Coronavirus: April deliveries of smart EVs plunge at Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng as Shanghai’s lockdown strains Tesla rivals’ supply chain to breaking point

Nio’s April deliveries declined by 49.2 per cent to a six-month low of 5,074 vehicles, after it halted its assembly in the Anhui provincial capital of Hefei for five days

Li Auto in Beijing handed 4,167 EVs last month to buyers, 62.3 per cent fewer than in March, while Xpeng’s deliveries fell 41.6 per cent to 9,002 in April

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Tesla’s electric vehicles in a parking lot at Yokohama port in Japan on February 14, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:00am, 2 May 2022Updated: 1:18pm, 31 May 2022

Deliveries of smart electric cars (EVs) halved in April among China’s three biggest Tesla challengers, as the month-long lockdown in Shanghai and nearby cities in the Yangtze River Delta disrupted supply chains and stopped production.

Nio’s April deliveries declined by 49.2 per cent to a six-month low of 5,074 vehicles, after it halted its assembly in the Anhui provincial capital of Hefei for five days, as Covid-19 quarantines in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Jilin disrupted its supply chain.

Li Auto in Beijing handed 4,167 EVs last month to buyers, 62.3 per cent fewer than in March. Customers received 9,002 electric cars from Guangzhou’s Xpeng, the smallest monthly volume since September 2021, and 41.6 per cent fewer than a month earlier.

Shrinking deliveries at Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng are dragging on their attempts to catch up with the industry’s bellwether Tesla for supremacy in the world’s largest market for automobiles and smart EVs. Tesla, whose March sales jumped 85 per cent from a year ago to 65,814 vehicles in mainland China, has yet to post its April data.

Nio’s ES8 electric vehicle at a Nio House showroom in Shanghai on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Photo: Bloomberg

“Sharp falls in April’s output and sales were within expectations,” said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. “The question is when these smart EV manufacturers and Tesla can get their assemblies back to full capacity again.”