Chinese EV Makers NIO, Li Make Big Gains Amid Vehicle War With Tesla

Shares of Chinese EV makers NIO (NIO) and Li Auto (LI) soared on Monday as they released their July car deliveries amid competition with rival Tesla.

NIO saw its shares spike over 3% late-morning Monday, while Li Auto shares were up over 5%. XPeng’s (XPEV) stock price dropped 0.8% at the same time.

NIO announced that it delivered 10,052 vehicles in July, up 26.7% year-over-year, but down from June's almost 13,000 deliveries. Deliveries included 7,579 electric SUVs and 2,473 electric sedans for the month.

NIO had delivered 227,949 units as of July 31.

The automaker said that it expects to accelerate production in the coming months as it has been working closely with supply chain partners to end the constraints that it saw with the ET7s’ and EC6s’ casting parts in July.

Li Auto also released its July delivery figures Monday, saying it had delivered 10,422 units of its Li ONE SUV in July, up 21.3% year-over-year. This was also a decrease from its June’s deliveries.

Cumulative deliveries of the Li ONE have reached 194,913 vehicles since the EV was released in 2019.

Li Auto also said its second electric SUV, the Li L9, has received over 50,000 orders to date.

Rival XPeng also had solid deliveries in July, with 11,524 units delivered for the month, up 43% year-on-year, but a drop from its June figure of 15,295 units.

Deliveries broke down into 6,397 P7s sedans, 3,608 P5 sedans, and 1,519 G3i compact SUVs for July.

XPeng’s cumulative vehicle deliveries for 2022 reached 80,507 units.

Reservations for XPeng’s G9 SUV will begin in August. The automaker said it will officially launch the electric SUV in September.

Neither Li Auto nor Xpeng made any mention of supply chain challenges impacting their July vehicle delivery figures – an issue that has been plaguing Chinese manufacturers amid COVID lockdowns in the country.