Chinese EV giant BYD modestly grew China EV sales in April vs. the prior month, data released Tuesday showed.
That comes a day after the Chinese startup Li Auto reported record monthly China EV sales last month, helped by the new L7 SUV, a Tesla Model Y rival.
Li far outsold startup peers Nio and XPeng during April. A product switch-over weighed on Nio sales, while XPeng sales continued to improve, helped by new models.
Tesla, which reports global sales on a quarterly basis, slightly hiked EV prices in China, the U.S. and other countries Tuesday. That follows a series of Tesla price cuts in recent months, which led to the China EV price war.
China EV Sales: BYD, Li Auto
BYD sold 210,295 battery-electric and hybrid-electric vehicles in April, up 98.3% from a year ago and up 1.6% from March.
The EV giant is targeting EV sales of 3 million in 2023. To achieve that goal, BYD would need to sell an average of about 280,000 vehicles each month for the next eight months, according to industry tracker CnEVPost.com. The company launched the small and cheap Seagull at the Shanghai Auto Show in April, in pursuit of its sales goal.
But growth is slowing in the Chinese EV market, the world's largest. On Monday, Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu called China EV sales in April "generally better than feared." But he warned "there is likely another wave of price cuts to come as industry demand remains soft."
Li Auto sold 25,681 electric vehicles for April, setting a fresh monthly record while exceeding 20,000 deliveries for the second straight month. Li's April EV sales surged 516.3% year over year and rose 23.3% month over month.
In addition, Li sold over 10,000 L7s in the SUV's first full month of deliveries. The company said it marked "the first time a Chinese branded five-seat SUV priced above RMB 300,000 (roughly $43,000) has achieved this monthly delivery milestone." The L7 SUV is seen as a Model Y challenger.
Li Auto, a maker of premium hybrid EVs, launched the L7 in early February.
The company announced its road map for electric vehicles (EVs) running solely on battery power at the Shanghai Auto Show in April.
By 2025, Li's product lineup will include one "super flagship model," five hybrid-electric vehicles, and five battery electric vehicles or BEVs, the company said at the time.
Nio, Xpeng Sales
Nio sold 6,658 EVs in April. That was up 31.2% from a year ago, but down 35.9% from March, the second consecutive month-over-month decline.
The company tied the pace of sales to a changeover to a new-gen technology platform.
Nio plans to start sales of the all-new ES6 and ES8 in May and June, respectively.
XPeng sold 7,079 vehicles in April, down 21.4% from a year ago but up 1.1% from March. The startup scored its third month-over-month sales increase, continuing to recover from roughly a year of weak sales.
China EV Stocks
Shares of BYD, which trade over the counter, shed 3.2% Tuesday. Tesla shares were roughly unchanged, near 162.
LI stock lost 4.3% on the stock market today after ekeing out a 0.5% gain Monday.
Nio stock fell 0.8% Monday and extended losses by 5.3% Tuesday. XPEV stock retreated nearly 3% following a 4.2% gain Monday.
China is the world's largest and fastest-growing EV market, but growth is slowing there.
While China EV sales more than doubled in 2021 and 2022, they are expected to grow around 31% this year.
The slowdown reflects macro headwinds and an end to EV subsidies, which helped to fuel the China EV price war.
