Tesla Rival Xpeng's January Deliveries Outshine Those Of Rivals Nio, Li Auto: What You Need To Know

Xpeng Inc XPEV on Tuesday outshone delivery numbers of close local rivals Nio Inc NIO and Li Auto Inc LI in January — but all the three U.S. listed Chinese electric vehicle makers reported a sequential volume decline ahead of the slow-sales season before the Lunar New Year.

What Happened: The Guangzhou, China-based Xpeng said it delivered 12,922 electric vehicles in January, a fall of 19% over December and a jump of 114% over January 2021.

The EV-maker’s monthly delivery split was 6,707 P7 smart sports sedans, 4,029 P5 smart family sedans and 2,186 G3 and G3i smart SUVs.

Xpeng said it has sold 11,000 P5 smart family sedans since it was launched in Sept. 2021. 

The company added it is carrying out a technology upgrade at its Zhaoqing plant amid a downtime over the Lunar New Year Holiday. The upgrade, it said, will help ramp up delivery of the significant order backlog carried over from 2021 and meet the growing demand as well.

Lunar New Year Holiday starts on Jan. 31 and lasts till Feb. 6 this year.

How Deliveries Stack Up: Rival Nio Inc NIO delivered 9,652 electric vehicles in January, while Li Auto said deliveries were at 12,268 units. 

See Also: Xpeng Expected To Deliver 13,000 Electric Vehicles In January: Report

Why It Matters: Investors are looking closely at delivery numbers from China’s homegrown electric vehicle startups as they continue to ramp up deliveries and expand in local as well as overseas markets. 

Xpeng already ships electric vehicles to Norway and is eyeing further expansion in Europe.

For Xpeng, this is a fifth-straight month when deliveries were above 10,000 units. The EV-maker topped the charts last month when it delivered a record 16,000 electric vehicles in December, beating homegrown rivals Nio and Li Auto.

Besides local rivals, Xpeng also sold more electric vehicles last month than German automaker Volkswagen Group’s VWAGY ID series of electric vehicles. 

The competition is stiffening as the space gets crowded as each player including the global market leader Tesla Inc TSLA plans further expansion in a market that is switching to electric vehicle at a faster pace than the rest of the world.

Price Action: Xpeng shares closed 9.14% higher at $35 a share on Monday. The stock is down 30% so far this year.

Photo: Courtesy of Xpeng