XPeng outperforms other China's EV startups in March deliveries

It seems to be a norm for China’s major electric vehicle startups to deliver over 10,000 vehicles in a month. In March, four out of the top five local electric vehicle startups logged a delivery volume of over 10,000, and Leapmotor is the latest one to join the list.

Last month, even though China’s automotive industry was plagued by sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks and rising prices of materials, four of the said startups, except NIO, managed to achieve three-digit growth from a year ago. Compared with the previous month, the five companies also had delivery growth.

XPeng reclaimed the championship by monthly deliveries. The Guangzhou-based automaker delivered 15,414 vehicles in March, representing a 202% increase year over year and a 148% increase month over month.

In February, XPeng completed technology upgrades in its Zhaoqing plants, helping to accelerate deliveries. At the 2021 earnings call on March 28, He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng, revealed that XPeng’s new orders have returned to the crest level of last December, when the company delivered 16,000 vehicles.

All the three models of XPeng had robust growth last month. Notably, the P7 achieved a monthly delivery volume of 9,183 units, the highest since its deliveries commenced. Earlier this week, the automaker said that the P7 targets monthly deliveries of over 10,000 units this year, while the P5’s monthly deliveries will be likely to approximate those of the P7. 

That means the combined deliveries of the two models will be over 20,000 units in one month. So it may be soon to see XPeng’s monthly results surpass 20,000.

Hozon’s NETA remained the runner-up among the startups, but in March it outperformed Li Auto, which was the delivery champion of February, with a new delivery record. And in March, NETA also launched another new round of product price rise.

Li Auto is another one with over 10,000 deliveries, but the automaker also said its production has been affected by COVID-19 outbreaks in the Yangtze Delta region. Yanan Shen, president of Li Auto, said in a press release that the Beijing-based automaker is adopting various measures to guarantee parts supply and accelerate the deliveries.

Leapmotor is the latest local startup to join the so-called 10,000 units club. With three models on the market, namely the S01, the T11 and the S11, Leapmotor delivered 10,059 vehicles in March.

The reason for the outstanding results is thought to be the production increase. According to the prospectus of Leapmotor, it had a total of 22,536 C11 orders by the end of 2021, but it only delivered 3,965 out of them. A source inside the company told a local media, by adjusting the production line and expanding the production capacity, its plant in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, produced more than 10,000 vehicles in March.

NIO ranked fifth among China’s major startups. And in the first three months of this year, it has not got a monthly volume of over 10,000 units. The automaker has said it will launch three new models this year, so maybe consumers are waiting for its new products.

The ET7, the first one of the said new models, got a delivery volume of 163 units within only four days after delivery started. What’s more, NIO is expected to launch the 2022 ES8, 2022 ES6 and 2022 EC6 with new intelligent cockpit hardware.

By the quarterly deliveries, XPeng, Li Auto and NETA had a volume of over 30,000 units while the other two delivered over 20,000 units respectively.