Chinese electric car company Xpeng will be exhibiting its mass market Mona M03 coupe on August 26, 2024 in its head office showroom in Guangzhou, China.
CNBC | Evelyn Cheng
BEIJING – Chinese electric vehicle startup XPENG is maintaining sales momentum towards its rivals despite BYD expanding its market advantage amid a fierce price war in China.
Xpeng said Tuesday it delivered 34,611 vehicles in June.
Shares rose more than 2% in New York trading. Xpeng did not specify the delivery portion of the advanced driver assisted cars or the low-cost Mona brand.
China’s electric car price war has intensified in recent weeks, attracting criticism from the government for “retirement” or excessive unproductive competition. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday also led a meeting of high-level financial and economic committees calling for more governance in “low-cost, disorderly competition,” according to CNBC translations of China’s national media.
Mixed results for competitors
Xpeng’s US-listed rival, targeting the more premium segment of the Chinese automotive market, has found more modest sales momentum.
Geely Backed Zeekr reported 16,702 car delivery in June, down 11.7% from the previous month and 16.9% from the previous year.
NIO reported 24,925 car delivery in June. This has increased slightly since May thanks to growth in the premium “NIO” brand and low-priced ONVO and Firefly brands.
Li Auto reported deliveries of 36,279 vehicles in June, a decline of 11.2% since May, but total delivery in the second quarter was 111,074 units, better than the company’s 108,000 vehicles’ lower guidance. The company on Friday cut its second-quarter delivery outlook on more than 15,000 vehicles, causing a decline in upgrades to sales systems.
“Based on channel checks and analysis, I understand that Li Auto has started
No extra rebates [from salespeople sharing their commission with customers] Nomura analysts said in a report on Sunday. They see efforts and carmakers moving towards limiting competition among salespeople, focusing on improving service and brand awareness.
Most of the Li Auto models are SUVs with fuel tanks, extending the vehicle’s operating range and addressing one of the biggest consumer concerns about electric vehicles. Li Auto’s monthly delivery exceeded 50,000 at the end of last year.
Tesla under pressure
Hong Kong-listed Xiaomi reported deliveries of more than 25,000 electric vehicles in June, a slight decline from the previous month.
Less than a day after the launch of the new Yu7 SUV, it’s 10,000 yuan ($1,400) cheaper than the Tesla Model Y. Xiaomi claimed that the Yu7 provided a longer driving range than the Model Y, but admitted that Tesla’s support system has improved.
According to Xiaomi’s online ordering portal, delivery of the Yu7 SUV will take more than six months, if not very long. The company initially said it would take 1-5 weeks for delivery.
“We believe that the majority of new orders may come from scalpers, reflecting the extreme popularity expectations of the new model,” said Junheng Li, research director at JL Warren Capital, in a memo on Wednesday.
“I’ll estimate it [Tesla] China’s quarterly sales fell by 12% to 128K units, putting pressure on the launch of new models of the Chinese brand, and putting pressure on the market.
According to a website on Tuesday, Tesla has increased the price of the Model 3’s long-range all-wheel drive by 10,000 yuan.
As of May, Tesla was the fifth-largest automaker by market share in China’s new energy vehicle segment, including battery-only hybrids and hybrid vehicles. China Passenger Automobile Association figures showed Tesla’s domestic retail sales for the first five months of the year had dropped to just over 200,000 vehicles. June numbers were not available as of local time on Wednesday morning.
Leapmotor, which is partnered with Stellantis, the owner of Chrysler and Jeep, also maintained steady growth in overseas markets in June with record delivery of 48,006 cars. Aito, which uses Huawei technology for its car entertainment and driver assist systems, reported 44,685 car delivery last month.
Compete with the Giants
BYD is a market giant, with sales increased to 377,628 cars in June, with more than half of which being battery-only vehicles. The rest was a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
As a result, BYD’s passenger car sales have increased to 2.1 million passenger car sales in the first half.
In contrast, Leapmotor and Li Auto each saw delivery of over 200,000 cars in the first half of the year, while Xpeng was embarrassed by the benchmark with 197,189 vehicle delivery.
According to CNBC calculations of publicly available figures, Xiaomi’s delivery in the first half of the year exceeded 150,000 units.
Michael Dunne, advisory director for Dunne Insights, predicted that BYD, Xiaomi and Geely are most likely to survive the consolidation of the chaotic industry.
Speaking about CNBC’s “The China Connection,” he added that due to inadequate finances, NIO could be at risk despite having a good product and “doing all the right things.”
