Global Courant
A Li Auto store in a shopping mall in Yantai, Shandong province on May 6, 2023.
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BEIJING – Chinese electric car start-up li car said it delivered more than twice as many cars in May as a year ago.
For the third consecutive month, Li Auto deliveries exceeded 20,000 with an increase to 28,277 vehicles in May, according to a publication on Thursday. That is about 146% more than a year ago.
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Competitors, on the other hand Nio And Xpeng both reported year-over-year declines in monthly deliveries.
Li Auto differs from the two startups in that the electric cars come with a fuel tank to charge the battery and extend driving range.
That divergence comes as China’s burgeoning electric car market becomes more competitive.
The average selling price is down about 10% to 15% for all brands, Matty Zhao, head of Bank of America Securities’ Asia Pacific Basic Materials, said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” Friday.
She expects China’s electric car market to grow 27% this year to 8.7 million units, with overall car sales penetration growing to 32% this year, up from 26% last year.
Some brands, such as Xpeng, try to compete by selling advanced driver assistance technology.
Xpeng said it delivered 7,506 electric cars in May, a few hundred more than in April. The company said its P7i sedan saw a “significant increase” in deliveries.
Last week, management said wait times for P7i orders were more than six weeks due to production delays, which they expected to improve in June. The company expected a significant increase in total deliveries to more than 20,000 vehicles per month in the fourth quarter.
Nio delivered 6,155 cars in May, less than in April and a year ago. The company will publish its quarterly figures on June 9.
Based on Li Auto’s reported and forecasted deliveries, the company expects to deliver at least 22,000 vehicles in June.
Those monthly deliveries still make up only a fraction of the market compared to industrial giants Tesla And BYD.
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Three US-listed Chinese electric car startups.
BYD said it sold 239,092 passenger cars in May, doubling from a year ago. About half were purely battery powered, while the other half were hybrids.
Tesla sold nearly 40,000 cars to consumers in China in April, according to the latest figures from the China Passenger Car Association. That’s more than a year ago, when few electric cars were sold due to Covid controls that locked down Shanghai, where Tesla’s factory in China is located.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited Beijing and Shanghai this week for the first time in more than three years.
