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Chinese EV builders Li Auto, Xpeng and Nio get 2024 off to a slow start, with sharp drop in January sales
- The month-on-month fall in deliveries appears to be bigger than expected, Shanghai dealer says
- We will challenge ourselves with a target of 800,000 annual deliveries in 2024: Li Auto co-founder and CEO Li Xiang
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Daniel Renin Shanghai
Mainland Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) builders’ 2024 has got off to a bumpy start, after car deliveries dropped sharply amid mounting concerns about a slowing economy and job losses.
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Beijing-based Li Auto, the mainland’s nearest rival to Tesla, handed 31,165 vehicles to buyers last month, down 38.1 per cent from an all-time high of 50,353 units it recorded in December. The decline also ended a nine-month winning streak of monthly sales records.
Guangzhou-headquartered Xpeng reported deliveries of 8,250 cars in January, down 59 per cent from the previous month. It broke its own monthly delivery record for three months between October and December. Nio in Shanghai said its deliveries in January plunged 44.2 per cent from December to 10,055 units.
“The month-on-month fall in deliveries appears to be bigger than what dealers had expected,” said Zhao Zhen, a sales director with Shanghai-based dealer Wan Zhuo Auto.
“Consumers are more cautious about purchasing expensive items such as cars amid worries about job security and income reductions.”
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Chinese EV makers delivered 8.9 million units last year, a 37 per cent year-on-year increase, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Battery-powered cars now represent about 40 per cent of total car sales in China, the world’s largest automotive and EV market.
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