By Michael Elkins
Several Chinese electric vehicle companies reported March deliveries and sales numbers, with BYD (OTC:BYDDY) and GAC Aion each reporting 97% YoY delivery growth. Aion reported deliveries of 40k unit sales, up 97% YoY/33% MoM, while BYD reported its total Mar sales volume, including both passenger vehicles (PVs) and commercial vehicles (CVs), at 207k units, up 97% YoY/7% MoM.
BYD's YT-Mar sales reached 19% of Bank of America’s FY23 sales volume forecast. Sales of BYD’s passenger electric vehicle (PEV) volumes grew 98% YoY to 206k units, including battery electric vehicles (BEV), up 91% YoY to 103k units and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEV), up 104% YoY to 103k units.
Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) outperformed expectations, delivering 20.8k units, up 89%/25% YoY/MoM. 1Q23 sales came in at 52.6k units, up 66% YoY, accounting for 97% of Bank of America’s latest 1Q23 expectation and 1Q23 delivery hit low end of guidance (52-55k units). Li Auto will begin to deliver Li L7 Air and Li L8 Air in April.
NIO (NYSE:NIO) reported Mar deliveries of 10.4k units, up 4% YoY/down 15% MoM. 1Q23 sales came in at 31k units, up 20% YoY, accounting for 94% of Bank of America’s 1Q23 expectations and 1Q23 delivery hit low end of guidance (31-33k units).
NIO rolled out its third-generation Power Swap station in China on March 28th. As of end-Mar, NIO had deployed 1,339 Power Swap stations, 1,285 Power Charger stations with 6,467 chargers, and 1,154 destination charging stations with 7,993 chargers worldwide. NIO plans to install 1,000 Power Swap stations in 2023.
Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) reported 7.0k unit deliveries in the month, down 55% YoY but up 17% MoM. 1Q23 sales came in at 18.2k units, down 47% YoY, and achieving 94% of 1Q23 expectations and 1Q23 delivery hit low end of guidance (18-19k units). On 31 Mar 2023, XPENG began the rollout of the first phase of XNGP in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
Shares of LI, NIO, and XPEV are up 1.40%, 0.48% and 2.97% respectively in pre-market trading on Monday.