Five major Chinese NEV startups all score blooming YoY rise in 2022 deliveries

On the first day of 2023, the five major Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) startups, namely, HOZON Auto, Li Auto, NIO, XPeng, and Leapmotor, announced their delivery performances created last month and for the year of 2022.

As for the full-year performance, the five startups all delivered over 100,000 vehicles across 2022. HOZON Auto, who owns the NEV brand NETA, topped the other four with a delivery volume topping 150,000 units. Ranking 2nd to 4th, Li Auto, NIO, and XPeng all scored a two-digit year-on-year growth. Leapmotor delivered the least vehicles among the 5 startups, but it was the fastest-growing one compared to 2021's performance.

In Dec. 2022, Li Auto ranked highest with a delivery volume of 21,233 units. Notably, it was also the fastest Chinese NEV startup to surpass the 20,000 monthly delivery mark. Both NIO and XPeng recorded a Dec. delivery volume between 10,000 units and 20,000 units. Leapmotor ranked 4th with a single-digit growth both year-on-year and month-on-month. HOZON Auto, who was honored the champion for five straight months ended Nov. this year, fell to the fifth place in Dec. with its deliveries falling at a two-digit rate compared to both the year-ago and the month-ago periods.

Li Auto saw its monthly deliveries hit a new high of 21,233 units (+50.7% YoY), bringing the company's fourth-quarter (Q4) deliveries to 46,319 units, which rose 31.5% year over year.

As of Dec. 2022, Li Auto had cumulatively delivered 257,334 vehicles, 133,246 units of which were delivered this year.

"With December deliveries for Li L9 and Li L8 both exceeding 10,000, the two models have solidified our market position in the 300,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan price segment", commented Yanan Shen, co-founder of Li Auto. "In 2023, we will continue to bring our users safer, more convenient, and more refined products and services," he added.

As of December 31, 2022, Li Auto had 288 retail stores in 121 cities, as well as 318 servicing centers and Li Auto-authorized body and paint shops operating in 223 cities.

NIO also scored a highest-ever monthly delivery volume in Dec. 2022, which soared 50.8% over a year earlier. Notably, the three NT2.0-based models—the ET7, the ES7, and the ET5—accounted for 83% of the startup's Dec. deliveries with a combined volume of 13,127 units.

NIO delivered 40,052 vehicles in Q4 2022, representing a robust increase of 60.0% year-over-year and achieving record-high quarterly deliveries.

By the end of Dec. 2022, NIO's cumulative deliveries amounted to 289,556 units, 122,486 vehicles (+34% YoY) of which were delivered last year.

As of Dec. 31, 2022, NIO had deployed 1,315 Power Swap stations, 1,228 Power Charger stations with 6,225 chargers, as well as 1,058 destination charging stations with 7,159 chargers worldwide.

At NIO Day 2022, NIO introduced its third-generation Power Swap station and the 500kW ultra-fast Power Charger, which are scheduled for deployment next year.

XPeng saw its Dec. deliveries zoom up 94% over the previous month to 11,292 units, 4,020 units of which were the G9 flagship SUVs.

The full-year deliveries of XPeng amounted to 120,757 units in 2022, resulting in total cumulative deliveries of 258,710 units.

On December 27, XPeng released the first over-the-air update to G9 customers in China, bringing the industry's first full-scenario, always-on voice assistant system to the mass market.

As for power network expansion, XPeng had seen over 1,000 self-operating charging stations come online by the end of Dec. 2022, including 200 plus destination charging stations, and more than 800 supercharging and 480kW ultra-fast charging stations.

Leapmotor delivered 111,168 vehicles in 2022, 8,493 units of which were delivered in Dec.

It is noteworthy that the Q4 2022 deliveries of the C11 all-electric SUV shot up over 120% over the prior-year period.

The REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) version of the C11 is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023.

Besides, Leapmotor had delivered over 100,000 T03 all-electric cars as of Dec. 2022.

Despite the sharp decrease in Dec. deliveries, HOZON Auto still outsold the four rivals regarding annual deliveries.

To be specific, the full-year deliveries of two sales contributors—the NETA U and the NETA V—reached 51,021 units (+155% YoY) and 98,847 units (+99% YoY), respectively. The deliveries of the NETA S came in at 2,003 units in Dec., when the model’s delivery officially kicked off.

In 2022, HOZON Auto also exported 3,456 vehicles outside of China.