Chinese electric vehicle startups $Li Auto (LI.US)$ and $XPeng (XPEV.US)$ reported September deliveries, registering gains on both year-over-year and month-over-month basis. The report comes a day ahead of bigger rival $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ is set to announce its global deliveries update.
Li Auto: Beijing-based Li Auto said it sold 53,709 EVs in September and this marked a 48.9% increase from a year ago. On a month-over-month basis, sales climbed 11.61%.
Third-quarter deliveries totaled 152,831 units compared to the 145,000-155,000-unit the company guided to in late August.
"With the penetration rate of new energy vehicles surpassing 50%, the dominance of leading brands has become more pronounced. Since the beginning of the third quarter, the top three brands have captured over 50% of RMB200,000 and above NEV market," Xiang Li, chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
Li Aiuto said order intake for Li L series and Li MEGA has seen a steady increase, leading to record deliveries in September. The company also expects to achieve the milestone of manufacturing and delivering its one-millionth vehicle in October.
XPeng: XPeng delivered 21,352 EVs in September, a 39% year-over-year growth and a 52.12% month-over-month. The company said the first month deliveries of its XPeng Mona M03, an affordable electric sedan launched in late August, topped 10,000 units.
For the third quarter, the Guangzhou-based EV maker reported deliveries of 46,533 units, marking a 16% year-over-year increase. This exceeded the company's guidance of 41,000 and 45,000 units.
XPeng said following the successful launch events in Madrid and Lisbon in September, XPENG officially introduced the G9, G6, and P7 models to the Spanish and Portuguese markets.
Looking ahead, the company expects to unveil XPENG P7+, positioned as an AI-defined car, in October.
XPeng said it will showcase its state-of-the-art AI technologies and applications and its new model lineup at the 2024 Paris Motor Show from October 14 to 21.
Why It's Important: The Chinese EV market has seen intensifying rivalry, with companies undercutting competition and also rolling out new models to cater to different segments of the market. To make matters worse, weakening economic fundamentals hurt demand.
All this could be a thing of the past as China has shown intent to revitalize the domestic economy by pouring in copious stimuli.
Li Auto's U.S.-listed ADRs closed Monday's session down 0.50% at $25.65, according to Benzinga Pro data. Xpeng ADRs closed down 4.25% at $12.18.