Chinese Rivals NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto Keep Tesla In Their Sights As Q1 Deliveries Spike

Tesla’s Chinese electric car rivals have posted their Q1 2022 deliveries, and the results outpaced the previous year, despite the supply chain challenges that automakers faced recently.

A rise in COVID cases in China has caused disruptions to production schedules at automakers in the country. Tesla temporarily shut down its plant in Shanghai amid forced lockdowns as China looks to maintain its zero-COVID strategy.

Rising raw material costs are also impacting auto price tags. Tesla (TSLA) announced a price increase for its EVs in China along with Xpeng (XPEV) and Li Auto (LI).

But despite the struggles, there was good news for NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto as all three manufacturers posted strong deliveries not only for March, but also for Q1 2022.

The three companies were trading higher in the premarket hours on Friday, with NIO (NIO) up over 5%, Xpeng up over 7% and Li Auto hovering over 5%.

NIO delivered a quarterly record with 25,768 vehicles delivered during Q1 2022, up 28.5% year-on-year, without raising the price of its EVs to date.

For the month of March, the carmaker delivered 9,985 units, up 62.8% from a month earlier.

Cumulative deliveries reached 192,838 vehicles, NIO said.

The news of the boost in vehicle deliveries comes as NIO announced earlier this week that it had delivered its first ET7 luxury sedans to its first customers, which will compete with Tesla’s Model S in the Chinese market.

NIO will also launch its new ES7 SUV in May.

Also seeing a significant jump in its electric car deliveries for the month was Xpeng, which delivered 15,414 units, up 148% from a month earlier.

For the quarter, Xpeng delivered 34,561 vehicles – an increase of 159% year-on-year.

The biggest increase was seen with the EV maker’s P7 flagship sedan, which had a record month with over 9,000 deliveries.

Cumulative deliveries reached 172,514 units, Xpeng said.

Li Auto also hit high marks in March, with 11,034 vehicles of its Li ONE SUVs delivered in March, up 31% from a month earlier.

First-quarter deliveries of the EVs reached 31,716 units, up 152.1% year-on-year, despite production impacts from parts shortages due to COVID, Li Auto said.

Cumulative deliveries of the Li ONE reached 155,804 vehicles since its debut in 2019, according to the automaker.

Li Auto is also slated to debut the new L9 SUV in April – the next model in its EV lineup.

As of Friday at 9:39 a.m. ET, shares of NIO were trading at $22.78, up $1.78, or 8.22%, while shares of Xpeng were trading at $29.75, up $2.16, or 7.83% at the same time. Shares of Li Auto were trading at $27.73, up $1.92, or 7.44%, also at the same time. Tesla was trading at $1,076.24, down $1.36, or 0.13%.