Li Auto, XPeng monthly deliveries reach new high, outnumbering NIO

Beijing (Gasgoo)- NIO delivered fewer new vehicles in one month than its two new energy vehicle (NEV) startup rivals, Li Auto and XPeng Motors, for the first time since they started deliveries. But in terms of the year-to-date deliveries, NIO had a clear lead over other rivals.

In July, NIO’s deliveries amounted to 7,931 vehicles, jumping 124.5% year on year and falling 1.88% month on month. Even though that is the second highest volume in the first seven months, it was at least one hundred less than that of Li Auto or XPeng, whose July deliveries were both over 8,000 vehicles.

As to the month-on-month decrease of deliveries, it was said that for the moment, NIO’s full production capacity was about 7,500 to 8,000 vehicles, thus its monthly deliveries were around 8,000 vehicles in the past two months.

For the seven months of this year, NIO delivered a total of 49,887 vehicles, over 10,000 vehicles more than the deliveries of XPeng and Li Auto, which ranked second and third by year-to-date deliveries.

Monthly delivery volume of both Li Auto and XPeng surpassed 8,000 vehicles for the first time. Li Auto’s deliveries soared 251.3% year on year to 8,589 vehicles, with only one model while those of XPeng surged 228% to 8,040 vehicles.

The other two brands, namely Nezha and Leapmotor, also achieved best-ever monthly deliveries last month. Nezha’s deliveries surged 392% year on year to 6,011 vehicles, a new monthly record while monthly deliveries of Leapmotor exceeded 4,000 units, the highest volume in its history, with a year-on-year increase of 666%.

Two of NIO’s three models saw a month-on-month decrease in monthly deliveries. Specifically, deliveries of the ES6 and the EC6 dropped to 3,669 and 2,560 from 3,755 and 2,830 of the previous month while monthly deliveries of the ES8 increased from 1,498 to 1,702, the best result of the past seven months.

Although Li Auto only has one model in the market, namely the Li ONE, its 2021 version, unveiled in May, attracted many new customers. According to the automaker’s Hong Kong listing document, it aims to launch a full-size premium range-extended electric SUV in 2022, followed by two range-extended SUVs built on the X platform in 2023. Besides, from 2023 on, the company plans to launch at least two high voltage battery electric vehicle models per year based on its Whale and Shark platforms.

XPeng G3i; photo credit: XPeng

As to XPeng, the P7 remained its main sales driver. Deliveries of the smart sedan had set new records for three consecutive months with 6,054 delivered in July. The P7’s cumulative deliveries had surpassed 40,000 units since deliveries began last year. The G3’s deliveries were up 8.2% versus the previous month to 1,986. The G3i, its all-new version, was unveiled in July with deliveries to start from September. And the company’s third model, the P5, is expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year and its deliveries will commence in the last quarter of this year.