Xpeng predicts it will deliver fewer electric cars than Nio

BEIJING – Chinese electric car maker Xpeng predicts it will deliver far fewer cars than rival start-up Nio in the first three months of the year.

Xpeng, listed in New York, announced overnight that it will probably deliver about 12,500 vehicles in the first quarter. This implies deliveries of 4,250 cars for March, based on the figure of 6,015 in January and drops to 2,223 in February.

Even if we take into account the week-long Lunar New Year celebration, in mid-February, these figures are lower than Nio’s.

Last week, Nio forecast deliveries of 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles in the first quarter, involving deliveries of at least 7,197 cars in March. The company only delivers SUVs now and sells them in a higher price range than Xpeng cars.

While Nio plans to deliver a sedan to customers early next year, Xpeng launched its P7 sedan last year, which accounted for a growing share of deliveries over its G3 SUV. Xpeng plans to launch another sedan later this year.

Li Auto, another Chinese electric car company listed in the US, gave the lowest forecast of the three start-ups, from 10,500 to 11,500 deliveries for the first quarter.

Despite attention to start-ups such as Nio and Xpeng, older carmakers Tesla and BYD are already selling electric cars in China on a much larger scale. In January alone, Tesla sold more than 14,500 Chinese-made 3 models and BYD more than 7,200 of its Han model, according to figures from the China Automobile Association.

Following the rise in 2020, the shares of US-listed electric car companies have declined in the past two months, amid the volatile start to the year of the US stock market.

• Xpeng shares have fallen nearly 4% overnight and down more than 35% for the year so far.
• Nio has fallen by 7.6% overnight and has fallen by over 25% so far.
• Li Auto shares are down 5% to start the week and down 26% for the year so far.
• Tesla shares fell more than 5% in Monday’s session and fell 20% for the year so far.

As Nio, Tesla and other automakers compete in the development of autopilot technology, Xpeng began launching its autonomous driving software to some premium P7 sedan customers this year. The technology allows users to automate tasks such as changing lanes and entering and exiting highways.

About one-fifth of the more than 20,100 P7 sedans delivered since February have activated the latest autopilot software, management said in a revenue call.

Xpeng reported that total revenue rose 43% in the third quarter to 2.85 billion yuan ($ 437 million) in the fourth quarter. The company expects revenue to fall slightly to 2.6 billion yuan in the first quarter.

Net losses fell to 787.4 million yuan in the last three months from 1.15 billion yuan in the previous quarter.