third quarter, increased by more than 3/4 year-over-year. In the third quarter, overseas scooter revenue accounted for 19% of our total scooter revenue. Blended scooter ASP of the overseas market decreased by 61% since lower price kick-scooter, which ASP is only 25%-30% of the e-scooters, are now taking greater share of the total scooter revenues. Looking at each category separately, both e-mopeds and kick-scooters saw a year-over-year ASP improvement of 30%-35%. In addition, accessories, spare parts, and services revenue were RMB 99 million, decreased by 7% due to the less overseas demand for extra battery packs.

Gross margin of this quarter was 22.1%, 2.1 PPT higher compared to the third quarter of 2021, and 1.2 PPT higher than the previous quarters. Out of the year-over-year 2.1 PPT increase, 2.5 PPT was due to better product mix in the China market. 1 PPT due to the increase in U.S. dollar exchange rates and -1.4 PPT due to the higher proportion of kick-scooter sales with lower gross margin. Our total operating expenses for the third quarter was RMB 263 million, 72% higher than the same period of last year. The operating expenses as the percentage of revenue was 23% compared to 13% year-over-year.

Going into details about expenses, total selling and marketing expenses were RMB 170 million, RMB 81 million higher year-over-year, including around RMB 54 million in marketing and promotions for kick-scooters and domestic new products, and the rest of RMB 27 million in depreciation and amortization expenses of the new stores and stock-related costs. Despite being a global leader in e-motorcycles, we are still new to the kick-scooter market. To quickly gain product popularity, we put lots of resources and effort into the online e-commerce platform like Amazon, Shopify, and et cetera. We are glad to see those inputs have already paid off. Excellent online customer feedback help us enter into more offline channels, which we believe is crucial for us to further expand our kick-scooter market share and bring us to the next level as a global leader in micro-mobility.

We believe those online promotion expenses as a percentage of revenue will become lower going forward with our market share increasing. Starting from August and lasting to the end of October, we held a series of events in downtown areas in more than 20 cities in China, showing the new products, setting up pop-up stores, offering test rides, and providing a platform for new fans to sharing their riding experiences and celebrate with each other. More importantly, we keep being committed to the user and core fan community. To summarize, we invested RMB 54 million more in marketing expenses to those overseas and domestic marketing promotions altogether in this quarter. In addition, last year, we expand our retail channels by adding nearly 15,000 new franchise stores. Those new stores depreciation and amortization expenses will have a continuous three-year financial impact on selling and marketing expenses.

R&D and G&A expenses together are RMB 94 million in the third quarter, an increase of RMB 30 million compared to the same period of last year. Among which, staff-related expenses were RMB 17 million higher. Design and testing expenses was RMB 7 million higher. As we expand our product portfolio and global footprint, we will continue to invest in talents, professionals, and other resources to support our technology and technology development and organizational upgrade for our global pioneers. The total operating expenses exclude share-based compensation were RMB 247 million, increased by 73% year-over-year, representing a 21% of revenue. This quarter, we had an income tax benefit of RMB 6.6 million compared to RMB 17 million income tax expenses last year.

Since we were identified as a Jiangsu provincial high-tech enterprise, we were qualified for a lower corporate income tax, and the tax refund was booked in this quarter, same as in last quarter. The third quarter net income was RMB 2.9 million, compared with RMB 92 million in the third quarter of 2021. The net income margin was 0.3% compared with 7.5% in the same period of 2021. Adjusted or non-GAAP income was RMB 20 million, net margin of 1.7%. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow, we ended the quarter with RMB 1.48 billion in cash, restricted cash, term deposits, and short-term investments. Our operating cash flow was positive RMB 73 million, mainly due to the payment term benefit from the suppliers.

Inventory slightly decreased on a sequential basis and increased by RMB 170 million on a year-over-year basis, mainly because of the international kids scooter sales ramp-up. Since we need to stock up locally to ensure a fast turnover when orders came in, as mentioned in our previous call. The CapEx for the third quarter was RMB 18 million compared to RMB 76 million in the same period last year. The decrease was mainly due to the new store openings slowed down. Now we are turning to the guidance. In light of the volatile domestic market and our strategy focused on the premium market, we expect the fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of RMB 789 million-RMB 986 million, no change to a decrease of 20% year-over-year.

Please be aware that this outlook is based on information available as of the date and reflects the company's current and pre-preliminary expectations, which is subject to change due to the uncertainties related to various factors, such as the pace of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, among others. With that, let's now open the call for any questions that you may have for us. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from the line of Jing Chang from CICC. Please go ahead.

Jing Chang (Research Analyst)

This is Jing Chang from CICC. Thank you, Yan. Thank you, Fion, for your detailed explanation. I have two follow-on questions. The first is about our selling and marketing expense. We see that our selling and marketing expense in the third quarter reached a historic high. Fion just mentioned some breakdowns. What, what about looking ahead? Which part is expected to be sustained and which part is expected to decline soon? What, what is the expected steady-state level of our quarterly selling and marketing expense? Do we have some methods to promote to reduce the expenses?

My second question is about our product pipeline. At present, we can see the cost of this factory is still very high. As for the product strategy for next year, especially in Chinese domestic market. What market segments, should we focus more on for our new product? Is the premium market or some lower tier city market, as we want to achieve positive sales growth? This is my two questions. Thank you.

Fion Zhou (CFO)

Thank you, Chang Jing. This is Fion. I'll answer the first question. Regarding to your questions about the selling and marketing, for sure, as you said that, I already gave the breakdown. I think the depreciation and amortization expensestworelated to the new stores will continue at the same level for the next two years. Since we opened more than 14,000 new stores starting from 2021, those depreciation and amortization expenses will last for at least 36 months. That means for the next two years, we still have those kind of expenses in the selling and marketing expenses.

In addition, for the new stores we opened this year and for the following years, we will, you know, amortize those expenses in the same way. This is a major part of the expenses will still remain the selling expenses. The other part is our marketing expenses for the daily operation, which, you know, we will reduce at the lowest level.

For the kick-scooters, as I mentioned, since we are still using the expansion strategy for the next two years, unless to our market share increase at a very significant level, which, I mean, you know, it should be around 1 million, or you know, around 800,000 units globally. Otherwise, you know, those promotion expenses, especially the online traffic expenses, which are huge, or, you know, by the efficiency. Those online promotion expenses will still at a significant level, you know, along with our market share increasing in the kick-scooters. For the reduction of the selling expense, since we already, you know, made the…

We already made the cut of the staff cost, which means, you know, we merged several teams, and we increased the staff efficiency to increase the whole company's staff cost. Those will, you know, make the benefits beginning from next year, I think, you know. Since, you know, those staff costs will only reflect on the financial statements later for, you know, for at least one or two quarters, then we will see the obvious impact on the financial statement. For sure, you know, we already did several, you know, several execution improvements to maintain the lowest level of the expenses and to improve the whole company's efficiency.

To summarize, I guess, I think, you know, for the next two to three quarters, the selling and marketing expenses altogether will remain at the quarterly level, will remain around RMB 100 million to RMB 130 million for the next two to three quarters. After that, you will see a, you know, at least a 20% decrease on a quarterly basis.

Jing Chang (Research Analyst)

Mm-hmm.

Fion Zhou (CFO)

This is the answer for your first question. I'll pass the second question for Yan.

Yan Li (CEO)

Sure. I think, just to add on the first question, right? I think in terms of absolute values, you look at that number, but if you look at the percentage of sales, will definitely go down. You look at Q3 this year, we're looking at the sales and marketing, it's almost like 14% or 15% of the revenue. I think, you know, partially as what Fion just mentioned in terms of absolute numbers, that's what you see on the numerators, right? On the denominators, the, you know, the revenue growth is obviously not as, you know, it's below our expectations. You know, a lot of fixed overheads, for example, when you have a, you know, like a, like a, you know, marketing activities or product rollout, right?

It's a fixed cost divided by a revenue amount. That's why you guys see a high percentage. If you look at, you know, in our not saying 2022, if you look at 2021 or 2020, you look at our sales and marketing roughly as a percentage revenue, we keep it basically somewhere between 7%-9% fluctuate. I think that's what we're target to get in 2023. Obviously the absolute dollar amount is probably similar. I think that's just on that note. I think the second part you asked about the product development. I think the issue is actually where, you know, we focus on premium, also what you call the mass premium product.

Basically, the premium product will be our Niu series, anything above RMB 5,000 for China market. The mass premium product will be something basically anything above RMB 3,500-RMB 5,000, which we call the high-quality global product. I think those will be sort of the focus, at least that will be focused for 2023. Partially because when we actually did a deep diagnostics on our entry-level product, the, you know, the zero series, after the lithium price increases, it's basically its gross margin contribution is almost become insignificant. You know, nothing is almost zero, but if you actually take into consideration of after-sales cost, all that stuff, those product is not making value for the company at this point.

That's the reason that we're focusing on the what we call the premium and our mid-end. Having said that, I think, you know, if you look at the entire market, the entire market for that product is still high. You know, given our sales volume at this point is, you know, it's below 1 million units. If you look at the entire market for the product above RMB 3,500, we're still looking at that market's probably at least about, you know, even at least 10 million units, if not more. I think the total addressable market is still so large for us to attack.

To this point, we feel like there's no point to spend additional R&D dollars on product that actually makes zero or, you know, very small attribute, gross profit contributions.

Jing Chang (Research Analyst)

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Yan Li (CEO)

Hopefully that addressed the question.

Jing Chang (Research Analyst)

Okay, sure. Thank you for your answer. Yeah.

Operator (participant)

Further questions? Next question comes from the line, Yating Chen of CICC. Please proceed.

Yating Chen (Research Analyst)

Hello, I'm Chen Yating from CICC. There are three questions. The first question is, I'd like to know what's your product strategy for overseas market in 2023. Do you have sales volume goals in Malaysia? The second question is, what's your channel strategy next year domestically? Will you use the channel or will you reduce the channel stores, or what will you focus more on? The third question is, I'd like to know the growth margin of e-scooters in the Global Series, or if you can share with us. Thank you.

Yan Li (CEO)

Sure. I'll answer the first two, and then I'll let Fion address the gross margin question. First on the overseas strategy, we're looking at a, well, again, we divide the market into sort of a, what I call a motorcycle market and a micro-mobility market. Within the motorcycle market, I think our bread and butter market at this point is Europe and the North America market. Which, you know, annually we do about anywhere between 20,000 units to 30,000 units electric motorcycles. As I mentioned, you know, in the earnings call this year, we took a step back because the sharing operator orders become zero. Last year it was 10,000 units, right? But they will come back. It's just, you know, it kind of sort of fluctuate.

Depends on, you know, they haven't raised the capital this year. They focused on internal operation, all that stuff. I think this market will grow with the market continuously. The overall market for the electric motorcycle market for the Europe and United States market is small. At this point, it's probably like 100,000 units a year. Overall, I think it's a small market, but we own like 20 something percent, so we'll actually continue to grow with the market. The second electric motorcycle market, which really is still in its very early stage, is the Southeast Asian market. We do see that we grow in Southeast Asian market. We've probably double our sales in Southeast Asian market. Even by doubling, we're still looking at just, you know, 6,000 units-7,000 units.

It's still small market. I think we're trying to, you know, exploring different models, like the battery swapping solutions, in that market. The issue with that market is actually the electric motorcycle economics of the electric motorcycle is still, the price is still too expensive compared with petrol. The upfront cost for the user is actually difficult. We're working with partners there to see, you know, on the sort of battery swapping solutions that might actually sort of lower the upfront cost for the consumers. Some of the early trials already done in Singapore, but also early trials in Thailand. I think those are something we're exploring.

The next is sort of the micro-mobility market, which this year we see a huge volume growth, first being the kick-scooter market, which the entire market on annual basis is probably like 4 million units. We're still very. I think we have a strong. This year, you know, we have been able to achieve a name. Basically, people recognize us on Amazon, on online website saying, "Hey, this is a brand that can produce high quality product in kick-scooters." You know, even with this year's volume, like the first 3 quarter you added together, we just did about 80,000 units. Out of that 4 million units market, we're very, very small. The reason being that we haven't really, you know, sort of entered bunch of the offline stores yet.

Historically, 90% of the sales are actually conducted offline. Those are something we're working on, which we actually have made a significant progress, but it just take time. I think usually it you know, for any of those offline, you know, offline chains, it actually takes six to nine months to enter the store and actually be able to start to make sales. I think that's on the kick-scooter market. The last one is the e-bicycle market, which actually, it's gaining attractions, been gaining attractions in the last few years. We, you know, we have a product out next year, which actually will help us to make a name in that market.

I think we're gonna follow a similar strategy that we took on the kick-scooter market. Basically make a name on online, gather enough interest online, gather enough early user adoptions, then start going to offline. On top of that, any sort of, I think even with the previous questions on the operating sales expense, right now the micro-mobility business unit has a high sales expense. That's because, you know, a lot of stuff are done online, where you see a high sales expense in terms of purchasing the traffic, all that stuff. When you actually 90% of the sales coming become offline, you're gonna see a significant decline in terms of sales expense. I think that's sort of the overall strategy for overseas market.

We don't have the volume target yet. I think it's too early for this call to us to give a volume target. I think on the domestic channels in China, we have about 3,300 stores right now so far in domestic channels. I think we're taking a very slow stage this year to expand the stores, because I think with the current market shift, especially with the lithium battery price went up, I think the right now the number of store is, you know, is enough for us to sustain our growth. I think the focus is merely for to improve the per store sales or same store sales in 2023. We're not looking at expanding more stores, but really focused on improve the per store sales by 10%-15% next year.

Yating Chen (Research Analyst)

Okay.

Yan Li (CEO)

I'll let Yan take the gross margin part. Sorry.

Fion Zhou (CFO)

Yeah, I'll take the third question. Regarding to the gross margin of GOVA series, let me rephrase the definition of our accounting rule. Since the gross margin, when we account for our financial statement, it not only contains the BOM cost, but also it contains all the discounts, the rebates of the sales. Also, you know, the logistic expenses and all the selling expenses related to the sales volume. That means, you know, all the direct expenses and costs related to the sales unit were all accounted as the cost of the goods sold. This is above our gross margin.

When we, you know, counted all the costs and expenses all together, our gross margin of the GOVA series, including the entry to the premium models, the gross margin range is around 15%-22%. That means, you know, the cheapest or the lowest level of our GOVA series, the gross margin will still above 15%, which is the average level of our competitors. This quarter, when you see the gross margin improved, you know, since, you know, our product mix improved, the entry level only contains of the 10% of our sales volume. For sure the weighted average gross margin of the GOVA series will improve to around 20%. This is everything about the GOVA series gross margin.

Hope this will address your question.

Yating Chen (Research Analyst)

Thanks a lot.

Operator (participant)

Thank you for the question. Once again, to ask question, you can press star one one on your telephone. At this time, there are no further questions from the line. May I hand the call back to the management for closing?

Yan Li (CEO)

All right. Thank you, operator, and thank you all for participating on today's call and for your support. We appreciate your interest and look forward to reporting to you again next quarter on our progress.

Operator (participant)

Thank you, management. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.